Ableton Forum

Here's a track i've been working on...
Alameda
Any tips on mixing, mastering, etc. would be greatly appreciated!

edit : The link is for the newer version now

Aww, come on, help a brother out!
I know there's likely phasing problems in there, among other things...

any tips on what kind of of track it is (genre) would prolly make ppl (myself included) 10 times more curious

ethios, the download messed up this morning. I threw it in my pda and started listening on the train, but it only had about 50 seconds on it (but they sounded great ) I'm giving it another go now.

OMG, that has to be the weirdest acapella break I've ever heard! ---nice. The kick attack is a bit too slow for my taste - I also like my kicks nice and loud - but the overall sound positioning and individual levels were otherwise excellent. The overall output of the mp3 is relatively low, imo (haven't measured or anything) paradoxically, looking at the waveform, it seems like it's actually the kick that's maxing out your volume - and the kick is deffo IN phase.

Anway, I love all the leeettle sounds in there, loads of points of interest, although it's not really my preferred style of music. Good stuff - must've taken ages to program all that stuff?

Good and interesting sound work to my ears.
But: It's kind of mysterious story up to the morning song/crash/cries - that part flattens the suspense to some degree for me.
// C

sweet!
Machinate - I too would like it a little louder. It sits around -11,-12 db RMS, but seems quieter to me. I'll tweak those kicks and see what happens. I wonder if its a problem compositionally with the choice of sounds...too much frequency-clutter?

conny - That middle part's tricky for sure. Its taken from Wet Hot American Summer, and makes more sense in that context, but not everyone's seen that movie. It seems to work well at first, for sheer weirdness, but its gotten a bit stale to me after working with it for a few months, and it breaks up the flow, but... thats why i put it in in the first place. Its about hope, in an oblique sort of way. Like the fear of things going to hell right at the moment they seem best. Like finding beauty in the midst of suffering. Like working on a track forever and hoping the crazy acapella break works!

lightshy - I don't know really how to classify it... sort of trancey, but not in a club sort of way. More like home-listening psychedelic trance i guess.

thanks for the listen and especially for the comments!!...i'll tweak the mix a bit later tonite

Yea, I know about that - the very first "darling" that you start to build things around. It's hard to just let it go. Perhaps it wouldn't break the flow if it was cut up more with other things inbetween. The naturalistic feel in some of those parts makes it strange - and, yes interesting too! I really don't know!
// C

that initial bassline is nice and thick... what synth did you use for it, out of curiousity?

the stuttering effect at 1:07 is fantastic. You're either a master micro-editor or you've got the sidechaining solution everyone's looking for...

the mid-bass that comes in at 1:30 is good, but I would add a filter to it to bring out some of the more mid rather than bass frequencies, dropping the cutoff at 1:57 for the "bridge" portion where it becomes the dominant bassline. before 1:57 it interferes with the bassline in the first portion of the track (which you already know I like).

2:47 I hear some noticeable artifacting on the vocal sample - smooth it or make it sound more intentional. right now it's kind of distracting, but that might be just because i know live's sound when I hear it.

I see what you mean about frequency clutter from about 3:00 on. The bass is kind of muddy; it seems like you have some kind of continuous low-frequency shuddering (double kick?) during this portion. Clearing that up a bit, and running some clever compression on the psychedelic washy sounds that sweep in and out for the rest of the track should resolve this problem. This is the hardest part (to me anyway) of psychedelic trance +associated genres programming - how to have it be maximal yet clear at the same time. If I knew the solution, I would definitely tell you!

Definitely my favorite track I've heard on the forum. Keep up the good work and post a revision when you get around to it...

Just want to join in to the praise of the stuttering. It's awesome.
// C

I dig it a whole lot! Those studder vocals remined me of some Sarah McL's remixes. What the hell is that vocal post neo fatalistic war of the future worlds breakdown! I love it.

thanks!
conny - Absolutely! This track started with the fuzzy pad and bass at the beginning, then the Matrix samples, then the acapella part. Its hard to let go of those! I'm starting to learn the importance of "killing your babies". There was a whole other section to this track that i had to kill off because i just could not get it to flow right after the last explosion. As said in the post on inspiration, its about recognizing the good from the bad, wheat from the chaff. Working on this track has been a huge learning experience for me!

m-laboratories - thanks for all the comments! That first bassline is Arturia Mini-Moog through Antares Tube, plus a little compression and EQ, if i remember right. The vocal stuttering was repetition of phonemes i had taken from a vocal track, sculpted with clip envelopes, reverse-reverb, and volume/pan automation. Thats the kind of fun stuff that has had me working so long on this track! The bass-shuddering is called "Poor-Studio-Acoustics-Phenomenon"! I gotta fix that.

again, thanks for the insights! I had lost objectivity, but now i've got some good stuff to try! I'll post a revision soon...

Ok, i applied some of those ideas and managed to clear a few things up. Most notably, the first section is appreciably louder now. More importantly, for me, i've decided to be done with this track, as i've worked on it way too long and its starting to feel like one of those relationships where its an endless process of tweaking, trying to get it perfect, each change fixes one thing and breaks another...its time to move on!

Thanks for the help getting to this stage!
Here's the link for the final mix...
Alameda

Beautiful. Solid work, great timing.

// C

great track!
very elaborate sounds, enough detail and evolution to keep it all interesting. keeper!