Get a pair of better headphones, like ones for Monitoring, with a flatter frequency response? Or just listen to the song in your room. It will be more realistic.

unfortunately because your setup is limited you will have to check your mixes on different sources. most people will use the home stereo, the car and pc speakers. i have made songs that sounded like grammy winners in my cans and garage recordings when i play them elsewhere

find a system that works that you get used to

have fun!

i have $60 headphones. is that decent? they're the studio type that cover your whole ears not the ipod kind. and is there a way to pull of the sound i hear in my headphones on the stereo? if i tried using a mixer to readjust the frequencies or will that change the way my song sounds completely. what would be the best bet in my situation? anyone? thankyou

headphone shut out the rest of the world. your home stereo interacts with its internal components as well as your living room, or bedroom or wherever.

"or will that change the way my song sounds completely"

every different invironment will do this. that is why recording studios have rooms designed and monitors that offer a "flat" sound. "flat" meaning not adding any colour (the way your room does)

well the environment isn't the problem. the problem is that in the stereo and in my car the mids are extremely high and if i turn up the volume it sounds as if the speakers will blow but there isn't alot of actual music going on (sounds more like noise) and it's not because of the environment. but in my headphones the eq frequencies sound perfect. could this be because the cord to the headphones is not too thick and maybe it can't handle some frequencies?

no its not your cord. its just that perhaps your particular headphones over exxaggerate highs. just remember that when you mix. if you are new to recording you will need to get your audio memory used to your equipment. or try a different pair of cans

try sony mdr 7506 ar eindustry standard. they are pretty flat.

here is why you have these problems (in simple terms):

audio makers of stereos (home car, ipod etc) want them to sound good, pleasing, musical etc... so they are designed "coloured" to do so (so that we dont have to adjust our eq for every song or teevee show)

pro audio equp is designed to sound "flat", meaning the aim is to represent the true eq of the music. this gives the most accurate picture of the sound. but of course, the world isnt perfect and pro audio equipment (especially lower end stuff) will also be "coloured" to some extent.

as far as what i mean by environment- everything is an acoustic environment- your car, your living room, even when you have headphones on (notice the difference between in ear plugs and over ear plugs and you will see the difference.

ok thankyou. im just gonna drag my keyboard out to the living and adjust the eq to the stero. hopefully i can pull of a better sound. thankyou very much