What The !!!!

[RjV]

Hope you like the new track ;0)

https://soundcloud.com/rickyvanes%2Fwhat-the-rjv-dnb-mix-full

 

[RjV]

Is there any-one out thereeeeeeee????

 

[RjV]

Yeah I know it's long, not a problem to cut it down to size. But is it a good track?

 

[RjV]

Any-one liking it other than it's a long track??

 

[lostnthesound]

I understand your eagerness to have someone leave you feedback, but bumping your posts in both this subsection (New Talent/Reviews) and the main production section is a bit uncalled for. Especially when you were asked to keep your posts regarding track reviews to this section already.

Having said that, I'm going to throw you a bone and provide some feedback.

Sounds

• The opening bassline riff is decent, has a nice jump up vibe. However, it becomes repetitive and fatiguing on the ears rather fast. Perhaps create a complimentary bassline to act as a "fill" of sorts, or go for a call and response vibe (ex. Tantrum Desire "Get With It").
  
• When the drums are introduced 30) there is a bit of clashing occurring between the "crisp" high's of the snare and the hats. I'd consider low cutting the hats and panning them a bit so you can open up some freq. space for your snare.
  
• The bass stab that begins around 1:04 is a nice sound. However, it's occupying the same frequency space as the first bass sound, so it's causing some phase cancellation issues. Volume wise, this new bass sound is drowning out your snare. Some surgical EQing between your snare and that second bass sound would clean this up a bit. You can also try mildly sidechaining your snare and that bass stab with the snare acting as the trigger.
  
• At 2:03, things become a bit of a mess. The deep square subbass sound has completely dominated the entire mix, and your drums have essentially vanished due to the clashing frequencies. When I sum your mix to mono (using my audio interface: Apogee Duet 2) the entire tune becomes nearly silent, so there's a bit of work to be done here. For starters, the deep bass sound must be brought down in volume/amplitude, or if you are compressing/limiting it, ease up on the settings a bit. You may even want to bandsplit that subbass so you can keep the low end mono (with an aggressive hi cut) and hi end in stereo (with an aggressive low cut).
  
• The mix as a whole is severely lacking in dynamic range. I'm not sure whether this is due to all the phasing or if you're overcompressing/overlimiting limiting. Check your settings and perhaps dial down the threshold and ratio a bit.
  
• There are several points in the song where the volume of certain elements drops, primarily the drums. Again, it seems as though there is some serious phase cancellation occurring.
  

Song Structure
Part of the allure of DnB (and bass music in general...hell, all music really) is that there is a certain feeling of tension & release (aka the buildup and drop). Your tune has neither of these elements and therefore, lacks a bit of interest. The tune also contains no real "breakdown" moment where everything gets real quiet. In a lot of tracks, this is the moment before the buildup in is key in "tricking" a listener into thinking a track is "louder" when the drop comes back, resulting in that "wall of sound" producers strive for.

When you listen to a tune, no matter what genre, a listener can essentially "follow along" because they're use to hearing structure. For example, a lot of tunes follow the typical intro/verse/chorus/bridge/verse/chorus/outro structure. Within this format, new sound/sequencing elements are introduced throughout the tune. Typically, every 8 or 16 beats we'll hear something new/different: a crash, drum/riff fill or some other "small" sound element. 32 and 64 beats are usually where bigger changes occur, whether it's a breakdown, new riff, a drop, etc. These changes help not only help engage a listener, but they keep the song interesting and add cohesion. Honestly, your tune comes off as a bunch of riffs that were smashed together. There are no downshifters, crashes/crash fx, etc. at the end of any of the measures to help ensure a smooth transition from one section to the next (or to maintain listening interest). For example, when your drums come in at :29/:30, they just appear out of nowhere. There's no automated lowpass filter that slowly brings them in or even a crash to aid the transition, it's just kind of thrown into the ears of the listener. The same goes for the change that occurs at 2:07–the groove/sequence just suddenly changes. There was no riser to lead the listener into the mindset that something big/different was about to occur, so it's just comes off as "confusing" to the ear.

You've got a lot of good ideas and I can hear the direction that you were looking to go. The problem is the execution is just lacking as there is a lot of polishing to be done to the instruments, sounds, and mix as a whole.

I'm not trying to be mean, a dick, a hater, or whatever negative term the kids use these days. I'm offering this feedback so that you can learn from it and in turn make your productions better, so please don't take it personally or let it deter you.

Cheers.

 

[RjV]

And I got what I needed. So some-time's as you say, "Bumping" get's you seen by the right people. If it happen's every-day some-one doing that, and there getting feed back, then yes tell them about them self's. But I am looking for a bone, and people don't learn if they don't ask, and get answer's. Thank you lostnthesound for taking the time to put some constructive criticism together for me to work on Keep on truckin baby ;0)

 

[lostnthesound]

And I got what I needed. So some-time's as you say, "Bumping" get's you seen by the right people. If it happen's every-day some-one doing that, and there getting feed back, then yes tell them about them self's. But I am looking for a bone, and people don't learn if they don't ask, and get answer's. Thank you lostnthesound for taking the time to put some constructive criticism together for me to work on Keep on truckin baby ;0)

Cheers mate.