Vocals sound different when played back on speakers, headphones etc

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Level 1

4 points

Vocals sound different when played back on speakers, headphones etc

I recorded some vocals to a backing track in Garageband.

I am now in the process of tuning the vocals. Problem is, say I tune them as best I can then play them back on my speakers, they sound ok, but then if I played the exact same thing back on my headphones (or on the macbook speaker) they would sound out of tune. So I would then tune them when listening to headphones, only for them to sound out of tune when I play the song back on my speakers, and this just goes on and on. I'm just going round in circles with this, and it's driving me crazy.

Am I doing something wrong? What can I do to stop this? Does this have something to do with an audio interface?

Many thanks

GarageBand (Mac) '11, Mac OS X (10.6.7)

Posted on Jul 11, 2012 4:52 PM

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Answer 1

dmusicr Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 12, 2012 3:02 AM in response to dmusicr

Help, please!

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Answer 2

isteveus

Level 5

4,334 points

Jul 12, 2012 3:29 AM in response to dmusicr

Although it is normal to have a song sound fine on some speakers or headphones and sound bad on others I don't believe it can really go out of tune. It is not uncommon to mix a song on different sets of output devices in order to get a good idea how the final mix will sound for many listeners.

You may have certain frequencies that may be a little out of tune that may be masked by louder frequencies on some speakers but become more noticeable on other speakers. This is why most monitors have a flat frequency response.

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