Can i have your .02 cents?

M

Masterpiece Beats

New member
Hi Future Producers!

I just signed up to this forum, but i been around for a couple of months.

I really like it here, and already have gotten alot of useful info for my productions.

I believe here are lots of producers who really know what they are doing and talking about, so i´d like to ask for they´re opinion/advice.

I´ve been making instrumentals for roughly a year. Now i been wanting to make whole songs and beats with hooks.

So I started playing around with a short beat and a verse or hook or whatever you wanna call it.

Check here -> https://soundcloud.com/masterpiecebeats/under-control

All in all, its all not that fancy, just a little playing around, nothing serious.

My problem is, i find it hard to get the vocal "sitting" right in the mix.
I really don´t now what im doing wrong or missing here.

Maybe one of you guys could take a listen and give me some ideas/ or advice to fix the problem.

Any advice is appreciated! thanks alot!
 
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Thats a nice concept!

The issue your running into is that your vocals are not compressed (or not compressed well). In comparison to the synths used (which are always compressed and EQ'd by commercial standards) your vocals are getting lost because they need to be compressed to give it a bigger and fatter presence. Also the low-mid range in the EQ seems like it was dropped out (mind you I'm listening on earbud headphones).

Your synths normally have a lot of mid, so your vocals need that mid range to stay at par. then the compression will put your vocals over and all that would need to be done is some panning to really sit well in the mix.

Good practice would be to listen to a high quality music track that is similar and listen back between that record and yours. You will start to hear the difference and you compensate to make your mix sound like that one. You do this more and you'll get better and better at mixing.

Good Luck!
 
Hey, yaeh, nice concept! I didn't think it sounded bad at all, but I do agree that you could probably treat the vocal (a little more compression to bring it forward) and it would be that much better. I think the linear concept (one instrument at a time bouncing around) is cool, but the intro and ending might be a bit busy (maybe too much "bouncing" between piano, bass, and organ).

Also, I'm only listening on little Dell speakers, but it does seem like some panning is in order-- get stuff out of the middle, and the vocal jumps out that much more (by leaving it in the middle). It's good to check your mixes in mono, but if you are mixing in stereo, go ahead and use the stereo field.

Finally, cortezsyndicate also made a great suggestion to "A-B" your mixes. Pick out some tracks that you like, and use them as reference material when you mix your own songs. This will help a lot in more ways than you can imagine right now...

GJ
 
A great concept, very original!

But listening to the vocals I felt they were a little stressed compared to the beat. There's a nice rythm to it, but it sounds like it's in a rush (like you need to catch the bus 5 minutes after recording).
Also the delayeffect didn't blend in well imo.
Also the tonality of the vocals collide a bit with the beat, since the beat is very warmsounding, while the vocals sound very "smiley-curved" making them sound hyped.

And that's it.
Keep up the good work!
 
Hey Guys, thank you for all of your answers!

it´s guys like you that make me love this forum so much! ;)

I´m just always worried about compressing vocals too much, since they are, and also imo should be very dynamic. I have have very little compression on that vocal and also do mix in mono, and "slap" the stereo effect on the master channel afterwards.

you all really brought some good points i havent considered yet. I´ll def. try them out.

Thanks alot!
 
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