Ah, The Car Test. There's nothing quite like that feeling of buzzing about your final mix, then bringing it up in your car, and...
...it falls flat, the bass overwhelms the mix and the vocals sound like they're 10 db quieter!
Yes, it can be brutal but,
The Car Test remains a great way to hear how your mix is coming across in a less acoustically treated space and let's face it, an environment where people may well be listening to your music.
So here's the thing.
What if you don't have a car?
Well, the guys over at Rocket Powered Sound have being thinking about this for a while and have come up with this ingenious little plugin called; you guessed it, Car Test.
I have to honest, I didn't expect too much from this free plugin but was very pleasantly surprised. Of course, it can't recreate everything that being in a car is, but it manages to really alter the sensation of the acoustic space you're in. It's really pretty clever stuff.
If you're working off one set of monitors and need to switch things out from time to time this little plugin is a great way to see how your mix is coming across and a good little troubleshooter just to check at the end of the mix that nothing gone too far wrong with tired ears.