I would really appreciate some feedback on this track I’m working on. I have been doing it for a few months on and off and feel it’s ready to take some vital feedback to keep on improving it.
I am looking for feedback on sound selection (general opinion if they are right for this style of track. How they could be improved. Arrangement ( what works what doesn’t) and mixing (If it’s heading in the right direction what I could do to improve it. Compression, better use of reverb delay etc) It has a mastering rack on it.
Please be as brutally honest as you wish. I am a grown up and can take the critism. I won’t even cry… Well not in public anyway.
This track is inspired by the Gaia track Tuvan and that general style. This was the last time I was religiously listening to trance until well a few weeks ago. I feel I need to catch up because I’m pretty clueless about the “scene”
I used ableton 10 with the vsti being ANA2 and Sylenth everything else is stock plugins except for lfo tool oh and it’s in D minor at 132bpm.
Thanks in advance
Hey there @CtrlAltDel
Sound Selection : It can fit the bill & the purpose for this kind of genre IMO ( pretending you’re aiming at a more Hard Trance style than the original which is more in the subliminal Trance register ) but you’re mainly using very sharp & transient driven sounds, it can sounds a bit harsh when the Mix gets busy and also over listening time since it’s a rather long Mix ). You have nice atmosphere layers in the background, they could take more space in the Mix IMO. Bringing the piano is nice, it could perhaps also take more space by using more reverb & delay.
Arrangement wise : not sure if the long silence and the way you introduce the piano really works. Using reverb/delay with filters, you could keep that atmosphere background sound and some percussive elements to create a layer with the tail of those sounds. It’s there but could be accentuated I think. More reverb on the piano and spreading it more in the stereo field might give another dimension to it, sounds a bit to dry and mono to me. Then around 4:07 after the break, the tack is loosing a lot of it’s energy & punch. You just build tension before this, it should be the climax time IMO. That percussion sound doesn’t fit right there, it’s giving a kind of “loose” tempo at the wrong time : make this part sounds big !
Use of reverb & delays will definitely help to tame the harshness of those lead & synth sounds, the piano should really sound bigger.
Mixing wise, you could filter out some of the sub & low end, but the weakest point is the Kick. Looks like the punch of the kick is in the 70’'ich freq. area, but the sub is really taking over, it’s really making the kick thin, both in terms of level and presence/punch. The very transient driven bass doesn’t help with that, you really need a more punchy & in your face kick IMO.
For compression & processing on your master rack, it’s harder to judge by ears but it doesn’t sound too much compressed to me.
And that’s it for my 2 cents feedback, trying to be as much objective as possible since you know I’m more a fan of the more subliminal stuffs when it comes to Trance 
Hope that helps 
Cheers !
@Tekalight That is as usual very very helpful. Thanks for the in depth feedback. After putting this up for feedback I now have a nice list to work on.
I have already now changed the kick to one that punches through better and tried to make the piano more wet. I have also changed the sub bass to play a real offbeat and added a mid layer to help with depth.
I am also changing out the percussion and adding something that aligns more with the groove of the track.
I have changed some of the sounds to help at the beginning.
I have labelled this my extended mix and am going to arrange a 6-7min version as well. I will look at filling in those gaps by extending the delay and tail on the reverb.
I’ll check out the part 4:07 as we def don’t want to lose any energy there!
Thanks again for braving this as yes I know you prefer a less hard style haha. I’ll post the updated version when I’m finished.
Cheers mate.
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Okay, I have gone through the list of feedback from here and other various sources. Thank you again to everyone that has been helping it has been vital for me.
I honestly can’t remember everything I’ve done but a few of the bigger things are, I’ve changed the sub and pattern to a true offbeat pattern and added a midbass for this as well.
I have changed pretty much all the percussion accept for snares and the bongo sound.
I’ve added in various pieces of FX and noise, Tried to extenuate the reverb between the silent parts.
I’ve attempted to widen the piano and make it more wet, hmmm I took out the piano part at the beginning and the other sound playing with it and replaced it with a pluck arpeggio.
I’ve widened the pads. changed the kick and added a top layer. I don’t know probably lots more things.
Any who hopefully this is going in the right direction.
Cheers
Yep, the new Kick & the changes you made to the sub + bass makes a huge difference IMO, much more working now.
Less harsh sounding elements when the mix is reaching climax time after the break, to me it’s now giving a smoother listening as opposed to before where this part was potentially causing a kind of ear fatigue for the listener.
At this point I think what needs to be enhanced is the break. The piano sounds more wet now and the sub bass you kept in there works well. The noise layer works less and this part is really lacking other layers like maybe something like a pad, voice choir or humming, using reverb and filtering to get rid of the low frequencies and then using some whooshes, cymbals & reversed cymbals or noise rise & falls and other ear candies that might help to occupied the space.
This break can only be epic and breath catching, should be the subliminal point of the mix before getting to the climax since you brought a lot of energy & build a good tension before : so just the piano, sub bass & that noise layer is making this part to weak now, affecting the all power of the Mix IMO.
If you nail that break part, I think it will really give more strength to this track : time to get subliminal mate 
Going in the right direction for me too, good work
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@Tekalight
Thanks as usual for the extensive and very useful feedback. This as usual is very helpful.
I’m glad to hear that the bottom end is sounding better. I’m just not sure how to go about it now tbh.
Yes I for sure agree with you about the break I’ll start adding to that section and also trying and encompass parts from the beginning of the track so it’s a smoother transition and melds together better. I was thinking possibly to make it orchestral get some drum sounds in there maybe a violin this sort of thing.
I will absolutely have a look at implementing this sort of thing there are some great recommendations there thanks.
Yeah I agree with you. I will get on making that break epic. Lets get subliminal mate!
Thanks again for all the feedback/advice I look forward to showing you the updated version when completed.
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