my first post

[the mrs.]

Brandon kindly suggested that I post my question in this forum.

My husband is a musician and I'm doing what I can to help him

First off, am I correct in my thinking that this forum is geared towards PC recording? I've only quickly browsed through some of the posts but they seem to mention PC recording quite a bit. My husband uses a Korg for his home recording.

We have some issues with a couple of his songs......they sound great on our stereos but sound like crap on our computer. Yet other songs sound ok on the computer (not great but ok) ....is that normal? I would've just put it down to the fact that our computer speakers are garbage but I put on a few purchased cd's and listened to a few songs from this website and they seem fine.

He's still pretty hesitant to put his songs on the website for others to hear. But I'm still working on him.....

Thanks,

the mrs.

[brandondrury]

First off, am I correct in my thinking that this forum is geared towards PC recording?

Recording is recording. Most of us prefer using PCs / Macs as our weapon of choice, but at the end of the day these are just tools. There have been great recordings done on the stand alone gear even though I personally feel like I'm getting tortured when using them. (Some say the same about using computers for recording).

they sound great on our stereos but sound like crap on our computer.

Welcome to the world of home recording. This is how it works. Every stereo system has a completely different frequency response. So a boomy mix may sound just fine on a thin sounding stereo. However, put a boomy mix in a boomy stereo and you'll scream "What happened!!!!????".

Mixes are not as simple as dull, bright, or boomy. In fact, there are about 20,000 frequencies we can hear and problems can go wrong in any of these. (Realistically, I'd say you could bust it to about 20-40 sections). So maybe your bass guitar is fine at 100Hz but is a little much as 120Hz. Well, some stereos will completely hide this from you. Others will make it more than obvious.

There are a few solutions.
#1 Find the problem areas in your mixes. If the mixes are always boomy, your need to get your studio monitors to sound a little more boomy. Doing so will cause you (or your husband) to hear the boominess and react to it (in both tracking and mixing).

#2 Without a doubt, the best way to help solve this mix translation problem is to the find the place where your monitors are most accurate in your room.

I recently spent several weekends moving my monitors around, listening, and running tests. The hard work paid off and my mixes are much more accurate so far.

He's still pretty hesitant to put his songs on the website for others to hear. But I'm still working on him.....

I understand this. However, the best way to get better at mixing is to let other ears (who have been in the same boat) listen on stereo system different from his.

Have him post on "Bash This Mix". It sounds pretty ruthless, but the tone is usually quite "gentle". I guarantee his 2nd mix will be better than his first.

Brandon

#3 Improving room acoustics can help a lot as well. This takes a few bucks or a lot of construction but can improve the quality of the tracks recorded as well as the ability to make better decisions when mixing.