Mix Challenge

Chasey24 wrote: ↑

Sat Oct 19, 2024 21:36 CEST

If anyone would care to listen and give feedback, I have a couple of questions:
1. Is the Bass Guitar too loud in the mix?
2. I intentionally made the master bright, but is it too bright or harsh?

Hi Chasey24,
I have the same remark as Pony, the bass lacks a bit of depth, I find that the bass attack stands out too much, a bass sound a bit rounder would go better I think.
I don't find the mix too bright, with more low end in the bass there will be a good balance I think
I also heard the snare or attack problem of the acoustic guitar at 1.11, 1.17, 1.27, 2.59
I think the song is very cool, nice composition!

PonySho wrote: ↑

Fri Oct 18, 2024 21:43 CEST

*FINAL SUBMISSION*
....

I see you've added solos to your track, guitar and keyboard, super cool that brings more contrast, and also percussion at the end I think.
I'm always impressed by the level of detail in the mix and the panning and choice of sounds.
The mix of electric guitar with electronic sounds works very well.
The melodies are very catchy, simple and effective, accompanied by a groovy rhythm section.
I really like the chorus, which sticks in your head and sets a positive mood.
Great music!

Elcubano wrote: ↑

Sun Oct 20, 2024 11:11 CEST

I see you've added solos to your track, guitar and keyboard, super cool that brings more contrast, and also percussion at the end I think.
I'm always impressed by the level of detail in the mix and the panning and choice of sounds.
The mix of electric guitar with electronic sounds works very well.
The melodies are very catchy, simple and effective, accompanied by a groovy rhythm section.
I really like the chorus, which sticks in your head and sets a positive mood.
Great music!

Thanks, Elcubano. Appreciate you taking the time to listen and give feedback.
My guitar solo work is not the best but it adds some new flavour, as you say.

My approach to choice of sounds is this:
First, I get the drums, bass, main rhythm element and vocals working basically in terms of groove and melody. To me, that's the foundation of the song.

Then, I spend a lot of time with embellishments. It's so easy these days to create a verse and chorus, then copy and paste them around, while looping bass lines etc. To me this is boring and the listener can hear the mundane repetition even if they can't articulate it. (I'm guilty of a excessive repetition of parts in my submission).

Making small changes makes a huge difference. Here are typical examples of what I do:

+ For repeating/looping bass lines = revise the timing, notes and groove slightly on the last repetition of the loop.
+ For melodies/hooks (like in my submission) = add layers that sync with the melody line to give it more colour e.g. adding a guitar harmony to the original synth melody. These are always subtle and just meant to add a little flavour so that the listener hears a slightly different variation of the melodic line. I did this for all chorus melodies in my submission...each one has a different flavour even though the main melody line is unchanged. I mostly come up with these ideas by humming along to the song.

The goal is always to create contrast in the mix. Contrast is everything.

Apologies if this is not new to you but just thought I'd share a bit of my process.

Peace/out.

In this mix I applied a piece IR to give the electro acoustic guitar a more natural feel.
I hadn't thought of using acoustic guitar IR to apply to an electro acoustic.
Now I've found some free ones, but they don't work properly in IR1... I'll have to investigate further.

haha, I've gone a bit far into the dark side of winter

A good deal of the 'twangy/edge' sound in your guitar is probably sitting around the 2.5kHz to 4kHz region. If you're still battling with this unwanted twang, then I suggest a multiband compressor that just works on this region to bring down those notes when they occur (vs a regular EQ that will potentially dull the entire guitar track with a reduction in this region). But hey, try both and see what works.
If you can tame this region, I think your track will sound A LOT more pleasant and minimise ear fatigue.

I ALWAYS struggle with this frequency range on many mix elements. 3.1 kHz is my most common frequency to reduce (in addition to the 200 - 300 Hz region).

BTW, you have a real talent for bringing out emotion in your music. That's what's really important here. Listening back to your track, those fast guitar arpeggios remind me of rain, but also the excitement of spring/summer with sunny days and vibrant bird life. So cool!

Hey guys!

This track is about Johnny.
Johnny is a farmer stuck in the 70's, after many years of hard work finally this year he got the biggest harvest of his life.
So he picks up his car, he puts the track on the stereo at max volume and he goes in town to flex to his friends

I builded the drums with 70's one shots from my NI maschine drums library, guitar bass, violins, flute and guitars from - iriconally - FL STUDIO FLEX, a scarbee e-piano from NI and some synth made by me in serum and some FX.

Enjoy!

Dear fellow challengers and Mister Fox.

This month I present to you a soundtrack for some images of autumn fruits. As you will see, I continue to present you a theme of my style: Without a conventional structure (that's why it's a soundtrack), very calm, with orchestral instruments, percussive elements that accompany but do not mark the rhythm, without a bass that carries the rhythm (here the low notes are played by elements of the orchestra)...

Well, I hope you like it and give me ideas to make it better or highlight what you would have done differently.

Thank you colleagues.

(translated with google)



Equipment:
DAW:
Reason 13.0.3d1

Reason Instruments:
Scenic Hybrid Instrument

Reason Effects:
Reason Equalizer
RV7000 MkII Advanced Reverb
Stereo Tool
CF-101 Chorus/Flanger

Reason Players:
Scales & Chords

Reason Utilities:
Pulsar Dual LFO
Gain Tool

Reason Rack Extension:
ProjectSAM Orchestral Sampler Filmscore Instrument
Rob Papen PredatorRE Instrument

Other instruments outside of Reason:
Crow Hill Vaults BETA v1.0.2
UVI Workstation
SONiVOX EightyEight 2
Native Instruments Kontakt 7

Kontakt/UVI Library:
KONTAKT Heavyocity Foundations Nylon Guitar
UVI Virharmonic Bohemian Cello

Samples:
Reason samples

Other tools:
HoRNet Plugins HoRNet HarmoniQ
HoRNet Plugins HoRNet Sleek
iZotope Ozone 9 Standard
Plugin Alliance SPL HawkEye
HoRNet Plugins HoRNet VHS

crispy wrote: ↑

Mon Oct 21, 2024 21:16 CEST

This track is about Johnny.
Johnny is a farmer stuck in the 70's, after many years of hard work finally this year he got the biggest harvest of his life.
So he pick up his car, he put the track on the stereo at max volume and he goes in town to flex to his friends

I builded the drums with 70's one shots from my NI maschine drums library, guitar bass, violins, flute and guitars from - iriconally - FL STUDIO FLEX, a scarbee e-piano from NI and some synth made by me in serum and some FX.

Enjoy!

Cool. I love this track.
Punchy, simple, catchy. It's got Boney M written all over it! Awesome.
Bring back flares

EsteveCorbera wrote: ↑

Mon Oct 21, 2024 23:55 CEST

Dear fellow challengers and Mister Fox.

This month I present to you a soundtrack for some images of autumn fruits. As you will see, I continue to present you a theme of my style: Without a conventional structure (that's why it's a soundtrack), very calm, with orchestral instruments, percussive elements that accompany but do not mark the rhythm, without a bass that carries the rhythm (here the low notes are played by elements of the orchestra)...

Well, I hope you like it ...

Esteve, your tracks are always so calming! Ever thought of releasing relaxation music? Maybe you already do!?

Hello all,
just a few days left till the end of SWC086. Ive actually completed 5 of these and have never uploaded and submitted my ideas. Why, Im not sure, lol. Ive also completed this one and have been tweaking for over a week now. Guess im just a little scared of the comments or the issues I may be overlooking. But hey, thats how we get better right? Ill toss it around a day or two more and make a decision to upload.
I just wanted to throw this out there and see if Id get a, Just post the song or whats to loose, or Its just a song idea, go ahead and post it. lol.... Have a good one composers.

Let me quote one of the lead encouragements for this game...

Mister Fox wrote: ↑

Fri Oct 11, 2024 03:33 CEST

By joining, you're already a winner. The rest is bonus.

Interacting during the Voting/Feedback period is still mandatory - but this is why this game exists: to try something new and learn from this experience.