mp3 mixing

[nomiyah]

When I mix the bass, it sounds great on headphones, studio monitors and car speakers. But when I convert it to mp3, the bass disappears. I've messed around with compression and eq and panning but everything I try doesn't work. If I make it so the mp3 has bass, it becomes overwhelming on other systems. Any tricks I can learn?Nomi

[davewalton]

Quote:When I mix the bass, it sounds great on headphones, studio monitors and car speakers. But when I convert it to mp3, the bass disappears. I've messed around with compression and eq and panning but everything I try doesn't work. If I make it so the mp3 has bass, it becomes overwhelming on other systems. Any tricks I can learn?NomiWell, let me be the first to say... THIS MAKES NO SENSE AT ALL! I can't wait for the day where instead of doing email or forums or whatever that we can somehow transport ourselves over and see what's what. How about trying an experiment? The "experiment" is that you'd send me the WAV file (or whatever file it is that sounds good) and I'd convert it to an MP3 and send it back for comparison. Doing an MP3 is normally a 10-second process that produces a nice little file with nearly identical sound quality to the original.This is going to be something to do with MP3 encoding and not a mixing issue. My process is that after everything is finished (translation: I'm tired of fiddling with it) I export to a WAV file which I can then convert to an MP3 or burn to a CD.PM me if you have questions about sending a file or whatever.Dave (the mad scientist)

[nomiyah]

Dave,I do the same thing as you, convert from wav to mp3. But I think it's in the mix because when I convert tracks that have been commercially mixed the bass is fine.A couple years ago I had a similar problem. The mix was perfect on headphones, studio monitors, home and car systems. But when I played it in a club, there was no bass. In that situation, I brought it to an engineer and he fixed it but I don't know what he did. I'm still learning how to mix.Nomi

[nomiyah]

Quote:I can't wait for the day where instead of doing email or forums or whatever that we can somehow transport ourselves over and see what's what. Ps- It's called a plane ticket. Drop by when you're flying over Oakland .

[andreh]

Quote:Dave,I do the same thing as you, convert from wav to mp3. But I think it's in the mix because when I convert tracks that have been commercially mixed the bass is fine.A couple years ago I had a similar problem. The mix was perfect on headphones, studio monitors, home and car systems. But when I played it in a club, there was no bass. In that situation, I brought it to an engineer and he fixed it but I don't know what he did. I'm still learning how to mix.NomiHi Nomi-Are you listening to your MP3's through the same playback system (DA converter and speakers) that you're listening to your WAV with? If you're compressing your MP3's at 160kbps or higher, you should be hearing a pretty close representation of your original WAV. Even when MP3 conversion does cause problems, they're usually in the higher frequencies (though some image shifting can occur, and I suppose an improperly mixed low end could be made worse by this).I'm interested in hearing a before-and-after example as well. Can you post something up that we could give more direct feedback about?Andre

[nomiyah]

Andre,I'm listening to the mp3s on my laptop. I've also listened on other computers and it's the same problem. I don't want to post anything right now because I'm too vain to post something I know doesn't sound right. Nomi