Discussion Zone

Full Version: Human Mistakes
You're currently viewing a stripped down version of our content. View the full version with proper formatting.
Pages: 1 2 3
This is my effort to break out of my rut of conservative mixing and apply my creativity to a mix. I wrote some lyrics and recorded them and shuffled everything around... basically rendered the entire intended message of the tune out of context and into something much darker...

Blush I hope Skepolu doesn't mind
Nice mix, great levels and smooth. Great work.
Thanks man. This was an all nighter effort
Nice balance in the mix, though for me the crash is too loud. I always like to hear creativity in a mix and I think the parts you added work well. I like at 5:30 when I thought the track was over, it kick back in, it was a pleasant surprise.

I felt a little under whelmed when the first chorus hit as you held back on synths for later choruses, which is great but I still felt the first chorus needed a little more.
(05-03-2014, 06:19 PM)pauli Wrote: [ -> ]Thanks man. This was an all nighter effort


Yes and I have had many of them
(05-03-2014, 09:46 PM)sano Wrote: [ -> ]Nice balance in the mix, though for me the crash is too loud. I always like to hear creativity in a mix and I think the parts you added work well. I like at 5:30 when I thought the track was over, it kick back in, it was a pleasant surprise.

I felt a little under whelmed when the first chorus hit as you held back on synths for later choruses, which is great but I still felt the first chorus needed a little more.

Thanks for the listen and comments! I looked for professional samples, couldn't find ones I liked, so I recorded my own voice Tongue not that anyone would ever recognize it.

I'm glad my little drop at the end had the intended effect Big Grin I saved the gain pumping for the end for that payoff. Perhaps that's why the first chorus is a little underwhelming...

I didn't really think too much about the synths... with the exception of the dancey ending I didn't really change the order things came in, just broke them up to make room for the samples. I agree with your comment though, but I'm coming up empty on ways to give it more power without "more of the same." What do you suggest? I'll give it a go if you've got any ideas!

Agreed about the cymbal, too. I think some of my edits might have inadvertently pushed it behind the beat, which'd make the balance issue even trickier.
cool mix! I like the new vocal recordings you added and no, I didn't recognize you Wink I think you've managed a quite clean mix as you were wishing a few days ago in another song we commented. I'm glad! Great work done here!
Ha, I like how you've changed the entire feeling of the Track!
Of course I do not mind. I wouldn't put up my tracks for mixing & mastering if I wouldn't want others to be creative with it! Smile
the bass could be a bit more heavy, as it's drum & bass, and as people have already said it, the crash seems a bit loud and compressed (or even uncompressed?) not correctly for such purposes.

But tell me: Did you record the Lead-Synth on the second Chorus yourself with a guitar? Either you've changed the sound a lot or you've re-recorded it, I can't tell with my tired ears at 9:00 PM sadly.

Anyways, good job, a bit more beef would do it however.

P.S.: I am actually called Skelpolu, ahaha! Smile
Juan: Thanks man.. this track is quite mixable and there's a lot of room for creative experimentation... although I think I may have undercooked the reverb and made it a little TOO clean, but I'm going to give it a few adjustments based on the comments and we'll see what happens Smile

Skelpolu: Sorry for messing up your name Blush Thanks for giving us access to your tune (which I like a lot) and for commenting on my mix! Rarely do I get insight from the artist on this forum... it's much appreciated! Unfortunately where I live most people have never heard of Drum&Bass... I know a little about it, but not enough to choose a suitable reference track and cooked the bass similar to a Massive Attack track. Easy fix though... stay tuned!

So about the cymbal Blush I just peeked at my project file to figure out what was going on there (it sounded compressed to me too and I didn't remember doing that) and I feel like a doofus... I didn't process it AT ALL... completely missed it. No filtering or anything... pretty silly mistake! I spent way too long fiddling with the samples probably Big Grin Another easy fix... I think a high pass filter would do the trick, and maybe a little transient processing to further reduce the sustain, maybe?

The lead synth isn't very heavily processed either in terms of how many effects I applied... it's the same synth. I thickened up the low mid harmonics with a heavily driven tube distortion plug-in, about half wet, half dry, with the effect itself lowpassed at 200 Hz. Then I used a funky trick that I'd heard of but never really found a reason to try it... I duplicated the track, panned opposite sides 50% and put a graphic equalizer on each. on the first track, on band 1, 3, 5, and 7, I boosted it to the max, and on 2, 4, 6, and 8, cut it to the minimum. Then you copy the settings over to the other track and invert them. So you spread the frequency information across the stereo image, getting harmonic enhancement and wideness at the same time. The bonus is that when it's collapsed to mono, the EQ cuts and dips combine and effectively cancel eachother out, so you don't get a drastically different tone.

So a question for you... my guess was that the bass was intended to supply most of the sub frequency energy and the kick should be highpassed.... is that right? Or was your intent to do it the other way around?

Thanks again, I had a blast mixing this great song. Sorry if I changed the entire meaning of the lyrics while I was at it, haha.
Hey Pauli,
like I said, I wouldn't put my tracks up for download if I wouldn't expect creative use of it, no need to be sorry for doing what you like!
(06-03-2014, 11:37 PM)pauli Wrote: [ -> ]Rarely do I get insight from the artist on this forum... it's much appreciated!
A lot don't have the time to do so, some don't care. I am not going to say any names, as I am not sure myself of course, but I do want to engage with other users.
Besides, it's more fun for me this way, too. I am not even sure if other artists listen to what users do with their mixes, I'd be interested to know about that.

Anyways, the Cymbal: Please, no, don't REDUCE the substain, rather INCREASE it! Big Grin
Use a compressor (like the TDR Feedback Compressor II - its for free, I made a beginner-friendly review about it on my blog, it totally rocks!) to catch the beginning transient, then have a slow release, fast enough to get the makeup-gain to work and slow enough to make it seem natural, flowing.
I can tell you, with the Compressor mentioned, I compressed the beginning of the Cymbal by about 5dB, and the makeup-gain is also 5dB. Smile
After all, think of it this way: Do you want to listen to a short "click", or do you want to hear the whole instrument? It's a matter of taste how MUCH you increase the substain,
but in the mix, you simply need to increase the substain with compression a bit, it would die in the mix else, sadly.

Hmm, it really sounded like the lead-synth was re-recorded with a guitar or with a guitar-vsti, nice trick right there mate!

I am a rather traditional-dnb-soundengineer, as I take Pendulum as an example for the phatness of the track, and others, preferably a megamix (see UKF's " Drum & Bass 2013 (Album Megamix)") for the higher-freqs, as Pendulum tends to keep it rather harsh in the bottom part and keep room for that by having not so much highs - at least that's what I personally observed over the years.

Anyways, the point I'm framing is: The Kick should have a HP-filter at about 30Hz~, but a boost at about 60-80Hz~ as well as some highs to make the Kick noticable on smaller speakers.
Aside from that, the Bass itself is intended to be phat as well, so no low-cutting there! Smile Instead, I sometimes even boost the entire sub-area by 3-5 dB if I think the highs are at a comfortable level but I need more subs.
Last but not least: Try doing some sidechaining on the Bass, oriented by the Kick. Since both are bass-instruments, they fight against each other. To keep the mix at a comfortable level, you can try a short-acting-sidechain, really works wonders, and if done well, it even seems like it's not there!

Good Luck mate! Smile
Pages: 1 2 3