Hey all (sorry if you read this already in a different forum - clicked the wrong button),

I just finished my first attempt at a professional sounding song - I used a singer I met on myspaces and the OSS software Audacity - both of which were from suggestions made on this site. So thanks for that! I'll post the link to the song when I get it online if anyone wans to listen.

It sounds good to me through my headphones, though less so through my computer speakers (they're just ones that are part of the montior). Does anyone have any advice on how to control this? What should I be listening for in the poor speakers and how can I control it in the mix? I think the lower freqs sound 'muddy' through the poor speakers.

Cray

Don't try to listen for anything from decidedly poor speakers. The purpose of good monitor speakers is to hear what is actually happening, so that you hear the best representation of the waveform the computer is putting as possible. Everyday listening speakers can also 'color' the sound by boosting the lows and highs, which is quite common.

If you find that you will continue with music production, then I urge you to grab some good monitors and an audio interface. There are plenty of suggestions in past threads as well as reviews all over the interweb.

Good luck! ...and by all means, post your finished product in the 'producer's promotion' section.

3F05Q is absolutley right. Computer speakers genreally are just not up to the task. You're only going to be able to hear all the neccessary elements through decent monitor speakers. For spoken vioce or singing, you will be able to use good monitoring headphones (such as the Sony 7509's) but only up to a point.

Get a good, entry level soundcard/audio interface (m-audio, echosystems etc) and agin some decent entry level speakers (Behringer Truths 2031a or KRK's).

It shouldn't cost loads and really these are the first investments you should consider if the budget is tight. They will make the songle largest contribution to you being able to produce.

Good luck.

Thanks for this. What I was really saying, rather than using the computer's speakers to do the mix, was that other songs sound good through my computer, but mine doesn't even though it sounds OK through headphones.
Anyway if you want, you can have a listen at:

http://www.myspace.com/indianapolisnighttimeskies

But I should confess, it's not trance - I haven't graduated up to that yet!

Cray

What's an audio interface please?

quote:

Originally posted by CrayC Thanks for this. What I was really saying, rather than using the computer's speakers to do the mix, was that other songs sound good through my computer, but mine doesn't even though it sounds OK through headphones.

That's what mastering is for, to make your music sound as good as possible on as many systems as possible. Try to get in touch with a mastering engineer. There are a few on this forum. One of them is called Atlantis orsomething similar. Otherwise, listen to the song on various systems and adjust it to strike a good balance.

quote:

Anyway if you want, you can have a listen at: http://www.myspace.com/indianapolisnighttimeskies But I should confess, it's not trance - I haven't graduated up to that yet! Cray

Not sure what type of music this is supposed to be and I'm no mixing expert but I'll try to help..
Vocals are dry. Needs reverb. Theres some very strange sounding delay on them near the start. Add more high freq content; it's bottom heavy with lots of instruments overlapping in frequency content. And there's not enough going on in general. Lower the bass and add hats and stuff, another synth at a higher octave maybe. Vocals might be a bit too loud too. Personally I'd also change the percs to better sounding instruments. Spend time trying out various kicks etc. Good luck with it.

Thanks for all your comments and the stuff on audio interfaces.

I remembered that my Boss 900CD recording studio has mastering algorithms - I shall take the lazy way, load the song in it, run it through the one called 'pop', download the wave back to my PC, normalise it (as for some reason when I use the Boss in this way it always loses volumn) and maybe it will sound better.

The song is basically built around 5 sounds - done this way as I read somewhere that Jack White likes to keep his to a minimum, 3 I think. That plus my Boss only has 8 tracks and I recorded the vocals over 4 tracks!