Please give feedback on my attempted deep house instrumental track + mix

[concave]

Hey everyone,

This is basically my first finished house production and mix, and more of a self-learning project than a product of pure inspiration. I'm really hoping for some feedback, on mixing, sound design, arrangement, whatever.

https://soundcloud.com/janmartingebert/ ... ouse-music

Thanks!!

[Benedict]

I think it is alwasy really hard when working to a specific sub-genre, esp if it doesn't come naturally to you. The increasingly narrow rule-expectations tend to make people shout at all you did wrong in their fear-i-verse then what was interesting.

House has changed so much from where it started. You seem to be mining closer to the source with elements of a more '90s Acid Jazz.

The issue I have overall is that it feels rigid, lacking groove as such. It is, as you note, a technical workout more than funkin' & groovin'. That, to me, makes it a bit broken.

However, it is hard to fault any of the core parts, ideas, approaches etc. And that was your real Q so if your Q is if you hit all the formula tropes for Acid Jazz, bar that groove thing, I would say yes. Nothing leaps out at me as being problematic or at all not fitting. Other than the lack of depth from echoes etc that is common in all 'modern' music. BTW I like the overall levels as they feel comfortable (rather than overloud, but I bet others tell you that you should be 500 dB louder :sigh:).

[concave]

Thank you very much for your reply! I was really hoping that it grooves heavily haha
I think a bit more reverb/delay might be worth a try, no? I noticed that using drum bus compression ever so slightly messes with the previously dialed in reverb in weird ways, but maybe I should rather try to mix the reverb "into" the compressor (as I heard someone say a long time ago).

[legendCNCD]

I feel it is a bit too static overall. The fx's and vocal licks would maybe help and making it a big more "hectic" later on. Sounds quite ok.

For the drum bus compression, maybe you could just route reverbs and delays away from the compression bus? Or as you said, just mix into it.

[concave]

Thanks for the input!

[Benedict]

Thank you very much for your reply! I was really hoping that it grooves heavily haha
I think a bit more reverb/delay might be worth a try, no? I noticed that using drum bus compression ever so slightly messes with the previously dialed in reverb in weird ways, but maybe I should rather try to mix the reverb "into" the compressor (as I heard someone say a long time ago).

You probably started to hear what you wanted over what is on-tape. Easy to do, esp when working out of your normal space. To be very fair, it sounds more organic today than yesterday. First listens are not always what we feel over time. I think other methods could be employed though.

As for reverb and delay, I am not sure without being inside the mix. I noted echo might help with depth, but again, hard to make a firm call without being inside the mix, which I could do if you are open to someone else in your mix and the public exposure that comes with it.

I am a massive fan of compressing the Rhythm bus (Drums + Bass) to make them groove better. Find the attack time (slower) and then the Release (faster) so it emphasizes the groove with not-quite pumping. NOT the same as ducking (side-chaining) as the playing & timing drives the dynamic, not the BPM lines. I do the same process again on the Masters - this is the Glue Compression thing. Only a dB or so at each, and while it cannot make a 303 into Mick Karn, it does help when you get it right.

It is common in Rock at the Ry Bus to have a reverb on the drums from the Drum Room that is moved with the compression - a good thing. I remove all FX Sends from the Drums & Bass Channels and move them to the Ry Bus, or the reverb delaminates, seeing what the reverb hears is not what the listener hears.

[Uncle E]

Great bass! To me, the other elements are too clean and need to be low passed. You might want to post a reference track for us to compare against.

[concave]

Thank you all! I'm now working on implementing/playing around with your suggestions.

So @Benedict: The session is in Cubase (including some of its stock plugins alongside 3rd party ones), and I frankly mixed leaving the midi/instrument tracks unrendered. In what form would be able to have a look at it effectively? The rendered tracks including their processing?
Anyway, I'm setting up a more conservative reverb/delay-bus structure now to season some of the sounds in a more controlled way and try out feeding it all back together to a compression bus.

@Uncle E: Frankly, I this was inspired by a wild mix of tracks, some of which are from Kerri Chandler (), the dutch duo Fouk (), but listening through them I noticed yesterday that the mixes tend to be quite muddy or have awkward low-end (despite being overall great sounding tracks, of course) so I'm kind trying to reorientate myself in regard to reference tracks and do more research/digging. In terms of mix-sound I love the newer Deadmau5 releases because he spaces all the sounds "away" from your face it seems (would love to know how exactly he achieves this) and the low-end is super tight (), but this is almost a different genre.

[Uncle E]

@Uncle E: Frankly, I this was inspired by a wild mix of tracks, some of which are from Kerri Chandler ()

This is a perfect example of what I was referring to. Do you hear how almost everything sounds filtered/darker/dirtier/hazier, including the keys, vocals, and drums? Personally, that's the sound I think of when I think of deep house. The Fouk track also has some of that and is another good reference, falling somewhere in between the Kerri Chandler track and Deadmau5 track. The Deadmau5 track sounds great but I don't think is a good reference, unless you're specifically going for a crossover thing, which could be cool but needs work to get there.

[Benedict]

@Benedict: The session is in Cubase (including some of its stock plugins alongside 3rd party ones), and I frankly mixed leaving the midi/instrument tracks unrendered. In what form would be able to have a look at it effectively? The rendered tracks including their processing?

Wise not to render in the DAW as that means that you can change things. Often mix issues are composition or sound design issues. But...

When I mix something, I always want the rawest possible. So that would be rendering down just the instruments **with no processing or fx incl internal things in the patch**. If you think fx on something vital eg Eddie V's 5150, send both, named "Guitar DI" and "Guitar Cab"*. I can then choose what works in my mix.

Those tracks will probably sound cack to you being so raw. This is part of why commonly a Guide Mix is sent (usually by the tracking engineer when a band has a session). This shows what you were thinking and trying to achieve, e.g. a delay on the 303 (that would be the mix you just showed). I may choose to follow the guide or not, depending on a) if it works and b) if I am doing a Creative Mix or not (hint: I mostly do "creative" when not asking fees).

If you want my input, send me a Messenger Message (let me know here so I can find the request).


*if you were Eddie V, I would probably take just the cab as Eddie already knew not to send things at 11 as they don't mix well. As in "Rock Star", raunchy is often an EQ-in-the-mix thing, so best to leave it to the mix.

[WilliamAshley]

My first thought was, its super bright. I am use to listening to classic house on vinyl and it tends IMHO to be more subdued on the highend. The rhodesy sound or clavichord or whatever it was, was too bright and offputting for me, I couldn't really sink into the song due to how bight / hightoned focus the sound was.

[sin night]

I listened from my smartphone, so I can’t say much, but I agree on the remarks about the keys being too bright. I’d expect them a bit less bright, with “a different transient”, a bit tamer, slightly slower and almost fighting a bit against a compressor. Maybe just a few dB of gain reduction with a slightly darker compressor or a bit of tape-like saturation could help (saturation also reduces the dynamic range), set in a way to work mostly on the transients. Nothing too drastic, just a touch to make those keys sit differently in the mix.

Drums seem ok, maybe they’ll need some adjustments once you touch the keys, but I can’t really tell from a phone. The open hi hat probably needs some eq to make it sit a bit differently in the mix (it draws my attention a bit even with the current keys; so if you change the keys, then that hi hat will stick out even more and need some work)… but I’d evaluate that while mixing (but I expect minor changes).


Some people use the Mackie preamp emulator by Airwindow to get a certain sound, I like the MS-20 ESP section preamp as well (it’s in the MS-20 filter by Arturia; I have built some hardware as well and I use them from time to time…). Any slightly dark (aka “with a slow slew rate”) opamp-based preamp, slightly overdriven, may probably help, but I’d probably stick with Mackity if I’m after a specific sound…
I don’t know if this is actually needed for your track, but I though it was worth mentioning it, just in case…

It also depends on the kind of deep house you’re after; if you move towards more soulful/vocal/jazzy/disco stuffs, the balance and the sound is probably slightly different from those deep house tracks you referenced… not to mention the specific era when a track was made…

[concave]

If you want my input, send me a Messenger Message (let me know here so I can find the request).

Sent you a PM to your KVR account.