One useful suggestion is to place speakers on a graph based on how much low-end audio each reproduces. Essentially, a speaker bell curve is created, with speakers or headphones with less bass on one end and devices with too much bass on the other. High quality audio monitors, which are balanced and neutral, are in the center of the curve.

The audio specialist website, Sonicscoop, suggested the bell curve idea. It said devices like iPhone earbuds should go on the bass-light end and certain Beats headphones or a Jeep with subwoofers should go on the bass-heavy end. Similar graphs, for distortion or high-end response can also be drawn.

The goal, using the bass chart, is to aim for the middle of the curve. Create a mix that is optimized for speakers that are flat and neutral. This way, a mix will sound good on the majority of audio monitors since most decent quality speakers fall only slightly to the left or the right of the bell curve.

Mixes will fall apart on hyped speakers that are not near the center of the curve. But then that’s the idea. Mix for the middle and not the ends. Take solace in the fact that most other balanced mixes will fall short on these speakers as well.

As to the old advice about listening to your mix in cars, remember that the bell curve idea gets even harder here. Car speakers are generally not flat at all. Some have super bassy sound, while others are thin or bright. Either way, they often fall far to one end or the other of the bell curve.

For example, say the car speakers being used for a test are bass-heavy and your mix appears to have much bass in it. You head back to the studio and cut the amount of bass. Now, the sound might be better in the car, but it’s worse on the studio monitors and even more so on earbuds.

What has happened is you are optimizing the mix for the car speakers, not the middle of the bell curve. Since the middle of the curve ceases to be the goal, the mix will sound good on fewer speakers. The mix is actually being made worse in order to make it sound better in one car.

This problem isn’t so much about listening in cars as about listening to the mix on speakers that don’t represent the middle of the bell curve. Whenever the mix is changed to accommodate one end of the bell curve, the mix is moving farther away from where it should be.

When following the bell curve theory, the goal is simple. To build a mix that sounds good on as many speakers as possible, mix to the middle of the curve on the best monitor speakers possible. Buy the best monitors you can afford and set them up correctly using good acoustic material and principles.

If you must double check your mix in a bass-centric system like a car, then balance the experience by also listening on a bass light system. Don’t listen on one system and go back and change the mix based on that. Listen both ways and then make your decision. More often than not, you will leave the mix alone.

If you can afford it, hire a mastering engineer to double check your work and make sure your mixes translate well. A second set of trained ears is always useful, no matter how skilled you might be. That mastering engineer might even help uncover problems in your own studio that you overlooked.

The key is to forget about creating mixes that sound good on all speakers. It can’t be done because all speakers differ — some slightly and others drastically. Just aim for the middle of the bell curve and do a mix that sounds good on the widest variety of speakers possible. That’s hitting the sweet spot.