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m83 meets BT – mix feedback
<div>Just finished a mix for this song and in the feedback stage. Would love to hear anyone’s thoughts on this! Definitely a heavy hitting, saturated af kinda vibe. Vocals are purposefully not super in your face, I’m going for a more m83/full ensemble in a 3D space kind of vibe as opposed to vocals-out-front.
</div>This song was created over the course of the last year, when I was in a place of immense grief from the loss of a loved one. I purposefully tried to capture a feeling of the anticipation of hope, without yet quite feeling it….like when the sun starts to poke through the clouds as it’s still raining.
I’m trying to maintain that emotional sensibility while still providing a powerful production. I’d love to hear what you all think ❤
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10 Replies
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Bro!
This song, production, and mix is absolutely bonkers great! You’re incredible. Everything about this was resonating with me, from the vulnerability of the vocal, to the masterful production, and compelling use of super processed versus raw sounds. I was listening on headphones and it took me on quite a heavy journey. I really don’t think personally anything needs to be changed about this, but I will point out two things that I experienced while listening – just in the spirit of giving some constructive feedback, both of which are highly subjective.
There were two spots where I was momentarily distracted and thus left my deep listening experience – and I just wanted to point them out. I believe they were both probably intentional -because they both represent that feeling of uncertainty in the song that you were trying to convey. The first was when the drums come in at :33. Is the drum beat turned around on purpose, meaning the snare is on beat 1? It gives it a beautiful nebulous feeling of uncertainty that finally snaps back when you hit that first chorus but I only mention it because I found myself trying to figure out what was going on with the drumbeat in my brain more than listening to the song at that point, granted, I’m a total dork, that’s normally what I do when interesting things happen in music, but there was so much other interesting stuff happening in your production that was serving the music and they didn’t make me think in that same cerebral way as when I was trying to figure out what was happening with that drum beat. Also, just to continue dorking out -were there an extra two beats before the first hits when you say “maybe someday I will find you?”
The other spot where I felt a slight sense of imbalance was the section between 5:30-5:40 when the chiming guitar is on the left side, the information coming out of the right side was much darker in tone and maybe was a little too out of balance? But I’ll leave that to the more experienced Mix Proteges to see what they felt about it.
Again, I’m only bringing up those two points in the spirit of feedback because they went through my thought process. I think what you have created is an absolute masterpiece and I’m just completely blown away. Many congrats on creating this.
Best,
Jesse
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Jesse! Thank you my friend. You humble me!
I very much appreciate that constructive feedback. I definitely went back and forth on the beat on the verses…I ended up sticking with it this way cause it just made the fall into the choruses that much more of a landing pad, but you make a really good observation.
And I hear you about the chime guitar at the end. I think there are still a few panning related things I’m going to adjust on the choruses that should provide a more balanced overall image, Thanks for pointing that out specifically though, as my ears had grown so accustomed to it that I didn’t even notice they were panned left haha.
Again man, so grateful for your kind words and suggestions. Honored 🙂
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OMG @Nate – this is utterly gorgeous and amazing. This whole song, production, mix, EVERYTHING is so. freaking. incredible, you animal!!!
Shoutout to @JLEW who captured my feelings exactly in his first and last paragraphs, so a big phat “DITTO” to what he said.
Here are my verbatim notes I wrote while listening for the first time. As always, take or leave. AND, these are all just musings of my overactive brain, lol. NONE of these thoughts is important AT ALL in any kind of “youuuu should really fix this, Nate” type of way, haha.
2:34 – lose the kicks in “maybe someday” for a nice little dropout
choruses – main “wow” filter juno-ish synth pokes out too much to my ears against the rest of the exquisitely balanced track. It’s possible the level is ok but the stereoizing is making it feel too wide making it pop out too much? [I mostly noticed this in the 1st and 2nd chorus, less so later]
4:12 – breath and noises before choir – I would clipgain those waaay down so the breath level matches the perspective of the outgoing lead vocal – meaning keep the breath the loudness of what your lead vocal singer would sound like in the full chorus mix for a smoother transition.
piano outro – piano might be a bit too loud overall in keeping with the perspective of the massive size of the chorus before it? Or, if u keep it that level, I might try lowering the mechanical thumps and noises, which caught my attention and pulled me out of the trance for a sec as the chorus ended. I know that hyper-macro-lens-thumpy-mechanicals are all the rage in neo-classical Olafur Arnalds upright piano pop trends, lol, and that’s cool, and I love hearing the hammers lift as the final sound of the record!! But my experiment would be seeing if there’s a way to ease into the thumpy mechanics more slowly while keeping the “notes” of the piano at a constant volume. Does that make sense? Like piano sound like this = and thumpy mechanics like this <. Maybe that’s possible with hi-pass automation and/or some RX-ing to turn down the thumps in the front half of the piano outro?
Lastly, I’m so sorry for the loss you experienced which inspired this song. You really nailed that feeling, that emotion, and I can’t think of a better way to honor that relationship than you’ve done here with this magnificent work! 💜
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Dana! Thank you so much for your kind words. Half of the joy I get from completing music these days comes with getting to share it with this wonderful community you’ve gathered here. So grateful for the words of encouragement.
2:34 dropout idea is great!
I definitely agree that the wow synth is a bit forward. I’m gonna soften it a bit
Great call on the breath suggestion too. I toyed with removing them, but that didn’t feel right as I wanted the “choir about to start” vibe to hit strong. But you are on the money with the clip gain suggestion.
And I agree piano on outro is loud. It’s a super low quality living room recording with people talking outside and stuff, but something about it felt like a keeper. Will toy around with softening the mechanism vibeThank you so much for the kind words and suggestions. Honored ❤
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Awe, that means so much, brother, thank you! I’m always so excited when u post stuff cause I know it’ll be amazing and I can’t wait to hear it!
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What a track @Nate
As dana said, the wow is coming out which is so dope but perhaps just taming it a tad.
I think aside from that Dana gave some sick feedback. I like the piano in the end for sure a little bit overwhelming too, i’d like to feel like i’m in a big room looking at you at the corner if that makes sense!
Your tracks are such journeys. Love this man!
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Roy! Thank you for the feedback my friend. I’ve tamed the wow synth and the ending piano a tad, and adjusted a few other things (vocals, dynamics between sections) a bit. Appreciate you taking the time to listen 🙂
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updated mix, applying most of the notes y’all recommended. Thanks for your insight and enthusiasm. Means the world!
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