SlickWiggler Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 (edited) Hi all, I've never posted here before but wanted to ask for some help/advice. I submitted this a couple years ago and then forgot about it until recently, went back to check the thread and it got denied. They had really good feedback, mainly praising the arrangement and pointing out some mastering issues. So I figured I'd post what I've got here and see if I could get some feedback/guidance on polishing it up so I don't have to waste time with a bunch of submission/resubmission processes lol. Here's the most recent version, after feedback from some helpful forum users: Revivify_Revised.wav Let me know what you think especially about the production side of things. Mastering is hard lol. Edited January 14 by SlickWiggler Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Everybody Man Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 Sick arrangement! I agree mastering is hard lol - that's something I've been trying to learn myself recently. You've improved the bass, mostly by turning it down I think. While it is better, I think you took away a bit of it's punch. Might benefit from decreasing the attack there and maybe turning it back up a smidge? I think the drums overall fit really well. The snare is a bit jarring when it first comes in (not as bad as the first version,) but that might be a design choice since you've got an unsettling feeling going throughout (which I like.) My main gripe with the drums is your crash sample - it almost sounds like it is clipping, but I don't think it is. Almost sounds like it's hitting twice or something. What was your mastering process? I think it's mostly an improvement - it's more cohesive, but I think it lost some of it's "Bigness" if that makes any sense. I've got the same struggles, so curious to know what you did. Overall really cool! You mixed the two sources super well. Good luck with it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SlickWiggler Posted January 10 Author Share Posted January 10 Thank you! Yeah I was a bit worried I had overcorrected with the low end, haha. Listening to it again this morning it definitely does feel like it's lost some oomph, I'll see what I can do about that. I'll check on the snare and crash as well, might have to throw in a little volume automation or something. Honestly this go-round there wasn't much of a process, it was just tweaking the EQ and compressors that I already had on the project. The judges mentioned around 40hz being way too loud, so I raised up the high-pass on the sub bass and master EQs, and added some light sidechaining to the sub bass as well to help the kick cut through the low frequencies. I'm gonna take another pass at volumizing and see what I can do. My process for that is to just turn every track down to zero, then starting with the lowest pitched voices, build it back up one channel at a time, trying to keep everything balanced. I'll typically loop through the busiest part of the song for this. Here's the updated version: Revivify_Revised.wav I fear it may have swung back into "too much bass" territory but maybe it's just my speakers, it sounds better on my headphones. I'll have to try it in a few different contexts to be sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hemophiliac Posted January 13 Share Posted January 13 Welcome to the forums @SlickWiggler The one word I would use to describe this track is space. There's a lot of empty space in mid-ranges of the the track (around the 300-800Hz range) that needs to be filled in. This is making the track feel thin to me. For the majority of the track there's only 2 elements going on, drums and bass. The upper elements that get introduced later into the track are quiet and unfortunately don't feel like they fill that space in. They absolutely could be used to help fill that space if you work with them. Increase their volume, add stereo widening to them. You could also experiment with taking one of those parts and dropping it down an octave or two to see if they fill out that mid space more. I'd recommending finding a track you want this to sound like and comparing them side-by-side to try to get a matching fullness/sound. The kick is coming through clearly to me, so I'd say the side chaining was successful. If anything I feel you might have lost some weight by increasing the high-pass too much. That's without hearing the previous version for context. I'd also like to comment on the arrangement: I feel you did a good job here, both themes are used in creative ways and weave in and out of each other seamlessly. Don't give up, this is a solid arrangement. The potential is definitely there. Focus on getting that production up, and filling in the track more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hemophiliac Posted January 13 Share Posted January 13 [This is an automatically generated message] I've reviewed your remix and have returned it to Work-in-Progress status, indicating that I think there are some things you still need to work on. After you work on your track and feel that it's ready for submission to OCR, please change the prefix back to Ready for Review and someone will review it again. Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SlickWiggler Posted January 14 Author Share Posted January 14 Thanks for the feedback! That's very helpful. I found a frequency analyzer VST and saw exactly what you were talking about, so I tried to futz with the EQ on several tracks and did end up taking one part down an octave, which I think turned out well. Here's the newest iteration (I'll edit it into the original post as well for clarity's sake): Revivify_Revised.wav Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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