Hey guys this is an original song I wrote/sang/recorded/produced and mixed. I tried my best in all areas. I have a pair KRK Rokit5's and I used Izotope Ozone 6 for the master. I record on a Blue Spark with an Mbox mini 3. Anyway criticisms or compliments?

 

Im so disapointed.. I honestly cant find anything to complain about. Good in pretty much all sence.. damn.. a big thumbs up..

 

Sounds really polished, maybe a little too clean. Maybe my personal taste. Could try add some very low noise. Or not. It's pretty good mate well done. Listened on Rokit5's ;)

 

The song should be called Pretty Lady In The High-Heels; I personally hate it when the song's name is not heard in the song itself. It is a well-written, sung and produced song; it sounds to me just like all the other R&B songs you hear on the radio. Just one final comment, the chorus is not really that well defined and separated from the rest of the song. The whole song sounds the same all the way through and becomes a little tiring to listen to. I think there must be very good tried and trusted reasons why pop songs have the sorts of construction they do .. intro .. middle 8/bridge (a rest) .. chorus etc. One of them is to maintain interest and another is to pull your attention back into the song.

 

I think some falsetto in the backing vox will help push the energy, and small stops just before the chorus with a nice drum roll to separate the parts of the song. Kick needs a little more beef. The synth is awesome, needs to be a bit louder. I think some sort of sharp string staccato would fill in the emptiness of the track really nicely or a nice ambient style piano like una corda. You could do the whole vocal echo technique as well for a bit more flavour. Overall nice track composition though man, sounding nice so far, but there are some gaps that could be filled with some of the stuff i said above.

 

Ok wow lots of replys here. So @Vaijj thanks a lot! @captureex Ok noted! @Thankful - Ok so I actually agree with the title thing lol I just thought that title "PLITHH" would be too long. And I can understand what you're saying with the structure. I should have add something to clearly define the chorus the verses. @SyNtH. When I read the word "staccato" I literally exclaimed out loud. That would sound perfect. I'm seriously considering added that in there to fill in gaps! And I'll try to experiment (probably on my next work) with echo-y falsetto type stuff. @superliquidsunshine Thanks a lot man. I've been told I'm making the mic sound a lot better than most. It just goes back to "gotta work with what you got". Thanks for the feedback though everyone, seriously.

 

sounds great maybe more work to control the highs more on the vocals but other then that its very nice

 

Listened on my phone and sounded decent enough on that. From a production perspective it sounds like a job well done. Congrats mate.

 

Sounds official!

 

Hi I think the background strings/pads should be put forward just sitting under the vocal using a stereo wide effect, as they sound very distant. I would listen via Yamaha monitor headphones, the bass is drowning out the vocal and background synth bits. Try also klanghelm for vocals clarity.

You cannot focus on the story of the song. It is not good to mix on KRK, as they are coloured. If you are aiming for radio play use Yamaha Monitor headphones to get the bass right for radio and KRK for club mix. Consider buying Yamaha HS7 speakers for mixing, many commercial rnb artists have these with ADAMS\/FOCAL/KRK for bass before submission to a mastering company. I have managed to do it all Editor Keys Headphones then brought myself a Yamaha RH5MA Professional Closed, the sound the same but the bass is very detailed on the Yahama. I did not even use my HS7s. That's how good the Editor Keys headphones are but Yamaha would of got the bass good enough radio play. I am on VEVO.

 

Last edited: Jan 16, 2016

Needs more autotune and cowbell

 

Sounds nice on my Hs8's, steady low end, pads and melodies are sitting right. Only complaint is that the vocals might be just a tad too bright (on some parts) eg: 1:09, Then again the excitation could sound really cool on a cellphone or car radio (referencing on smaller/bigger speakers is a blessing when mixing alone).

Overall this is a good example of how much one can do with so little equipment.

Good work

 

Thanks guys. I agree with what people are saying about the highs in the vocal. So the second verse vocal my friend sent me was pre eq'd. I actually tried to cut the highs down the best I could. Thanks for the production compliments. And as far as the monitors go, I'm aware of the Yamaha's. I use Sennheiser 280 HD Pro's along with the Rokits. Then I also play stuff in my car(2004 Camry). For now it's the only way to try to get the mix to translate!

 

Sounds great I agree with others regarding vocals and bass. But overall it popping. Great job

 

Really love the MJUC, but when the guy says the MKII emulation replicates the "tube" 1176 compressor he got it wrong. Bill Putman replaced the tubes of his 176 with FET to simulate the tube sound and found a real winner with the Urei 1176. Basses just wouldn't be the same without them and spawning a cottege industry cloning these babies (Purple Audio, Warm Audio, just to name a few, as well as tons of software emulations. Just saying.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Jan 16, 2016

Ok, you asked about the mix and so these are my thoughts about the mix:
The synths are too quiet. The kick drum and the bass lack punch. The drums are not crispy enough. It sounds muffled (except for the vocals).
But not by much - you're getting there!

 

1st off i gotta say that your track brought me over the edge to finally register at audiosex.
my thoughts on the track also match what some others already said. to me the kicks lack a little mid punch it seems you cutted all highs and mids out or thats what the sample was at the beginning. the synth are a tad too low in volume and the vocals have some not so good high/mids and highs. but thats probably the mic. most cheap condenseres have highs that are rather spitty and harsh. but there are some under 300 that are an exception. anyway back to your track. i agree with those guys saying that the structure is not really clear (part/chorus) especially in the vocal part. i miss some width in the chorus together with like a counterpart melody in the back vocals and then in the last chorus i would add some falsetto to make it more exciting.
But all in all i really really like your track. i think the choice of sounds work really well together. also i like how you sequenced the drums and also the little details like the dog barking sound and the little vocal stab. plus i think its nice that you worked together so many different sounds that just play a small role but thats what makes the track exciting. i would just emphasize that a that a touch more in the mix.
in fact i like your track so much that, if you want, i would like to mix your track for free and send you the result. and you can compare. maybe you like my apporach maybe not. nevertheless you wont loose anything but maybe gain something out of it.

 

I really enjoyed your songS, Johnny! I had to repeat the playlist (only two songs, hah) but i was positively surprised to see that it's not your first great track. Yeah, it has a few minor mixing issues, but @GUYS, mixing it's not just about spark and high-end on absolutely EVERY single track of the mix. Mixing it's about clarity&spark ON PURPOSE if the style/mood of the song ASKs for it. By clarity, i mean @db100 , sound-design wise you don't have to hear the click of a kick on absolutely every song. There's something about the lack of highs or whatever frequencies that makes the song impart an "ambiental" feeling and it really works that way. Mixing&Mastering it's about improving the way it can be perceived both technically and EMOTIONALLY, so never forget the later. Do some changes in the drums samples and other sounds of this song and you might end up destroying the perceived emotional appealing of it. Both Mach1ne's songs on his Soundcloud made me repeat his playlist more than 5-6 times regardless of the minor mixing flaws, that's because i've got catched by the mood these song brought me.

So Johnny, don't take anything here too "extensively". Some guys here might come up over-naming flaws in your mix because your topic it's about "how's this mix?" so their unconscious intention of participation was by searching flaws in it and come up with some that are not actually flaws.

Looking forward to the next songs on your release list! Thanks.

Evo

 

Last edited: Jan 16, 2016

Wow, that's nice of you! Any reason in particular why you need to talk down to us like this?