I have a problem and I need advice

[solarbird]

So I’ve been working on this CD, and I’ve been mastering against a couple of sets of really pretty decent studio headphones. And that’s all lovely and good. But lately I’ve been also playing things on this old Pioneer amp I picked up… somewhere… a long time ago… and a couple of halfway-decent cheap speakers, and all the levelling and such sounds totally different and not so awesome.

Obviously I shouldn’t level to the 35-year-old transistor Pioneer amp. But given that: against what should I be working? I can’t afford good studio monitors and amp; that’d be awesome and HAHAHAHAHAHA <cries>

So…

…what do I do here?

Anybody?

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Mirrored from Crime and the Blog of Evil.

Comments

[403]

Can you do it against something still in the music store? Perhaps as a demo?

[solarbird]

What I'm really looking for is what to listen to while actually making changes and stuff. But yeah, I could take it in on my iPhone or on CD and play and see what happens.

[bettyw]

When we were mixing in the recording studio, we'd always take the mix out to my car to play in order to see what got lost in those speakers vs the high-end monitors; and then home to put through some boomboxes. Since we had fairly complex piano & string section mixes we'd sometimes decide to tweak up/down some levels on the assumption that cars/ipod compression/etc would be more the norm than audiophile fans.

[discogravy.livejournal.com]

i advise that you level it all to the headphones.

alternately you might be able to rent some monitors or amp, solely for mastering. but a) that seems like more money than you can/want to spend and b) you're not going to get a great variance in fidelity from good headphones. might do to burn a bunch of differnt mastered mixes (phones, phones+pioneer, phones+pioneer+crappymonitors, etc) and listen to them on varying equipment (back in Teh Day it was a cassette for the car, but perhaps a cd for the car, and varied bitrate mp3s of your stuff ripped.)

[solarbird]

Yeah, the headphones are still my Plan A. If I were better at this - and could, you know, do things faster - the rental option would be great, but I'm too damn slow and still learning.

The speakers aren't actually that horrible. It's the Pioneer that's made of wtfery and pain. Mostly just 'cause it's old and creaky and spent time in storage and and and. The noise level is seriously like 50db of lulz.

[mdlbear]

Your car stereo. Seriously. Burn a test disk, put it in the car, and drive. By raising the noise floor it immediately tells you what's buried too far down in the mix.

(I learned that trick from Bill Roper.)

For that matter, a pair or two of computer speakers, too. And rip it to MP3 and put it in your player, or play it on your computer through a cheap pair of earbuds.

The more different speakers you play it through, the better it will be in the end. You want a mix that sounds decent no matter what it's playing through, and sounds fantastic on good equipment.

[mdlbear]

Also, get several friends whose audio judgment you trust to take home a test CD and play it on their favorite equipment. Lots of pairs of ears also help.

[solarbird]

mp3 rips sound a lot like my headphone rips, which is good, since that's what most people do! So I'm covered there. (iPhone and iPod standard buds.) And I play things on my craptastic laptop speakers lulz. @_@ Really, everything sounds worst on Ye Olde Pioneer.

I can upload something to a hidden album on my bandcamp site and give people play codes and see how they react if I can find people with srs speakers.

[brombear.livejournal.com]

I have to agree with this one. Listen in the car while driving, then the cheapest cd player and headset you can get, then a boom box.

[maellenkleth]

how much would the monitors, etc. cost?

[solarbird]

$lots? Honestly, I don't even know, but $lots. A pro studio will drop us$25K on these, which I will not be doing. And also honestly if I had the dosh I'd spend it on field equipment - I need a performance amp, microphone, get pickups put in Summer and Kohaku... basically, serious chick needs to get serious. You know how it goes.

[maellenkleth]

jeez, Louise, put out a cash call, then. Seriously. I do know how it goes -- you don't think I found all the $ myself to buy my survey gear way back when? You know who to ask, and how.

[mdlbear]

You can get small but decent powered monitors for closer to $250 -- mine are from M-Audio. Also see whether there's a local place that sells used equipment. Half my gear comes from Guitar Showcase's used/consignment shop.

[solarbird]

Oh, I get a lot of my equipment used. I have a few good local sources, when I actually know what I want. This time, that's the hard part.

[meesto.livejournal.com]

I've always thought that one should have a few reference tracks from other sources that you check your mix against in different environments - headphones, crappy amp, car stereo, etc. This way you get an idea for what known tracks sound like and then you get a better idea of what parts of your mix might need some adjusting.

[djrock3k.livejournal.com]

Don't forget to contrast and compare with music that your are familiar with sonically against your work on the various devices. A "professional" mix is always a good benchmark for your tiring ears :)

I also agree with both the cash call and checking out the local pawn or consignment shops. Ya never know what ya might find!

(love your Master and Commander and Alien Abduction icon meesto!)

[solarbird]

I do, I have a few local sources for things - in particular some local pawn shops, but also in particular a place called Trading Musician. They're pretty good, I've bought things from them before.