Mantaining Altitude [Chill/DnB?](constructive criticism)

[GaBeRock]

Maintaining Altitude

This is the first track I've created after purchasing the upgrade to Reason 7 from Reason Essentials. I'm looking for assistance with mixing/mastering and making sure everything fits the track, as well as keeping the song interesting by adding variations (which I tried do do with fx, but I don't think I really succeeded.)

Anything else you feel like adding would also be appreciated, as long as it's constructive.

[CloudTourist]

Hi - cool track! I would say a couple of things -

Make sure that everything is in key with everything else - there are a couple of spots that sound a bit questionable

The middle-ish section, starting around 0:50 - sounds a bit lacking in the high end, you might want to boos that on the bass a little bit and add some more crashy high hats to fill it out

In general, I think that the mix sounds a bit muddy - boost the top end on things a bit and see how it pans out - you might also want to add a bit of punch to your kick. Try some different samples or add compression with a long attack and short release - put a high-ish ratio (like 4) and maybe use an enveloper / transient designer to boost the attack a bit - you could also try layering a low-end kick with a high-end kick and eqing the two accordingly

With what you're saying about making things interesting, this is just a thought lol - you could put some filtering on the main bass in the middle section and move the cutoff up and down slowly (like a hi-pass filter)

I'm not much of a mastering mogul, but I do know this: your mix is sounding plenty loud, and mastering always improves with the mix quality, so I think that you should focus on that for the moment.

Hope I helped!

Cloud Tourist

[Cie]

The recording is a bit silent.
Overall nice beats and arrangement. Only the acid arpeggio is not quite diversified.

[GaBeRock]

Hi - cool track! I would say a couple of things -

Make sure that everything is in key with everything else - there are a couple of spots that sound a bit questionable

The middle-ish section, starting around 0:50 - sounds a bit lacking in the high end, you might want to boos that on the bass a little bit and add some more crashy high hats to fill it out

In general, I think that the mix sounds a bit muddy - boost the top end on things a bit and see how it pans out - you might also want to add a bit of punch to your kick. Try some different samples or add compression with a long attack and short release - put a high-ish ratio (like 4) and maybe use an enveloper / transient designer to boost the attack a bit - you could also try layering a low-end kick with a high-end kick and eqing the two accordingly

With what you're saying about making things interesting, this is just a thought lol - you could put some filtering on the main bass in the middle section and move the cutoff up and down slowly (like a hi-pass filter)

I'm not much of a mastering mogul, but I do know this: your mix is sounding plenty loud, and mastering always improves with the mix quality, so I think that you should focus on that for the moment.

Hope I helped!

Cloud Tourist

The recording is a bit silent.
Overall nice beats and arrangement. Only the acid arpeggio is not quite diversified.

Thanks for the tips. I've made most the changes you two suggested, and posted a second version.
https://soundcloud.com/gaberock/maintaining-altitude