Rough Idea for New Song

[Rambler40]

This is far from finished, but I wanted to get opinions on the mix so far. I'm waiting for some new Shure headphones to show up so I'm stuck with listening through my computer speakers for now. Going to add some guitar and vocals eventually and probably redo the beginning and the end somewhat. So far though, I'm pretty happy with it. Especially the drums (VST kit), which accounts for most of the time I've spent on it so far. Might have to dial the bass back a tad more, although it's meant to be pretty heavy and oppressive within the mix. Comments appreciated!

https://soundcloud.com/rambler40/deadbeat

[freightgod]

Nice work so far. I especially like whatevers going on starting at 3:40.

[Rambler40]

Yeah, I like the sound I achieved at that point too. I used a plugin synth called Texture with a preset called The Lonely. Kind of surreal.

[fredfish]

Now that I like - I particularly like the sound at the beginning (what is that?) - it has a distinct feel of Faith Healer from SAHB whilst not sounding the same. Definitely keep on with this one!

Cheers

John

[Rambler40]

Thanks, the instrument at the beginning is called Syntar (free vst instrument). I added the dblue Glitch effect set to gate it in order to get the stuttering effect.

[AHornsby]

The percussion was enlightening.

[Rambler40]

The percussion was enlightening.

I'm curious what you mean by that.

[Mark Bliss]

There are some very cool tones, timbres and textures going on here, your gonna have to spill more on this one!

Both the arpeggiated pad section and the sustained pad starting at about 2:40 could pass as processed guitar. And they make great background textures.

The fuzz bass sounds cool when you can hear it more in solo, but it may muddy up the mix with more instruments, might want to be careful about that.

I also felt there was some disconnect to the drums as a set. The cymbals were quite up front and bright, while the kick and snare sounded a little distant. I would take a look at what you have processing the kick and try to get some more presence out of that, and maybe try mixing a little more dry signal in with the snare. Maybe try processing the drums more as a group and glue the section together a touch.

But yes, way cool potential in these sounds and your gonna have to explain more of what you are using. Please!

(secret confession: everyone who reads my rants know I am not a big fan of synth sounds in general, but...... I demoed a Roland Integra 7 module last week that had tones that just made my jaw drop. No I am not buying a $1500 rack mount module, but it is making me look harder for useful tones. You found some here!)

[Rambler40]

Thanks for the feedback Mark. I agree, the drums aren't very well balanced in the mix. Going to go back in tonight and work on that some more. If you want details on what I used then here you go:

Drums - MT Power Drum Kit. Interesting kit that actually sounds somewhat authentic for the most part where rock drums are concerned. The kick is a bit 'clicky' unprocessed and the snare is a bit thin as well. I'm going to work on EQ'ing those a bit more.

Bass - 4Front Bass. Pretty basic bass synthesizer. It's no Trilian, that's for sure, but it does the job fairly well with the proper amp effect (Trilian is on my wishlist). The amp model is Studio Devil Virtual Bass Amp, boosted with lots of gain for the fuzz tone and unboosted for the mellow part during the last third of the song. Right now I'm not using any sort of cabinet effect on the bass.

The Ambient sound at the beginning is a VST called 'Syntar'. Pretty good imitation of a sitar. It has a built in sustain and flanger too. To that I have added dBlue's Glitch plugin with the 'gater' effect to make the arpeggiated stuttering at the beginning.

Lastly, the softer ambient track in the last third of the song is a VST synth called Texture 1.2 with a preset called The Lonely. To that I added the Ambience reverb plugin with a preset called Sascha K-Long Verb.

Today, after I read you comments, I went in and changed the master effects I was using. I'm now using Ferric TDS with the Gentle Leveling preset and some fairly judicious limiting.

Tonight I also added the Ambience reverb effect to master effects with the Mairo-Bass Acoustics preset. In addition, I also reworked the drums with Acoustica EQ and have been working on minimizing overlap with the bass at the lower end. You're right that it's hard to define the drum with the fuzzy bass but I'm going to try to keep it in there. I pulled the bass back a bit more and pushed the kick and snare up in the mix. Also toned down the brightness of the cymbals and I removed the compression on the drums altogether. I'm not a huge fan of compressed drums anyway. I think I'm on the right track now, though I'm still going to add some live guitar parts and some vocals if I can think up some lyrics.

Appreciate the comments so far!

[AHornsby]

The percussion was enlightening.

I'm curious what you mean by that.

It fit. Plus, parts of the percussion seemed more real than real. Plus, it's a free plug-in now which makes it awesome.

[Rambler40]

The percussion was enlightening.

I'm curious what you mean by that.

It fit. Plus, parts of the percussion seemed more real than real. Plus, it's a free plug-in now which makes it awesome.

That makes me pretty happy to hear that...thanks!

[Rambler40]

OK, well...I think I'm losing perspective here. I've listened to this so many times, tweaking this & that, that I can't decide what I like about it anymore. I've gone back and stripped out all effects and mixer settings several times and rebuilt it. It's a lot more minimal now, effects wise. Maybe the drums are too up front now, I don't know. Seems like Soundcloud performs some kind of compression too because I notice some funny volume changes after the intro part that aren't there in the mp3 I made. Have a listen and tell me what you guys think...

https://soundcloud.com/rambler40/deadbeat-version-2

[freightgod]

I've been out of the loop so haven't had a chance to listen to your progress on this. While I like everything you've done so far, might I suggest that the entire drum 'track' is far too forward in this mix, I would like to hear it blend a little better with everything else that's going on. Otherwise, let's hear some vocals, man! Nice bed...I like.

[Rambler40]

Thanks Freightgod. The truth is, I was mixing through my computer speakers before. Then Shure headphones. Neither worked very well. I recently bought a set of KRK studio monitors and am now going through the process of remixing the whole things again. Way better for gauging where things need to sit in the mix. Drums are dominating the whole thing too much, I agree. Also trying to work out some rhythm guitar parts that will blend well with the main body of the song. Vocals too. I'll post up another mix soon. I do appreciate the constructive criticism.