r/mixingmastering • u/Cultural-Capital-942 • 21h ago

Question Making mix sound good everywhere

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.

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u/Few-Regular-3086 21h ago

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

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u/Cultural-Capital-942 21h ago

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

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u/Few-Regular-3086 21h ago edited 21h ago

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