Hey guys,

here is a track i recently submitted for a remix contest. Any and all feedback is much appreciated!

http://bit.ly/2atSbwN

But to what extent is it ok to change the volume or panning of something so that it sits right in different parts of a mix?

Thanks peeps.

There is no technical answer to this question. It's completly up to your taste and what you think sounds good. That's the thing with creating your OWN music, there is no "extent that is ok" to do something, as long as you like it and you think it sounds good. Ask yourself this question, if someone on this forum answered your question in a way that you didnt think sounded good at the end of the day, would you still implement their advice just because they backed it up "technically". I hope the answer would be no. My point is there are no rules when it comes to things like this. Do what feels right, the music is yours anyway. It seems to me like your creating restrictions for yourself, and not allowing your music to be whatever you want it to be. And thats important. Just my two cents

As a general rule of thumb that i use, is that if your mix sounds good at low levels, it normally translates well at high levels, but it is rarely true the other way around. This is why i like to switch between low levels and high levels when mixing. I make sure that i can hear each element clearly at low levels. Too many times we listen to something loud and automatically think it sounds better, which is not always true. I suggest you find a low volume and try to mix into that and if your track still carries that high energy and punch at low volume, its only going to sound that much better when you turn the volume up.

Sorry if that came across as confusing lol

Thanks for the advice man!

I like the piano melody for sure. It seems that its lacking something in the mid bass area (100-400hz). This causes that nice piano melody sound sort of thin when everything kicks in. I suggest going back and finding another layer for this area to really fill the track out.

-K

Awesome man, keep experimenting!

In addition to being a useful mixing tool when mixing sounds that occupy the same space (or just trying to widen up the stereo image) in my opinion panning can also be used for effect when there is minimal instruments involved. I quite like listening to minimal songs that pan instruments for effect. I think you are assuming that panning is only neccessary as a mixing technique. Luckily, there are no rules when making electronic music, so experiment and if it sounds good to you, use it!

-K