Icelandic

Post your work here - Ask for feedback or just show it off
Post Reply
User avatar
HowieRis
quasi-public
Posts: 146
Joined: Sat Aug 27, 2016 3:41 am
Icelandic

Post by HowieRis »

Evenin' cunts. :mrgreen:

Apologies if I'm jumping the gun a bit in here considering my lack of contribution over the past months, been busy moving from NZ to Vietnam. Mods, I'm at your mercy.

I was re-reading Voidloss' invaluable Home "Mastering" guide the other day and I fancied giving it a go so I finished my most complete session and here it is. It's the first time I've ever finalised something that wasn't purely a sketchbook idea so I'd massively appreciate some feedback.



P.S this was made on mid-range headphones sans amp so i would be super interested to get some notes on how it sounds through good monitors.

seventh serpent
Poo Fingers
Posts: 50
Joined: Fri Feb 03, 2017 9:06 am
Re: Icelandic

Post by seventh serpent »

in my opinion is a little bit rough but there are very good ideas and well apllied... the track is also interesting in is evolve

User avatar
HowieRis
quasi-public
Posts: 146
Joined: Sat Aug 27, 2016 3:41 am
Re: Icelandic

Post by HowieRis »

Thanks, this was a re-worked oldie... after some time away from it again and giving it a re-listen, the low end is pretty uninteresting and i think the compression on the synth stab is too severe so it knocks the delays back harshly. Also I think I've over-saturated a lot generally and the mix feels a little narrow with quite plain sounds.

Working on new ideas now that are more focused in terms of arrangement and have more space for grooves to work.

Anyway, broken link so here it is again.


User avatar
Aurongroove
pregnant
Posts: 206
Joined: Thu Sep 08, 2016 6:09 am
Location: Ireland
Contact:
Re: Icelandic

Post by Aurongroove »

The hi hats are making my ears bleed.
They've been squeezed to absolute fuck by whatever processing you've used, especially during the intro, and breakdowns. Whatever you're using to process your mix, you need to check your high treble settings or put a limiting band on how high you allow your high treble frequencies to go.

The track is nice, it actually reminded me of the wipEout series. (in a good way).
I love the musical exploration and gentle changes of scenery.

All the more shame I can't enjoy it; there is something seriously wrong with those hi hats elements. On headsets they're almost medically threatening during the breakdowns and intro.
I'm Hilarious


Some professional mastering engineers use multi-band compressors.

User avatar
HowieRis
quasi-public
Posts: 146
Joined: Sat Aug 27, 2016 3:41 am
Re: Icelandic

Post by HowieRis »

Treble trouble... yes I think I might have gone a bit OTfT with a bit crusher on the off-beat hat and looking at those 16ths shakers again the samples naturally have a nasty ramp up from 18-19k. I apologise for the bleeding ears.

I did have a tweak but the levels of the softer hats were difficult to set, I'm guessing I'll need to give the drum bus compression some attention. Need to do some work right now but I'll upload the changes tonight.

Thanks so much for the feedback.

P.S I used to love the WipEout soundtrack as a kid, so cheers :mrgreen:

User avatar
jordanneke
subsekt
subsekt
Posts: 4166
Joined: Sat Nov 03, 2012 2:16 pm
Re: Icelandic

Post by jordanneke »

I like this a lot.

My hearing is pretty shitty so I assume the highs are harsh.

It's really fucking groovy.

The mix does seem a bit flat and life-less, and I can hear a lot of saturation on the panned sounds, maybe that could come down a bit, or a better eq after the saturation and a bit more dry signal.

How did you apply the saturation?

terly
arsehole
Posts: 303
Joined: Wed Oct 03, 2012 4:12 am
Re: Icelandic

Post by terly »

The hihats didn't really bother me, they were loud yes, but they are the kind of papery sounds that can be super present without being damaging. They reminded me of how the high end sounds on Funktion 1 systems, which could be taken either way.

The arrangement of the track didn't really make a lot of sense to me. Elements were sorta coming and going without a lot of purpose.

The (sampled?) chord sounds like the sort of "placeholder" sound I might use in one of my tracks. Not very vibey. Not a bad sound by any means, but just kinda "meh." It also doesn't seem to fit in the track that well, and seems to be there just so that there is a chord.

OK, I'm listening again because I don't want to be too harsh. The bass sound and riff is cool. The syncopated hihat that comes in around 1:45 doesn't groove right, try adjusting the timing a bit or maybe just the velocity/decay on the off-beat hit. Once the 16th hihats come in it's not so bad. Listening again the arrangement makes a little more sense.

Overall, pretty cool, not too bad.

User avatar
HowieRis
quasi-public
Posts: 146
Joined: Sat Aug 27, 2016 3:41 am
Re: Icelandic

Post by HowieRis »

Thanks for all the feedback - I've been flat out for the last month with a course but having finished a couple of days ago, I've had the time to give this a tweak.

Thanks terly, yea the chord sound is a sample, it's not the best but I guess it serves a purpose and the arrangement does have a bit of an 'up and down' feel, maybe it's the those FM twangs being sent out to long delays and stopping weirdly. The second hi-hat was in the right place to support the synth stab so I didn't want to move it too much. I added a little 16th shuffle on the main hat to hint at the groove earlier so it doesn't feel so out of place.

Jordanneke - I was trying to layer saturation in stages, like - little bit on the stems, little bit on the drum bus, little bit on the master etc but I think I overdid it so I've pulled it back a notch and the mix has opened up somewhat I think.

Aurongroove - I've taken the volume of the hats down a lot, removed the bitcrusher altogether and rolled off in the 5-5.4khz area a bit with a character EQ to smooth out the sharpness. Still a bit papery and 'meh' but hopefully out of the 'medically dangerous' category... apologies for the bloody ears :lol:

Here it is -


User avatar
Prophän
Back Bling
Posts: 547
Joined: Fri Mar 31, 2017 11:14 am
Contact:
Re: Icelandic

Post by Prophän »

The groove really made want to get up from my bed and dance

User avatar
HowieRis
quasi-public
Posts: 146
Joined: Sat Aug 27, 2016 3:41 am
Re: Icelandic

Post by HowieRis »

Amon Derrich wrote:The groove really made want to get up from my bed and dance

Glad to hear it :mrgreen:


Post Reply