I put down my politically incorrect troll hat long enough to put together a couple inspirational, motivational tracks. This is one of them. Bunch of firsts for me. This is my first track in Cubase. Also the first track on which I've attempted an actual master. Also the first track I've sung/used pitch correction, although as sparingly as possible. I'm not ready to go all T-Pain just yet.

I'd appreciate some feedback on the mastering. I'm brand new to this and I need some people who know their ass from their elbow to teach me the difference


Ahhh fahck. I posted this in the Music forum instead of Our Music. If some kind mod would... you know... correct my stupidity... I'd be grateful.

 

Last edited: Nov 5, 2016

this is the best yet I have heard from you man.. maybe it's more my style of music..
definitely notice a step up in ya flow... ( lyrically for the white bois..)

lotta nice layering in there...pretty good mix.. nothing really sticking out too much, maybe just a point or two
where it sounded a little crowded ( too much going on at once? )... the singing was decent too... sing more often,
think it fits your voice more...

or maybe it's just the magic of Cubase...and auto tune..

Mastering.. I can't really comment..
it's plenty thick and loud..more than enough balls..

 

Man, I love it! See me sitting at my desk singing "I'm unstoppable!"

The song is just so good, but on the technical side I'm not so sure. One signature sound goes over the whole stereo width, which sounds odd, and the drums are buried deep during the chorus, which is a shame since they are so interesting. The vocals in the chorus are very good, for my personal taste they could sit more above the music, but that might just be me.

Oh, that groovy, tension beat. Have to listen again.

"don't you worry about me, I'm unstoppable. Yeah, I'm motherf*cking unstoppable!" Great!

EDIT: You won't consider sharing your vocal stems?

 

@Herr Durr I really appreciate that man. I felt this was some of my best stuff musically as well. the mark of jumping another plateau for me I believe. Without getting too touchy feely here, after a few tough years I'd become a bit numb and got into the habit of making provocative music without a ton of substance. I'm starting to get back to my roots of making stuff that's a bit more emotionally and intellectually stirring.

@tulamide I agree that it's not my best mixing work. If you'd seen the awful muddy mess this track was just after composition you'd know it was a small miracle just to get it to this point. To this day I'm not sure why it was such a nightmare. Eventually I just had to throw my hands up and say, if I don't just accept what I've got I'm never gonna get started on the next song. The arrangement is busier than hell too. I'm a slave to the principle that if I put in a lot of time and effort designing a sound for a track, that it's gotta be showcased. Probably vain and unwise but what the hell.

 

btw @tulamide I'll pm you about stems... probably tomorrow though. I'm about to log off in a couple minutes. Cheers buddy

 

Nice track bro

 

Nice. I like the synth-work especially. There's a part near the end of the chorus that I was expecting to go down but you went up. Surprising but cool nonetheless.

 

It sounds like an end-title movie track. Good job, mate

 

then there's that other principle.. that sometimes.. less is more

 

Sounds like something that should be on the fight club soundtrack. Nice track. The mixing is good as far as compression is concerned. No unneccesary pumping and artifacts. I don't mind the consistent instrumentation that some might think is cluttered. I'd say send everything(excluding snares and vocals) to a buss channel. Then drop an eq, using a slightly wide bell cut between 385-500hz at around -4.5db. Should clear the little mud right out of there. It will make the vocals and snares cut a bit more through the mix as well. Dope song though.

 

I'm less than a newb when it comes to mastering, but I think the drums need to be more prominent. I would also scale way back on the instruments at the beginning and add them as the tune progresses to reinforce the lyrical theme. Just my $.02. Pretty well written tune overall. Good job!

 

Great composition and performance! And I am also really loving the new melodic direction as it lends vibrancy to the groove and humanizes the overall percussive delivery. Critically to my ear I will echo much of what tulamide mentioned. Overall the mix seemed flat , overly busy and devoid of dynamics. I felt it rather flat and squished like too many elements vying for attention and too much wall of sound with little width or depth and the need to scrunch down in a room with a really low ceiling. Kind of like being a quarterback and noticing Lawrence Taylor running full steam straight for you and unimpeded in the gap between the center and the guard because neither of them picked him up. Your focus is on him and him alone as your life depends on the choices you make in the next 1/2 a second, your vision filled with a big #56 and it might be best just lay down because if you try to dump it off he is gonna hurt you bad. Take the loss, dude, the hit just ain't worth it. You came make up the yardage next play. Maybe unravel the mastering and let us hear it again.

 

Oh... people say that?
Lol... i'm playing. I guess it's better to have too many ideas than too few? I'm sure in time I'll develop some restraint.

Sincerely appreciate all the nice words. And @solo83 can't thank you enough for the pointed advice. I'm sure I'll end up putting it--or something very much like it--to use. I'm gonna probably take another crack at giving this track the engineering it deserves. I've never really had problems with getting a solid mix (and ALL my beats are busy) but this one was a MF to tame.

 

Nice track
Your vocal flow after the initial intro is proper slick.
Real nice that the vocal content contains something interesting rather than the usual "Blunted, Bitches and 100k a day"
I'm not qualified to raise any issues with mastering so can't help there but really cool track. Very cool indeed

 

Sick as fuck, man. This is the best one I've heard from you. Dig your flow.

 

The way it was explained to me is visualize the mix like a fish tank. You got to take some water out before you can put any more in. And not all the fish can be the star of the tank. Some arent as pretty, theyre just there to support the ecosystem. I like your football analogy much much better!

 

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@Cav Emp
Your flow is ill man! Real hip-hop. People don't understand that Rap and Hip Hop are 2 completely different subGENRE's of music. See what I did there, LoL I love the track too. This is good!
Out of respect, Im gonna give it to your raw. It sounds squashed to hell, and elements are fighting for space. When different tracks come in you can tell theyre hitting the 2 bus compressor too hard and its turning down the other parts. Like they're pushing each other out of the way trying to be more upfront in the mix. Make sense?
I still struggle with the exact same thing but Im getting better at it.
We already know what to do, its combination of eqing, panning, reverb, stereo, saturation and countless other tricks to carve out and designate a space for each part (or parts) in the mix. We can learn the methods behind it but its something that can only be perfected with experience.
You already know what to do.

 

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I see a collaboration in our near future?

 

Its good.Youre not a poser, you work from your heart and you`re motivated.
Main stream aint got shit on you.
Some overlapping frequencies, solo`s advice is good.
I would tame the highs and mids on the synths.Not too much, just so the vocals have their own space.

 

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It reminded me of the end title track on Nirvana by Salvadores, don't know why

 

Last edited: Nov 5, 2016