Can you get a accurate master using a car sound system?

The Burglar

The Burglar

New member
Just thinking. Since I don't have monitors at the moment and I'm only using headphones. I wonder if I take my laptop out to the car plug in a aux ( I got 1 12 sub, decent sound system) if I would get a more accurate representation than using a good set of headphones. Comparing it with a professional album/song that is. Have any of you done this and how did it work out? Because I just want to say that battery powered bass boost headphones are awful for eq'ing bass. Like beats by Dre or Bose QC 25,
 
Last edited:
Wouldn't that depend on many factors including the specific car stereo you have, the impedance of the speakers, the shape of the car's interior etc.?

That said, my rule of thumb is to just try out as may speakers as I can get my hands on, so go for it, it can't hurt.
 
babblybobbly said:
Wouldn't that depend on many factors including the specific car stereo you have, the impedance of the speakers, the shape of the car's interior etc.?

That said, my rule of thumb is to just try out as may speakers as I can get my hands on, so go for it, it can't hurt.
Click to expand...

+ anything going on outside.

Do you use reference tracks when mastering? Might be helpful regardless of what your monitoring setup is.
 
Don't you have any friend that have a pair of monitors that you can use every now and then? Mastering is a very sensitive phase, and require a sensitive soundsystem. A 12" sub speaker is very unstable, specially if its a cheaper one. And even a highend 12" car sub is very sloppy and barely manage keeping up with the audio signal. My friend used to have a dual JBL 12" sub at 1600 watt with an amplifer at 2100 watt (can't remember if RMS or Peak) + a bunch of extra stuff to improve it all - guess what, it still sounded more sloppy than the cheaper 10" subs he used before. So your kicks will sound more sloppy than they actually sound.

The whole reason with mastering is preparing your music for the real world, and by only listening to it on the headphones or a 12" sub is not preparing it for the real world.
 
Some good advice above already...

I'll add re; headphones - Beats by Dre and Bose are audiophile and not production grade phones - they will massively colour your output - Look at AudioTechnica M50x and Beyerdynamic DT770pro's - probably the 2 most respected pairs of 'budget' phones available right now.
 
Definitely don't do that my friend. You may learn a little and it might be awesome in your car but mastering requires a sound treated room and often times the room itself needs to be specially built for certain acoustics.
Your options when it comes to mastering are to pay a pro to do it or to pay an online company to do it instantly.
Again, your time would be much better spent on other things.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top