forums : Producing

Re: Would really love some feedback on this mixdown...

Okay well now that I'm listening to it in my Sennheisers, I can hear the bass. I couldn't hear anything before. I might recommend adding another layer of low mids copying the sub pattern just so it's audible on everything.

Disclaimer: I kinda gripe about dubstep because it seems like there's not much happening in terms of production. I recognize that's more of a personal egotistical thing, because I'm kind of a production snob (not that I'm perfect, of course) and I promise to suspend that for the review. But know that this is coming from someone who doesn't really listen to much dubstep and isn't exactly wild about it. That may make me ignorant to production standards, and ideally your reference material would be a tune you like in the same genre - most of my engineering advice comes from a dnb/downtempo perspective. Anyway -

Overall I feel your elements sound thin. I feel like the high end is nice and crisp, but the mix overall lacks harmonic depth and the elements seem to underutilize the stereo field. You do space them out well though, there's no issue of frequency conflict to speak of, so pride yourself on that. I've been engineering about seven years (producing over 9) and I still have a hard time sometimes.

I might suggest a few more incidental noises (sweeps, swells, stingers, fx, what-have-you) to keep things interesting, but that's a compositional preference, not than an engineering matter. Still, it could do wonders for your edits.

I would do a bit of work with the stereo placement of elements in your drum kit, and beef them up either by adding additional layers (it is possible that you have enough layers but have over-EQed - this may be a personal preference too, so take that with a grain of salt). I also recommend using parallel compression on your drums if you haven't already. If you don't know what that means, I'll be happy to explain. It's a great way to utilize the stereo field and add meat and dynamics to your drums.

It seems like most of the movement in the track is happening in your squelchy lead, which I think is actually a really cool sound and I enjoy the variation throughout the tune. However, again, it seems a bit thin. It could be that the balance if your tune is just more focused on high frequencies, thus drowning out elements which would otherwise sound fine. However, you could make this element really pop by adding some more effects, or by EQing the output of your FX busses/auxes to accentuate sweet spots in the spectrum. For all time-based effects, I roll off the low end on the output (using a hi-pass) filter to at least 160Hz, which is the first octave, but usually more like 320Hz or beyond, depending on the element and the effect.

Could you explain a little more about your production setup (hardware, software/plugins) and the steps you've already taken? That would help me identify issues at specific points in the signal chain, if any.

[ 4_.phrantek._4 - 5 Oct 2010 11:58 ]
[ 4_.phrantek._4 - 4 Oct 2010 21:49 ]
[ 4_.phrantek._4 - 4 Oct 2010 21:47 ]