Due to several issues (like that) I’m having a hard time mixing this:
I had to change my sound card settings, I also reshaped the kick, and today I did a new mono mix from scratch after a break of a few days. The break was necessary, I couldn’t listen to this crap any longer. So now it seems to be good overall, but I think that there are still some SLIGHT distortions at times. Am I hallucinating, or can you confirm that? I’ve listened too many times to that song now. What do you think?
@JVS
“Terrasse_Skruer_5” is very nice, just let it end at 3:43. The last part is an unnecessary addition imho.
Very good beat layers, grooves a lot! I also like the distortion or tape, or what is it, nice. I think you could slightly highpass the kick a bit, but on the drum bus as last fx or so, maybe just a flat shelve highpass. The chord string pad is good but if you dip the middle of it like smiley face (moved to the center of the sound or so), the sound would appear much more massive and less raw in frequncy balance. At least worth a try. Or the first chord opens the filter over time, and each second closes the filter over time, by adjusting the sustain level of the filter env. So it would be some kind of breathing, ehehe
The kick consists of 2 layers (the sub is slightly saturated), so I guess you’re talking about the layer (transient) when it comes to highpass, right? There’s already a HP filter that cuts everything below 150 Hz and a LP filter that cuts everything above 3500 Hz, but I will have a look. Usually I like to have stronger mids when it comes to chords, but I checked your suggestion (SLIGHTLY dip of mids around 1000 Hz, starting from 500 to 5000) and I think you’re right. It sounds a little smoother, at least through headphones (gotta check through speakers tomorrow), and I like it. I also had to fix the snare issue (the 3rd, 7th, 11th etc. snare appeared distorted due to the heavy kick that hits twice just right before the snare), so I did some surgical frequency stuff. Thanks!.
@TNT Honestly, this type of electro breaks is the stuff I truly love…
But there are certainly some mix/balance issues here that you already seem to be aware of…
The main thing for me (which may be throwing off my ability to interpret everything else) is that the booming sub bass is awesome but a BIT too aggressive, and it’s overloading (overdriving) a lot of your other mix elements when it goes boom bOoM BOOOMMMMMmmmm…
Some booming overdrive is nice, for sure!, but there’s a fine line between some nice tape-like saturation and just too much aggressive distortion…
Maybe try dropping the gain of the 808 sub kick to -3dB and see how that sounds overall, then if it’s still a bit too aggressive then try -4.5dB, or -6dB, and so on…
Find that balance point, and the rest should fall into line pretty quickly.
You’re right, the balance isn’t right. Just checked also through laptop speakers and indeed there are some slight distortions (chords, snare) due to the kick. I will probably have to lower the sub’s volume (just increased it by 2 dB and decreased the layer by 6 dB - and additionally HP the basses) and/or HP it again (yes, I already did that, but I thought “No, I don’t cut that bass on principle”, which probably was the wrong decision). Thank you, I will check it out.
Thanks TNT for listening.
Yes, you are right. That forrest-walk part should be the happy-ending of the track. My latest version has that as ending.
The guitar riff almost near
in the end is now incorporated in the first part instead.
We need happy endings
Almost there, but there are some more details left to do:
Decreased volume of “sub kick” and slightly HP at 30 Hz, increased volume of kick layer, adjusted filtering and volume of bass, adjusted volume of both snares and hihats, adjusted volume of chords and some more details. So it was going back and forth. Need to refresh my ears now, will recheck tomorrow.
There are happy endings in movies, but not in reality.
When it comes to music there are happy endings in case that the songs are crap.
edit: Stream changed wip by metaconcept | Listen online for free on SoundCloud the obligatory new version that i described, because i really do need the feedback from the production wizards. i know everything has to be eq’d and also compressed and also adjusted in terms of relative levels. also going to add more elements and length. using renoise and 1 instance of fm8 i think
Been working on this track for a little bit. I was not aiming for “Beastie Boys instrumental” necessarily but that’s where it ended up, seems like. Now the question is, where does it go from here? So far just drum samples plus Surge XT (still amazed at what you can do with that synth).
Surge XT is so fucking good. I just wish that (a) modulations animated in the GUI so I can keep track a little easier, and (b) that you could drag and drop the routing rather than needing to use the presets. I love the oscillators and filters, they sound amazing.
Anyway. Good track, apologies for the Surge XT rant.
The guitar is actually a “clav” patch with a wah on it (a fun '70s combination), all surge! Just a BP filter modulated by my foot pedal.
The mixing is interesting. I was kind of going for a muffled 80s/90s tape sound, so there’s a light Airwindows tape effect on the track. All-electronic music can feel so…synthetic? if you’re trying to imitate live instruments, and I feel like the tape effect helps to take off that raw edge. But I don’t know much about mixing and mastering so maybe I should play around. Thanks!
Additional bass? No, that kick already has got very much bass (had to reduce the “sub kick” that you can hear in “WIP25 v3” by 3 dB again, but I increased volume of the kick layer to “compensate” that). So how did I make it? Actually it’s pretty easy.
Grab a long ass 808 “sub” kick (sine wave) and shape that kick according to your beat (for example you can use the fade out function in the sampler to control the length) and put a LP filter on it
Apply some slight saturation (personally I mostly use the free Saturation Knob by Softube)
Grab another kick that is SHORT (this will become the audible transient of the final result, so shape it that way) and not that bassy and can be distinguished from that “sub kick” (in this case I used a kick that has that “click” sound at the beginning) and put a HP filter (Butterworth 8n) on it at 200 Hz to cut all the bass
Adjust volumes of both “sub kick” and “kick layer” according to your needs
If necessary send both to a bus to compress them by the same compressor to make them “glue together”
What are you after? Personally I think you could cut the bass a little.
Btw., when I read “metaconcept” I always think of MetaComplex.
I have to agree with @lilith, it’s a little too “muffled” imho. Besides of that, nice composition.
I like Sorrow’s album Dreamstone it’s my favorite album so I guess I am going for that I guess. the bass can be cut, potentially. i may consult a reference track.
Agree with @TNT Bass is overpowering, particularly in the first half.
I’d try to bring the dreamy chords more upfront and add some layers and melody there.
The song may benefit from quieter sections with spoken word.
I like that the song is setting mood and space, would like to hear more characters within it.
Sounds really brilliantly mixed to my ears, nice. Maybe the drums have to aggressive transients? Maybe a bit less attack, more sustain? Or just some compression.
Here some hopefully slightly improved mix of an old song, fixed it for my arm mac finally, too:
@TNT Is that better than the original mix, or worse?
