I'm frustrated... help is appreciated

[tbonechillaxin]

Well I just recently recorded some bands and after mixdown i ended up with a final product that sounded excellent. The problem is that when i bounce it and burn it to a cd it sounds completely different. The snare turns from fitting in the mix great to some short ugly popping noise that sounds terrible. I was wondering if it is just because my monitors aren't the greatest and don't give a true sound or if there is something i am doing wrong. my monitors are m-audio bx5a's, are they just to crappy to give a good sound. Any suggestions or help is appreciated.

[ondruspat]

If your listening to the CD on the same monitors you listened to while recording it should sound the same. Maybe do a DUC search on "dither", "bounce to disc", or "mastering" if this is the case.


If your listening on another set of speakers and it sounds different it could be your monitors, or your mixing room itself (proper sound treatment in a mixing room is very important!!).

[tbonechillaxin]

I'm talking about on different speakers such as in my car and systems in my house. One thing i noticed is that there is an much more bass than what my monitors represented in PT.

[Kryst]

That may be the settings you have versus the Pro Tools standard settings. Bass is usually preferred in cars and such since popular music (hip hop and such) pumps out alot of bass. Pro Tools isn't set to accomodate for that.

If you ask me, I'd say turn down all the low ends just a little bit to take bass down to a more "proper" setting. Otherwise, find settings in the music player that allows a little more treble. Personally, on my Sony Discman (not to sell, but to inform), the headphones I use (not default) sharpen the treble (Giving guitars the clear-way to play loud and focused) and kind of relaxes on the bass.
Basically, the setup allows me to hear the guitars and bass in almost the same way as I heard it in Pro Tools, IMO (and I can give you exact details MAYBE when I get home tonight).
Knowing your usual speakers in car, headphones or whatever, is key. If you burn audio to CD-RW (assuming your CD player will play such a format), it works well for comparing your song to that of a professional band. Why CD-RW and not CD-R? To save you money, of course! Why waste a CD-R on POSSIBLE good mixes when you're not sure it's perfect?
~Kinda a disclaimer~ CD-RW discs are not recommended for long term audio music.

[IntelDoc]

Alright, here are a few things to think about with this:

1. Your monitors, small, able to handle down to 56hz up to 22kHz.

Full features here:

M-Audio Studiophile BX5a Features:
Two-way studio reference monitors.
70 watts of distributed power (30w HF amp, 40w LF amp).
5" low-frequency drivers.
Curved Kevlar cones.
High-temperature voice coils.
Damped rubber surround.
1" natural silk high-frequency drivers.
Magnetically shielded.
XLR balanced and 1/4" balanced/unbalanced inputs.
Power indicator.
Volume control.
Frequency response: 56Hz-22kHz.
Crossover frequency: 3kHz.
Low-frequency amplifier power: 40 watts.
High-frequency amplifier power: 30 watts.
Signal-to-noise: > 100dB (typical A-weighted).
Protection: RF interference, output current limiting, over temperature, turn-on/off transient, subsonic filter, external mains fuse.
Cabinet: Vinyl laminated MDF.
Size: 9.8" (H) x 6.9" (W) x 7.9" (D)
Weight: 11 lbs.


2. I am guessing that your room is not acoustically treated, so you are probably doing what a lot do and turn up the speakers to "hear your mix." Volume is fine, but in turn you are hyping the room with the volume enhancing the speakers and giving false information to what you really hear.

3. Without a sub, you are not hearing the low end. Does not matter how LOUD you turn it up, if they are 56hz, then you are not hearing anything below that. This is fine, but you will need to learn that the low sub freqs are there unless you are rolling stuff off which I often do.

4. MASTERING: What you hear, hype'd on your speakers sounds like the volume. Without hearing what you are listening to, I am guessing that you did not master the songs? Not a big deal if you are planning to send out to a mastering house? Just know that your overall RMS levels will NOT be loud typically if you did not apply any mix bus compression or any leveling plugins to the mix. You would not want to do this if you are mastering, unless you know what you are doing.

5. Acoustic treatment.... back to this topic. Without knowing your room at all, I can guess that you are in a house, tracking with little to no treatment and the room is either rectangular or square? You probably have stannding waves that you cannot fix by throwing furniture into the picture. It helps, but you needs absorbtion and better difusion. I would look into the Ready Acoustics Bass Traps that Joel (PowerJoe) on here sells. I use them and swear by them. Not trying to sell him, but I will as they are amazing and there are quite a few on here that rely on them for their mixes. I can attest to it and say that my room, rectangular and low ceilings went from sounding decent to sounding FANTASTIC with his panels. (www.readyacoustics.com)

So don;t beat yourself just yet. Realize that there are probably a lot of things that are affecting your sound. Try to correct it, and go from there.

Good luck,

Doc

[vocalvoodoo]

I'll tell you my experience. All my mixes sounded like sh*t until I got my room treated right. Everything would sounded decent in my room, but like total crap on any other speakers, especially my car. Bass especially was a problem. I had heard for years about room treatment, which I treated my room to some extent. But it wasn't until I did some heavy duty bass trapping that things really changed. Well that, and getting out of a mixing room that was pretty much a cube. (that's about the worst case senario for a mixing room). The bass traps set up correctly, and treating first reflection points correctly along with correct speaker placement opened my eyes in a way I never thought possible. My recording also improved hugely becuae my room doesn't sound like crap now. Luckily there was a really reasonably priced acoustician, Bryan from GIK Acoustics, in my area who came out and set me up. Positioned my speakers, blah blah blah. I had always believed when people spoke of room treatment, but thought it was a bit over-hyped, until I heard the difference with my own ears. ESPECIALLY BASS TRAPPING. I just share that because it really is important. Plus, proper room treatment saves some sanity too. LOL

As far as your bass problem when listening back to your mixes, the Bx5's are small so they aren't giving you a true representation of how much bass is really there. I understand that mixes not translating is frustrating as hell. Don't do like me and poo poo treating your rooms for years wondering why your work doesn't sound like you'd like it to. LOL

Anyway, hope that helps.

EDIT: I was writing while Inteldoc was posting. I completely agree with him. I recently got a bunch of Ready Traps, along with bales of acoustical cotton, which are in a rectangular room with low ceilings too, and the sound is incredible now.

[dubhausdisco1]

Like the others have said: yes, this is a natural state for you to be in... until you get your control room and monitoring right.

Don't give up hope! When you do finally get it to sound like it does in your studio in the outside world, you'll crack a big grin and say it was worth it!

[sabayachi]

I not only sympathize, but definitely commiserate with you. I know there are many things you can try (from room conditioning to better speakers), but after years of the same frustration I got some good earphones and then extrapolate in my mind how the holy mix is gonna sound like when I play it in my car. It’s like all music – the thing is in your ears and in your judgment. The force be with you my brother!

[Jsswtpmp182]

If you are running a lot of sub mixes and sends from many busses and all of that jazz- make sure you're output when bouncing is Digi Interface 1 + 2... I know it sounds trite, but sometimes when bouncing, PT will switch the output to some busses instead of the interface (happens to me quite a bit- and I always kick myself wondering why my mixes sound off)

[Greg M]

tbonechillaxen,

The advice given above is very, very good. Here are a couple of more things to consider. 1) listen to a lot of commercial music on your monitors and compare your mixes to those. The commercial music probably won't sound the same in your room as it does in most other places. 2) Look at using a program like HarBal to get a graphical look at your mixes. Compare the shape of the curve of your mixes to commercial music. You will see hyped frequencies and holes in the spectrum that you probably can't hear with your current room and monitors. It takes some time to learn your system and how to get your mixes to translate to other systems. Don't panic.

Hope this helps,
Greg