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Is it natural to have my songs sound not as good on my ipod, ipod headphones, because the drums sound really different on my monitors versus earphones. Although i could be anwsering my own question, but some insight is good

In order to get a good sound all around, you're going to need at least 2 sources to produce on. Like, I use my headphones (not earbuds), some (cheap) external speakers, and then my laptop speakers. You want to do that because laptop speakers don't pick up all the frequencies that headphones pick up, making it seem full enough on headphones but shit on laptop speakers.

I imagine that iPod headphones don't pick up everything that your monitors do, so it'll sound different.

ctang wrote:Is it natural to have my songs sound not as good on my ipod, ipod headphones, because the drums sound really different on my monitors versus earphones. Although i could be anwsering my own question, but some insight is good

Your iPod headphones obviously don't have the same sound capability as your monitors.

ctang wrote:Is it natural to have my songs sound not as good on my ipod, ipod headphones, because the drums sound really different on my monitors versus earphones. Although i could be anwsering my own question, but some insight is good

Different monitors can have radically different frequency responses (and that's before you factor in the effect that different rooms can have).

Firstly you need to know your monitors in your room inside out so you can make the best mixes on those monitors in that space; then you need to learn how those mixes translate to other systems in other rooms. Great mixes compromise so that they sound great on as many different listening systems as possible.

So yeah if you're only thinking about how your mix is sounding on your own monitors, chances are it'll sound like arse on a different setup - to combat this cross reference on as many different systems as possible (different headphones, at you mates houses, in the car you get the idea).

IMO this is what mastering is for (assuming a proper mastering engineer and not some geez with a cracked copy of Izotope Ozone) getting a geez with really accurate monitoring, in an acoustically treated room with the knowledge of how that sound translates to real life listening so that they can correct any blind spots in your mix.


The main point of this post is listen to your mix on several different speakers/headphones and try to find a middle ground so that is sounds good on ALL of them.