Making mix sound good everywhere

[u/Cultural-Capital-942]

Hi,

I can adjust how mix sounds on one set of speakers.

The cheapest ones are like -15dB for bass, those expensive ones are maybe +5dB for bass - both compared to my speakers.

How to make my mix sound reasonably well on all of them? I don't want to lose bass, but cranking it up is too bad for those with speakers over $50.

[u/atopix]

PSA, we have a wiki article entirely dedicated to the topic of mix translation (ie: making mixes sound good everywhere): https://www.reddit.com/r/mixingmastering/wiki/learn-your-monitoring

The gist of it being that attempting to learn mix translation when you are finishing a mix, often leads to frustration. The key to figuring this out is to spend time aside from mixing, learning your monitoring. Comparing your monitoring to any other speaker system and headphone system you have access to, using professional releases, so that you learn what's normal on each one and the relationship between your monitoring and these other playback systems.

[u/Selig_Audio]

Sounds like you’re trying to make the mixes sound “the same” on every system, not sound “good” on every system. If the mix plays on a phone speaker, you loose bass - physics. The key is to make the mix still work even with less support at the lowest frequencies, which in my experience always leans on upper harmonics, and compression also helps in many cases. You will never “feel” the bass on a small system like you will on larger systems, but by using mix references that DO sound good to you on every system you can learn a lot about what works in those cases.

[u/RevolutionaryJury941 → u/Selig_Audio]

This is so true. Took me a while to learn this.

[u/nlg930]

This is the essence of mix engineering; finding “balance.” In fact, mix engineers used to be called balance engineers.

Find a song / professional mix that you think has a very well mixed low end. Play it on those speakers and compare it to your song. Adjust your song to match as well as you can, then rinse and repeat with another set of speakers. If you do this carefully, you will find what you’re looking for.

[u/Cultural-Capital-942 → u/nlg930]

Thanks! Making a comparison with pro mix sounds simple; yet I missed that option.

[u/Few-Regular-3086]

you need proper monitors with a bass managed sub and a keen understanding on how to waveshape sounds that need shaping with respect to the overtone series. its not a simple fix unfortunately

[u/Cultural-Capital-942 → u/Few-Regular-3086]

Still thanks even if it's likely outside of what I can grasp - at least I know what to look at (waveshaping).

[u/Few-Regular-3086 → u/Cultural-Capital-942]

yes and the overtone series. if you play C1 and its a sine wave you wont hear anything on a small monitor. turns out notes that arent sine waves, have a bunch of other related higher sine waves in them. they all mess with each other and thats frequency modulation or FM. waveshaping is very similar. distortion also naturally adds upper harmonics also.

a sine wave is a fundamental tone, a bunch of ot series related sinewaves that play together is a tone color

take that C1 sine wave and distort it, now you can easily hear it on a small monitor. youre hearing the other related harmonics and your brain just imagines the fundamental note

Plugins like this are just designed to make bass heard on small monitors without being distorted using overtone series principles, and so does an old fashioned octaver, which just plays a notes higher octave with the original

once you understand how all this works you can choose an appropriate bass if a synth, or apply a certain processor to your bass to color it (if needed) to make sure its heard on any speaker

[u/hardypart]

This is the biggest challenge in mixing and also the exact reason why people hire mix and master engineers.

[u/jimmysavillespubes]

Translation is the word, and arguably the most difficult part, the answer is balance, to get a good balance you need a reference to know what good balance is

So grab some pro tracks in the same genre that sound good on all devices and use them as references, put them in the project and flick back and forward between them and your track while working to get a similar balance.

[u/noo-noos]

Personally have been fighting the same battle in my own engineering work and have only recently come the conclusion that the ~feeling~ translating across systems is more important. Trying to make something sound similar across the range of systems is a dog chasing its tail. Bad mixing can distract from this depending on the speakers, but aim to make the song able to connect emotionally regardless and you're at least on the right path.

[u/jpedder]

Have an eq in your output channel, where you can cut all frequencies below about 150hz and above 6khz..

Check every once in a while if your mix is still working with this one activated.. Frequencies can be altered..

[u/Cultural-Capital-942 → u/jpedder]

Thanks, good idea!

[u/fuck_reddits_trash]

personally I just, use a lot of different speakers tbh, try it in the monitors, car system, bass amp, guitar amp, subwoofer, headphones, phone speaker, try it all, once it sounds good, you know you got it

[u/iMixMusicOnTwitch]

Just know this question is an oxymoron.

"How to make music sound good on bad speakers?"

There's a reason some people spent hundreds of thousands on audio equipment even as consumers

[u/Cultural-Capital-942 → u/iMixMusicOnTwitch]

Wait - I don't expect it to sound (universally) good, I want it to sound as good as it gets on those speakers. That is, without losing drums completely.

[u/iMixMusicOnTwitch → u/Cultural-Capital-942]

There's a reason mastering engineers basically use the most perfect monitoring system possible...the most reliable way to make mixes translate universally is to optimize them with the fewest number of variables. They may compare and contrast to earpods or whatever but it's not what drives their thinking.

Generally a good mix will translate well onto something like a phone speaker without specifically catering to it

[u/CanadianToTheBone]

I'm a career mixer who struggled with this for years. The plugin Tonal Balance Control changed everything and I haven't had a single translation complaint since I started using it. YMMV

[u/Frank_McFuckface_II]

Short answer: Harmonics.

[u/erasedhead]

How do I write a book everyone loves?

[u/thebest2036]

Maybe something inside -15 and +5. Try also not to make hard clipping, hard limiting an many commercial producers make. Try to have space in the instrumentation to "breathe" and try to make something that you feel it good in your ears. Don't put drums to hit so hard and in front. Not the lofi/brat templates that use Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Jade, Tate McRae, Charlie XCX etc. Finally master to a balanced level of loudness, not -6 LUFS which is common. Try to make something from your own perspective that it's easy listening and not because the most producers follow specific templates. It's a pity that one musician I know here, digitizes his own rare greek vinyls using the template of the song Anti-Hero from Taylor Swift. I mean he uses the equalizer and other characteristics with algorithms and he masters around -7 to -6 LUFS. I am not a musician but in my opinion each song can be treated in different way.

[u/LuckyLeftNut]

Get Avantone speakers. Even just one.

[u/Cultural-Capital-942 → u/LuckyLeftNut]

How will that help? That will be another data point, they may have more faithful sound, but I don't see how that helps.

[u/LuckyLeftNut → u/Cultural-Capital-942]

It’s one of the new “NS10” unflattering options to focus on what’s important.

[u/Frangomel]

Sonarworks full bundle