Hey,

Hope you're all doing well.

I just arrived here, I'm glad I found those forums!

I've been wanting to make music for a very long time, but I just started quite recently.

Of course, I know that I have a lot to learn so I'm hoping to receive some honest feedback from you guys.

I'm inspired by retro video game music (as well as J-Pop and many other things), and I'm trying to make something that sounds cheerful, catchy and energetic.

Here is something I made recently:

https://soundcloud.com/jgojgo/happiness-virus

Thanks to all in advance for your feedback, I am looking forward to it!

Nice work. It's a good composition that doesn't get too busy; would work very well as game music.

On the mixing end there are 2 big problems. The low end is bloated and the high end is flat, as a whole this makes the whole track seem kind of dead. I would give it some tape saturation and maybe some wow/flutter on the synth/piano. Then after that I would run the entire mix bus though an aural exciter to bring the highs to life while preserving the new lows and mids.

Thanks for your feedback!

I'll get back to work on the mixing part then.

I'm working on FL Studio. By any chance, would you have any plugins or techniques to recommend to achieve tape saturation and wow/flutter effects?

would you have any plugins or techniques to recommend to achieve tape saturation and wow/flutter effects?

I really like Kramer Tape from Waves, I use it pretty often on my mastering chain. I also heard a lot of good things about the Ampex AT-102 from Universal Audio but I've never used it myself.

Alright, thanks! Actually for now I used two free plugins I found, ADT and Excite, for their wow and flutter and exciter effects, respectively.

I also tweaked a few things here and there, like cutting in the lower frequencies. Tried to make it sound more alive.

I can definitely hear a good difference, but I feel like there's something wrong that wasn't there before. But my ears are not too good yet so it doesn't mean much.

Does it sound better to you as well?

https://soundcloud.com/jgojgo/happiness-virus_2/s-GpqFm

Much better but you went a little too far with the exciter. The trick to using them is if you can just tell it's working, you're doing it right. If you go too far it will sound kind of shrill on the high end. Dial it back a tad and it should be perfect.

Okay I see. It should be good now!

Thanks again for your time and your advice. I'll know a bit more about what to look for next time during the mixing process.

https://soundcloud.com/jgojgo/happiness-virus-4/s-VxMBw

Hey, I'm new too! Checking out others' demos and reels to see if I'm swinging for the fences a little too hard or not.

I dig your track! Nice vibe. I wish I could hear the early iterations to give a second (third?) set of ears to your mix changes.

I use Logic, but recently tried this free saturator and can't say enough about it. It's not the prettiest w/ the giant DONATE button on it, but it adds color and oopmh without touching a thing. Sometimes, though it can be a little strong on bass, so I usually dial that back. Follow it with an adaptive limiter and you can get some good consistent volume in your mix buss. http://www.shatteredglassaudio.com/product.php?id=104

Secondly, if you're still in the market for feedback - the lead is a little loud to me. It's also spread into the left channel more than the right so I'm tilting my head a bit to hear it.

If I were mixing (big if), I'd push the kick and snare like a dance tune (I saw the J-pop tag, so I'm going to invoke some Megurine Luka and Yasutaka Nakata here). Then I'd gently compress the lead voice to even out some peaks in the high end. The smoother that lead can be with a driving beat, you'd have a good head bobber, like a light-hearted Eschatos vibe. I'd turn the bass up a little too, I'm sure that's doing interesting stuff but I'm not hearing it that well (and I'm using Bose buds that really hype bass!).

I love the direction, though, and can see it in application. If you're just starting out with mixing, you're killing it already! If you're a little more advanced, I can see this as the turning point in your development.

Oh, thank you for the feedback! I'm glad you liked the track!

I'll definitely check out that saturator you recommended.

I think you're right.

I wanted to avoid putting every instrument at the center, but I guess that for the lead it would have made more sense to keep it there.

I should fix the lead, then turn up the kick and snare as well as the bass. I'll make the adjustments later on.

Mixing is so hard! So many things to think about and concepts I don't quite grasp yet. But it's getting fun and I'll be getting better!

I've been working on a couple new tracks lately, I'll try to upload something this week.

By the way I've never heard Eschatos' soundtrack before. I like it a lot! Thanks for that!