KVR Audio

RandolphCarter · Post by **RandolphCarter** » Tue Dec 12, 2017 7:36 pm

Hi everyone.
After all these years reading you guys and learning from you, I've finally got some music to show you. It's this project a couple of friends and me started, trying to recreate the EBM/coldwave/Belgian new beat music that was so popular in our home town, Valencia as we were growing up (more info if you're interested: http://www.theransomnote.com/music/inte ... ave-scene/).

Anyway, we're just people who love the music but nowhere near the professional/years of experience status of most of you guys. So I'd like to listen to your opinions, on the music of course, but especially on the mixing quality of the tracks. My friends are great, but have no idea of mixing and leave all that job to me... and I barely have any idea at all, to be honest!

I used my KRK KNS 6400 Dynamic Headphones to mix the individual stems at home (we recorded them at my friend's house, where we got most of our equipment; he doesn't have flat response monitors), but as I said I barely know anything about mixing, so I would like to hear your comments on the EQing, how voices are recorded, levels of the different stems, compression, if and what sounds muddled, what could sound more prominent etc. Don't be afraid to be brutally honest, but I would really appreciate also some tips or advice on how to solve the issues you notice (as I'm eager to learn). Everything is mixed in the box.

I also wanted to ask you if you think it's worth it to send the tracks to some studio to master them, if it's just wasting money/ego tripping (I don't know, maybe you don't think anyone can save the tracks

), if it would help... I have no idea if it's standard procedure to do so for this kind of music.

OK, these are the tracks, you have the lyrics on each of them btw:

https://soundcloud.com/deep2one/01-am-k ... st/s-7t9I6

https://soundcloud.com/deep2one/02-am-b ... ra/s-DpyOx

https://soundcloud.com/deep2one/03-am-t ... on/s-olkMT

https://soundcloud.com/deep2one/04-am-f ... ly/s-F7WCW

RandolphCarter · Post by **RandolphCarter** » Tue Dec 12, 2017 9:39 pm

Sorry, it seems there was a problem with the links, they should work now.

Frantz · Post by **Frantz** » Wed Dec 13, 2017 3:43 am

I happen to be very familiar with 80s EBM. These tracks faithfully reproduce that 80s EBM sound (possibly too faithfully for my tastes).

There are no serious mix problems. I might make minor adjustments on the levels. For example, on "Killing Lust", I would lower the snare, increase the level of the bass synth and increase the lead melody synth. But everything is perfectly listenable as it stands. I don't think this needs mastering.

Instead of worrying about the mix, I would concentrate on injecting more excitement and energy into future recordings. The vocals and music have potential but are a bit monotonous.

This is a good first effort.

RandolphCarter · Post by **RandolphCarter** » Wed Dec 13, 2017 9:29 pm

Thank you so much. It really made my day to hear you think we nailed the EBM sound! We'll work on adding that excitement. We were trying to get that baritone deadpan delivery on the vocals, postpunk/coldwave style.

Moe Shinola · Post by **Moe Shinola** » Thu Dec 14, 2017 5:16 am

You just turned back time! Love that bass synth.

] Peter:H [ · Post by **] Peter:H [** » Sun Dec 17, 2017 8:46 am

I think if stumbled and I fell thru a temporal anomaly back into the late 80s and 90s.
The singing voice/music brings back memories like Front 242, Cat Rapes Dog or even Kirlian Camera.
Enjoyed your tracks a lot! Keep up good work.

[EBM, coldwave, new beat] AM - s/t - need your opinions on the mixing.