Sonic 3&K - "Drop Bass Zone" - 9-bit/Dubstep Remix of Launch Base + Sky Sanctuary

[Gario]

Hey everyone!

Drop Bass Zone

Source:

Got a mix I'm going to send through the panel. I'd like to have a few more sets of ears take a gander at this and see if there's anything that I should do with it. There's one or two spots that I'll probably shorten by a bar or so, but otherwise I'm thinking it's pretty close to OCR standard, here. Any thoughts and critiques are appreciated.

[Magellanic]

So so good. Very impressed when I heard this one

At 1:15 when the wub joins the party, it sounds phat but just really narrow compared to the textures and mix before. It sounds just abit odd to me. Its fine once the other synths come back in though. Don't want it muddying everything else.

The build-up that ends around 2:23 kinda goes to no where. The track keeps going up and up and then.....it just kinda carries on. And not in the "Ahhhhh, gotcha" kinda way. I reckon you give that build up the climax it deserves. It left me feeling cheated

Love it round the 3:00 min mark. Kicks into Launch base perfectly!

And yeah........such a good mix. In my humble (and not especially great experience) this is pretty much there, though I reckon you got the skillz to polish this one up just a bit more. I think the mix/production is fab and the fusion of both themes is done really well and expertly.

Edit: HAPPY BIRTHDAY DOOD!

[Rozovian]

Oh great, voice clips.

I'd need to learn Launch Base better to give this a proper review. SS is certainly in here. You know the standards, I doubt you're making overly liberal stuff, so I'm gonna lazy out of a proper review here.

Your leads in the upper range is a bit bright, loud, and whiny. Dunno what exactly is the problem, but you might wanna look into changing their eq, waveforms or doing some other easy tweak to see if you can de-whine them. No, the pitch bends and stuff aren't a problem, it's more with the sound itself. Just loop the 2:53 part and screw with it until it not as shrill anymore.

Not much else to say. Everything else seems to work.

[avaris]

Love the general idea and feel of this.

(btw for reference I am listening on iPod buds at work, so not the best listening equipment for hearing bass frequencies)

The hi-pitched synths that come in around :40 are really piercing and a little too loud. By the end of the song they are really grating and exhausted the ears.

For example at 1:29 those same hi-ptiched synths are so much louder than the bass it's ridiculous. They are masking the interesting frequencies in the dub step baselines.

Speaking of the dub step baselines they are really cool and fit with the song really well. But they really get lost in sections where there are a lot of sounds playing.

Really on my end it's mixing and production issues that emphasizing the the wrong parts of the songs. The dub step is def a highlight of the mix and should be emphasized more. It should be emphasized more than the hi-pitched synths.

Also a lot of the synths in the track sound similar which creates a masking effect and makes the track sound busier than it should. Sprinkling in some contrasting tones and textures in certain areas will def help the arrangement and keep the soundscape fresh throughout.

[Chimpazilla]

Oh wow, where's the bass? If this is dubstep I want to be nearly overwhelmed with bass and I'm struggling to hear it. I wonder if that "whinyness" Rozo mentioned would be alleviated somewhat just by bringing up the low frequencies. No wait, still a bit whiny. Maybe bring in more mid frequencies on those high synths and turn their volumes down.

Cool track though!

[tesselode]

Adding to what everyone else has said, that bass drop is kind of weak sounding, so see if you can't make the bass fatter or something. Also, my first impression of the sounds is that they're slightly weak. Maybe they need a bit more reverb.

[WillRock]

Ok, so this is awesome. I feel like when this starts, the balance is ok... could be more bass but w/e. This does feel liberal, considering I know the sources but I can hear them in there, so I suppose its alreet

Ok, Dubstep bit comes in and i'm feeling unfulfilled. Both the bass and the drums lack the punch necessary for the dubstep, altho the drums are by far the worse of the two... you really need to make them kick you in the arse and back again . Then the high end suddenly comes in like you had a low pass filter on the track during the dubstep section, and it hurts my ears basically. Its strange, its like you automated the master EQ at different parts of your mix and its just making the production very inconsistant. You need to really focus on making your mix less treble heavy after the dubstep part, and boost the bass so the dubstep part has the punch it needs. The sudden drops during the double time dubstep bit at the end throws me off... good idea, not great execution.

Seems like i'm being hard on this, but this is good. Got my foot tapping and my spidey senses tingling... maybe. But yeah, this need some TLC to the frequency response of your mix before you sub this

Good luck bro.

[metaphist]

You just made multiples of my days with this one. Heavy. Rotation. I think you got enough feedback above, I just dropped in to say that.

[Damashii!!]

time to party MMMMMMMMMMMRRRNNNNG wubbawubba ZZZZZRRRMMMMMNNG wubbchktwubbawub

yeah, intense voice sfx sampling in here. dude, i love all the competing synths, panning, and dueling sfx. i think the first time i heard this i replayed 1:56 through 2:54 over and over to soak it all in. soooo good.

both sources are definitely in there, he just mixed em together really good.

[Phonetic Hero]

Forgot how awesome this is, went back to listen. You fucking killed it man

Around 1:13, when you've got the filtering and crescendoing, things get real piercing (coming from someone with shit headphones that cut treble), and then the drop feels a little underwhelming. Maybe it's that the bass isn't overdriven enough, or that there's no cymbal crash or humongous drum hit on the downbeat. Not hats at first makes things feel a little odd to me too, but that's probably personal preference.

1:32 kind of exploded my ears with highs too.

Sampling is freaking awesome, and I love the second drop, it just fits the piece instead of feeling crammed in like a lot of pubsteppe. I mean dubstep.

Nothing you haven't heard before, overall awesome, just stop stabbing my ears with the highs

EDIT: LOVE that intro

[SuperiorX]

I have nothing constructive to add other than what I already wrote over in the SZRC thread. I just want to say that I love this sexy piece of music.

[Gario]

Thanks for all of the response, guys (and the birthday wishes from Magellanic - good advice from him, too). I will certainly get back to this one as soon as I have the time to do so (maybe sooner rather than later, pending on how this fairs in the compo). Good mod reviews, too.

So, fix the drops so they're more OMFGHEAVY and cut down some of the highs. Will do.

[crypto_magnum]

Wow! So good!

For some reason it does feel a little light on the sub bass. I watched it with FL Studio's EQUO VSTi though, and volumes seem close to uniform across the frequency spectrum, so I'm not sure why it's not cutting through too well.

Otherwise, it's such a full, intensely interesting sound. I especially love what's going on in the mid to high range. Great use of sounds from the game.

I don't speak for the judges, but I feel like this would make a strong submission and sounds up to par with many of the recently posted, official mixes. Either way, it's going on my playlist.

Nice work.

[Gario]

Wow! So good!

For some reason it does feel a little light on the sub bass. I watched it with FL Studio's EQUO VSTi though, and volumes seem close to uniform across the frequency spectrum, so I'm not sure why it's not cutting through too well.

It's probably because it's a pretty bass-heavy genre. When everything is roughly equal it's hard for any frequency to 'punch through' like it should in real dubstep.

[Dj Mokram]

You fucking killed it man

^ This. Instant favorite for me. Stellar job on the arrangement man.

Only nitpick would be that it gets slightly repetitive near the end, but that's it.

Other people/mods have already covered the skinny prod-wise, so go for glory!

[CC Ricers]

Wow, there's some crazy mad sampling in this. There's nothing else that can be said that has been said already regarding improvements. My biggest gripe is that the drums need more punch in the low end.

Incidentally there's a lot more breakbeat than actual dubstep But I don't mind, as it's so packed full of energy. I actually think you should kick that up a notch with a 4-on-the-floor beat towards the end. There's not much else you can do, it's already a pretty stellar track.