hello there. I would SUPER appreciate any feedback on the mix/master of this little techno song I made. I don't know people irl so beyond listening to it on TV speakers, phone, earbuds and hd600s with my ears I'm wondering how it translates.

I tried to get it loud and clear of course, it's like 85% nebula timp/cupwise effects, and I didn't use any 'AI' plugins like I have in the past, gulfoss/sonible/soothe(perhaps a mistake haha). i used elevate, I guess maybe that counts. and I did use the sonible true balance/level, and then ignored the recommend lufs for SoundCloud cause I was just thinking about Leo being like, "oh you can't even make an 8 luf master without it distorting?"

these links are the same song, but I thought vocaroo was just the original file played back so yeah, I just uploaded the 96khz wave to both. the soundcloud has a couple of earlier versions too.

https://voca.ro/14kgeyB50wPJ



would be great to hear from someone on what I should focus on, like for the mix part. I don't hate this song (beyond being burned out by now) but the main thing was just to try and go from start to finish.

 

One should be careful with boosting highs and reducing lows on the clap/snare. I know it's tempting and a lot of people do it because otherwise it sounds "dull" to them. But you can also define boosting highs and and reducing lows as "sucking out weight" which it does to me.

 

Last edited: Jun 24, 2023

THANK YOU! also GOOD ear- I think the very last thing I did before printing the mix bus was do a boost at 500 on the drums to for the clap and it threw it off- that wasnt the right move. thanks a ton for helping me out with some perspective! I'll go back and do some tweaks.

 

If its intended for movie or commercials, I think the mix is pretty well balanced. If it's to be blended with Gesaffelstein solo work and the likes in the genre, the snare/hi hat prominence and overall tilt of the balance toward high freq is on the bright side.

On a personal preference basis, I prefer your rendering then the usual lack of resolution in the low end. In here, it sound tight and precise without being harsh.

 

Last edited: Jun 24, 2023

This all goes for Soundcloud version.
The snare/clap is too mechanical and a bit overbearing. I'd suggest replacing the sample to something more organic and a bit softer.

The ride cymbal from 1:51 onwards is messing the sound with some very digital distortion (I think it's aliasing, actually) and generally being noisy, loud and too on one side at the same time. Likewise, replace the sound, remove whatever's causing the distortion, make it quieter, maybe pan closer to the center so the highs aren't one-sided while it dominates.

The one-note arp also aliases. Is that a creative effect? It sounds okay-ish on the arp, while the ride cymbal just shits the sound every now and then.

The subs from 1:35 feel like they're present at all times. Do you by any chance have long release or reverb on sub synths? Well, at least the kick is louder I guess, but they don't really have to fight. That makes for an interesting effect where sub and kick amplify each other, but not only does it really differ from other parts of the track (not necessarily a bad thing, although might present complications at bus processing stage), but this can also present an issue in other contexts, say when kick and sub aren't in phase and you get comb-filtered lows instead of a good boom. I'd recommend keeping an eye out for this in the future.

That secondary lead that adds a lot of dissonant invervals adds too much noise to highs, and also has a bright reverb and delay to boot? This makes the mix feel very unclear when it plays. That being said it conflicts with everything in every regard, I almost feel like that's the point. Anyways, it would be better if it won't muddy the highs with its hiss.

Overall mid-highs feel weird. As if it's a few dB too little of mid-highs for the amount of low-mids and highs you have. I'm talking at about 1.5-2k, so the lower part of mid-highs. Except for the overbearing clap, that is. Actually would've been less overbearing if the rest of the mix caught up, but still too mechanical. Anyways, you might wanna tone down low-mids overall and these two prominent highs I mentioned alongside making the clap less harsh and robotic, or you might wanna add these 2-3 dB of 1.75k to everything but claps and hihats.

On second listen, hi-hats also have more mid-highs (5-8k this time), and thus feel harsh and heavy. Might wanna reduce that too.

 

Last edited: Jun 24, 2023

fuckkkkkk yeahhhhh amazing feedback! thank you so much, I feel like Major Tom in a little capsule sometimes so I can't really emphasize how much I appreciate you guys taking time to check it out.

I'm gonna sit down and tweak things later today BUT everything pointed out is dead on imo, and i feel like it points to me making some rushed impulsive late stage decisions based on the visuals sonible true balance and not my ears. and not waiting long enough between doing those and rendering!

especially justwannadownload for taking the time to get into the details. i tried to just eq the entire drum bus stem out of laziness and you hearing basically everything that went off from doing that is a VERY good lesson (not that they were perfect before then either of course). same goes for the synths you mentioned where I kinda worked on it until I thought it might be ok as opposed to where I knew I was really into it. last but not least I'm gonna add an extra day or two of downtime in between rendering something and asking for feedback so hopefully I can catch more stuff.

oh- and the clap I'll try to fix but the mechanical part was as intended- NOT because I like hearing the same boring clap for 4 minutes but just cause the I really didn't want to get bogged down in production details and to practice on finishing something. .....but since I'm gonna open all the drums up again anyway I should probably fix that too haha. but yeah great help knowing the things I was skeptical about and squashed down inside, rides definitely included- NOPE!

 

ok I made another song this weekend, if anyone is bored and wouldn't mind checking it out that'd be rad. just a techno thing, nothing special just working on clear mixes and Im not sure how much I can trust the true balance/tonal balance/my ears. I REALLY need to reference it against like gessafellstein but I haven't.... I think it's ok minus the rumble I dunno. stylistically its here nor there, gonna add one or two elements to it later maybe or its just a throwaway.

all nebula btw and flagship and sp79 on it for those curious about that. plus basslane pro and newfangled elevate. thanks back to work break over.....

https://voca.ro/1bo7cAyJ8suQ

 

In a quick A/B with gessafellstein, what hit me the most in your latest record is that some of your synths (and bass) are very dry and all up in your face in the mix which makes your rhythm section feel shy sometimes. Your drums don't seem to be part of the ambience neither. They seem to be laser beam centered and don't blend with the rest of the element. At 3:03 or about and on , that background synth seem to get into an ambience that I believe could more widely be integrated to the whole elements to give your song a certain temper which would help you get a vibe of an ''on location'' type of song.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that it feels very dry and I think you could put a lot more elements in verbs to get some depth out of it but also get a vibe that I think could fit your track industrial feel.

 

When I read the title of this thread I thought, wow, this is a prime example of ambiguity. Do you want us to check your amateur mix, or do you want amateurs to check your mix? It probably doesn't matter, as long as it's quick.

 

Last edited: Aug 21, 2023

lol dude well- great ear, or rather yes your ears are working just fine cause yeah I never ended up doing any fun shit like verbs on the synths, really just focused on the drums for this one. so great analysis! I agree completely- basically I've just been building up areas and this area was making sure I could do drums ok for techno. but I agree with you 100% on the vibe, if I finish that I'll definitely be fucking with some different verbs and getting it blended. spot on.

I think I'm more confident now about what I'm hearing so I can stop bugging y'all (AS LONG AS ITS QUICK I DONT WANNA WASTE YOUR TIME!!) with experiments. now I just got figure out if I should put my efforts toward building a shitty emo pop EP ( https://vocaroo.com/1leqFGT2kZSR that style of shit) or this techno style EP. it's just for fun so maybe I'll flip a coin. thanks for your time!

ps Martel I'm laughing about not putting anything on those synths then you immediately being like "those are dry as fuck" so I'm gonna definitely opening it up to work on right now.

 

I think both could meet somewhere in a project. That song sound like a great intro for an EP (I love the textures and movement) so if you dilute your industrial techno ideas a bit and get more ''electro pop'' ideas blended with it, you could get something solid and original.

I don't think you're far, honestly. The structure is already there.

 

Excellent! Can you send me a copy to the sanatorium? I need musical entertainment while I sit in my rubber cell and sharpen my toilet brush with my incisors. Music silences the voices and helps me concentrate to plan my brilliant escape.

 

you can count on me sinus wells, although these are more depressing/ideations than completely off the wall. I recommend checking out Blue Sky Black Deaths Album they did with The Holocaust (a rapper. aka Warcloud, part of the Killa Beez associating with Wu Tang iirc) I am genuinely 100% crazy, but like I said in that way. The Holocaust is crazy in like a schizophrenic way imo, perfect album to break out of the sanitarium.


thanks Martel- Ive got quite a few song in close condition..... time to polish them up and get OCD about them all. thanks for the feedback, I think trying to blend the two different styles together is a good idea. I haven't released any music officially for a decade and I hate how that EP ended up sooooo.... be a good project to focus on! gracias!

 

Yeah, the claps and snare are a bit overwhelming.
The hi-hat is also a bit harsh in the second part (1:51 forward).
I would also try to add some mild distortion on your mix bus and apply a clip plugin on kick (Kazrog KClip it's great)

 

th

thank you for taking the time to check that out! I am a dumbass and instead of making. a new thread I just updated this one so the song lol. I'm on mobile and I was like uhhh I don't want to make TWO threads.... so now it's more confusing. the last few comments are referring to a song i posted just a day or two ago.

but as for your critiques- 100%. be curious if you listen to the newer one and find them to be too loud as well. and what you think of the kick- but no obligation all good!

on the newer one I used a different clap pattern than I normally use (it's like "Spanish" style in my head, whatever the hell that means) and no crazy ride cymbals at 1:51 lol. I made a rumble for the kick, don't normally do those and got paranoid abojt it being way too bassy so made a post.

 

The few I checked out make me wonder where you are putting your Low Cut on your top sounds. Clap, Snare, hats mostly. I think you may be cutting them too high and not leaving enough of the body of them. (even the portions that your EQ do not show any presence of amplitude there). You can leave more than you are, is my guess. Also, what rolloff are you setting on your low cut EQ/filter? A good rule of thumb is to use an extreme slope like -48dB or higher with sounds that are inorganic, like synths. Any more acoustic or natural types of sounds you do not really want such a drastic rolloff, because that isn't what happens in a real space. On an individual sound or channel, you may barely notice the difference, if at all. But over the sum of a bunch of channels, like your entire drum kit; you definitely will. The result is almost too drastic frequency separation. Overheads don't capture cymbals that separated. js

 

Last edited: Aug 23, 2023

First one is missing a bassline, there is only kick and synth leftovers. Cut the synths at 200Hz and add bassline. Second one kick/bass is too quiet.

Both need some sort of density and texture added. Use distortion on hats / snares / claps. Play around with cuttoff and envelope automation on the synths to get things moving. Add a ton of reverb / delay return channels. Like a fuck ton. Some Ambience short ones on percussion, halls or plates for synths etc etc.

Edit: The percussions in the second piece sound way to natural, you can try to use distortion or vocode them with noise as carrier to give them a more machine like sound and add reverb to them too.

 

Last edited: Aug 23, 2023

hey dudes thank you!!!! I'm reading all this taking notes, Ill have this thread open looking at stuff this weekend... ALL weekend. hard to describe how encouraging this is and how incredibly useful it is to me- there is gotnofriends the user here but really I got no friends so this is just a massive massive help getting feedback. I'm about to walk into work so I can't respond to each thing but I'll respond by posting a new version sometime after the weekend.

the techno song I already started adding reverbs too (lol) and yeah will look at everything everyone posted and use as much as I can. I've been in the shit the last few years so a project to FINISH something would be good and the feedback is heavenly. I'll stop blowing this thread up until I post a revision I hope is "done" but yeah plenty to work on and apply to my other stuff too. gracias amigos!

ok now I'm sitting here before clocking on- clone very good questions, kinda dumb normally I'm very OCD about treating/EQing every single sound but pretty much these last two I mostly just used the modern flagship console from Alexb on random samples and didn't really touch much. trying to remember- generally I probably do cut too much lows out of those however, I tend to be biased towards that for whatever reason. anyway, I'll look into that, and the filter slopes I'm using/not using, great tips. I wonder with some more drum verb I can fill things out more.

nctechno- how can I not trust that name! great tips. this is a cop out, but things like adding movement to the synths with envelope filters I 100% agree on they're just generally some of the last steps for me.... so I still need to do all that stuff before this song would be "done." sorry for posting a rough draft, but like I get paranoid I'm so off base that working further on something is a total waste. awesome tips with the distortion, I'll def play around with that. thanks for dropping some knowledge, I'll be applying literally everything I can from it!

 

Last edited: Aug 23, 2023

I'd tuck those synths in a bit. They're awfully dry. They'll sit better in a more cohesive "space". Don't get crazy with it and make it too washy, however.

Also, are you "gluing" on your 2-bus?

I like the overall composition. Dark and with movement.

 

you certainly can. reverbs, delays, and echoes can create additional "information" underneath the fundamental. you'll get more of the gentle rolloff too, as the sound fades away in "distance". you can always stick another eq after the reverb if you notice you are adding information between 300-400 ish so you aren't adding mud to fix later.