Why doesn't it sound as good on phone speakers? Feedback on mix?
- Thread starter vienna
- Start date
ProfoundSilence
Senior Member
Honestly the best thing to do is listen to music on your speakers you make music on.
get used to how professional tracks sound on your system, and honestly - I do everything at the same volume. I know what loud sounds like - I know what quiet sounds like, and what balanced mastered tracks sound like.
Keep in mind that the two things you lose most when being played on a phone speaker are bass, and stereo. If your mix only works in stereo or on a system with a sub, then you might need to use special filters/eqs on your master chain to simulate the effect to make better mixing decisions.
I can't actually listen to the track at work though, just general rule of thumb!
get used to how professional tracks sound on your system, and honestly - I do everything at the same volume. I know what loud sounds like - I know what quiet sounds like, and what balanced mastered tracks sound like.
Keep in mind that the two things you lose most when being played on a phone speaker are bass, and stereo. If your mix only works in stereo or on a system with a sub, then you might need to use special filters/eqs on your master chain to simulate the effect to make better mixing decisions.
I can't actually listen to the track at work though, just general rule of thumb!
GNP
Senior Member
Generally most people listen to music on their phones now, which is a shame, unless they use earphones.
Phones have hardly any bass, that's why your track sounds "too bright".
You can use this plugin called Mix Checker by Audified to check how your mix sounds on various speakers, from laptops to phones.
Phones have hardly any bass, that's why your track sounds "too bright".
You can use this plugin called Mix Checker by Audified to check how your mix sounds on various speakers, from laptops to phones.
Maybe watch this on your phone and take some notes on frequency ranges that you can hear at all and those that seem to distort:
I can't tell you though how universal those frequency ranges are accross different devices. I wouldn't be surprised, if phone speakers generally have a boost in the frequency range that is most important for undertanding voices.
Joël Dollié
Active Member
That's most likely because phone speakers suck. I am fairly sure.
It's good to listen on different supports but don't have high expectations for crappy systems. Doing this can help you find problems but you have to know what to expect for each system.
It's good to listen on different supports but don't have high expectations for crappy systems. Doing this can help you find problems but you have to know what to expect for each system.
ProfoundSilence
Senior Member
cool
my phone = basically inaudible under 180hz, about full volume at 270hz. starts to dip around 3k. and a significant fall off after 6k. 10k is basically just the sound CRT tvs make that most people cant hear.
never seen that clip, that's a great tool when you're on the run
Nils Neumann
Senior Member
Kent
sleepy member
~15.7 kHz actually.
Color NTSC is 525 (interlaced) scanlines @29.97 fps which is 15734.25 cycles per second. Add in some analog variance and you get a whine on a flattish B
ProfoundSilence
Senior Member
Just meant that I could play 10k in my pocket cranked on my phone and people would be looking around trying to figure out what that feint whining nose was, but I found the A type lurking~15.7 kHz actually.
Color NTSC is 525 (interlaced) scanlines @29.97 fps which is 15734.25 cycles per second. Add in some analog variance and you get a whine on a flattish B
XD
luckily it's all LCDs in the center at work or my shift would be snipping the camera feeds and having a centralized catastrophic quake that only seemed to knock the TVs off their mounts.
markd
Member
What I do is place an EQ as the last plugin on my master bus and apply an EQ curve like this. This simulates what your music would sound like a typical phone. It's not 100% accurate, but I find that testing my mixes with this EQ makes my music sound pretty decent on cellphones.
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Yea my phone is old haha
José Herring
Lost in Cyberspace
Dude, that high whine use to drive me crazy. But, I think it's much higher than 10k. IIRC it was more around 16k back when I could easily hear that high.
José Herring
Lost in Cyberspace
I think if you're aiming to sound good on phone speakers, which I honestly can't figure out why, but if you are then your best bet is to write to that medium. I would design your music to fit easily in that speaker range. It' s not a bad goal. I don't know about these days but 20 years ago people were making a killing selling ringtones. But, I don't hear about that market any more.
Personally, I would mix your music to sound good on youtube by mixing it in headphones and in earbuds and small computer speakers.
I often wondered why Billy Eilish music sounded so muffled to me then I saw that her brother talked a lot about designing sounds in headphones. Making it sound right on headphones, then it dawned on me, 99% of the population his age only listen to music on headphones and ear buds. Dude is way smarter than I am, because I'm still creating music like it belongs on huge movie speakers.
Actually I don't have speakers. All I use are headphones. So with headphones it sounded good, atleast to my ear. But without headphones, and just playing it on my phone something sounds off in the mix. Maybe as someone said it's just my phone that is bad. And mixing takes practice, and I definitely need a lot. Appreciate the answer
shponglefan
Collector of sample libraries
It's not even an issue of age. It's that tiny speakers can't reproduce lower frequencies at sufficient volumes. It's just physics.
Alex Niedt
Senior Member
It's not exactly that. If Finneas wanted bright mixes, they'd be bright. Seems like more of a purposeful straying from the modern trend of insane brightness, which is much more fitting for the mood of Eilish's music. The more naturalistic top end and fuller mids really sell the vibe. I really hope the pendulum swings back that way, in general, because we've reached just about the brightest, thinnest mixes we can get at this point.
Kent
sleepy member
Why doesn't it sound as good on phone speakers? Feedback on mix?
Hello, I put out a track on youtube, however it sounds different on phone speakers, as if it's almost too bright. I spent a whole day trying to level the volumes as I wanted. I'm still a beginner, so I'll take any type of feedback as constructive. Here's the track:
vi-control.net
babylonwaves
Darth Fader
This website has free impulse responses from iPhones, iPads and Behritone speakers. I use that a lot to check if the bass is audible at all on small systems.
https://www.aaronbrownsound.com/free-impulse-responses-from-the-ipad-iphone-and-behritone-speakers/
https://www.aaronbrownsound.com/free-impulse-responses-from-the-ipad-iphone-and-behritone-speakers/
Bluemount Score
Senior Member
I was told that if you listen to an Alan Meyerson Mix on your phone speakers, you can hear frequencies way below 20Hz
