Tracks that sound great on your monitors, but...

[Ritzi Lee]

.... but shitty on little hi-fi speaker systems.

Is there any theoretical explenation for this?

Mostly it happens with extremely deep dark tracks,
with:

- not much kicks inside.
- deep basslines, subs.
- not to hard tops.
- a lot of reverbs, chorus and other weird FX...

[findthesolution]

Hi-fi systems tend to colorize certain frequencies. Sort of like how Sony MDRV-700's colorize the bass.

[Patrick DSP]

that's why the yamaha ns-10's were so good, they sounded like shit. but if you could make your track sound good on them. they would sound good everywhere.

if you're finding that your monitors give you a totaly differant story than what you hear in your car and everywhere else you play it out, then you probably have shitty monitors or a badly eq'd room that doesn't work with the monitors you have. the point of good studio monitors is so you can hear details in your sound, not to make it sound better. you can't invite the world to only listen to your song on your speakers.

there are many ways you can fix this though, so don't fret too much.

it just takes patients, planning and a little bit of physics. feel free to describe exactly what's going on, and/or describe your room or better yet a photo of it. or just pm me.

[TechMouse]

Probably a good idea to have some shitty hi-fi speakers (£10 from a charity shop?) rigged up as well as your monitors - then you can easily flip back and forth. If you're sounding good on both then you're probably winning!

[Francisco Scaramanga]

Probably a good idea to have some shitty hi-fi speakers (£10 from a charity shop?) rigged up as well as your monitors - then you can easily flip back and forth. If you're sounding good on both then you're probably winning!

This is what I do, and before I consider something truly done, I run it through PA speakers turned up loud as well. Definately worthwhile if you have easy access to some.

[zaalmoetlos]

we have trouble in this department aswell we found some things which are helpfull.

The first is not to set the sound to high when you are doing your mix esp in a small room and the second is not to spend too much time on mixing cause you're ears adjust to the sound so after a while anyway, just do it in short stabs.

[holotropik]

I have learnt not to be too concerned with how tracks turn out on shitty speakers. Techno is not about listening to it on a portable stereo with 4" drivers in a plastic case made in China.

Often the smaller systems are bad for colouring a sound so that it impresses "Joe Average" in the store with some boomy cheap arse effects etc. Little systems also dont produce sounds strong enough in the range that most Techno takes advantage of (such as anything below 60hz).

Most commercial music for the last 40 years has focussed on sounds in the mid range (typically 100Hz to 5kHz). Thats all that is required to get some shitty pop track to play OK on just about anything. So stereo unit manufacturers only consider this in their design.

Dont compromise your sound for the sake of sub-standard equipment.

If it does concern you enough, however, then careful use of multi-band processing (cross-over, comp) will help to divide the frequencies up so that they are present in the mid range to sound OK through most systems. Ultimately it comes back to the system.

[Patrick DSP]

I have learnt not to be too concerned with how tracks turn out on shitty speakers. Techno is not about listening to it on a portable stereo with 4" drivers in a plastic case made in China.

Often the smaller systems are bad for colouring a sound so that it impresses "Joe Average" in the store with some boomy cheap arse effects etc. Little systems also dont produce sounds strong enough in the range that most Techno takes advantage of (such as anything below 60hz).

Most commercial music for the last 40 years has focussed on sounds in the mid range (typically 100Hz to 5kHz). Thats all that is required to get some shitty pop track to play OK on just about anything. So stereo unit manufacturers only consider this in their design.

Dont compromise your sound for the sake of sub-standard equipment.

If it does concern you enough, however, then careful use of multi-band processing (cross-over, comp) will help to divide the frequencies up so that they are present in the mid range to sound OK through most systems. Ultimately it comes back to the system.

most clubs have sub-standard equipment. you're lucky if you even have a dance floor that's actually in stereo let along eq'd right.

[holotropik]

Too true. Its always a battle to sound as good as the studio :(

Thats actually Techno's biggest enemy.....the shit PA.

[Jay Pace]

most clubs have sub-standard equipment. you're lucky if you even have a dance floor that's actually in stereo let along eq'd right.

I have never hear of a dance floor running in stereo. I doubt whether there is one anywhere. It just wouldn't work. Soundsystems nearly always run in mono. All vinyl has bass in mono - stereo bass would push the needle out the groove.

Bear this in mind when you are producing - check your track in mono to see how it works if you intend your music to be club music. If it sounds brilliant in stereo but lousy in mono you have a problem.

To make something work across many formats - add a frequency analyser to your main out. Have a look at the waveform - it should be more or less flat.

If you haven't filled up the frequency range your music is likely to sound bad on home equipment. Make sure there are no holes in your sound space.

[Ritzi Lee]

Thanks for the tips guys.
There where some usefull pointers over here.

My mixes are now tight as hell.
I'll upload some tracks very soon.