My first track ever. Looking for advice. RHCP dance remix

[Joefro]

http://soundcloud.com/joe_fro/funky-monks-joefro-remix

Hello from Houston! I got Live 8 this year and have been messing around with it for a while trying to learn everything. Finally put my first entire track together, and would really appreciate feedback. This is a remix of the Red Hot Chili Pepper's "Funky Monks" off their best album - Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magic.

Some of the things I've tried to incorporate that I learned on these forums are:

*Side-chain the bass synth and main beat to the kick drum.

*Tried to pan things (L/R) a little bit so everything isn't straight mono, but by the time I read that advice I had already tracked all the drums together so my stereo is pretty minimal. My next track will have each drum on its own track.

Still need a lot of advice on production and mastering so I can get my bass and drums to be a lot "louder" and "fuller". Thanks and Happy 4th of July!

Joe

[Joefro]

Pretty slow around this forum I guess. So where to people go to get some advice on their music then? I know you can post to soundcloud, but how do you get some actual advice? Im not looking to "get my music out there" or publicize or anything. I'm just pretty isolated from a music community and like most people, learn a lot faster with a little help. Thanks.

[digitallush]

Hey man, just a quick word of advice - when you hear things more than 2 times in a row, general listeners will recognize it as a loop, and then the brain becomes bored. The bass lick in the first half is fun (and signature of rhcp), so even if you did alter it a bit / add in the backing drums, I'd recommend after you hear it once or twice, change it up. You can slice it up, or add in an additional cymbal or SOMETHING to hold the listener's interest - most people will listen through a loop or two, but after that, most people hit next.

[Joefro]

Hey digitiallush, thank you for your advice! I agree completely, and I know that the beginning is one of the weaker parts of this song, which is never good since you want to grab the listeners attention. I will go back and chop and mix up the main lick that is repeating.

Besides the musical aspects, did you (or anyone) have any production advice? This first track has really just been an exercise in trying to learn all of the features of Ableton. Thats why there are a lot of random fills and chops that dont really repeat a lot in the song, I was just trying the various phaser and wah effects. I also tried to get a decent amount of subbass, although I still think the decay is off on parts of the song.

I also still haven't learned much about put slight tuning variations and velocity variations to make things sound more authentic and less digital. What is the most effective way to do this? Thanks again for your advice! Joe

[Magik]

The drums in the intro don't seem to add anything to the song. In my opinion I would start the song with the bass that leads into the rest of the song.

[jcsmesquita]

Hey Joe!

I really like your track! It's funky fresh!

check out my first ableton track if you can, I'm also new to this and ain't part of any community yet - it'd be nice to get feedback from other people aside from family and friends!

cheers,
jc

[Joefro]

Thanks jc, glad you liked it! I'll head over and give your track a listen. Thanks for the recommendation Magik, I guess I was going for the traditional dance intro with just the beat for mixing. Overall I think the beginning is the weakest part of that song so Im going to go back in and chop out some of the repetitious parts in the buildup. Thanks!