Mastering help (URGENT)

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Mastering help (URGENT)

Postby Matthew N. » 21 Jun 2013 05:58

I'm having issues with an upcoming track of mine. Long story short, the self-mastered version sounds amazing on my studio headset and 7.3 speaker system, but it sounds bad on lower-quality headsets (e.g. beatsaudio that came with my phone.)

Given that most people operate on commercial sound systems, I believe it should be mastered accordingly to what is commonly used.

I will provide the .wav dl link to anyone willing to help. If there is going to be more than one volunteer, I will have to pick one. Both replies in this thread and PMs are fine.


As for the "URGENT" in the thread title, I am planning on releasing the track this weekend.
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Re: Mastering help (URGENT)

Postby itroitnyah » 21 Jun 2013 07:02

Well, how exactly do they sound bad on the lower quality one? Is it just because you're used to using expensive sound systems and when you're using lower quality sound systems it sounds awful? Or is it an error you can point out, such as it sounds too compressed or something on the lower quality system?
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Re: Mastering help (URGENT)

Postby Matthew N. » 21 Jun 2013 07:05

The lows overwhelm the mids and highs, even though they are quite significantly compressed (and, as said above, sound good on better systems.)

I tried mastering accordingly to those "worse" headsets, but I couldn't get quality that would satisfy me.


Just made sure that the mix sounds good without any soundcard EQ and it does, too. I'm stumped.
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Re: Mastering help (URGENT)

Postby the4thImpulse » 21 Jun 2013 09:22

Is the song produced in some sort of surround sound? I can't really tell reading the OP.

If not send it to me in a pm and i'll get back to you today.
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Re: Mastering help (URGENT)

Postby Alycs » 21 Jun 2013 09:25

Its because in what seems to be 9 cases out of 10, commercial headphones geared toward the average person boosts the lows grossly because thats what "sounds good". They allow for restricted mids and weak highs. What I do to counter this is make sure my songs have a bass, but I try to keeps them much lower than I would normally. (This usually ends up making them sound weak on good systems)

To get them really sounding "good" on both is going to be tricky simply because its like trying to make a song sounds good with the equivalent of two different EQ's on it. What I would suggest is taking a pair of "cheap" headphones and lowering ALL the instruments by the same amount of decibles so they all are equally soft, then start boosting the highs and mids and lows until they sounds about right; then switch the high quality for last minute adjustments. This way it will still sound good on the cheap, but will still have the quality on the high grade.

I can't really help on specifics, as my mixing isn't the best; but that would be the general path I would take in your situation.
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Re: Mastering help (URGENT)

Postby v.lossity » 21 Jun 2013 09:31

this was helpful to me. Hopefully it will help you too. http://www.meldaproduction.com/audiotut ... mixing.php
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Re: Mastering help (URGENT)

Postby vladnuke » 21 Jun 2013 10:25

Beats usually are built to turn whatever bass you have into a canned muddled mess. They market it as it's main feature.
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Re: Mastering help (URGENT)

Postby Matthew N. » 21 Jun 2013 10:41

the4thImpulse wrote:Is the song produced in some sort of surround sound? I can't really tell reading the OP.

If not send it to me in a pm and i'll get back to you today.



The song was produced on a headset, not on my 7.3 speakers.

Alycs wrote:Its because in what seems to be 9 cases out of 10, commercial headphones geared toward the average person boosts the lows grossly because thats what "sounds good". They allow for restricted mids and weak highs. What I do to counter this is make sure my songs have a bass, but I try to keeps them much lower than I would normally. (This usually ends up making them sound weak on good systems)

To get them really sounding "good" on both is going to be tricky simply because its like trying to make a song sounds good with the equivalent of two different EQ's on it. What I would suggest is taking a pair of "cheap" headphones and lowering ALL the instruments by the same amount of decibles so they all are equally soft, then start boosting the highs and mids and lows until they sounds about right; then switch the high quality for last minute adjustments. This way it will still sound good on the cheap, but will still have the quality on the high grade.

I can't really help on specifics, as my mixing isn't the best; but that would be the general path I would take in your situation.


Unfortunately my FL is only capable of rendering the track properly 1 out of 30 times; it literally takes hours for all the plugins to render as they should. Trying to play around with my mix seems suicidal.
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Re: Mastering help (URGENT)

Postby Conchetupony » 27 Jun 2013 21:42

Matthew N. wrote:The lows overwhelm the mids and highs, even though they are quite significantly compressed (and, as said above, sound good on better systems.)

I tried mastering accordingly to those "worse" headsets, but I couldn't get quality that would satisfy me.

Just made sure that the mix sounds good without any soundcard EQ and it does, too. I'm stumped.

Matthew N. wrote:(e.g. beatsaudio that came with my phone.)

This will happen with pretty much every low-quality headset. I've tried some, with commercial mixes, and I can assure you it sounds just as muddy and bassy.

Don't bother with them, as most people are going to listen to your song in decent earphones or headsets at least. Mix your song for these devices - keep it as it is now.
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