We’ve all been there. You make a track in your studio, get lost in the moment and start to think that it’s the best thing ever. Then, in the cold light of day - and possibly on a different listening setup - you realise that it isn’t.
If it makes you feel any better, it turns out that even massive pop stars experience this. Speaking to Zane Lowe on Apple TV’s A Carpool Karaoke Christmas, Dua Lipa says: “That’s the problem with really good speakers in a studio. It makes a lot of things sound good, and then you leave the studio and you’re like, wait a second, this wasn’t exactly how I remember this.
“It’s crazy how you can really kid yourself in the moment,” she continues. “The best thing to do is to listen to it on not so good headphones.”
Alternatively, you could try your car: “It’s my favourite place to listen to music,” says Lipa. “The thing that I love the most is leaving the studio, getting a bounce of the record that I’ve just written, getting in the car and just listening to that song on loop until I get home, ‘cos there’s nothing more exciting than hearing something you’ve just worked on and getting really excited about it.”
There’s definitely a lot to be said for testing your mixes on multiple systems. And, as Lipa suggests, if your track sounds good even on cheap headphones, then there’s a good chance that you’re doing something right.
The car test is a good one, too. In fact, it helped to convince Dua that she was onto something when she was recording one of her recent hits.
“That’s kind of what happened to me with Training Season,” she confirms. “I left the studio and I got in the car and I was listening to it over and over again, and then I got to my hotel, and that night I couldn’t sleep, because the song just kept playing in my head. And I was like, ‘OK, I think this is a good one - I think this is going to set me off to where I want to go next.”
Of course, if you want to be able to simulate the experience of listening to your music on different systems from within your DAW, there are various plugins that can help you out. Audified’s MixChecker Pro is designed for precisely this purpose - it can simulate everything from headphones and car stereos to TV and laptop speakers.
There’s also Rocket Powered Sound’s Car Test, a car speaker simulator plugin that can be downloaded for free.
A Carpool Karaoke Christmas is available to watch now on Apple TV+. As well as giving Dua Lipa a lift, Zane Lowe also sings and chats with Chappell Roan and Lady Gaga.
