Audio distorts on low quality speaker

[gabeceh]

My final mix sounds distorted on low quality speakers but fine on higher quality ones. Its not extremely loud or anything, about the same volume as other tracks that dont distort on the same low quality speakers, any ideas on why ?

p.s. its my first time posting on here so sorry if this isnt in the correct place or something x;

[sleepy]

Does everything sound distorted, or only certain parts, like kicks?

[gabeceh]

everything pretty much, its all about the same volume since I used a compressor

[sleepy]

What happens if you remove that compressor?

[everbeatz]

Does it distort when you play commercial tracks?

[ScorchinBeats]

Post the track so we can listen.

My guess is that you have a large frequency peak somewhere (like the low bass) and the speakers can't handle that, despite it all being below 0db.

[rocksure]

Yes the most likely culprit is some bass frequencies being too much for small speakers to cope with. Generally if your small speakers are distorting on YOUR song recordings, but not on commercial mixes, it is a dead giveawy that you have too much flabby or boomy bass in your mixes. Roll off everything below about 45 HZ, and try attenuating some of the upper bass frequencies too and see what happens.

[CPhoenix]

When this happens to me, it's usually a combination of two things.

1) What everyone else is saying above me about the bass being too boomy and I didn't realize it... and it's not translating well across most mediums.

2) I will also misjudge my mid highs severely. I have a bad acoustic environment, so at times I simply just won't realize when I'm raising my highs too much to compete w/ the extra bass that my room creates. When I go to another environment, the bass isn't even what I thought it was lol... but I'll have a resulting screeching vocal track that didn't need to be pushed that hard... and it will definitely distort low quality speakers.

It's to the point where i actually just bought a pair of $10 computer speakers from Micro Center (not on sale... they're really $10 hahaha) and added it to my setup so I can periodically spot check. You really need to know how it will sound on terrible speakers, especially if you don't have an accurate listening environment. I think that's a big part of the mixing process. It's weird how you can't really mix on terrible speakers, but you still need them as a spotcheck of your mix. Catch 22?

I keep the cheap speakers hidden though, b/c it looks real unprofessional having them in there lol, and it just takes waaay too long trying to explain why I need them to a non-engineer (which is almost everybody that comes thru).