Halt! Just lie down and stare at the sky...

My first ever track with Ableton


The next step I'm thinking of is to add a more percussive climax a la

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWMDfJEkQDs

(Denis you can add a guitar lead if you'd like. I can't make it work and I feel satisfied with this )

I have a problem with making it louder without clipping it...

Very good for your first attempt on Ableton

I like it, just needs a little work in the arrangement and production, plus a little more melody, melody is what people like to hear generally, unless it's an IBIZA dance track

The drums could be left out in the quite parts and either leave it as acoustic or light percussion in it's place. Bass frequencies effect how loud a track is, so if you are able put the kick drum on a separate track, roll off the Kick drum low bass frequencies, if you are not sure where to roll off the bass, go on you tube - you will have to experiment with it and listen, the aim is so that you can hear all tracks clearly.

The keyboard at the start is too low in the mix, this should be the dominant instrument in this part of the arrangement.

Unless you make specific changes by adding different music, I would rearrange it so that the track is about 3 mins long, just listen and feel where the changes should be, hence some parts go on a bit too long.

There seems to be this challenge on who can make the loudest track to the extent that everything becomes squashed with no dynamics, to me this is not music, a good piece of music should have good dynamics IMO. However if you want to make the track louder, you should study compression first, I uploaded an excellent tutorial on this subject, it will give you a good understanding of it, plus the last part of any mix is to include a limiter, again if you are not sure how to use one, go on you tube, you may even find one specifically for Ableton.

Thank you for asking me to add some guitar, I'm a bit busy myself, not even recording at the moment, but improving my skills on the Piano - it's taking up a lot of my time at the moment.

I tried some compression on audacity but it ends up sounding like shit. I don't want to be really loud, but right now my track is much softer than the average. I just want to bring it closer to the average. Wouldn't rolling off the bass kill the bass sound? I'll look up limiting and your article.

Don't know about the piano though, I already raised it from its original intended level. Bringing it too high will kill the dreamy mood (as a matter of fact listenind to it right now makes me sleepy haha). I'll see what happens when I increase it.

Actually I spent at least 1 hour jamming around with a guitar and I couldn't get anything that fits and it usually kills the mood. Usually it's easy for me to find something for a slow song like this but it's really hard because of the way part B (of the ABAB song structure) ends and my intention for part B to contrast with A (to make part B grander), which was why I was interested to see how you'd handle it

Thanks

Edit: Ah.. I remembered lowering the piano because that metallic piano string sound started to really come out. I guess I'll need a high pass filter or EQ or something.

That's why you should study compression - it shouldn't necessarily make it louder, but simply control the low and highs. Used correctly, you will hardly notice any difference in the levels, but using a limiter will definitely raise the overall loudness - it's important to use them in the correct order.

Rolling off the Bass only gets rid of the boomy rumble NOT the bass itself - it will make the sound more transparent - you should roll the bass off on most instruments, but each instrument will have a different cut off point to get the best sound. If you were to simply listen to the very low frequencies they would sound very dull and muffled, these frequencies use up a lot of loudness in the mix.  Any professional studio will roll off Bass in the final mixing stage.

Do yourself a favour and look up some EQ tutorials for a full explanation to help you how to understand how to improve your mixes. You are better taking advice from professional studio engineers, there are plenty on YouTube.

Don't be afraid to experiment, twist knobs ETC, see how they effect the sound.

When I was talking about compressing, it was before I uploaded the mp3 or read your comment. Of course I will research, I'm not blaming on the "compressing algorithm" but rather my lack of knowledge. 

Not afraid to turn knobs either

Thanks

Here is the compression tutorial
http://forum.bandamp.com/Recording/15146.html

Thanks a lot for the link and for writing it. I've been playing around with the compressor on audacity but I couldn't understand how to make it work. I remember reading it before but I can't remember anything from it

About the melody, I've just had an solution to my problems. I've been wanting a more controlled continuous sound but I can't play the violin and it'll probably saturate the sound of the strings even more but I've suddenly remembered my harmonica so I'm more positive about it now Will need to practice it though...

Nooooooooooooooooo I was just listening to it on my in-ear headphones and it sounded absolutely terrible.
I've been adjusting the levels according to what I hear from my earbuds, which has high mids and low treble and low base.  There was a problem with the other one earlier.

So I guess I've got to adjust everything again ...

Gt sounds a bit low in the mix...but Id say a good start for the first take on Ableton!

yeah man it's all screwed up because I was basing it on the earbuds that is high on mid aaaaaaaaarhhh I need to re tweak all the levels
está jodido todo =(

The compressor built into audacity is notoriously bad.  I know this from experience.

You may already know this, but do your self a favor and grab REAPER or any other DAW that supports vsts and get this plugin to start having fun: http://freemusicsoftware.org/650