EQing problem ?

[deejaydang]

hey everyone,

i'm just gonna cut down to the chase, i wanna be able to EQ my mix properly . it sounds very good when working on it, in my software . but when i extract it and play it out in my car or on a stereo system per se, it sounds very bad . like its all down the middle and the sound is very quiet . is this due to improper EQing ? or could this be cause i didnt stereo widen my track ? i'm very lost at this point . my entire mix is done but i can not come out with a banging finish product ! please tips and advice for this problem would be very awesome ! bare with me i've very new to music production so i know i sound like a n00b . just looking for some help please and thanks ! and if this is a repost ... please direct to the topic that it will explain to me !

Thanks,
Eric

[invol]

What monitors are you using? What are your room acoustics like? I would start there. You cannot make good mixing decisions if you do not have a good monitoring setup.

Also, you have to check your mixes on a number of systems, and then figure out what needs adjusting.

Panning is the first step to a wider stereo field.

Don't worry if it is not loud, that happens during mastering, just get a good mix.

Cheers,
Brian

[deejaydang]

i'm currently using M-Audio BX5as, and my room atm is pretty shitty . lots of reverb cause its an empty room, waiting for my acoustic foam to come in so i can prevent the reverb from being retarded . its more so sounding good when i play it, but when i export it out and make it an mp3 then it sounds like shit . i play it in the car, and the bass comes through good, but everything else sounds drowned out . like it sounds lower quality when its at 320 kbps .
panning as in using the autopan or actually using the pan on the channel ? i was told it was cause it wasnt stereo widened but i'm not sure

http://soundcloud.com/deejaydang/deejay-dang-id-1

this is what i have of it i dont know what you can tell from that .

[invol]

Could use some work, but doesn't sound so bad to me. Yes, pan sounds just with the mixer, kick and bass in the middle, but move other elements around. Listen to mixes you like for reference. Stereo widening is useful if the panning is not sufficient, but for most dance music, you don't want it too wide or it won't work in a club. Spread out synth sounds and effects nice and wide, add a good reverb and some delay.

[deejaydang]

Awesome that sounds like it will do the job ! Thanks for the tips and advice, I will put that into use now . I'm sure I will get the right results that I need ! Also panning the claps, HHs and other purcussion would be part of this process ? Or just the synths ? Sorry if I sound repeatative with this, just wanna try to get the correct sound .

[deejaydang]

And sorry, we're talking about panning the sounds to one side ? Or constantly panning it back and forth ?

[simonlb]

And sorry, we're talking about panning the sounds to one side ? Or constantly panning it back and forth ?

I think they're just meaning having different track elements panned to different locations to fill out the stereo field. Having one or two things with subtle auto-panning can be nice though.

[dietarypacifist]

So i'm having a similar problem with taking my music from my bed room studio to the car stereo.
I'm finding that when i'm making a track everything sounds fine and all the elements in the are in frequency ranges that seems right to me. But when i take my macbook out to my car to preview the track on a different speaker system, it sounds like a completely different song.

Firstly, i think my monitors are really tight on the low end so i tend to push the bass frequencys too loud without realizing how much is actually there. when i take it out to my car the low end practically dominates the track.

Second, any of my mid and high range elements that have filters on them like leads, pads, etc. sound muffled like the LP filters i used on them are cutting way too much of the HF out. This makes me think that my monitors produce more HF than im used to so it (mistakenly) sounds right to cut too much of it out.

So the end result to this is that in my car i see that i have way to much low end in the track and i've cut the high end out with filters too strongly.
This is simple to fix i know but i was wondering if anyone can offer any advice that will help me see this problem before the track leaves my studio monitors. Is this just where experience and knowing your monitors comes in? or is there something i can do to improve the frequency response of my monitor system. Would getting a sub help me accurately hear the amount of low end in my songs? should i roll of some of the HF on my monitors? any other suggestions?

Just incase some one wants to know, I'm using a pair of KRK Rokit 5's to monitor my tracks and my car stereo is just a stock stereo.

Let me know if i need to clarify anything. Thanks.

[Cezband]

It's usually around this point that someone points to Tarekith's badass tutorials.

http://tarekith.com/assets/mixdowns.html

Dietarypacifist, I use the KRK 5s myself. They're pretty good for the price and size, imho. You need to consider your room and the positioning of the monitors, and you are correct in thinking that knowing your monitors and building up experience go a long way. If all your tracks uniformly have that same problem with too much bass and no highs in the car, then keep that in mind when you're mixing.