First Submission... Advice Welcome (# S210403HH)

[DexWilliams]

Hi all,

I'm just finishing a submission for the listing mentioned in the title: # S210403HH (HARD-HITTING, MODERN HIP-HOP/ORCHESTRAL HYBRID INSTRUMENTAL CUES)

I've got to 30s so the rest will be a build/release/layer job... but wondered if anybody has some input on if I'm miles off track here because the listing says not to copy the reference in any way, but do take the tempo and style into consideration.

As a newbie I'm posting a SoundCloud link... is there a better way to do this in the TAXI forums?

https://soundcloud.com/dexwilliamsmusic ... sdAUZE1Gai

Many thanks,

Dex

[KennyWayneBuffalo]

I have used links to Soundcloud too, because it's easier than linking to TAXI. I think the drums sounds are a bit off for hip hop. Usually there is just kick, clap(or something like that) and high hat.

[DexWilliams]

Thanks Ken!

Good point on the drums so I've cut them back a bit to get a bit more Hip hop feel to them. I think I was hearing quite a lot going on in the reference track with FX and got distracted from the drum feel.

[cosmicdolphin]

Yeah I agree you need to start the track with a Hip Hop beat and go from there, at the moment it sounds off target.

Mark

[DrDanny]

Hi Dex,

Welcome aboard, I am new here myself. So far 7 reviews, 3 forwards. I may be a little late to the party because this listing may have already ended, but figured I would share some feedback based on feedback that I got on my own submissions. Your composition, instrumentation, creativity is all good on this submission to me. For pretty much all of my reviews the feedback has been on mixing. I am hearing some things in your track that I would personally want to tweak since my ear has been focused on this lately for my own songs.

The first thing is there is a muddy sound. This is typically from too many frequencies being in the 250-500 Hz range. This is a tricky thing with hip-hop because we want good lows, but in order to get that you need to get everything else out of the way. So use an EQ and make sure if it is not a bass, kick, or some effect that adds bass, chop off the lows. Also, watch the muddy range on your lows and adjust EQ as necessary, don't just work on the higher instruments, examine all of them.

Another thing I am personally trying to work on that might help is to add a limiter or maximizer to the final mix as a final step or generally on tracks that have a lot of dynamic range (which your song may not have since most sounds are synthetic). You may be able to crank up the limiter input and set the output to something reasonable but not over -0.5 dB. Keep the gain reduction that the limiter introduces to -3 or -4 dB to get a little soft clipping but not too much. If you are using a limiter now, it is possible your sounds are over compressed. My suspicion is if you give your individual tracks some more breathing room with adjusting the EQ that it will open up the character a little more and give you room to work with to add more punch to your song.

If folks have more experience on this topic, I am all ears myself. Just sharing what so far appears to be working for me for a track that sounds like it has a similar character with the EQ and dynamic ranges.

Good luck,

Danny

[DexWilliams]

Thanks Danny,

Those are all really good points and I do go through each track at the end when mixing, but you've got some other things in your post that I'll have a play around with in the future... thanks very much

I think the final track I submitted sounded much better than this sort of 'pre-mix' version, but I guess we'll find out you are right when I get a return

Thanks for taking the time to reply,

Dex

[DexWilliams]

Speaking of the final track I just realised I didn't make it public!... It's the only submission I've made so is on my profile page... feel free to follow if this is the kind of stuff you like doing too

https://www.taxi.com/members/dexterwilliams

[Stubee]

Your track looks like it's only 35 seconds. That's probably going to be too short.
The idea is great. I think it needs some more dramatic sweeps and bottom end boom.
It's just my opinion.

[DexWilliams]

Your track looks like it's only 35 seconds. That's probably going to e too short. is too short.
The idea is great. I think it need some more dramatic sweeps and bottom end boom.
It's just my opinion.

Thanks for the reply. The 30s version was the first link I posted while looking for feedback. The full version is on the link to my profile above your post.