Logic Pro 8 Mixing / Bouncing issue

AFoster

Logician
Hi guys,

I'm trying to mixdown and bounce my first beat tape / album and have about 16 individual tracks open in a logic project. I wanted to bring all the finished tracks into a project together so I can make sure levels are all about the same and play around with how I order the tracks on the album.

Anyway, i'm now tweaking the levels slightly for each track (basically just EQing them all) to make sure they are all about the same and nothing jumps out when you listen to them one after the other.

I'm also trying to get the volumes right.

What I'm finding though is that when I listen to it in Logic on apple iphone headphones (the latest ones) it sounds really bassy. But given most people will probably listen to it on their phone I wanted to see how it sounds when transferred to an iphone. On the iphone it sounds fine and i'm happy with the levels but if I play the bounced Wav or MP3 on the computer the bass just sounds to high.

Any ideas?!!

I dont really wang to turn the bass down because then it sounds like the low end is lacking when I play it on my iphone.

Really confusing and frustrating! Any thoughts on why this is happening would be very much appreciated. Thanks.

Alex
 
Hi george,

Nope. EQ settings are "off".

Its really strange. Have since noticed that my Sennheiser HD25s and my Shure in ear headphones both sound the same on the phone as they do when I losten to it on the laptop. Bass sounds fine.

I'm therefore thinking it must be something to do with the new apple headphones. Still, just worried that anyone listening to the album on those will be blasted with bass.
 
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To clarify: The mix sounds the same in the laptop and the phone with the 2 sets of phones (Sennheiser HD25s and the Shure) but not the Apple ones?

In other words, I'm not really sure your issue is that one set of monitoring devices has a big bass bump and the others don't, or ????

Please clarify some more...
 
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Yeah thats right. The mix sounds the same if i play it live in logic, play the bounced wav or mp3 and listen to it on my iphone with the shures and the sennheisers. It sounds the same with the apple headphones when i listen to it on the iphone, but if i play the mp3, wav or live logic project on my mac and use the apple headphones it sounds way too bassy.

To add to the confusion, if i play the wav or mp3 on my PC laptop and use the apple headphones it sounds fine.

So for some reason the logic session and the resultant bounced mp3 and wav sound way too bassy on the apple headphones.

Its a strange one. Perhaps this is because i'm running an old version of osX (snow leopard) and using the latest apple headphones. Not sure.
 
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* So for some reason the logic session and the resultant bounced mp3 and wav sound way too bassy WHEN I LISTEN TO IT ON MY MAC using the apple headphones
 
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That Apple phones are simply more "bassy" than your others. Imagine you have 3 sets of speakers... 2 can sounds great, the other has too much bass, or are way brighter or....

I know that when I listen on my Sony headphones things sound great, but my Bose in ear phones sound way less bright, so I have to change the eq in the iTunes app when I listen on my I phones.

That sound changes on my Line 6 USB interface, my 2408, etc. that is the nature of the beast so to speak... the goal is the best balance on the most speakers. but one must realize that all systems are going to be different, even the same speakers in a different room can have a drastically different sound.

Does that answer your question?
 
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Hi George. Yes I fully appreciate that and understand the difference in sound when played on different speakers and headphones and in different spaces. But this is honestly something very different.

Its quite difficult to get the message across without actually being able to show you whats happening. Ignore all other headphones and speakers for a moment. How can my tracks sound reasonably well mixed when the MP3 or WAV is played on a PC. Or when the files are played on my iphone. But when the live logic project is played or the MP3 or WAV is played on my mac, using the very same generic apple headphones it sounds as though the 0-350 Hz range have been boosted by about 7 or 8 dB.

That is honestly how big a difference in low freqs I'm experiencing.

I really appreciate your help but it doesnt feel like we are going to solve this one. I may try uploading the wav to 4shared or something and then downloading it to see how it sounds. In theory it should be exactly the same but some weird things seem yo be happening on my mac!

Thanks again for your time and comments :)
 
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To confirm: Wav file sounds good on a PC and iPhone, but not in Logic, using the exact same set of phones?

So, if I took a wave file and played it out of the mac by selecting it and pressing the spacebar (a file will play directly through the system audio driver) and then took the exact same file, and loaded it into Logic, THEN played it back, it has more bass?

Is that correct?
 
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Nearly!

I have 16 bounced wav files. Each one of these is a track I've produced. I have imported them all into a logic project on different tracks and spaced them out so they play one after the other. 45 minutes in total.

When i play this in logic and listen to it on my shure, sennheiser or yamaha hs80m monitors, the bass sounds how i want it. When I plug in my ipod headphones the bass sounds waaaay louder. BUT if I bounce that project and play the resultant Wav or MP3 on a PC laptop or my iphone and use the same ipod headphones, the bass matches the levels that I hear when I listened to it in logic using my sennheisers, shures and yamas.

BUT if i listen to that same bounced wav or mp3 on my mac using the ipod headphones the volume of the bass sounds way too high, exactly as it sounded on those ipod headphones when listening to it live in logic.

Get it?!
 
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Your PC output is somehow altering it's bass response, perhaps within the audio driver in the OS. That would be the only answer I can think of... try and dig in to your audio driver, make sure it's set to flat, I'd bet a buck it's not.
 
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