Argle

Aw yeah, Phendrana. I want to mix this source myself. From a sonic standpoint I think you're right on the money. Not sure about the bird chirps though. A lot of the track hews fairly close to the source. More so in the front end. Maybe change up the melody or give it some little flourishes? I dunno. I feel weird giving any kind of critiques to a judge.

Imma be honest, you are one of the more indecisive persons I've met in my life.

Well there is CPU overhead for every instance of Kontakt.

Congrats, you're old enough to buy cigarettes.

hey man I'm glad you found that helpful. That used to frustrate me to no end until I learned to change my mental approach.

If you guys have the discipline to work on various songs at once, I have the utmost respect for you. Would that I had that ability.

Mixing the low end is hard for me as well. I have to listen on minimum of three systems - speakers, headphones, and car. And even then it's a matter of repeated tweaking.

If you wanna drop $50 on something good, get Valhalla Room or Valhalla Vintage Verb, and you'll have a stunning reverb in your arsenal.

This is a running joke on KVR. It's always been that price and has never been $1600. Also, a lot of people have had problems with this company, as in not getting their product. I would definitely stay away from Crysonic.

For me, the hardest part used to be getting anything done. Nowadays I'd say my biggest challenge is recording parts. I hate it, honestly, even though it's a necessity sometimes. Having to balance musician and recording engineer at the same time is profoundly annoying to me.

Finish a song before you start the next one. No matter how many great ideas for other tracks are bouncing around in your head. For years I created dozens of WIPs that never went anywhere. Because it's always more fun to start a new project with limitless potential, than apply some elbow grease to an existing one. Once a year I would clear out a huge mass of doomed projects and start fresh. Once I changed my attitude in this regard, I saw a massive improvement in my rate of finished songs.

The process of writing and producing music, obviously. You can be as general or specific as you want. Has your stumbling block changed over the years?

I don't even know what "contemporary Christian" means. Contemporary Christian death metal?

Honestly, I have kinda bad memories of LucasArts. I remember our first computer, this would have been the early-mid nineties, the LucasArts games we bought always crashed all the time. Granted, these were the days of the PC being Crashy McCrashenstein, but the LA games always outperformed in that regard.

Honestly, it feels too clinical, too detached from the rest of the mix. I'm not buying its authenticity. It sounds too thin to me, maybe back off the highpass filter to add some more meat to the sound. Or try a different amp model. Other than that, I don't know what to say.

Listen to some of the fine unbalanced and ruined songs in the meantime.

I'm digging the arrangement, it's the synth sounds that aren't really doing it for me. They're plain jane vanilla.

Things sound a bit clogged and congested in the midrange. Whether you can fix it with EQ or rethink the arrangement is up to you. I'm not a fan of the drum sounds, they sound like stock samples, and they've not been processed in an interesting way. The drum pattern's a bit spastic. You might try thinning it out and creating a more downtempo groove.

I assume you're talking about the vile comments she received, not that picture. Actually, "trolls" is the least of what I would call those people. Psychotic assholes is nearer the mark.

Good man. If you take a super loud track and turn down the volume to bring it into line with older tracks, you can hear how the transients have been completely crushed. I need to bring my levels down as well, though I'm not anywhere near yours.

Why are you judges smarter and more attractive than the average person? Great genes?

I'll sign up as a star, even though that term makes me cringe like hell.

Agree with timaeus, the kicks problem is it's too muffled. Layer a nice bright sample on that bad boy

Absolutely, I will finish as soon as possible. I need to record some acoustic guitar, and it's still pretty uncomfortable from my recent surgery, so that's another reason for holding off a little bit longer.

I'm sensing too much compression, everything feels a little too squashed. Back off a bit and let the mix breathe more.