plain finch
https://soundcloud.com/lloydy_ltd/trying-not-to-listen
This is the 2nd full track I have ever produced and the first I have ever attempted mixing and mastering.
I got a little impatient and bored with the lyrics so they repeat a lot. In the outro I can hear a small issue with the side-chain compression that knocks things out of sync.
The levels aren't quite right in the breakdown either.
Any and all feedback welcomed!
Posting to hold myself to account.
quiet raptor
Great work for your second track. There's a ton of stuff you are doing right. You have a solid arrangement/structure - very mixable.
Since you are so new, I have many more suggestions than what I am writing here, so feel free to DM me if you have further questions about anything specific. I'll try and stick to some of the things i think are most important
Grid - lots of sounds are too on the grid. Slightly delay or speed them up to move them off grid and this will humanize the song and add a bit of groove.
Levels - not quite there. Listen to some references and try and get your levels closer to theirs. There are some sounds that need to be much louder and more present in the mix. Remember loudness comes from good loud sounds and a clean mix, not from the master. So make sure your sounds are at the proper levels before mastering. Feel free to mix through a limiter on the master channel (make sure it is doing 2 or less gain reduction). This will help you reference to other songs because you will be mixing at a level that is close to what the final product will sound like. You may need to swap out sounds if you can't get them loud enough or if they are conflicting with one another.
Width - drop is very mono. buildup is very wide (with synth/vocals). This should be the opposite. You want the song to open up wide at the drop. Select sounds like synths/vocals/hats/claps can be widened to assist with such.
Builds (8 bars b4 the drop approaches) can use some more filtering out of the highs and lows, narrowing of the width/ filtering. See "Calm Before" plugin as an example - you can do all this with a utility, it just takes some time. Focus on tension and release here.
Kick sometimes has a click that sometimes sounds like its playing twice really quickly in succession, like there's a tiny clip of an extra kick overlapping with the actual kick
Kick I would shorten the tail a bit, as it is a bit long and that isn't quite the current style sound you hear in most tunes nowadays. Woudl also consider tuning the kick to the fifth of song's key, or maybe the minor third. It sounds like it is tuned to the 6th or something and is slightly off (this could be subjective though). May want to just swap out kick to something that has a bit more punch and natural loudness.
Drum progression / evolution throughout the track is needed. You want to add things throughout the track to keep them developing and keep it interesting. Extra hats, claps, snares, toms, rides, fills, etc...