Thanks guys! I've done some alterations to the songs. Lemme reply everyone while I talk about it
Have you checked your mix for mono compatibility? Some phase cancellation can make it impossible to hear pizzicatos or anything that has wide stereo field (most of NI's pianos). Big reverbs can also lead to phase issues so when something sounds good and wide on you stereo monitoring system it can be missing on mono speaker of smartphone. Start with testing everything by ear by switching to mono on your DAW.
You can also check out Voxengo SPAN:
http://www.voxengo.com/product/span/It's a decent free spectrum analyzer with correlation meter. You can check suspicious elements of mix - when something goes lower than 0 then you can expect some problems. In order to fix it you can try with reducing wideness of track, removing additional layers, reducing reverbs and stereo delays, inverting polarity patterns, horizontaly moving of tracks, M/S processing... There's a lots to do and read about. SOS has nice article here:
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/apr08/articles/phasedemystified.htmIt's quite popular problem and nobody mentioned this yet so maybe this will help.
I always check final mixes in mono for phasing, it wasn't the case. I'll download and try this Spectrum Analyzer, thanks!
My advice would be to not worry too much about how it sounds on mobile speakers. There is no way that you will cater for everybody's speakers with just one mix. The main goal would be to make sure that you can still get the feel of the track through the phone speakers.
That being said, the frequency response of the target devices (mobile,TV,headphones,studio monitors etc.) should be taken into consideration a lot earlier in the process than the mastering or even mixing stage. It will cause a lot fewer headaches later on if you use instrumentation where the focus is in the mid-range. The song posted you have referenced is nice but it is quite bass heavy for mobile.
I tend to ignore any advice that tells me "not to worry too much" because I obviously do not think that I'm doing something "too much". Skipping to the next paragraph you're completly right! I came back to thos songs and added a Cello 1 octave higher, doing the same stuff as the Double Bass, mixed so it supports the bass in proper speakers and makes up for the lack of low when it is the case. I'll think about instrumentations way before now, thanks! (:
What are your main set of monitors?
I recently invested (ok they were a Christmas present but still
) in a good set of studio monitors and the different is amazing from mixing purely on headphones and stereo speakers (consumer level hifi amp + passive speakers).
I realised pretty quick what I'd been missing out on as regards bass response and how much low and high end was missing from my mixes that I'd either made on headphones only or on old hifi speakers.
If someone is listening to the music through their phone speakers chances are they don't give a crap about the music so I wouldn't worry too much about it. Get the music sounding good on a decent set of headphones as that's what most mobile gamers will play on and just make sure that the bass is controlled so a huge set of floor standing speakers or a woofer won't blow the roof off the house if the phone is hooked up to them. I occasionally hook my phone up to my stereo but not that often. I used to have trouble with bass as my speakers just didn't have the response needed. these ones do and how bad my old mixes were is instantly noticeable. Phones won't have anywhere near the bass response needed for those pizzicatos so maybe try adding some mid EQ to the instrument channel to try and boost the mid range without compromising the bass. don't turn the volume just to suit one set of speakers cause you will run into trouble on other systems.
My mastering is now done between 3 sets of speakers - my studio monitors, my stereo, a cheap set of harmon/kardon desktop computer speakers and 2 set of headphones (over ear and in ear). mostly I just use the stereo and monitors and then check the others afterwards.
Also normalizing a track with RMS needs care. You should be normalizing with PEAK to - 0.5 dB or less. I assume when you say 0.3 dB I assume you mean -0.3 ? Either way RMS is different from peak and should be done differently. Google search tells me -6dB is the max RMS you should normalize to but personally I use about -16dB to -12dB to avoid clipping while bringing the levels up to a listenable level if needed. Generally though I aim to output from Cubase as close as possible to 0dB without clipping to avoid having to process the sound much further.
I use a pair of 5C monitors from Microlab. They offer a lot of bang for the price and for me it sounds better than entry-level M-Audio sets.
I do worry about music on speakers becuase most of the casual players play without headphones. I know that one master can't cover every possible situation, but I try to make thing sound good from my cellphone speakers and consider this the least acceptable work I can deliver as a Sound Designer. There is so many songs that sound good [enough] in shitty speakers, I believe in the existence of this sweet spot! And as for de dB thing, I also try to take most of the headroom available in a mix, and -0.3dB has always done it, I'll probably lower the volume later in the process but I preffer to start from an file that is the loudest whitout distorting.
The mid range is key since some systems are lacking in the low end and high end. A good arrangement/recording will still translate if these areas or lowered. In my opinion you should aim to have it sounding good on both the platform's speaker(s) and also while wearing headphones which is an art in itself!
And a fine art that is also damn hard to tackle!
I was watching the other day a movie in which a guy records a couple of songs with his band. When they finish recording and hearing it in the studio speakers the guy who mixes it says the should try now in the shitty speakers of his car, to see if it sounds properly there as well. Then they go and hear the music there.
This makes me think there is a proper way of doing this but actually I had the same issue not so long ago and I finish up doing a trade-off that was neither good with headphones also not good in the shitty speakers xD.
I hope you find the right way!
(The movie is called "once", a little bit weird but cool :p)
I always try to listen to the mix in the plataform it is intended to run, it is an underused idea that everyone should try! Mobile may be out of the way, but even when mixing for an album intended to an audio system or computer, try to listen to it in the shittiest device around and balance the mix to sound reasonable on both. It is the most efficient way to stripping down your musician ears.
shitty speakers are always shitty but if you want to make music that works for them i recommend studying the music of the go! team, which sounds phenomenal on phone speakers and anywhere else too
in any case, some players will play with headphones, so maybe make it togglable if you're gonna remaster specifically for shit speakers
I'll give it a listen! And I'm not mixing specifically for shitty speakers, I just don't whan half of the music dissapearing and the other half clipping on them
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