DnB Nearest place to heaven Part 1/Part 2 - Phantasy Star Online

[killingpepsi]

Here is a remix of a PSO song that I've been wanting to do for a while. It is pretty rough/bare as I don't know what direction I really want to take it from here. The melody will be more different than the original, but for now I just wanted it there as a placeholder.

Originals:-

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Remix: https://soundcloud.com/killing-pepsi/jam-for-idola-the-beatmaster

I was thinking of doing something like switch back and forth between the feel good section (nearest place part 1) to the menacing/intense section (Nearest place part 2) throughout the song, while using more of the feel good parts throughout. This will be my most serious remix and I plan for it to take up a lot of time for work, so let me know what you think of it!

[Chiwalker]

Yeah, you got good vibes in your atmospheric / background movements and tonality.

I'm going to complain a lot about the percussion.

- The resonance introducing your drum bus through the LPF is too high. It's a good effect but it can get painful.

- Kick Drum: turn down the release! Put a transient shaper on there or do it yourself, the boom end of the kick is sloppy and loose - something you absolutely can't have in a 170+ track unless you VERY CAREFULLY mix it in with the other elements.

- The shape of the whole drum loop break changes throughout the song, this almost makes it sound like 2-3 different songs. Try to smooth together your sections with the same drum sounds in the breaks.

From 0:00-0:45 and from 3:00 on you have those 'good vibes' sounds and it feels like drum n' bass. The other parts however are hard to consider part of the same song.

Smooth together your sections, put in a worthy outtro, and keep those vibes going throughout the song and it will be very enjoyable!

[APZX]

I'm going to start with mixing considerations.

The drum introduction. Okay LPFs are great and all and yet so many people ignore the HPF. You could probably get away without having to use any resonance at all and achieve a very similar effect. The drums would more drop into the mix rather than rise up.

The kick. Okay that is a big giant booming kick. Now, I'm going to say that sustain is probably about 200ms too long. Plus the sustain is quite sloppy as well. You're going to want to tighten that up.

The last section's kick however needs some total beefing up. Just way too weak compared to the rest of the drums.

The only other big complaint I have for the mixing is the lack of any distinctness between the L&R. It all kind of sounds samey.

Composition wise I get the feeling that there are two different tracks here. You've got that intro and middle section that work well enough together. Sure you have to tie a few bits and pieces together, but nothing crazy. However, that last section has absolutely no tie in with the rest of the track. Give some hints or something in the other portions of the track. I kind of want to know that it is approaching if that makes any sense. If you're trying to aim for a dichotomy between two different sections then might I suggest using the drums more aggressively? You're dabbling in the realm of DnB. Make those drums work for a reason to exist in the track. Try to use the drums to really separate the two parts as much as possible rather than relying on big breakdowns and buildups.

[killingpepsi]

Cool, guys! I think to keep the vibe/feel I want for the song I have decided to cut the intense (Nearest place to heaven part 2) Section out and purely stick with the slow feel-good/liquid DnB feel throughout the whole song.

I will try to apply both of your comments to the best of my abilities and will post an update when I do so.