This track is based on the ending of my other track “drill my pitch up”, something dark and heavy to compensate for my last one. 
http://soundcloud.com/thebellows/troublemaker
Edit: New version:
Yet another mix:
I like the hypnotic bass. Has a nice weight to it. The beats started off a bit soft but I appreciated the bite you add later on. Breakdown was also well timed. It could perhaps go on a bit more without the sub. 2nd half was also sweet but I expected the beat edits going a bit more mental. Just a thought.
Overall really cool tune.
I like the hypnotic bass. Has a nice weight to it. The beats started off a bit soft but I appreciated the bite you add later on. Breakdown was also well timed. It could perhaps go on a bit more without the sub. 2nd half was also sweet but I expected the beat edits going a bit more mental. Just a thought.
Overall really cool tune.
Thanks emre_k! I think i agree with the things you pointed out, i also was thinking the drums started a bit too soft, i actually used a flanger effect on it which might have been a little overkill. The plan was, like you mention, to add more bite throughout the track for a build up effect, but i’m not shure i was too successful in my attempt.
Normally i would have made the drums a bit mental at the second half, but this time i had a plan of making a minimal track, concentrating on the groove of the beat more than the progression. I never stick to a plan, so i’m not shure why i did an half-arse job on trying to stick to it this time?
Actually i’m thinking about remaking it more or less from scratch as i’m very happy with the tune, just not that satisfied with my execution of it as i did a lot of akward editing and experimentation that have ruined some of the initial feel i was going after.
I think maybe i’m using the wrong drum samples too, i want them to sound more like real drums. I think maybe i should make the bass a bit more dynamic as it sounds a bit too monotonous in some parts.
Drums have been an ache in the side for me the whole time, i never really felt i nailed them in my tracks, so that is my main mission this time, i want to nail the drums just once. I do struggle to find the right matching samples though, maybe i should just sample them myself and not rely on the zillion sample packs that never seems to fit.
After drums i struggle with the mixing, or maybe it’s just laziness and impatience? Anyhow i won’t give up on this, i think i’ll revisit this untill the drums and mix sounds perfect. Hopefully it’ll happen one day. 
Drums have been an ache in the side for me the whole time, i never really felt i nailed them in my tracks, so that is my main mission this time, i want to nail the drums just once. I do struggle to find the right matching samples though, maybe i should just sample them myself and not rely on the zillion sample packs that never seems to fit.
After drums i struggle with the mixing, or maybe it’s just laziness and impatience? Anyhow i won’t give up on this, i think i’ll revisit this untill the drums and mix sounds perfect. Hopefully it’ll happen one day.
Well I don’t think your drums sounded that way but I know what you mean. I’ve struggled with it for a long long time too. I’m still trying but lately I feel like I’m doing a little bit better by A-B’ing my drums with professional tracks right from the start. This plugin’s quite helpful: https://www.samplemagic.com/details/184/magic-ab
I can’t afford plugins at the moment, so i’ll have to do it the hard way i guess. I should definately A-B much more than i use too, every time i have tried it i get some ideas, do a lot of stuff and suddenly it sounds nothing like the reference at all.
Judging by your tracks on soundcloud i think your drums sound way better than mine has ever done. Are you sequencing all your drums or are you using premade breaks sometimes too?
Yeah you can also do it in Renoise for sure. What I’ve been doing recently is A-B’ing from the first moment. It works like this: I load up a pro track once I have a basic beat & bass. I’ll level match my sub to the pro track using the Renoise spectrum view and then the breaks using something like Pro-L (or G-Clip should work as a freebie)
Once you level match peaks you’ll usually find out you need more power. That means your dynamics aren’t as tight enough. To control them and get more power, saturation is the key for me. It reduces peaks in a pleasant way (unlike clipping) so that you can turn the volume up after. And that’s when I usually add compression to tame the peaks a bit more and get that smooth volume riding effect.
Once those 2 sit correctly the mix will come together easily. This might not be the best way as you won’t have any headroom but for me this works much better than anything I’ve tried.
For breaks I generally chop and resequence old breaks and layer hits on top using phrases. And add eq, comp & saturation as necessary 
Hope this helps!
Sounds like some very useful tips there emre_k, thank you! 
Here’s a new version, pretty mental this time:
High frequencies seem loud to me and the mix seems to be a little distant to my ears (maybe reverb), but generally, I like it.
High frequencies seem loud to me and the mix seems to be a little distant to my ears (maybe reverb), but generally, I like it.
I guess you’re right, first of all i think i have to do something with the reverb as it doesn’t sound too good.
Not shure why i keep mixing the high frequencies too loud?
Good stuff. I agree the hi freq’s sound a db or two loud at times. This one is more mental indeed. Perhaps a little bit… too mental?
Definitely sounds cool though, l like it.
Good stuff. I agree the hi freq’s sound a db or two loud at times. This one is more mental indeed.
Definitely sounds cool though, l like it.
Thanks! The hi frequencies seems to be too sharp in many of my mixes, i’m aware of it, but i’m not shure why i keep doing that. I think i’m a bit afraid to loose details when i remove a lot of the highs…need to work on that.
Perhaps a little bit… too mental?
Nah, barely psych ward material. 
Edit: working on a new edit now. My tactics are: Put MQ57 Equalizer VST on all tracks with a few decibels down in the higher frequencies, turn off most all the reverb, put the filter magician on the bass to make it wobble like crazy and then compress the shit out of the master with OTT.
I must say i found it much easier to adjust the MQ57 EQ to a nice tone than with the native EQs, don’t know why it is so? I’ve been relying on the native EQ’s pretty much all of my EQing, but i’ll probably start using this nice plugin more.
Starting to sound a bit…eh…mental, or at least i should guess the neigbhour downstairs are becoming pretty mental right about now. 
Edit: working on a new edit now. My tactics are: Put MQ57 Equalizer VST on all tracks with a few decibels down in the higher frequencies, turn off most all the reverb, put the filter magician on the bass to make it wobble like crazy and then compress the shit out of the master with OTT.
I must say i found it much easier to adjust the MQ57 EQ to a nice tone than with the native EQs, don’t know why it is so? I’ve been relying on the native EQ’s pretty much all of my EQing, but i’ll probably start using this nice plugin more.
Starting to sound a bit…eh…mental, or at least i should guess the neigbhour downstairs are becoming pretty mental right about now.
and here it is:
Am i on the right track? Maybe i removed too much hi freqs? Too much compression?
Seems like these last two edits are a bit more popular on soundcloud than my usual stuff, so i guess i’m doing something right.
and here it is:
Stream Troublemaker - Troubled Edit by TheBellows | Listen online for free on SoundCloud
Am i on the right track? Maybe i removed too much hi freqs? Too much compression?
Seems like these last two edits are a bit more popular on soundcloud than my usual stuff, so i guess i’m doing something right.
Sounds good and indeed, the highs could be a bit louder now But the overall mix is sounding a bit “washed out”, especially on the high end. Not sure why that would happen but I’d say over-processing. You could try taking off some of the fx and going back to the basics. Like trying to mix it just using volume faders and eq etc.
But it works as it is (that was also true for the 1st version) so you could just let it go and move on to new tunes