Mario Kart 7 - Rainbow Road (Drum and Bass)

[Lampje4life]

Hey OCR,

Been a while since I posted anything. Today I started playing around in FL Studio and figured I might aswell try some Drum and Bass. This kinda resulted in what hopefully will become a DnB Mariokart 7 Rainbow Road Remix ^^

Looking for any advice, production tips people might have. Let me know if it's something worth finishing (even if it doesn't meet OCR standards).

Original source:

Finished mix https://soundcloud.com/yannicgeerts/mario-kart-7-rainbow-road

Cheers!

Edited July 18, 2013 by Lampje4life

[timaeus222]

0:01 bitcrushed bass should really be less resonant. Adds too much treble.

0:22 drop isn't quite there yet. Kick has a little too much mids (~1500Hz), too little click (~4000Hz), and not enough glue (compression). Snare is too quiet and needs about 0.4~0.8dB more treble as well. 0:33 cymbal is totally buried.

0:23 syncopated synth doing the melody is too resonant, and something in the mids is somewhat overpowering the upper mids as a result. Until 0:45, it makes the remix too bright overall. 0:45 doesn't feel as light as you might have been hoping, as the Reese-like bass is still pretty heavy in the bass frequencies. Not sure if you wanted that part to be somewhat of a breakdown or floaty transition.

0:55 tapestop was pretty unexpected. Maybe it would work better if its endstop (like "endstopped line") came a little bit earlier and was sustained for a few milliseconds, and you came out of the tapestop immediately (no steep "single curve" slope).

Not a lot of issues here, just a few overly resonant synths and some work needed on the drum programming. Good start.

[Neifion]

I like this! Electronic isn't my forte, so I don't really have anything to add in terms of critique, but I enjoyed it a lot.

[Lampje4life]

Thank you both for your time

Tim, you greatly helped me understanding what I had to change. Definately sounds better now, but I'll work some more on it before I upload. Some things are unchanged (on purpose), like the cymbals at 0:33.

[Lampje4life]

Update: https://soundcloud.com/yannicgeerts/rainbowdnb17

I'm aiming for the 3 minute mark, don't want to drag it out too long. Short and energetic is fine

Any tips on mastering / arrangement ideas are welcome!!

(Oh there's some MK64 Ending theme in there aswell)

[timaeus222]

I can hear a little pumping compression from the sub bass in the beginning. You might want to lower the volume of that a little, maybe by 0.6~1.2dB. It's also pushing back the kick and snare mostly, and other instruments too. You should lower the volume of both of those, until they peak at about -0.2dB (while the song is playing with all instruments on) so that you get the headroom for all the instruments to play comfortably.

Edited July 15, 2013 by timaeus222

[Lampje4life]

Thanks for the replies, edited the first post with the finished link.

https://soundcloud.com/yannicgeerts/mario-kart-7-rainbow-road

Not gonna submit to OCR but I hope people enjoy nevertheless

[Aviators]

Oh, I love this tune! Excuse my extreme bias to the original while I give my opinion. xD

I quite enjoyed the mix, but the mixing and mastering were a little odd. Not obnoxiously off, just maybe a little over compressed and not what I'm used to. A little unbalanced in the low end too, to be honest.

Melodically, the piece was heaven to listen to. I loved the arrangement, and the sound design was gorgeous. I liked how you made it sound chiptune-esque but somehow atmospheric and distant. Perhaps that was just the clever and subtle use of reverb? It was fun to listen to, that's my general consensus.