Hi people, I know this is kind of a dumb question that probably has a simple answer, but I just can't help but ask myself why doesn't it make more sense to make music on bad hardware since if it sounds good on bad gear wouldn't it sound great on good gear?
Cheers

 

I did say its a dumb question but bear with me here

 

Don't worry, I'll endure you.

If you can drive fast in a FIAT500, can you drive fast in a Formula One car? No!

Bad gear produces bad sound, some frequencies are too loud some too low, bass is missing. Try it yourself. Make a mix on 50$ 2.1 desktop speakers, invest 50$ for some minutes in a pro studio and listen to your song again. Will not sound good.

 

Yes but who listens to everyday music in a pro studio?

 

Your point is somewhat correct: in professional studios there are different loudspeakers exactly for this pourpose. The most popular speakers for real-world reference are the Auratone https://www.auratoneaudio.com/products (also called the “horror tones”): their task is to check how the final mix will translate into a cheap tv speaker or low budget portable radio.
Usually, during the production and mixing workflow, it is recomendable to use good monitors (good dynamic - flat response)

 

An existing minority, for sure.

Good gears tend to a common reference that is : flat (meaning that no part of the total sound spectrum is neither exaggerated nor minimized), with minimal sound deformation from in to out (these sound deformations from in to out are called : distortions).

Bad gears are different from one to another, with different defects : there is no common reference for them. Their sound spectrums and distortion caracteristics are vastly different from one to another.

So, without a common reference to them all, they are not reliable for translating from one to another the same sound sources (the music and mixes made with them). What maybe sounds flattering on one (because it is adapted to the non-linearities of one) will not sound good on the others (because they have different non-linearities).

For music/audio works, this is too much erratic and unreliable, this lead to too much failures, this leads to too many wastings of energy without convincing results.
Music/audio works are already energy demanding with good working conditions (flat references with no distortions from in to out), bad gears are not bearable.

Working with bad gears could mean twenty times more work, with no usable results.
Working with good gears means : maximum effectiveness with the experience and talent you have.

 

the goals with a good room and speakers/headphones are two. one, to let you hear what happens in the mix, give you artistic control.
second, to give a chance to make decisions sonically that will hopefully make your music sound good independently on what systems your music will be played on.

hifi, club systems to phone headphones manufacturers will all try to make their best to give a balanced output and compensate for their products qualities and shortcomings that they are well aware of, but if YOU haven't worked to bring a balanced mix through those systems, then all that effort is lost.

but, sure you can mix on cheap headphones/rooms/monitos, if you use reference tracks. I

ts a matter of how much you want to execute your craft.

 

So basically the best headphones/speakers are the ones that will alow you to make music that sounds good on all soundsystems right?
Thanks you guys for the answers, I can finally die in peace.

 

Yes, now you've seen the light.

When talking about speakers, the room also has to be taken into account. Good speakers misplaced in a room with a failing acoustics are more or less equivalent to bad speakers . The whole [electroacoustic+environment] system has to be considered. There are mechanical and electroacoustic optimisations to do. There are some fine hardwares and softwares for the electroacoustic linearizing part of it (Dirac, Sonarworks, IK Multimedia ARC2, Trinnov...)

 

raslerx has me thinking that we should by now be able to master for all speakers with software. Or, talking about mastering, why not trust the mastering software to give the right frequency settings for the target audience?

 

Exactly. Because if we take the example of 2 bad listening systems, one will emphasize a particular frequency say 800Kz, and the other may emphasize 200hz so your mix made on the first one will sound bad on the other one and vice versa.

But if you mix with a linear listening system, both of these 2 will reproduce your mix with each their own default to which their user will be accustomed.

 

yes the post of yours is a dumb too, give me $999999999999 from your account and Ill solve the problem, instantly

 

It is good to listen to your work on multiple different speakers/headphones if possible to compare. You want as true a representation as possible when mixing, and shaping the sound. That means you want the speakers to "color" the sound as little as possible. Having a decent set of monitor speakers (made for studio), will color the sound much less and so you can feel more confident that what you are hearing and doing as you shape your mix is closer to true.

 

the truth is the experienced mixing engineer(and sound designer, im not say edm synth patches shit) never trust their ears and playback devices,

 

I was going to comment but after three seconds of thought I realized that, at it's core, this question has very little to do with music and everything to do with what should be intrinsic logic. That being said, I'm going with No Avengers intial comment.

And while I'm -ing comments, m9cao gets added to the list. I would say that you should *always be wary of any rule or bit of advice about music that uses "always," or "never."

 

hehe

Fair question.

As has already been said,

Make it on good stuff so it sounds ok on crap stuff. Not the other way around. Sound sensible?

 

Was that always, or never be wary of any rule or bit of advice about music that uses "always", or "never"?

Nice use of the comma by the way, I always appreciate good comma work!