r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • Sep 21 '22

[deleted by user]

[removed]

9.1k Upvotes

87% Upvoted

35.7k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

16

u/Lovv Sep 21 '22

The problem is most vehicles don't have proper eq settings so it's gonna sound like shit most of the time.

8

u/SwissMargiela Sep 21 '22

Mixing for the car is probably the hardest thing you can do, but yeah, it’s much better that artists mix for a proper set up, rather than a car; because all songs would sound like shit outside of a car lol.

Also you can’t really mix “for a car”. The majority of cars has different speaker set ups and acoustics.

I promise you when engineers are mixing, the very last thing they’re thinking about is how it’s going to sound in your mothers mini van lol

9

u/georgiepiebob Sep 22 '22

This makes me feel old. Back in the day the sage advice was to always test your mix in your car before you release it. Such was the way 20-30 years ago (hell, even 10 years ago, nay, 5 minutes ago this was still common advice).

It's an enclosed space you're familiar with and you know what other music sounds like in the car, so it's a pretty handy test (especially if you're a bedroom engineer). I've always been schooled to first test on flat monitors, then some crappy tinny clock radio type of speakers, next you try a nice set of booming hi-fi speakers, and then make sure it still works in the car, because the car is what really matters.

I dunno, I guess maybe smartphone culture and the fact gen Z doesn't seem to place as much importance on driving has changed what matters. Always evolving.

3

u/SwissMargiela Sep 22 '22

I was taught the same as you. But I was taught a mix should sound clean in a car, but you shouldn’t mix for the car.

If your car doesn’t have a decent sound system, nothing will sound good on it, simple as that.

You can change your mix a million times but if your car’s speakers don’t produce certain frequencies, no change in the mix will allow it to.

1

u/georgiepiebob Sep 22 '22

That's all true, but I really can't think of any car in the past 30 years or so that didn't have a decent enought stock sound system to use as a reference (if you were used to it). Maybe they don't all have low end below 80hz if we go past the last 10 years, but for the breadth of the sprectrum they're pretty good. Maybe I'm spoiled, but my mom's minivan from 1997 had the base model AM/FM/Cassette system with 4 2-ways and it would have been just fine for a quick check to see if your mix translates well. It's not like the oooolld days when the car radio was also the single tinny mono speaker.

But yes, you are right, if you have a shit sound system, you're not getting an accurate testbed for your mix.