my songs sound like crap on ipod headphones - why?

kdgh · Post by **kdgh** » Sun Jun 13, 2010 4:40 pm

i don't say you need to squash everything.. you also have ratio 2:1 and your treshold can also be -2.0 db

it's all about the balance ofcourse. And yes it is parallel compression, but believe me you can make a nice fat 808 with it. Also harmonics work to make your kick 'sound' bigger/fatter/stronger/whatever

Phurniture · Post by **Phurniture** » Mon Jun 14, 2010 2:47 am

I think Stomper is going in the right direction with this one. I also suspect that you've got a kick that's super deep and banging in the low end (and sounds great on your monitors), but so much so that it can't be reproduced on the iPod headphones. Most people don't realize how much low end can be taken out of a kick and have it still sound very bassy (and how many producers actually do this). In fact, by taking out some of the very low frequencies, the bass can be made louder and will be more audible, esp. on smaller speakers/headphones.

Like he said, compare your kicks to those of the tracks you say sound good on the iPod headphones. You might find out that your kicks are much more low and deep than they need to be.

s.k. · Post by **s.k.** » Mon Jun 14, 2010 7:13 am

Phurniture wrote:Most people don't realize how much low end can be taken out of a kick and have it still sound very bassy (and how many producers actually do this)

what most people dont realize is how much lowER end you can have, while still sounding very punchy... what you say is true too though :]

Ingemar · Post by **Ingemar** » Mon Jun 14, 2010 8:58 am

my two cents are:
1, use a plugin on the kick that adds harmonics to bass sounds
2, sidechain with whatever synth bassline you have.

some extra cents are be very careful when you are arranging the track so that the kick does not get pushed into the background by a lot of stuff going on at the same pulse beat. Analyse what frequencies your bass and kick is the strongest in and create respective dips and tops with eq on both channels. The kick should never be in stereo. Work with decent samples or good synthetisers. Sooo many sh!t kicks out there I must say.

but then on the other hand, I'm no Messerschmidt of kicks. I've still got lots to discover meself

Barfunkel · Post by **Barfunkel** » Tue Jun 15, 2010 5:21 am

3 explanations:

1) You have bad monitors. Get better ones.

2) Your room acoustics suck, making the monitors lie to you. Get some treatment

3) You just aren't compatible with the monitors. They are a very personal choice, there are no best monitors, only monitors that match your ears.

The whole point of the monitors is that the mix transfers well to other listening environments. If it doesn't, the monitors are useless.

Maiyal · Post by **Maiyal** » Tue Jun 15, 2010 8:37 am

There is only one explanation. iPod headphones suck. Music was never meant to be listened to through them. Especially not EDM. Mix with monitors and don't even bother listening to your tracks through the crappy white pieces of plastic.

Minimal Samples · Post by **Minimal Samples** » Tue Jun 15, 2010 10:45 am

iPod head phones are sh!t anyway, no bass end whatsoever. Anyone who keeps those little white earbuds isn't a music fan anyhow and doesn't deserve bass!

simonb · Post by **simonb** » Tue Jun 15, 2010 4:28 pm

Maiyal wrote:There is only one explanation. iPod headphones suck. Music was never meant to be listened to through them. Especially not EDM. Mix with monitors and don't even bother listening to your tracks through the crappy white pieces of plastic.

You have a point but at the same time I think listening through them could be valuable because so many consumers do sadly use them.

It's the only reason I'd ever own iPod headphones anyway, if I ever did...