James Hanvey - Fabulous (Garage)

[JamesHanvey]

Hey, mastered it myself so any comments on that would be a great help. Thanks



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[NoKare]

Not my kind of music, but I enjoy it ! For me the mastering is good.

[test_recordings]

The bass and the riff synth sound disconnected, unless they're meant to be then maybe make them play a slightly different complementing parts more. Not enough punch in the low end from them either after the first drop, maybe over-compressed? Generally a bit weak for all the elements except the voice, maybe add a bit of resonance on the highpass filters your using with less of a sharp curve (or just leave more bass in it). That siren towards the end needs to trail off longer or have echo on it like everything else.

However, it sounds really good in general.

[JamesHanvey]

So you think the sub should be abit louder? I turned down a lot of the lows in mastering with multiband limiting/compressing, probabl knocked too much off

Also they're not meant to sound disconnected, could you elaborate? It's supposed to be a deephouse-like fm sound. The synth is only layered with the sub (and some reverb I think), so the bottom end is removed, which did actually change the sound quite abit, probably removed a lot of the fatness. Didn't really fuss around with it too much though so it wouldn't suprise me if that's how it sounds

Anyway, thanks for the feedback!

[test_recordings]

They probably sound disconnected because of either phase differences or no harmonic connection between them. I'm listening on (crappy) monitoring headphones and the bass definitely sounds weak throughout regardless. Maybe double the higher bouncy waveform and make it a sub so they have related harmonics to sound 'whole' and switch either of them off or on depending on what part you want.

Actually, a lot of early hardcore has a similar sound. Check out LFO by LFO, perfect example of the sound you're after I think. The bass and rhythmic element is consistent throughtout by switches and mixes between the sub and mid elements throughout.

[JamesHanvey]

I've never really messed around with phasing. I understand the concept however I don't really know how/when to excersice it. Also, i had an assignment on synthesis but only briefly touched on harmonics so that's something I really need to look into.

And yeah, I did patch the sub completely differently, both are in massive. (the sub could possibly be from abletons operator, can't remember).

That track is exactly what i'm going for, definatley see what you mean. Thanks again!

[test_recordings]

I'm not saying mess with the phasing, you just need to check it's kind of in line together to make your ear/brain perceive it as one. It's why a Reese sounds like one phat wave when really it's two out of phase together. I recommend reading up on psychoacoustics because it seems you have the audio engineering aspect on lock, it's the other dimension to sound that doesn't always match the physics.

Obviously you're somewhat close because I wasn't sure if it was meant to two things or one. I think it's more of the bass being off with the mid part, don't screw much with the mid anyway because it sounds good I think.

[JamesHanvey]

Okay, cheers for the help. Definatley look into all of that!

[binakversailles]

Hi guys,

I've not done any sound engineering studies so just bear that in mind when reading my comments..
Master wise, it sounds pretty good, only I think it might be slightly too over compressed, it just sounds a little like that, especially since the vocal reverb sounds too loud and puffy. But that might be the sound you're after.

As for the disconnect between the sub and organ chord progression (which I assume is what you are referring to?) it sounds like the reverb (and possible a short stereo delay?) is what is causing the two sounds to seem out of phase... perhaps if you dial down the reverb on the organ, they will sound tighter together.

Mix wise, while I understand that the low end of the track may seem lacking, I think that its only because the vocal is so loud relative to the other elements in the track. Maybe the kick and sub could also do with less of a low cut EQ-wise however i feel if you just turn the vocal down slightly, the low end will sound fatter.

Hope this helps in some way. Apologies if you think I'm talking nonsense..