It's really hard to balance the vocal with other instruments. I've been spent lots of time balancing it and it sounds ok with the studio monitor, but the vocal sounds too loud with laptop speakers, smartphone speakers and etc.
Someone may say it's a given. I understand vocal sounds a bit louder with the speakers I mentioned above.
But comparing it with the commercial albums. the vocal part sounds really well balanced even with crappy speakers.
How could you do that?

 

Probably a spectre-related issue. Try to cut the 3-5 kHz (or a bit lower/higher, depending on the vocals) a bit.

 

Maybe this article brings some light into the dark.

Spoiler: Why the sound of a smartphone is always bad

Why the sound of a smartphone is always bad
From TECHBOOK | March 29, 2019,
It is not unusual for music collections to lie dormant on smartphones and tablets. But the hi-fi feeling doesn't come close to playing through the built-in mini speakers. For good sound you should rather use headphones.

Smartphones have long since supplanted the MP3 player. Because you almost always have them with you and you can not only listen to offline music on them, but also stream any songs, music tracks or programs over the network. But is the sound also good on the mobile phone?
The demands on sound reproduction shouldn't be too high, says Daniel Beer from the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology. "The audio quality does not yet come close to that of a simple hi-fi loudspeaker: The required frequency range is not covered, the low and high tones are missing." Typical smartphones cover the range from around 500 to 10,000 Hertz. A simple hi-fi speaker the size of a shelf box, on the other hand, has a playback range of around 80 to 20,000 Hertz. With current devices from Apple, for example, the frequency range cannot be traced at all. Neither on the website nor in the documents sent - in our case an iPhone XR - there is information on this.

Little space for good sound
According to Beer, the small installation space in smartphones is a problem. The maximum achievable volume of the cellphone loudspeakers is also insufficient and at the same time associated with inappropriately high distortion. This is noticeable in the form of a "blurred" sound. The reason for this is the small amount of air that a small membrane can move, explains the expert in loudspeaker technology and audio quality measurement. Another weak point in smartphone sound is the lack of resolution - both tonally and dynamically.

“Battery operation is a particular challenge for electronics,” says Beer. "Accordingly, the achievable preamplifier levels are generally lower and have less reserves for brief signal peaks than with hi-fi components." Cell phone amplifier stages are therefore often operated at the power limit. Protection mechanisms also often limit the maximum output level, which in turn leads to distortion.

Stereo yes - surround sound no
Nevertheless, the sound quality of the smartphone speakers has improved significantly in recent years, says the Fraunhofer expert. Almost all current smartphones are equipped with several loudspeakers for spatial representation, i.e. the mapping of a stereo or even surround scene. Compared to the previous monophonic reproduction, clear differences can be achieved in this way. “However, the small spatial separation of the loudspeakers in the smartphone sets clear limits,” explains Beer. “The typical stereo triangle of the loudspeaker placement of a hi-fi system cannot be reached and the original stereophonic space cannot be reproduced either.” And even if modern smartphones, such as the LG G8 ThinQ, use the display as an additional loudspeaker, the quality of the output is improved probably never come close to that of a real hi-fi system.

If you use headphones, depending on the mobile device, you can choose between the jack socket or USB and Lightning connections, which in principle usually deliver the better sound results. Because: "Both the internal digital-to-analog converter and the headphone amplifier of the smartphone are bypassed," explains Thomas Johannsen from the specialist magazine "Tablet und Smartphone". And these are unfortunately not of such good quality in most devices.

Usually sounded better via Lightning or USB
"Due to the low voltage of the batteries in smartphones and tablets, headphones should have a low impedance, preferably below 100 ohms," advises Martin Mertens from "Ear In" magazine. 36 ohms are common. One should also keep an eye on the efficiency. It should be 100 decibels, preferably more. In principle, according to Mertens, both in-ears and collapsible on-ear or large over-ear headphones are suitable for mobile devices.

Anyone who is on the road for a long time, travels a lot or generally has higher demands on sound quality can rely on an external headphone amplifier with a digital-to-analog converter (DAC). "It guarantees high sound quality and has its own battery, so that the battery of the smartphone is saved and you can listen to music for longer," explains Mertens.

If the music is played via Bluetooth speakers, you should pay attention to a reasonable sound-size ratio - this applies to both the volume of the speaker and the room in which the box is operated. In order to be able to achieve CD quality, smartphones and speakers must support the Apt-X codec. Of course, there are also Bluetooth headphones with Apt-X support. The playback For Thomas Johannsen, however, the easiest way to get high-resolution music from a mobile device is by cable. If the smartphone supports high-resolution sound (hi-res sound), suitable headphones with an AUX input are sufficient.

Source: www.techbook.de/mobile/smartphones/schluss-mit-dem-geplaerre-smartphone-klang-verbessern

 

Try cutting significant frequencies in the mid section and/or boost them in the wide section or make it wider in general. That should do it.

 

I usually do it for the vocal bus to reduce the harshness as well, but it could be a different case. Thanks!

 

Well, as I mentioned in OP, the commercial albums still sound good in smartphone. There must be something else I missed. Thanks!

 

You are probably talking about
1) mono-compatibility and
2) reduced masking/overlapping.
Look into (and study) those areas. I have no trouble "balancing" vocals. Just make them fairly consistent (in clarity, body and dynamic range) and they will almost mix themselves.

Also learn the frequency range of a shitty smartphone "speaker".

 

Last edited: Jan 25, 2022

My secret tool for carving vocals: Wavesfactory Trackspacer. It's a frequency depending ducker.
Unfortunately this plugin was taken down from the Sister site, but it's really worth it's $60,-

 

I have a problem with this tool, cause if the singer sings from the intro where the beat is just an instrument (say a piano for example) it will sound louder that when the chorus comes in (where there are drums, piano, synths...). I think that's because it always cut the vocals frequencies db indipendently from the sidechained signal. So the vocal will not stay stable with this. Any suggestions?

 

I agree with boomoperator - I use trackspacer too. one hell of a plugin that works wonders not only with vocals, but with other instruments too where needed. one of the best plugins in my arsenal.

 

Thats's why it's automatable. You can automate all parameters for when content changes. At least with Pro Tools, but I think other DAWS can automate plugins as well.