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EDIT: I put up a new version of the song. 6/11/11 - 7:00 pm PST.

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This is the latest song that I've finished. I haven't done any mastering, and I'm looking for feedback on the levels (I know some of them are off, I'm mainly looking for stuff that's too loud, and also would love feedback on what I should do with the drums.)

There's a lot of layering in this song, and I think that makes the drums sound quiet.

EDIT:

Also, any tips on how I should apply reverb to this track? I'm really sick of going through space designer presets. Should I just send all the instruments to a reverb bus, pick a reverb setting and mess with the send inputs? Best reverb stock settings to look for? Reverb has always been a weak suit of mine!

I admit it. I'm an idiot. I found this thread, which should help. Should have just searched it, although I do have some reverb on there now, maybe you guys can tell me if it's too little?
/EDIT




Beyond that, say anything you feel like! Tell me it's great, it sucks, I should die in a grease fire! Whatever, it's all good. Any additional feedback is much appreciated!

the first wobble that comes in is way too loud and the others too quiet. I was enjoying the track way more before they came in though. I know the LFO's can get addictive at first but don't let that cloud your judgement of what actually sounds good and fits with the track: I thought the track had a nice groove going before the wobbles came in and was looking forward to seeing where it would go.

Pan some percussion - Pan some hi hat hits far left and others far right. If the snare is made up of several layered hits, pan some of them left and others right. Get more percussion lines involved, you can definitely elaborate on that rhythm. The levels aren't bad for the percussion, hi hat a bit too low. Read about how to use compression to bring out percussive hits.

Reverb - Can't really tell you this, if you want to go with the conventions of the genre then have a fairly long reverb, mainly on upper frequencies (6kHz and above) on the snare. What else do you want reverb on? What do you think would sound good with what kind of reverb? It's up to you really, others might tell you more specifically what to do but ultimately all you have to do is experiment and find something that you think sounds good. If you want it to sound like a specific song then people could probably tell you with a good degree of precision how to achieve that. Listen to stuff you like and try to work out what's going on, listen really analytically and try to pin point individual instruments and sounds and then try to emulate the parts you like on your own laptop, and you will gradually pick up on what sounds good and how to achieve particular sounds. This goes for applying reverb and pretty much every other aspect of audio production.

It's a nice track with some nice ideas but I think the wobbles get in the way a bit, maybe lose them or make them much subtler sub tremmors. Develop the melody and embellish the vocal - get more vocal samples in there and let them interact with the melody.

OGP wrote:the first wobble that comes in is way too loud and the others too quiet. I was enjoying the track way more before they came in though. I know the LFO's can get addictive at first but don't let that cloud your judgement of what actually sounds good and fits with the track: I thought the track had a nice groove going before the wobbles came in and was looking forward to seeing where it would go.

Pan some percussion - Pan some hi hat hits far left and others far right. If the snare is made up of several layered hits, pan some of them left and others right. Get more percussion lines involved, you can definitely elaborate on that rhythm. The levels aren't bad for the percussion, hi hat a bit too low. Read about how to use compression to bring out percussive hits.

Reverb - Can't really tell you this, if you want to go with the conventions of the genre then have a fairly long reverb, mainly on upper frequencies (6kHz and above) on the snare. What else do you want reverb on? What do you think would sound good with what kind of reverb? It's up to you really, others might tell you more specifically what to do but ultimately all you have to do is experiment and find something that you think sounds good. If you want it to sound like a specific song then people could probably tell you with a good degree of precision how to achieve that. Listen to stuff you like and try to work out what's going on, listen really analytically and try to pin point individual instruments and sounds and then try to emulate the parts you like on your own laptop, and you will gradually pick up on what sounds good and how to achieve particular sounds. This goes for applying reverb and pretty much every other aspect of audio production.

It's a nice track with some nice ideas but I think the wobbles get in the way a bit, maybe lose them or make them much subtler sub tremmors. Develop the melody and embellish the vocal - get more vocal samples in there and let them interact with the melody.

Yea, the first wobbles that come in are actually about to be deleted, the wobbles after the drop aren't though. The wobbles in the beginning are different than the rest of the song. Maybe I should Repost the track without that. Hah! Sorry about that! I'll work on that now.

Thanks for the feedback on the Reverb. I know how to take songs apart to get sounds, but I'm looking for the technical side of it. For the most part, I play around with things if I don't know what to do with them, but if I can find a good template or explanation on how to use reverb properly in dubstep, I have a very rock solid starting point. Know what I mean?

Vocal samples may or may not happen soon. The ones put in the song are purely for filler purposes. This is a fairly finished song, but still a WIP. Think of it as a birthday cake at a store. I've got the cake made, now I just need someones name to put on it (Meaning, I haven't found the right samples I like yet.)

Toric wrote: but if I can find a good template or explanation on how to use reverb properly in dubstep, I have a very rock solid starting point. Know what I mean?

I do see where you're coming from, but saying 'how to use reverb properly in dubstep' is problematic because there is no proper way to do it.What if I told you exact settings for your reverb plugin and said 'this is how to do reverb in dubstep properly' and then you put those settings in and thought it sounded terrible? Like I say in my first post, if you want a specific sound on a specific instrument (e.g. I want to make my vocals sound like Burial's) then people could probably give you pointers, but asking for a template for dubstep reverb is an extremely generalised request.

funky man i dig it. some of the melodic phrasing in the beginning could have been different. it was just a little too random for me, no noticeable chord progression or melody. but the drums were dope and drop was pretty cool too.

the vocal sample towards the end was kinda random? i like the glass breaking sfx haha i gotta use that nice mix