I need a reality check. Give me a real assesment.

[Wedges2]

For a while I started thinking that my mixes were pretty good and I was happy with them. But today I was going through my soundclick and just listening to all my songs in preperation for really putting it on the map and I realized that my mixes aren't bad and I am not ashamed of them but I do want them better and they are not as good as I thought.

So after givin myself an assesment I want to know what you guys think. There are some people's opinions that I trust on here for this sort of thing like Deranged, MorningStar, CPheonix, Dre Major and some others so I'm actually really hopin to get you guys' opinions. Aswell as anyone else that chimes in.

So seriously this is not me tryin to promote my soundclick at all, I want my catalogue better. So help me out tell me what you think of my mixes and I don't need any yes men around here.

So here is my soundclick www.AlphaMelee.com Listen to a couple tracks and tell me your thoughts. Btw, please don't move this to the feedback section. This is strictly about mixing so I think it can go here.

[moses]

Artistically, this is not my cup of tea. But still, I must say there's nice creativity in there (which I'm not used to hear at soundclick).

Your mixes are more or less balanced, the mixes are fine. But there's one thing I really do not like at all: Your sound selection. Nearly all your samples/patches sound like presets. They have no impact, no depth, no coolness.

Try to find really crisp claps, kicks and snares. Fat basses and synths patches and obscure samples. This is really all your music is missing, everything else isn't bad at all. I could imagine that some of your tracks could really explode with the right sound selection.

You might want to check my sig and take a deep listen to our stuff for inspiration. Or just check out Stone Throw, Ninja Tune, Plug Research, Warp, Ghostly and all these great labels output.

In short, your sound needs more $ex and color. This is not a mix thing, but really just the right sound selection.

For example, do not waste your time to ""improve" a weak synth patch in the mix, instead, go back to the synth and find that perfect matching, super banging sound. Same for kicks and claps, they must be really hot from the start.

[C4Productions]

Yeah I would agree .. I'm not the best at giving detailed feedback but some of those sounds definitely sound a little cheap... like in the first song those horns sound really thin to me for some reason.. I know you said this all about mixing bro but I don't think that's your problem... I think you just need to work on your image... you got good music but you're layout is cheesy its looks like a background on windows media player. Like every detail down to your display picture on this website should make ppl look and want to click on your links... some dude in a wheelchair vs a professional logo that said alpha melee, which would make ppl want to click your signature more on a music production forum? clearly the guy with the professional pic.. thats a real small example though.. u just gotta brand yourself and once you have that image locked in you gotta make yourself have a huge online presense... aka any site you go on that has beats or hip hop they see your name somewhere, as well as making yourself available on social networking sites i'm finding those to be the best way for reaching out to ppl especially facebook.

[~X~]

I've listened to a few of your beats and here are my thoughts:

You definitley know what your doing when your making these beats. Very creative and you have a varied selection when it comes to genre and sound. If I were you I'd really look to upgrading whatever your using for your strings, and then your drum samples (kick, snare, clap, etc). It sounds like you have a nice piano sound to work with form one or 2 tracks I heard. But yeah, really need to upgrade those sounds so you can get an even more professional sound and even better quality.

[Wedges2]

Wow, I don't really know what to do about this.

All of my sounds come from good places. A lot of comes from VI ONE, Miroslav Philharmonik, RealStrat+Amplitube Fender, UltraAnalog, Virus mod for Z3ta+ mainly.

Those are all good plugins...I don't mess with Hypersonic, I don't even like Sampletank. Idk what to do really. There are no other librarys beside EastWest stuff which I don't want that are better.

Maybe it's just tweaking the sounds to sound cool and not so bland. And stop EQing some instruments fit more main ones in at the expense of that instrument like I did in the strings of "Stoppins not an Option".

[Isk2009]

Like the others said, your mixing isn't really the problem. It's all sounds.

I'm not gonna tell you to find new ones(Except that guitar, I don't think that can be helped) Maybe you should try what I do. Just to get a good feel of how an instrument sounds when played professionally, I try to listen closely to other music utilizing that instrument or go on youtube and study how someone plays the instrument.

Your music mainly just doesn't have a 'soul' to it because it still has a slight tinge of roboticness because the sounds don't sound like they're being played naturally.

Also, I think your strings would sound much better(lusher/fuller) if you used more notes in lower octaves that compliment the higher ones.

But yea like the others said, you've got great ideas

[Xabiton]

i have to agree with the others. mixing and composition is on point get better sounds. mainly drums I dont think the other patches are terrible but they could use some tweaking. just dialing up a patch and going isnt always the best way to get the sound one wants.

[BlackKeyStudios]

Wow, I don't really know what to do about this.

All of my sounds come from good places. A lot of comes from VI ONE, Miroslav Philharmonik, RealStrat+Amplitube Fender, UltraAnalog, Virus mod for Z3ta+ mainly.

Those are all good plugins...I don't mess with Hypersonic, I don't even like Sampletank. Idk what to do really. There are no other librarys beside EastWest stuff which I don't want that are better.

Maybe it's just tweaking the sounds to sound cool and not so bland. And stop EQing some instruments fit more main ones in at the expense of that instrument like I did in the strings of "Stoppins not an Option".

I've yet to hear yur songs but I will once I get on comp.. but reading the others replys.. I have 2 ask a qwestion! Do yu have reason?? If yu do.. do yu know how to rewire?? If no is the answer to both Q's.. get it.. and lurn how to use rewire.. the stock sounds in Reason are very nice samples.. NICE.. so try that out..

[Wedges2]

I've yet to hear yur songs but I will once I get on comp.. but reading the others replys.. I have 2 ask a qwestion! Do yu have reason?? If yu do.. do yu know how to rewire?? If no is the answer to both Q's.. get it.. and lurn how to use rewire.. the stock sounds in Reason are very nice samples.. NICE.. so try that out..

Yah but they are comparable to other vsts. That's why I'm convinced that it's not so much the sounds, it's the technique of playing them to sound natural, not quantizing everything, not makin them all the same velocity, stop doing my mixing technique of taking out so much from one isntrument to allow another one to shine (not all togethor but a little less drastic), tweaking the sounds to have more character like adding low notes on strings like isk said. Stuff like that because it really can't be the sounds I'm using, because I use good stuff.

[C4Productions]

Yeah man I don't think you're sounds are necessarily bad at all just need to layer them and EQ them sound really full and shit like one thing I almost always do with brass is copy and paste it to different Octaves... and then alot of the time i filter out most of like the low or high octave when I EQ but I find it still gives alot to the horns IMO.. Also i know alot of ppl on here don't quantize but I only would recommend that to ppl with a certain sound like that underground boom bap style of shit in the type of beats you're doing timing is really important so I would quantize unless you're extremely good at playing it.. but what I do is quantize by hand i don't use the quantize tool.. I record my shit and then I let the part play through and quickly adjust any notes that way they don't all end up being the same length n shit plus you're not clicking it in so you have a very realistic sound with the velocities.. 100% its not the VST's you're using I only use hypersonic for my brass and feel like they sound very full... although just one preset on its own sounds horrible.