Soar by Brutality -- [seeking MASTERING FEEDBACK] (Liquid dnb)

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brutality

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Joined
Jul 9, 2011
https://soundcloud.com/brutality%2Fsoar-partially-mastered

A new track!
I've attempted to master this one with some forum lurking and reading some insightful articles on EQ and Compression off of dnbscene.

I'd love to hear feedback regarding the overall mix and mastering aspect of the track, although all feedback is appreciated. I'm trying really hard to achieve a loud and punchy mix with clarity (it's hard!).

The sound is a bit lessened in its fidelity due to me using a 320 kbps MP3 File rather than a WAV (I'll perhaps update the track with the WAV file if need be)


Big ups!
 
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The drums I believe are to quiet. I also believe that everything else is to loud. I know I am always personally struggling to set my volumes lower before I start a mix. Anyway, before mastering this track I think it might be a good idea to re-examine your mix. The lower your volumes at the beginning of a track the more you can fit in the track correctly. Then with mastering edits you just highlight (as transparent as possible) what you want to stand out. I personally do not think a great mastering of a track can fix a bad mix. However, everything I just said is conjecture and amateur opinion. I do believe there is a mix tips thread some where in here that is just tits you might want to check it out.

Also I loved the melodic structure of this song good work. The piano is wonderful.
 
I totally understand what you're saying. I actually HAVE mastered this track (dunno if you misread what I posted), and I know what you mean about starting with a lower volume clean mix.

I'll have to go back and boost the drums in the mix to see how that works out. Strangely, this rip of the WAV into MP3 changed the clarity (weird converter) and consequently the drums and entire mix are not as clear. I have a previous version with a slightly different leadup to the drop that sounds much better that I'll have to switch out on soundcloud -- stay tuned.


EDIT: I just changed the song out (reuploaded it and deleted the old one) to the version that seems to be much clearer (I don't understand why my converter would be strange like that, but oh well...)
Tell me if your impression is any different now, although I still think the drums need a greater spot in the mix.

Thanks for the compliment, too!
 
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Beautiful piano you've got there! Nice track arrangement and sound wise, although I agree with the previous statement about the drums (your snare needs to eat some beef, lol).
 
Thank you much, man!

THE SNARE HAS EATEN BEEF! like a whole cow worth... ;)

Yeah, in seriousness, it's sounding much better with a more prominent snare and kick.
 
well over-compressed/limited imo, kinda hard to say much about the mixdown coz of that issue, sounds are nice clear tho

I wouldnt recomend mastering your own tracks, always better to get another set of ears to do it, with lots of experience

if you want to limit for playing out, do a gentle 1:3 compression on the master out, then add a limiter that just gently flickers, apart from that, focus on the mixdown
 
@Miszt:
Yeah, I know what you mean. See, I can't really afford to have my tracks mastered by a pro (money is tight). Essentially, I'm trying to do it myself to prepare 5 of my tracks for release on a free EP I'm doing.

In terms of my master out compression, I'm doing a pretty light setup, as you noted -- the overcompression sound I'm assuming is coming from the notion that my levels on the drums are too low, giving that "squashed" sound.
To be more specific, I used 8-Band Parallel Compressor units on all of the individual channels in the track, and boosted or lowered the output gains on specific bands to raise volume and clear up room as I was building volume and clarity.

Since posting this track, I've tried to raise the prominence of the kick and snare, which seems to give a better sound overall.

If you have any techniques that I should give a try, please let me know! I'm trying to absorb as much information about mastering and the mixing process as I can at this point.

Thanks :D
 
i've not done much mastering at all, i use 3 band compressor/expander sometimes, although i am not confident using it, i get better results just using a gentle compressor and limiter, and of course workin on the mixdown, its all about practice really, but for mastering i think the most important thing is a diffrent refrence from a diffrent pair of ears. if you want to pracitise, it might be better to do it on other peoples music. still i guess its always worth the practice on ur own either way

what we need, is the mastering engineer for Shogun Audio or Symmetry to do a tut! :D anyone know who does it and can persuade them? :D
 
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