Vig

I love the bass. Great phrasing at points. The arrangement is pretty cool, but awfully sparse, and the melodic elements are often a bit buried underneath the dark cavernous pad thing. The guitars often sound like they are trying to tread water but are ultimately drowning. Pretty good, some great elements. Could be a bit more cohesive. NO

I'm calling it right now: "Random Access Memories" will be the best album of 1974.

For what it's worth, I just showed Zedd this Clarity remix, and he loved it.

In any court proceedings regarding this case specifically, it would probably be relevant that Zedd gave away the stems for "Clarity" for free, for the expressed purpose of creating remixes. Source.

I'm sorry to hear that they pulled it off youtube. I don't work for UMG legal or anything, but I suspect the chance of you getting sued is pretty much zero. You're not the first to do that, and you're not profiting by it, so even if UMG felt inclined, there's really no money for them to gain. Perhaps it's some consolation for you to know that Zedd himself often checks out fans' remixes of his stuff on youtube/soundcloud/whatever. You certainly have no ill will from his end.

Your sonics are pretty good. Everything sounds very nice. Unfortunately the writing is a little stiff. Whole note chords get awfully tiresome, and there are a bunch of melodic notes that are dissonant with the harmony, such as at 0:44, 0:49, 1:11, etc. Aside from that, my main problem is the instrumentation is pretty sparse and doesn't move too much aside from the drums. Good start, keep workshopping! NO

Not having heard them myself, I'm somewhat surprised to hear the Yamaha HS80s getting so much praise. I was under the impression they were designed as a spiritual successor to the NS-10s. Was my assumption false? People raving about their frequency response and how good they sound would seem to indicate that I am mistaken.

Hahah how the tables turn. To my credit though, the track has lots of cowbell.

Haven't used that system in particular, but generally speaking, "room correction" software can only do so much. What it's going to do is send out an impulse or pink noise and measure the sound as it exists in the room. It then will "compensate" for the room by adding EQ to your stereo output. This process is imperfect, and doesn't actually change the way your room sounds, nor does it change the frequencies your speakers are capable of reproducing. Your room will still have the same shitty reflections, nodes and peaks as it did before. By adding an extra layer of signal processing, it will make your music sound different, but not "right," and in my opinion it will just make it harder to judge what's actually happening in your mix. The only way to stay honest with what's actually going on is to reduce the acoustic signature of the room, and when you're talking about low frequencies, your solution is going to be either expensive or time consuming.

This is unfortunately pretty much a guarantee: for $500, you aren't gonna get 40Hz. Sorry. Even extremely nice, expensive nearfield monitors really aren't going to give you frequencies below about 60Hz with any amount of accuracy. Here's why: When you're talking about sub-bass frequencies (let's just say below ~60Hz) your experience of those frequencies is more about feeling them than hearing them. You feel them in your chest. In order to create this experience, you have to move a LOT of air, which requires lots of wattage, and large drivers. This is why for instance it's near impossible to mix low end well on headphones, regardless of how nice your headphones are. You simply can't accurately judge on headphones the chest-rattling experience that low end gives you when you hear them at a venue, or out of really good speakers with a subwoofer. If you need bottom, you will need a subwoofer. Also, Esperado is absolutely right about the importance of the room you're working in. On a budget it's pretty easy to treat for high frequencies: egg cartons, old rugs, etc can go up on walls. The trick is low end, which really requires you to fill up a lot of space in the corners of the room with thick absorbant material like fiberglass insulation.

I'm very excited to finally release my first original tune in quite some time. This song was conceived in 2011 as a video game sort of track, but took a turn about halfway through when I began working with Zedd and started to absorb his life force through his nose. Get it NOW on Bandcamp: Vig - Vectors And while I will selfishly encourage you to support the artist and download the track in high fidelity, you are also absolutely welcome to stream it full-length for free at Soundcloud. Hope you dig it!

I've got back and forth with Darangen regarding this mix, and feel it's been tightened up adequately. I think it's ready for postage. YES

The transitions in general are pretty hard to follow. I find the arrangement changes a lot compositionally, but not sonically, which makes somewhat dizzying without really giving too much texture to keep interested in. Mixing wise, it's very washy. Lots of bass and pads, and the leads are all really thin. Creative arrangement, but needs some major production help. Keep at it. NO

I really like the moodiness here. I think the mix is holding it back. The bass is too droning, and too loud. The piano and strings are too dark, you really need something to cut through a bit more. The drums are too loud for you to get away with such repetitive writing. Not too far off, but you need to make some adjustments. NO

Creative approach, but this track definitely needs some more attention to some of the writing details. The groove is quite repetitive, and the pads are way too droning. You don't want any particular element to be holding such long notes, it sucks the movement from the track. Give it some more rhythmic variation! NO

Great arrangement, but the mix is holding this one back. Right off the bat, the guitar sounds nice, if a bit too much reverb, but the piano sounds like garbage. Add some presence (2-4kHz) and reverb! The guitars are badass, but the lead guitar is a bit forward for the genre, as is the sparkling pad. Aside from that, the mix is slammed, and it audibly pumps at every kick. Your arrangement is really cool, but the mix needs some significant, though not overwhelming tweaks. NO

This has a ways to go before it's done baking. The issues are these: too sparse, and too repetitive. Simple as that. You've got a simple pad and a few leads. This type of music demands more nuanced texture and more developed ideas. NO

Very nice droning, downtempo metal. I generally felt like the track didn't really go anywhere dynamically and was quite repetitive, especially for a song that isn't especially long. However, the reprise at the end did redeem the track a bit. In the end this was a tough call because part of me was always waiting for the other shoe to drop, but I think the piece is still effective and moody. YES

Yes. 567890

Creative take on the original, switching the time signature. Your sounds are pretty smooth, but your arrangement is extremely sparse. You introduce cool idea, but then repeat sections too much without developing those ideas. Definitely a good start; bring it to the workshop. NO

Woah... Badass energy, but seriously thin mixing. This sounds extremely scooped. Before the guitar comes in there's almost no midrange at all. Listen to how much louder the hat is than either the kick or snare. That ain't right. Even the guitar lacks body. I'd love to pass this cause your musicianship is awesome, but the mix is seriously lacking. NO

Woah. Serious weirdness in the mix here. Your opening synth is so wide and large, and then your guitar and drums come in and sound so tiny by comparison. The snare sounds so flat. That pad can't be so much louder than the guitar and drums. It sucks up all their power. Aside from that, where's the bass? You need those low frequencies. NO

Okay this mix is suffering from the most common problem for this type of mix: muddy guitars. You've got a ton going on in the low-mids (~125Hz-500Hz) and it's all smearing and making the mix dull. I think your arrangement is cool and creative. Unfortunately you've really got to clean out the mix a bit. Work on tha tmix and resubmit. NO

Woah I can't tell if your filter fade in is waaay waaay too long or if this is the mix....turns out to be a little of each. The hat in the intro is way louder than anything else, which is really not...in line with what is appropriate. So much so that the drop (which is really good, though missing sub) seems comparatively quiet. The drop has to be loud. You also need to do more sidechaining on both the kick and snare. I think the arrangement is very creative and cool. The second drop is very slick, but again lacks impact. You've got to watch the volume level over the track. The transition to the post-drop is also extremely awkward and seems poorly thought-out. awesome start. nice drops. NO

dig your sound choice. The writing is very simplistic and repetitive. Your strings play whole-note triads. You've got to mix it up a bit. The break is also overly simple, and that piano is not nuanced enough to warrant a solo. The mix is okay but has some problems. The bass is overpowering at times, as is the ride. NO