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8 Tips for Great Sounding Mixes on Small
Mixing Tips Speakers
May 24, 2018
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Courses How do you get your mix to translate onto a

speaker as thin as a grain of rice? Learn
Videos how to make sure that when your mix is
heard on a phone, earbuds or laptop
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By Michael White

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At no point in the history of consumer audio have there and Attack
been more ways for the consumer to listen to music, more
devices for them to listen through, and more varieties of
speaker systems and headphones available.
%
 Tags View All At every level of the audio food chain there are # $ 13:56
compromises in quality. In particular, smart phones, tablets, How to
3,578 Boost Vocal
laptops and small speaker systems present a great Chops with a Synth
Live Sound
challenge to the mix engineer; getting a mix to translate to
these speaker systems is not just a matter of frequency
Sound Design response limitations, but also of the limited dynamic
range capabilities of consumer electronics. Miniaturized

Compressors components supplied by relatively weak power sources are %

a basic recipe for distortion and poor audio quality. Even in
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the quietest of listening environments, this can leave a lot 8,363 are the
Equalizers Where
to be desired. Women in Audio?
Q&A with Marcella
Drums But before you throw your hands up in the air and decide to Araica
ignore the millions of people who will listen to music
regardless of the quality, take note of how valuable this
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information can be to your work. If the consumer only hears
& Mixing Residente
hi-hat and cymbal crashes when they play your mix, they
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may decide to not listen at all. This does a great disservice
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to the artist and the community the artist is trying to reach.
Analog Models & 7 Tips to Make
While it is practically impossible to make your mix translate Vocals Sound Huge
Pooch’s Corner perfectly to all media devices, there are some important & How to License your
things to consider when constructing your mixes that will Music to Movies &
help them cut through the wide range of quality and TV Shows
Greg's List
frequency response characteristics of consumer devices.
The earlier you address these concerns in the mix, the
Awards less often you will find yourself burdening or begging
the mastering engineer to fix the problem.
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The following will help to break down some simple,
effective techniques that will not only improve fidelity on
low quality speaker systems, but will also help your mixes
translate better to a wide variety of higher fidelity systems.

1. Take note of frequency response

The best place to start is with the foundational limitation of
all small speaker systems: their inability to reproduce the
full frequency spectrum of our hearing range. So what
frequencies can these small speaker systems reproduce?

For the most part, all small speaker systems will cover the
upper frequency spectrum fairly well, with many having a
frequency response up to 18 kHz. The real issue comes in
the lower frequency range, where a large portion of the
fundamental frequencies of instruments live.

The response of many cell phone speakers begins to drop

off around 800 Hz, tablets extend the range to
approximately 400 Hz, and laptops often sit somewhere
around 200 Hz. These averages operate as a springboard
to help judge what your mixes may sound like.

1. Adjust your monitoring: Set up an EQ on your

master channel and set 3 different high pass filter
points (200 Hz, 400 Hz & 800 Hz) at a 6 dB per octave
slope. Store this as a preset so you can quickly switch
between the settings.
2. Listen: Listen to your mix with the different filter
settings and note what happens to each instrument,
especially the bass and low frequency synths.
3. Take notes: Note what happens to the most affected
instruments. Do they disappear entirely or just dip in
perceived level?
4. Use commercial references: Now bring in a well-
produced commercial record that relatively matches
the production style of the song you are mixing. Toggle
through the different filter settings and notice how the
commercial release responds to the same setup.

The objective of this evaluation is to note what happens to

your mix versus the way a commercial release responds
under the same circumstances. Aside from the frequency
loss, it’s important to be sure that each instrument is still
represented when the different filtering stages are applied.

2. It will have to be loud

Perhaps the least talked about aspect of small speaker
systems like those found in mobile media and laptops is
their limited dynamic range capabilities. The primary issue
is that the speakers are often flat and are confined to a
very limited range of movement to accommodate a thinner
physical product. This limited range of movement means
that music with too much dynamic range will distort peaks
and transmit low level information inefficiently without much
clarity.

If you are not a big fan of making your final mixes and
masters loud, this may come as very disappointing news. It
is very likely that the reason the commercial reference
translated better through small speakers is due, in
large part, to the compressed dynamic range from the
mix and mastering. The reason is very simple: if you
place a limited dynamic range mix into a speaker system
with a limited dynamic range, you will allow it to operate at
maximum efficiency.

3. Fit every instrument into the

frequency box
It is vitally important for every instrument in a mix to have
frequency representation in the 400 Hz to 6K range. Most
instruments will have an attack frequency that cuts through
in this range, but where you boost is important. Attack
boosts in the 700 Hz to 2 kHz range offer the best balance
of important localization cues without harshness. It will also
pull in valuable harmonic information that will cut well on
smaller speakers. Just be sure to mind your real estate;
boost and carve so that each instrument can get a say in
this range without stepping on top of each other.

4. Listen at low volumes

This a hidden secret for setting mix balances, especially as
it relates to small speakers with a limited dynamic range.
Very low listening volumes expose both instruments
mixed too high and too low. Instruments mixed low will
fall into the noise floor of the room, and instruments mixed
too high will stick out like a sore thumb. The added
Fletcher-Munson effect of low volume and the decreased
efficiency of your monitors will help to simulate
inefficiencies that occur with small speakers.

5. Enhance harmonics
Low frequency instruments like basses are the biggest
challenge to pull out of small speakers. Sine wave-like
bass sounds can be to toughest to draw due to the sonic
purity of an unaffected sine wave at a low or sub frequency.
This is where harmonic enhancement can provide a huge
lift.

Harmonics are most commonly generated through

saturating analog components. The resulting distortion
creates harmonically related frequencies that are musically
pleasing and provide auditory cues that ripple up the
frequency spectrum into the 400 Hz - 6K range. If applied
well, it can add that note to a small speaker system.

To hear an example of this with a regular bass guitar, watch

this video excerpt; hear how producer / mixer Greg Wells
(Adele, Katy Perry) uses his ToneCentric plugin to add
subtle harmonic content, allowing it to be better
represented in the upper mid range of the frequency
spectrum. First he A/Bs the plugin in solo, and then in the
context of the mix:

And in this video, watch how mix engineer Miles Walker

(Beyoncé, Usher, Sia) uses the Vitamin Sonic Enhancer to
add harmonic content to tracks throughout his mix. Using a
combination of EQ, compression and saturation, the
Vitamin plugin is an easy way to add representation into
the "small speaker" range:

6. Mix for mono compatibility

Many small speaker systems are either mono, or the stereo
speakers are so close together that they are effectively
mono in terms of our perception. As a result, checking
your mix in mono is critical to getting the mix to
translate well. There is good reason why so many mixers
today pan the most important instruments to center and
make the side signals loud. Try to keep your “wider than
stereo” processing to special effects, and off of primary
instruments. Otherwise, they will probably disappear in
mono.

7. Compress liberally
One of the most effective ways to achieve loudness is
through liberal use of compression. This does not mean
that you need to crush everything through a single
limiter, but rather layer compression for better control on
individual tracks, stems and the mix buss. Do not be afraid
to subtly layer more than one compressor onto the same
track.

Setting up analog tape emulations on individual tracks is a

great way to control peaks, add valuable harmonic content
and warm up the sound. Aggressive parallel compression
chains also can go a long way to bringing the RMS energy
closer to the peak signal levels of the mix without
destroying the dynamics of the song.

In this video, watch how Graham from the Recording

Revolution does exactly that: he brings up the energy of his
whole mix without destroying the dynamics, using the SSL
G Master Buss Compressor as a a 'rear buss,' or parallel
compressor:

Also, watch as Graham from the Recording Revolution

shows how he double-stacks compressors onto a lead
vocal track, using the CLA-2A with an SSL E Channel
compressor:

8. Listen, and use trial and error

Getting your mixes to translate to small speaker systems
should not have a negative impact on monitoring with full-
frequency systems. Many of the techniques outlined here
are not major reconstructions, but are relatively minor
adjustments. If they are applied as a part of your normal
mix workflow, you will likely find that your mixes translate
well to smaller systems with minimal extra effort.

Be patient! The process of getting your mixes to translate

well to any device is no easy task, and is something
engineers have been working toward for decades. Begin by
following the techniques and advice that you've learned
here. Listen to commercial music through small speaker
systems whenever you get the chance; it’s important to find
references that translate well on small speakers, and to
see what they sound like in your studio.

A little history…

Making mixes translate to small speakers has been

going on for years – even before the time of
smartphones. The use of Auratone Super Sound
Cubes in professional studios goes all the way back
to the 1960s; their purpose was to serve as a
reference speaker that would represent consumer
speakers found in radios and cars. They quickly
became an industry standard for mix engineers
worldwide.

The related mixing techniques were similar then as

well. Though there weren't nearly as many
compressors readily available as with DAWs today,
almost every analog stage of the recording and
mixing process would provide forms of limiting,
compression and saturation.

Mono compatibility was also a huge part of mixing

due to AM radio and TV broadcast standards before
cable TV. What’s old is new! The same techniques
apply today, and are as equally effective in getting
your mixes to translate better to all sorts of speaker
systems, big and small.
Want to learn more about analog harmonic
distortion? Get tips on applying analog-style
harmonic distortion from within your DAW.

Do you have any mix translation tips that we missed? Let

us know in the comments below.

' Categories: Blog ( Tags: Dynamics, Equalizers, Tricks of the Mix

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5/25/2018