I made a cheerleading mix on Audacity 2.1.3 in Windows 10. It sounds great on my laptop and iPhone and when I email it to other people. I exported as an MP3. When I play it from my iPhone on my JBL Eon 610, half of the songs sound great and half of the songs sound distorted (no bass, strange parts of the song are loud, like snapping, vocals too low). How do I fix this? I’m working with a youth cheer organization and we have no budget. So I’ve taught myself all of this so far. Thanks for helping!
This is a single-mono speaker, right?
If the left & right channels are out-of-phase (the left speaker is pushing-out when the right speaker is pulling-in, and vice-versa) and you play through a mono* system the bass and the “center channel” (including the lead vocals) will cancel-out.
If you plug stereo headphones into your phone, it should sound OK.
…So now the question is, how did that happen??? Did you record any of this music with a microphone or some kind of analog connection, or did you load original-digital files into Audacity? (The “wrong kind” of microphone can make a recording with the left & right out-of phase.) Original digital files should be OK.
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- When played-back through a stereo set-up the sound waves will cancel in the air, and you’ll notice a loss of bass and it will sound “weird”. But overall, the cancelation won’t be as drastic.
Make ABSOLUTELY sure that there is no strain on the cable where it plugs into the iPhone. This is extremely critical as the headphone jack is very delicate and, over time, just the weight of the cable pulling down on the jack can wear it out and give you symptoms very much like you describe. The cable itself might be “bad”, with an intermittent problem…
What kind of cable are you using to connect the iPhone into the system? The iPhone’s headphone jack is a stereo output; you should be using a cable with a stereo headphone male connector on one end and two XLR male (when going into a standard mixer) or two TRS (tip, ring, sleeve - when going directly into the EON using input 2 & 3) connectors on the other end. If your EON only has a single XLR input, use the cable with two XLR males plus a Y adapter which has two XLR females and one XLR male.
I have both first-generation & second-generation EON 15s (subs and mains) which I use daily in a similar manner (I have many thousands of tunes, all of which have been processed by Audacity, most stereo but some mono; most FLAC, some M4A and a few MP3s). I don’t have an iPhone but I do use my iPod a lot and occasionally my iPad. I have not experienced anything like what you’re describing - my system is in heavy, daily use and has been running for 15+ years.
That being said… I don’t know which EONs you have, but mine have a number of controls on the back where you plug the signal in. There should be one control which controls whether the EON assumes whether the incoming signal is Line level or Mic level - this is a push button which is recessed and can only be depressed with a small object like the tip of a pencil; make sure that this is in the proper position (for both my iPod & iPad I use Mic level). If you are daisy chaining multiple EONs, make sure that the button labeled MIX/LOOP (which controls how the gain controls operate) on all of the EONs is set appropriately (again, this is a push button which is recessed).
Finally, identify a couple of known good and known bad songs. I don’t know if there is a way to export the songs from the iPhone; if so, export them (email them to yourself?) and import them into Audacity. Do the “bad” songs play “good” in Audacity or did they sound just as “bad” as when you play them from your iPhone. Your computer probably has a headphone jack - try plugging your cable into the computer and running the EON (again, be thoughtful of strain on the computer’s headphone jack although it is much more robust than the ones on iPhones, iPods etc.).
What kind of cable are you using to connect the iPhone into the system? The iPhone’s headphone jack is a stereo output; you should be using a cable with a stereo headphone male connector on one end and two XLR male (when going into a standard mixer) or two TRS (tip, ring, sleeve - when going directly into the EON using input 2 & 3) connectors on the other end. If your EON only has a single XLR input, use the cable with two XLR males plus a Y adapter which has two XLR females and one XLR male.
Ah! That’s probably it… The microphone input is balanced (3-wire XLR connector) and the line-input might be balanced. The “wrong” stereo adapter into a balanced mono connection will give you L-R subtraction.
BTW - The only good way to mix the left & right channels is with a mixer, or you can do it in software. You shouldn’t “short” the left & right outputs together. (You can make a simple fixed-passive mixer with a couple of resistors if you know how to solder.)
If you have a single-mono speaker, the best solution is to make a mono file in audacity and then use an adapter that only connects the left or right signal to your speaker.
Or as a quick-fix, use Audacity to mix the left & right channels into one-side of a stereo file and leave the other channel silent.