You should try A/B ing your mix. Take your mix, slice it up into 8 pieces
approximately the same length. Take the best mix you have ever heard, slice
it. Now intersperse the peices, cut a cd and go do a test.

Any problems with your mix should be very evident. If it is muddier than the
great mix, your track is muddy. If you can't hear the mud in the studio
monitors(whether because of nulls or lower octave truncation in the
speakers), you need to solve that problem first.

another one with smaller speakers, a boom box, but run it through the
smaller speakers and boom boxes probably don't sound muddy because they
attenuate (or don't reproduce at all)frequencies in low mud range

I initially thought the same as you. Then I realized that my car has to be
at -4 bass to be reasonable on even the best mix I have ever heard. I
retrained my ears for the car and did some critical A/B comparisons and
found that my mixes were actually translating quite well, once I cut the mud
in the mixes, even though they still sound muddy in the car. Relatively
speaking, they are perfect (or close: ). The car will severely accentuate
mud in your mixes.

You should also give your ears a rest before switching environments. My car
sounds like mississippi black after monitoring on my studio monitors for an
hour or so. If you give your ears time to adjust things, might not sound as
muddy.

l8,
neil



"Justin Ulysses Morse" wrote in message
m...
Doc wrote:

I've noticed that decent car stereo systems seem to be somewhat of a
"litmus test" for home mixes I've been fiddling with. I get it to
where it sounds fine on a home stereo with fairly beefy speakers,
another one with smaller speakers, a boom box, but run it through the
car stereo with the eq flat and it sounds muddy... This seems to be
the case regardless of the vehicle or sound system. Professional
commercial CD's sound fine, so it's not the sound system.

Does anyone know something about the characteristics of typical car
systems and what it likely tells me about the problems with my mixes,
what frequency range likely needs particular attention etc.

1. Car speakers are often down by your feet, or way in back pointing
straight up, or on the dashboard pointing slightly forward.

2. Bass is less directional than treble.

3. No ears on your feet.

4. Car audio enthusiasts have re-defined the word "fidelity" to mean
"too much bass".

5. Delco does not have the commitment to transparent reproduction that
Hafler has.

6. Since "loudness" and the "rock and roll smile" are the default
settings (for most people) of the car stereo's controls, it may have
been designed to sound more "normal" that way.

7. Some other things.

ulysses