I try to spend the least amount of time working on a track. But I give it enough of my time to have it be the best that it can be.

"Perfection is the enemy of progress."

I really take that to heart with many aspects of my life, and you've heard me say that before.

The tricky part is finding a work flow and the right amount of time YOU'D liked to spend on a track.

This rule of thumb seems to come in handy when doing any sort of work.

0-1:15MIN, is louder than the actual verse.

Your drums aren't mixed well.

your instrumentation is fighting the drums. I get jazz is suppose to be not so drum heavy, but i think you could of  done a better job.

I don't think side chaining would of been the way to go with the kick.

that kick is pretty bad too, it really sticks out like a sore thumb.

Sounds like cheap tricks just to get things to project in the mix with out actually making them sound good.

I don't know about those hi hats being panned either, i first thought that was over compression, then i realized you do have to much compression and you have those hats auto panning lol.

honestly, the best sound out of that song are your intro and the break that goes into the second part. Mostly because you don't have drums involved in those sections.

it's tough to mix on bad headphones, and it's even tougher mixing on good headphones unless you spend like 2000$USD.

I would suggest you save up for speakers ASAP, don't skimp on them. There's a few topics on the forum about purchasing and tons of stuff online about it.

PM me if you have any other questions.

Once again, just ignore half of what Nadav says - Don't feed the troll.

I'm actually going to an art school for music - just not for EDM stuff. The program I'm enrolled in focuses mostly on production and composition for film and TV, and lets you choose scoring or engineering and sound design. It's an incredible program and the school has a ton of resources for students, but if you just wanna make beats or get signed to Spinnin' I'd consider this overkill.

Outside of having the accelerated learning curve from going through a guided course and associating with other musicians, the big benefit to attending a music program is the ability to network: with teachers (who work in the industry), people who come visit the school, and other students who might become successful during or after their time at school. That's the real dirty secret, honestly. A bunch of kids don't even graduate, because they get hired or get enough contacts to strike out on their own. A Bachelor's of Fine Arts is mostly useless as a degree.

No amount of schooling is going to turn you from a shitty artist to a good one - it's a matter of how much work you put in and how many contacts you make that can help you out. If you can manage all of that without going to a school, I'd consider that preferable. Schools like these are dangerous even when they're legitimate, because they make promises about what you'll achieve without informing you of what you'll realistically have to do to achieve it. So I'd look at one of those shorter programs or individual classes. I've heard good things about the ICON collective, and you could check out Point Blank London or Dubspot. You'll be getting the kind of specialized education you want without blowing tens of thousands of dollars to get a degree you won't even need.

I love you. Best advice.

I love you zau

What I do when layering kicks and snares is a bit complex but it does wonders.

Lets say I have a kick and a snare, I would make a ghost channel for both. So I'd take the transients of both, put them on their own channel and mute the output. This gives me the kick channel, the snare channel, the ghost kick channel and the ghost snare channel.
Then I sidechain the snare channel to the ghost kick, so the kick's transient will punch through instead of being washed away by the snare's transient. At the same time, I sidechain the kick by the snare's ghost channel. However, I only sidechain away the frequency in the kick, where the snare's fundamental frequency is.
Doing this, u make room for the kicks thump (the fundamental frequency) in the kick, and u make room for the kicks transient.

https://soundcloud.com/milesdominic/mako
https://soundcloud.com/milesdominic/in-retrospect-free-dl

these are 2 examples where i used that technique.

ok instead of getting complicated and convoluted, what you can do is just adjust the attack time of the samples that you use when all of your layers are played together.

You can also nudge things a little before or after, i tend to do things after because music is going forward and behind the pocket isn't so bad.

I have quite a few kick and snare layers, but the principle applies to just having a kick and a snare.

You just adjust the attack of the snare drum every so slightly, so that when you do combine the kick and snare together the transients are being applied at different times, and it'll sound like one.

You gotta take into time differences with this as well as frequency perspective.

You should also take that to hear when creating sounds with synths and cymbals.

EDIT:in front of the pocket but in MS it doesn't really matter

It's a volume and EQ adjustment.

This also took me quite some time to figure out.

What i tend to do to get my general levels, is solo the kick and snare and have them play a 4x4 beat. Adjust your levels and EQ accordingly.

Quote from: Marrow Machines on February 26, 2016, 12:09:56 am

There's a preset that says: LUFS EBU R 128

My target range for -24 LUFS is to be the -24 on that scale?

Yep. That preset just shifts the reference point by offset slider by -23, so it shows LUFS. Or you can use the default preset and target that zero. Same thing.
Or you can use:
http://www.toneboosters.com/tb-ebuloudness/
http://www.hornetplugins.com/plugins/hornet-elm128/ (as manducator suggested)
...etc. These show full scale measurement right away.
Also if you have Ozone, I believe there's LUFS metering option in IO settings.

Quote from: Marrow Machines on February 26, 2016, 12:09:56 am

Could I mix my song to be in decibels and then drop my volume, after a master render, to have an RMS at -24 LU?

I gereally wouldn't recommend to take R128 in cinsideration while doing mixing descisions. So yes. Mix it as you used to and then do the loudness adjusment afterwards. Be careful, RMS is not integrated loudness as LUs are dependant on frequency content of the material. ...so you have to perform real loudness measurement, if you want to be R128 compilant. (Again, I see no reason to do it while making music though. But if the engineer requires it from you, off you go. )

Quote from: Marrow Machines on February 26, 2016, 12:09:56 am

Should mix at that level and then bring every thing up?

Naaah...

Big up, great information that can be verified.

Yes, you have absolute freedom to do what ever it is you wanted to do with any thing that you can do inside of the daw

like...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zlUxZjNh3A

for real go listen to some IDM and it will give you a clue as to what you can and can't do lol

or even square pusher

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruc0TnSSi9Y




Your questions are really pointed and specific to a point where it should be handled by dutiful research on your own part.

Your questions are ALMOST, answering themselves. I think this is due to your intuition of being a musician.

Another comment is that you're asking about taste, you have to develop that on your own and honestly the truthful answer to your entire post is "it depends".

...

You have to consider the volume of groups as well as individual components. your individual components ratios are kept by the group volume. The group volume adds another depth of ratio control.

You're literally building up to the master track or pre master in this way of learning mixing with individual elements, mixing with groups, then mixing for the master.

If you've actually listened to those tracks i posted, you'll realize how much you can do. BTW, those guys use analogue gear and then do some weird stuff that i don't even know about, hell square pusher basically made the hard ware to get those effects in like the 90's.

You have to use your earn and use what you know to get the results that are desired as an artist.


EDIT: sorry, i may have come off as an ass initially, but my point still stands. I am all jacked up on coffee,  psytrance, homework, and fatigue.