Hi, I’m looking for critical feedback on this Andromedha & Linnea Schossow - Cast A Spell On Me remix i’m working on for a metapop comp. I’m at the stage of giving it a rest before I do a final mix down. But, I do still need to do the processing for the vocals and add a few things here and there. Any feedback would be really appreciated. Thanks.
https://soundcloud.com/user-645522120/andromedha-linnea-schossow-ch-remix
Edit updated Version posted 04/10
Hi there @CtrlAltDel
To me, everything bass & synth sounds louder & a bit separated from the beat & the vocals, also at some parts vocals are radically changing in volume like if there was a gate on them. At this point I would take care of some gain staging between tracks and enhanced drums & vocals. At a later mixing/mastering stage you should aim at gluing the mix together and make it sound a bit more full & wide.
Hope this helps & good luck 
Cheers !
Hello @Tekalight
Thank you for the good feedback, which you always provide. I will definitely look at what you said and try to fix those issues. I am aware of the vocals being louder at parts that sound gated, so that shouldn’t be to hard to fix. The rest I’ll have to dive a bit deeper into to solve. I feel like I know what you mean but the solution at the moment escapes me. I am using a glue compressor on my bus channels but I really don’t think I am putting it to good use. So I guess that will be a good start.
Thanks again.
Hi again @CtrlAltDel
Much better with this faster tempo. Improvement of the mixing too, what I notice is that at 4:00 minutes and after, your mix is sounding quite nice and full, you should target this area for the all mix. It sounds a bit dull at the intro and at some points before 4:00.
You improved the mix a lot from last version IMO. You have plenty of headroom so you could even push it further.
Arrangement wise, not sure if keeping this synth bass almost all way through the mix works, it makes the track busy all way long in a quite repetitive way, taking that bass synth out of the intro & break could create more interest.
But well, it’s subjective and up to you of course, more focusing on the mixing here to try to help, so target that 4:00 & after area and try to keep that consistency.
Curious to read @wingx comments too since you’re on the same boat guys… 
I think the following track from Cosmic Gate is in the same Key ( F# min ) as “Cast a Spell On Me” and it could be a good reference track. 2 different versions to listen to below.
Cheers !
Thanks I feel that the mix improved as well. I’m happy that after putting it up for feedback it is now better than before.
I am trying to think how to make the mix fuller at the intro. I have a recurring problem here as I like to filter lots of sounds up slowly from the beginning but this obviously leaves the mix feeling a bit boring.
I know what you mean about the bass going the same all the way through. I might look at changing it up maybe do the classic pads and piano at the break.
What would you suggest is the best way to reference a track when you’re looking more at stereo width and overall loudness? These are great reference tracks.
Thanks again.
Sorry for late reply, weekend’s been busy here
Intro fix & fuller Mix : don’t know which technique you used to filter sounds and bring them into the mix. If it’s volume automation it’s better to use a utility plugin on each channel than doing it on the channel fader.
There’s a great tut by Protoculture to learn how to get wide sounding mixes here.
How To Create Wide Mixes with Protoculture | Tutorial 01 - Introduction
Bass & arrangement : Especially in this genre of Trance, the bass & synths are very much following a kind of staccato pattern, playing in & out following a rather dynamic arrangement with a lot of drops and taking out elements by removing some kicks at the end of some bars, removing the synth/bass and playing nothing or just some effects like noise risers or percussive drops. In your mix it sounds more like playing back the same loop, it’s not very catchy for the listener IMO.
You can deconstruct an existing track in Live by loading a reference mix onto one audio channel and zooming in, then playing back by bars and use Live Markers function or ( better IMO ) using Midi channels in a Group above the audio track and put in empty Midi clips matching the reference tracks structure, elements, detailed content… You can color code the Midi regions according to tension, energy and content, it makes it very visual & handy. Zooming really hard you can use even put midi notes inside those clips matching the audio event you’ll see in the waveform and placing snares, claps, percs, fx…etc.
It takes some time to do in the first place but it’s a good way to mimic an existing arrangement and to get a song structure before working on a remix instead of starting with an empty canvas.
To be able to change tempo easily and have the reference track matching it, open Live, set your tempo to the desire one of your remix, load the reference track on an audio channel then double click on it, set the playback algorithm to “Complex Pro” and enable “Warp” and set the ref.track tempo to it’s original tempo in the warp parameters. Once done, zoom in onto your ref.track and check if it’s correctly aligned with Live Tempo. Make sure your ref. track is starting playing at the correct point ( no empty or noise part playing before the real track beginning ) → you can right click on the audio clip time line and use the SET 1.1.1 Here function.
Most of the time you’ll find tempo & keys info on Beatport to get those information, take a screen shot and you could even drop the image into Live, zoom in and loop the image file across the all ref. track duration and it will show up in the video ( you can toggle on/off Live’s video window using ALT + CMD +V ).
That’s a good start & some steps to take when starting to work on a remix IMHO, you can also then save templates and the more you do it, the more you’ll learn about songs structure & arrangement.
So that’s about using Ref. Track for arrangement & structure, now for Audio & Mixing Referencing
Well first thing first obviously is to get a proper ref. track, though there’s many way to rip audio from the web, keep in mind that it’s important to have a good quality audio file for referencing. So high res. file like wav or Flac or at least high Res 320 Kbs Mp3 are the one to get. Get them from Beatport or other places where you can purchase tracks, you will also support the producers by doing so 
Now that you’ve got your Ref. Track the simplest & most convenient way to use them as reference for mixing is by using 3thrd party plugins to be honest.
One of the best one is definitely ADTPR METRIC AB from Plugin Alliance ( not cheap but really full packed with everything you need ), check Protoculture tutorial here : How To Use Metric AB with Protoculture | Tutorial 01 - Setup and Basic Operation
Another one is REFERENCE by Mastering The Mix and there’s also MAGIC AB REFERENCE from Sample Magic. You’ll find some videos on the web about those.
To use reference tracks without 3thrd party plugins, the thing to keep in mind is to have both reference track and your Mix playing back at equal levels, so it’s more easy to work inside the box with just the reference track & a version of your final mix loaded in Live. Have an overview about his there : How to A/B against commercial reference tracks in your DAW | MusicRadar
FFT analyzers, Loudness Meters and Stereo Goniometers are your plugins friends when it comes to compare tracks. The free Span from Voxengo and Flux Stereo Tools can help. Many other plugins like iZotope ( Insight2 ), Bluecat Audio or Melda Production can also be handy. Mastering the Mix LEVELS is also a good one to have.
Some of these plugins have multiple channels I/O allowing you to get visual information from several tracks inside one plugin window.
There’s also solutions outside your DAW or apps that connect to it. To compare 2 audio files you can use EXPOSE from Mastering The Mix, check S.A tutorial here : How To Use Mastering The Mix - EXPOSE with Rory Webb | Tutorial 01 - Overview
More advanced solutions like Flux Pure Analyzer ( comes in Essential & Full version ) or Nugen Audio Visualizer or Plugin Alliance SPL HawkEye are also extremely complete apps that will give you a shit load of information about your audio playback from you DAW.
Hardware solutions also exist and an affordable one is CLARITY M STEREO by TC Electronics but you have to make sure that you can connect it to your audio interface, it’s using a break down cable or Stereo Optical Input for TOSLink, though you can also connect it via USB and use the plugin that comes with it.
OK, that’s a round up of analysis tools & solution when it comes to referencing & visualizing audio, I guess.
But to stick to the essential, referencing a track means comparing it to your mix at an equal playback level and look to match the full FFT spectrum, Loudness & Tonal balance and stereo image. So if you don’t have a third party solution, you can always use free tools on each track and compare it with your final mix. But that’s really where apps like AB Metric, Magic A/B & Reference shine, it makes this really convenient and you can work inside your remix session as opposed to have to render a final version first.
Sorry for the long post , but well, you’ve got some info in there, hope it will be useful.
Final words would be about taking part into Remix Competition, either here on S.A or outside, try to approach it as a learning experience and a way to challenge yourself, do not focus on the “winning price” and take it easy. If you spend too much time & effort on a remix and expect to win something, it"s likely gonna be deceptive when that doesn’t happen. Meanwhile you would have spend time on remixing others music, perhaps ending up frustrated and not working on your own production instead. It’s just a good way to learn & practice, don’t picture it like the Holy Grail of Music Production learning & success
And talking about Holy Grail always remember to …
Cheers !
@Tekalight
Wow! Thank you so much for such a detailed response and clear instructions on how to deconstruct, analyse and reference tracks. You have gone way beyond what I was expecting and I really appreciate that you took the time and effort to write this up. This will help me a ton. I will definitely saving this for my arsenal of tutorials.
Bass & arrangement
These are fair comments. I wasn’t so much going for a full on trance sound with this track. I imagined more a stripped back track with the main emphasise being on bass and vocals. I don’t think I have really achieved that. But, I think I have learnt a lot with this project and this is my main goal for doing these remixes. As you were saying about the best way to look at these comps is about using it as a learning experience and practice. I’ll put up my final version when its completed. I have until this Saturday to finish it…
The next track I work on I’ll be referencing with these techniques that you have said I’ll for sure upload the track if you want to listen? Fingers crossed I can put it all to use.
Thanks again!
Oh and love Monty Python! I’m British so it’s kind of a must haha.
I have uploaded what is most likely my final version of this track. I made an attempt at mastering it as well. Anymore feed back would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
If you wanted to render out stems and upload them i could do a “Fix my Mix” type video…
Alternatively if we have the same plugins you could send the project.
what are you using?
Seriously improving since the start IMO, missing some tonal adjustment and getting that bass back to my listening, what do you think Phil ? Also pick up some very short clipping pops & artifact slightly delayed from the bass or a synth.
Might be due to pushing the limiter hard.
Would be super cool to do that “Fix my Mix” video and help with the mix BTW !!
So yes @CtrlAltDel, you should render each track as audio stems and upload them, or even the full project.
Think about letting Headroom for Phil to work, -6db is nice, don’t push the limiter when rendering the stems.
Not sure about the size allowed here, better use Dropbox or WetTransfer link IMO.
DO USE THE PM ( Private Message ) function on the forums to send the links, the forums is on a public access for reading, so everybody will be able to get the link if posted here.
@phil_johnston
That would be awesome thanks! I’m just making some more adjustments quickly based on some feedback but then i’ll pm you the stems. I am using ableton 9 mainly stock plugins ANA2 (obviously) and Sylenth. and was using mainly ozone/neutron for mastering.
Thanks I really appreciate this.
@Tekalight
Thanks for saying that the track has improved you have been a massive help with that obviously. I feel I’m really thinking of the mix a lot more now then I used to and a few things clicked so fingers crossed it keeps going that way. Thanks for the advice on how to send the files.
Just edited my previous reply, next to using PM of course, think about leaving some headroom to Phil when rendering the stems, don’t push your limiter too hard. In most case you will let your master chain disabled when rendering stems for a Mastering Engineer, taking care of letting -4 or - 6db of Headroom to work with.
I think Phil should be OK with opening your full project too, use the “Collect All & Save” feature in Live to ensure that all source files are kept in the Ableton Project.
