Most effortful track yet

[Bitraete]

note: it's not quiet :P

 

https://soundcloud.com/bitraete/quiet-place

 

 

 

Free download available!

[Guest skibby]

tech note, it sounds like the low frequency is making the compressor work too hard. and whats weird is i dont hear the low freq.

[Bitraete]

tech note, it sounds like the low frequency is making the compressor work too hard. and whats weird is i dont hear the low freq.

 

Thanks for listening and commenting :) My technical know-how in the realm of mastering is still much to be desired, so I'm not sure how much good I can do with your advice. I am looking to learn more though, so if you could explain a little more what you mean it would be muchly appreciated!

 

As for my perspective on the sound quality etc, it's satisfactory to me for where I'm at right now with the amount of effort I've invested in learning mixing and mastering. I personally didn't notice anything related to your comment, but I also know that getting an objective view of one's own work is hard and that my ear may need a lot more training. When I listen to it I do hear that it could sound much better, but really it's just a matter of me putting in the time to learn the hard stuff.

[Guest skibby]

im going to try to be direct, and this is only my opinion of course. 'mastering' is something that can only be done by an actual master mastering engineer. what most people refer to as 'mastering' is actually the act of removing dynamic range from the mix in order to make it sound louder than an 'amateur' mix. in actuality, 'amateur' mixes usually sound more detailed than tracks that have been 'loudenated' (btw i loudenate all the time :) however, i have learned the hard way that a super loud bass part can cause the compressor or limiter to work constantly instead of musically, and the effect causes sonic athsma, it can end up sounding like the rest of the mix goes down in apparent volume caused by lack of dynamics and what i imagine is a reduction in relative bit depth. the reason for this is that bass frequencies are more like direct current, they are slow, and will cause your compressor to work the whole time instead of in a musical or rhythmic way, and the compressor's desired response to the shorter in duration sounds ceases to occur. what was once a 24 bit super dynamic noise free digital pristine sound gets smashed into a tiny space within that bit depth range. a main reason to use compression is if some of your musical elements are too loud in their transient (attack) stage, and the body of the sound ends up being too quiet, otherwise, don't overuse them unless as a subtractive or destructive effect.

to get more bass out of your song, try putting a high pass filter on every track thats not bass or kick drum.

i dont know if i was hallucinating my opinions or not, so theres a chance my critique is invalid.

[Bitraete]

im going to try to be direct, and this is only my opinion of course. 'mastering' is something that can only be done by an actual master mastering engineer. what most people refer to as 'mastering' is actually the act of removing dynamic range from the mix in order to make it sound louder than an 'amateur' mix. in actuality, 'amateur' mixes usually sound more detailed than tracks that have been 'loudenated' (btw i loudenate all the time :) however, i have learned the hard way that a super loud bass part can cause the compressor or limiter to work constantly instead of musically, and the effect causes sonic athsma, it can end up sounding like the rest of the mix goes down in apparent volume caused by lack of dynamics and what i imagine is a reduction in relative bit depth. the reason for this is that bass frequencies are more like direct current, they are slow, and will cause your compressor to work the whole time instead of in a musical or rhythmic way, and the compressor's desired response to the shorter in duration sounds ceases to occur. what was once a 24 bit super dynamic noise free digital pristine sound gets smashed into a tiny space within that bit depth range. a main reason to use compression is if some of your musical elements are too loud in their transient (attack) stage, and the body of the sound ends up being too quiet, otherwise, don't overuse them unless as a subtractive or destructive effect.

 

to get more bass out of your song, try putting a high pass filter on every track thats not bass or kick drum.

 

i dont know if i was hallucinating my opinions or not, so theres a chance my critique is invalid.

 

Wow, thank you! That was actually very enlightening indeed! :)

 

I shall be doing lots of experimenting! And hopefully I'll be able to get this track sounding more juicy :)

[Bitraete]

TRACK UPDATED - AUDIO FIXED!

 

Thanks so much, Skibby. Your pointers have realllllllllly helped me to see what I've been doing wrong. I've now dropped all the compression and attempts at "loudening". I realise there's no point if the cost is me losing so much of the depth.

 

I think what I have now is actually sounding pretty damn good! (if one may say so for one's self)

 

https://soundcloud.com/bitraete/quiet-place