Ice Cap Zone Club Remix

[Electrifiedkeys]

Hey everyone! This is a club remix of Ice Cap Zone from Sonic 3. I want some feedback to see what I can add to it to make it better. I'm calling it finished for now but I think you guys will give me some reasons to go back and change some things!

https://soundcloud.com/brian-williams-20/ice-cap-zone-remix

[Rozovian]

You should spend some time studying mixing: read articles on it, read my remixing guide, read zircon's guides and check out his videos, dig up good an bad examples of mixing. Your drums are terribly mixed, that's why I'm saying this. The snare is really loud and makes the kick disappear, and it sounds like the kick is a little late too.

You can also improve your sound design. Your lead synth is really simplistic and whiny. If you like the simple sound, you can look at what Willrock has done with his leads, or you can look at other remixers' sound design for their leads. Many of the other instruments sound pretty good, actually, it's mostly just the lead that stands out as newby.

The piano (albeit nicely written) sounds very robotic and mechanical, making it a good instrument to practice humanization on. Humanization is making sequenced midi notes sound like someone performed them, slightly adjusting timing and velocity to make it seem like someone played them instead of just wrote them.

The structure of the remix is another thing you can improve. Transitions from one part to another could be better and build the dynamics of the track. Think about the track, how it moves. When is it soft, when is it getting loud, when is it loud. Where does it go? Think about it in terms of how powerful, strong, or loud it is at any point. When is it supposed to be big, when is it supposed to be small? When is it supposed to be building towards a big part, when is it supposed to calm down? That's its dynamics. (Dynamics is a word that means "difference in level", so it both applies to the whole track, and to individual instruments and notes.)

Four things you can work on: mixing, sound design, humanization, structure and dynamics. You're off to a good start already.