I produce, wrote, performed on and mixed this song. Currently i think the levels are all OK, its no professional mix by any means but i think it currently sits nicely. But thats it. The song plays a lot with quiet and loud and i think some creative but subltle automation can really bring that edge in. Everything except the female vocals in the chorus are either midi or one shots so i have a lot of room to re-arrange.

But ultimately, I just want to bring that edge to the song. Can anyone give me some pointers on the mix?

Feel free to skip through the song as it changes a lil to get the full flavour (or enjoy the whole thing :D)

I’m not particularly familiar with this genre, and wouldn’t know where to look for a reference track, but I’ll share my general observations.

I think the whole thing would benefit from some additional density, so I’d start by parallel compressing – maybe as much as 6 – 7 db at roughly 50 percent wet.

When played at volume, the claps are very sharp and jarring. I can’t say which particular frequencies are the most abrasive, but in my “pretend master” version, I’m limiting the high frequencies, from roughly 5k and up, by a lot- between 6 and 8 db. I’d deal with that differently at the mix level, of course, with some combination of volume, limiting, and EQ.

A couple other things I’d do: Add a bit of early reflection ‘verb. Roughly -20db. And, I’d add some mids- a broad boost of 1.5 to 2 db centered at 1k. Again, I have no genre specific reference, so extra mids might be a no go.

Here’s a volume matched version of the first “clappy section”, in which I’ve added early reflections, compression, and high frequency limiting.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/paje3...bq1wh4ipu&dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/10m90...ixkq11uaa&dl=0

And, then, there was silence....