Cars are a big deal, sound-wise, I now see.

[rasputin1963]

I was driving today on a 60-mile trip, listening to some of my fave CD's.

 

I noticed how the best recordings I listened to always managed to EQ the melody-line in such a way that it always managed to be heard over the interior car noise (car in motion on highway, all doors tightly closed, all windows firmly rolled up).

 

My car does not have too loud of an interior noise (a whirr of pink-to-brown wind and road noise), but sure, it's there nevertheless. It's definitely not the most optimum venue in which to evaluate good audio... but so very many people DO listen to music in their cars, always have and always will. I suspect I have learned to "filter out" such noise to a large degree, and most of us would be quite surprised, I suspect, to hear that same decibelage played for us in a soundproof booth... ie., it's probably a good deal louder than we imagine.

 

Listening to a female vocal, I noticed how the mixers of that recording always managed to find certain frequencies--- mainly upper-mids--- that could poke out through the car noise like a silvery ribbon... Regardless of what the fundamental of the melody happened to be at any given point, the EQ would enhance that narrow little band of frequencies which allowed the car driver to hear and sing along with that all-important melody. That melody-line never "sank out of sight", so to speak, in a car environment. I never realized just how important that quality was in a pop mix...

 

It also dawned on me that-- no doubt about it--- some vocalists have voices which, timbrally, were just made for pop records and car audio. They are the luckiest of all, perhaps.

 

Comments?

[UstadKhanAli]

This is somewhat related, proving that it's possible for me to stay on topic... Craig sometimes will mix with a fan on to "mimic" ambient sound or car noise so that he knows what will stand out against the noise. I have an old G4, so it's plenty noisy, and I'll mix with that. When I get my new rig, I'll probably turn on the air purifier, which can get kinda loud on high settings.

[Kendrix]

FWIW- I find that the low-mid freqs are most prone to masking due to road/engine noise.

I listen to allot of music while driving to/from work.

However, my ciritical mix tests in the car are all done with the car parked and the engine off.

[Lee Knight]

The fan trick of Craig's that Ken mentioned is a good one. One I like to do... turn the mix almost all the way down> ALL THE WAY until you can only hear the last element. Is it the vocal? Then up to hear the next element. Is it the snare? On and on. It's an eye opener.

 

And Ras, there are CDs that sound great in the car that I've found sound lousy elsewhere. The latest crop of female acoustic guitar and piano pop artists seem to really shine in the car. But listen to the mix critically in the studio and it's a boxy middy honk of a sound. Which is fine. Mixing for the medium. It's just interesting to note.

 

Those are crowded mixes.

 

Now put on Dusty Springfield. She sounds clear and natural and audible and delicious. I've noticed these same things studying mixes through my Avantone Cubes. I for one want to go back to less crowded mixes and arrangements.

[UstadKhanAli]

A common mistake people make is to have really dense arrangements to make them sound larger. But most of the time, Phil Spector aside, that doesn't work so well.

 

Another trick is simply to walk into the next room to listen to your mix to see if anything leaps out or doesn't sound right...or sounds good as well. I do this all the time. And besides, it feels good to get up.