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If you're going to mix in an untreated room then you have to use references. Even if you know your room, you're still gonna want something to compare your mix to just in case. Eventually we should all strive to treat our studio spaces but obviously that's not cheap or easy to do. In the meantime it's best to utilize what you have and keep improving your listening environment progressively. This is especially important for beginners that are worried about mixing in an untreated space. Don't wait until you have the perfect room, get started now and make improvements as you go. Like I said at the beginning, use references and you'll get by.

Skrillex mixed a lot of his early work on Sony MDR 7506s and then *verified* on monitors before release. Same with Tame Impala's album Currents and Porter Robinson with his Worlds album (Sea of Voices is one of the best mixes I've ever heard as far as electronic music goes) I think what matters most is just references tracks.

It should also be noted that there's a range of untreated rooms, same as there's a range of treated rooms. The best room I've been in, a Northward room, just let you hear the music, no mental calculations to correct things (sadly I was just a visitor and don't get to work in that room all the time). I've been in some studios where they were treated but in a way that lead to poor translation. Some untreated domestic rooms are actually quite good, some not as much. Like Kevin says above, you got to have some references. Know those references inside out. How does the bass sound, is it as tight in this room as usual or is it ringing at 160? How do the mids sound, are they blurry in this room and you're not able to hear that tiny bit of slap delay panned 5% right at :36? Having a playlist of songs like this is the best way to cut to the chase and know what you're dealing with. These days there's also great solutions like VSX that give a level of performance I would've killed for 25 years ago.

When you do treat your room a bit of research will help to put your resources to the best use. For domestic treatment Gerhard Westphalen has great info as well as SDP*LA.

Good afternoon Stelios, thank you for the post 😌😊 I thought I wouldn't make it this time (3 times 103 and once 102). Congratulations to you too: 104, yeah!

Let's go to more victories against the Aliens!

It's amazing how you consistently score such high numbers! If you didn't do it, I wouldn't think it was possibe.
Let's get 'em aliens!

Congrats Bill! ⭐⭐⭐

Fantastic!

Very nice! ⭐⭐⭐

Bravo!

Hi Rachel, congratulations on your first track! This a great first track, and you'll learn so much along the way. I have found getting feedback from others to be such a great way to learn! I think you've done a really nice job with the melodic and harmonic elements in terms of creating a mood.

I agree with others about the drums. I think the kick is loud and boomy, and that by and large they don't quite feel right in the track. It's very cool to do things differently, but I would say that since you are just getting started, it might be really helpful to just use some really standard beats. Depending how I'm counting, the snare is either landing on the one every two bars, or it's landing on the three. A typical drum beat will have the snare either on the two and four, or on the three if you are in half time, but this track isn't in half time.

Looking at the waveform, something is peaking way higher than the rest of the track--I can't tell what it is, but whatever it is is eating up a lot of headroom in your mix, so this would be an issue with gain staging. You probably don't need to worry about this too much at this time, but as you progress, it'll be worth learning more about that!

Lastly, I think there is a lot going on in the low frequency range, so it may help you to high pass some elements. Some people high bass everything that's not the kick or bass. Sometimes this is a good choice, and sometimes it's not. In this case, I think it would be worth it to try that out. Just high pass everything that isn't a kick or bass and you will notice that your track has more clarity, and that the low end instruments have more of their own space. Over time, you'll know when it's a good idea to do this, and when it isn't. For the time being, I think it can be helpful just as a listening exercise.

Thanks so much for sharing your track, it was cool to listen to, and I'm excited to hear your progress as you keep moving forward!

hi everyone :)) thank you all so much for your generous feedback. ive taken into account a lot of feedback about the drums and i tend to struggle with them because im using the presets given to me in logic, and theres so many of them that im not really sure what im looking for in drums. i also have no experience with drums, since i primarily play piano, guitar, violin and bass as well as vocals, so its hard for me to pick out which type of drum makes the right sound for my track. are there any pointers you guys could give me? or if theres any sample packs that you think are worth investing in that would be amazing too :))

Hi Rachel, this is such a big one. I'm sure logic has lots of great samples already, but finding more is one of the joys and curses of producing music. Same goes for choosing the right sounds.

It just so happens that lots of companies are giving away free sample packs for the upcoming holidays, so try a google search for free sample packs and see what you find. I wouldn't recommend spending any money on it just yet.

The answer to making better beats is to make lots of beats, so I'd suggest just making a ton of them, seeing what you like, and what you don't. It's also worth checking out some youtube tutorials about it to help get the basics down. You can probably be really specific in terms of choosing a genre, or even an artist that inspires you. Same with sound selection, it just helps to set up a basic beat and spend some time scrolling through your samples and see what sounds cool and what doesn't.

Another great thing to do is to copy beats by ear from tracks that you like. Logic has a stem splitter, so you can put a track in that you like, isolate the drums and then copy them.

Also, while it is totally unnecessary to learn how to synthesize drums, I do think that it can really help to train your ear, so I'd recommend looking into some of those tutorials as well. And, who knows, maybe you'll really enjoy it! It might be smart to download vital if you don't have it already. It's a free synth that is way more user friendly than the ones that come native on Logic, and you'll be able to find lots of drum synthesis tutorials for it.

Good luck, and happy producing!

Congrats on your Golden Ears Ian!!!

Fantastic!

Congrats Ian! ⭐⭐⭐

Got to Diamond with my old 7506's. Also have VSX as well now, even without the software I prefer them to the Sonys