l'argent - Twista

[dj_ug]

Been making other forms of music for all my life, and DJing dubstep for about 5 years. Only got into production recently. This was my attempt at the Chestplate sound. Lemme know what yall think.

Soundcloud

[crackpot]

youve got some nice automation on the bass and a good bass line too you just got to work on your mix down a bit, good ideas in the song though!

[dj_ug]

thanks mate!

[binakversailles]

Nice bass sounds. The biggest problem i hear mix-wise, is the interplay between the sub and the grittier bass (i could be wrong, but it sounds like a simple sine for the sub and some sort of sawtooth hybrid for the grittier bass). You could try taking some low end off of the gritter bass so that the sub punches through more. Also, creatively, i like the melodies and the arrangement, however i think the drum programming could do with some more variety, but that's up to your discretion, it depends on the type of tune you're going for. I could be totally wrong, but I hope that helps.

[dj_ug]

Nice bass sounds. The biggest problem i hear mix-wise, is the interplay between the sub and the grittier bass (i could be wrong, but it sounds like a simple sine for the sub and some sort of sawtooth hybrid for the grittier bass). You could try taking some low end off of the gritter bass so that the sub punches through more. Also, creatively, i like the melodies and the arrangement, however i think the drum programming could do with some more variety, but that's up to your discretion, it depends on the type of tune you're going for. I could be totally wrong, but I hope that helps.

Awesome feedback mate! I'll definitely keep that in mind for v3, especially regarding the drum pattern - get a few more fills/dynamics in there. And as for the overall mixdown, it's difficult to get a good idea since I'm doing all the work with shitty computer speakers at home. Any tips on good ways to do mixdowns would be highly appreciated.

[binakversailles]

Awesome feedback mate! I'll definitely keep that in mind for v3, especially regarding the drum pattern - get a few more fills/dynamics in there. And as for the overall mixdown, it's difficult to get a good idea since I'm doing all the work with shitty computer speakers at home. Any tips on good ways to do mixdowns would be highly appreciated.

Best advice i can give is to use many different speakers, so listen to your mix on different headphones and sound systems, in your car maybe. Just to try and make sure there arent any weird frequencies youre missing. But most of all just practice. Also, listen to your favourite tunes and try and figure out what mix decisions they made and try and replicate them.

[dj_ug]

Awesome feedback mate! I'll definitely keep that in mind for v3, especially regarding the drum pattern - get a few more fills/dynamics in there. And as for the overall mixdown, it's difficult to get a good idea since I'm doing all the work with shitty computer speakers at home. Any tips on good ways to do mixdowns would be highly appreciated.

Best advice i can give is to use many different speakers, so listen to your mix on different headphones and sound systems, in your car maybe. Just to try and make sure there arent any weird frequencies youre missing. But most of all just practice. Also, listen to your favourite tunes and try and figure out what mix decisions they made and try and replicate them.

Thanks mayne. I'll keep all of that in mind for when i redo it.

[Think_Dubstep]

i like the reese synth, keep working on your mixdowns. your sub could be turned down too =) also the hihats need more of a natural feel to it. mess with the velocity on all your drums!

[NakidJake]

That intro sounded insanely professional, however I have a few little critiques here and there. First, the song could use some sort of noise or vocal hook to give it a sense of identity. Second, I feel like the percussion is either way too stale, or way to present... or both. If you want the percussion to be such a large part of the tune, you should EQ it better and make it at least sound like you put some care into it... add some shuffles, don't make it so straight. If you don't want to do that... simply taking half of the shit you have in there now out would be fine... Like... pretty much every single hat... you could take those the fuck out... and those god awful ride symbols. Also, the synth is really cool and original and shit... but maybe take just a teansy bit of the distortion off.. Also maybe add another synth to throw in between things to spice shit up a little. Other than that... good shit.

[HigherDose]

Oooh I likey. Not bad at all man. I'd work on the drums a little bit maybe try finding better hat/ride sounds or adding some effects to them to make them more unique. Love the bass in this one though. Also love the fading in bass sounds on the build ups . Good work and keep it up!

[dj_ug]

^
Thanks for all the feedback guys!

[test_recordings]

Great basic track down, like everyone's been saying you just need to work on the different elements there.

If you want a thick grimey bass with some oomph and consistency to it, detune two saws to make a Reece then add a distortion with asymmetrical clipping or a ring modulator to frequencies above the bass range. What DAW do you use? Anyway, you need to send the bass to parallel channels with an EQ or something similar each, one high-passed for adding the harmonic processing (ring mod etc) and one low-passed for just bass. Set up the bass' low-passed EQ channel first to get the depth and level you want then either copy the same settings on the other EQ and reverse the low pass to a high pass or select some other range (you can fiddle around with the higher frequencies more because you can add them as you like, they're not as fundamental to the sound as the lower frequencies which you have already arranged).

I say specifically asymmetrical distortion over distortion because a lot of vst saying 'distortion' are based on symmetrical square waves which generate odd-order harmonics and sound indistinct to human ears, kind of an unpleasant fizzy mess. Asymmetric distortion produces odd and even harmonics in equal proportions so sound not only more interesting, but also 'nicer' and actually easier to mix because it's easier to distinguish it by the even harmonics. Ring modulation can be set to do not only solely even order harmonics, but also other really fucked up and crazy things that I think you might enjoy.

As for the cymbals and hi-hats (metallic objects), I think if you high pass then compress them and add a bit of resonance to the filter you can make them more prominent. You might want to listen to some early/mid-70's dub and Prodigy to see what the kind of sound they came up with. Especially the first crash in 'Smack My Bitch Up', I listened to that on proper monitors for the first time the other day when I was testing an amp to buy and that sound just fucking slides out and literally smashes in to your face - I actually jumped a bit because I wasn't expecting the intensity! Maybe you could actually layer a bottle or window smashing beneath the crash sample and compress them together to make a really intense sound. I think the kick and sub are actually very nicely balanced, props on that.

I recommend Reaper as well if you want a good DAW, it's free to try in full and you just get a nag screen until you pay. Everything else just get better samples maybe, try slicing up some tracks recorded with a proper band or something, it's just a bit weak/indistinct on this atm.

Edit: I've actually listened to this four times today, definitely a good track anyway.

[dj_ug]

Great basic track down, like everyone's been saying you just need to work on the different elements there.

If you want a thick grimey bass with some oomph and consistency to it, detune two saws to make a Reece then add a distortion with asymmetrical clipping or a ring modulator to frequencies above the bass range. What DAW do you use? Anyway, you need to send the bass to parallel channels with an EQ or something similar each, one high-passed for adding the harmonic processing (ring mod etc) and one low-passed for just bass. Set up the bass' low-passed EQ channel first to get the depth and level you want then either copy the same settings on the other EQ and reverse the low pass to a high pass or select some other range (you can fiddle around with the higher frequencies more because you can add them as you like, they're not as fundamental to the sound as the lower frequencies which you have already arranged).

I say specifically asymmetrical distortion over distortion because a lot of vst saying 'distortion' are based on symmetrical square waves which generate odd-order harmonics and sound indistinct to human ears, kind of an unpleasant fizzy mess. Asymmetric distortion produces odd and even harmonics in equal proportions so sound not only more interesting, but also 'nicer' and actually easier to mix because it's easier to distinguish it by the even harmonics. Ring modulation can be set to do not only solely even order harmonics, but also other really fucked up and crazy things that I think you might enjoy.

As for the cymbals and hi-hats (metallic objects), I think if you high pass then compress them and add a bit of resonance to the filter you can make them more prominent. You might want to listen to some early/mid-70's dub and Prodigy to see what the kind of sound they came up with. Especially the first crash in 'Smack My Bitch Up', I listened to that on proper monitors for the first time the other day when I was testing an amp to buy and that sound just fucking slides out and literally smashes in to your face - I actually jumped a bit because I wasn't expecting the intensity! Maybe you could actually layer a bottle or window smashing beneath the crash sample and compress them together to make a really intense sound. I think the kick and sub are actually very nicely balanced, props on that.

I recommend Reaper as well if you want a good DAW, it's free to try in full and you just get a nag screen until you pay. Everything else just get better samples maybe, try slicing up some tracks recorded with a proper band or something, it's just a bit weak/indistinct on this atm.

Edit: I've actually listened to this four times today, definitely a good track anyway.

You, sir, are a G. Much much respect for such feedback.

[test_recordings]

All good mate I can hear you've put the effort it, pm me if you ever want ideas on something. I'm just getting in to production more now so I'm experimenting and just generally fucking around myself