Overload

Hello

Should overload of a finished song on a Mac desktop built-in speaker be anything of concern when all else seems fine, even on a cheap PC (though Windows media player applies some pesky compressor if my hearing is correct) ? Through my Mac's HP, I have some audible overload on my current project (QTplayer, YTplayer ...), just as with SOME perfectly professional tracks, but not ALL... Hence, some sound engineers seem to overcome such a problem. So, should this be completely disregarded ?

Thank you very much.

Should overload of a finished song on a Mac desktop built-in speaker be anything of concern when all else seems fine

It's really up to you: do you intend your listeners to be able to hear your finished song through a Mac desktop built-in speaker without overloading? Or is this not a concern for you?

IMO a mix should translate, meaning even though it won't sound the same on a Mac's built-in speaker, an iPhone's built-in speaker, a P.A. system in a venue, or your studio reference monitors, it should be consistent across all those reproduction systems, meaning you can't have a super loud bass line on the P.A. system that completely disappears when you're listening on your Mac's speakers. On the other hand it's alright to have the bass line deep, full and boomy on the P.A. speakers but thinner and tinier on your Mac's speakers: that's obviously expected.

As for distortion, for example if you're producing dubstep you may not care that it'll distort a small speaker, but if it's singer/songwriter type material then you may care more. Ideally you shouldn't hear distortion at reasonable levels, but if you're pushing a small speaker with full volume some distortion is often unavoidable.

First of all, thank you so much David for replying. I really, really expected no one to answer...

I perfectly agree with you on the necessity of having a master track play smooth whatever the player and the HP, but it seems I can't get around this distortion problem in passages that use delays with some highish levels of feedback. No overload on mixing down or mastering (whether on HiFi systems or cheap PC or cheap car system), but then, there's this audible overload when playing through Mac's HP, and limitation itself seems helpless (distortion is still there, only varies in volume in its own apparent right). I tried EQ too: same zero result. So, are delays notorious for possibly creating these problems because of these layers they build even when there's no clipping ? (I may get slight improvement though when cutting the highs in the delay's window)

It could be your headphones.

Turn on pre-fader metering and look at the meters on the stereo output. Delays (which have feedback loops) can certainly continue to feedback and cause levels to get very high.

Put a limiter on the delay that caps it at -1.0 dB.

Put a limiter on the stereo output that caps it at -1.0 dB.

Your description sounds like you are mixing to very high levels of output...and playing back through something that just can't deal with the load.