Good enough?

Hello!


Do you guys think this is enough for AJ? Any feedback on things I could improve before submitting? Mixing, arrangement, structure, mood?

Appreciate any help!

Sound good, just change the higher kick clicks :slight_smile:

What do you mean by higher kick clicks? The “top kick”? The 808 bass slide one octave above?
And change how?

Thanks for the input!

EDIT: Oh I can hear it now when I listened back to it, I think I know what you mean. Definitely gonna fix it. Thank you!

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This I think will get rejected. But could be saved

The guitar at intro is too crowded and messes the song’s flow, also its a bit bad quality, like no high frequencies. Also its too mono

In general, it has no punch. I think the problem is the 808 bass and kick combination.

Something is like burnt out from distortion you can hear it at 0:39, maybe the bass?
This itself could be the reason to get hard reject.

At 0:30 the soft arp-synth line, could be louder and brighter, also remove some 100-250 Hz.

at 1:13 you change the scale, you introduce a new out of ordinary of so far song note, sounds like B, remove that! :smiley:

The kick-bass like I said is destroyed and no punch at all, first of all remove the high frequency distortion that it has, and maybe use this as only the bass, remove the kick, and bring a new kick with punch. put side-chain to bass from new kick. I have a feeling also that the bass is destroyed from distortion and lacks clarity

I would make a gentle ending, lower all volumes except the arp-synth, I would not use the root note to end, just leave a tail from last note. Reduce hi hats and reverse crash volume, no need to end like a Hollywood trailer!

Good luck

Thank you!

I was ready to upload this but now I think I’ll work on it some more.

Yes, now that you mentioned it, I see it indeed lacks punch. I’ll work on that.
And sure, I personally like the dirty, heavily distorted 808, but I should probably tone it down for AJ.

What do you mean the intro guitar “messes the song flow”?

Wow, great ear! It’s indeed a B. I actually think that out-of-scale note really adds to the vibe.

Regarding the ending, what do you mean by ending like a Hollywood trailer? :sweat_smile: haha
It wasn’t my intention to sound that way, just did what I thought sounded good.

Also is that a more personal suggestion, or do you think the “Hollywood ending” vs the “gentle ending” could affect the chances of getting accepted? Anyways, I’ll try a gentle ending to see if it sounds good.

Thanks for your suggestions and in-depth feedback!

Well the ending could be more subtle in my opinion cause everything gets toned down and calmer at the end. Its just a taste though

The distortion that is audible at 0:39 as I said, is not pleasant to me, I LOVE distortion too trust me!

I mean the guitar is very busy, and takes a lot of atention itself! Could use something more minimal!

Good luck!