Hi folks,
This is a Progressive Trance track I’m working based on the Protoculture tutorial. I have been mixing it, and I’d love any feedback on the mix! Thanks!
EDIT: New link uploaded…forever tweaking! I couldn’t handle some of the damage the limiter was doing to the integrity of the low end. Pulled it back a hare and adjusted some bus eq. Still pushing 9 LUFS and feeling a lot better about the stability of the mix!
Hey @mbirame had a listen over now. Some great sound selection in there. I think the kick has a good weight to it, but perhaps lacks a little punch, the attack seems quite soft and therefore no transients. The toms drum are great but dominate the mix a little for me. When the bass kicks in again, it all has a great weight to it, but again lacks any transients in the bassline making it feel flabby and not punchy.
The break section sound very strange to me. It totally works on its own, but the drop sections at the start and end are quite dark and driving in a minor key, whereas the break is in a major key and very ‘uplifting’ and they seems to me to clash musically. Hope this helps, I know you have been looking for feedback. Great sound choice and mix, but the overall music vibe I think needs looked at.
Hi @chris_agnelli thanks for the feedback! Its funny you mention the chord progression in the break as I usually always go minor…it’s very easy for me to go that direction. In fact I first wrote that whole section with a minor feel. Then I decided that I really wanted to work on being able to get major in more of my music. So I started looking at some progression things that Bach does using the relative major and such. I hoped that the funky/vibey major style 303 acid line would carry it through the break…I’m sorry to hear the progression didn’t work for your tastes!
I’ve been away from the studio this whole time and did this all on headphones, so I’m looking forward to getting back in my room in a few days to listen on proper monitors. Hopefully that will help me to hear and sort out some of the bass issues that you are noticing. Thanks again very for the feedback and for taking the time to listen!
hey, dont have the sound system to give proper feedback on the mix quality. drums sound a bit weak on my speakers. talking about the arrangement, each section is quite cool especially the middle part where it gets really soundtracky. but to me it sounds a bit too erratic and jumping from this to that. there are a lot of things going on but it’s not really one consistent song. feels more like a tech demo.
Thanks for the feedback! I have posted this song on a few different forums for feedback…it sure is enlightening hearing the VASTLY different opinions and feedback! It really goes to show what a finite benefit random feedback is. I wonder how the process could be improved? I think the only real way is to find a few people whose tracks are already at a level and style that you appreciate and strive to emulate and then somehow get feedback from them directly. The signal to noise ratio ratio otherwise is just too great.
Hi @chris_agnelli. Thanks again for your feedback. I have completed and released the track. I took some of your advice and thickened up the sub a little bit and got some more transient attack there. I think it helped a lot. I kept the percussion pretty heavy (something I like a lot in this track), but I did sidechain eq out a bit of the low end so it doesn’t compete with the kick so much so I think that cleaned it up a lot. I kept the chord progression of the break, as I like the feel of treating the Em as a Phrygian instead of a standard minor to make the C Dm Em ascending bass thing work. I know it’s not for everyones taste, but that’s ok. 
If you’d like to hear it with the changes, here it is. Cheers! I learned a TON in the Protoculture videos!
https://soundcloud.com/mbirame/fearless
Nice second version!