Hi all, I am producing my first track and I use headphones for this pretty much 100% of the time because I don't want to annoy my family by using speakers. When I take my headphones out it doesn't sound half as good, I was wondering are there any good methods to use to resolve this. I know I could keep taking my headphones in and out to try and get a similar sound but this isn't really effective and would be very time consuming. Basically I want it to sound good on sound cloud with and without headphones just like any normal track. Any help would be appreciated.
How to get your track to sound the same/similar with and without headphones
- Thread starter Walker9
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balls of metal
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"Sound good on souncloud" doesn't really mean anything. If you're playing it on soundcloud through your phone in mono, it's not going to sound the same as playing the same piece on soundcloud through a legit sound system, nor will it sound the same on a pair of studio monitors, etc. etc. etc. This is supposed to be the case, you're not doing anything wrong here. Where you DO go wrong, is expecting the same results through different means of playback. What you want to shift your focus to is making the same mix sound equally good through different means of playback. "Equally good" is not synonymous with "the same".
Thanks for the quick reply. Yes I didn't word that very well I do understand that it will sound differently on different systems, I was wanting to know if there any good methods to make the track sound equally good through headphones, monitors, etc. Would I just try and do this at the mastering stage? At the moment it just seems to sound a lot duller through the speakers than when I have the headphones in. I have listened to a few fl studio projects (daw I use) and the tracks equally sounds as good with and without headphones in
balls of metal
New member
Honestly, it might sound tedious but trial and error was my biggest friend in trying to figure out the solution to this same problem. If you play it back on 8 different systems and they all sound great, you're probably in the clear. If you play it back on 8 different systems and the one with the weakest bass response is overloaded with low end from the get go, you know you have too much low end and you need to go back and make adjustments. Just use your ears and listen, make notes on what you hear and go back and take those notes into account. Also, depending on what speakers and what headphones you're using, it very well may be that the frequency response in your headphones vs. your speakers are what's causing the "dullness". My cans actually sound a bit brighter than my monitors as well. As for waiting for mastering, it depends on what the issue actually is. If everything is as bright and full as you want it, but it still sounds dull when played back all together, then maybe. EDIT: given that your equipment is not the source of the issue.
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Adrian-MarQ
New member
You could bring in a reference track to compare your work to.
steffeeh
New member
If you can't use speakers you can at least invest in a good pair of studio headphones. These will better expose you music as naked as possible and show all error and inbalances.
However the fact that you're worried about disturbing your family when using speakers makes me wonder how loud you playback your music - because is the worst danger when making music, you should always be able to talk normally when playing your song without having to raise your voice even a smudge.
If you playback at that moderate level, I'm sure you won't annoy your family unless you produce during night like some do.
Anyway, all speakers and various types of systems reproduce the sound differently, and there's not much to do about than; playing your song on different speakers to see how your song generally react, comparing your song with other fully finished songs (keep in mind these have been mastered), as well getting experience and evolving your tonal/musical ear.
However the fact that you're worried about disturbing your family when using speakers makes me wonder how loud you playback your music - because is the worst danger when making music, you should always be able to talk normally when playing your song without having to raise your voice even a smudge.
If you playback at that moderate level, I'm sure you won't annoy your family unless you produce during night like some do.
Anyway, all speakers and various types of systems reproduce the sound differently, and there's not much to do about than; playing your song on different speakers to see how your song generally react, comparing your song with other fully finished songs (keep in mind these have been mastered), as well getting experience and evolving your tonal/musical ear.
I have just read up on referencing and that sounds a good idea too thankyou. Would it be difficult to produce the track with my headphones, for example if I was doing a long late night session and finished the track,and then play the track through monitors the next day and try and get an equally good sound and adjust the track if that makes sense? I can't really use speakers at night and on occasions, I live with my brother who studies. If this isn't very effective I might have to just get my own place ha! I'm very new and inexperience and I don't really know what different methods there are.
Sonarworks has a headphone calibration plugin that you can use to get a somewhat better sense of what it is going to sound like when playing through speakers. The way I use this plugin is to use the Sennheiser HD 650 filter in conjunction with the Ultrasone Signature DJ cans that are bassy. That produces 2 times the bassiness, which means that you will instantly know if you have too much or too little low end in your mix. That is a pretty important thing to be aware of because either one of those is going to produce a bad sounding mix. Reference that configuration against a bassy reference mix that you like and memorize it. That will give you a good ballpark perspective on how to get a nice amount of low end in your mix. If you are mixing on headphones it is important to change headphones rather frequently so that the ears never reach the point of fatigue against some particular cans. If your ears are fatigued against a certain set of cans and you change cans, that will result in over compensations on those. So you should use many cans, but iterate them frequently enough so that your ears never lock into some particular cans. The same is true with speakers. Please also remember that nothing forces you to follow this rule and that it also depends on your monitoring volume, you can fatigue your ears on purpose to create certain effects. It's just that for a very balanced sounding mix you need to maintain perspective by keeping the ears fresh enough. So for balance that means to mix on rather low playback volume and switch cans often.
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Laureat Ramadani
New member
the problem is that headphones don't really have bass
and no matter how much expensive they cannot have bass
its because the bass is created from the box of the speakers
the bigger the box more bass it creates
if someone makes a beat on 5 inch krk monitors
it will sound different if they listen on 10 inch krk monitors there will be more boom
and no matter how much expensive they cannot have bass
its because the bass is created from the box of the speakers
the bigger the box more bass it creates
if someone makes a beat on 5 inch krk monitors
it will sound different if they listen on 10 inch krk monitors there will be more boom
This is not true. Please have a listen to the Ultrasone Signature DJ closed back headphones. They have tons of bass, no hiding of the low end at all.
steffeeh
New member
I don't have any lowend monitors so I don't know. I have more the "average producer-pricerange" speakers, which is a pair of Yamaha HS8, but from when I switched to them from my regular speakers (which still sounds good too) my mixing suddenly became much harder to do well as the new speakers did their job perfectly. Though now I've managed it and my mixes sound way better than before I got the speakers.
Though I'd recommend waiting that extra month to really save up for a good pair of monitors. Again, my monitors are average-good, but the clerk I bought it from (who is a very experienced producer himself) who I showed my music to told that my music was way too good for the speakers that I got, and that I should get back in a few months and buy even better ones.
My point is, don't rush this. Do lots of investigation and try out the speakers when it's time.
If you go with speakers, I recommend the ATC SCM150ASL Pro. These are not too big, not too small and not too light:
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steffeeh
New member
Headphones do have bass because they create a box using the space between the headphone/earbud-speaker and your eardrum. As their movements are so tiny that small space is enough to let some headphones/earbuds reach down to even 25 Hz with such bass level it's even causing internet debates on how healthy that much bass really is.
And while the box matters for the bass level in a speaker, it's far from everything in the whole formula of bass reproduction. You also have wether it's a closed or ported box, the type/size/shape of the bassport, if it has a slave speaker (or whatever it's called in english) and it's specs, the overall shape of the box, what the inside of the box looks like, and then we also have the cone itself, its material, how far the cone hits, the shape of the cone, and also the magnet and its specs, not to mention the energy consumption of the speakers.
There are dozens if not hundreds of different specs that makes up for the bass sound (and now we're not even diving into the room acoustics).
There are even 6.5" highend speakers on moderate boxes doing better than cheaper dual 12" car bangers. Bigger speakers even often tend to not being able to keep up with kick hits, making it sound sloppy (unless you go way high up in price range).
It's just not that simple.
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Laureat Ramadani
New member
steffeeh
New member
KonKossKang
Ozagas
Not necessarily the case as many different speakers have varying levels of frequency response.