Hi fellow audiosexers. Here is this moment around 3:09 where the mix falls appart and gets crushed. Any tips/critique are welcome. Also, please tell me what you think of the whole track/mix at this stage.

Thank you very much!

 

Around 3:07 it is noticeable that the new element (synth) you had increases significantly the RMS level of your song (smaller peak to rms ratio), probably it is clipping or forcing the limiter (or other dynamic processor) to work to hard. Relatively to track/mix at this stage it seems balanced and clear, at least to my ears it sounds ok.

 

it's like a bad dance music drop. reverb tail of the vocal with resonance stacked up. and the Reese-ish mid synth colliding. it's mud. because a lot of things happen at once. You can actually get more punch in a situation like that but taking a few things off the first beat of that individual measure. Like getting more compression by lowering the input. kinda. Did you already try upward compression with no downward on OTT? If you leave any % downward and it's not very nice usually.

Did you have to stretch that vocal right at the end of that line?

rest sounds good. not sure I would notice this anyway, but you are pointing it out. I'd probably be listening in another building because of how loud it is already

 

Last edited: Aug 23, 2022

Harsh and distorted

 

Hey @Groov3 and @clone thanks for the feedback! I´ve been out of the grid for a while so I wasn´t able to respond earlier. Sure, there was an automation of gain of the synth is been taken care of and also I´m rearanging things so the limiter doesnt have to work so hard in that part.

Thanks again!

 

Too much 6 - 10 khz on the reese IMO. You should bounce everything out and arrange the track better because the kick+snare sounds sloppy in certain parts. Maybe pdc of certain plugins are off. Not sure if thats intentional or not but timings sound off to me. Most issues I'm hearing are in the arrangement /levels . I think you may also be able to align the phase of your kick and bass better too and tweak the sidechain for your kick and snare to punch through more consistently. What DAW are you using btw?

 

Only "you" can see the project and what you are applying at that time. You have to turn something off, turn something down, or lighten something up so it's more subtle. But what? You yourself are the most qualified to answer your own question. But taking a shot in the dark.. it sounds like a track or two you bring in at that time is sidechained to something it shouldn't be.

Or, it could be the breaking point for some global limiter you have over everything. I always say.. It's best to never have anything on the actual master channel (main out). It's the same as creating a dead end when you don't have to. If you do.. you rid yourself of the option to exclude any individual thing that's better off not hitting the limiter/compressor at all. Hopefully, you set up your projects where you create your own bus to serve as the master channel you route all tracks to. Then all tracks have a way out if necessary at any point in time.

 

Last edited: Aug 29, 2022

Hi @Ballz, the track has two parts with two diferent kicks, which one are you refering to?

I´m ableton btw.

Thanks!

 

The part between 0:20 and 2:00

 

Hi,
other than the problematic part i find the track as "no courage" type, well balanced almost easy to forget because of perfection(dont mind the distortion), but that is just my opinion ear and taste, it could be false in every word..

Il comment on your last question, that voice in the last part with the violins/chellos(?) kinda gives a character and i feel it should be connected to something prior, so a particular sound prior to 3:07 should be in the same "energy" place/emotion(on a second listen, i retract my words)

The track is like -7, so you got that right :D, but maybe you lost something along the way which is a normal thing when chasing loudness.

I sound like a smartass, but i like the track, specially the two part section so i took a little time to try to figure the balance i would make, definetly lost some loudness and top end but i tried to squeeze what i liked, sacrified the kick in the first part for the "vibe" and later on lifted up some low end.

So i am trying to back up my words



Good stuff, good luck!

 

Last edited: Sep 13, 2022

Hi @reticular, I just saw this, thank you very much for spending the time with my track! That´s very nice of you and I really like what you did!

I had been working on it a little and definetly I´m gonna kill that first kick and replace it with another that can hold with the vibe you have put on the second part. Will upload it again when is ready.

Again, very nice of you and I´m glad you like it!

 

The drumbreak there is 2-3 db louder than all the other drum breaks. That's probably because the overly loud bass recedes there and the compressor gets into release stage. Use a multiband compressor before the wideband one, make your bass less loud so it won't affect the dynamics of everything else as much. Use a better limiter.