i'm working on this house track and amateurly trying to mix and master this track and I noticed unintentional pumping on laptop speakers but not on my headphone monitors. i found it was vocals messing with my master compressor so i sort of fixed it by putting dynamic eq on my vocals.
So my questions is why didn't i notice this pumping on headphone monitors but noticed on laptop speakers.

Also, any common mixing tips would be greatly appreciated.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Apr 19, 2024

because laptop speakers suck. make sure to use a quality compressor which has built-in internal sidechain option so the low frequencies are not affected by the compressor. (vertigo vsc3 is a good choice)

 

what would sidechain help in? vocals don't sit in low end.

 

Start with the basics first: get an audio interface, balanced cables, decent dedicated studio speakers, good (isolated) speaker placement, acoustically treated room and studio headphones. Learn healthy gainstaging. Practice, practice, practice (at comfortable loudness). Then things will start to improve.

 

If you get unintended pumping, some of your sounds, in your case the vocals, are not controlled enough, or the levels might be wrong. Using a dynamic EQ to fix that can be a viable option. You could also compress the vocals some more if that is an option. Lowering the threshold of the master compressor some more might be another solution. However, I would suspect the levels of (parts of) your vocals being too loud in comparison to the rest of your mix, as they seem to be the main sounds that are triggering your master compressor.

 

you are absolutely right vocals aren't compressed that much they are a bit dynamic. Thanks for all other suggestions.
Also i was shocked to not hear pumping on Headphone Monitors but on Laptop speakers, probably due to untrained ear/ inexperience.

 

Last edited: Apr 19, 2024

Speakers also compress sound, and different speakers compress sound differently. The more dynamic speakers, which monitor speakers usually are, compress sound less than some regular, cheap speakers, so you can monitor the dynamics better with these than $10 pc speakers or laptop speakers. This is one of the main reasons we use professional monitors for mixing and mastering.

Your ears may be not trained enough to hear the pumping on the monitors, and it's easier to hear it on laptop speakers. It could possibly be something in the system, or amplifier that exacerbates it.

It's interesting. One more reason why it can't hurt to always check your shyte on various speakers.

 

Last edited: Apr 19, 2024

can't hurt to always check your shyte on various speakers
Absolutley right Mr Wave,
Basically im going to advise you as i would do myself in the same position
"IF I DONT GO OFF TOPIC WHICH I WILL IN ABOUT 10 SECONDS"


"Your laptop external/internal spkrs cant t be trusted "
I would from a sound design and mixing stand point firstly advise you to either use MSED or Spl Stereo maker to lower the stereo width right down , on the master or "as i do on every channel and mix/sample/resample/commpress/eq/limit/maximise every track/sample/accordingly!
Which at first can be kind of scary i give you that , its like building your own library of sounds , which is now my goto

Mix wise , pumping on laptop speakers is more than likely due to the fact the internal or external spkrs cannot handle the frequency range nor the loudness "Hence it sounding like a fart pumping thru the spkrs that are internal"

If it sounds fine on even a simple stereo system, "forget monitors at this point because if you had proper monitors you wouldnt be asking this "
if it sounds fine across everything you play it on besides your internal laptop speakers, "then trust me pay more attention to how it sounds in "MONO" do your sound design in mono, Fuck write it in mono then add the spatial stuff eq/comp/limit blah blah/ widen accordingly,
Most muddy sort of mixes are usually due incorrectlly eq,ed,mixed, elements around the 100-125hz range etc etc

Theres no magic way of transforming a muddy mix into gold by cutting those frequencies,k but can handled and hidden if correctly done but isnt as easy as i may make it sound .

Is there a link so i hear what your talking about instead of me just guessing and i apologise if you did and i havnt noticed yet
EDM is essentially an area i know well
i dont have much but theres a reason why my work sounds the way it does, and im more than happy to demonstrate, but my point is that im happy to help if i can, p.m me or simply gimme some audio to try n help

 

Last edited: Apr 19, 2024

you are too kind i might send you a link later

link?

 

My brother , im more than happy to attempt to help you..
yes im a power user as many of us are...
i can say this with absolute clarity>> "ive written 2 EDM numbers one of which was stolen byD~@~@@@~T RCDRS IN 1998
I Have the original which was reworked, and is still today included in m:o:d Greatest dance anthems till this day now!!!

"i litterally have had to sit here , and be congratulated by my close friends for my 2nd release which made the ministy o sound albums all these fucking years ago , and watch someone who had no right, no claim to what was written n proggrammed, all i will say is this >>>"

Yo DJL

"You owe me your entire short lived career and a seroius amount of royalties"
"Jump suit wearing orange mutha fucker"

The only thing thats driven me through depression n addiction to the degree of clarity is the fact that back then i was 20 yrs old, worlds different and im no longer an addict

music comes first, rebuilt my life, or in proccess off,
"But im kinda hurt over it still, and although its more than 20 yrs i cant help but look at what happened to me as part of a cataylyst that ultimatley lead to heroin addiction that ruined me

"Which is no longer the case btw"

 

Last edited: Apr 19, 2024

HOLY... thats crazy

 

Thank god

 

Seriously im not playing with you, Nor am i lying

"Those that actually know me, on here, which is , erm.......erm 2 users in the uk, near me , plus a couple others know of what i speak about, im not going into it here

Its been a ride ive been on for a long time but, erm, addiction got in the way of workflow and basically it didnt matter how good i was if i was always thinking of heroin and looking for exuses to use drugs to drown my sorrows,

Tell you what

i dont write Housey 4/4 techno or hard house, uk garage, for over 6 years

just DnB
But>> hah But >> how about a 30 minute challenge??

Meaning, essentially a kinda grudge match without the grudge part, just we littereally write as much as possible within a 30 minute time frame and you can use samples if you want i dont mind,. i wont be using samples though,


yo for me its simply something to motivate me to actually start writting instead of just building library, "which i assure you i wont use as i do not have anything 4/4 related as library"

Actually, i challenge anybody to it
Not in a competetive sense,

But ya know what

i always spout advice yadda yadda, blahh blahh , without essentially putting my money where my mouth is

So Audioz

" Cmon lets have some fun together"

Im basically saying it would be fun,
as opposed to an>audioz album
For maybe some simple programming rivalry/prowess/ i dont know
Im not saying im a musical god

im saying i know my skillset and will play with others as long as we agree on genre
And would probably be great for everyones self asteem or motivational/reasons etc etc

its just a simple exercise where people get 30 mins "NO LOOPS" UNLESS YOU MADE EM

 

Last edited by a moderator: Apr 19, 2024

i believe you... house has made a huge comeback in past couple of years.... just maybe think about it, it might have made a comeback just for you. Universe works in mysterious ways.

 

ok link to the old shit ive written is here , tiz dnb i wrote for Gstomper studio based in the netherlands a long time ago but its an epic piece of dnb written using one shot samples on android i think 12 years back



the mixx isnt done well whatsoever,

This was my first proper promo but i wrote the fucking thing using, "guess what, internal fuckin speakers on samsung galaxy pro 5"




This is the 2nd dnb promo for the software house for the relaunch

i hate it because the lyrics were taken out and only some of it used instead of it all
theres a few 4/4 ones you might like, erm, i got loads i aint bothered about criticysm simply because what ive shown should A BE PLAYED MONO, B, its 10 years ago on droid,

and ive a couple things that i dont want to spoil by showing anybody till im ready

what im showing you guys was ten years ago nearly, obviously im not fuckin around using droid!!

My point to you all is this "I wrote these on droid"

ive 4/4 stuff used too but again lyrics "BODYROXX" such as the hard housey kinda stuff id do, he unfortunatley deleted before the promo and i hate it so much i cant even stand people that like it

so imagine that i was fucking around, and now ive learnt so much in the last 25 years instead of using hardware n running a PC instead, its just crazy, i never thought the day would come when i was as powefull as i am right now, using a pc instead..

All my shits in the boxxxx

 

Last edited: Apr 19, 2024

crazy tunes bro, also checked your other stuff DISS One and ruff mix go hard

 

This last track sounds like a beast considering how you did it. props!

 

Thankyou

You my friend understood my point
Tiznt the content "well not exactly"

point was these few, what 2 or 3, were written prgrammed via via one shots n resmpling the crap out of everything and i couldnt get it right using an external £20 bluetooth spkr, or using Gss Which is extremely powefull or tbh i think i ran it all using compression n limiting on the master and obviously i couldnt get the mixx right bearing in mind i had internall or at best a seriously shitty bluetooth spkrs

course i couldnt
nobody could

but it aint a bad approximation

so imagine , the progress in whats essentially just 12 years of me not really even trying to make people listen

Look i know the actual production isnt worth a damn

theryre not mixxed well

Thats my entire point

And this is droid

so its expandle in concept across platforms, and i see i will have to programm something here , Now,


I Accept




hence my 30 minute challege,

and for the record, These days im running abl12 beta, i5 7th generation, 24 g ddr4, every possible plugin i want, but find myself using very very few these days

i know what ive displayed isnt written nor mixxed well whatsoever

i know this guys

 

Last edited: Apr 19, 2024

lets do that from tomorrow, im just a rookie but would be fun
Also check on YouTube there are so many people hosting beat battles. They find a random sample could be a meme etc and flip it. You'll enjoy it.