Hi All!

I have a fairly well-equipped home-studio where I do a lot of recording, which I am mostly very happy with. Some of the recordings I have made in this studio have received radio and TV airplay, so they are not bad. I do have one problem though. My mixes (mostly rock) sound great through my monitors, good hi-fi systems and car stereo's, but when I play them through smaller systems (boom boxes, PC-speakers, etc.) it sounds more muffled than some other big-name albums I compare it to. Like there is a blanket over the mix.

I suspect that this may be a mastering-problem rather than a mix-problem, quite possibly an EQ-issue. It seems like there is one frequency that needs to be cut. Can anyone give me some advice on this to help me fix it. It is really frustrating to have mixes that I know have the potential to be great, but have them sound inferior to other mixes on systems where a lot of people will be listening to them.

JoEllis wrote:

Hi All! I have a fairly well-equipped home-studio where I do a lot of recording, which I am mostly very happy with. Some of the recordings I have made in this studio have received radio and TV airplay, so they are not bad. I do have one problem though. My mixes (mostly rock) sound great through my monitors, good hi-fi systems and car stereo's, but when I play them through smaller systems (boom boxes, PC-speakers, etc.) it sounds more muffled than some other big-name albums I compare it to. Like there is a blanket over the mix. I suspect that this may be a mastering-problem rather than a mix-problem, quite possibly an EQ-issue. It seems like there is one frequency that needs to be cut. Can anyone give me some advice on this to help me fix it. It is really frustrating to have mixes that I know have the potential to be great, but have them sound inferior to other mixes on systems where a lot of people will be listening to them.

Offhand it sounds like your monitors may be a bit "hyped" on the high end. If you find that your mixes consistenly sound balanced on your studio monitors, but are muffled/dull on others, I would try another set of monitors in the same room to start. You can also go back and forth between another set of speakers/room and make adjustments as needed, but it gets tiresome and one can lose perspective pretty quickly between visits.

Translation between the studio and the outside world is key in mastering. It can take a fair amount of experimentation in both the acoustics of your room and choice of monitors before "getting it right".
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Tom Volpicelli
The Mastering House Inc.
http://www.masteringhouse.com
CD Mastering and Media Production Services

I'm new here but i'd love to here your mix and check it out ... or are you gone now and i'm talking to myself.??

not the first time i'll say..


really like this forum.
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Stacey the Pagan Goddess of digitalindustry.