Mix Challenge

Canese, I really like the way the guitar sample stretches out with delay. I think it really fits the genre, nice choice on that sample.

Wrt to submissions and this particular comp, I had a few life events take over, plus honestly I found it very hard to put myself in a 'sun filled fiesta'. I think I over focused on those words which felt very forced fun to me. Regardless, I was maybe 15 percent of the way in, I might have made it had there been more time.

functionform wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 25, 2019 16:05 CEST

Canese, I really like the way the guitar sample stretches out with delay. I think it really fits the genre, nice choice on that sample.

Wrt to submissions and this particular comp, I had a few life events take over, plus honestly I found it very hard to put myself in a 'sun filled fiesta'. I think I over focused on those words which felt very forced fun to me. Regardless, I was maybe 15 percent of the way in, I might have made it had there been more time.

Thanks man! IMHO, I didn't like them too much because they seem too empty and disengaged from the verses but they are dope alone.

Lots of grea ideas this round. A fair bit of deviation around the genre but I don't mind; good music was inspired.
My feedback:

Yuppi88:
You have good sound design for the summer festival style, and your overall flow is solid. The mix could maybe use a little work, for example the kicks 8 measures in are really loud over everything else, and in general the kicks feel too loud. Taking a little of the low end off your bass would give more room for your kick to shine while leaving headroom for the other instruments.
My biggest complaint is how all instruments except your lead are played on downbeats. This works pretty well for the section at 2:45 (my favorite) where your drums add some variety but in general it means that the listener is focused on the lead and nothing else; rather tiring after 4 minutes. Moving your chord changes around to different parts of the measure, plus using a more syncopated bassline would bring nice House flavor and more rhythmic interest.

MarkS:
I'm missing two important things above all else- a sense of overall flow, and a steady feel for the rhythm. I think the kick is absent for too much of the track, because in house music the kick is the center of the rhythm. in the buildup around 3:30 there are lots of notes but no clear beat, and this can also be said for many other sections of the track. Once the kick comes back in, everything makes a little more sense.
Then there's the overall arrangement. Parts seem to pop in and out for no reason that I can discern. It seems like you're afraid of repeating things as is, which can easily lead to a mess in the House world. Slower evolution and more gradual transitions are a key feature of progressive house in my opinion.

SimaGT:
classic. Danceable, strong, smooth, everything I want in my party. Mix feels pretty clean, like I can hear all of the important things at the right times. Perhaps most importantly, the flow of your track is excellent.

J I L L I A M:
Once again, a really loud track from you- the intro sounds rather harsh and distorted, and the limiter is really struggling once the main groove comes in. I think between your volume and Soundcloud's mp3 compression your ideas have been somewhat squished out of the track.
Gotta give you credit for using AutOgun though

VCA-089:
I love the sound design you have going here. it's chill but has lots of life. Perhaps at some times the ambiences sounds (oceans, planes, etc.) get a little too up-front in the mix for my taste, but that's a creative decision and I still think it works well. From a danceability standpoint I'm also not a big fan of the half-time section, but it's musically well written.

canese:
I love the intro. Overall I think the track could benefit from a little more high frequencies from the instruments. Your work with the vocal is pretty good though!
You mentioned that you're having difficulties with mastering- I think I'm finally figuring it out; here are some of the things I've learned.
1) If you aren't already using them, loudness meters (Youlean Loudness/MLoudnessAnalyzer) will help you see where your track is at. Shoot for somewhere between -16 and -14 LUFs integrated for SWC.
2) drum transients make loudness mastering hard; if they are peaking too high use a clipper on the drum track to leave headroom while maintaining loudness.
3) a good mix makes mastering easy. If your mix is good, it shouldn't need lots of adjustments on the master chain.
4) be careful with fast compressor/limiter attacks because they will eat your bass.
it would be nice to hear other people's thoughts on mastering, because I'm still fairly new to it myself.


My Votes:

So this month i expected to listen some progressive tracks, but it sounded too me like it was just house tracks and an electro
vibe and some progressive melodies.i don't say that my song is very progressive even i tried to make it so. but maybe some people
just saw first sun house from ,,Sun-filled Fiesta, Progressive House,, month theme so it makes sense now.

Leonard Bowman, your song has the house vibe, i don't go to progressive thing. but. that clicky main synth and the ,,vinyl spinning downn,,
like sound ruins all. i think you could easily replace that delayed synth with another soft lead. and slowing down vinyl can be removed.
the bass and drums's rhythm go very good toghether.

JILLIAM, so this sounds like a mix of detroit early vocal house songs and a techno kick beat. and all together have a feel of dub
techno.but i am missing a bit the song structure . i think you need few changes in arrangement and some new sound elements to fit it.

VCA-089, that snare roll at 5:00 had fooled me , like i was expecting a progressive kick drum and some synth elements.
but you thought tropical house/80 dance music is the right thing. i can understand that the summer was the main purpose
so it explains all about. i think all you can do is just speeding up the tempo. so maybe this will give a progressive vibe to song.
all of your sounds fit well together.

Yupi88, swedish house mafia is on the main deck . so to me this is an electro house track rather than a progressive house track.
or i am missing something? but this is for sure mainstream.

Canese, a good house track nothing to add, as i said above, maybe you as other people just saw sun house or summer house, so that's
why you did not make a progressive track.

SimaGT, so somebody saw the progressive word in the month theme . i have nothing to add.

i don't say i am a specialist in music genres. but i think these next songs sound progressive and don't go very much to the
downfall of edm songs:
Boom Jinx feat. Thomas J Bergersen-Remember September (Original Mix);
Lessov-Komodo (Original Mix);
Monakhov & Que-Hola (PROFF Remix). of course maybe is just my musical taste, but i was expecting more something like this.

i know that tusca has removed the entry,and doesn't list in this top, but i had a chance to listen to it.
so it was sure house, but was more like deep house. i can't say anything more because the track is deleted.

so this month i had to rank progressive house and ,,summer,, house. i don't try to make fun of it, maybe summer is in the air. so this is the main reason, anyway so here is the top

Thank you for your feedbacks, fellow song producers. Here are mine:

yuppi88 "Take It":
It has a good vibe overall, it has a lot of emotions and fits well with this month theme. Good song structure. I liked the composition (harmony, melodies) in general. I think mixing and sound design could improve a bit, I found the synths sounds a bit to harsh/cringy maybe would improve if the lead was layered with an organic instrument. Drums sound is okay, sounds little too much compression and distortion I couldn't enjoy the groove of the hihats. And it needs an outro for the song also.

MarkS "City Lights":
Very good synth sounds but I don't get to much connection in between maybe because of the melodies/counterpoint. Also song structure it's a bit odd, it doesn't seem to have a connection between different parts and that carries the energy in a bad way. I liked drums programing, it's a nice groove.
I think it goes well with the monthly theme but it lacks something rememorable (like a hook , or a melody that stands out)

SimaGT"Lighthouse":

This is so great! I love it and don't get tired of it. The arp alone is amazing, and the harmony helps a lot to carry the emotion. Drums also stand nice in the mix that you don't seem to pay attention to them but they are punching every beat. Piano melody is very memorable and danceable.
Your mix also is super. Nothing to add, bass and drums are well married. Only remark is I found sweeps and reversed cymbals a little bit too loud, but only like a 2-3dB.

J I L L I A M "Just Starting":
Nice intro. But when the high hats enter the energy seems lower than it suppose to be. Maybe the lead melody synth can be a lit louder, or layer with other instruments. Amazing vocal edition! Overall, the mix seems a little bit distorted or compressed but it's okay with the genre.

Leonard Bowman "Mirage Mainland":
Nice song structure. I find the sun filled fiesta in the song but not quite there. Not a big fan of the out of tune organ. The drum and bass stands very well and together are very danceable. Mixing is perfect, we can hear every element and we get the importance of the different instruments.

VCA-089 "Summer Track Again!":

Awsome crafted song! Not sure if the machine sounds from the intro goes well with the water/airport sounds. Great pad sounds, very calm and warm. The toms/percussion also are very nice, it seems they have they own melody. I think the bass colides too much with the kick in the bottom end, maybe adding a more aggressive sidechain to the bass will help. Sound design is perfect, they give me an underwater hypnotic feeling I like. Last remark: I think maybe it's a little bit too slow, maybe a couple of BPM more would help to add more energy.


Final vote:

Yeah I now noticed aswell that it's not downloadable. I guess I can't fix that now either?

Sorry haha!

Also: Thanks for feedback to my track. I will add my own feedback to rest of the tracks when I get time.

MarkS:
As I see others also have said: the kick doesn't really shine at all in your track which I feel it should, kind of.
It has a cool and unique atmosphere with some other cool drums aswell. But I feel it lacks a melodic feeling which IMO is a huge part of a progressive house song.

SimaGT:
Great job! I like your track really much! You did a good job keeping me interested throughout the song and everything about this song gives me that tropical/summer feeling. Bass felt nice in the mix and the bassline gave me groovy feels. One thing I would have wished for was more energy in the lead melody, atleast towards the end, even though you already did spice it up.

JILLIAM: Yeah this sounds distorted and too loud(?), especially the kick. Cool lead though! But you neither catch the summer- nor the house-feeling imo.

Leonard Bowman: Unique and cool groove! I just don't know where to place your song in my head (if that makes sense lol), its sounds are so different to eachother that the track don't really have its style. Like the pluck your using in your lead doesn't really fit into the song. Thumbs up for the bass though!

VCA-089: First of all, cool background/atmospheric sounds!! The wave sounds from intro lets you know immediately it's a summer-track! You also give a mysterious feeling which I really like, it along with the drums, bass etc makes me just wanna hear this song at a summer-rave close to a beach and dance until dawn lol. The melody is cool and all but I just dont know if I like it in a track of this "genre".

canese: Nice groove, and I liked how you played around with the vocals. I also liked the melody and felt it fits well into rest of the track. The lead guitar is just kinda irritating to the ear imo and would want a more pleasant sounding one, or a piano instead would be cool. Overall great job dude!


And also about my own submission: I changed it to downloadable since I totally missed that earlier, and hope it's cool now!

My votes

Yes, everything is fine now, yuppi88.

>>> Yuppi åäö
SWC023_Yuppi88_Takeit.wav
it's really fitting the season. Good, clean sound and a lot of positive energy. It has good musicial quality. Good
arrangment of sounds, nice warm pad, for instance - or the piano in the background.

>>> MarkS
SWC023-City-Lights.wav
Nice atmosphere, which i consider fairly dreamy and, kinda mysterious. It's hypnotical, tranc-ey, frisky,
and the mix is on a high level. I value the tracks originality - it doesn't sound random.

>>> SimaGT
SWC 023 - Lighthouse
Sounds great. Reminds me of an OST for a racing game i once played on a phone, that was solid. There is not an empty
space, it's not plainly positive or, anyhow shallow and pretencious. The sounddesign, the "automation-play", it's
quite absorptive. Nice mood. It is very warm-like track. Also, very progressive, off course.

>>> Benjamin_D
Mirage Mainland
This has kinda vibes of older Final Fantasy games, in a trance coat. Sounds colourfull, happy, yet there's the
orbitual pad, that has like a colder sound, which is an interesting construction. The detuned keys are trippy.
Pretty nice one.

>>> VCA-089
Summer Track Again!
I enjoyed the groove, with the bongos - sounds like a beach disco. I liked the ambient noises. The keyboard melody that
starts somewhere before 2nd minute is deeply relaxing, and covered in a robe of secrets/mystery. Alike the pad, and
the reverb that is so wet made me feel like my momentarily bad mood is mellting. I like the keyboard improvisation, towards the ending. The melodies overall are just interesting.

>>> Canese
SWC023-Oga.wav
Nice to hear more acoustic sound. The vocals are great, also well processed. Enjoyed it.

I must say this is hardest SWC to me so far to rank.
All entries are good in their own way so here it goes.
I hope no one will take my comments to serious .




yuppi88 :

I think this is classic "stadium" type of EDM .I can easily imagine crowd jumping on this tune.
This is the most "mainstream" track here in my opinion.Can't tell if this is "house enough" track
since i really don't know much about EDM but someone mentioned the kick is maybe to atacky ,to me it
blends well with the rest of sounds.

MarkS :

Nice percussion you have here, paning works nice. It sounds very experimental or to be more clear
it is somewhat unpredictable to me, not housy. Maybe because one of the instrument sounds like it is not in tune,
not sure which one.I like the overall "outworld-ish" vibe .


J I L L I A M :


Promising and catchy intro but , as soon as filtered opened i started to hear noticable amounts of distortion ,
like it is clipping .I dont know if it was artistic choice or an mixing/mastering accident but it is ruining,
my overall experience . Maybe im wrong but i dont think iv ever heard so much distortion in prog house .
When i think of house i hear soft pads ,mellow basses and simple clean mixes , but that's just me.
Maybe you should revisit it and set the different levels and get rid of distortion cause this can be awesome track
if you can hear it more clearly.


Leonard Bowman :

Great track, not so mainstream , more abstract. Interesting Doppler like effect on that pad, it is like im driving near the beachclubs.
Mix is clear and well balanced .I imagine this track playing while lying on a deckchair under an umbrella half asleep and drinking cocktails in the beach.


VCA-089 :

Really nice track .Good choice of instruments and effects ,they complement each other so well. I like that bitcrushed intro and you pictured summer trip very well.
Nice and calm vibe you got here.
And also i must thank you for discovering me awesome guitar and bass from Ample ,man those sound good i've tried them.
Now im checking that 99 free stuff to lol .


canese :

I like the percussion here dunno where you got those but they sound top notch.I like the chill tropic vibe here .
The only thing i would want to change is the lenght, it ends to soon .



01 - VCA-89 (10pt)
02 - Leonard Bowman (9pt)
03 - canese (8pt)
04 - yuppi88 (7pt)
05 - MarkS (6pt)
06 - J I L L I A M (5pt)