My New Electro Track

[EDGEK8D]

Logic Pro Helpers:

 

Please give my new one a listen. I had been bummed about all the iLok2 B.S. this week so no Slate VCC or Tubetech in this one. Actually I had to remove about 30 instances of those plugs in this track. I made due though.

 

https://soundcloud.com/edgek8d/beyond-talent

 

I'd appreciate any comments/criticisms. I always strive to get better.

 

Thanks

[theprodguy]

Not that bad. Can hear you don't have a ton of experience but it's better than most people trying to make music.

My main critiques would be about the musical aspect of the track rather than the production. But I'll talk about the production aspects.

You should work a little bit on the overall sound of the track, a bit of EQ on the master would be enough. Other than that, the only thing you should correct in the mix is the drop. What makes me feel that I'm listening to an amateur's track is that the kick+bass section doesn't really work. This is a lot of beginners' mistake and takes some time to get it right. When you listen to pro tracks, indeed, you can often hear that in the drop they only have the kick and bass playing, but when people try to do it it just doesn't work. In your case, the bass notes are way too high. Transporting them an octave down might be too much, so you might wanna find another key for your track. Another reason is often the wrong choice of sound for the bass. You need a sound with a lot of low mids to fill up the track. This, however, shouldn't be your case.

By the way, it seems like you're not using any sub bass. In these days' electro house/progressive house music, the kick often isn't enough for your low end, and that mid bass isn't either. Generally you have the kick playing, which you can low cut at around 25-35Hz, the mid bass that I cut at about 80Hz, and the sub bass, which is often just a sine wave playing around say 40 to 70Hz. If it's a sine you don't have to EQ it in any way, but it really fills the low end. If you use a kick with a long decay, it might not be needed, but these are just general guidelines.

[EDGEK8D]

Thanks for taking your time to listen and give such a lengthy response. I hear you about the sub-bass. You're right, I was going for sort of a hard house sound where the kick and bass play alone at the drop. More of a booming kick instead of a thump would work better. I will experiment with your suggestions and work on implementing a different type of kick or adding some sub-bass. Thanks again.

[EDGEK8D]

Would you rec layering with an 808? Logic bas a sub-bass plug that I'm not too familiar with, but it seems like a sine wave gate. I know Rob Pappen has a sub bass plug but is something like that neccessary? I have been working on making kicks in Ultrabeat. Its a learning process though but they definitely have more low end than a lot of the top of the line samples I have. Its getting the mid part and click just right though that seems to be the art. Maybe I could jus use Ultrabeat like I just described to add low end, eh?

[theprodguy]

If you want to use a sub bass, I'd not recommend using the sub-bass plugin in Logic (because I've never done it myself) and you definitely don't need any particular synth or other kind of plug in. On whatever synth you want, select a sine wave (you can play around with different waveforms and filters but make sure it doesn't have too many harmonics otherwise it might clash with your main bass), copy your bass regions and choose the right octave. If you have a very complex bass pattern you might not want to copy your exact bass sequence on the sub, but play around with sustained notes... in fact, sometimes you can use sine waves to add subs to your kick, rather than to your bass, using it as if it was the decay of your kick drum.

There are so many ways you can get the low frequencies in. You can use an 808 for sure, if you think it sounds good. Pitch it right and it functions like a bass.

 

It's nice to see you're trying to make your own kick drums. I've been doing it all the time and I absolutely love Ultrabeat for that. You can edit those envelopes however you want and with a few tweaks on the pitch envelope you can really make any kind of kick. It's great if you ever want to tune your kick drums, because I'm never going to degrade any sample by pitching it up or down.

If you're just making your own kicks because you can't find the right sample, however, probably you haven't got a good library. Even though I make my samples, I'd still recommend anything from Wave Alchemy, Sample Magic, Vengeance (even though it's heavily criticized it's still good). Don't go crazy with libraries, though. Having too much really slows down the creative process. That's why I never buy any new fancy stuff. But if you're just using Logic's own drum samples, I understand you might not be happy.

[EDGEK8D]

You said your main critiques would be about the nusical aspects. I'm going to reowrk the track a bit, add that sub-bass we talked about, and work on my mix a bit. There are definitely a couple of areas where there is too much going on and a couple of effects that are too loud. I'm planning to enter the track into Beatport's Toolroom Records Contest. If you have a few minutes and would care to expand upon the musical aspects, I would appreciate it.

[APSON]

I think this mix sounds amazing. What's an example of a really good mix in this genre?

[EDGEK8D]

Thanks APSON. I think it is close, but a little much in the mid ranges. I've been asking around about reference tracks. This is where I'm going to start:

 

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/the-30-greatest-edm-albums-of-all-time-20120802

 

I actually own several of these. This one also comes to mind, specifically:

 

 

I think I have a lot of work to do Thanks again.