Edited - I need any info about car stereo EQ

[Paul_Woodlock]

@curteye

@MarkOne

it might be worth taking a few days away from the mixes.

IMHO this is key. But it is very hard for artists (of all stripes) to do this.

One approach is to get it sounding as close as you can and then ‘silence’ for about two weeks.

Then when you go back to listen,

1-Take a pad and pencil.
2- Start the play back of the entire CD.
3-Once the music has started, DO NOT STOP THE PLAY BACK!
Only take notes on your pad of changes you want to make.
(these will now be very obvious)
4-Once these changes are made, ‘bob’s yer uncle’.

The longer you can put off listening the better.
Gives you a more objective view.
You may even find you do not like one or more songs and you will
end up replacing them with other songs recorded in that session.

HTH
{‘-’}

Excellent advice!!!

[Paul_Woodlock]

@Audiocave

It’s not a bad idea for the home mixer guy to listen to the commercial reference mix all the way through a couple of times in the monitors before even starting a mix, to kinda “tune” your ears to a target.

.

Moergood advice.

I used to import a commerical tune into the cubase project and mute it. And every so often solo it to compare to my mix

[mixup23]

@Split

The problem is that any suggestion on what your car stereo bass and treble shelf frequencies are, is at best a guess and what +/- 2 equals is anybody’s, totally unknown.

That was my first thought, but knowing the expertise of this forum I felt someone might point me in the right direction.

@Split

Hence the suggestion to look at it the other way and apply EQ to the mix untill it sounds correct.

Good suggestion, but it’s hit or miss at best, and that’s what I’ve been doing for six months, and I have enjoyed every minute of it, but…the time has come to put this baby to bed, and ultimately, your suggestion:

@Split

but maybe you could try +4.8 at 300Hz down (shelving) and -4.8 at 10KHz up (shelving) and take it from there.

…is the cat’s pajamas. Wow, I mean, I think that is exactly what my adjustments on the car stereo are doing to my mix.
100+ THANX

…and to all to assisted, I have learned a lot…
Audiocave - thanx for the spectrum analysis curve
Twilightsong- the 2 car comparison makes sense and justifies me going out this afternoon and buying that Corvette I have always wanted (with an upgrade stereo)
Woodcrest Studio - exactly, you nailed it, and I learned something about EQ

[Audiocave]

@Paul Woodlock

I used to import a commerical tune into the cubase project and mute it. And every so often solo it to compare to my mix

Yeah, most of us (like me) don’t have finely-tuned listening spaces so the commercial mix reference is like a compass that can help keep you on track… and piss you off because it all sounds so good. Listening to your music library regularly in your monitors from the mix position is a really good thing that helps to kinda imprint “what sounds right” there on your brain. I generally avoid highly compressed / squashed mixes for that purpose but obviously with some genres that’s nearly impossible.

Analogy: You get in your car after the wife has fiddled around with your EQ settings and you know right away that something isn’t quite right when you play your songs because you know what things normally should sound like there.

If you listen to enough “real music” in your production space you’ll eventually gain a similarly imprinted perspective of “normal” vs. not quite right. Refreshing it occasionally doesn’t hurt either.

[mixup23]

@mixup23

I once set up a spare car stereo system in my home studio and used it for a secondary ‘play back’ system…

Good idea Steve, or, move the studio to the car, then I could work while I’m driving.

[mixup23]

@Audiocave

You get in your car after the wife has fiddled around with your EQ settings

…but my wife knows not to mess with my EQ, and she’d probably be on the way to the market to pick up a six pack for me anyway. But you are right, I would notice, and for sure:

@Audiocave

If you listen to enough “real music” in your production space you’ll eventually gain a similarly imprinted perspective of “normal” vs. not quite right.

[Paul_Woodlock]

@Steve Fogal

@mixup23

Every song had a “nicer” feel to it. My question is this, what do I do now? How do I relate the car stereo EQ basic +1, + 2, etc to Cubase.
Michael

This just reminded me… For experimental reasons, I once set up a spare car stereo system in my home studio and used it for a secondary ‘play back’ system…to COMPARE it against my regular play back system on the fly without having to keep going outside to my vehicle (I may have even set up a make-shift cardboard mock up dash board surrounding it??)…aside from not being in a vehicle sound environment which acoustically wasn’t the same…it at least gave me an idea from using the equipment itself. One thing for sure, the car stereo system sounded a lot different than my usual playback system…which at that time was a home stereo system (before I bought proper KRK nearfields).

What gave me that idea of putting a car stereo in my home studio was some years before…when I did a demo (playing guitar on a friends song) with using some fairly successful county producer… The producer/recording engineer had us go out and put a cassette in the car, listen to it, then come back in and let him know how we thought he should change anything.

The flaw in doing that is that the car itself is the most important part of the car audio system. i.e the actual acoustics of the car. Compeltely non rectangular space, with built in mid range absorbers ( seats ) and non parallel reflectivity ( windows, and dahsboard, etc ). A lot of bass escapes from the car too thus preventing bass buildup and the space is too small to have bass resonances ( room modes )anyway.

plus you have the psychological effect of getting out of your workspace, stretching your legs, fresh air, etc,etc