My songs sound like shit in my car

[RandoRando]

op! soggy vorba's

[safeandsound]

Could be a couple of things, mix not translating well, your car stereo is not very good, your car battery is on the edge of it's life and as the voltage sags it is introducing a type of compression because there is not enough voltage to reproduce the bass/kick drum. You could always try making small incremental changes to your mix try and rectify the issue if it is not the car system itself.

cheers

[Kilo Graham]

so could all this really just be because i haven't professionally gotten a tune mastered? it's self mastered but def not as loud as the songs we all know

No, it's a mixing issue. Also your kick frequency might be in the same range as the sub, use a spectrum analyzer and find out

[DRybes]

Yeah if you hear a problem before mastering, it's not likely to just fix itself afterward. Golden rule of mixing.

Going off what you posted I can tell the kick is not hitting nearly as hard during the louder parts as compared to the start. I'd have to check it out on a spectrogram but it sounds like a lot of the beef of the kick comes from the sustained thud, which other elements of the track are going to cover up even with a sidechain. If this was my own track I'd be curious to see what speeding up the kick sample without changing pitch did, as well as screwing with the EQ (surprising amount of the power of a kick can come from significantly above 100hz)

[Mad_EP]

Could be a couple of things, mix not translating well, your car stereo is not very good, your car battery is on the edge of it's life and as the voltage sags it is introducing a type of compression because there is not enough voltage to reproduce the bass/kick drum. You could always try making small incremental changes to your mix try and rectify the issue if it is not the car system itself.

cheers

^^^ all are plausible reasons.

One way to reverse engineer - is to say 1) is there something that really sounds fantastic in your car? If not, then it is your car stereo... if yes, then your mix.

So then - if it is your mix, play the track that does sound amazing in your car... and play it on your mixing monitors. Notice if & how it sounds different, and use that knowledge as a stepping stone to fixing your mix.

[Mr 50]

Just to check - you're focussing on your track a lot because, well, it's yours after all! But does this happen on other commercially released tracks as well??

Worth really analysing how some other tracks compare from studio vs car. You're subconsciously way more forgiving to other peoples tracks.

[elyhess]

idk if any of you read anything above, the track is sounding much better in my car, i've changed a few things..

for those of you interested. my kick is peaking at 140 and my sub is cut at 100 hz. I have messed around with this kick quite a bit and have determined it has the most impact at 140 hz.

(also im rolling off the low ends for kick and sub at 30 hz)

so on my kicks i just wonder, how much of the low end of my kick should i eq out? because currently, my kick is like i said peaking at 140 hz, i have it cut at 30 hz. how much of the low end of the kick should i be letting thru? i feel like any less than 30 hz and the kick just loses power!

Just wondering what you guys would do!

edit (30 minutes later): Should my sub frequencies be lower than 100 hz? my sub bass basically just plays in one octave, so theres not TOO much not fluctuation

[MaZa1]

So you have hipassed your kick at 30hz and lowpassed your sub at 100hz.
I would layer a bit bassier kick and hipass both kicks so that theyr not clashing with sub, round 80hz and lowpass my sub round 60-70hz maybe.
And check your car settings. Your kick cannot be heavy and punchy if any of it isnt coming trough your sub.

[elyhess]

op! soggy vorba's

what does this mean?

[elyhess]

So you have hipassed your kick at 30hz and lowpassed your sub at 100hz.
I would layer a bit bassier kick and hipass both kicks so that theyr not clashing with sub, round 80hz and lowpass my sub round 60-70hz maybe.
And check your car settings. Your kick cannot be heavy and punchy if any of it isnt coming trough your sub.

so i have done just this. Heres the end result, not sure if i like it as much as the way i had it before. what do u guys think?


EDIT: i just had a quick question also, was wondering if i should be cutting out the low end out of my basslines to make room for the sub and kick? i just dont want to lose too much low end out of the lead bass's

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