Trying to improve EDM mixes: Ears wanted for this track

[Paulie]

Today's mix... any better? Any new problems?

https://soundcloud.com/paulcroteau/freedom-take-2

[TheElement]

Today's mix... any better? Any new problems?

https://soundcloud.com/paulcroteau/freedom-take-2

the genre is hard to place. Its electronic but not edm.

I would listen to sub genres of edm and focus on one. Big Room might be something you would like.

In your track the drop is not there. The intro up to the drop is good but it loses energy in the drop.

an example of big room: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLRtClG ... uoom2xZt46

its festival type music. also good for fil/tv. not radio friendly though.

[Paulie]

Good info. I'm definitely shooting for tv use, not radio.

[cosmicdolphin]

Today's mix... any better? Any new problems?

https://soundcloud.com/paulcroteau/freedom-take-2

I think it's better but The Element shares my concern about the drop... Not strong enough, I think it's your drums. Have you tried layering another drum loop there just to see if can inject some energy?

[Paulie]

Wow... listening again after a long break from this cue, I hear it as well. Lots of the highs go away on the drop and it loses something. This is also when the side chaining kicks in, which is probably killing a lot of that aspect, or, um, "element." Let me give it some more work.

[janbaars]

Cool track!

In my opinion the first part is the strongest.

It sounds to me that you want the part starting from 0:10 to sound HUGE. And it does sound big, but not huge yet...
Even more reverb and delay might work, but it's probably even better to get the mix cleaner. Cutting in the frequencies sometime help the leads to sound bigger.

I'm not sure about the snare fill. It's actually kind of fun to hear this kind of snare sound in an EDM track, but it's definitely not a standard sound to be expected in EDM in 2016. I think if you keep this sound, you should definitely do 'something' with it. Mingle it a bit. Make it less natural, without losing that real drum sound.

[cosmicdolphin]

Wow... listening again after a long break from this cue, I hear it as well. Lots of the highs go away on the drop and it loses something. This is also when the side chaining kicks in, which is probably killing a lot of that aspect, or, um, "element." Let me give it some more work.

I would always aim to get it sounding good without any sidechaining of the kick at first...or other FX for that matter

I like to separate arrangement issues from mixing/production tricks as sometimes folks use the latter to compensate for the former. I don't even use compression of any sort until late in the process. I.e. I'm purely relying on the music and arrangement to be engaging and excite me even as a basic balance. Once that's done I can move onto the mix and add another layer of excitement (hopefully!) knowing I'm happy with the foundation.

Mark

[TheElement]

the drop is where all the kick and all the bass come in for max energy.

find a kick and bass that work together and sidechain it.

Do not low cut the kick or the bass. let it carry the bottom.

[ochaim]

the 2nd mix sounds better in the mid range, much more in your face.

I'm missing a whole lot in the kick though. the sidechained bass sounds like it's making a lot of room for the kick but then the kick doesn't have enough energy to fill the space the bass was taking up so it sounds very muted. there's some sub in the kick's decay but not much impact in the attack, it's more clicky than anything else.

in another convo, I think I mentioned high passing either the kick or bass to make room for the other, in this case I would not high pass a lot for either because they aren't taking up the same space at the same time. hope that makes sense.

[mrdtman]

I think the drums need to be up some more, might make the song sound more 'aggressive'

DT