Donkey Kong Country - Life in the Mines

[OmegaMetroid93]

So I made a tune. I'd love to get some feedback on it.

I'm new to remixing, as well as working with DAWs in general, so if anyone has any helpful tips judging by the song I made, that'd be very much appreciated.

Here it is.

Thanks in advance to anyone who replies.

[Skrypnyk]

so if anyone has any helpful tips judging by the song I made, that'd be very much appreciated.

practice, practice, practice

study, study, study

experiment, experiment, experiment

repeat, repeat, repeat

[timaeus222]

Look up youtube tutorials on using your DAW.

[OmegaMetroid93]

Well... That's what I'm already doing. haha

Thank you though.

[Rozovian]

Compare. Find something in a style similar to what you wanna do, something mixed and produced well, and compare. Don't expect to be able to match everything, just focus on the general sound. Is your bass too bassy, or not bassy enough? Is it too loud or too soft? Is the background stuff too far in the background, or not far enough? Is the lead too loud and upfront, or is it too far back or too soft? Do your drums punch through enough, or too much?

There's clearly a few effects here, it's all about using them to put everything in their place. You won't necessarily know where that place is, so listening to other ppl's work and figuring out their mix helps a lot in figuring out what works and what doesn't, and how everything should sit well... Or possibly, what they did wrong that you can avoid.

Here I hear the drums lacking processing, they don't have enough power. Guitars are loud. Bass is loud. Then there's dynamics, humanization and all kinds of other things that'd improve the track, but there's a start.

Hope that's helpful.

[OmegaMetroid93]

Thank you!

I don't really understand what you mean about the bass being too loud. I listened to it in 2 different headphones, and it sounded fine to me.

Maybe if I EQ away some of the higher frequencies?

I'm also not entirely sure what dynamics is but I'll work it out.

I'll get on the drums and humanization right away.

That was definitely helpful, thank you.

[Rozovian]

Thank you!

I don't really understand what you mean about the bass being too loud. I listened to it in 2 different headphones, and it sounded fine to me.

Maybe if I EQ away some of the higher frequencies?

I'm also not entirely sure what dynamics is but I'll work it out.

No, compare it to other tracks, other music in similar styles. Is their bass as loud in the mix as yours is in your mix? Are their guitars as loud in the mix as yours? This isn't about headphones or listening gear, this is about how the sounds fit together.

I think the best explanation for dynamics is intensity. To the audio engineer, it simply means how much the loudness varies over the course of the track. Classical music is very dynamic. Dance-y pop music and plenty of electronica isn't very dynamic at all. A track should have both softer parts and louder parts, less intense and more intense parts. And this applies to the smaller parts of the mix, too. A drum loop can be very flat, dynamically, which means it doesn't have much change in loudness and every note is the same level; or it can have a natural groove, where some notes are softer than others to make the rhythm more alive.

[Melodious Punk]

Steve Reich is a really interesting composer in terms of dynamics. He can seem really static but then also seem very fluid at the same time.

[timaeus222]

Quick crits:

I like the metallic impact percussion. The bass sequencing seems fine, just cut out some of the sub bass frequencies a little to make the bass less grating.

Guitar is kinda dry, needs some room reverb. Sounds nice though on its own, the articulations seem realistic. It does sound like you copied and pasted some small recorded chunks though.

Drums are soft, needs more power.

Arrangement is a little static and short. Be creative, and add more.