Why is balance different in the car than on utube home speak

Hi -

I recently uploaded a youtube, made in Cubase 6.

Listening on the little computer speakers, the stereo spread is fairly narrow, nothing too wide at all, as intended.

Listening in my car to the CD I burned of the same stereo mixdown - things are very wide, left and right. “Balance” in the car is “zero”.

Is there a common explanation for why that might happen?

Thanks -

P.S. Another observation is that the L/R is reversed in the car compared to the youtube. I’m not as concerned about that, at least at this point. I only mention it now in case that helps someone recognize a common problem …

youtube compresses your audio.

You may want to download the file from youtube and do a spectrum analysis. That will tell you exactly what is happening.

Also, did you listen to your mix on the computer speakers before you uploaded it to youtube??

Simple guess would be that in your car the speakers are further apart?

Alexis should try moving his computer speakers apart if possible to simulate the car width and see what the difference is then.

I suppose he’s gonna say it sounds different in headphones too :unamused: :slight_smile:

Thanks for the helpful replies! :smiley:

I’ll do some more investigating -

some car systems might have some strange wide stereo effects (and sometimes reverb) switched on per default…
see that the car system is not “colouring” your sound…