(Note: I don't get to talk about mixing / Reaper with anyone IRL, so get ready for a lot of words and excitement). ------------ For mixing live bass in reaper, I really love the Bass Professor MKII plugin, which should be included in that ReaPack JS pack I linked to in the other post. It's a pretty intuitive EQ with some compression/distortion options built in. It's definitely not transparent, but I tend to like the color it adds. Can be good for cleaning things up and finding a nice pocket for the bass. The mix on the first track sounds like it was fed into LANDR with too much high end (or LANDR just sucks, haven't ever used it so I don't know exactly what effect it has) or just was sent to Soundcloud at too high a volume. I tend to leave about -0.5 db of headroom on mixes that I post to soundcloud and bandcamp just because I seem to get some artifacts in the high end if I dont. I would also just recommend rolling off the high end on the drums with a filter - I would say somewhere around 20K is a good place to start. If you still have an unmastered version of the first track, I'd love to hear it - kind of hard to give mix notes the way it is now. ------- Track 2 is definitely cleaner, but I think it could use a bit of modulation here and there for interest - particularly the bass, just because the bassline doesn't change all that much. Also, bass is a touch loud - this particular type of bass occupies a pretty huge EQ range, and can be really overwhelming if it's too high in the mix. Also, I would personally try and get the drums a bit wider, whether that be through a slight ping-pong delay on the snare or by having the hat move around a bit. Actually, in general I think you can mess around a bit with delay / panning more, it seems like a lot of your width is coming from reverb, which can make things a bit muddy. Sidebar: are you using a Korg Volca Beats for your drums? I only ask because I have one, and that snare sounds veeerrry familiar. In any case, I would consider mixing in either a clap or a live snare sample to beef up the snare a touch. The main lo-fi synth pad (comes in at 0:24, not sure how to describe it) is really cool, but seems to have a bit too much high end to me (maybe around 1-3K or something?). Also, it's a bit muddy - could you tell me how you're processing it? I think it would sound great with a bit less reverb, and I would try out the "delay (floaty)" JS in ReaPack, you can get some awesome trip-hop effects by messing with the warp function. I think the reversed drum (?) at 0:50 is a bit loud, and lingers for a bit too long (though it might sound cool if you sidechained the kick into a compressor on it). Something I tend to do with reversed sounds is have the reversed sound fade into the original sample - e.g. have a reversed snare play almost all of the way through, and then fade into the original sample at the peak. It feels like it has more impact to me, and I think it's easier to give it a defined rhythm that way. ----- Sorry this feedback is a mess, and I hope it doesn't come off as too critical - this is some cool shit, and I'm looking forward to hearing more of your stuff!
Part of the issue may be that there's a fake record crackle going on the whole time, which has weird interactions with the mix when layered over the full ensemble. Dead on. The drums here are all volca. Last track was too (except the cymbals). I never thought about layering a clap with the snare. That's a nice trick since the volca snare lacks a lot of usable versatility. The lofi pad is also a volca- the volca FM. It's the organ setting being run through the distortion on an amp, which makes it a bit harsh. The same trick was used on the other track too, but with a nicer amp that has tubes n stuff. The bass is volca FM too. Basically volcas all around except for the samples. I haven't looked at the floaty delay. I'll have to check it out. The reverse snare mixing tip is also super useful. All the tips are super useful. I've got ample access to stuff to make quality recordings but not the know-how to do it.The mix on the first track sounds like it was fed into LANDR with too much high end (or LANDR just sucks, haven't ever used it so I don't know exactly what effect it has) or just was sent to Soundcloud at too high a volume. I tend to leave about -0.5 db of headroom on mixes that I post to soundcloud and bandcamp just because I seem to get some artifacts in the high end if I dont. I would also just recommend rolling off the high end on the drums with a filter - I would say somewhere around 20K is a good place to start.
Sidebar: are you using a Korg Volca Beats for your drums? I only ask because I have one, and that snare sounds veeerrry familiar. In any case, I would consider mixing in either a clap or a live snare sample to beef up the snare a touch.
I finally feel like I'm in a place now where my technical ability can keep up with my creative output - like, if I have a sound in my head, 90% I know how to make it happen. But I still think that actual composition is the most important part, and the technical know-how just comes with recording enough shit to know what works and what doesn't. I've been recording with reaper for close to 4 years now, and I still feel like I have no idea what I'm doing most of the time. Something that helped me learn mixing is to find a professionally made song that you want your song to sound like, and just do an A/B comparison between your song and theirs. See where the levels are, what effects are used, etc. ----- Volcas are cool, saving up for an FM at the moment. Apart from a Casio SK-1, the Beats and Keys are the only non-acoustic gear I own. Another tip for the Beats' snare is to fatten it up with the built in delay - set the time knob almost all the way to the left, and then set the depth to max to get a crunchy snare with more of a tail. Not great for every track, but it can be a cool effect to make it feel a bit more organic. If you record each instrument from the Beats individually, you can also get some good sounds by pitch-shifting things down. I also am a sucker for using the claves and agogo together - they're on the track I put up yesterday. If you record them live, you can get this kind of effect by hitting the claves and then agogo a split second later (just slide your finger from one to the other).I've got ample access to stuff to make quality recordings but not the know-how to do it.
Neat, I totally want a volca keys next. What parts/tracks have you used that one for? The fm is pretty nice. It's my first synth that isn't a plugin, and it's got a lot of capabilities that I haven't tapped yet. There's a lot of sounds in it including various cheesy ones.
Cheese is the best part ;) I've used the keys for textural stuff on a lot of tracks, and it features heavily into an electronic/new-wave project I'm working on now, Drive link to a rough mix of one of the songs here if you're interested. It's basically all the electronic sounds you hear on this, bass included. I've recently been messing around with the ring mod a lot, you get can some pretty gnarly sounds out of that thing. I would guess that there's not much that the keys can do that the Bass/FM couldn't, though I don't have access to either of those so I can't say for sure.