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Hey guys i ve been mastering my tracks for quite a while but there is ths one thing that just came into my notice that when i play my sounds on my studio monitors, car system home hi-fi system...along in comparsion with commercially mastered CDs in the market they sound very good.. and does sound commercial like evry other CD in the market...but the punch is this. when i play it on smaller speakers is distorts a bit or it feels like its been overloaded...
Laptop Speakers
Desktop sound blaster i-e without woofer...
can any one guide me through ths why is ths difference... cuz if it was a bad sounding recording mixing or mastering it should sound bad evryother places. in combination or comparision to commercially recorded mixed and mastered CDs. first i don't give a damn about if it sounds bad on laptop speakers or tiny sound blasters. .but as an engineer i do.. cuz thats ma job to keep know how of most of the things. cuz i've been encountered to few clients who listens to their masters on Smaller systems and prefer finalising them on those smaller crappier speakers. so a little help guys would definitly make my day...

thanx

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anonymous Mon, 05/07/2007 - 00:32

so can you like tell me wht should i be doin to avoid that...since i mean i listen to the songs with even more low end songs and louder on my smaller speakers and laptop speakers ....and my track is not even that heavy or loud but still it distorts on smaller speaker...thats wht bothers me..that tracks heavier thn mine neva distorts but mine does....and sounds vry good on evry other system.... my tracks are mastered at -.03 dbfs....and tell me now wht should i be doing and avoiding
Thank you

Link555 Mon, 05/07/2007 - 12:46

Try rolling off the low end.

Try this experiment first.

Roll off 60 Hz by 12db with a Q of 1 or so.

Does the distortion go away?

If yes gradual and carefully bring up the low end until its sounds good. By all means try varying the frequency too. You may find frequencies that distorts more than others.

Basically what I think is happening is the power amp in the "horrible tones" speakers is getting over loaded and clipping the audio. The more energy you put into the power amp the more it clips. Lower frequencies have higher average energy levels, so they tend to distort more.

Good luck.

JoeH Tue, 05/08/2007 - 06:04

My money is still on the possiblity of too much low end.

The car and other home systems might have low end filtering in place, or they may simply just not pass low end stuff, and appear to handle it just fine. Other systems may be so poorly designed that they're passing (or trying to) whatever is handed to them.

Silent deadly low-end has often been the culprit of mystery ailments in PB systems. I'd start there first, and look even lower, in the 20-40 hz range.

anonymous Tue, 05/08/2007 - 12:20

hey guys thanx for your advices on the issue...i'm trying to play around with possibly every range of frequencies that wht overloads the laptop and wht not... though i m still happy with the way my track sounds cuz the target audience 99% are not gonna listen to it on laptop speakers...but still as an engineer i would work on it.. and try to play with not only specific song or genre i will experiment with my other songs as well...quite few them does but few don't distort...so i guess its definitly a problem of 50-60hz and low mids definitly...cuz ma laptop speakers has good high range so i don't think it will have any problem with the high mid or high frequencies....i will try to play the same songs on different laptops too....to find out if ths thing happens in every laptop or not....and i will post back my results in here....and let u guys know that wht was my expereince in that...
thanx

anonymous Tue, 05/08/2007 - 12:26

hey i did try to roll off slowly slowly the low end while play back of my track i rolled off from around 60hz with low shelf 12 oct.....it did'nt help much...i just did it right now after posting my previous msg on this channel...i guess it has sumthin to do with my low mid range.... i will open up the mix project and try to sort out the low mid region.....i m still happy with my previous mix but lets see wht happens in playing or pulling down so low mid range.... i would prefer that i should do that in the mix rather then eqing the final master...since i have the project.
thanx