mastering tips for crappy speakers

[staggalicous]

i have a track that iv been mastering for the past couple days and it sounds great on my studio monitors however when I upload it to soundcloud and play it on lower quality speakers (especially my phone) This one section sounds pretty bad. It seams like it gets exponentially harder to hear the details of the section compared to other songs and even compared to the drop of my song.

https://soundcloud.com/papabeardubstep/ ... r9/s-9JC5g

there is the track, the section I'm refering to is 0:46 to about 1:22 (and the section after the drop that repeats this)

I dont claim to be good at mastering so please dont tear me a new one, but my mastering chain is an eq cutting off lows from about 25 hz into ozone 4 which is EQ - dynamics - harmonic exciter - stereo imaging - loudness maximizer

Any suggestions to clear up this lack of detail or whatever? or any pointers on what might make this sound better?

[_Agu_]

Forget mastering and go back to the mixing stage. More sidechaining, so kick has more room to breathe. It sounds to me there's too much low frequency content on the side channel. make everything under 200-500Hz mono using mid/mide eq. This one i'm not sure about, but I think there's a little bit too much low midrange (let's just say 300-1000) on synths. Also i'm not sure do you have huge reverb or white noise layer on the top of your synths, but if you have you can try taking that off/highpassing it more.

[3za]

Forget mastering and go back to the mixing stage.

+1

harmonic exciter - stereo imaging

These generally shouldn't be in a mastering chain (though they can be). Also avoid having to many bands, and manually place your crossover points so they are not getting in the way of anything. You don't want a band at where your Snare drums fundamental is for example because it's going to "fuck her right in the pussy!!!".

Anyway you can't master on shit speakers, find away of borrowing some nice ones, and maybe even someone to master your tracks for you.

But yeah...

Forget mastering and go back to the mixing stage.

[staggalicous]

Forget mastering and go back to the mixing stage. More sidechaining, so kick has more room to breathe. It sounds to me there's too much low frequency content on the side channel. make everything under 200-500Hz mono using mid/mide eq. This one i'm not sure about, but I think there's a little bit too much low midrange (let's just say 300-1000) on synths. Also i'm not sure do you have huge reverb or white noise layer on the top of your synths, but if you have you can try taking that off/highpassing it more.

more Sidechaining for the kick might make the kick sound better, ill try that, but what i dont like about the mix is that on crappy speakers , the mid/low frequencies (i guess) are unclear, and I am using multiple instruments grouped together to make one instrument ( and i do that for most if not all of the instruments in that part). I should probably work on eqing those a bit.

as for the side channel, i actually used to the stereo imaging to make the first band (subs/bass) less wide, and made the rest of the bands a little wider (including my low/mid). are you saying that the low/mids are two wide? (not sure if i completely understand what you mean by "side channel").

I do have white noise swells with reverb on them, they might be a little too loud in the mix but they do need to be there in one form or another. as for the synths go, i think the only other white noise would be a tiny part of the plucks (which you can barely hear in the section im refering to so i might cut those out of that part) and there's a little reverb on each part of the plucks.

These generally shouldn't be in a mastering chain (though they can be). Also avoid having to many bands, and manually place your crossover points so they are not getting in the way of anything. You don't want a band at where your Snare drums fundamental is for example because it's going to "fuck her right in the pussy!!!".

Anyway you can't master on shit speakers, find away of borrowing some nice ones, and maybe even someone to master your tracks for you.

I use four bands that i place myself, and I am doing the mastering on studio monitors (not the greatest) but it sounds good when I export it, then I test it on my phone (shitty speakers) and that part doesnt sounds right. I also burned a cd to test in my car and it sounded good so idk.

[3za]

I use four bands that i place myself, and I am doing the mastering on studio monitors (not the greatest) but it sounds good when I export it, then I test it on my phone (shitty speakers) and that part doesnt sounds right. I also burned a cd to test in my car and it sounded good so idk.

I miss read your OP

how do reference tracks sound on shitty speaker/your phone?

Also why 4 bands? are your mixes really that bad that you have to totally hack the spectrum up that much?

[staggalicous]

how do reference tracks sound on shitty speaker/your phone?

I'm not sure what you mean by this haha. I just upload it so soundcloud as private and listen to it.

Also why 4 bands? are your mixes really that bad that you have to totally hack the spectrum up that much?

Honestly that's just how I learned and have been doing it, never really though of trying to use less, but i guess my mixes would probably be pretty bad by most ppls standards haha. Mixing and mastering is hard for me, my fav part is sound design and song writing.

[3za]

I'm not sure what you mean by this haha. I just upload it so soundcloud as private and listen to it.

Listen to other peoples tracks in similar style on your shitty speakers/phone, and compare to yours.
What I'm trying to get at, is the problem might be with the speakers and not your mix, maybe???
Even go as far as listen to their tracks on soundcloud to, as that is what your listen to yours on.

Honestly that's just how I learned and have been doing it, never really though of trying to use less, but i guess my mixes would probably be pretty bad by most ppls standards haha. Mixing and mastering is hard for me, my fav part is sound design and song writing.

More processing in mastering, means the mastering engineer has more problems to fix with the track. If the mix is good then all it should need is a maximiser.
When mastering your own stuff though, you should already feel that the mix is good before you start, so really all you should need to do is maximise, as you already sorted everything out im the mix.

[staggalicous]

I'm not sure what you mean by this haha. I just upload it so soundcloud as private and listen to it.

Listen to other peoples tracks in similar style on your shitty speakers/phone, and compare to yours.
What I'm trying to get at, is the problem might be with the speakers and not your mix, maybe???
Even go as far as listen to their tracks on soundcloud to, as that is what your listen to yours on.

Honestly that's just how I learned and have been doing it, never really though of trying to use less, but i guess my mixes would probably be pretty bad by most ppls standards haha. Mixing and mastering is hard for me, my fav part is sound design and song writing.

More processing in mastering, means the mastering engineer has more problems to fix with the track. If the mix is good then all it should need is a maximiser.
When mastering your own stuff though, you should already feel that the mix is good before you start, so really all you should need to do is maximise, as you already sorted everything out im the mix.

Yea I do compare to other tracks on soundcloud for reference.

and what i have been doing is getting happy with my mix and using ozone to make me even more happy with it lol probably not what your supposed to do tho

[_Agu_]

more Sidechaining for the kick might make the kick sound better, ill try that, but what i dont like about the mix is that on crappy speakers , the mid/low frequencies (i guess) are unclear

Kick has stuff in lower mid frequencies, so when it hits at the same time with your synths (as they also have activity over there), you get too much stuff over there = other frequencies get masked and sound unclear. Of course if there's too much clutter already only by synths, side chaining won't work.

(not sure if i completely understand what you mean by "side channel").

Side signal (left channel minus right channel), also known as difference signal is what when combined with mono signal (left channel plus right channel) creates 2-channel-stereo sound. Having low frequencies on side channel will mean that when you play the track with stereo system the bass that comes from the left speaker, isn't exactly the same that comes out from the right one and when they collide in the mid air + bounce of walls there will be phase issues like bass disappearing or getting too loud. If you want to test how it sounds, take your bassline, assign LFO to volume and randomize the rate and intensity. Sounds shit eh?

Now looking at the waveform on your soundcloud, there's definitely something wrong with the mix, since the waveform is bigger on that section that's it even at the drop, but it still sound a lot quieter.

[staggalicous]

I just went back to the mix. I cutout "dead" frequencies that dont affect the synths which helped a little, i also put a high pass on my white noise with was a game changer. I put a subtle side chain compression on some synths for the kick. I checked the low end with a spectrum analyzer and with my limited knowledge i do not see conflicts. I also made the chords that i have trouble hearing in the OP a little louder.

Side signal (left channel minus right channel), also known as difference signal is what when combined with mono signal (left channel plus right channel) creates 2-channel-stereo sound. Having low frequencies on side channel will mean that when you play the track with stereo system the bass that comes from the left speaker, isn't exactly the same that comes out from the right one and when they collide in the mid air + bounce of walls there will be phase issues like bass disappearing or getting too loud. If you want to test how it sounds, take your bassline, assign LFO to volume and randomize the rate and intensity. Sounds shit eh?

Now looking at the waveform on your soundcloud, there's definitely something wrong with the mix, since the waveform is bigger on that section that's it even at the drop, but it still sound a lot quieter.

ok thats what i thought, thats mainly why I use the stereo imaging to make the sub/bass almost completely mono. I dont think the bass is the problem i think its the mid/high range just in that section. it probably has to do with the fact that i am combining synths. Should i raise certain frequencies in each synth so they dont compete? problem is i like how they sound on my monitors and I dont want to change the sound i just want to make that sound clearer. Heres what i got so far. this is just the mix without any mastering.

https://soundcloud.com/papabeardubstep/ ... r5/s-rmWRa

Also please note i left about 2 dbs in headroom (3 in the problem area)

[_Agu_]

Sounds better, but there's still mud...

[staggalicous]

Sounds better, but there's still mud...

Yea I know I don't know what else to do

[staggalicous]

I decided to bounce my tracks to audio and noticed one of the waveforms didnt look right, cleared that up, still a little muddy tho. The mix still sounds pretty good compared to all my previous songs. I created a whole new mastering chain for it. I decided not to waste anymore time trying to fix this one and just use what iv learned in the next song, considering i still am happy with how it sounds (not that it couldnt sound better). Thanks guys for all your help, here's the completed track if your curious

https://soundcloud.com/papabeardubstep/explicit-enigma

[Trichome]

imo don't even bother caring about what your tunes sound like on shitty speakers

its going to sound shit even if it sounds good if ya know what i mean

[staggalicous]

imo don't even bother caring about what your tunes sound like on shitty speakers

its going to sound shit even if it sounds good if ya know what i mean

Yea I agree but i feel like if i can make it sound better on shitty speakers it will sound a tiny bit better on all speakers. Also if someones on their phone on facebook or something and see it and listen to it i dont want them to get a bad impression in comparison to other songs that they might play before and after mine. luckily this is a hobby for me and i dont care that much.

[xtcvsmistycold]

my mastering chain is an eq cutting off lows from about 25 hz into ozone 4 which is EQ - dynamics - harmonic exciter - stereo imaging - loudness maximizer

what frequency content do u have below 25 hz that u want attenuated

also if u want to send a track to djs or play it out urself, your mastering chain only really needs to be compressor into limiter or just limiter. sort out eq problems when u have control of the individual channels and forget the other stuff. if ur mastering for a release, stop, and send it to an actual mastering engineer. to go back to ur original question either know your monitoring environment well enough to know how your master will translate or test your master in a number of different monitoring environments preferably both

[xtcvsmistycold]

I decided to bounce my tracks to audio and noticed one of the waveforms didnt look right

are you making music or visual soundcloud art

[xtcvsmistycold]

make everything under 200-500Hz mono using mid/mide eq.

thats terrible advice

500hz fuck

if ur worried about stereo basses it monoing up to 150/200 should be the upper limit

if the problems deeper then go back and look at the arrangement and/or eq the stems

Forget mastering and go back to the mixing stage.

that's good advice

[Trichome]

Yea I agree but i feel like if i can make it sound better on shitty speakers it will sound a tiny bit better on all speakers.

sorry but this is just plain wrong


if your song sounds good on monitors it will likely sound good on most setups that aren't shit

if you mix your song to sound good on shitty speakers it will likely sound good on shitty speakers and nothing else

[staggalicous]

I decided to bounce my tracks to audio and noticed one of the waveforms didnt look right

are you making music or visual soundcloud art

i meant that it looked like it was clipping even tho the level wasnt. Plus one track isnt going to make the final waveform "look bad"...... go away troll

Yea I agree but i feel like if i can make it sound better on shitty speakers it will sound a tiny bit better on all speakers.

sorry but this is just plain wrong


if your song sounds good on monitors it will likely sound good on most setups that aren't shit

if you mix your song to sound good on shitty speakers it will likely sound good on shitty speakers and nothing else

Thats not what im saying tho. The number one priority for me is how it sounds on my monitors, but rather than just say done and move on to the next project i like to try it out on all different speakers