I wrote this track for the upcoming videogame Bouncerback. This track is actually a few months old and it doesn’t take advantage of my latest findings, bu it does use a mastering chain that will probably horrify anyone: Fabfilter Pro-Q + U-He Satin (tape emulator and Dolby A encoder) + BX Masterdesk. Yes, it’s that weird. Bu against all odds, it’s he one that worked best for me so far.
Anyway, this is it: japanese and trancey and uplifting and trancey again. Don’t ask me how I got there, I have no idea, I never listen to K-Pop or Anime Pop or stuff like that.
Sorry for the late reply on this one, had an early listen via headphones before but didn’t find the time to have a closer listen via monitors.
Cool track, not bale to judge if it fits the game since I don’t know it, LOL, but it’s quite energetic and sounds like arcade games music with a modern twist on it.
What I found is that the Kick & bass sounds a bit “dull” and quite thin comparing to the synths. You’ve got quite hard transients in higher frequencies like the synth & arpeggio and some kind of metallic hats sounds and they seem to be all very spread in the stereo field while kick & bass are sounding very mono. Which is quite a usual way to do, but I think level wise and because of those transients, kick & bass don’t really cut through as they should, even if it’s not a club track, LOL. And again the kick feels a kind of loose, missing transient & click IMO.
As for the mastering chain I don’t find it to be weird, mastering EQ + saturation + channel strip should be a nice combination to polish a track and it usually works quite well if used wisely. Perhaps it might be worth to play with the Fundation knob as well as the Mono Maker & Stereo Enhance knobs in the M/S section of BX Masterdesk to help the kick & bass to blend more into the track but tweaking the Kick on it’s own channel and reducing the synths & higher frequencies instruments levels should already make a difference.
Cheers & Happy New Year BTW, all the best with Music Production as well as upcoming teaching & classes
Hi, @Tekalight I won’t have time in the following few days to fix the issues you pointed out, or even writing a proper reply, but I wanted to say thank you for taking the time to check it. Cheers!
Against all odds, I was about to tweak things this morning. I tweaked volumes a bit, I tweaked the two most bright instruments: filter attack is now a bit slower, and they are EQd so highs stay a bit more in line even when the filter is fully open.
Another very important thing I did was checking Masterdesk values. Stereo was over 150%! I never used a value this high in any other track, I don’t know what the hell I was thinking about when I did this. Foundation value was close to zero, but I moved it a bit to make it even more neutral.
Again, you’ve been very helpful. Thanks!
I think the song sounds better now, but I’ll let it sleep for one or two days. Then I’ll compare the old one to the new one. I’ll even prepare a before/after render so I can listen to it in my car, etc.
My assumption on this is that since I believe you’re a synth sounds lover & aficionado ( in the good meaning of it ) you probably just let yourself been embraced & immersed into the power of the stereo field
It’s like when we just turn on Unison on a simple patch… Immediate transportation to a new dimension !! Very pleasing for the ears & brain but could get tricky when layering sounds & tracks.
EDIT :
For listening I’m using Sonarworks Reference 4 Studio ( so both correction with Headphones ( well, average profiles from Sonarworks only, no calibrated headphone from them ) and also my near-field monitors ) but what I’m also doing is that I set Sonarworks SystemWide to output to the UAD Console Virtual outputs ( 2 separated channels ) instead of my main monitors 2 outs. Then inside UAD Console I have set each channel PAN to full, so whatever is hard panned only comes out from one monitor and what’s centered & mono really stays “centered”. I find this much more easier for panning values & sounds placement in the stereo field.
I also do that inside the DAW by switching my Master main outputs to those 2 virtual channels from the UAD console.
Ooopsie! Can I ask you about Reference? It was on sale during Black Friday, but I was not sure about it living up to its promises, so I passed until I got more info. I can’t treat my room because it will become my children’s room this summer, so Reference could be useful.
What’s your opinion on Sonarworks Reference? Do you recommend it?
) you probably just let yourself been embraced & immersed into the power of the stereo field 
