A new track (yes another one)

[romboh]

After reading all your advices on the track I posted the other day I decided to record another one.

https://soundcloud.com/romboh/love-is-i ... ir/s-V1myG

Tell me what you guys think.

[slartibartfast]

First impressions are:

- LOUD!
- Some interesting chord progressions
- LOUD!
- Accomplished, but not varied enough to be terribly interesting (although I did make it through to the end, which is more than I can say for many other tracks in this forum)
- LOUD!

[romboh]

First impressions are:

- LOUD!
- Some interesting chord progressions
- LOUD!
- Accomplished, but not varied enough to be terribly interesting (although I did make it through to the end, which is more than I can say for many other tracks in this forum)
- LOUD!

Thanks for the feedback. Adding variety to a track is always a problem for me because I'm too impatient to end it, I need to improve on this. About the loud part.... I noticed that almost every recent electronic mainstream album are mastered at around -7/-6 rms. All my tracks are at -7.5 because going further only adds distortion. What's your advice?

[layzer]

First impressions are:

- LOUD!
- Some interesting chord progressions
- LOUD!
- Accomplished, but not varied enough to be terribly interesting (although I did make it through to the end, which is more than I can say for many other tracks in this forum)
- LOUD!

yeah, LAWD. i told him to back off the sausage fattener but he likes it that way,
overcooked and not very enjoyable on quality phones
go figure.

[romboh]

yeah, LAWD. i told him to back off the sausage fattener but he likes it that way,
overcooked and not very enjoyable on quality phones
go figure.

I said that I like the drums that way, not the entire master and no, I don't have a sausage fattener (I hate that thing). I'm mixing and mastering everything by myself in an untreated room with little to no knowledge of the technical stuff and since I registered to this forum to actually improve can you tell me what is the benefit of backing off my (non-existent) sausage fattener?

ps: this is a peaceful post, no hard feelings

[ariston]

From a quick listen: I thought the track had a nice flow to it, and some good ideas. Just the right length, too. I think it would benefit from a bit more refinement in the various parts.

The mix needs a lot of work, it's all very harsh and distorted, which kind of reminds me of my first self-mixed tracks. I was pushing everything to the limit, because, hey, louder is always better, right? No, wrong. I can't give you all the advice you need in order to clean it up (sound engineer is, after all, a profession and an art; maybe read up on "Mixing secrets by Mike Senior), but try to follow these three pointers and see how far that takes you:

1. Hans Zimmer once said, if you want something to be loud, make everything really quiet. Practically speaking, try to mix at conversation volume. If you find yourself turning everything up, you'll get ear fatigue pretty quickly and will start to make bad judgements. Keep your individual levels while mixing at -10 or -12 dB to give yourself some headroom and to avoid clipping/distorting your transients. Then, and only then, when everything sounds good and balanced, turn it up.

2. Your genre almost requires heavy compression/limiting, but try to lay off it and see how far you get without it. Only use compressors when you really need them, i.e., to level out a track with large volume differences. You can use a compressor as an obvious effect, but don't plaster it all over everything. Same goes for distortion. A little goes a long way, too much will kill everything.

3. Mix in mono. That way, you'll have a much better impression of which tracks are competing with each other (or even cancelling each other out). Then make the necessary EQ adjustments. Sometimes, this will even lead to deleting an unnecessary track that doesn't contribute anything to the whole, thus making space in your mix.

[himalaya]

Over-compressed. So much so that with every snare hit I want to stop playback as my ears hurt. It's like the snare is firing off this pressurised capsule at my ears....way over compressed. I actually did stop listening despite really enjoying the track....food for thought?

[romboh]

From a quick listen: I thought the track had a nice flow to it, and some good ideas. Just the right length, too. I think it would benefit from a bit more refinement in the various parts.

The mix needs a lot of work, it's all very harsh and distorted, which kind of reminds me of my first self-mixed tracks. I was pushing everything to the limit, because, hey, louder is always better, right? No, wrong. I can't give you all the advice you need in order to clean it up (sound engineer is, after all, a profession and an art; maybe read up on "Mixing secrets by Mike Senior), but try to follow these three pointers and see how far that takes you:

1. Hans Zimmer once said, if you want something to be loud, make everything really quiet. Practically speaking, try to mix at conversation volume. If you find yourself turning everything up, you'll get ear fatigue pretty quickly and will start to make bad judgements. Keep your individual levels while mixing at -10 or -12 dB to give yourself some headroom and to avoid clipping/distorting your transients. Then, and only then, when everything sounds good and balanced, turn it up.

2. Your genre almost requires heavy compression/limiting, but try to lay off it and see how far you get without it. Only use compressors when you really need them, i.e., to level out a track with large volume differences. You can use a compressor as an obvious effect, but don't plaster it all over everything. Same goes for distortion. A little goes a long way, too much will kill everything.

3. Mix in mono. That way, you'll have a much better impression of which tracks are competing with each other (or even cancelling each other out). Then make the necessary EQ adjustments. Sometimes, this will even lead to deleting an unnecessary track that doesn't contribute anything to the whole, thus making space in your mix.

Thanks for taking the time and effort to write all this, much appreciated! I'll definitely look into the Mike Senior book, thanks.

[romboh]

Over-compressed. So much so that with every snare hit I want to stop playback as my ears hurt. It's like the snare is firing off this pressurised capsule at my ears....way over compressed. I actually did stop listening despite really enjoying the track....food for thought?

Electric Himalaya , I love your presets man! Too bad I hurt your ears with my snare .
Thanks for the feedback anyway.

[himalaya]

I'd love to hear this track re-mastered. The sounds and everything else is superb, right up my retro street. I think the track is perfect as it is...very good sounds, nice progression, cool arrangement, just the mastering spoils it, which should be very easy to correct.