Synthwave and science-fiction and uplifting and a bit japanese

OK, looking for a last round of feedback before closing this track and sending to Spotify. Three things worry me most:

Structure - many things happening in this song in a short time. I want to know if it makes sense for a “neutral listener”.

Mix - In global terms, that there isn’t too much of anything, and no main element sounds weak.

Loudness - I am the opposite of “loudness wars”, this annoyes me. But I know there has to be a minimum. The song is at -14 LUFS (average).

That’s it. Final round for final tweaks before closing and sending my first song to Spotify. Thanks!

https://soundcloud.com/ignoranceisstrength/renaissance-vector-extended

Hi there @nachenko

From my listening experience, the track structure is OK since you are using a quite fast tempo, overall it’s keeping the dynamic & energy during the listening.

Mixing & Loudness : I would reduce your high frequencies or at least filter unwanted high energy, you also have some very harsh transient peaking that could be tamed ( i.e : snare crash at 3:19 ).

Mixing wise this unwanted energy and harsh transients is taking over and taming the kick making it sounding a bit dull, as for loudness this is probably gonna get worse once on Spotify, if the -14 LUFS is a good target, you should keep a 1dB safe net range below that, but again it is the high energy in the mix that’s gonna be the problem “(both ReplayGain and ITU 1770) do not have a lowpass cut-off filter”

You can check this page from their site : Spotify for Artists and particularly expand the last section My track doesn’t sound as loud as other tracks on Spotify. Why?

This can be a helper too : https://www.loudnesspenalty.com/


EDIT :

Other tools to make measurements outside of your DAW with your rendered audio file :

Mastering The Mix : Expose https://www.masteringthemix.com/products/expose
MAAT : DR Offline MAAT DROffline or Dr Offline MKII MAAT DROffline MkII


For the rest, nice work, but definitely tame those transient and high frequency range energy IMO,
Hope that helps :wink:

Cheers !

I’ve no tips to offer but I love the laidback vibes here. Keep up the great work! :slight_smile:

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Thanks both of you for listening. I can’t upload a new render now to show, but I did a few changes: I used a slower attack for the claps so their transients are now a bit softer, a bit less aggressive. I also reduced the kick’s volume 3db and I filtered out high frecuencies about 10.000. I didn’t use a high cut, I didn’t go that far, but the effect is noticeable. I also put most settings in Masterdesk flat except for Stereo image and compression, in order to control final EQ adjustments in one place (Fabfilter Pro-Q).

I’ll let it sleep now for one day and I will check again tomorrow, let’s see if it sticks.

Thanks!

2 Likes

Yep, very wise to do and also, do archive your sessions, but I’m sure you do :sunglasses: :wink:

Let us know when you’re happy with it and when it’s on Spotify,

Cheers !