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Originally Posted by zboy2854  The question is, what would you even do differently for the purposes of computer speakers? After all computer speakers by default have limited frequency ranges, so how exactly would one tailor a mix differently for that specific end use? And who would want to purchase a track that only sounds good on one set of speakers, but is all sorts of out of whack when listened on other types of systems? 
And for the record, even when listening to stuff on my laptop speakers, I can instantly tell a great mix from a crappy one, not because the great mix was tailored or mastered specifically for computer speakers, but because it's simply a great mix. If your mix is great and translates well from system to system, you don't need to tailor anything, it takes care of itself.
The bottom line is that this is no different than it has ever been in the music business. We as engineers have NEVER had control over how our work is listened to. Back in the '80s people were listening to cassettes on Walkmen with crappy headphones. Today people listen in their cars, on computer speakers, or on iPods (with crappy headphones). Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
Honestly, it's much ado about nothing. Make the best sounding product you can, make sure it can translate well on as many different systems as possible. End of story. |
I can see your point.
however, as music sales trend goes to internet downloads, also the listening manner changes. Sadly- soon enough most music will be mp3s consumed via the computer. And this is not about speaker systems as people nowadays tend to have their pc connected to the same system as their cd player.
as an extreme example: send a nice wellshaped kick drum through your system and then do it again to the same speakers in the same room using a standard -everybody-has- soundcard. It will sound completely different. I mean, of course its still a kick drum but it will make a lot of your efforts to make it sound the way you want meaningless.
the point is, if most consumers listen via this crappy setup (not talking about speakers) -and the trend dramatically points into this direction, why not have that already in mind when shaping the sound?
there are loads of possibilities to influence this. the most obvious would be simple but effective EQings by which you won't reach a better quality in sound but for sure a better balance and even clarity.
yes I know there are Equalizers for every standard soundcard with presets like "Rock" or "Classic" but seriously...
Easiest solution: good audioboards for everyone!
reason for this thread was: everybody is concerned about different speaker setups but what about the impact of bad audio codecs?
people are buying cds in order to have the package and copy the tracks to their computer's harddisk to listen to. that's how its going these days.
I know there are still people enjoying vinyls too but that's a minority.