Reference Tracks

[vignesh.vijay]

Hi ,

Can you guys suggest me some recent good mixes for the following :

1) Pop Song
2) Rock Song
3) Metal song
4) Orchestral music
5) Hip hop
6) R n B
7) EDM


Thanks

[vignesh.vijay]

bump

[BertKoor]

"Good" is a subjective thing in which personal taste plays a major factor.
And I cannot think of any "recent" good metal/rock/orchestral songs.
They sounded far better before 1995 (when the loudness war hadn't started yet)

So the answer to your question has to be no. Go find what you think is "best".
Better yet: try to figure out why you think one sounds better than the other.

[vignesh.vijay]

"Good" is a subjective thing in which personal taste plays a major factor.
And I cannot think of any "recent" good metal/rock/orchestral songs.
They sounded far better before 1995 (when the loudness war hadn't started yet)

So the answer to your question has to be no. Go find what you think is "best".
Better yet: try to figure out why you think one sounds better than the other.

I am actually still not grown that good as an audio engineer to judge that ..
But I am working on a personal pop-rock project so i just wanted to compare with good mixes when mixing .

I am on a learning curve . So wanted someone to point me to the right direction of what is good mix and what is not so good .

[kbaccki]

But I am working on a personal pop-rock project so i just wanted to compare with good mixes when mixing .

I am on a learning curve . So wanted someone to point me to the right direction of what is good mix and what is not so good .

It totally depends on the specific sound you're looking for. You can go super compressed and dense and modern and in your face, somewhere between Greenday and Panic at the Disco... you can go dynamic and airy and roomy like Alabama Shakes... or shiny poppy like Paramore or whoever... or dancey/EDM etc. etc. There's an ocean of possibilities, so "good" is entirely subjective and depends very much on context... and for that matter the mix should be a reflection of the PRODUCTION... Do you have any specific bands or songs that are similar to what you're trying to achieve?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFEmTsfFL5A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93ASUImTedo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDkhl-CgETg

[vignesh.vijay]

Do you have any specific bands or songs that are similar to what you're trying to achieve?

The song which I am working on is a Pop-Rock kinda song . With the verse mostly like normal mail vocals , electronic drums ( 808 kick and claps , shakers ) , arpeggio on steel string acoustic guitars , and piano chords

and chorus goes heavy (like metal or rock ) with Acoustic drum kit , distortion on electric guitars , doubled vocals , etc

and there is an interlude which is mainly orchestral music kinda thing with flute , cellos , violins , violas , and FX , etc .

[vignesh.vijay]

bump

[kbaccki]

Wow sounds complex... producing something like that and making it gel (prodction-wise) is a big undertaking, and the engineering/mixing requirements will be accordingly challenging. The whole arc of the overall sound needs to be coherent, and you'll have different needs for different parts. For example, less over-/hard-compression on the vocals during the laid back intro part compared to the heavier middle part. Similar for synths, guitars, bass sounds. Different reverb/depth requirements for different parts. Etc.

As far as "orchestral" are you talking about something a bit more stylized, or a more traditional sounding orchestral piece?

TBH the first thing that came to mind is something you might have heard from Queen back in the day...

Or a more modern type mosaic...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRKJiM9Njr8


For complex stuff, one of the best produced/mixed/mastered albums in terms of overall complexity of content is the album "Elemental" by Tears for Fears (early 90's)... it also happens to be an excellent collection of songs. It has some excellent examples of weaving in and out of complex and layered textures within individual songs. As far as mixing it's about giving everything space to breathe even when you have complex layerings of sounds. Listen to the use of verb, delay, panning, spread etc. etc. on some of those tunes... there are some excellent examples of making every little texture and nuance audible when things get really busy.

If you like pop music with a brain, it's worth picking up on iTunes IMO...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VRPyPoU4qo

[kbaccki]

BTW, I just realized that YT clip has more stuff than what's on Elemental... the songs from Elemental are the first 47:00... the stuff beyond that is from some later album or albums... can't vouch for those...

Also BTW, it's worth listening to higher quality clips of that album on iTunes... and it's only $5.99 here in the US... no brainer IMO...

[vignesh.vijay]

The orchestra is more like mordern orchestra .
The good thing is each section has almost completely different set of instruments except for the base .

So I guess i could take each section and work on it . The challenge would be to glue them together .

[vignesh.vijay]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRKJiM9Njr8


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VRPyPoU4qo

These tracks are amazing .. especially the first one .. Do you know where I would get wav files of these ?

[kbaccki]

I don't know if you can get wav files anywhere, but you can buy all of those on iTunes, then depending on your hardware setup you can loopback record them to wav if that's what you want... If you just want them for listening purposes outside of a DAW, iTunes 256kbit AAC files are very high quality as far as compressed formats go... And you can playback AAC on PC or Mac using Quicktime for example...