I'm struggling with a mix, just can't seem to get the balance right ... could you take a listen, and any constructive feedback would be welcome.

http://soundcloud.com/mosaic-productions/work-in-progress 

Thanks ....

First off..  That is beautiful.  If I was in the chillout room, and the dj spun this, I'd love it.  

As far as the mix is concerned..

IMHO..  Your bass needs work.  For my personal taste, this bass is: A.  Too loud in the mix.  B. Not compressed enough.  C. Has not had enough of the high frequencies removed via eq.

Warning:  That could quite possibly be an incorrect assessment.  There are no rules, plenty of ways to do things, and too much bass for me, could be not enough bass for plenty of folk.

Also..  I am hearing a digital clip.  On what, I dunno, its kinda hidden by the fx in the track.  Maybe you over compressed as you loudness maximized, "post mix, home brew mastered," and maybe something in the mix is getting too much clipping or distortion somehow.

To fix this mix..  I would really start by lowering that bass fader.  If you have compression, I'd change the compressor, and do something a little more aggressive..  either with the pro-channel, or the sonitus dynamics.  Then I would cut high's with the pro-channel eq...

I might roll back on the wet amounts, of a lot of these fx..   I would want to listen to a version of this, that is a bit more dry, and then I would bring the fx volume back up.

You have to hunt down the sound of the clip, and where its coming from.  That could be the distortion from your synths, that could be your post mix, "loudness max/home brew mastering process," and it could quite possibly be the sound you are going for...  but its a little static sounding..  its kinda crackly..  not good imo.  maybe you have gated the cymbals or something..  I am not sure.

I also find the cymbals heavy..  they don't sound crisp and clean..  you ought to hp filter them a bit more.

I might actually notch some mids out of the piano..  give a bit more sinister sound..   and let other elements fall into the void you created when doing that.



Ok..  cheers than.  I hope that wasn't too harsh

Peace

Thanks - that's just the kind of feedback I needed.

Re the bass being too loud - I'm wondering if my ears are tired or my monitors are giving me the wrong info - I'd been changing the bass level a few times, and actually brought it down a bit already - obviously not enough, good to know.

The bass track itself has no compression, though I have used Ozone to compress lightly the bass frequencies as a whole.  I'll try it with some compression on the track itself.  It has got a LPF on it, but I'll look at cutting it even more, the bass does spill right over to over 600 HZ (without the filter).

Re the clip, there's no clipping happening in the WAV file itself (as far as I can see) - I'm thinking you probably mean the synth in the background - its an Omnisphere patch with some random modulation, it actually sounds different each time I play the original, so it seems to come up with something unpredictable when I export as a WAV .... if that makes sense.

I'll check out the cymbals and piano EQ, see what I can do.

Thanks for the feedback, it really helps.

Well, I'm obviously hearing it differently than LP because I think the bass is just about right.  Of course, depending on the style of music makes a big difference, but this works for me.  Plus, I thought that the f/x works well for this song.  I heard nothing that stood out to me that seemed out of place.
Instead of hearing over compression, I hear a very good use of natural dynamics, which allows the song to breathe.  This is a big plus in my book.  

We have to take into consideration that we all listen on vastly different systems, in different moods and times of the day, with different ears, experience, and backgrounds.  Since you advertise this as a work in progress, I'm interested to hear where this ends up.  So far, so good, and keep us posted.

I think everything sounds pretty good. The bass drum could use some more thump imo.

Nice tunage!

to my ears it sounds great. doesn't seem compressed; in facts lots of air and headroom which you can use to your advantage in mastering.  add a little harmonic excitement around 2k; stereo image the mids and highs to widen it out a bit, and it will be perfect. 

Lynn

We have to take into consideration that we all listen on vastly different systems, in different moods and times of the day, with different ears, experience, and backgrounds.  Since you advertise this as a work in progress, I'm interested to hear where this ends up.  So far, so good, and keep us posted. 

I know..  :-) and that's why I get spooked about giving mix advice, cause one ear can be so different from the next..  especially depending on room, or monitors, or amount of background noise..  lol..   

I know, I sorta sliced and diced it..    

Sure, we all hear things differently, but don't let that stop or discourage you from giving us your input.  There are rarely absolutes in this art of mixing.  Having heard your materiel, you are on the road to being a good producer with a little experience.

Linear Phase

Lynn

We have to take into consideration that we all listen on vastly different systems, in different moods and times of the day, with different ears, experience, and backgrounds.  Since you advertise this as a work in progress, I'm interested to hear where this ends up.  So far, so good, and keep us posted. 

I know..  :-) and that's why I get spooked about giving mix advice, cause one ear can be so different from the next..  especially depending on room, or monitors, or amount of background noise..  lol..   

I know, I sorta sliced and diced it..    

Have to agree with Lynn here, I can not hear any of the points raised by LP.

This was nice, if I would raise any crit it is not long enough it obviously wants to develop.

Nice  thanks for sharing.

Thanks to you all for the feedback on this.

Its interesting some say the balance is more or less right, and others don't.   I played this through various different media, and the bass level particularly is quite different on different systems.  Its a bit scary really, that what sounds right to me on my monitors, can sound completely different on someone elses.   Even Soundcloud itself colours the sound (and not in a good way).     Through different sets of headphones, again different.  I'm using Yamaha HS80s as monitors to mix, though the room I'm in is not treated in any way.    Not really sure how to tackle this whole issue (sounding different in different systems) really.

Anyhow, I made another mix, changed the bass and a few other things.   You can hear it here :      http://soundcloud.com/mosaic-productions/work-in-progress-2