Becoming Dubular - just another 'Becoming Popular' remix

[Biff0r]

Stupid Soundcloud won't finish the waveform, anyway:

http://soundcloud.com/bufbaf/becoming-dubular

My first try for something remotely dubsteppy. Lacks in Mastering, as usual, but I can't wait to get some critiques and opinions, maybe a few hints how to actually master it better

[Overkillius]

I don't really know much at all about Mastering and whatnot, sorry :[.

But compositionally I love this! The return of the melody at 2:19 is was great.

Only things I think I can give advice on as far as how to improve: At 2:33ish everything sounds really wonky and.... actually kind of creepy, not sure why. More specifically the very ending chord would sound more final if it was Eb, G, Bb as apposed to Ab, C, Eb. If you don't want it to sound final, that is another thing, but it seems like that wouldn't fit as well IMO. If you do want to make the end sound more final, then the melody definitely went to the right place though! (the right place being Eb. Why? because the song is in Eb Major :3)

Hope that helps in your future projects!

[Biff0r]

The ending is intended this way Anyway, here's a download with a fixed start (duh)

http://www.mediafire.com/?1r9w5f3fz4rm6kx

[PinkieGuy]

So, just a couple of things that came to mind that you could think about:

1) Everything seems to be mixed to the centre. It makes it a bit hard to distinguish all the elements. Chorusing or panning things out a bit can help this.
2) It starts really suddenly. It doesn't nescessarily build, but something at the start to not make it feel as sudden would be great.
3) When the music cuts back here and there, running an EQ over it to cut some high end and low end would help distinguish those sections and make the re-entries hit a little harder.

Will all that being said I love what you've done, and the chord movement under it all is very cool. I've definately enjoyed this more than quite a few of the mixes I've heard.

[Freewave]

yeah its missing something on the mastering, what DAW are using by the way? I like to think if you want dubsteppy you want the drums and bass should to be much more present and have more of a half-step thrown in (at least occasionally). As it stands its more of an electro house track (which is fine if that's what is intended). There's some good elements in here overall but the electro synths are often drowning out the rest.

[Biff0r]

yeah its missing something on the mastering, what DAW are using by the way? I like to think if you want dubsteppy you want the drums and bass should to be much more present and have more of a half-step thrown in (at least occasionally). As it stands its more of an electro house track (which is fine if that's what is intended). There's some good elements in here overall but the electro synths are often drowning out the rest.

I'm using FL Studio, and I'm more or less just starting out with it. I tried adding more bass (kind of), but it just got more convoluted instead of 'bassy'. A lot to learn

Yeah, I didn't intend to go full-on dubstep, I just tried to play around a bit. I just discovered that genre and kinda like it.

[Freewave]

yeah you could experiment with taking the limiter OFF (its default on i think) or lowering the levels of the other instruments, or adding bass/reverb/delay specifically to the drums/bass. You might also split elements between the left and right channels vs all in the center. I'm hardly an expert on that program program so i may not the best to assist past those recommendations but i think those would help the muddy sound.

[Bronytech]

Attaining a clean mix lies not just in your compression/eq techniques. It has to do with your selection of sounds, your selection of instruments, and how they relate to each other within the composition of the song. Pick certain key sounds to prioritize and reduce the volume of the other instruments. To make room for an additional element in the mix, consider using pan left and right with two different sounds, or one single sound spread out. Make sure you have one element for each role in the song; A main mid/focus (Usually vocals or Synth Lead), a background sound (Like a pad), and of course a Bassline ( Make sure this is center channel, along with the kick ). If your sounds are still unclear, a great technique is to swap out some of the drum sounds to get something that sounds better in the mix.

In this case, You don't want the lead synth clashing with the main vocal. To play them at the same time, Try panning it 40% left and setting up an inverse delay to the right channel. Otherwise, you can change your arrangement to have either the vocal occur or the lead synth (but not both at the same time).

Also I can hear a great deal of compression over the main channel. Turn it off and rebalance the levels of your instruments so that the sounds are slightly peaking the 0db line. When you have mixed everything in this manner, feel free to add a little compression (small amounts ) to things you want to emphaize, like the kick. If you don't know how to compress really, you can try adding something like the soundgoodizer and turning up the knob about 10%.

These are just general tips. It should help you no matter what your using. First and foremost, keep in mind the mix. Worry about "Mastering" later

[Bronytech]

Also, may I reccommend to you the "138hz trick" make an eq cut with a medium band at 138 hz on your bassline and kick. Rudimentary, but can clear out a lot of mud sometimes.