Dear fellow musiclovers,

.. as mentioned in the title, i lost a bit the distance to it.

I made this track back in 2005 shortly before i had a musical brake of about 12 years. Today i am getting back in and improving bit by bit if, time allowes. But in mixing i still feel a bit uncertain.

I have a few guesses: too many delays on the first appearing arps and also maybe still too much reverb?

I've cut the lows to it and even bandpassed it + it's reverb wich i ducked by the original signal.
This arpeggiating synth is in mono, only widened a bit by the chorus and the tilting delays + reverb

The synthwaveish bassline wich i really like, is in mono as well. The big reverbed delayed synthbass '(wich i also like abd call Thrustwave) is wide but it does not appear that often (some 8 bars only), so i thought it might not muddy the mix too much. Both basses are sidechained to the kick.

Most elements are lowcutted, i tryed to give everey element its deserved space in the freq-range but my overall feeling is still this typicall muddy washed out mix. What do you think?

On the end of the master bus, i took some gentle compression and let the focusrite fastlimiter analize it and gave it a try, wich it maybe enhanced it undeservedly too much and maybe would have been much better when the mix where right.

IIts highly appreciated if the one or other finds the time to listen and could give some useful hints.
If you like the track plz let me also know ;)

If time's short (you can stop at 4:20 because the track is basically finished there)

Desert is a burdensome, long journey through the sands some chapter in life

 

I'd happily listen to it except for a small problem..Where is it?


Apologies. Adblock was preventing me seeing it.. I'll have a quick listen now and then come back after full time.. (Champions league match)


Initial impressions are the drums have no energy to them.. it's as if you've sucked the life out of them..

Squashed transients throughout seem to be a bit of an issue as well..

I'll come back in 45 mins and have a proper listen though.



It certainly has potential though.




Back. I have listened to it again a few more times and here is what I've come up with:-

The synths are too loud.. bring them down a few db. The biggest problem I feel now I've had more time to hear it is those drums just don't fit the track.. They feel more like 80's drums where as the track is clearly a more modern approach.. I would replace the drums completely, bring the volume of the synths down and then see where we are from there..

Oh and one more thing... In band passing you have managed to suck the energy from the track... You don't have to band pass everything just because you feel it's what the pros do.. Sometimes it's best to only remove what needs to be removed instead of being over zealous!

 

Last edited: Oct 4, 2022

Aint the SoundCloud link visible on the bottom of the posting for you? Edit: sorry seen it too late

 

NIce track! Few things i notice..

Overall the drums are too loud compared to the rest, or the rest is too soft.
Kick sounds flat, not punchy.
Bit too much reverb overall.
The hooks/melodies aren't very clear and a bit in the back of the mix.
Perhaps the track could use some dirtyness, saturation. It sounds rather clean.

 

Hey there. Is this track mix or master? Either way, that kick is just a little too much or in your face and 'pumping', especially at the beginning. Meaning too much compression. The snare filter trick there you were doing at about 1:35 ... not very pleasant. Sounded like the snare was 'forgotten' and not filter sweeping into it's natural presence. All the synth sounds and choices and their panning sound great to my ears though - there's where everything succeeds. Crashes could could come down a notch. And that snare - consider doubling it with another brighter snare ... figure out a way of making it more interesting and no, not via distortion. I'd like to hear that machine gun bass line more present between both speakers, so consider adding another bass but watch for frequency overlap/collision. The piano at the end is awesome. What sample library is that?

Overall, you're very close to final product. A bit more stereo spread using Ozone's tools (esp. the new stuff) could help too.

That's it for now!

 

Dirty/saturated will not help this track. More people now think it's a solution but like most of the meds my doctor suggests, their side effects are worse than the disease (don't ask!). Personally I thought the kick was TOO punchy ... everyone's ears are so different, eh?

 

can you upload master wav without any effects on the master channel?

 

It's not that bad to me... if it were my track off the top I'd rethink the drum sounds in general, maybe find something brighter and tighter. Fat doesn't work in this context- to me. YMMV.

 

First of all i am owerwhelmed for the awesome support i am very grateful I'll consider all hints for further processing

Thx,
yes the first time i showed it a friend of mine he said it has no low-end so i maybe took it too far. How do i get them more in front? Smaller room reverb and a bit less to the sides? About the saturation, lastly i heard Zenworld talking about using more saturation on the whole mix, did not try it because lots of elements have saturation/distorsion going on anyway.

Thx,
the track is mix and master as far as i am able to (so i wouldn't call it a mastering :D

Yes drums are pretty compressed, back in the days i had every channel of the Reason Redrum routed to its own channel with compressor and eq.
You mean the snare, after filtering did not come back to its deserved harsh-/loudness?

The mashinegun bass is too wide? Or what do you mean between both speakers? Hmm layering another bass? i fear the eQ will be pretty unhappy with me then :D but i can try.

The Track has no samples other than the drum sounds, i always try to avoid samples and make it all self baked at 230 degrees ;)
I editied the piano myself with my small keyboard and mouse back in the days. Glad you like it!

Thx,
sure should i? And how and where..also sounscloud? mp3?

Thx again,
yes i have thought about changing all drumsamples also, i heard electronic music does not fit right with real sounding drums. At least in trance rave, but i always loved to not be too influenced by rules.

Again thank you all, whife is calling me to bed so see you tomorrow hopefully

 

Just wav on google drive. make sure it's 24bit and master is not clipping.

 

Try reducing frequencies between 100 to 200Hz and 1k to 2k hz, boosting hi frequencies.
Your mastering chain seems to not work well.
If you want i could mix/master it and share the steps with you. I really like this track music-wise

 

That a lot of contradictory advice sometimes 180 degrees apart in process.

I think it has charm. Try a HPF on the reverberations and delay channels and automate it when things get cloudy and messy. The mud goes away after a while so it's probably buffer wash. Wouldn't really know unless I head a dry version with no bussing, but that's my best guess.

Everything else = personal taste.

 

it's quite easy to make a "real" drum work great in electronic music. Not as much the kick, clap, and snare, for "genre" music; but the rest is no problem at all. Sometime try a good amount of saturation, compression, and additive and subtractive EQ on "real" drums; like you would get from SD, Addictive Drums , EZ, or other sample source (not a machine). You will easily get good results you can use in Electronic music.

It's trying to undo all that from an EDM style Drum Hit and getting it to sound "Real" which can be next to impossible.

 

Last edited: Oct 4, 2022

We might mean the same, but call it different, to me the kick sounds like a book falling on a tile floor. It's definately there volumewise.

It almost makes it sound like sympho-rock, while when using an 80ies drumcomputer with decent reverb, it will sound more like synthpop. I'd try a LM1+Lindrum combo, or similar.

Agree.

I took another good listen on my studio monitors, and there is some low-end, it sounded better than my headphones, but the overall mixdown is rather soft. Now that i heard it better, i don't think saturation will solve everything, it's mainly the (rather dry) drums that immediately caught my attention.

Yes quite some contradiction here, but i think i see some similar advice.

Besides the drums, i'd consider creating a few less crowded moments in the track, like less is more.

 

Sometimes we work so much on a song that we get used during the process, how ''raw'' it sounds, so when mixing we get lost, maybe that's your case.

Your song has a good vibe, but hings in your mix are disconnected. (don't take this on the negative side, please.)

I'd start by trying to get the drums and bass synths to sound one, to fit together like a jigsaw puzzle.

The bass drum, I would start by shortening it, removing that decay, leaving around 200ms of release (or a little more if you like how it sounds) with a gate and removing some of that extreme sub with an EQ if the gate doesn't take away that feeling of loose sub.

The snare, well, you can lower it, but you would have to tone it with eq in order not to predominate in the mids, around 500hz, I think it needs more treble, to be able to fit better with the kick snap , from there the fit between bass drum and snare would begin.

It's worth remembering that things sound too loud, like the drums for example, but it's definitely because they're disconnected, bad frequencies sticking out, and the synths are too dynamic, correcting that, you start to find the correct space for everything..

With the drums well fitted, it might be nice to have a side chain on the bass synth with fast attack and fast release, every time the kick hits, it compresses the bass, so you have weight and consistency between kick and bass, without tangling.

The synthesizer that plays the melodies needs to be more consistent and cleaner as well, it plays and disappears, they are conflicting in the mids and it also lacks enough definition in the high frequencies to create a connection with everything else.

Look at 3:25, things are directly conflicting, I can't understand the melodie or what the songs want to show.

If the song is good and you start the mix in the correct way, each instrument will ask for the fitting, I even find it funny how it gets easier.

I hope it helps!

 

You have probably worked to much on this mix and lost distance just as you say.

I dont hear anything complex in it that would hinder getting rid of all effects and processing and give it another go. from scratch get a good drum mix and then add the rest.

at the same time
this is a classic for when we are hitting the current limit of what we manage to achieve. When you hit the wall its ok to put some effort, but, there is no point in tormenting yourself beyond your current capacity. When you dont longer hear whats going on anymore, thats a clear sign.

Its an ok track, and and you mixed it as good you could.

Now get on with the next track and apply your gained experiences from this one.

.

 

Last edited: Oct 5, 2022