Hi there all,
I would like some feedback & advice on this track. This is not a Remix, just a new idea after following the Jaytech “Tigerlily” tutorial as a starting point.
What elements do you think are missing ?
Do you think it needs more layers, some synths, etc ?
How I can improve the mix down ? ( the track sounds flat to me ).
Thanks
https://soundcloud.com/thomasmichaelblunden/jaytech-2020-bung-philips
First thing first, a kind reminder for everyone :
OK, this track is not a remix involved in the competition running right now, but it’s too much inspired from the original. Again, producers, labels & Sonic Academy are much involved into setting those Remix Competitions. Even if it’s not a commercial release, it’s uploaded on a public streaming platform and might be confusing. There’s a thin border when it comes to potential claims & complains.
As a reminder, any tutorial on S.A is subject to some end user usage agreement. You agree to those when downloading them ( there’s a popup disclaimer that you have to accept when downloading ). When it comes to Remix Competition, there’s a specific text disclaimer & additional rules available from the Remix Competition details page as well, rules N° 3 & 8 being really important in this case.
Now back to some feedback on this track :
Several issues here for me. First & main one being the Kick & Bass duo isn’t working. Your kick is very thin comparing to the bass, you used a very short kick that is dueling with the bass sound that’s very short too. I’m not even sure if the bass is side-chained to the kick and if it is, it’s not gonna be enough since you’re dealing with 2 very short sounds.
The pattern used for the bass is not really syncing well with the kick, it’s also very linear & repetitive, it’s missing groove & variation that would give life & punch to the track. Finally your bass is way too loud comparing to your kick & beat, especially with the kick in mono, those 2 elements are fighting for space in the same frequency area. Using a longer kick with a click to help making it pump out would allow you to add movement to your bass. But the first thing to take care of is levels : if you play back the end of the track with the kick alone it’s peaking around -6 dB, just rewind around 04:30 and when adding the bass the tracks jumps to -3 / - 2dB, it’s taking over the kick and accentuating the linear pattern which isn’t working with the kick. Doubling the second beat of the kick with a more punchy snare than the actual one will also add energy & groove to the track IMO.
Another issue with levels is that everything synths & effects is quite loud as well, again the kick & beat are left behind. Give a try to re-balance your mix, starting with Kick & bass, synths should just pump out below those, it should help to blend all elements together, effects should be lower than synths then. Put all faders down & mute all track, then un-mute then one by one & bring the levels back, starting from the kick, then the bass. All other levels should follow those.
For the rest I don’t think it needs more synths or instruments layers. There’s nice sounds going on like the lead pluck starting at 01:16, also great sounds from the lo-end pad to the synth used in the break which is quite nice actually.
There’s also good fills elements like drums & effects during the transition between parts, some tiny adjustment in the timing maybe, like for example at moments like 0:30 / 0:45 / 03:03 you could use a longer silence to emphasize the transitions. Filtering the kick during the end of the break would also make this part smoother for the listener, at the moment this sharp unfiltered kick is killing the nice sounding synths at their peaking time.
So yep, nice elements in this one, but you need to adjust Kick & bass first & fix some levels issue IMO. After that it should be more easy to deal with the other elements & the overall mix and use more stereo spread & reverb to make the track more full. While it’s a common practice to retain kick & bass mono, sometime playing with some reverb & delays via send-return fx track and blending back the processed audio with the source sound can really make a huge difference & help to fill the space.
Hope this helps, just my take on this one, might be subjective too my listening environment as well of course, but those are the points that you might want to look at IMO.
Cheers !
