Why is there a difference?

[magicjeff]

I'm having an issue that I don't understand. There is a big difference between the way my mix sounds depending on where I play it. When I play it with my headphones on in my studio or when I burn it to CD and play it in my car it sounds great but when I play it on my phone or listen from my computer without headphones it sounds different and by that I mean that certain levels such as voice or lead guitar sound louder as though it was mixed differently. The tracks were not mastered and I'm wondering if that has something to do with it. Thanks for your help. Jeff

[Tarekith]

All playback systems are different, the speaker design, crossovers, the size of the cabinets, the way sound interacts with the various rooms (or headphones) you're listening in. Mastering aims to minimize this somewhat by trying to ensure that your song sounds as good as possible in as many playback environments as possible. But your music will still sound different in each of these locations, as will anyone's music.

[Stromkraft]

I'm having an issue that I don't understand. There is a big difference between the way my mix sounds depending on where I play it. When I play it with my headphones on in my studio or when I burn it to CD and play it in my car it sounds great but when I play it on my phone or listen from my computer without headphones it sounds different and by that I mean that certain levels such as voice or lead guitar sound louder as though it was mixed differently. The tracks were not mastered and I'm wondering if that has something to do with it. Thanks for your help. Jeff

This is a typical result when your mixing environment is not neutral, or more common, its idiosyncrasies and how these translate to other listening systems is not yet known to you.

The latter can really only be learned by experience. The former is a matter analysis, listening and room dampening or possibly EQ correction.

Such difficulties may also lay behind the interest in mixing with pink noise. I'd assume a skewed system would affect this process, but nevertheless I assume — not really having tried this idea fully — that the result could very well have a better chance of translating well to more systems, because the frequencies in the mix as a whole potentially could be more well distributed, compared to an by ear mix.

Intimate knowledge and experience from a given mixing system may beat any upsides from pink noise mixing. But why not use everything at your disposal in your mixing?

Currently I'm trying pink noise as a tool to see if my mids can translate better in some mixes if mine.

Note that using a "Main Buss" for the master chain effects if any, to which all tracks normally sending to master go to instead, makes things easier. This way the "Main Buss" and the Pink Noise track could be the only tracks routed to Master, and the noise wouldn't be affected by compression and EQ. Of course you could also turn off master effects, if any, while working with oink noise, though that may heavily affect the levels you do end up setting.