(Neurofunk) Vaatu & Raava by Huraqan

Thanks for the feedback man! I totally agree, I just needed someone to tell me ^^
I boosted the bass a bit on the kick and snare, and changed the mastering a tiny bit.

BEFORE:

AFTER:


Nice track btw, deep bass and nasty growls. Reminds me of the old school, underground drum&bass.
I would only suggest using some form of reverb/delay on some of the sounds or adding some subtle pads with wide stereo. (during the intro)
 
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Thanks man, much appreciated!
Is the new version an improvement? Do you think I should replace the file on the original track?
 
Only listened to the original, I don't like the intro, it sounds a bit fragmented and messy, the b-line is pretty cool and you quite a few nice edits and little things, but the mixdown sounds off and the drums could pack a bigger punch.
 
Thanks for the feedback!
Yeah, don't worry, you listened to the latest version (they're both the same file now)
What do you mean exactly by "the mixdown sounds off"?
I don't really know how to add any more punch to the drums... (I'll just choose my samples more carefully next time)
 
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It sounds like there's a lot of low end to a lot of the samples, and it's muddying things up..

A trick I recently learned - and that helped my tunes out tremendously - is to mix your drums so that the drum bus peaks somewhere from -10 to -8db and the bass around -14 to -12db (I always go for -8 and -12 because loud).
My technique might be way off (in fact, it probably is..), but I distort and / or compress my kick (usually kicks as I layer two or three) to taste and make it sound nice and loud while peaking at -8db, do the same with snare, distort all the high hats i one go and throw on just a little bit of reverb and make them quite a bit more quiet, I don't like them to stick out too much, but they have to be noticeable. Then I bus all that together, throw on a compressor and brickwall it at -8db, which is the part I'm pretty sure is "wrong" but I think it sounds pretty good. I think this gives the compressor the same function as a limiter, but I'm not quite savvy enough to say for sure.

Hope this helps you out.

Oh, and I make sure the master only occasionally goes over -6db, before uploading to soundcloud and things I just chuck on a compressor brickwalled at -6 and crank the gain up 6db - which I'm also pretty sure is naughty and the wrong way to go about things, my goal for the future is to replace this compressor with a multiband one.
 
drums need a bit more "air" and punch tho, try to add some more shiney layers next time!

and apecat, i usually have my bass at -12 (or something like that) and just fit the drums accordingly. doesnt help to have some numbers in mind when every tune is different.
and when you upload to sc you can just put a limiter on the master. dont compress if you have no idea what youre doing, grab a good limiter instead.

bass sounds nice and the edits are quite cool.

keep going!
 
Awesome! Thanks for the tips guys!
Honestly it's really getting frustrating to fiddle with this track, so I'll just keep it in mind for future tracks.

@ApeCat: I've been doing that with a few new tracks I've been working on (letting the drums peak a little higher than the bass)
And it already sounds much better than Vaatu&Raava ^^
Well, the one in my signature for one... But that one might really miss the "air" Groelle was talking about.

I use a buss compressor on the whole mix (been going with waves SSL stereo compressor, and it hasn't caused any annoying or unwanted results, as opposed to FL Studio's native compressor...)
As for the mastering I then use a multiband compressor set to RMS mode, and the LMH mix set depending on the original loudness of the track.
Then some form of saturation (soft clip or brickwall usually), a LinearPhase EQ (cut below 20Hz and above 18-20kHz)
and finally a simple classic limiter to even out the (very subtle) dynamics the EQ created.

Now I don't know if it's right or wrong, all I know is it's better than what I did when I started out :P
It's like Groelle says, no point in keeping numbers in mind when every track is different.
This was definitely wrong though:
I used to work with a multiband on the master at all times, no way you can still manage your mix after a while...
 
This is great. New version with the snare pushed up sounds fucking tight. Big up. Please don't listen to people on here too much and just do your thing.
 
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