Take My Heart (Electronic Track) Looking For Mixing/Songwriting Feedback.

dannydawiz

dannydawiz

New member


I'd like to hear what you guys think I could do to make this song better in regards to the mixing and the songwriting.

What parts do you like?
What parts do you dislike?
What should I work on?

UPDATE:

Thank you for your help everyone! I readjusted the eq of a lot of the things in this track. I also added a bus compressor as suggested. I must say that everyones feedback helped out a lot!

 
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I like it, it sounds good.

When the bassline comes in at bar 16 i believe.... the bass harmony it sounds kind of squashed with the mid harmony...

I'm not sure if its a compression thing...but it sounds more as if 1 plugin is playing a combo of things....bassline, midline, highline all from 1 plugin?

if thats not the case...and if it is separate outputs for all 3 lines.....then perhaps it is the reverb clashing?

try lightening the reverb on the bass, and maybe ad more to the mid or hi.

If it's not the above things mentioned....then I will say it just needs to be eq'd a bit better.....more separation in the bass heavy sections....

I enjoyed listening to it, I can tell you got the music bone! just needed a bit more sound separation. experiment with velocities, eq, compression, and reverbs, to add contrast...

This is exactly what I've been working on this month....contrasting my mixes better.
I'm new to engineering, but have confidence knowing I was(still am) a top notch singer and music is something I have a strong passion for. Keep at it my friend! Time, practice, research. You'll make great music if you dont get discouraged by anything!
 
Thanks a lot Cyan for giving the track a listen!

The bass instrument in this song is separate from the instrument that is covering the mids. The plugins I'm using are a mixture of Sylenth & Massive.

I understand what you're saying about the bass sounding cluttered with the mids. It may be the reverb like you suggested. A lot of the instruments are very reverb heavy! I'll be sure to go back and fix them up!

I was feeling a bit unsure about the EQ as well. There really isn't any compression because I'm just to insecure about how to use it. The song doesn't have a lot of highs either which is something I was worrying about. The section with the synth is an exception but everything else is mostly bass and mids.

I'll need to work on these things in the future. Thanks for the encouragement and good luck with your singing/music career Cyan!


If there is anyone else out there I would appreciate you're thoughts as well!
 
its quite hard to hear sometimes in the DAW...just keep bouncing your mix with the small adjustments you desire....and listen to it in headphones, and big speakers...

I'm sure you noticed how different the sound sonics can be after you bounce it out of the DAW.

As for compression...basic compression is quite easy...and dont worry I just understood it myself....just.

For a basic compression.....long attack (100ms+ish) and long release(100ms+ish) on a separate Bus...is a pleasant basic compression. Send all your tracks to that 'separate Bus', watch a tutorial on Bus sends compression!

Took me a good while and my tracks sounded like crap until i understood more...but I was using really tight compression,,,,quick attack and release....and i was compressing each track instead of the track as a whole...

I watched a few tutorials and bam! overnight improvement...boy was I ever happy to hear the improvement.
You will get it really soon with a few tutorials and trial runs.
Wish you the best seeya around
 
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I was reading through the other feedback, and gotta say that I agree with Elytal about the kick, same goes for the snare... and I also agree with what Cyan was saying about the headphones and bus compression. Bus compression is a good way to go!

Something I'd look into is broadening the sound, as in spread the low end lower and the high end a little higher, this track doesn't need too much on the high end though. Anyways, my favorite part is the intro! Nothing i dislike.
 
Hey thanks for putting the effort to advise me on the compression.

When you say compress though are you advising me to compress the whole track?

Wouldn't this be considered more of a mastering process than a mixing process if its applied to the whole track?

I understand the concept of compression. It takes the dynamics of an instrument and brings down the volume of anything that passes a certain threshold.

I just have trouble hearing the actual effect.

I also have trouble recognizing when to use compression.

I'll read up more on bus compression and see what I can find.
 
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eskimâux said:
I was reading through the other feedback, and gotta say that I agree with Elytal about the kick, same goes for the snare... and I also agree with what Cyan was saying about the headphones and bus compression. Bus compression is a good way to go!

Something I'd look into is broadening the sound, as in spread the low end lower and the high end a little higher, this track doesn't need too much on the high end though. Anyways, my favorite part is the intro! Nothing i dislike.
Click to expand...

Thanks for replying! I agree that it would be a good idea to rearrange this track. I'll be sure to spread out the bass from the mids by maybe an octave and see how it affects the mix. Either that or I'll experiment a bit more with the volume/eq. I'll go over the snare and the bass drum to as well just to give it that extra punch.

I really got a lot out of this reply as well as all the others. Thanks so much everyone for your support!
 
Yes compressing the whole track...but not on the 'main output' channel or the 'master'..... Goto your mixer and change output of your plugins to a 'bus' channel, and put the comp on there....that way all your instruments are routed thru that compressor channel before it gets to the main output and master...

Yes its a mastering thing but its a huge part of a complete sounding track, you can get very creative with bus channels.

It sounds like you are trying to push your volume up without using compression and that creates a more "Blaring sound" type feel and really muds the mix because you try push your levels up.

With bus compression this track will sound really smooth i bet. i googled 'bus send compression logic', and dont stop watching it till you get it haha, keep your daw open, dont over complicate it, its easy

you will get a clear and loud sound with this technique and you can turn your note velocities down and have more flexibility with your sound, and your headspace/atmosphere
 
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◮CYAN◭;49753758 said:
Yes compressing the whole track...but not on the 'main output' channel or the 'master'..... Goto your mixer and change output of your plugins to a 'bus' channel, and put the comp on there....that way all your instruments are routed thru that compressor channel before it gets to the main output and master...

Yes its a mastering thing but its a huge part of a complete sounding track, you can get very creative with bus channels.

It sounds like you are trying to push your volume up without using compression and that creates a more "Blaring sound" type feel and really muds the mix because you try push your levels up.

With bus compression this track will sound really smooth i bet. i googled 'bus send compression logic', and dont stop watching it till you get it haha, keep your daw open, dont over complicate it, its easy

you will get a clear and loud sound with this technique and you can turn your note velocities down and have more flexibility with your sound, and your headspace/atmosphere
Click to expand...

Hey thanks a lot for the tip!

i feel like I'm finally starting to understand the benefits of compression.

I did as you said and added a bus compressor to all the tracks.
what I noticed was that the volume of all the tracks sounded a lot more even.

I'm beginning to think of it like this.

Using a bus compressor on all the tracks brings the peak level closer to the RMS. If the compressor for example is reducing the whole track by 3db, then that's just 3db more that is added to the rms.

Ive always noticed during mixing that the volume faders on some instruments would pump up and then quickly go back down.

With the use of compression it brings the peak down that way there is less unevenness throughout the track.

I still need to get better aquainted with attack and release settings. But aside from that thanks! I'll repost the track soon to show you and everyone else the difference!
 
◮CYAN◭;49753995 said:
glad I could help! hope to hear the results
Click to expand...

Here is the new mix that I created with your help as well as everyone else's!



I adjusted the EQ of a few instruments and I also added a bus compressor!

Thank you everyone for your help!
 
Awesome man, this sounds much cleaner! the bassline is in there nicely now....

These others are right about the drum needing to be deeper somewhere along the line, the slap is good but it occupies the higher frequency, and your instruments frequency are in the same zone, a deeper kick would sit nicer and have more bounce in contrast to the higher end.

this type of music, a kick drum with lowcut(5-10%cut),,,you would have a nice kick, then maybe raise the gain but not much at all, eq boost the rest to get your lowcut kick as close to the lo-mid range in EQ, and then you'll have a nice deep kick.

I like this track, good job!...I love how easy it can be to learn sometimes.
 
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