Mixing Newbie. All feedback is highly appreciated.

G

Gokul

New member
I am kinda new to music production, especially to mixing.
Please give your feedback on this track.
Let me know how I can improve the overall sound and mix.
Thanks in advance.

 
The song and composition are very good. You added instruments as you went, keeping the interest going. It was a good listen.
But I really suppose any response would have to be dependent on your goals. What do you want it to sound like? EDM? Movie theme? Game background?
Two things hit me immediately:
1) Everything sounds canned and midi. No performance value, no "live" feel to it at all. This can work for some applications...
2) Everything sounds VERY compressed. To the point of distraction. A lot of EDM does this, but it's usually in a more musical way, and usually in the more aggressive (120 BPM+) tempos.
I'm certainly not versed well in EDM or thematic music, so just my 2c...
 
The kick jumps out. The synth oohs and ahhs are very synthetic/ robotic. Nice song...just that kick...and things generally sound kind of hot...not blending in organically.
 
BroKen_H said:
The song and composition are very good. You added instruments as you went, keeping the interest going. It was a good listen.
But I really suppose any response would have to be dependent on your goals. What do you want it to sound like? EDM? Movie theme? Game background?
Two things hit me immediately:
1) Everything sounds canned and midi. No performance value, no "live" feel to it at all. This can work for some applications...
2) Everything sounds VERY compressed. To the point of distraction. A lot of EDM does this, but it's usually in a more musical way, and usually in the more aggressive (120 BPM+) tempos.
I'm certainly not versed well in EDM or thematic music, so just my 2c...
Click to expand...
Thank you for the feedback. Since you have pointed out I can actually hear the lack of "live" feel for the instruments.
 
Monkey Allen said:
The kick jumps out. The synth oohs and ahhs are very synthetic/ robotic. Nice song...just that kick...and things generally sound kind of hot...not blending in organically.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the response. I did feel there was something that was not right with the kick. And you are right about the voice as well.
 
Did you want it to sound like a real person playing piano sound? broken H makes the comment about MIDI, but it's not MIDI's fault - that's like saying English is the reason some people talk rubbish? There are 127 levels of note velocity (which usually relates to 127 levels of volume). All yours are absolutely the same. This usually means they were put in with a mouse, or by using step-time input. Real people don't play like that. EDM tends to be very accurate in timing - so lots of different choices. Here is an example of what I mean - four notes played twice - the first is put in with a mouse. All are identical at the moment they start, they stop and their velocity - then the same sound played on the keyboard - the timing of each note is different, they start early or late, they last different times and they are all slightly different volume because they were different fingers! I then took that 8 note section and played it on a better sounding piano - then I took the screen shot. There is a further end version, not visible - this one has the beginnings of each note sounding on the beat - but the volumes and end of each note are left the same. That's four different ways to do four notes. The music usually select the appropriate one. EDM has tight timing, but maybe needs a little adjustment. Loose timing probably doesn't work for some circumstances - Rigid MIDI is usually awful for ballads, slower songs and supposedly live songs - because real people are not machines. 80s dance music was a radical change.
 

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Yes, sorry for the quick response. "MIDI" is not the descriptor I needed. It was "on the grid and without variation."
Thanks Rob!
 
rob aylestone said:
Did you want it to sound like a real person playing piano sound? broken H makes the comment about MIDI, but it's not MIDI's fault - that's like saying English is the reason some people talk rubbish? There are 127 levels of note velocity (which usually relates to 127 levels of volume). All yours are absolutely the same. This usually means they were put in with a mouse, or by using step-time input. Real people don't play like that. EDM tends to be very accurate in timing - so lots of different choices. Here is an example of what I mean - four notes played twice - the first is put in with a mouse. All are identical at the moment they start, they stop and their velocity - then the same sound played on the keyboard - the timing of each note is different, they start early or late, they last different times and they are all slightly different volume because they were different fingers! I then took that 8 note section and played it on a better sounding piano - then I took the screen shot. There is a further end version, not visible - this one has the beginnings of each note sounding on the beat - but the volumes and end of each note are left the same. That's four different ways to do four notes. The music usually select the appropriate one. EDM has tight timing, but maybe needs a little adjustment. Loose timing probably doesn't work for some circumstances - Rigid MIDI is usually awful for ballads, slower songs and supposedly live songs - because real people are not machines. 80s dance music was a radical change.
Click to expand...
What you have said makes total sense. I did input the piano through a midi keyboard but "corrected" the timing by snapping everything to the nearest beat. Which is why it sounds very rigid. I should certainly try to humanize the instruments.
 
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