Why does My song sound different on my monitors then my iphone speakers?

R

Rashai Robertson

New member
Why does My song sound Great on my monitors then very bad on my iphone speakers?

I know that sounds dumb but my song sounds great on my headphones & krk 5 platinum ed but then i export & upload to soundcloud to test my phone speakers & the song just sounds horrible.. The vocals are basically gone & very hard to hear.. The song sounds very weird & like non existent. I mix for hours for the song to come out crappy only on my phone tho ( I compare it to other pro & amateur songs & it sound no where alike other songs on my phone speakers ). I use nexus kontakt professional drumkits , and i never changed up the fl studio audio settings. Im new to this but its been happening for atleast 6 months. Im just confused. Its like the song just dissappears. My bass doesnt sound like other songs either & im confused about all that after even testing multiple ways of mixing it.. I Been trying for atleast a year now....

Help me Man & Im too broke to pay for mixing & mastering when i can do it myself. Im 17
 
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Rashai Robertson said:
I know that sounds dumb but my song sounds great on my headphones & krk 5 platinum ed but then i export & upload to soundcloud to test my phone speakers & the song just sounds horrible.. The vocals are basically gone & very hard to hear.. The song sounds very weird & like non existent. I mix for hours for the song to come out crappy only on my phone tho ( I compare it to other pro & amateur songs & it sound no where alike other songs on my phone speakers ). I use nexus kontakt professional drumkits , and i never changed up the fl studio audio settings. Im new to this but its been happening for atleast 6 months. Im just confused. Its like the song just dissappears. My bass doesnt sound like other songs either & im confused about all that after even testing multiple ways of mixing it.. I Been trying for atleast a year now....

Help me Man & Im too broke to pay for mixing & mastering when i can do it myself. Im 17
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Many things are happening.

- SoundCloud transcodes all tracks you upload to 128 kbps MP3 format. They claim that if you upload it in that format there is no additional impact, but this you cannot know for sure. So for the best "chance" of best quality you would pre-encode the file to that same quality using a compression algorithm of high quality and then disable the download. But the format itself is a seriously quality downgraded audio format.

- Depending on the absolute gain structure of your mix you'll have various results in various playback devices, if you leave too little headroom for the transients, they will be crushed on lofi playback systems

- The export operation in itself is also problematic in that it introduces system latencies that are not present during normal playback causing micro phase shifts, this is because there are different load characteristics in the DAW during export than during playback. To combat this just get yourself the fastest DAW possible in every way and never export in non-real time mode.

- Depending on your dithering quality you will also have various results

- Finally, 32bit is 32bit, you cannot demand that all of those bits should be present in a SoundCloud format when they are not

- And don't forget that iPhone's DAC is crap
 
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leaving all other issues aside your iphone speakers are not meant to reproduce sound within the same frequency range range as your krk's (though they might claim it, it is unlikely that they will actually come close to the claimed response at +/- 3dB which is the usual measure for frequency range on speakers or microphones - some manufacturers even fudge their graphs so that the response looks better than it actually is - aka marketing hyperbole)

in addition it is unlikely that either are capable of true full range reproduction (20Hz - 20kHz)

then add in using a flwwed format - 320kbps mp3 is less than 1/4 of a16 bit 44100 Wav file (bitrate=1411.2kbps) and soundcloud streams at 128kbps (as mentioned above) so the bitrate is 1/11th that of a 16 bit 44100 wav file

i.e. your mechanism for comparing is flawed before you start - copy the wav file to your phone and make the comparison for at least an even playing field in terms of source material
 
Thanks for the responses. My phone exploded (not literally) when I tried to play my first few tracks (no mastering at all)
 
physically small (or tiny) speakers can't reproduce bass as well as larger speakers. That's why woofers are typically bigger than tweeters.
there's a real correlation between size and frequency response. the speakers in phones are TINY so their sound is pretty weak.

some modern monitors might have built in EQ to sound better, but that only goes so far.
 
20$ headphones would be a better device to check mixes with than speakers built into anything that isn't a vehicle.
60-300$ headphones ideal.
150-1000$ speakers Ideal.
 
Essentially, and people above are right about bass response on ur phone etc too, but: a good mix should sound "well balanced" (although very tinny) on ur phone.

What is likely happening is that ur mix isn't quite right. Ur monitors are likely good at producing a large range of frequencies / dynamic ranges, and if a few sounds aren't quite sitting well; then u may not notice it on ur monitors: but u sure will on ur phone! This part of mixing is a little tricky, and takes practice - but don't worry ---> after experience it will take less and less time to get it right :)... I've found that one of the key aspects of a mix sounding good on various devices is dynamics: particularly on smaller speakers... Things will get lost easily.

It's a tricky thing to advise though: "add some light compression to individual sounds that don't have any if they're getting lost"; "flatten out any really dynamic sounds "... This is what I'm thinking; but hey: as advice it means very little out of context!

As a test run, try popping some "mastering plugin" on the end of it all (eg multi and compressor) and select a mastering preset (this is not 'how you should master' at all; but it could provide a quick example of reducing dynamic range to see if it helps at all)... Make sure the preset is not too intense... Ideally ratios will not exceed 2:1... 1.5:1 is fine. What this will do is not dramatically change ur mix; but just gently squeeze up the dynamic range. If it sound hugely better on ur phone; then hey: ur mix is maybe not so bad. If it sound like dirt still: mAybe u need to spend a lot more time on ur mix getting ur dynamics more in check...
 
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