Revised Beat

[troublewithkeys]

Hi, all. I revised this beat based on feedback received from the community. It still needs an outro (imo). That said, hopefully ya'll like it. Again, very new at this, so all input welcome. Comments I've received have been super useful thus far.

troublewithkeys - "Can't Help Myself v2"

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[Kane the MOD]

I hear some nice melodies and fitting vocal chops. The snare lacks presence and I think the 808 overpowers the beat and is (maybe) off key at some points imho.

 

[troublewithkeys]

Thanks for the feedback. I don't think the 808 is out of key, but I was worried that I may need to drop it a db or two. I'll also work on the snare.

 

[Ys Man]

So not sure whats going on here if its just very quiet or what but it almost sounds like you recorded it with your phone, now i hear that sound i remember this, it all fits now but you need to work on mixing, the overall volumes is very low but the mix needs work aswell, the 808 does go off a little

 

[troublewithkeys]

Thanks for the feedback. As a novice, mixing as well as the general raising of volume without clipping horribly are things I'm still trying to figure out.

And after listening again, I hear what both you and @Kane the MOD are saying about the 808 being out of key in places.

I'm going to work on this stuff. So, thanks again!

 

[2GooD Productions]

Thanks for the feedback. As a novice, mixing as well as the general raising of volume without clipping horribly are things I'm still trying to figure out.

And after listening again, I hear what both you and @Kane the MOD are saying about the 808 being out of key in places.

I'm going to work on this stuff. So, thanks again!

2 words, soft clipping. Look into it. It takes the tops off hard transients(peaks), so that when you push your final limiter it doesnt have to work too hard. I try to limit the gain reduction on my final stereo bus limter to -6db, this keeps it transparent and not obvious. A compressor works similarly to a clipper, but for a beginner clipping is far easier to get your head around. It adds distortion so you do have to be careful how much you clip, the goal is for it not to sound any different, but it is different because you have clipped the peaks. Doing this on everything will allow you to get a loud master at the end as you have handled all the peaks that when combined make the limiter work far too hard. Also trim unwanted frequencies that can accumulate across instruments/mix channels. Especially extreme highs 15k+ and extreme lows 20-30hz that we cant even hear, but they suck away your headroom.I also cut below 50hz on my kicks to give the sub room to breathe.

 

[troublewithkeys]

Thanks for taking the time to explain all of this. I'm looking into soft clipping now, and it makes sense. But I haven't used it yet, so we'll see how well I'm able to apply your feedback. But it's much appreciated.