Thursday 7 April 2011

Evaluation...

To Evaluate My Mix ...

Overall I am quite happy with the general 'sound' and 'style' of my mix. I think I have captured the 'feel' of a Pendulum style track.

The production techniques I read about have been implemented into my final mix, which resulted in lots of layers being used for the drums, then heavily compressed. This has created a big drum sound that drives the track forward. I altered the compressor settings to allow the initial snap of the kick and snare to come through, before the rest of the drum signal was compressed. This helped really bring out the force of the drums in the mix.

I used a similar structure to writing the riff and bass elements of the track as 'Watercolour' by Pendulum. This resulted in the track being quite radio friendly and more commercial Drum & Bass which was intended.

When picking my source material, I decided to choose the Euler track 'Be Free' due to the fact the vocals where quite a similar style to that used in Watercolour. This choice worked well as the vocals sit nicely in the mix, along with some added guitars from the original material to really give the track some extra elements in the final breakdown.

I sent a preview of my mix to a fellow student and his reply was;

"Oh, have you been listening to Pendulum lately...?"

This sums up pretty well the general idea of my track and I think I have achieved a respectable remix in the style of 'Pendulum'.


Below is a link to the 24bit, 48kHz .WAV file

Mastering ...


The picture above shows my original mixdown (Green) Pendulum reference track (Orange) and my new master (Pink)

As the waveforms show, my new master still isn't pushed as hard as the Pendulum remix track. Due to this I will now go back and re-master my track, pushing it abit harder to 'squash' the track similar to how the Pendulum reference track is mastered.

Tuesday 5 April 2011

Mix Update ...

Still having some trouble emulating the large Pendulum drum sound when mixing down.

I have used parallel compression and a limiter on the snare to give it some 'snap' but comparing to my reference track it still isn't 'kicking' as hard when the drums come in.

This may be down to the mastering ...

However, I have just found a link with some ideas I will follow

http://www.musicradar.com/tuition/tech/23-classic-drum-n-bass-tips-155890

The bass and lead sounds sit quite nice in the mix, and follow a similar structure to the Pendulum reference track to give it the darker, 'ravey' edge style.


(Update)

Just found another link;


"How to make the Pendulum Deep Bass Sound"

Will try some of these techniques in my mixdown now I am happy with my track arrangement and structure.

Tuesday 29 March 2011

Update...


Current Progress...

I have completed the arrangement of my mix, using the reference track "Watercolour" by Pendulum.

Overall I am happy with the sound, and elements in my mix have been taken from ideas and the use of synthesisers in Watercolour.

Next I need to start a mixdown and check levels to create the similar kind of energy seen in the Pendulum track.


Monday 28 March 2011

Current Progress.

At the current progress in time, I have nearly finished my remix track.

I have used the Vocals and chopped up guitar from the provided material - "Euler - Be Free"

To stick with the Pendulum style, I have emphasised the drums, and synth sections of the track, with a thunderous style bass.




Monday 14 March 2011

Chosen Producer - Pendulum


Pendulum



Style - Live Band - Drum and Bass , Electronic Rock


The LA Times (“The electro-rock band evokes the Prodigy's sense of screaming, face-crushing bombast with savvy beats straight off the contemporary low-end-heavy zeitgeist”).


History - http://www.pendulum.com/about.htm


Introduction


Band Members

Rob Swire (vocals/synth/producer)

Gareth McGrillen (bass guitar/DJ)

Perry ap Gwynedd (guitar)

Paul 'El Hornet' Harding (DJ)

KJ Sawka (drums)

Ben Mount (MC)


http://www.myspace.com/pendulum


Pendulum’s mission has always been to pull together their production resources, ideas and influences from various styles of music, to create a new sound that they felt was missing from dance music.


Pendulum Influences - Various styles of music that they felt was missing from Dance music.


Influenced - Drum and Bass into Radio Electronic Rock stars through Dj Sets & concerts.


Production Techniques - Big Bass / Drum sound / Loud prominent guitars.


Big Live shows, playing synths as well as musical instruments.


Significant in Drum & Bass, and now regularly on Radio. More commercial sound but sticking to their Drum & Bass roots.


Video Links


Old Style - Slam http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWnpwV63KiY&feature=fvwrel


New Style - Watercolour - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEPB7uzKuh4&feature=fvsr


Live - Tarantula @ Brixton Academy London - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjpGid7sSWs&feature=related