Making a song sound as good on Laptop Speakers as studio speaker?

[timmilesmusic]

Hey Guys, basically needed some advice, my friend has his own home recording studio, absolutely brilliant equipment worth alot of money and he has recorded a number of songs for me and they all sound absolutely fantastic, the one we've just finished is a song that has multiple instruments and multiple harmonies, about 5 harmonies in the chorus including my vocal track. Problem thats happening is we edit through great studio speakers and it sounds amazing and then when played through headphones or laptop speaker it sounds dreadful like all the EQ is out all the levels are different. And i just wondered is this a case of approaching it as an automation issue and editing through rubbish speakers so it sounds good on good ones OR is it an EQ issue. How would you suggest i fix it?

Thank you in advance!

[ronmac]

The most likely cause is that the room you are mixing in is tricking you into thinking you are creating a good mix. Has the room been treated in any way to create a suitable mixing environment?

[timmilesmusic]

it hasn't no! would it be better to do it using headphones instead?

[Bob1131]

This is what close field reference monitors are for. By being "close" you minimize the effects of the room. Without good reference speakers, it will take a good deal of experimentation to achieve the right mix and EQ for your recordings. Even with good reference speakers, I recommend that you play your recording on as many different systems as possible and keep a written log of what you hear on each. For example, in your car, you may find that the bass is muddy, on your home stereo the highs might be too sparkly, and on an Ipod perhaps the back up vocals are too loud. With practice, you'll get pretty efficient at hearing which frequencies need to be lowered and raised. Then go back to the studio and remix or try to correct the problem areas with EQ on Audacity or similar program. Try the revised mix all over again on all the different systems and compare it with the previous log to ascertain if you made the correct frequency adjustments. Keep doing this until you have a mix that works reasonably well on all systems.

Once you obtain a good mix, keep that track for future reference. Any song you mix from that point on should be compared to the reference track to assure you are achieving the same tones and levels.

[Doug Young]

In the recording world this is a well-known issue, and people talk about whether a mix "translates". Creating a mix that works well across many speakers and environments takes an experienced recording engineer, good monitors and a properly treated mixing room. Usually the mixing engineer compares mixes on at least a few speakers to get some sense of how the mix sounds. The mastering step also plays a role, and can help, but mastering can't usually fix a bad mix, just fine tune the EQ and so on. This issue is one reason to go to a professional studio for anything you plan to release to the public, where you have no control over where the tracks get played. One possible approach is to track in a home studio, then have the tracks mixed in a more pro environment.

Short of that, just iterating over and over, listening on different systems, and making small changes, may help.