Hey guys, I’d love to hear feedback on this. It’s very minimal, perhaps too much? I kept the track very simple with only two synths. The movement mostly comes from the evolving bassline. Do you think it works? How’s the mixdown? Is the overall tune too repetitive? How’s the tension and release?
Thanks for any listens and feedback:)
https://soundcloud.com/seandonnelly2199/sean-donnelly-rhytms
Hey @squeak2199
The first issue with this track is that the Kick @ rumble is so loud that is taking all the place over other elements, and next to this you’re level is really clipping all way long.
So yes maybe the track is minimal, but IMO you should first address this Kick & levels issue. Try to reach a -3dB Max Level, don’t aim at maximum 0 dB for your master channel, keep some head room. It’s not because it’s loud that it sounds better, it’s what our ears let us think but in fact it’s the opposite, when you’re clipping your Mix Bus you are loosing audio information and making the sound worse.
Have you seen this tutorial on S.A ? Might be an interesting resource IMO.
Thanks for the feedback. I listened on monitors and the kick is definitely too dominant. That’s what I get for mixing on headphones! But there’s no clipping going on in the track. I put a limiter at the end and it just about touches on the loudest parts.
I must remember to test my mix on more systems. Thanks for the advice!
Hmmm… Had to go back to it and yep, you’re right, I was monitoring with Sonarworks “SystemWide” engaged here & with no “Safe head Room” option enabled, so as a result the output was clipping here, but taking a look at the input source, bingo, it’s not in the red 
So yep, apologies, my fault in the end 
Well never the less, that Kick is way to loud and if you want to add more loudness to your bass & presence to the other elements you’ve got to level it down, there’s no much head room right now in the mix.
Yep, can be very tricky to mix on headphones, talking about Sonarworks, it is really a game changer and if you’re using a headphone that belongs to their list of average calibration profiles, it could be something to consider if you’re mixing a lot on headphones.
Be happy to listen again when you’ve made some adjustments. What I can tell now is that you should bring that bass more in the front when you’ve made room with the kick, next to that I’m missing elements like a pad/synth background atmosphere sound or some noise. Use of more prominent effects on percussive sounds could also help to create interest. I understand that’s a minimal techno track, but listening to it makes me more think about a beat that a complete track, but again the kick level make it difficult to appreciate the full mix and of course all of this is based on my own listening experience, so always very subjective per track & people of course 
Thanks again for another detailed comment! The kick is far too loud. When I played the track on my monitors it’s nearly all I could hear lol. The funny thing is I spent a lot of time taking care of the levels and it sounds good in my headphones but of course it didn’t translate with that massive kick dominating.
I might look into that plugin. I’ve tried it before and was impressed but I never tried to seriously mix with it. I agree the track is too sparse. I felt like if I kept it that way it would make the small amount of elements really stand out but i don’t think it worked well this time.
I think I might be done with this track to be honest. I’m trying to get into the habit of completing more songs rather than trying to perfect things. I got stuck in the habit of creating 10 second loops for a long time and I don’t want to go down that road again lol.