I'm gonna tell you right now, that's gonna be a hard press for the iStandard cats. Too repetitive and when it does change with the introduction of the synth lead it sounds too sweet for an underground kind of chopped up sample joint. It's disconnected.
So, that totally makes me sound like an asshole. But I feel confident about what I'm saying and would rather see you frustrated then going in without the right gloves on.
I'm gonna tell you right now, that's gonna be a hard press for the iStandard cats. Too repetitive and when it does change with the introduction of the synth lead it sounds too sweet for an underground kind of chopped up sample joint. It's disconnected.
So, that totally makes me sound like an asshole. But I feel confident about what I'm saying and would rather see you frustrated then going in without the right gloves on.
No I appreciate the advice! I can see where your coming from. I wasn't necessarily thinking underground on this but i do appreciate the feed.
I took part in a iStandard comp this past November, took the runner up spot. They are a great group of guys who even went the extra mile for me personally by hooking me up with a LA production company who was seeking some producers/songs.
Storyville is on point with his advice. You gotta make your 1 minute snippet hit them in the face. Show off your production abilities rather than your ability to make a 4 bar beat that simply loops over and over.
Despite it being a hip hop heavy event, I only played 1 hip hop track. The other 4 were a dance, jazzy-rock, pop and an electro track.
You only have 5 minutes to make your mark up there so don't waste it on repetition.
would love some feedback from anyone on this mix - i didnt make the beat or track the vox, but did the mix for it. however, the piano outro was written and played by me.
i did end up beefing up a couple things that were needed the kick was real thin and flimsy, a little too "electric" feeling and it didnt have a nice top end, nor a nice cushiony bottom end so i enhanced that a little. the 808bass/sub line was also really really weak, so i doubled it w/ a sine wave to beef up the sub frequencies... tried to use a little distortion on a send to bring out the tops of 808 so you could hear it on say laptop speakers but i dont think i nailed that well, the line came low passed to me so i might need to figure something out when i go back to this later for any final revisions before the EP release.
i kinda feel like the main criticism i have with my own mix is the vocals seem to be maybe a little too even.. like i may have pulled out a bit too much of them, but the vox really arent being hit hard w/ compression at all oddly enough. i think i'll do one more mix for the final EP release and do some macro automation on it to add a little bit more dynamic range.
would love some feedback from anyone on this mix - i didnt make the beat or track the vox, but did the mix for it. however, the piano outro was written and played by me.
i did end up beefing up a couple things that were needed the kick was real thin and flimsy, a little too "electric" feeling and it didnt have a nice top end, nor a nice cushiony bottom end so i enhanced that a little. the 808bass/sub line was also really really weak, so i doubled it w/ a sine wave to beef up the sub frequencies... tried to use a little distortion on a send to bring out the tops of 808 so you could hear it on say laptop speakers but i dont think i nailed that well, the line came low passed to me so i might need to figure something out when i go back to this later for any final revisions before the EP release.
i kinda feel like the main criticism i have with my own mix is the vocals seem to be maybe a little too even.. like i may have pulled out a bit too much of them, but the vox really arent being hit hard w/ compression at all oddly enough. i think i'll do one more mix for the final EP release and do some macro automation on it to add a little bit more dynamic range.
There's a couple small things that I think will go a long way. The vocals seem a bit "disconnected" from the rest of the track. There's a big smooth upper mid lift on the vocals, which sounds good, but isn't echoed by any of the other elements which are all more mid-mid focused. On top of that, the top end of the vocal is a little rough. The esses reveal it, there's a rough tone around 4k - like it's flattening out in an annoying way. See if you can notch out that tone - it will smooth out the vocal, and help it blend in to the track better.
Match your reverbs. The snare verb, the string verb, and the vocal delay and ambiance. They aren't really blending. Solo them and eq them to sound cohesive.
I think the vocals are plenty strong, some of the other elements aren't quite jumping. Automate those strings to exaggerate their movement - you'll get a lot more breadth out of the track with no sacrifice to your overall headroom. The snare needs to pop more. Whatever 2-track stuff is going on is like a blanket over the track and seems to be holding some of the upper mid elements back a bit. Like the piano has a really interesting tone, but the treble of it sounds subdued. Some kind of saturation plug on the master bus? I like it on the piano, just not on everything.
Yeah, the top end of that kick is like non-existant. More than enough bottom, not enough top. You can dub in your own "attack" kick if one doesn't exist. Again you'll get a lot more "bigness" without actually losing any headroom.
EDIT: Also, in general for vocal eq - think subtractive. Look at what you're not boosting and cut that, rather than making lots of boosts. You'll find it's a) smoother sounding, (b) becomes a lot more revealing how much eq you actually need. Obviously if you want a boost then boost - but you some dense tones in that vocal that I'd be inclined to pull out.
I would love feedback on this! I use cubase and this is my current chain:
DeNoiser
Gate - Clean Lead Vox
GEQ-10 - Lead vocals
compressor- lead vocals in your face
de-esser
limiter
delay
Me and my homie Byron The Aquarius did a jam session today.
This is how it turned out.
"The Night Before.." (Produced By Oh4! & Byron The Aquarius)
He's pretty damn good on the keys. He basically freestyled each instrument. I just did the drums and used Deniece Williams - "Free" sample and put it in reverse and added this weird filter to it.
Enjoy.
__________________ "Stakes is Dangerous" ft. Notorious B.I.G, De La Soul, Busta Rhymes - (Produced By Oh4!)
Here's a master I did for the dubstep duo dr ozi. I'm going to be mixing their next album and they're about to get signed so check em out! The comments from all the little dub heads are pretty jokes too
Me and my homie Byron The Aquarius did a jam session today.
This is how it turned out.
"The Night Before.." (Produced By Oh4! & Byron The Aquarius)
He's pretty damn good on the keys. He basically freestyled each instrument. I just did the drums and used Deniece Williams - "Free" sample and put it in reverse and added this weird filter to it.
I would like some feedback on this track I recorded just last night. This is a 2 track mixtape song. I used Tyga's original song (Rack City) as a reference track in my session going back and forth comparing my mix to his. I tried to get it as close as possible but his of course is still better. His seems real airy and captures his breath lot which gives it a very cool vibe. I tried doing that by boosting 10k+ but too much became too harsh. I ended up adding a 4db shelf at 10k and a lowpass at 18k to roll off some harshness.
Is there anything bad about this mix? I'm trying to better my skills constantly so any feedback will be appreciated. And of course, what about the rapping part itself? Should I keep rapping or put a sock in it? lol
Well...instead of 'check my mix' how about 'compare my mix'
I wasn't really happy with the mix I had, so I decided to pull off a bunch of EQs/plugins and run a bunch of shit thru all my outboard gear...
At this point, I can't even tell if I'm helping the mix, or making it worse. I feel like I should just stop touching the mixes, but I'll let someone with more experience tell me.
#1
#2
Which is mixed better? I mainly focused on making it hit harder, have more dynamics, and having more separation between tracks... they're different, but I really have no idea which is 'better'. I'v mixed these tracks so many times I'v lost all sense of how they sound.
At least if the newer one sounds better I'll feel that I'v actually been improving......
Well...instead of 'check my mix' how about 'compare my mix'
I wasn't really happy with the mix I had, so I decided to pull off a bunch of EQs/plugins and run a bunch of shit thru all my outboard gear...
At this point, I can't even tell if I'm helping the mix, or making it worse. I feel like I should just stop touching the mixes, but I'll let someone with more experience tell me.
#1
#2
Which is mixed better? I mainly focused on making it hit harder, have more dynamics, and having more separation between tracks... they're different, but I really have no idea which is 'better'. I'v mixed these tracks so many times I'v lost all sense of how they sound.
At least if the newer one sounds better I'll feel that I'v actually been improving......
Well.. I wouldn't say one sounds better than the other. They sound different. As a matter of approach, I would say 2 is a better place to work from.
Here's the differences.
#1 - kind of thin, snare is really harsh and disconnected from the mix.
#2 - groove is much more in place, especially with the delay trail from the snare. Everything is smoother, but lacks a little pop. Everything is gelling better though.
#1 & #2 - vocal mix sucks. I'd scrap it and start over with your vocal treatments on this one.
yo Storyville... could you give me a little feedback? You seem to know your stuff when it comes to engineering so I would like some opinions from you. I posted a track up above a few posts.
#2 - groove is much more in place, especially with the delay trail from the snare. Everything is smoother, but lacks a little pop. Everything is gelling better though.
#1 & #2 - vocal mix sucks. I'd scrap it and start over with your vocal treatments on this one.
Pretty much what I thought when I listened a few hours ago too. Vox need to come out more
yo Storyville... could you give me a little feedback? You seem to know your stuff when it comes to engineering so I would like some opinions from you. I posted a track up above a few posts.
Sounded cool. I can hear everything, I can hear the qualities of your voice. There's pretty clear room tone from the tracking, but it doesn't sound bad. Otherwise it's a mixtape track - if you want better quality you need better tracking equipment and space.
Match your reverbs. The snare verb, the string verb, and the vocal delay and ambiance. They aren't really blending. Solo them and eq them to sound cohesive.
Damn your ear is good! The verb on the instrumentation is a different setting form the verb on the Vox - i liked the sound of the small room verb on drums but not on the vox - i'll solo the 2 sends and see if about getting those to mesh better. Do you think using something like an emulation type EQ (ie. an EQ that emulates the API550B just as an example) on both of those verb sends would be better since it would "color" both of them together or simply some careful parametric EQ'ing on them both?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Storyville
Whatever 2-track stuff is going on is like a blanket over the track and seems to be holding some of the upper mid elements back a bit. Like the piano has a really interesting tone, but the treble of it sounds subdued. Some kind of saturation plug on the master bus? I like it on the piano, just not on everything.
i'll take a look at my chain on the master bus, in complete agreement that should definitely get tweaked - i'm also wondering how much of that was contributing to some of the other issues w/ the harshness on the high end of the vox beyond the notch around 4k you suggested.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Storyville
Yeah, the top end of that kick is like non-existant. More than enough bottom, not enough top. You can dub in your own "attack" kick if one doesn't exist. Again you'll get a lot more "bigness" without actually losing any headroom.
This is probably the easiest - i think i actually do have some decent 808s run through some tape that i got from goldbaby thathave a nicer top end sound, or i'll just pick one of my favorite kicks from some royalty free library i have :/ gigs of drums but not in any particular order unfortunately. (off the top of my head i kinda think the top end of a kick like the one around 19 seconds into this might sound nice blended w/ the 808 Mandrill - Mango Meat - YouTube)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Storyville
EDIT: Also, in general for vocal eq - think subtractive. Look at what you're not boosting and cut that, rather than making lots of boosts. You'll find it's a) smoother sounding, (b) becomes a lot more revealing how much eq you actually need. Obviously if you want a boost then boost - but you some dense tones in that vocal that I'd be inclined to pull out.
I always start off w/ only subtractive EQ but then do some tighter Q (1.6-2.0 say) lifts around certain frequencies (obviously ones i'm not cutting) afterwards. I may have added a couple broader Q lifts in the low and high on this track though due to the tracked vocals having a fair amount of ugly cardboard and obnoxious resonances that i cut out (surgical cuts 10-12 on the Q) in which case, it may have simply reintroduced too much of the harshness i was trying to notch out.
After reading your article on EQ'ing vocals just a few days ago, I realized i had previously been doing them a bit too heavy handed (notching deeper than necessary, i think you suggested a far less cut of freq) so i'll probably take another look at what i was doing in that session for sure.
Dude seriously - this was amazing advice. I think what's helpful here is for me to go back and focus on this mix a bunch and actually see if i can pick out the exact things you're referring to w/ greater accuracy and hopefully apply that same kind of analysis to other tracks. I feel like contributions like this to the forum can be overlooked for how helpful they are as a learning experience for anyone, not simply this song in this instance. Obviously other tracks have different things they need attention to, but training yourself to focus in on those trouble areas w/ the kind of pinpoint accuracy youre write up exhibits is a trait most necessary for this kind of work.
Again - thank you very much for the response!
EDIT: also - if i didnt quote it, it just means i didnt have much to say besides "you're right, i'll do that!" ha! again thanks.
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