DeepHouse lovers? Feedback on new track

[ksandvik]

Don't know if this is deep house, electronica-deepish house maybe. The bass is not tight at all, did you play this by hand and no quantization (if you can't play tight bass lines?) Same with drums, it's all over the place time-wise. I would spend most of the time tightening up the track first. Then worry about the bass line. You have two bass sounds, the second coming in later, usually it's a big no-no as production-wise it's tough to get the levels even with such productions.

[elauria]

hey thanks for the fast reply. True, I played almost all by hand, used quantization on some parts but not all.. The bass I divided it in 2 sections, but youre completely right.. First part is panned all left/right, second part is dead centered.

I didn't use a computer to produce it, so I can't click and move my bass notes to the right position, and quantization on the MPC wouldnt make the trick for all of them.. I also want to have a more natural less quantized sound, but I get off too far. For now I can´t do better :/

[ksandvik]

Yes, either replay the parts or quantize them. Now, some quantize tools such as Logic's could set the amount of quantize percentage-wise, 100% means full quantize, 80% means partial so it leaves some of the natural swing. Or then quantize and use a swing factor.

Alas, the audience today are very much used to hearing close to perfect playing so either you practice until you nail things down perfectly *), or then use tools to simulate the output sounding perfect.

*) Believe it or not, a lot of the early day Madonna bass lines were done by a really good keyboard player with no quantize whatsoever.

[elauria]

ahh interesting note

If I do that I'll finish this track in 5 to 10 years :p For now I'll try to get the midi file from the mpc, import it in my DAW and try to correct it. Thanks for the idea!

[Beatfire]

haha, i like the off kilter nature of this track, but yeah a little bit more balance in your mixes would help, like bring that sqeulchy bass down just a little and bring in some other ear candy to keep things interesting. maybe a little bit more care taken with the kick drum, but it's a quirky track.

[elauria]

thanks for the comment beatfire. Actually yesterday I uploaded a new mix, which is the one you heard. The offtime of the midi notes is still there, but actually I pushed the bass a bit low, but then I could do it a bit more as you say. I added a layer on the kick with more low end.. It was hard to make them sound synced, but improved the kick and the overall mix. Still needs some work but I´m not sure how to do it. I'll keep trying things out.

Thanks