Little Chicago's Finest: 'My Own' Exam mix please help

[Kiruat]

Hi everybody!

My first post here, so let me introduce myself a bit, i'm mainly a self-taught dubstep producer since about 4 years and i use bitwig as main DAW. I've started to study in a music school since last year.

So in order to pass my exams at my music school i've to make "My own" sounds like this reference:

(The closest sound i've found)

The idea was to keep all the original materials and mix it with Pro tools and it's native plusgins. I'm not used to listen/produce Hip-Hop and it's the first time i try to mix this style so i come to you for a little help if you please

So first, i'd like to know if you feel my mix globally match the reference?

My main issue is to make the kick sounds close to the reference due to difference of kick between the reference and raw materials.
Do you have any tips/suggestions to improve this?

I know i've some more work to do to make it sound better and closer to the reference, but after only 3 hours working on it, i feel stuck, so i'd also like to know, aside the kick, if you'll modify some elements and how you would to match the reference?

I'll present this mix in front of a professional jury in two weeks, so i'll let you know if it worked soon

Thanks in advance for your help!

[Don Perignon]

Hey Kiruat!

First off, thank you for taking time to mix My Own. I'm Don Perignon. I made the beat and mixed the original song. J-Spurge and K-11, the artists, are good friends of mine.

I'm curious, if you don't mind, what school are you attending? Also, did you choose My Own or is it used in the classroom? The latter would be incredible! How did you do on your presentation?

So, before I give my two cents, I would like to say that Young, Wild and Free had to have been incredibly hard to match sonically. It's rather ironic that that was chosen as the reference track, because I love using Wiz Khalifa songs as reference tracks, specifically for matching the vocal sound.

Ok. The biggest difference I notice between the two tracks is the bass and treble are total opposites. The bass in My Own overpowers everything including the vocals. In YWF, the vocals are on top and in your face, as they should be, granted they probably used a mic that cut right through the mix and I did not. (I used an AKG C214) My Own is really muddy. In YWF, the kick isn't really detailed, but you made it stick out a little too much in My Own.

I love a kick with a "click", so in the original, I carved out the low end to get the clicky sound and then used compression later to bring the low end back a little. Then I balanced everything out the way I wanted it. Also, in the original I HPF 120Hz for vocals and kept them relatively dry to give that "in your face" feel.

Hope that helps. Thank you again for your interest in LCF My Own. It's an honor to have it be used as an assignment! Hope to hear from you soon!

Don Perignon