Been a while since I posted a song here, and I’ve learned a ton since then. So what I’d like to do is post the soundcloud link and also a .xrns upload link so that anyone with time to kill can actually look at what I’m doing hopefully to the benefit of better advice. I did a “delete unused samples” to make it smaller because it was 150mb and that knocked it down to 13mb (Amazingly convenient feature btw). Any feedback/advice appreciated greatly.
You are definitly a good composer the track could be epic but with better instruments… Sorry i really dont like these kinds of fm bass and synth. but drum sound great maybe a little more deep could be great and a small reverb on the snare !
Yeah I actually decided halfway through making it that I didn’t like the bass, but when I tried some simpler bass’s the track just sounded really dull and flat so I wasn’t sure what to try to do. I’d need another instrument to take up the mid range perhaps?
Thanks for the listen and advice. I actually feel pretty proud of the actual drum samples, made them from scratch in zebra. Synthesizing drums is something I’ve been working on for a while and I’ve come from them sounding like shit to them actually sounding like something someone might find in a sample pack (for most of the sounds anyways, I’m still not satisfied with my toms and hats).
I think that this track suffers from the elements in the track not being properly mixed. Some of this is due to odd sound design choices, which seem to fight with each other for attention. It sounds like you spent too much time at once mixing and your ears masked some of the problems with the balance. It seems like the elements need a bit more room to breathe, like that square synth in the middle and the bass seem oppressive to the ears. I’d try to keep to the same average pressure level as the first 40 seconds. This is a very atmospheric tune, and when it constantly tries to punch, it loses one of its best attributes.
In terms of your bass sounds, they are too centered and loud. What would be beneficial is to copy your bass, change some of the settings on one, and split one to the right channel, and the other to the left. That way, you get a wide, evolving sound that doesn’t overpower everything else going on. You also have a few problem frequencies in the 200-400 Hz range that can poke through too much. With your bass, you also want to make sure that it isn’t constantly playing all the time, because it can fatigue the ears.
At 2:00-2:17, you want something to ease the change of having the bass filling out the bottom end to having very little middle happening. Try adding a supplementary part doubling the arpeggios, or having something else down there so it doesn’t sound so harsh.
I also recommend that you not have the melody dead center. You can have it slightly right or left, and have another line answer it in the other channel. A bit of delay would also be nice, so it spreads the melody out across the stereo field.
Really good melody and tune. I still think that it could be much better with more work though, so keep at it.
It would be nice if you could also find some cohesion between the beginning and end of the track and the parts in the middle.
Thank you so much for the listen and advice. I don’t yet feel comfortable with sound design and mixing. I’m coming from a heavy metal background and I feel like it skews my perception of sound some because I feel like something’s missing when there’s not loud distorted power chord chugging guitars all the time. So getting advice like this is incredibly helpful towards training my ear for what to listen for in mixing.
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