[linux-audio-user] Re: Homemade music

[Paul Winkler]

On Fri, Jan 20, 2006 at 08:42:30AM -0800, Florin Andrei wrote:
> A piece of advice that I've seen repeated many times by experts is to
> listen on many different types of audio gear while you're
> mixing/mastering. Of course, most of the work must be done on your
> highest-quality speakers and amps (ideally studio monitors), but you
> must do several brief reality checks, a few times, on things such as
> your car stereo, your TV, your laptop, your walkman's headphones, etc.
> 
> The song will sound, of course, worse on those devices, but it must not
> exhibit unexpected huge problems - if it does, then go back to your
> mixer software and fix it.
> When it starts to sound more or less uniform everywhere, that's a sign
> you're getting close and you must not apply major transformations at
> this point anymore.
> 
> Listen to professionally mixed music, in the conditions described above,
> to figure out what can be done.

Another great tip is the "hallway trick":
Leave the mixing room and listen a bit from out in the hall,
or in the next room, or whatever your building's layout allows...

This throws away the stereo image and kind of blurs things together,
which is useful for another reality check.  Ask yourself:

Can I still hear all of the most important things?
(Don't worry about minor details and "sweetener" tracks")
Does it work well as a piece of music?

-- 

Paul Winkler
http://www.slinkp.com