mixing with loudness curve on 2buss?

[s34nsm411]

ive noticed a lot that i have trouble making my mixes translate well in a car stereo environment because usually i have the loud feature turned up on my cd player as well as treble/bass boosts, which makes any professional mix sound "bumpin"

but when i listen to my own stuff a lot of the time it gets too shrill in the highs/woofy in the bass. i feel like im mixing stuff too much to sound like that desired loudness sound of my car

has anybody tried leaving a loudness eq on the master buss while mixing? i feel like this would solve my problem of trying to overcompensate all the instruments with eq, but im not sure if any other issues would arrise or if this is a good practice at all?

[BJohnston]

Sounds like you need to compress your low end in the mix itself as well as maybe some compression on the 2 buss. I do rock stuff mostly, but even with that stuff if you don't properly compress your low end instruments it can get really out of control. You should leave your system in your car set the way it sounds good with other records your listening to. That's your point of reference. Good luck.

B

[gainstages]

i don't know about mixing through an EQ in order to hear it that way... i think it would end up sounding great on your car or boom box but probably end up sounding like crap on a good full range system. you are just taking away from one thing to give to another.

it's best to mix to the bell curve. in other words, if you make a mix so it sounds amazing on a little lowfi system, it will probably sound like garbage in a big dance club or nice home stereo - and vice versa. The goal is to find the point between the extemes were the music sounds the best possible on the widest range of systems - unless of course you are mixing for a particular environment (such as a dance remix that will only be played in clubs).

but yes, it still is beneficial to reference the sound of the loudness curve while mixing by patching it through an alternate set of monitors or by using the EQ as you said. I would always prefer to go through another set of monitors, as there is a chance you may accidently "print" the eq to the final track.

[firby]

Dude.

Listen to your mixes with flat eq. In the car, in the kitchen, everywhere. I don't think that it is a good idea to eq the 2 buss. Eq the tracks on the way to the two buss. Also it sounds like your mix environment is not a frequency flat location. Always set up your monitors on the short wall of the room and dont turn it up so loud during your mix if your room is not stellar.

A good mix in your car should sound like a commercial good mix with the exception of having to turn the whole thing up. My mixes come off of the board with a peak of like -11 dB. To do a take around with me mix I change the gain in logic of the bounced master. If you are going to master the mix it will sound better in the end if you leave plenty of headroom for the bombass gear that they will have which will be like heavenly make up gain compared to your gear.

Some people make a good argument for using a compressor or multiband on the mixbuss but eq should be done on the individual tracks on the way to the two buss, I think that that opinion is at least 51% accepted and that I am on the majority side!

[u b k]

if you get your mixes mastered by a pro, just like every reference that you're used to listening to in the car, your problems will be solved. your job is to get the mix internally coherent with good balances and a reasonable freq response. the ME's job is to bring it home, so that it sounds equally good on clock radios and car stereos with 3 stages of loudness engaged.

sitting in with a good mastering guy is also of enormous benefit to your mixing because he will tell you what you could've done differently to make it better in the end. you'll also learn to hear exactly how what you do differs from what it needs to be, and that will help you make decisions in the future which make your mixes that much more finished sounding before mastering.


gregoire
del
ubk
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[Andreas G]

Originally Posted by s34nsm411

i feel like this would solve my problem of trying to overcompensate all the instruments with eq, but im not sure if any other issues would arrise or if this is a good practice at all?

That's why I always mix in my car... (I kid, I kid)

Well, it sounds a bit circuitous. How about just listening to your reference cds at your place to know/learn how you room/monitors headphones, whatever... translates? Nothing wrong with a nice 2 buss eq for sweetening, I thought that's an old hat, now it seem I'm in the minority :-(

Andreas

[ryst]

Originally Posted by s34nsm411

ive noticed a lot that i have trouble making my mixes translate well in a car stereo environment because usually i have the loud feature turned up on my cd player as well as treble/bass boosts, which makes any professional mix sound "bumpin"

but when i listen to my own stuff a lot of the time it gets too shrill in the highs/woofy in the bass. i feel like im mixing stuff too much to sound like that desired loudness sound of my car

has anybody tried leaving a loudness eq on the master buss while mixing? i feel like this would solve my problem of trying to overcompensate all the instruments with eq, but im not sure if any other issues would arrise or if this is a good practice at all?

When mixing, monitor at low volumes. If your mix sounds good at low volumes it will sound great loud.

[s34nsm411]

from your guys's responses it sounds like the mastering is where im going wrong, not really the mixing so much. i guess thats to be expected though when i do my mastering myself ITB with plugins :p

a lot of the time i use firium or voxengo curveeq to match the spectrum of a similar genre song that i think sounds good to mine to get some sort of reference of where my highs/lows should be but i guess this method isnt as truthful as i thought in making my final frequency specrum similar to a pro mix

Originally Posted by ryst

When mixing, monitor at low volumes. If your mix sounds good at low volumes it will sound great loud.

well by loudness i mean the thing on lots of stereo systems that boosts the frequency ranges less heard by our ears, which equates out to pretty much boosting the highs and lows

[ryst]

Originally Posted by s34nsm411

well by loudness i mean the thing on lots of stereo systems that boosts the frequency ranges less heard by our ears, which equates out to pretty much boosting the highs and lows

When mixing, monitor at low volumes. If your mix sounds good at low volumes it will sound great loud.....and translate well to other systems..........I'm just saying....

[briefcasemanx]

Originally Posted by ryst

When mixing, monitor at low volumes. If your mix sounds good at low volumes it will sound great loud.....and translate well to other systems..........I'm just saying....

I have found this not to be true. I think it is a good idea to mix louder at first and gradually decrease volume to where you're monitoring at low volumes nearer to the end of your mix.

[slick0]

Have you tried A/B'ing you mix with others on your monitors instead of in the car? You could get a better perspective of mixing differences that way. More importantly, how's the room acoustics? That may be playing a part.

[gainstages]

the practice of matching or closely matching the EQ curve of a similar song is not necessarily a bad idea, but it is a bit like lighting a stick of dynomite - if you know what you are doing, you can do something useful with it, otherwise, you just end up destroying something.

use it as a reference/starting point if you like, but listen very carefully for the individual parts of your arrangement vs the parts you are copying. if the mids are a little bright, go for the instrument(s) making it bright before going to the 2buss. keep in mind that even with a similar arrangement, their guitar amp may produce harmonic frequencies that your's doesn't, meaning that copying their eq curve will not work the same magic for you.

Yes, you are missing the mastering part. but, any good mastering engineer will tell you that a good mix engineer can get 99% of the way there with careful mixing. I think all of the previous suggestions are good - listen to your favorite CD's on your system and then in your car, ipod, etc and see how they sound different. then you can learn how your music will translate. and, don't forget to monitor at good volumes and make your listening environment as problem free as possible.

good luck

[seb37000]

Originally Posted by ryst

When mixing, monitor at low volumes. If your mix sounds good at low volumes it will sound great loud.

Yeah this is true but watch out for the low end, you have to listen at a good volume for the low end.

[Chris]

Also make sure to check your mono mixes. Sometimes I forget I'm in mono and I'm mixing for like an hour and then I'm like, oh shit, I'm in mono! This sounds good! ::click to stereo:: Money!