Molam

vitaminx

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A dreamy track with Molam music in it. Enjoy :)

Molam by Ramon Pankow | Free Listening on SoundCloud

This is an older Renoise song I decided to remaster. I used rubberband time stretching effect quite heavily.

The mastering attempt from a year ago is here:

I believe that the new version is better :)

As always I'm happy about your comments and suggestions.

Changelog

1.0 (02/08/2018)
- release version

1.0a (05/08/2018)
- lowered volume of snare
- exchanged snare sample for softer multilayered sample

1.1 (12/08/2018)
- lowered kick drum volume
- slightly lowered hihat volume
- kick, hihat and snare volume automation to be lower at the beginning
- disabled "soft clipping" on master channel
- lowered compressor gain and output on master channel
- added hard limiter at -3db on master channel
- removed 2 repeating pattern (~18s) from first half of song

1.2 (12/08/2018)
- removed some very short notes from bass line, they might sound like unwanted distortion
- added bass distortion automation to distort more in louder parts

1.3 (13/08/2018)
- exchanged protoverb on guitar reverb bus with mpreverb to fight possible distortion
- driving guitar signal hotter into reverb bus to eliminate background noise

1.4 (14/08/2018)
- added compressor to molam track to get rid of master bus maximizer crackle around 3:23s
 
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First listen made me say to myself "why is that snare thing so out front"? It makes it hard to hear anything else.

I stopped listening as it took over wanting to hear anything else....

It seems like there is cool stuff in there, but it is fatiguing to my ears in 20 seconds.

Just being honest man. IMO that snare thing is annoying and not what your song should start with.

I did listen further and there is some really cool stuff going on. That intro snare needs to go IMO.
 
Pretty cool track. You could probably lop the last 90 seconds off without losing any impact. I agree with jimmy re the snare. On headphones it's knocking my cranium about big time
 
That intro snare needs to go IMO.
I agree with jimmy re the snare. On headphones it's knocking my cranium about big time

Yea I kind of get that response from all sides, must be true then. :)
I didn't notice it so much, but maybe my ears just got used to the sample.

I replaced that Soundcloud track with a version with a much softer snare.
It is multilayered and cycles through a set of different samples to avoid ear damage by machine gun :D

I guess it's better now, let me know what you think.

Greetings!
 
Well now the snare sounds weak and fluffy... lol!

Fine line there bro. But at least now I can hear the rest of the song without fatigue. It kinda works.

I would try adding a piccolo snare sample with what you have to make it 'pop' a bit. The end of the song is very washed out with reverb, which is obviously intentional.

Your baby, but I personally would add some of the drum track subtly (in the background) at the end to keep a movement to the tune. But again, it not my baby and I am not sure what your direction is.
 
The kick is a little overpowering to start.
As other stuff layers in, it starts to settle into the mix, but I'd automate it down a bit to start.

I would also edit down the first few repetitions of the drums/bass pattern. It takes a bit too long to get going now.
Once it's going, there's a lot of cool stuff happening.
 
Levels are way out of whack. What's with that kick drum?

That was my first thought. Snare is relatively quiet, so must be a new mix.

I'm hearing some weird distortion at times on the left, might be one of the synths?

I can relate to this as me and a buddy used to record stuff like this all the time when we were younger. We were both horror fans, still have cd's full of it.
 
The kick is a little overpowering to start. As other stuff layers in, it starts to settle into the mix, but I'd automate it down a bit to start.
I was building the mix around the loudest part of the song, that's maybe why things sound best when all instruments are playing.
I didn't use volume automation, except for the tracks which fade-in and out, that's definitely a weak point.

I would also edit down the first few repetitions of the drums/bass pattern. It takes a bit too long to get going now.
Yes you might be right - I experimented a LOT with the drums to make it a little more interesting in the beginning, but I didn't like any of my ideas, so I ended up using the same drum pattern all over the first part.
I might as well just cut it down a little.

I'm hearing some weird distortion at times on the left, might be one of the synths?
Can you tell me at which point in the song? I don't notice it, but someone else already mentioned it...

A week ago I've read an article talking about some consumer DACs which would sound distorted if there is no headroom in the final mix (like mine), and it is recommended to leave somewhere around -3db of headroom.
I will upload a slightly quieter mixdown if you hear distortion and I don't.
 
I've uploaded a new version with a lot of fixes here: http://www.callistix.net/music/molam_1.1.wav

These are the changes:
- lowered kick drum volume
- slightly lowered hihat volume
- kick, hihat and snare volume automation to be lower at the beginning
- disabled "soft clipping" on master channel
- lowered compressor gain and output on master channel
- added hard limiter at -3db on master channel
- removed 2 repeating pattern (~18s) from first half of song

Please let me know if this sounds more balanced to you before I upload it to Soundcloud.
 
Soooo, finally I got rid of the crackles and noise mostly, the culprits were a reverb plugin, which I replaced with a different one - and the Renoise builtin Maximizer which I use as a brickwall limiter on the master bus.
It causes some crackle when the transient of the incoming signal drives it too hard. So I added a compressor on one of the tracks to soften out the transients of the incoming signal a little.

I replaced the Soundcloud song with the newest version and I think I'll call it done. :) :eatpopcorn:

Many thanks to all of you for your awesome help! :guitar:
 
Cool tune! I love the "horror" sound of it. I'm coming in late, obviously, but I really dig the instrumentation and feel. I didn't hear the original, so I don't know how the drums sounded before, but this sounds pretty good to me.
 
Not sure I've heard anything quite like this before..maybe if Air did a horror soundtrack. Cool stuff though, more 'nightmarish' than 'dreamy'. I gather there have been a lot of mix changes along the way, sounds fine to me on this listen. The ending went on a bit.
 
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