"Calm_Down" by Protozone [electro-industrial-dnb]

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protozone
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"Calm_Down" by Protozone [electro-industrial-dnb]

Post by protozone »

https://hearthis.at/protozone/calmdown/

"Calm_Down" is the name of the tune.
I don't normally do a lot of Drum n Bass; this is intentionally supposed to be more electro-industrialish.
But I hope you enjoy it nonetheless.

I had a rough time mixing this because I was dealing with about 26 stereo tracks.
Once I get up to about 20 stereo tracks, it gets really hard to manage. I can do up to about 24 max before it starts to get too difficult unless I invest in significant submixes.

It turned out OK. It probably woulda been better if I had planned it out better, but I was originally gonna do an IDM downtempo track, and it didn't sound right so I deleted a bunch of the multitracks and kept going with what was left. I ended partially deleting some of the drums too. It's a technique that gets improved results, but takes up too much time. After a while, I get sick of fighting the tune and just give up.

I might still add a few more minor accents here or there.
Let me know of you think of any interesting or unusual samples that you think I should overdub into it.

Peace. :mrgreen:
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Re: "Calm_Down" by Protozone [electro-industrial-dnb]

Post by gennargiu »

hi, good mix sounds :mrgreen:

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Re: "Calm_Down" by Protozone [electro-industrial-dnb]

Post by psyocean »

Synthesizer Lunch. Interesting work! Wide palette mix. I dream someday returning to recording with single track :D

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Guitar and synth tales... https://www.youtube.com/user/Psyocean/
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Re: "Calm_Down" by Protozone [electro-industrial-dnb]

Post by protozone »

Thanks for listening. I sincerely appreciate it.

I changed up some of the sounds recently by adding some more stuff.
Whether or not it sounds better or worse is slightly a toss up.
But I tried to make it deeper and fuller and more exciting.

It might be a little bit too dense, but I'm not sure how much other people can hear the layers without pointing them out.
So I will leave it as it is.

The synths were mostly freeware VST instruments.
You'll know you're hearing the 2nd version if you hear "razryadka, razryada" (detente, detente) at the end.
That's a tribute to the Russian-American Peace Process. :mrgreen:
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Should I add more bass?

Post by protozone »

I've been studying my tune alot over the past couple of days. It's seems mostly OK, but I'm worried that maybe there's not enough bass.
Do you guys think this tune needs to have me overdub a stronger bass into it? It's hard for me to do this because my speakers are so tiny, but I can try. What do you think? Does it need a bass or even a sub bass?
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Re: "Calm_Down" by Protozone [electro-industrial-dnb]

Post by jonetsu »

Again, quite a nice track ! Very good composition and arrangement of sounds.

More bass will mean more anchored. More anchored means that other sounds will 'fly' less. And there are quite a few other sounds taking off. The stretch between a deeper bass and the higher sounds might be too much.

However, a deep bass in certain sections could play on this high/low contrast without being constantly there. For instance the section between 0:29 -> 0:34 could have a deeper bass. Other short sections where the highs are not so much flying around could be used to remind of this contrast. Adding a deeper bass here and there will produce a deep/high listening sine wave that the listener will experience, even if not noticing at first.

IMHO.

Cheers.
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Re: "Calm_Down" by Protozone [electro-industrial-dnb]

Post by protozone »

jonetsu wrote:Again, quite a nice track ! Very good composition and arrangement of sounds.

More bass will mean more anchored. More anchored means that other sounds will 'fly' less. And there are quite a few other sounds taking off. The stretch between a deeper bass and the higher sounds might be too much.

However, a deep bass in certain sections could play on this high/low contrast without being constantly there. For instance the section between 0:29 -> 0:34 could have a deeper bass. Other short sections where the highs are not so much flying around could be used to remind of this contrast. Adding a deeper bass here and there will produce a deep/high listening sine wave that the listener will experience, even if not noticing at first.

IMHO.

Cheers.
Jonetsu, I am very impressed with your idea/analysis. I've never heard anybody explain it like that. What you said makes sense; I remember analysing music by Imogen Heap and she uses TONS of layers up and down the entire music spectrum with a wide a variety of instrument types and sounds... I noticed that she is definately NOT a part of the "Loudness War", thank goodness. Her music on some systems seems really quiet in comparison, until turned up to the correct playback level. It seems that her music is more broadband and wide and full at the expense of less level, something I struggle with too. So I know what type of tradeoff you are talking about, but I never thought about this type of technical decision how you explained which is different. Thanks

I think I will probably leave it alone for now because I just don't have the right headphones or speakers to even hear what I'm doing. But I will experiment with what you are talking about in some other tunes which have a similar concern that I'm not so heavily invested in. I'm worried that I'd mess up what I've done. Sometimes I accidentally delete the wrong version of re-works.

Thanks also for the compliment on the tune. Every bit of emotional support keeps me from slitting my wrists and jumping into oncoming traffic due to no clear sense of purpose or social reward :lol: :mrgreen: (I'm joking, but actually I do struggle with feelings of despondence).

The section you mentioned is a good marker for me. Thanks. Have a great week.
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