http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXnFBzsM4ys

or

http://soundcloud.com/knightfx/that-jawbreaker

Thanks for all the love from everyone on this forum its greatly appreciated!

I really need some mixing pros to give me some hate criticism on this track, I think its one of my best and mixed the best.

So I really want to refine it to the point of radio play.

Please help me make this track better.

KFX KICKS PRODUCTIONS
Last edited by kfxkicks on Tue Nov 20, 2012 10:14 pm; edited 1 time in total

I'm not a pro but it sounds quite good to my ears. Reminds me a lot of GTA IV soundtrack

I'm listening with cheap headphones, so I'll refrain from commenting the mix itself

Listening on K240's and I'm liking this, a lot. Very interesting use/choice of instruments and their placement.

The vox was (at times) a bit 'too' sublimated for my (personal) taste, but generally intelligible, which is important to me unless it is meant to be somewhat 'ethereal' throughout.

I haven't owned or (intentionally) listened to "radio" for over 20 years, so can't comment about what appeals/doesn't appeal there, nor (for that matter) could I 'label' this beyond 'vaguely' as any specific genre, being severely genre challenged, so I'd not know what/whom you are desiring to appeal to.

I found it an interesting and well done "track".

[2c]

Please let me know how it sounds anyways. More reference points the better!



Shabdahbriah glad to see that your liking this. Might have hit the nail on top of the head with this one. I was catering to rap/hip hop artists of any genre. Possibly film/video game soundtrack situations as well.

If by vox your referring the the choir/synth combo then i suppose its a bit too over powering in the mix, but its meant to give it that power/victorious feeling. Like you own the game and thats why your rapping over this beat.

I don't listen to the radio either thank god. Though I am trying to find my niche in the music industry even if it takes me years. I have the patience, cash flow, and desire.

Appreciate your commenting on my track!

To me, the kick/bass duo could be more upfront. I'd gently roll of the highs too. But as I said, it might come from my 20$ headphones, haha

Going to take a listen to this track some more and see what happens when I do exactly that. Appreciate your feedback!

sounds good on burl da + dynaudio bm5a mk2's in well treated room, i'd say your ready for mastering.

tell us a bit about your mix btw, what plugins you use daw? thanks

My pleasure. Every musician, me included, loves having external feedback. When you spent hours mixing a track, you don't really know what's right and what's wrong because you've heard it too many times

I had an opportunity to listen to it on real monitoring speakers, and it's much better than with the headphones. However, I still think the low end would need more presence. It's very linked to the genre you're producing, but this kind of hip hop needs a more upfront groove, so more bass and kick. I think it must be "in your face", at least if you wanna meet the radio standards.

Now I'm a huge fan of the arrangement itself ! Very polished and very nice musically speaking. It's a pleasure for the ears but it just need a tiny bit of extra "something" to get my bones shacking. Don't give up, you're very close !



+1

Couldn't agree with you more, the more I listen to it the more I hate it. lol! Though once I get feedback I can pin point what my ears or monitors might not pick up on your reference point(s).

Okay I feel what your saying with the bass and kick. I'm actually in the middle of reworking this track a lot and tweaking the rolls/fills a bit more.

Glad that the arrangement is on point and that its music to your ears!

Going to make this a beast just needs more time invested in it to get it there.




Thanks bobby!

Everything is produced in FL Studio 10
KRK VXT 8's
Audeze LCD 3's Producer Headphones
Komplete Audio 6 Interface
Axiom Pro 49/Ultranova Novation/Maschine (Midi/Synth/Drum Devices)

VSTS Used -
- I'm using 3 instance of IK Multi Media Sonik Synth2 For the Choirs 3 layered vocal presets.
- EWQL Stormdrum2 for the kind of stomp/tom drums in the beginning and else where
- Sylenth1 for the music box and the portamento melody that comes in later in the track
- Reaktor5 for the main pad
- Nexus2 - pad/piano esk melody
- Kontakt5 - using the overtone piano, evolve percussion kit, session horns addon
- Then some samples & soundfonts for the drums, bass, kick, cymbals etc.

Mixing Tools/Vsts

- Ozone5 Advanced on master (not using it yet but it will be on the next version)
- Plenty of stock fruity loops parametric eq on the the kick/bass and brass
- Stock fruity loops reverb on some of the elements soon majority of the crash/cymbals
- Sugar Bytes Turnado time based manipulation (I find that there knobs and filters sound really good if you use automation correctly in the mix)
- Sausage Fattner to compress/beef the drums

Thats pretty much the jist of it so far.



KFX KICKS

Haha, I was sure there was some Maschine involved, there it's signature sound

But no, don't rework it a lot, otherwise, you'll have to redo everything all over again. My comments where bold but I didn't mean your track was bad or really faulty. If I were you, I'd just do some minor tweaks. A bit of eq, small volume changes, slightly hi-passing everything but the bass and the kick but you need SLIGHT changes. The song is pretty good as it is now. You just ask : how to make it better, and I give you my point of view, but reworking everything would be a huge mistake IMHO !If you need - and that's only my opinion- a reference point, I'd expect at 0:13 to be smashed by the kick and crash. The transition is smooth...but I wouldn't expect it to be smooth. But after all, it's a matter of taste and some other kvrists might disagree !

Nice work again. I really liked the percussion on here, especially that gong and the panned snare sound.

Good work

I didn't really rework much I just added some cool elements and changed a few sounds brought the track to radio quality and now that bass should knock!

New upload is up and ready for your ears!



Thanks man kind of like a movie meets trap/hip hop.

Appreciate you always swigging in on my beats!

I just took a quick listen on my big NHT speakers. There's so much bass rumbling it sounds like a small earthquake. You might considering dialing it back a touch.

Is the intention to get someone rapping over this?

Sure I can dial it back sometimes I over do it. Kind of my secondary code name "dj over done it" aka kfxkicks.

The intention is to get some rapping over this for sure.

Carry on with the criticism, I really appreciate everyone that has chimed in it means a lot.

I'm not up-to-date on current hip hop but I'd say it's on par with the few recent tracks I've heard. I think it's good and presentable in it's current form.