Laptop speakers noise, worthy of concern or not?

H

horizonxradar

New member
Every time I finish producing a piece of music, I listen to it on all devices I have access to, in order to ensure that it sounds alright across the board.

The thing is, I often notice that when I listen to them just using my laptop with nothing attached, especially at high volumes, hitting certain notes cause a noisy, ugly crackle in the speaker. Not when I listen with my headphones directly plugged into the laptop. Not when I listen with my headphones plugged into the audio interface, which is plugged into the laptop. Not when I listen with my monitors plugged into the audio interface. When it's just played through the laptop the noise is unbearable. Which is strange considering my laptop is pretty expensive and high quality.

Another thing I noticed is that generally the unpleasant noise is caused by vibraphone/xylophone/chime-like sounds, or a sine-based synth. For example when I play tracks such as Boards of Canada - Turquoise Hexagon Sun, it would lead to speaker noise - so I'm not sure if it's that worthy of concern. I try to tweak the specifics of my VSTi settings to minimise the noise, but sometimes that means the timbre isn't ideal. Again, I just want to make sure that my music is pleasantly listenable on most if not all devices.
 
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If it happens with commercial songs and not just your own, i wouldn't try tweaking any VSTi settings to minimize the noise. Just mix on your monitors and only use the laptop speakers for reference and try to ignore the sound. I would also do a Google search of your specific laptop and the specific speakers problem you are having and see if it is a common problem with them. If you dont find any others with the problem i would contact the manufacturer and see if they can help. I have noticed i get static in my monitors from some signal interference if my phone or other electronics are near my monitors, not sure if that can happen with laptops but its worth a try to move other electronics away from the laptop when listening.
 
nobody uses laptop speakers as a reference point bro lol... that's like using speakers that come with an ipod as a reference point.. all you really NEED is monitors.. mixing speakers.. maybe even you're car speakers too..
 
horizon.dude, built in laptop speakers and included audio devices with an ipod are gonna have issues with audio.
You can't expect laptop speakers to reproduce an entire spectrum of audio without sibilance (prolly spelled wrong) or distortion no matter what, unless you mix tracks flat. Use the low end stuff as a reference to hear what other people hear when they listen to music.

studio monitors and some 2-5$ earbuds would cover a lot of ground.
or you can go the headphone route.
 
SwagProductionz said:
nobody uses laptop speakers as a reference point bro lol... that's like using speakers that come with an ipod as a reference point.. all you really NEED is monitors.. mixing speakers.. maybe even you're car speakers too..
Click to expand...

Haha what? you should use EVERY speaker as a reference.. If there is a chance somebody is going to listen to your music on it, you should make sure it sounds good on it. Yes you should also use Ipod speakers for reference also.
 
I feel like anything will sound halfway decent on laptop speakers. I personally wouldn't use them as a reference either.

Definitely prefer using something with at least some bass response. I do think $5 headphones like kkk brought up would probably better than the laptop.

OP, your music does not seem to be the problem the way you described your laptop's sound. I wouldn't worry about it.
 
I think a small-scale speaker like that in laptops or phones is a good extra reference point, as lots of stuff does end up being listened that way.

Then again, I doubt even high-end laptops have high quality speakers...because, whatever the case, laptop speakers are laptop speakers - they are physically incapable of ever sounding great.
 
^this^

always check on as many different configurations as you can
- headphones,
- pa systems,
- high-end audiophile speakers,
- low end knock off car speakers,
- high-end car speakers,
- computer monitors,
- laptop speakers,
- ear buds,
- bookshelf,
- old-school hi-fi,
- surround sound systems (2.1/5.1/6.1/7.1 - you want to know that it translates to them without loss of central or peripheral audio),
- beats,
- akg/beyer/sennheiser/AT,
- other brands
 
DirtyThirdBeats said:
Haha what? you should use EVERY speaker as a reference.. If there is a chance somebody is going to listen to your music on it, you should make sure it sounds good on it. Yes you should also use Ipod speakers for reference also.
Click to expand...

do you mean laptop speakers as in the speakers that come directly from your laptop... or a pair of small computer mini speakers?
 
SwagProductionz said:
do you mean laptop speakers as in the speakers that come directly from your laptop... or a pair of small computer mini speakers?
Click to expand...

Any and all man, its just a mix reference, not like your going to be adjusting levels, just note anything that stands out and address it in the mix back on your monitors.
 
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