Non Est - Ender / Onto / Opium

Three new tracks. Please help me move forward with the production. Be as harsh as you wish with your critique but please give me constructive things that I can work on!

What song did you like the most and why?

What song was the worst, and why? 

Thank you for your precious time  

rambly first impression notes i typed while listening a few times on headphones, having just woken up:

ender:
not enough bass. or the high frequencies too loud compared to bass.. the overall production feels somehow small..
the hihats a bit, and cymbals particularly, sound like they don't quite fit in the mix, they're sitting on top of it, and a little ear piercing.. same with some of the high pads that come in later.. 
this is my least favourite..it's ok but very sort of..stodgy.. staid.. plodding..

onto:
sound which comes in around 4:44 is louder than everythhing else, overpowering.. it's an interesting slightly discordant melodic part but i think it'd be nicer if buried in the mix a bit..
the production of this one, frequencies wise, sounds the most balanced to me.. s'got bigger bass and kick.. it is very dense.. with that bassline it feels like it should be an early 90s hyped up rave vibe but it's a bit too slow. (not necessarily bad)

opium:
i like this one, it's definitely my fave. the drums feel a bit small in the mix. (not necessarily bad, but might be nice if they were massive).. this track feels more freely flowing than the other two, lots of interesting and nice little interlocking bits going on. 

-
these all sound sort of like they were recorded live, on tape...sort of.. (were they? i'm just guessing but it sounds like you're trying to make em sound that way, with plugins?)..it's a good lo-fi vibe! you do it pretty well, just to my ears the mix doesn't *quite* come together.. hard to put into words.. maybe they could benefit from some mega compressor use. (i'm not usually a fan of exaggerated sidechain comp but it can work well for this kinda stuff maybe)

-
i listened on alright-but-not-the-best headphones, at quietish levels.. now i turned it way up because i'm standing in a laundry with a washing machine going.. they sound quite a lot better at louder volumes. i bet they sound better loud on speakers.. all up..i dunno..i think compression might glue everything together nicely.. maybe some high freq rolloff on the hats & cymbals in ender.. a bit of levels tweaking on some parts, especially some of the high pads which are overpowering.. 

i really like opium. would listen to this again and again. onto is alright. ender, i wouldn't listen again...

gotta run, might come back later and see if my ears feel differently..

Thank you for the wonderful comments!

I'm mostly using speakers when mixing, and I often find that my speakers have alot more bass in them (I currently don't have a good pair of headphones), so I often get dissapointed when I'm hearing the songs on headphone. And I'm also lazy with the eq.

And yes, I often use some filters (working mostly with reason) that gives a tape:e feeling. I will look into the mega compressor. And yes the end on the second track is a bit weird. dont have any good answers there  

Ender – I’m in 2 minds about some of your melodies, they are unique and it’s great that they take unexpected turns but occasionally the choice of note clashes against the chord I think.  

Onto – The bit-crushing was a great choice to add some sweeping textures. This song has an overall warm feeling in the way the elements mix together – I think you have done a good job on this mix. The compression on the drums gives a nice bounce that makes it very danceable. The last section could be disposed of, I think the song has already reached it’s peak prior to that.

Opium – The half-time beat change-up is a great choice. The rhythms are quite unique, I look forward to the drum fills while I’m listening. This song has more experimental sound design than the other 2 and you should probably incorporate those elements more as they break up the repetition.  

  On 5/25/2019 at 4:54 PM, webby said:

Ender – I’m in 2 minds about some of your melodies, they are unique and it’s great that they take unexpected turns but occasionally the choice of note clashes against the chord I think.  

 

Onto – The bit-crushing was a great choice to add some sweeping textures. This song has an overall warm feeling in the way the elements mix together – I think you have done a good job on this mix. The compression on the drums gives a nice bounce that makes it very danceable. The last section could be disposed of, I think the song has already reached it’s peak prior to that.

 

Opium – The half-time beat change-up is a great choice. The rhythms are quite unique, I look forward to the drum fills while I’m listening. This song has more experimental sound design than the other 2 and you should probably incorporate those elements more as they break up the repetition.  

 

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 Yes, I am thinking about making Onto shorter - or maybe make a whole new song out of the sections that I like and skip the sections that I don't like so much and maybe add something new to it!

Thank you for your comment, it helps me very much since most of my friends and family and so on aren't that into electronic music.