FL studio to car system

[BobCarter]

I don't know if anyone else has had a problem with this..

Being the newbie that I am at beatmaking/producing I got a pair of headphones which has optional bass boost...using the bass boost helps me hear more accurately how the beat will sound when listened to on a system but it still fails. The other day I made a CD with a few originals I made on it, and tried to play it through my friends car stereo. It sounded horrible. The low bass frequencies drowned out the mid-range of the tracks and the hi-hats were basically all I could hear through the garble. I just learned how EQ plays into this and I tried putting a compressor on my kicks, but still what I hear through my headphones almost always ends up sounding totally different when sub-woofers are involved.
(I used these sixty dollar sony noiseless headphones..they aren't spectacular but they get the job done)

My question is: What is an acceptable limit of lower bass frequency that will give me the thickness and punch that will sound good on every system, yet will not drown out most of my lower range and partial mid range when played through a car stereo? Should I buy a stereo with the kick of car sub-woofers to be able to preview how my song will come out before I waste blank CD's? Maybe I'm overthinking this..but I still would appreciate any input any of you have regarding this problem.

**If this is in the wrong subtopic, its because im new here

 

[Relic]

My question is: What is an acceptable limit of lower bass frequency that will give me the thickness and punch that will sound good on every system, yet will not drown out most of my lower range and partial mid range when played through a car stereo? Should I buy a stereo with the kick of car sub-woofers to be able to preview how my song will come out before I waste blank CD's? Maybe I'm overthinking this..but I still would appreciate any input any of you have regarding this problem.

**If this is in the wrong subtopic, its because im new here

Great questions, Ima get back to this, but ... Your about to WASTE THE HELL OUTTA a bunch of blank cd's ...lol

Thats how you learn how your mix was..Until you get great monitors, and then you will again.

 

[Low G]

It might also be that your friend is one of those ppl that jacks their low end frequency on their system really high. In that case everything would sound bad tho so I assume you would have checked that.

Through trial and error over time you will develop a better idea of what will sound good. For now since you don't have a way to monitor your bass keep it low. It's easier to trun up the system than to have things sound like shit right away.

 

[5th Sequence]

Bob carter, welcome to illmuzik.

and welcome to the hardfought battle of mixing and mastering as well ! What you are trying to do is get your mix to translate to any speaker and the same as you made it on your setup (as you intended, right?)

This is a career long pursuit in a way. Definitely recommend getting studio monitors, and also buying books on mixing. When you start to research for yourself online, you'll realize there is a ton of information out there and even more people like yourself that are in the same boat -- looking to make their music sound good in a car, friends house, etc.

again the best way to go about it is to research online in forums such as these (search for it though, I can guarantee the information you need has already been posted), buy some books, and invest in good studio monitors. It'll take you time to experiment with these techniques but it'll be well worth it.

Good luck man.

 

[zephyrosthegod]

Buy some good monitors if you are seriously strapping for cash I would recommend the M Audio Studio Pro 3's 99 bucks. They pack a nice punch but ironically do struggle a bit on the low end. You get what you pay for.

On the mixing end, you are gonna need to develop your ears. Try listening to a solo of your kick and bass one at a time and see if you can spot some useless frequencies in the low end. Try pin pointing some freqs 250 down by tightening your eq bandwith and raising the gain and moving it around. This basically is gonna turn up all the individual freqs db/volume. If done properly you will that some freqs when you boost them dont adjust the sound too much and some will just distort the crap out of it, try lowering and boosting some of these slightly to find a more clean sound. Def reference as much material as you can and try not to take everything to heart until you try it.

The main point of this is to find out of tune freqs clouding your bass line and mix.

 

[Relic]

Once you get the monitors your still gonna have a crap load of cd's that litter your car and work spaces and shit. I have to listen to everything in my car because its a stock system and if it sounds good in there flat, then it ususaly translates to something good elsewhere as well.
Thus I have to throw out cd's quite a bit that fill my trunk.

 

[eldiablo]

your problem your having now is that your using bass enhances headphones to make your shit. that will turn out like that when you use those. i had that problem when i first started out. if your buddy system eq is zero'd out and your bass is still to heavy. make it how you want, but when mixing down bring the bass up to as close to zero without peaking then raise the rest to fit the way you want. you might want to eq the track. compression/limiter and mastering takes years of practice to get right. that will bring your overall track volume up.