Just something I was fiddling with earlier

I'd really appreciate some advice on this track, what you like, what you don't, how to make it better, etc

https://soundcloud.com/josiah-luck/kyshtym

I recorded it with AIR Ignite which is a pretty weird bit of VSTs. Loads of great sounds, that you can only use within the software on their crap DAW.

pretty coo man, enjoyable, i like the xylophone, and your first track is coo too.

your really young and i just think the concepts are there for you, just over time as you learn to mix better your really gonna be able to breathe life into your work. feedback? id say work on your levels and apply compression to your drums.

Well, I can't mix on Ignite. I'm gonna remake it on ableton.

You can adjust levels in ignite I was just looking at screenshots and thts one of the core elements of mixing...

But yea ableton (thumbs up)

https://soundcloud.com/josiah-luck/kyshtym-1

Okay here is my new version

sounds a lot better! has a great raw vibe.

piano sticks out a lil too much imo,

reposted it on my label page

Thanks a lot, have you got a link? Which bit of piano, I can go back, and adjust levels, or compress it a little. Theres a few bits I wish I could've done, but I only have eight tracks to play with, on my editition.

rather than take the level down you could also do some gentle EQ cuts to pull it back a little... removing a little extreme top end detail above 10khz will always pull a sound into the background, then again its a dark piano sound already. hmmm

also if you listen to your mix a lot of the sounds are fighting in the mid range and there's a lot of low mid which is the 'mud' area for a lot of sounds

use your ears, or here is detailed (but rambling) advice:

did you program the piano via MIDI/piano roll? rather than compress I would even out the levels by adjusting velocity and volume note by note til its balanced as well as dynamic and emotional.... on virtual sounds that are programmed I tend to think compression should be heavy handedly used as an effect since its easy to even out peaks and valleys with your mouse. This doesn't need to be compressed unless you want to add more color to the sound, but frankly the color its lacking is more due to frequency response. What it needs is a better sense of key attack, maybe a small steep boost around 5 or 6khz so we can hear the 'hammer' sound? If it were a higher part I would suggest a higher boost. The low notes are a little round and woolly as well which fights the synth and kick. Your synth is both a high treble sound and a bass sound, I would give it a smile curve EQ to make midrange space, give it some additional boost at 80hz or lower, move the fundamental thump of your kick up to make space, a nice boost at about 125hz will help given that its an old school roland type sound and you want that roland roundness (kick roundness is generally perceived between 100hz and 400hz, the higher you go the more of a 'bouncing ball' quality you will hear). If you boost between 100 and 200 and cut in the muck range between 300 and 800hz you will get a nice roundness and a better feeling of 'power. Be judicious, move in 3dB incremements to start, keep boosts wide in low freqnecies to prevent phasiness, cuts should be narrow, for cuts try moving in 5dB increments and fuck with center frequency til your ear gets happy. On the synth sound I would fill in the lower mids a little for warmth, maybe a wide boost between 200 and 400hz or between 400hz and 1k. I might also put a steep cut around 100hz to cut a hole for the kick to really punch thru. I would give the clap more force too. try an 800hz boost and give it a little more sizzle in the detail range at 10khz or higher. Either that or add reverb and roll a little top off and boost the upper mids for more snap, try 3k. It'll have good attack then and also pull back a little in the mix with no level change....

try running some sidechain compression in parallel across the mix buss too, about 50/50 wet to dry. Set your sidechain EQ to be all about the mids so the big bass and treble transients from the percussion aren't driving the detector crazy. Set your compression for about 2:1, set the threshold super low and make your attack and release really long, this should help get the sounds together better.

k?

You can adjust levels in ignite I was just looking at screenshots and thts one of the core elements of mixing...

THIS

the main job of a mixer is to balance those gain levels into the mix buss, everything else is window dressing

K I'll try it out thanks for taking the time to listen.

or don't, I am talking about really subtle, non-corrective EQ to maximize your dynamic range and get all the sounds to cut w/o tampering with your overall levels too much

I've just made some changes, I incorporated some of the stuff you said, I'll really take some of the stuff you said away with me, really helpful, thanks. I binned a track that I couldn't actually hear, and added nothing to the song, and replaced it with another guitar so I have some harmonies. Other little fiddles as well. I'll update soundcloud soon.

Thanks a lot, have you got a link? Which bit of piano, I can go back, and adjust levels, or compress it a little. Theres a few bits I wish I could've done, but I only have eight tracks to play with, on my editition.

https://soundcloud.com/dubrmx

I'm just spitballin' from a low volume listen on really mediocre monitors, but I have ears and I know what these cheap little speakers sound like, I've owned them for over 20 years

I'm not sure either actually.the mixing changes, because some I did with my shitty poundland earphones, and some I did with my computer speakers.

I'm not sure either actually.the mixing changes, because some I did with my shitty poundland earphones, and some I did with my computer speakers.

in my opinion

u need to invest in some headphones or monitors, trying to do music without proper monitoring equipment is like selling drugs with a broken scale. there are some great headphones for monitoring tht only cost around 50-200 if u want links....... hell even some 12 dollar pairs from behringer

its pointless for anyone to give you mixing advice at the moment, we can only appreciate the concepts of your work.

in my opinion

u need to invest in some headphones or monitors, trying to do music without proper monitoring equipment is like selling drugs with a broken scale. there are some great headphones for monitoring tht only cost around 50-200 if u want links....... hell even some 12 dollar pairs from behringer

its pointless for anyone to give you mixing advice at the moment, we can only appreciate the concepts of your work.

I have never understood how people mix on headphones. Even good ones

there's lots of cheap, passable speaker options out there that will work fine for low volume if you listen carefully and occasionally take a look at the shape of your mix on a spectrograph plugin

that 'broken scale' analogy really amused me given who we are trying to advise

anyway, I started leaning to mix on cheap compter speakers and some old hifi speakers as a kid, go to a yardsale and buy a pair of old, beatup jbls and a stereo receiver (the UK has yardsales/flea markets right?)... you don't need to get fancy, just don't mix on earbuds

Yeah I realised the earbuds were crap. My speakers aren't bad, I've been using those for now. What were you getting at about mixing advice?

jim im sure you give headphones enough time, you can learn do a decent mix with them, than go to monitors to get your spacial mix right. i bounce back and forth constantly when mixing, and I feel like sometimes headphones give me a more personal / magnified look at the mix.

and there are some ear buds you can mix on designed specifically for monitoring from shure and audio technica that you should check out, at my friend's studio when we would work on a track together, we'd have wireless "in ears" so we can still hear the mix during smoke breaks (i dont smoke anymore), plus was a good way to take a break from the monitors, and look at the mix from another perspective.

idk if anyone can give you mixing advice because chances are your hearing something completely different than what we're hearing because your not using proper monitoring equipment.

it's never too early to start good mixing practices, so here's my headphone recommendations for mixing sorted by price range, idk what kinda budget you'd have for this

Audio-Technica ATH-M20x ($50) http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/ATHM20x

never mixed on these, but have compared them to their older brother the athm50x which I mix on all the time and they sound pretty damn close in quality, but if I had a limited budget I'd go for these.

Sennheiser HD 280 ($100) http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/HD280Pro

used these when getting my certifications for pro tools, mixes translated pretty well from headphone to monitors.

Audio-Technica ATH-M50x ($150) http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/ATHM50x

my favorite headphones for writing and mixing, note tho, highs can come off a little metallically which can make the highs sound higher than they really are, its not a problem just as long as your aware and test the mix on multiple other devices every now and then.

Shure SRH1440 ($300) http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/SRH1440

while the ATH-M50x's are my favorite to mix and write, these headphones sorta feel like I'm looking at the mix with a magnify glass, and tweaking and perfecting little mixing errors. note these are not fun headphones, they are very flat and honest.