Hey Lovers, I made a beat on headphones. Feeling the groove. Then I take that to the car or home stereo to find myself disappointed because mainly the 808 bass is very muddy, jumps in volume and seems to miss the key of the song.

I do understand that every monitoring set-up sounds different from speakers to room treatment, placement etc. A good mix would perform great on any of those, sure. But how am I getting these weird pitch issues, where I find myself disgusted by the 808 being out of key on the home stereo but having a satisfying on-key 808 on my headphones?

808s used were "legit", no fine-tuning necessary. Headphones are beyerdynamic dt 990.

The overall sound differences of unmixed sketches and their lack of crystal clear mid-highs on speakers, these differences I can understand and adjust in my mind, but the 808 jumping pitch? I don't feel the groove when things move out of keys, issue.

Please enlighten me with your wisdoms.

 

I run into this problem when I forget to cross reference on monitors. Actually headphones are better for writing imo. The sound changes when the speakers push frequencies through the air at a distance and different frequencies travel differently, to name one element.

 

Why do you prefer headphones for composing? Because you cancel out most of the room issues?

How can I avoid my 808 unexpectedly change pitch when composing on headphones and listening on home stereo? (I suggest my home stereo monitoring situation has issues pushing that issue up, but despite my sketches all well mixed tracks are pleasing to listen to)

 

Had the same exact experience multiple times, producing on monitors with a separate sub-woofer
once even when I had the most important meeting of my career. And it where rough mixes (Instrumentals to be exact)

haven't found a solution, but did buy a new monitor set and didn't had the same experience again.

 

Last edited: Dec 6, 2020

I had a similar problem a couple of times, but in my case it was bad, really bad monitoring (bad headphones, even worse monitors). To sum up, my set up was not reproducing all the frequencies properly, so I was not hearing the bass drum properly. When I put the songs throught better monitors, I could hear the bass drum was out of key, clashing with the bass and other instruments, not to mention other frequencies resonating all over the place. Solved the problem buying proper monitors.

 

Last edited: Dec 6, 2020

your more than likely hearing the first part of the 808 but the
mid and tail is where the key is so use a tuned 808 to the track your using
also watch for the note it falls on like if a piano chord is an A use the A note 808 on that part
just my humble opinion

 

Are you running the new monitors without the sub, and that solved the problem in your case? How was the result of your meeting?

My DT 990 should be able to do a standard job, I guess. At least they are not bad. I am confident a skilled mixer could fix my issue even on the headphones. But I wonder whether "that issue" might happen to a skilled engineer in the first place, and what I can do to avoid that.

Was it really just the type of monitors, or did you change your setup (speaker placement, room treatment etc.)?

I try to figure out whether it is possible that I really do focus only on the first part of the 808. Not sure, especially as I am using more than one monitoring way turning to different results.

1. The 808 is zaytovens and rather short (in fact it is zay 808 (21). To me it seems to be on key and no fine tuning necessary.
2. You talk about a chords root note hitting the 808 better than all the other notes. I get that. I think bass players would hate to be locked down always to the root note of the chord, but hey, I am not a bass player (maybe this is why my bass is out of key).