This is a great song. It was hard for me to determine the musical role intended for each of the sound effect tracks... it took a couple rough mixes before it became apparent. There also seems to be a bit of digital distortion on quite a few of the tracks.. there's a lot of sub on the unprocessed hat and shakers, which is a pretty big clue from the get go, but the bass synth and the transitional swells in the beginning both have a bit of the "swirly whirlies" like you get with low bit rate mp3s, and it's not readily apparent until you start distorting and saturating to give the tracks a little flavor. Probably these distortions are from a waveshaper or bit-crusher to lend to the lo-fi atmosphere, but I still did the best I could to control the side effects with EQ and editing.
Since there's been so much talk about loudness-normalization (EBU r128) on the forum lately, I got an EBU compliant meter and mastered this to -20 LUFS... about halfway between the EBU standard and Apple Soundcheck. LRA seems low at 10.5 LU, but the droning pad and bass sort of put a low ceiling on dynamics throughout most of the song.
Hope you like, comments/criticisms are welcome.
I'm grateful for comments and suggestions. Thank you for listening!
Yeah, hard to critique these mixes, there is no 'wrong'. Got some great sounds going here esp like the main drums but really miss the main loop, even if you just brought it up towards the end or something, it's the feature of the song for me [apart from the glitches]. But still, really interesting interpretation, glad I had a listen.
Thanks for your thoughts, Manuke. That main loop is a puzzle for me, as is the entire song... an ambient mix is always difficult because the musical purpose of every piece isn't always so obvious to someone who didn't write the song, so it's helpful to have the talent available to explain their goals and intentions.
I'm with you, though, I like the main loop... it's moody and dark and not just a little bit sinister, but it's also an absolute pig to mix, innit? Since it's repetitious and so greedy with the low mids, I reluctantly decided to use it more as a mix tool than a musical element... a gloomy backdrop that's sensed more than heard and glues together all of the tracks with weird, gated ambiences printed-on. It works pretty well for that purpose, though.... it really ties everything together and minimizes the need for compression on the master and excessive reverb. Sounds like there's a lot more reverb than there really is because the reverb I used sorta melts into that pad a bit.
I'm going to pop over and give yours a listen here shortly
I'm grateful for comments and suggestions. Thank you for listening!
Yep that's fair enough re the loop. Gotta be honest, didn't miss it while listening again. I think last time I kept waiting for it to kick in whereas this time I knew what to expect. And yeah the it is a beast, I just filtered it half to death and sidechained it to virtually everything. I do like the original mix but like the harder more rhythmic approach you've taken. Good stuff.
I agree with manuke about the main loop being one of the main features of the track, it was for me also. I also agree with you pauli about it being a pig to mix ! It fought so hard with the bass. I ended up using a dynamic eq side chained to the bass to bring it under control.
Enjoyed listening to your mix but feel you could of pushed the low end more to give a solid foundation to the otherwise open and ambient track.
(10-02-2015, 09:07 PM)sano Wrote: I agree with manuke about the main loop being one of the main features of the track, it was for me also. I also agree with you pauli about it being a pig to mix ! It fought so hard with the bass. I ended up using a dynamic eq side chained to the bass to bring it under control.
Enjoyed listening to your mix but feel you could of pushed the low end more to give a solid foundation to the otherwise open and ambient track.
Agree, agree and agree. I always undercook the low end... I have some bass problems to solve in my mixing room.
Sidechaining is a really good idea... it never even occurred to me for a second to use it for the loop, though I did use it for the kick/bass. My focus was mainly bringing out the SFX, which seemed important to keep it interesting, since they were the main bits that changed from time to time, but I need to go in there and give that a try... that would make bringing more bass into the mix possible.
I'm grateful for comments and suggestions. Thank you for listening!
