Dimenzion-X : Shadows of the midnight sun (deep rolling DnB)

Mr Fletch

aka KRONIX
VIP Junglist
Joined
Aug 6, 2009
Location
Essex, England
Hi guys, well here I am again, pleased to announce that the last crappy tune I wrote got me through the writers block I had! And now I'm happy to bring to you the next installment in my musical journey.

I've gone back to what I seem to be able to do best, which is rolling/liquid drum and bass. This one'a a little slower, hitting 165bpm, but I feel it works for this track.

As always, any feedback is valued greatly, and appreciated.

http://soundcloud.com/mr-fletch/dimenzion-x-shadows-of-the-midnight-sun
 
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awesome into on this one, like the half beat at the start, goes with the dark feel nicely. might just be my headphones but feels like the bass could use something to bring it up a bit, beats are nice and tight with lots of variation.

really like this overall, can see how much more developed your sounds are now - this is what i need to work on myself!!
:D
 
I played around with the bass for quite a while, with distortion and compression etc etc, but wanted it to flow nicely as opposed to be banging! I feel as it is, it just adds a little depth to the track, without taking over!
 
intro sounds great, really eery and kinda triphop

nice sounds in the background, really accompany the track well.

beat has character but maybe a little thin by itself, the snare doesnt sound connected too well with the rest of the beat, in terms of frequency i mean, the hi hats and shuffles sound to be sitting way high in the mix and not interlocking with the snare... not trying to dig just wanna explain how it sounds, but that streaming quality always degrades the beats anyway.

the bassline is quality man.. deep and rolling, wicked riff, the effects really back it up aswell
 
No offence taken Lucid mate, I appreciate all feedback. By "the hats sitting too high in the mix" Do you mean they are too loud, or just too crisp on the high end of the frequency spectrum?
 
they are really high pitch and maybe high passed from too far up the spectrum, so i feel like they dont flow with the snare being a low end punchy snare, to me it makes the beat sound like... gappy?
 
Cool. Now I know what you mean. I'm using headphones for all my creation and mixdowns etc so maybe I didn't quite hear that. I'll see if I can amend them, maybe just bring down the frequency range on the hi pass filter of the break. And lower the eq'ing on the singular hits.
 
Intro is nice and dark... vocal is cool. That KD is really big... and the SD sounds about 2 DB too quiet imo. Sub sounds about 2-4 DB too loud. Honestly, this is your quietest sounding mix I've heard... most of the elements are so far in the background... but your Sub is huge and out in front taking up all the attention imo.

I think if your KD came down a DB, SD up a couple DB and Sub down 2-4 DB, you could make your other elements louder.

Maybe this is a 128 you have uploaded... ???.. dunno.. but this mix is quiet.

I like the tune a lot, but the mix isn't doing it for me.


Please don't take this the wrong way, but I think you're rushing your Production a great deal... it amazes me how fast you can sequence something, but you're not spending enough time on getting the Mixdown to be solid. My two pence.

Cool track either way though.



:keepjammin:
 
Cheers protoplasym. Appreciate your honesty.

When writing or mixing down I'm on headphones, and to me it sounded loud enough and everything sounded right, I guess thats one of the many flaws of using headphones. I'll take your words into consideration and see if I can amend the problems and work on them some more
 
Ok, new version linked in OP. Been reworking the mixdown since last night taking into account the feedback, just went back and touched up on the issues protoplasym bought to my attention, and I feel it's sounding better.

Again, I'm only mixing on headphones, so any other problems that may have occured please let me know in as much detail as you can so I can go back and rectify them.

Thanks guys for the honest feedback, this is what I really need, to be able to make my tracks to the best of my ability
 
mate that beat sounds ALOT better now. the work you put into this mixdown makes the track 10x better now if you ask me. wicked
 
Cheers lucid. I went back to it after Reading your comment about the hats and started playing with them. Got them sounding tight then read protoplasyms post. Went back a second time, played around some more, and here we are, a better sounding production!

Proof that negative criticism can make you better lol!
 
I only heard what was on Soundcloud just now and from a listening POV and trying to think why i wouldn't buy this track if listening on a store. Bearing in mind I was quite happy listening to this for about 15 mins so I am being openly critical rather than blowing smoke up your backside !! Whilst i've mess about with samples and arrangements in Ableton since mid-January i am just giving an opinion and don't have a back catalogue to back me up !!

- drums & perc. the full time drum riff sounds great, real nice. At 3.44 mid-high range arrangement is dropped in db i think and track loses some attack, just wonder if it should have continued until 4:07 as without sounded bare and doesn't need to drop anything until the outro. The half time during intro could do with a few more hits to make it flow a bit 'smoother' but as it is the minimal works.

- atmospherics. nice n moody, sci-fi esque. like the chords at 1.13 and want more of that during the tune. The odd 'scattering' bits n pieces dropping in/out i like. play the vocal sample elsewhere or in parts to emphasise other parts.

- bass riff. Feel the 9-16 bar where it jumps up in pitch isn't necessary, the 1st 8 bars should repeat. The sound

- arrangement. doesn't drop until 2 mins, and then only get bass for 16 bars. would like to see half as long on the intro then twice as long after 1st drop. from 2nd drop all good.
 
i quite like it mate. im not big on uno production techniques and db and all that so ill give u as best as i can really, i like the idea of the tracks its quite moody and works well... i dnt like the snare, it sounds too flat to me. i like the rest of the drums, especially the sorta bongo sounds u got in there they sound nice.
overall tho mate i think its good!
 
I only heard what was on Soundcloud just now and from a listening POV and trying to think why i wouldn't buy this track if listening on a store. Bearing in mind I was quite happy listening to this for about 15 mins so I am being openly critical rather than blowing smoke up your backside !! Whilst i've mess about with samples and arrangements in Ableton since mid-January i am just giving an opinion and don't have a back catalogue to back me up !!

- drums & perc. the full time drum riff sounds great, real nice. At 3.44 mid-high range arrangement is dropped in db i think and track loses some attack, just wonder if it should have continued until 4:07 as without sounded bare and doesn't need to drop anything until the outro. The half time during intro could do with a few more hits to make it flow a bit 'smoother' but as it is the minimal works.

- atmospherics. nice n moody, sci-fi esque. like the chords at 1.13 and want more of that during the tune. The odd 'scattering' bits n pieces dropping in/out i like. play the vocal sample elsewhere or in parts to emphasise other parts.

- bass riff. Feel the 9-16 bar where it jumps up in pitch isn't necessary, the 1st 8 bars should repeat. The sound

- arrangement. doesn't drop until 2 mins, and then only get bass for 16 bars. would like to see half as long on the intro then twice as long after 1st drop. from 2nd drop all good.

Thank you for the extremely in depth feedback. I really do appreciate it. I will take everything you have mentioned on board and see if I can adjust the track accordingly.

Thank you.
 
i quite like it mate. im not big on uno production techniques and db and all that so ill give u as best as i can really, i like the idea of the tracks its quite moody and works well... i dnt like the snare, it sounds too flat to me. i like the rest of the drums, especially the sorta bongo sounds u got in there they sound nice.
overall tho mate i think its good!

If I knew what that was I'd respond lol! Unfortunately I have no idea so I wont. ;)
 
hahah my bad slightly confusing, i was just saying you get people posting here who have produced for a while and will tell you what setting to change to alter elements of your track, whereas i just know if it sounds good to me or not, i aint no production master! like i said tho apart form the snare which i thought sounded a bit different to the rest of the drums nice track!
 
Ahh I see lol! No worries, and thanks again for the feedback

Sometimes it's better to get feedback from someone who is simply a listener, and not a producer. Because lets face it, thats why we produce, for the average listener who has no idea what low end frequency spectrum, or a mixdown is.....
 
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