When you listen to your own music on studio monitors for the first time and...

[hu-ryu]

you realise how much your mixes/"mastering" sucks.
But it sounded sooo nice in the car.
Oh well. It's a learning experience.

[HepCat]

At least it would appear you got good monitors. I'm told they're meant to make mp3s and less than good mixes sound bad. My monitors make the DAW official demo songs sound doubleplus good, but lower quality recordings also sound somewhat good rather than rough. I guess it's because l only paid about £113.

[O1B]

Happened to me... BEST DAY of my Life, really. It meant.... I could Hear... and wouldn't lie to myself.

After my awakening, the car became my nemesis - to be conquered.
You're FREE. now you can tell when you went over the edge.
Use big speakers, small speakers, headsets, train stations, coffee shops, central Parks, and ..... Car.

you realise how much your mixes/"mastering" sucks.
But it sounded sooo nice in the car.
Oh well. It's a learning experience.

[Benedict]

...good monitors. I'm told they're meant to make mp3s and less than good mixes sound bad. My monitors make the DAW official demo songs sound doubleplus good, but lower quality recordings also sound somewhat good rather than rough.

I don't think that has to be true at all. Sure if you are using old Yamaha NS-10s then they will probably poke your eye out with anything that isn't 100% even; but a good speaker is supposed to be revealing as opposed to brutal or unpleasant.

The difference is that you can hear what is going on instead of feeling that you have to make the speaker happy.

The more you get experienced in monitoring and mixing the more flexible you can be in speaker choice. Taking the time to reference your monitor situation and know what is going on (listen constructively instead of drooling over the bass) will pay off in spades.

Cars, laptops, iPhone buds and your mate's sub are all great places to check a mix to see that a) the story is clearly told, and b) there aren't any scary issues.

[Bloma]

My car speakers are cracked as hell, the bass buzzes all over the place, but good mixes still sound good there. Basically anything by 'Current Value' sounds amazing on every system, and most Aphex Twin.

[JCBendock]

The difference is that you can hear what is going on instead of feeling that you have to make the speaker happy.

I often take my speakers on a walk before mixing, it seems to help.

[Karim]

sometimes is pretty frustrating.... need a walk instead smash everything in studio...

[Noplan]

It does not help if you have the best studio monitors but your room acoustics suck. It's a good idea to have a good pair of headphones additionally.

[Jivethompson]

It does not help if you have the best studio monitors but your room acoustics suck. It's a good idea to have a good pair of headphones additionally.

This.
I would even go further and say your monitors are still pretty much useless without any acoustic treatment of your mixing room! I figured this out 5 years after i got monitors

[deepndark]

Big dynamics in a song sometimes make some other speakers sound shit more oftenly than when the songs is more compressed and having less dynamics. The lowend is where the most problems usually occur. That said, I would use some other speakers for mastering - that are sensitive for pikes and especially for big dynamics.