Facts: I am shy and very poor.
Due to the former, only one person that I know listened to my tracks and he didn't like them. No details. He just didn't. I had them on the Internet for some time and almost nobody listened to them, and those who did didn't listen them entirely. The site can tell when a listener quits halfway. I know what you're thinking, my music probably sucks, but please bear with me.
Due to the latter, I only have a very lame pair of headphones and a very lame mono computer speaker. I can't afford anything else so please bear with me.
I make my music with the mono computer speaker so I don't get ear fatigue. When mixing and mastering and doing any other polishing, I use the headphones. Finally, I upload the track to my phone and listen to it on the phone with headphones because I really think the phone has great playback quality. I really do. I just think I should have better headphones.
Well, one day I was wasting an hour at the mall and went into a music store. I asked to see their headphones. They let me test the headphones, four pairs. And then it happened. They let me hook it up to my phone and of course I played my own tracks and... My God! So much bass! Very unpleasant. I can imagine people listening and wondering what kind of idiot mixed and mastered it that way. It sounded ruined. VERY different from what I hear at home.
The store clerk was very nice and helpful and, long story short, he made it clear that people these days are all about the bass. Many customers will bring it up spontaneously. They ask for it. I explained that I'm kind of old fashioned and would like something more... uh... balanced. He seemed to understand my position, but assured me that what I wanted would be hard to find because the uber-bassy thing has pretty much become a standard.
I don't only listen to my own tracks. I listen to a lot of things, and my tracks don't sound bad at all in comparison. At least not like I turned the bass up to eleven. One may not approve the style or the composition or my poor mixing, whatever, but until my visit to the store I could never imagine that the bass would be exploding like that. And many subtleties of the arrangement (i.e. treble) disappeared too.
Finally, the question: what can I do about that? How can I get a better idea of how other people will be hearing something that I produced? Should I buy one of those super ultra mega bass headphones and accept that as the standard? Does everybody listen to music that way? I doubt it. Come on. What do you suggest in this situation?
Due to the former, only one person that I know listened to my tracks and he didn't like them. No details. He just didn't. I had them on the Internet for some time and almost nobody listened to them, and those who did didn't listen them entirely. The site can tell when a listener quits halfway. I know what you're thinking, my music probably sucks, but please bear with me.
Due to the latter, I only have a very lame pair of headphones and a very lame mono computer speaker. I can't afford anything else so please bear with me.
I make my music with the mono computer speaker so I don't get ear fatigue. When mixing and mastering and doing any other polishing, I use the headphones. Finally, I upload the track to my phone and listen to it on the phone with headphones because I really think the phone has great playback quality. I really do. I just think I should have better headphones.
Well, one day I was wasting an hour at the mall and went into a music store. I asked to see their headphones. They let me test the headphones, four pairs. And then it happened. They let me hook it up to my phone and of course I played my own tracks and... My God! So much bass! Very unpleasant. I can imagine people listening and wondering what kind of idiot mixed and mastered it that way. It sounded ruined. VERY different from what I hear at home.
The store clerk was very nice and helpful and, long story short, he made it clear that people these days are all about the bass. Many customers will bring it up spontaneously. They ask for it. I explained that I'm kind of old fashioned and would like something more... uh... balanced. He seemed to understand my position, but assured me that what I wanted would be hard to find because the uber-bassy thing has pretty much become a standard.
I don't only listen to my own tracks. I listen to a lot of things, and my tracks don't sound bad at all in comparison. At least not like I turned the bass up to eleven. One may not approve the style or the composition or my poor mixing, whatever, but until my visit to the store I could never imagine that the bass would be exploding like that. And many subtleties of the arrangement (i.e. treble) disappeared too.
Finally, the question: what can I do about that? How can I get a better idea of how other people will be hearing something that I produced? Should I buy one of those super ultra mega bass headphones and accept that as the standard? Does everybody listen to music that way? I doubt it. Come on. What do you suggest in this situation?
Statistics: Posted by lmv — Mon Oct 28, 2024 8:52 pm — Replies 2 — Views 90