I won't be posting here any more.

Man this thread is gltichy as heck right now... Anyway i made a little more progress on my logo, but I've been too busy to finish it Hopefully will be done soon and the forum issues will be fixed so I can post and get your opinions

My favorite promotion channels and/or record labels are these ones.

 

https://www.youtube....er/TastyNetwork

 

https://www.youtube....picNetworkMusic

 

https://www.youtube.com/user/keosni391

 

https://www.youtube....1ZnO-inFPgAu7gw

 

https://www.youtube....EOJ3D6gOs7HcyNg

 

 

As far as I know, King Step, NCS, Nexus Network, and Tasty Network are pretty lenient compared to some of the other high end promoters and labels.

 

Actually, as a promoter I'm probably a little too exclusive about what I want to promote. Even though I only have like 550 subs

Totally ripped off a tutorial for some quick entertainment XD

 

Sorry for double post, was too ecited by deadmau5's mix and forgot to reply to this. I know a couple of these as well, but same as with Chaos, I'll see if the ones I don't know match me style

So deadmau5 remade Where Are U now and I think everyone should listen to it. If you wonder why i respect deadmau5 so much, this is it.

In case you haven't heard the original:

And the mau5's mix. He says he just need to master it and it'll be good

When I listen to your songs I kinda think of purple and pink. Lel.

 

 

There will be one day when you realize you have quite a lot of talent and finally go and fcking buy the goddamn FL Studio and make some tunes that get on edm.com D:

 

Promoters. Without them I would have like 20 followers or less probably.

 

Here are some that are nice:

https://www.youtube.com/user/NNKyra

 

https://www.youtube.com/user/CorseNN

 

https://www.youtube....er/PandoraMuslc

 

 

https://www.youtube....MonstercatMedia

 

https://www.youtube....r/OWSLAofficial

 

Labels are essentially promoters btw! They just have some more "rules" lol.

I do know of Monstercat proximity and OWSLA. I'm not sure I have any music that fits monstercat or OWSLA's style though. Been racking my brains about that for a while, and (as of right now actually lol) I can only think of one very rough demo I have that would match monstercat's style. Also I always assumed Proximity would only take interest if you had a certain number of fans already. i feel like even if I made an incredible track they wouldn't feel inclined to support someone with ten followers lol.

I haven't heard of the other two though. I'll check them out and see if I've got stuff that fits their style. Of course I wouldn't be doing any sending until I've finished "reinventing" myself lol. Which is going well by the way. Almost finished my first idea for a logo. When I've finished it and my other oneI'll get your opinions on which you guys think is better.

That feel when someone goes through and likes a bunch of your tracks

That feel when you don't know this feel lol

MUST. NOT. DO. A. FANGIRL. SCREAM.

 

 

I can make you one but it will be simple like mine if that's okay. Text and background image but with some sick font that has some effects on it and the BG color graded.

Oh man that block button looks so tempting. You should be a diva and press it.

Obviously kidding. Congrats man (even though I admittedly don't know who that is :x)

Gonna change my alias soon. This one is not only crappy, but really hard to make a logo for. I already have a name in mind, but i won't reveal until the logo and everything are done :3

After that planning on finally putting some music out (didn't want to under this bad name with no logo.

Well... Here's an attempt at a Porter-style feelsy wall of sound... I'm actually pretty happy with it.

 

So what do you guys think of this now?

 

Really good stuff, although the part that's in the first one sounds more porter like since he doesn't usually use portamento on his leads, but he does love that bell-like sound for them. So if if you're going for exact porter I would switch that up, but it sounds fine if you're not going for that. The same kind of goes for the kick, although I would have to mess around with it in FL and stuff to tell you what's really "wrong" with it and I'm super busy this week, so I can't, sorry

1000 stronk

 

 

Goin' to Japan to study the next two months so don't expect anything new for a while unless I can get to produce there.

Ugh, I'm jealous as heck

Oh it can't be that bad... I think it's actually worse in FL 12 though, lol.

Don't you have to completely change the layout of FL to do it?

Splatoon's credits music totally sounds like a thinner Volant song.

 

 

If I could emulate his style I'd totally do a remix like that.

So have any of you guys tried doing other timings than 4/4? That future bass thing I'm working on is in 7/4...

I would've probably tried something different by now if changing time signature in FL wasn't such a massive pain in the butt :/

Nothing wrong with mainstream. What's wrong is when a certain trend limits producers too much into the same thing over and over again (big room maybe?). There are complex songs with complex harmonies that are mainstream. Strobe definitely is classified as mainstream (40 millions plays on spotify), at least some years ago. I still hear it very often on the radio and on LANs I go to.

 

Limits are what's wrong. Your mindset is good in one way but I also think it limits you since you are almost afraid of doing something mainstream. You are almost doing what you were afraid of doing from the start, doing mainstream stuff that limits your works. Why have that in mind all the time of hating something when you could simply just ignore stuff that you don't like to listen to or create and just only create stuff that you like without being afraid of breaking your own rules which you have set up without knowing it yourself.

Yeah like I said, there's nothing wrong with mainstream, it's just that mainstream and the crapiness I mentioned tend to go hand in hand because label s have orchestrated it to be so.

I'm not scared of mainstream at all. I mentioned it in passing a while back, but i've done a lot of "mainstream" stuff. Not in terms of popularity obviously, but in terms of build and composition. I have about 300 projects and i'd guess at least 250 of them are mainstream stuff. It just doesn't present much of a challenge for me any more. Not to mention I was actually strating to find it really boring (not just the product, but the process). I much prefer doing unique stuff. I especially like being able to play to write. Really enjoy that. I do have my hangups on rules that I've just randomly made up for reasons I couldn't say, but I know what they all are, and the mainstream thing isn't one of them.

Basically my hatred of mainstream comes from my view of the arts in general which is something I've been thinking about pretty much daily since I was like 10. I've come to the inclusion that while I don't think all art has to be life changing and otally unique and incredible in every way, I still wouldn't want to be the guy who has only ever made mediocre art that just follows and copies other people's genius (or lack thereof). 

Compression is needed on individual channels if you want to achieve a tight mix. My drum busses are compressed. My synths are compressed. My synths buss is compressed. My bass buss is compressed. Well I pratically compress everything that has too much movement in it. Of course, I use high attack times and like 2:1 with somewhat high thresholds but it's needed imo. Since I started doing buss compression, my mixes has been so much cleaner after mastering due to me brickwalling a mix which is very dynamic vs brickwalling a mix that is already quite okayish in loudness.

 

I don't think you should take Deadmau5's words as laws. The only law you should've is "if it sounds good, then it sounds good" imo. Deadmau5 sure is real talented at mixing but it's actually something his PR has told him to bash around like that. He overreacts by other words.

 

What do you think about Knife Party? They got super loud mixes while still sounding dynamic. I checked Knife Party - Give it up in Ozone and their RMS was always around -1dB in the drop which is insane. I never go over -3dB RMS which is already quite high.

 

 

 

About your mix. That piano needs work cause it sounds cheap. Increase the attack of it so that it bites through more. The piano could use a boost in the +2kHz cause it's muffled and muddy. I would actually change the VST of the piano though. It sounds more like a VST problem than a processing issue.

 

I like the percussion in the breakdown a lot.

 

Also your i dont know what to call it (some kind of voice sampled? at 1:07), is complete off scale in certain parts. The drums needs some compression with an attack at around 10-20 ms.

 

The chord synth at 3:30 could get some better sound design (it sounds fine when the cut off is on but not when it's off). This is subjective though.

 

Even though I know you don't agree, I think the arrangement is too much like a background track right now. If this would be released then the (Radio Edit) would have higher amount of plays than the (Original Mix) I am sure of. Just like Strobe.

 

Overall a unique track as expected from you. Nice. But please don't let Deadmau5 or the recent trends of hating on the mainstream limit you into having the mindset "It has to be unique" and "I cannot use mainstream ways of processing and arrangements".

 

 

 

Labels still won't cut it for me unless they can guarantee that I can let people use my tracks however they want without copyright issues.

I do bus compress as well, but everything should be done in moderation. Not everything has to be compressed. Compression is just like any other effect, you use it as needed.So if you think your vocals, synths, drums, etc could use the sound of a compressor on them you throw it on there (as i did with the piano in the remix). Also if you see that the track is really jumping around with a ton of peaks, you throw one on there. The second one is what created widespread uses of compressors, since it meant you could have more instruments, at louder volume levels in your mix without clipping. But it still doesn't mean that you compressing everything. You definitely don't compress things simply because they could sound more compressed. That's like turning the chorus up on an instrument simply because i could sound more chorus-y. The point of the effect is to slightly enhance the instrument, and allow you to shape it to fit how you imagined it, not to over shadow to the instrument, so that all you can think about is the compressor, and not the instrument. Compression is a tool, nothing more.

I don't take his word as law but I d hold it in high esteem. Higher than any other current musician. I know there's a popular sentiment that he likes to be controversial for controversy sake, bu if you follow him closely, and really look at the stuff he does, you can see that he's just honest. Not only is he honest he's passionate and knowledgeable. And he's the easiest musician to prove that with. No one else has streamed hundreds of hours of them working to be looked at any time.

Anyway the controversy definitely doesn't come from PR. People say that any publicity is good publicity, and that may be true (very, very debatable) but I don't think you can really argue that good publicity is better publicity. Thus why pretty much every pop musician's PR tries their best to keep their client's image spotless (unless it's already been dragged through the mud). Also deadmau5 has made it pretty clear that his PR does what he tells them as much as him doing what they tell him, and he's pretty much backed it up. He knows that he gets in a lot of drama, and sometimes jumps to conclusions, getting him in trouble, but he's open about it, and talks about it a lot. Anyway deadmau5 doesn't care about fame pretty much at all. If he wanted to be famous, and if he took the standard, proven PR route, he could easily be as famous as pretty much any of the most famous pop musicians, but he purposely chooses not to be.

Those are the reasons I respect his opinion so much. He's experienced, passionate, more than willing to share that knowledge and passion, and more honest than any other musician in the business right now. I don't know what more you could ask for.

Knife Party kind of blow my mind. I have no idea how they manage to get such loud mixes without dicing their instruments to crap. No overcompression as well. I would love to get lessons from them on mixing and mastering. Or whoever mixes and masters their stuff since i'm not sure they do it themselves.

Now the mix

Are you sure with the piano? I know it sounds a little weird and muddy right away, but that's because i started the track off in mono. When the vocals split into stereo the piano goes full stereo as well, and it sounds a lot better. Also I can't change any of its parameters. It's a completely sample based vst.

I'm trying to figure out what to do with that vocal thingy. It came with the pack. i may end u just using the first bar or whatever since that's in key or just replacing it with something similar of my own design and cutting it out. or maybe just cutting it out and replacing it with some other completely different filler. Maybe some kind of lead, i'm hoping to add one later on so it's not just chords an bass.

Right now it's just a single synth and i haven't fully mixed it yet. i'll probably add a complimentary to it that will help for when it's not cut off.

I don't really think of the track as seperate from the vocals I guess. They just kind of blended naturally and that's what i'm going for. not really that one over powers or is more important than another, but that they just kind of compliment each other nicel Where you can switch your attention between them and you still get the same feeling and sound-ish thingy from them. It was kind of subconcious, but i think the song is mirroring deadmau5's remix of stay () a lot. I guess cause the vocals are kind of similar in sound, and then i started doing the piano chords thing when I started writing for them and yeah it just kind of happened. I don't really care if people would listen to the radio mix more. That's their own bad. I make my music for me so if I feel that a single bar needs to be repeated 70 times before i's played out, or that thng should last 35 minutes, then as far as i'm concerned, that's the objective truth about the song. Only I know how the song is supposed to sound so only I can know if it's correct. if people want to fool themselves into thinking that a shorter version where half the experience is cut out then that's on them. Actually I would be kind of glad if these things would drive people away from my music. i don't really want a followers who are pressuring me to make my songs shorter or harder or faster or whatever. I only want fans who want me to make my stuff more artistic and to try new things.

tl;dr: I'm fine with the arrangement. I don't really care if people want it shorter or more drop/synth focused. They can make their own remix

Gah i just cam e up with and idea for theremix and it'll blend with other completely different stuff i'm making and why didn't I think of this beforegaaaaaahhhh ARPS, MAN, ARPS!!!!!!!

uh anyway, yeah like i said before i don't just hate mainstream stuff because people I admire hate it. I just see eye to eye with them. I hate mainstream stuff because it is too homogenous imo. Why would i want to be that director no one cares about or will remember in the future because i spent my whole life making crappy romcoms a three year old can write? I wanna write original stuff. Stuff that pushes my own limits. that i can look at and be proud of. I wanna write stuff that i can say s totally and completely 100% my own. I want to be at the level where I'm pushing the game forward not trailing behind everyone else and eating their crumbs. I'd much rather be able to sit down and be able to paint an original at the level of van gough than to have to be that gy that goes to an arts and crafts store and buys one of those paintings where it gives you numbers and you put the corresponding colour in the spots where the numbers are. Right now most of the peopple in mainstream are doing the second, and i don't want to be a part of that. i don't see anything special about it personally.

You should check out Wolf Beats (the label i'm sending that electro track from a while back to)! They believe the same things, so all their releases are under creative commons! One of the big reasons I want to release with them and probably will continue to do so (assuming i get in).

If you knew about the problems of my mixes. THEN TELL ME MAN XDDDD. What is this thread for lmao. I always tell what I see when I listen to your mixes :<

 

The compressing part I can't agree on though. It's more of a style. I love those -1dB RMS distortion low dynamic range sounds. I come from metal and hard rock after all before I came into EDM. Your mixes on the other handbis the opposite of mine tend to just sound weak though, like you are afraid of compressing, dont be that, but it's also because of you not using the whole spectrum . I don't think getting a new pair will do that much for me honestly. Monitors is the next true step. Besides the highs (which is something no one has told me but I found out myself when I cranked the volume really high up in an already treble heavy car audio system) Skystrike has gotten good critics on the mixing part from my promoters and random mails I get from some producers in Soundcloud (I have no idea why but there a lot of producers just sending in praise mails sometimes). My problem lies more in the mastering process tbh. Which shouldn't be a problem once I accept one of those random label offers I get occasionally... (fairly okay labels but I dont like to lock down my tracks I want people to be able to use them without copyright).

 

Which leads me to another topic. Why is everyone rushing to do label releases? If you release with like a 10k follower label. You won't get as much promotion as if you just send to like 10 promo channels all over 10k followers like I usually. And tbh, even if many of those 10k followers like your song, no one is really gonna buy it on beatport or anything. Better do free releases and you can handle free releases yourself.

 

Sorry, a lot of the time I only hear the song after it's bee released because I spend a few days away from the thread. Also I don't wanna be that guy who gives people advice when they don't want it.  However now that you've asked I'll tear into you every time you post

On compression; over compression is without a doubt better than undercompression. under compressed just means that the dynamic range will fluctuate a bit to much. Over compression results in instruments losing their dynamic range which means they lose some of their emotional power so to speak. I don't know that i under compress in a finished song. Most of the stuff I post isn't finished which means I've barely compressed it at all. That's a good thing though, compression is a good thing to do last in a song. if you take a look through https://soundcloud.com/mau5trap you'll see that most of the waveforms dip and peak all over the place. You very rarely see parts of the song looking anywhere close to flat, you can even see the individual kicks peaking in a lot of the songs. It's all about dat dynamic range. if you want you can look up deadmau5 talking about dubstep. he talks a little about this and says that's his major problem with the genre, the fact that every thing is just compressed practically to the point of being brickwalled. i'm paraphrasing here but he basically said it's an insult to sound engineers, and if deadmau5 feels that strongly about it I tend to try to avoid it.

Any yeah you don't need to get headphones necessarily, you just need something more flat and detailed. I personally still would get some more detailed headphones when you get the money. Headphones are better for hearing tiny intricacies than speakers are. Even more so if your room isn't treated.

Finally, there are only a couple labels i want to get signed to and that's because of the other musicians who have been on and are active parts of that label. Labels are better for connections than promoted channels are since they'll often contact you to do remixes for them or put you in contact with other artists on that label from what I know.

Anywhoosies, here's a remix i'm working on about some grill. I don't think i'll finish it in time for submission deadline, but oh well. Especially since as I was writing this comment i had a mini panic attack when i realized that the balloon party track I posted a couple days ago is due in like 5 days and i have yet to mix or master it. I think. I need to check that actually. It might be the end of June. i really hope it's end of June...

oh yeah right the track... here you go:

Reference tracks with subpar cans > not using reference tracks with flat cans tl;dr use reference tracks

 

This only applies if you are a newbie though. Tbh most usually mix in too much bass anyways in their mixes so if the cans has more bass that's totally fine.

 

Chaym did you send in to promo channels? You should.

 

 

733 followers now well hori shieet. When I get 1000 I am gonna do a give away. To myself. Lmao.

I was using references on my old mixes. I mean I'm proud that I was able to accomplish them on the headphones I was using, but they were far from professional, and the headphones I were using was using were holding me back. I've actually been thinking the same hing the promo channels have said to you. You need to get a new pair man. That's the next step for better mixes for you. It also should help you hear when you're overcompressing

Also I'm just gonna pretend that you're not calling me Chaym

I mainly only mix on these.

 

 

ATH-M50x They are cheap and somewhat flat?

 

I plan on getting these though if I manage to solve my room's acoustic treatments:

Yamaha HS7, very flat and they look nice.

just gonna throw this in

Not to diss on Hinkik's comment, but doooon't get the ath m50's for mixing. they're great headphones for casual listening etc. but their frequency response ins't neeeearly flat. Like not at all. Someone I know has a pair, and when I came from listening on studio headphones to those they almost blew my brains out. Hecka bass. I mean it's possible to get a good mix on the headphones, but it's very hard. It takes a lot of referencing and stuff and even then there will always be certain frequencies and intricacies that you're going to miss because of the headphones' design.

There are a couple other options for that price range that are a lot better for monitoring. I personally got the Brainwavz HM5's, which are about the same price in most places. You can also get a copy of them, the NVX Xpt 100's for $100 which is a pretty great deal. Also they're a lot more comfortable than the m50's so they're great for long sessions at your computer .

If you're looking for monitor headphones they're often called either just that or "reference headphones. Those are the ones with the flat frequency response you'll need.

When you get studio it's an eye opener. After I got used to them and learned to pick up on detail better, I looked at my old mixes and was just ;_;

No one answers back on my tracks. Just tells me I still have a lot of work to do lol.

Ouch

Anyway congrats Hinkick, 100 subs in a day is pretty great stuff. Not to brag but i've experienced some pretty similar stuff. One time I got two subscribers in two days, but you know, no big deal. Not making it a competition or anything *sniff*.

Oh yeah, Grabbitz submitted this song to deadmau5 like 2 months ago. I totally forgot that they would be finishing it lol

 

And if you nail the mixing of that song and mastering and such, I think it's going to be pretty good. It has that mid tempo with a mix of minimal in it. I like it XD

Awesome, i'm glad to hear that since that's pretty much exactly what i was going for

I have indeed heard of it.

 

BTW, you must have that track privated or something, cuz I can't listen to it... Instead of just copying the URL, you have to go to the track and click share, then get the share-able link.

oh right I forgot I had to do that lol

Hopefully that works

Also deadmau5 released a new song tease thing feat. Grabbitz. Didn't know the guy had such a good voice. 

Finally done with this song.

 

 

Name is cheesy I know but I think it fits.

That was pretty good. I liked the music, but i wll have to agree the name is a little cheesy

Congrats on 500 followers btw. Don't know how long you've been over that threshold, but congrats anyway.

Also here's a thing I'm planning to submit to balloon party. I don't know if you guys know what that is or not. Matrix might.

Anyway, I've had it kicking around my drive for a couple months now, but they don't need to know that eed to mix and master before it in, and I'm kind of dreading that. It's my biggest file with about 60 tracks. I don't even know how may instruments. 20-30 maybe? I think the most I have going at once is 18.

So yeah that should be fun >.>

Girls tend not to like to create things and do technical stuff. I don't know why but that's just kind of how it is. Applies to a lot of different things as well. Why no female engineers? Construction workers? Game designers? Girls are more interested in interpersonal stuff, and so they pursue different things than guys. It doesn't usually show up this much, but it is what it is. Visual art is kind of an exception. Sort of. A lot of girls are kind of into it, but not as many make a name for themselves, and fully dedicate themselves to it for life from what I've seen.