First up, excellent work, and really decent listen this.
The overall melodies work well, and all the synth work in the intro and drop are brilliant.

The openness of the mix is particularly note worthy - damn thats good.
The bass is good for me - listening on a pc at work with uprated sound system.
I love the reverb on the bass - I guess on the mid bass. Lots of width in the mix.

All round great.

I would agree with you on the breakdown, it's not nearly strong enough.

In case you want a few ideas here's what I would consider with the break;

1) As the rest of th track features her great vocals, personaly it's a bit overkill having them right thru the break

2) The synth work in the break could be a lot more imaginative and uplifting - right now it's a little basic - just too similar to the intro / drop

3) It seems to me like the sort of track that needs a quieter rythmic perc thang in the break to keep the momentum

4) Just pull out all the imagination on this break and you have a top notch track - maybe wash your brain in vodka first to see what crazy ideas you come up with

Great work so far Dave and for me your bestest everest dance track by FAR

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My opinion is on SC for you Dave.

Cheers,

Darek

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I'm surprised this is not getting more feedback - c'mon guys and gals get stuck in - great production values here

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Thanks for the input guys! I took the first version down and finished it off using some ideas that I had as well as some of the input from Richard on the breakdown. We've got a few people remixing it now and we're going to shop it around. Thanks again!

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quote:

Originally posted by cryophonik Thanks for the input guys! I took the first version down and finished it off using some ideas that I had as well as some of the input from Richard on the breakdown. We've got a few people remixing it now and we're going to shop it around. Thanks again!

I did mean to get to this but I guess I'll look forward to the finished version.

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quote:

Originally posted by EddieZilker I did mean to get to this but I guess I'll look forward to the finished version.

No problem, guys - I understand! That's been the story of my life lately. Anyway, if you're just dying to hear the final version, it's on my soundcloud page (i.e., no need to bump this thread anymore).

Shades of Red

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What are you using for mastering? Not sure what to make of it but the kick and bass sound too compressed, making it more a mixing issue (them being too loud). Curious to hear what you're using because it doesn't all that great (aside from the 128 kbps SoundCloud and all).

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Thanks AAR, but the kick/bass sound fine on my systems and certainly don't sound over-compressed, because they aren't. There is no compression on the kick - I rarely compress samples. The sub-bass has the obvious sidechain compression and the both the mid-bass and sub-bass are bussed and have some light compression to help them gel. I probably use less compression on my individual tracks and busses than most people do because I'm more of a musician than producer and I tend to focus on getting the levels right as I play them, then use automation/MIDI velocity adjustments after the fact to fine-tune any levels that are too high/low, and compression as a last resort or occasionally for color/effect.

Also, the fact that you're asking me what I use for mastering, then refer to the mixing has me perplexed. I wouldn't call it "mastered" anyway - I keep a limiter on my master buss when mixing to catch any overs, but mix well below that anyway. I export the wav to Sound Forge, then use a bit of LP EQ to smooth out any harshness/boominess and some limiting to bring up the overall level *a bit*, but not to squash it.

Edit - just to clarify, because that probably sounds a bit defensive on my part, I'm not disagreeing with you that it may/may not sound "bad", I'm just pointing out that, if it sounds bad to you, it's not because the kick/bass are overcompressed - it's probably more related to how I mixed them (i.e., levels, EQ). I do appreciate the input.

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Last edited by cryophonik on Apr-14-2011 at 23:17

quote:

Originally posted by cryophonik Thanks AAR, but the kick/bass sound fine on my systems and certainly don't sound over-compressed, because they aren't. There is no compression on the kick - I rarely compress samples. The sub-bass has the obvious sidechain compression and the both the mid-bass and sub-bass are bussed and have some light compression to help them gel. I probably use less compression on my individual tracks and busses than most people do because I'm more of a musician than producer and I tend to focus on getting the levels right as I play them, then use automation/MIDI velocity adjustments after the fact to fine-tune any levels that are too high/low, and compression as a last resort or occasionally for color/effect. Also, the fact that you're asking me what I use for mastering, then refer to the mixing has me perplexed. I wouldn't call it "mastered" anyway - I keep a limiter on my master buss when mixing to catch any overs, but mix well below that anyway. I export the wav to Sound Forge, then use a bit of LP EQ to smooth out any harshness/boominess and some limiting to bring up the overall level *a bit*, but not to squash it. Edit - just to clarify, because that probably sounds a bit defensive on my part, I'm not disagreeing with you that it may/may not sound "bad", I'm just pointing out that, if it sounds bad to you, it's not because the kick/bass are overcompressed - it's probably more related to how I mixed them (i.e., levels, EQ). I do appreciate the input.

I totally respect your way of working and am in no way telling you to do it otherwise.

Re my reference to mixing, I meant that if your kick and bass weren't so loud you wouldn't have to compress them so much at the output, which is the sound I'm hearing. The fact that your using a limiter to chatch "overs" has me wondering. Why try to catch overs when you can just turn the volume down?

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Put an end to the loudness war. Don't limit or compress your mixdown until mastering; leave the master channel alone.

Contact me for mastering.

Gotcha - thanks for the clarification!

quote:

Originally posted by Atlantis-AR The fact that your using a limiter to chatch "overs" has me wondering. Why try to catch overs when you can just turn the volume down?

I actually do mix at reasonable levels - the limiter is only there on my master buss as a safety factor and it stays set at -.1, cuz you never know... That's the only plugin on my master buss.

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