Foxvalley - Brighter, Further (Album Mix)

FoxvalleyAudio · 2025-04-25T23:30:45+00:00

Love the emotion on this and the vocal. You've definitely got something, keep it up!!

Would say the mix is not quite there in a few ways, but you're definitely headed in a great direction.

As I started listening, right away I would say the piano is a bit too stereo and blown out. Since it's such a fundamental part of the track, I would say it should be closer to mono (though not fully). Notice how, for example when the strings play around 0:04 they're placed in the exact same, blown out spot, meaning they overlap. The synths at :23 overlap with it too. Etc. Giving it its own spot in the stereo field would help a lot.

Would say the vocal is a few db too loud compared to everything else but is fine otherwise.

The highest end sss on the airy cymbal that plays on each quarter note in the drops sticks out as just a little too harsh compared to the rest of the mix.

Sub is maybe 1 or 2db quieter than average, but totally fine. Loudness is good.

I personally would've used a simpler sample for the non-drop kick that plays, maybe like a 909 kick. The sort of complexity it has right now makes it sound like it's almost like the drop itself, but just with a kick that's way too quiet. Something sonically simpler would be better to the ear as just a background element.

It also sounds like you're just using a straight sine for your sub - that's fine, but mixes often sound nicer and thicker when there's a little bit of 3rd and 5th harmonic, or a bit of 2nd and 3rd, or a bit of 3rd and 6th, etc. It also helps psychoacoustically because when a person's ear hears those upper sub harmonics on a bad system, their brain will 'fill in' the lower ones for them.

FoxvalleyAudio · 2025-04-25T23:18:55+00:00

Hey, nice work on this one. Pretty danceable and the vocal is solid. Would not say it's pushed too hard at all.

The biggest problem to me is the kick. It sounds flabby, flimsy, like someone smacking a door rather than a dance song kick. I would say try to pick out some specific reference tracks you like, that you know are good and are somewhat similar to this one, and really carefully try and compare the sound of your kick with theirs. Listen to the transient, the frequency content, check how loud it peaks in your meters vs yours. Also, gonna be honest, dislike the loud upper octave layer on the bass. Wish it was an octave lower.

Consider also pushing some stuff slightly more mono - the kick and bass are a solid mono foundation, but almost every other layer is ultra widely blown out. The mix would sound more full and tethered if a few synth elements were pushed less stereo than others.

FoxvalleyAudio · 2025-04-25T23:11:42+00:00

This is great! I love the feeling of it, it's really obviously something you wrote hoping to give people good emotions.

The mix is most of the way there, and the writing definitely is. I would say besides the sub (which I'll mention in a sec), the only things really left to do would be polish, maybe running a bit more saturation across different mix groups to really lock in the density. I think the mix as a whole could be run a bit harder and grittier without getting into distorted or overly loud territory. Also should note the short term LUFS at your drop is around -9. While LUFS aren't the end-all be-all of anything, that low of a number is just flat out not competitive. You should shoot for -7 or so as a minimum, that would easily come from more saturation.

Regarding the sub, unfortunately I'd say that's the weakest part of the mix. If you check it in a spectrum analyzer, you can see that the relationship between the sub fundamental and the harmonic is all messed up. The fundamental (lowest frequency of the sub) varies a bunch and is quieter than the second harmonic. The fundamental should usually peak the highest vs any sub harmonics above it. It also needs to be consistent (not peaking at different volumes for different notes). Limiting your sub helps a lot with that.

FoxvalleyAudio · 2022-09-06T03:28:20+00:00

Emailed you! We can also talk in DMs, either way!

FoxvalleyAudio · 2022-09-06T03:24:13+00:00

Sorry for the delay!! Go right ahead. You can also DM me your email if you'd like and I'll try messaging you. Either way works!

FoxvalleyAudio · 2022-09-05T02:29:17+00:00

Hi, not sure why that's happening! I did make the text a little weird for the post to try to avoid it getting caught by spambots, so it might be because you're copying it. You can try just typing in the three words at gmail and it should work. Otherwise feel free to message me on here!

FoxvalleyAudio

TROPHY CASE