First C6 Song: "Cold" featuring vox by Aradia

Here’s my first song mixed with Cubase 6, please send feedback!

Featuring the vocal performance from the amazing Aradia, this “lounge”/downtempo song was mixed entirely using Cubase.

And, in honor of the release date of Omnisphere 1.5, this song contains only Spectrasonics instruments: Keys: Omnisphere, Bass: Trilian, Percussion: Stylus RMX.

Thanks for all the listens. This song had over 250 streams + downloads since I posted! And I received some very nice compliments on it as well. I’m glad so many folks enjoyed it.

Next up something way more moody and disturbing.

Hey Darren.
Nice piece. Love the vocal track from Aradia.
Downtempo isn’t my genre, so I’m not sure how to critique, but the only thing that
I’d like to hear is for the drum track to simplify a bit when her singing come in.
Maybe not such a busy kick drum in those verses. That’s the only thing I find distracting, given
the smooth and sultry way she sings, the rhythm is a bit distracting to me there. If you simplify the
verse rhythm it might make for a nice contrast when it’s busier in the other parts.

Anyway - nice track, and thanks for sharing.

Lenny

I think it’s wonderful

I do agree with Lenny, the drum track is just a tad too busy – competing with vocal for attention. Since this is Stylus, I think just a minor change would be very effective

nice track…drums too busy+ the bass drum too loud???

nice ,like the mono effect in the middle and the hi hats all round ,reminds me of an up to date sade ,i`m a bit out of touch with whats happening at the moment but it sounds good to me .nice mix

Thanks guys! Almost 400 streams and downloads and a good number of downloads on the whole ‘virtual album’.

I will listen again with an eye to the drums. One thing I have noticed as I listen to newer versus older (80s-90s) recordings is the drums are mixed much louder in more recent recordings. I guess this is the influence of hip hop on pop music. I like it that way but I will listen more for competing complexity. I figured because they’re in different registers it wouldn’t matter as much.

Thanks again!

Forgot to mention that I achieved that effect with the good old stereo spread plug that comes stock with Cubase. A touch of that to keep the drums out of the way of the vox.

Nice track. I’m gonna agree with previous mentions of the drums being too busy. However, I’d suggest a different approach… to my ears, this tune has kind of a sultry driving feel to it. I think the kick and bass are needed to provide that. I would try a different snare sound only during the vocal segments. I dont even know that I would “simplify” it. The snare hits give it a very syncopated feel that you’d lose if you simplified it. It’s just too dominant a sound and, to my ears, fight with the vocals for attention.

For example, keep the track as it is from 00:00 thru 00:15, then drop in a different snare sound…something much more laid back…maybe even just radically eq it (take most of the body out of it and make it sound more like a brush perhaps???), just get it out of the way of the vocals. At about 00:45 bring it back in.

Nice track! I like it!

Thanks. I’ll have to dig into the stylus RMX manual and see if there’s a way to separate just the snare to another output and automate in an eq change to see if that does the trick. If anyone has done this before LMK. Seems like I could duplicate the whole track onto another RMX output and but then I’d have to manually remove all the snare hits. The way stylus works they’re not all on the same midi note like they would be on a traditional drum kit.

Update!

So in Stylus RMX, it’s as easy as lowering the velocity of any given segment to make it quieter. Totally intuitive and the first thing I tried without even Reading the Fing Manual. Nice.

Here is a NEW mix with that and several other alterations. Please let me know what you think of the update. The old mix is still available on the Light album download. Both are freely downloadable in many high quality formats for sampling.

http://lightsfadelow.com/track/cold-new-test-mix

About a million miles from my genre, but I can admire it lots. I think the singer is a wee bit special. Can’t comment on the mix or production except I think if it’s a representation of your stuff generally, it deserves much success. :sunglasses:

Hi

Not really my kind of stuff but it sounds very well done.

Cheers

Thanks guys! Did you prefer one mix over the other?

I listened to both one after the other and didn’t notice much, if any, difference, and most noticeably,
the drum track during the verse didn’t seem to be simplified as you said you’d do.
Has it been tweaked yet? It’s still too busy for my tastes, but it’s only you who needs to be pleased with it. :slight_smile:

Lenny

I cut the volume of the snare a lot. That was the biggest change I made to the drum track. Removing it alttogether didn’t work well. But I tried.