The last piece I composed... I tried to widen the stereo space

[BRADEL Christophe]

Hello to everyone.

We're all in search of the perfect sound!

I present to you the last piece of music I composed, a new episode of my series "Inspire galaxy".
"Inspire galaxy part IV : breathe"
I tried to take your advice into account, and to make a piece that breathes enough.
In particular, I tried to widen the stereo space.

This track is longer than the last one ("IG part III: free oneself"), which was too short: the listener didn't have time to immerse himself in its ambience.

As usual, recording, mixing and mastering are done exclusively on the TASCAM DP 32 sd.
there are about 74 different tracks (sounds), produced by 6 machines.
I wish you a very good listening!

Youtube :

Soundcloud:
https://soundcloud.com/user-578840561/inspire-galaxy-part-iv-breathewav

I thank you all again.

Christophe "Oceans Resurrection"

 

[Mark Richards]

Christophe, I did an initial listen using audiophile, very "musical", Sennheiser HD 660S open-back headphones. I'll give a more careful listen later on. Right now I have a few initial observations to share:

• I very much like the way you've mixed the dynamics, audio spectrum, and imaging.
• At the very beginning of the composition, for the synth on the right channel (the sonar like sound), to my ears it sounds a bit too harsh in tone.
• You've created a very wide sound stage that has a lot of depth, so much so that at times the center imagery becomes a distant void that you then fill. Well done.
• At the end of the composition, you might want to shorten the length of the silence a bit.

Overall first impression: a very professional mix of a very relaxing, interesting and enjoyable composition.

 

[BRADEL Christophe]

Hi Mark !

Thank you very much for your reply.
I'm happy with the overall impression you have, thank you very much.

It seems that my "sonar" sound has been mixed a little too loud, (is that what you mean ?)
I should be more moderated with this kind of effect, which is powerful !

For the silence at the end, you're totally right !
I'm too obsessed with the fear that the final reverb will cut off unsmoothly if someone is listening to the music at high volume. Which brings me to a ridiculously long ending!
It's the kind of thing you don't see until someone in the know tells you to wake up and press "stop record". In fact, I should have lowered the fader at the end and cut the recording properly... It's funny how I don't see things as visible as the nose in my face.

The art of mixing is a learning of wisdom and balance...

Thank you very much Mark for your remarks and compliments !

Christophe

 

[Mark Richards]

Christophe, lowering the audio balance level to address the "sonar" sound is one option. A better one, IMO, is to lower the high end energy of that sound a bit.

On closer listen, I'm also hearing subtle distortion in that sound, which could also be due to the high end energy level rather than the overall balance level of the sound in the mix.

You could try a 1 or 2 dB EQ reduction centered at about 3kHz using a wide Q. Experiment to find the exact frequency and level reduction by sweeping between 1kHz and 6 kHz until you have the sweet spot. By taming the high end energy level you won't have to rebalance the mix levels.

 

[BRADEL Christophe]

Ok Mark, I see what you mean. I will wait until the end of the week to have collected all the opinions and advice on this piece, then I will correct what you told me.
Thank you again for taking the time to listen so carefully.

 

[Arjan P]

Hi Christophe, another great effort! The stereo spread is very nice - maybe a bit extreme for headphone listening (which I did just now). IMO, with headphones on there is a bit of a hole in the middle...

I'll give it another listen in my studio later, but to me also the 'sonar' sound came in too loud in the beginning. This can also be due to the mastering process, but ofcourse I cannot determine. The sonar sound is more balanced at around 2:00, where more is going on in the mix. I loved the part between 4:30 and 6:30 where the sequencer bass is going. In general, I would add more low end sounds throughout for a more complete frequency spectrum, but much of this is a matter of taste ofcourse.

 

[BRADEL Christophe]

Hi Arjan, thank you for the compliments !
Indeed I agree with you and Mark concerning the sound of "sonar" ... it is the mastering which made it a little too strong… And indeed as the piece advances it is less and less strong because I put more and more low-pass filter, to generate a distancing effect, which contrasts with the aggressiveness of the very first sonar hits.
What you say about the low end frequencies is interesting, because it reminds me to be careful about this. I love bass sounds, and I'll be more attentive about those frequencies in my next piece. In fact, that will make it different from this last one !

Thank you for helping me see things more clearly.
We need the ears of others to hear our music better!

 

[-mjk-]

Hello Christophe,

The tune has passed my "Surface Pro 7" test, where I listen to it on the tiny speakers of the SP7 first. If I hear width and a good spectrum on those then I know something is going to sound good on the studio monitors. I'm going to take a listen later today when I start my studio production work for the day but right off it sounds great.

 

[BRADEL Christophe]

Hello MJK,
I'm glad this piece of music suits you so far, it gave me a lot of joy to compose.
Thank you for giving your time for me.

Have a nice day at work!

 

[BRADEL Christophe]

Hello everyone !

In application of the advice I've been given to, I've remixed and remastered "Inspire Galaxy part IV : breathe".

- I've specially corrected the saturation problem on the "sonar" like sound, while keeping the agressive big power of this sound. But it doesn't go in the red anymore (at least on my Tascam DP32sd)
- I also have shortened the length of the silence at the end of the track. (using a sweet fade out on the reverb, but that doesn't withdraw the feeling of infinity).
I'm not going to change the Youtube version for not to lose the views, but the Souncloud and Bandcamp version will be the newest one.

New Soundcloud version :
https://soundcloud.com/user-578840561/inspire-galaxy-part-iv-breathe

Have a nice listening and may God bless you !

Thank you very much again for your advice and support !

Christophe