beginner needs advice for r&b/pop tune

[irishmonkey]

What should I do to this? I want to make everything sound bigger.

I have a vocal melody to go over it as well. This is just the verse.

Any advice would be good. The 808 kick is proving especially difficult to get the way I want. What do you guys think of it?

r_and_b_wed27-01.mp3 - 1.1 Mb

Thanks

[E-Irizarry]

Do you have WaveLab or Sound Forge?
If so, you can tell off-the-bat how "loud" your stuff is.

My 2-cents:

1) It's too too low. From the sounds of it, it's probably only -30 dB RMS.
It's too freakin' quiet. The industry standards are normally between -12 to -10 dB RMS for "loudness".

2) The kick is weak-as-****. There are plugins out there that can "beef" it up sotospeak.

3) The production reminds me of Mario Winans from Bad Boy camp a bit...a la late 90s early 2000s style of Hip-Hop-Soul.

4) You just need to get it 'louder' before I drop the technical shit on ya. We haven't begun to scratch the surface yet.