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Don't hold back. Please tear it apart.

I am producing this song for an artist in New York. Music video is being made 2nd week in July.

Many thanks! Much appreciated!

Heres the link: https://soundcloud.com/elementproducer/ ... SQaUT1bq6s

It says " Folder Does Not Exist "

dropbox trippin out.

ok lets try this link instead: https://soundcloud.com/elementproducer/ ... SQaUT1bq6s

Sounds good and strong!

It felt like the Sidechained Piano Intro (Which I Like) just dragged the groove back a bit
In other words, I didn't feel a strong groove to the opening, listened to just that about 7 times and can't put my finger on it...
Who Knows?

Cool Tune for sure!

Hey man, sorry to me mix is not there yet. Low end sounds muffled, and the high end sounds too compressed and lifeless. I don't get the omph, clarity and excitement for this genre.
Maybe scoop out some lows where you can, dip some 450, and automate in stead of compressing the vocals?

Tbh, I would scratch it and start again with mixing from the vocals. It sounds like you have worked too much on the mix and got lost.

sent you a PM, but basically I'm feeling what kolstad and cass are feeling, especially in the opening of the track. best of luck!

User avatarTheElement
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Post by TheElement » Wed Jun 24, 2020 10:19 pm
Don't hold back. Please tear it apart.

Hey Gavin, great song!

You just need to make it BANG!

As Cass mentioned the side chained piano... Take out 320Hz.

I would suggest..

Put a bell curve filter sweep over the whole mix and sweep it down from the intro after the record noise to transition from that vibe. Land it at "sleep".

You need a rise coming up to "stressing me" and to lose the piano there and go to a bass.
You need a hard edge on top of the side chained synth bass [new] in the sides. Filter out the low end on that.

You need a sweep down at "falling off the surface'. I'd stop the beat at falling to give a sense off free fall. Then HIT it on the beat before "hood ooo"

I'd like to hear some percussion or arpeggios [32nd note?, I'm not the best on musical timings ] come in after that. You could change the kick/snare/rhythm up a bit later in the song after 1:45 to the end for some variation.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents .
More differentiation between the sections with better builds and transitions, [the piano through out gets old pretty quick].
Replace the SC piano with a bass and put a layer on top in the sides with some grit].
Add elements to push the song forward for more momentum and excitement.

Some quick thoughts...

Vocal processing needs some help. The secondary vocal track ("Can't control" at 35 sec) is too loud and present, and it takes away from what should be the focus. Delay throws need some work as well. The super long feedback delay you used at times isn't really doing it imo.

The top end synth at 48 seconds sounds dated.

Mix balance seems off as a whole. For pop, you need some punchier bottom end. Probably a mixture of needing some eq carving out, getting a compressor on the kick to smash the tail a bit and focus on the transient a bit more, and just creating more space for stuff as a whole. I did a track a while back with a similar vibe on the sidechain stuff if you want to listen to how the bottom end sits: https://soundcloud.com/andrew_jordan_mu ... -me-forget (it's an instrumental, but hopefully it gives you an idea of what I'm talkin about)

Dynamically, the song felt a little flat. There were some other great suggestions about about some breaks, drop offs, etc. I'd try experimenting with that stuff in order to bring it to life a bit more.

Cool song, and best of luck with it!

Andrew

HA... you've gotten so many suggestion already... I think I'll just wait to see/hear if/when you post an upgraded re-mix;
if there's time before your deadline, that is.
Cheers & good luck - reads like a cool project.
Peter

Off the bat without reading any of the other replies

Vinyl crackle...I would lose that, I think that went out of style a decade ago

The sidechain on the reverse piano feels like the groove is wrong - I get what your going for but it's not working for some reason..maybe try not bringing the sidechain in until the rest of the track kicks in ?

Around 15s when the low end stuff comes in it sounds a bit odd, like you've low pass filtered it and winds up sounding like when the neighbour is playing their music too loud and you hear a muffled kinda low end coming through the walls. What ever effect that is I don't think it's doing the track any favours. Most tracks in this genre have the Drums and Bass as the loudest thing in the track. I think you might need to bypass a lot of the processing you have done and rebuild a new balance that focuses more on the low being clean and a lot more hard hitting and on not have the vocal as the loudest element.

30s - Synth sounds a bit retro, difficult to call it without any ref tracks from the artist but it's probably not what I would choose..or at least if I did I would be treating it with some cool FX

50s - It's here that I expected the mix to open out but it didn't. Those muffled sounding filters on the low end stuff if you were going to use them as transition stunt are screaming out to change right there. Conversely if you lose your early sidechain piano it's the ideal place to bring it back. I also think your chorus would benefit from some 16 note percussion ( shakers or whatever ) to give it some energy and help it stand out more than the verse

1:09 Not enough section to section contrast here, Verse 2 should have something new for us ..a new hook, riff whatever

1:42 There's a chance here to make the end of that verse more dramatic and reset the listeners ears for the next chorus. You did it a little but I feel you could go a lot further. As it stands it falls a little flat.

Over all I think the vocal is eating up too much mix real estate so the rest of the track sounds small in comparison. Probably over 10 years ago now but I remember there was an interview with the guy mixed Maroon 5's " Makes Me Wonder " and in it he mentioned how he kept the vocals really tucked in so he could make drums & bass sound bigger. I often use that track as a reference mix for vocal size if mixing pop songs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAebYQgy4n4

Mark