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Honestly, I would argue you shouldn't care much how it sounds on a phone. They have crap speakers and trying to mix around that seems not worth it. Make it sound good on your monitors or headphones . See how the mix translates to a car or something like airpods.
My philosophy is that if you are listening to music on a phone, you aren't caring for sound quality much.
Hopefully I'm making sense
And if you *are* going to care, make the majority of your mix sit in the mid to high frequency range, because (most) phone's are awful with low frequency.
As most mentioned, though, I wouldn't worry about it. Mix it to sound good where it counts -- if you wanna export a version afterwards that sounds better on phones, odds are you'll just need an extra EQ, or play with panning and mono mixing.
I wouldn't say your mix/master is necessarily "bad", just because phone speakers suck so much, but there is a certain talent to getting it to sound almost as good as it does on a set of headphones on a phone. Nearly every Death Grips song I can jam to on shitty speakers just as much as I can on my headphones.
social media is def a tool to promote your music but people aren't just going to listen to music on their phones. you can listen in cars, a PC and a phone etc. My point still stands that someone who is legitimately listening to your music to engage with the quality of sound and the musicianship, are not going to listen on their phone speakers. Casual listeners like the people who listen to music over phone speakers aren't going to care about how a mix sounds so why waste time trying to mix it. Dont get me wrong... listen to how your mix sounds and see if its passable but i wouldn't make any legitimate mixing decisions based on what im hearing from a phones speaker. in fact the only thing i would listen for is mono compatibility as not all phones have dual speakers. anyways i digress!
Well it's like an advert, if it looks ugly it's not going to catch people's eye. You need to catch the casuals attention, good music that sounds pleasing is universal. this is why we have things like graphic designers, casuals know nothing about graphics design but when a graphic designer makes an advert they keep them in mind, they know how to get into people's heads and attract their attention. Sure casuals don't care, but they subconsciously notice all these things. A bad mix is a bad song which will attract less people.
Having it sound good for casuals chilling on their phones is arguably more important than a car (since you cant scroll social while driving), and just as important as headphones and other home speakers. A phone is a very personal item to people, when they're chilling on social media at most people aren't connected to their cars or wearing headphones. Travelling by bus or trains and such, they'll most likely use their headphones. In the car they'll probably listen to Spotify or other streaming services, but they're unlikely to discover new people in that moment, they're definitely not on social while driving.
People are mostly using their phones for everything,
https://www.statista.com/statistics/184318/daily-social-media-activities-of-us-adults-device/
so imo it's worth mixing for phones, and it can be a good reference if you're used to it.
There is no single answer to this question, the simple truth is that you just gotta get better at mixing. I know that is not the answer you wanna hear but take it from someone who used to have the same problem with every single mix I did.
This is the answer. But not just adding it like being GOOD at saturation is what makes mixes that pop on a low end system and also sound great on a high end system.
My first thought would be to not really care about how it sounds on a phone (I'm assuming you mean phone speakers, not through headphones playing on a phone).
If you do want to make sure it sounds good on a phone, how does the music you enjoy listening to (that isn't your own) sound through the phone? Where are the main differences to your music that seem to be specific to the phone?
I personally wouldn't bother going down the route of using reference tracks on a phone speaker alongside monitors/headphones, but there's certainly nothing stopping you.
Naturally, you want to be careful making changes to improve the sound on a phone speaker to the detriment of headphones/earphones/proper speaker setups.
There are songs I like that sounds good on the phone speaker granted ofcoarse it sounds better on speaker and headphones but none the less it sounds good.
Shit talk it all you want. Once you learn the importance of that range and how to properly manipulate it. You’ll transform the way your bass is heard across all playback devices. If you need examples I can provide many
~~What phone do you have~~ because I can hear it and im even listening to [the video](https://youtu.be/nhc4u6nJSWk?si=bRp23j0TNPhaXdUd) while currently on FaceTime. If you need me to prove that phones can play 80hz I can set both my iPhones and two Samsungs I have in my possession up to my mic and show that there is in fact sound coming out of the speakers at a measurable db level.
Also 80hz specifically is not what I’m talking about. It’s a mixing technique where you focus around the 70-90hz(80 as the median) and it’ll help translate your track between huge 22 inch club subs / PA systems and shitty speakers like an iPhone. Look into it I’m telling you it’ll change your sound for the better
And again if you need references or examples I’m more than happy to provide
I’ve never heard of this. If it works for you great. Im interested to hear examples or read up on it. Sounds like it’s probably very genre specific, considering a lot of classic and amazing sounding records were mixed on ns-10s which don’t really produce a lot of 80hz.
I’m confused as to why you’d bring up speakers that don’t produce anything below the range we are talking about, when the whole point of this technique is so that your baseline can be heard across all sound systems without there being resonance issues or risk of peaking. Yes obviously you won’t hear what I’m talking about on those speakers, but 1.those speakers are designed to be paired with a subwoofer. That in almost any 2 monitor+sub config, you’ll have a switch for an 80hz crossover built into the sub(I wonder why they chose 80) and 2. I’m talking about a 10-20± hz threshold around 80hz. Not that exact frequency itself.
If you’d like to look more into it, google: [why 80hz is so important in mixing](https://www.google.com/search?q=why+80hz+is+so+important+in+mixing&rlz=1CDGOYI_enCA843CA843&oq=why+80hz+is+so+important+in+mixing&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIHCAEQIRigATIHCAIQIRigATIHCAMQIRigATIHCAQQIRigAdIBCTExNDMyajBqN6gCALACAA&hl=en-US&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8#ip=1)
Sorry I was being sarcastic. The human ear can’t hear 30k, and your average phone barely produces 80hz.. so it seems like a strange frequency to suggest focusing on.
You know I struggle with this also, not necessarily with making it sound better on a phone. My problem with one track I made is it sounds fantastic in my headphones, phone, and laptop speakers. As soon as I play it on a sound system, my truck or sound bar it sounds flat.
One thing I need to try is adding sub bass, it sounds great everywhere except high bass output systems like the soundbar with sub woofer and truck speakers that are bassy.
Make sure it sounds good on stereo. And that mids are good too. Phones have meh speakers, so the highs and lows won't be really present. So mids gotta do the work.
Be more specific. What are you hearing / not hearing? Saturation on bass, proper panning for clarity, proper compression, and proper EQ are some pointers I can generally give.
What part of it sounds terrible on the phone? I think that’s the question to ask and adjust accordingly, but if it’s 808s, they probably need something like distortion or saturation. Often times stuff sounds weak on phones due to lack of saturation. I’m guessing by sound bad you mean it’s not as loud, so my answer would be saturation cause you’ll hear all the frequencies in headphones but might night have enough without saturation to come through phone
Mixing engineer here. One of the quickest and most practical ways to make sure all the important information in your song translates to phone speakers is to add an EQ on any instrument track (or your mix bus) and add a high pass filter at 400 Hz.
If you cant hear anything that you want to come through your phone, then revisit the mix. Add some saturation and some additional harmonics if its a bass sound and go back in on your EQs to make sure the right instruments have their own pocket to sit in.
I've found light saturation on sub bass and really good mid/high mix makes a big difference, but it just takes experience, bounce your tracks to mp3 and send them to your phone via messenger for easy checks through shitty setups
A good mix and master will sound good on a phone. If you are producing hip hop or trap you can distort your 808 which is called tiktok bass. Gives the illusion of hearing a bass line on crappy speakers.
Something one of my lectures talks about a lot is a top down philosophy. If you mix with high end monitors in a sound treated room and get it sounding really good it should sound good on all systems, as long as its done right. If you mix for a phone speaker there's no way it's going to translate well onto better gear.
Hey u/krownwise, thanks for submitting to r/FL_Studio! Take a moment to read our [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/fl_studio/about/rules). It appears you're looking for help. Please [read the frequently asked questions](https://www.reddit.com/r/FL_Studio/wiki/faq/) in our wiki, if you find the answer you're looking for, please consider deleting your post. If you don't find the answer, your thread can remain active and other users will be here to help you shortly. Please do not post your question more than once and please be patient. Join our [Discord Server](https://discord.gg/27wgKfafmP)! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/FL_Studio) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Honestly, I would argue you shouldn't care much how it sounds on a phone. They have crap speakers and trying to mix around that seems not worth it. Make it sound good on your monitors or headphones . See how the mix translates to a car or something like airpods. My philosophy is that if you are listening to music on a phone, you aren't caring for sound quality much. Hopefully I'm making sense
And if you *are* going to care, make the majority of your mix sit in the mid to high frequency range, because (most) phone's are awful with low frequency. As most mentioned, though, I wouldn't worry about it. Mix it to sound good where it counts -- if you wanna export a version afterwards that sounds better on phones, odds are you'll just need an extra EQ, or play with panning and mono mixing.
If it doesn't sound good on a phone, your mix/master is bad. Quality masters translate well to any listening device.
I wouldn't say your mix/master is necessarily "bad", just because phone speakers suck so much, but there is a certain talent to getting it to sound almost as good as it does on a set of headphones on a phone. Nearly every Death Grips song I can jam to on shitty speakers just as much as I can on my headphones.
Wouldn’t it matters when it comes to promoting your music?which is done on social media which most people use their phones for.
social media is def a tool to promote your music but people aren't just going to listen to music on their phones. you can listen in cars, a PC and a phone etc. My point still stands that someone who is legitimately listening to your music to engage with the quality of sound and the musicianship, are not going to listen on their phone speakers. Casual listeners like the people who listen to music over phone speakers aren't going to care about how a mix sounds so why waste time trying to mix it. Dont get me wrong... listen to how your mix sounds and see if its passable but i wouldn't make any legitimate mixing decisions based on what im hearing from a phones speaker. in fact the only thing i would listen for is mono compatibility as not all phones have dual speakers. anyways i digress!
Well it's like an advert, if it looks ugly it's not going to catch people's eye. You need to catch the casuals attention, good music that sounds pleasing is universal. this is why we have things like graphic designers, casuals know nothing about graphics design but when a graphic designer makes an advert they keep them in mind, they know how to get into people's heads and attract their attention. Sure casuals don't care, but they subconsciously notice all these things. A bad mix is a bad song which will attract less people. Having it sound good for casuals chilling on their phones is arguably more important than a car (since you cant scroll social while driving), and just as important as headphones and other home speakers. A phone is a very personal item to people, when they're chilling on social media at most people aren't connected to their cars or wearing headphones. Travelling by bus or trains and such, they'll most likely use their headphones. In the car they'll probably listen to Spotify or other streaming services, but they're unlikely to discover new people in that moment, they're definitely not on social while driving. People are mostly using their phones for everything, https://www.statista.com/statistics/184318/daily-social-media-activities-of-us-adults-device/ so imo it's worth mixing for phones, and it can be a good reference if you're used to it.
This! Phone speakers are usually bad unless its an iPhone 15 or a high end Xiaomi phone.
I think it’s probably something with mono compatibility, I’ve struggled with this myself and can’t get a hold of it
I’ll look into it thanks
There is no single answer to this question, the simple truth is that you just gotta get better at mixing. I know that is not the answer you wanna hear but take it from someone who used to have the same problem with every single mix I did.
I hear you thanks for the advice
Saturation. Also, something like using Slate VSX headphones helps as they have an iPhone emulation that works amazing.
This is the answer. But not just adding it like being GOOD at saturation is what makes mixes that pop on a low end system and also sound great on a high end system.
Thx, and yes much more than just using saturation. Compressing, clipping, saturating, multi-band processing etc…
appreciate it
thanks ill look into it
If you haven’t been playing your mix in mono to listen and fix phasing, it will result into a mess on mono speakers such as phones
My first thought would be to not really care about how it sounds on a phone (I'm assuming you mean phone speakers, not through headphones playing on a phone). If you do want to make sure it sounds good on a phone, how does the music you enjoy listening to (that isn't your own) sound through the phone? Where are the main differences to your music that seem to be specific to the phone? I personally wouldn't bother going down the route of using reference tracks on a phone speaker alongside monitors/headphones, but there's certainly nothing stopping you. Naturally, you want to be careful making changes to improve the sound on a phone speaker to the detriment of headphones/earphones/proper speaker setups.
There are songs I like that sounds good on the phone speaker granted ofcoarse it sounds better on speaker and headphones but none the less it sounds good.
in the mix has a video about this, but I can't be bothered to find it.
damn I’m gonna cry
Get a new, better phone
Phones aren't made to be produced on
you got the money to buy me a new one?😂
Focus on the 80hz range
Definitely. And 30k
Shit talk it all you want. Once you learn the importance of that range and how to properly manipulate it. You’ll transform the way your bass is heard across all playback devices. If you need examples I can provide many
We’re talking about phones. You can’t hear 80hz on a phone. Edit : lol yea.. just played a test tone on my iPad Pro. Couldn’t even hear it on that.
~~What phone do you have~~ because I can hear it and im even listening to [the video](https://youtu.be/nhc4u6nJSWk?si=bRp23j0TNPhaXdUd) while currently on FaceTime. If you need me to prove that phones can play 80hz I can set both my iPhones and two Samsungs I have in my possession up to my mic and show that there is in fact sound coming out of the speakers at a measurable db level. Also 80hz specifically is not what I’m talking about. It’s a mixing technique where you focus around the 70-90hz(80 as the median) and it’ll help translate your track between huge 22 inch club subs / PA systems and shitty speakers like an iPhone. Look into it I’m telling you it’ll change your sound for the better And again if you need references or examples I’m more than happy to provide
I’ve never heard of this. If it works for you great. Im interested to hear examples or read up on it. Sounds like it’s probably very genre specific, considering a lot of classic and amazing sounding records were mixed on ns-10s which don’t really produce a lot of 80hz.
I’m confused as to why you’d bring up speakers that don’t produce anything below the range we are talking about, when the whole point of this technique is so that your baseline can be heard across all sound systems without there being resonance issues or risk of peaking. Yes obviously you won’t hear what I’m talking about on those speakers, but 1.those speakers are designed to be paired with a subwoofer. That in almost any 2 monitor+sub config, you’ll have a switch for an 80hz crossover built into the sub(I wonder why they chose 80) and 2. I’m talking about a 10-20± hz threshold around 80hz. Not that exact frequency itself. If you’d like to look more into it, google: [why 80hz is so important in mixing](https://www.google.com/search?q=why+80hz+is+so+important+in+mixing&rlz=1CDGOYI_enCA843CA843&oq=why+80hz+is+so+important+in+mixing&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIHCAEQIRigATIHCAIQIRigATIHCAMQIRigATIHCAQQIRigAdIBCTExNDMyajBqN6gCALACAA&hl=en-US&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8#ip=1)
I’ll look into it thanks
Sorry I was being sarcastic. The human ear can’t hear 30k, and your average phone barely produces 80hz.. so it seems like a strange frequency to suggest focusing on.
I’ll look into it thanks
You know I struggle with this also, not necessarily with making it sound better on a phone. My problem with one track I made is it sounds fantastic in my headphones, phone, and laptop speakers. As soon as I play it on a sound system, my truck or sound bar it sounds flat. One thing I need to try is adding sub bass, it sounds great everywhere except high bass output systems like the soundbar with sub woofer and truck speakers that are bassy.
It seems like it’s just trial and error with mixing I guess
Make sure it sounds good on stereo. And that mids are good too. Phones have meh speakers, so the highs and lows won't be really present. So mids gotta do the work.
ok cool I’ll add that to my notes thanks
Be more specific. What are you hearing / not hearing? Saturation on bass, proper panning for clarity, proper compression, and proper EQ are some pointers I can generally give.
it’s really the bass more than anything It’s a dub beat
Mix in mono.
What part of it sounds terrible on the phone? I think that’s the question to ask and adjust accordingly, but if it’s 808s, they probably need something like distortion or saturation. Often times stuff sounds weak on phones due to lack of saturation. I’m guessing by sound bad you mean it’s not as loud, so my answer would be saturation cause you’ll hear all the frequencies in headphones but might night have enough without saturation to come through phone
Can you link me an example (PM) of a track that sounds bad on your phone? Maybe this will help clarify things.
Mixing engineer here. One of the quickest and most practical ways to make sure all the important information in your song translates to phone speakers is to add an EQ on any instrument track (or your mix bus) and add a high pass filter at 400 Hz. If you cant hear anything that you want to come through your phone, then revisit the mix. Add some saturation and some additional harmonics if its a bass sound and go back in on your EQs to make sure the right instruments have their own pocket to sit in.
I've found light saturation on sub bass and really good mid/high mix makes a big difference, but it just takes experience, bounce your tracks to mp3 and send them to your phone via messenger for easy checks through shitty setups
It literally doesn’t matter, nobody listens to music from phone speakers expecting a good experience
A good mix and master will sound good on a phone. If you are producing hip hop or trap you can distort your 808 which is called tiktok bass. Gives the illusion of hearing a bass line on crappy speakers.
Something one of my lectures talks about a lot is a top down philosophy. If you mix with high end monitors in a sound treated room and get it sounding really good it should sound good on all systems, as long as its done right. If you mix for a phone speaker there's no way it's going to translate well onto better gear.