A Cello player would not be playing without vibrato in a piece like this.
I think you can bring the percussion up 2db.

 

Uploaded, previous post. Satin saturated or compressed too much.

 

Was not sure if Satin would work.
Pull the Cello delay back a bit now.
But try and get the Vibrato faster.

 

Either remove satin, or just turn back input and output. For this preview I just changed input and output. Cello delay lowered. Can not get vibrato faster with this library

 

Sounds great. Snare is good but percussion is still a bit soft. Satin really makes a difference. More Punchy.

 

WOW lol, finally!!! Hahahah sounds great from spencer is BIG!

So toned down satin. OK. Next? Snare not touching anymore. Percussion - claps / shakers too loud or too soft?

No second step in mastering phase? (asking because first time you called it first step).

Or we are done?

 

Lets hear full track..

 

Now you and guys gave me so much knowledge during the last 5-6 days. Also, you forced me to get into things with more depth and understanding. This track is finished, and you beared with me (complete beginner is using daw and creating effects, chains, equing, mid side, compression, sidechaining, creating buses and tons of other stuff). Simply incredible thread and effort of the community.

I only feel sorry for ducked strings Maybe just a bit of ducking. Cause ducking is the sound of EDM hahah
Will see. Here it is. Need to remove ducking from the strings tail at the end.

Thank you everyone. Its hard to express how I feel after such progress and there are not enough words to express my gratitude for your time, tips, knowledge, patience and understanding shared with me.

Still, its a tip of an iceberg, and Im ready to dive in. This is not the end of a thread ;)

edit: for some reason, I need to restart ableton or pc, because vocals are out of sync a bit. It happens often to me during previewing or after export.

 

Last edited: Nov 21, 2017

Watch out for the drowning of the entry of the Cello. Maybe just push it a little for a couple of bars.
Also the String Solos are a fraction Loud.
If you wanted to harden the track up a bit you could put an eq before the limiter and add 2db at 2.5k and maybe 2db at 7k.
But that is just taste.
But I think you should now wait for other suggestions and comments.
This has been fun.
Spencer (as somebody said "Darth Fader")

 

Ok reexporting final. Im glad its been fun for you, I thought you were going to kill me

Entry of the cello when it plays for the first time?

 

both.

 

I like how it flows in the second time it starts, after the first strings.

 

A few hard clipping sounds

2:35
2:40
3:18

might be from soundcloud trans coding.

Sounds nice, saturates a bit in some places eats up the percussive elements, but it isn't nasty. Sounds like -10LU, not bad works for someone who's learning to get that loud and not have it be too sizzled and burnt.

 

Thanks mozee! Well, spencer, no avenger, satai, you and everyone contributed to the achievement. Now this is a milestone for me, and I go forward from here! I can not stress enough spencer's incredible patience and effort to make this work.

Hey, yes, soundcloud makes it pretty different from what I hear here. Satin in chain brought some punch, but also a bit of distortion.

 

Last edited: Nov 21, 2017

Here is with some minor corrections. Im almost not touching anything else. Satai asked for exported .wav without anything on master channel, and I will send that file later to him. And I know spencer is going to kill me, but I will post the version with strings with compressor and sidechained with kick

In any case, I hope you agree it sounds very good. Im unmeasurably happy.

 

Last edited: Nov 21, 2017

It's actually not too shabby. Though I agree with Spencer on the french compressor on the strings, or it might just be the timing aspect of the effect. I also agree with him on he pad coming in a little too strong, but since you've stated that you like it that way... then those artistic differences are what they are and it is your track... so be it.

Spencer's mix tips made a mix that can take quite beating and a lot of push, if you wanted this mix could get pushed to -8LU ~ -7LU without too much trouble. That's usually not the case for most people, even if they've been doing for a years.

Though I am not a fan of ultra compressed masters it does take more skill on the mixing side than the mastering side to get a pancake (the ME doesn't have as much freedom of expression on total spectrum balance when it needs to be super loud.)

Your final mix found a few more hard clips than the previous one, not sure if that is CPU rendering thing / plugin overload / loose wire if you are using outboard /sound cloud or an effect misbehaving.

 

I actually turned down output before limiter by 1 decibel. Maybe I should upload .wav file via wetransfer?

Pad is a bit strong now with sidechain removed. Before I had longer release time, which had pad under control. I will lower it by a couple of decibels later. Regarding compression. I dont like heavily compressed sound, and I hope this one is not? If it is, I can remove u he satin from master channel.

I just use sound blaster audigy ex pro or something, from years back. And audiotechnica m50x headphones. Then I export to wav from ableton, with 48000 and 24bit?

Also, should I uncheck Normalize in ableton export window???

I mean, version I came with and after all this effort, its improvement by thousands of times. Incredibly happy here

 

Exports.
You don't need to normalize.

48K24b is a good archival format for you final mix and final masters. Distribution formats don't need to be more than 44K16bit, it is enough especially if you are also going to create lossy versions.

If you are going to export a mix for mastering you should disable all the effects on your master output bus that do not contribute to the artistic sound you are after, and check that nothing it is clipping. If you have no clips and are under -1 dBFSTP you can export a 48K24bit lossless (WAV AIFF FLAC) and call that your _______- final mix. If you aren't sure and don't want to think about it 48K32bit isn't that bit of a deal but do not dither at 32bits, it's kind of pointless, dither will be added later.

Archival.
Don't forget to print a project with all tracks frozen, and backup midi tracks routed to nothing; compacted for archival (you might want to come back to this in 5 years or more and if the effects you used no longer exist you'll at least have the freedom of the printed tracks and can change w/e else if you want or need to with new effects / synths.

Make sub folders with your un-mastered mix as well your final mastered outputs labeled appropiratley, ect . . .

Label it put it away if you want it for later.

3rd party masters or mix checks.
If you want people to hear the final lossless file you can use wetransfer / dropbox / google drive doesn't matter. Seems like you've picked -10LUFS as your loudness target (which is loud but not as loud as it gets) -12LU to -14 are kind of becoming standard with streaming loudness normalization being in the -12LU to -16LU range.

The guys that are going to remaster your uncapped mix should probably be aiming for -10LU just so you can have an apples to apples comparison on tonal balance and compression.

 

Wow useful info mozee!!! Thank you!

Is it ok, I mean is it a practice now for me to upload final .wav file?

Also, since now I just love the part with strings, I thought of expanding the end with more of that mid section, when the strings appeared for the first time For another version of song. I will add small details and corrections to the final mix that was posted here and in first post.

I will add spencer's final suggestion regarding boosting some freqs.

And a version with ducking

 

With your unmastered WAV it becomes possible to showcase a new overall sound for the track, something that's usually done by mastering. Different types of processing you may not have thought about etc.

You might love it or hate it, but if it's me doing it - you'll love it.