Best (and worst) mixed & mastered tracks

Altair

Member
Dec 24, 2022
158 Posts
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Canada
Website
altairsjh.bandcamp.com
Let's come at it from more of an audiophile and production angle: post trance/dance/electronic tracks that you think are excellently and awfully mixed and mastered, regardless of how you like the music compositionally.

I'll start:

I consider Solar Fields' Random Friday to be one of the best-mixed trance albums I've ever heard to this day

And while I'm not the biggest fan of what Above & Beyond have done over the past eight years, I think their mixing has been top notch - razor sharp, no muddiness, and pleasantly deep and punchy bass:

Meanwhile: this cut off of an old Armada 50 Trance Tunes comp I found, despite its otherwise pleasing progressive vibes, is so badly mixed and mastered that it's nearly unlistenable. A song I want to like, but painfully cannot:
 
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dmgtz96

Elite Member
Jul 13, 2020
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The Blizzard - Kalopsia always sounded weird to me. I'm not sure if it's the mastering or something else, but it feels off



Sean Tyas - Drop. The kick is so loud to the point that it overtakes the bass. The waveform for this track looks pretty bad. Due to how loud the low ends are, the melody cannot breathe properly.


For a controversial one, The Age of Love - The Age of Love (Watch out for Stella Mix):

I don't understand why they had to make that acid section so loud. It takes away from the rest of the track. If I listen to it, I shouldn't have to turn down the volume when that acid line appears. The waveform for this is also pretty bad.
 
Oct 7, 2022
149 Posts
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Bremen
Website
trance.jonasfaupel.com
The Blizzard - Kalopsia always sounded weird to me. I'm not sure if it's the mastering or something else, but it feels off
The mastering is alright, I think it rather is the mixing. Many people try to fix mixes with mastering but it mostly turns bad. This is acctually a great example on why the real work should be put into mixing (not that I am a super proffesional mixing engineer).
 
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