work in progress or is it finished? harsh critisism please!!

[kev herb]

hi there every body i really think its finished but i never really know at this point and seem to keep going round and round in circles never knowing if its right or not so please please please by harsh/blunt/to the point about what you think (im a big boy now i can take it)

its called "Volts Army" and is kind of minimal/progressive but a bit experimental maybe too much so i dont know. its been produced in live8 with komplete5, psp oldtimer, psp vintage warmer and the lovely psp micro warmer which i love right now.

i have only posted a link to download it via megaupload as 320mp3 as i hate what soundcloud does to all my tracks with its shitty artifacts makes me wanna puke and after working hard on a track i want your opinion to be about the track how i produced it. any answers on how to deal with this will be greatly appreciated as i know it only affects a small few people.

thanks again and be harsh with your opinions below is the url.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=V9WZFKTR

[kamih]

I've never heard any artifacts on anything from soundcloud. You should give it another chance (try a different browser maybe), cause most people aren't going to bother if they can't stream the track or download it without waiting.

I did though, and I listened to it. Not really my kind of music (not melodic enough), but good production all around in my opinion.
I just feel like it doesn't really have a natural progression. I usually expect some sort of energy buildup, but here it seems like it's just different parts glued together.
I thought you had a good thing going with the piano/pads around 2:30, and was expecting to hear these again with full on beats later on, but it never happened.
But again, I don't usually listen to this type of music, so I may have missed the point

Thanks for sharing!
cheers

[kev herb]

first of id like to say thanks alot for taking a listen i really do appreciate it

with soundcloud i guess im just one of those unlucky few who get bad playback for some reason. there is a thread on their forum with quite a few people saying the same thing. it sometimes sounds a bit like the whole tune has been warped in beats mode then slowed down (obviously the track does not sound slower just the broken up sound part). i know most people dont ever have a problem so hey ill give it another go and enable download.

with the track i was trying to be quite experimental which can sometimes backfire i know and i tried to hold back from the big kick off/build up and tried to concentrate on intricate details but i agree its difficult to do that and keep natural flow. i guess i was trying to make one of those tracks that improve the more times you listen.

thanks again for your comment your a star ... wish me luck with soundcloud

[kev herb]

YES YES YES soundcloud does not sound that bad this time

so here is the link to the soundcloud player and remember i love all feedback...thanks

http://soundcloud.com/kev-herb/volts-army-320-mp3

[amigo]

First let me say that while there is still a market for this type of House I personally have grown tired of it.
So with that out of the way let's move on...

The production is top notch and your attention to the intricate parts is commendable as it shows. There is great use of space within the mix.
The breaks down are problably the best parts and more use of the piano and pad would have been nice. The piano break is sublime.

I will re-visit the track to see if it improves with each listen.

Thanks for sharing.

[kev herb]

Thank you amigo!! Really appreciate your comments.
Sorry it's not to your style but thankyou for being able to see past that and judge me on the production.

Maybe I should stop fighting the natural urge to write melody and accept it. It's just I love the bleeps and blobs type of music and want to write it so badly but the piano breakdown is to me so easy to write I feel guilty doing a whole melodic tune.
I'm just a techno head that needs more time that's all. Ha ha.

Thanks again.

[stonee]

I would suggest maybe some sort of gentle pitch doodling on the repetitive blippy part at some point through the song, just to give it a bit of motion. it will also help add a nice groove to the song.

[yleh8k]

RE: Soundcloud.. it's weird, I noticed that my tracks were just a lot QUIETER when played on SC than on, say, Winamp. It was frustrating, but I figured it had to do with mastering the track or something (although that still wouldn't explain why some songs' volume relative to others would still shrink down only on SC...)

Anyway, nice enough track mate.. It's really up to you whether or not it's finished. There are some things I'd tweak and some things I'd add, but that comes down to personal taste. The only things I can 'absolutely' recommend doing before it's completed are to squash the intro so it's fully kicking before the 1:00 mark (rather than 1:30), and to make the bass louder, more prominent during the drop section. But even those points you can disregard with a "pfft" if it'd change the overall balance you're aiming for.
Anyways, cheers.

[som]

Spoken technically a very good track. Minimal is a little bit "empty" for my taste, but the musical elements will benefit from that.

[MacGuffin]

I would suggest maybe some sort of gentle pitch doodling on the repetitive blippy part at some point through the song, just to give it a bit of motion. it will also help add a nice groove to the song.

+1

The rest of the track is excellent, just a little bit of modulation on those square-wavey bleeps would make it more interesting.


keep up the good work!

[kev herb]

Been away from the comp for a couple of days. Thank you to everyone that took the time to have a listen and leave a comment there are some good points here.
I agree it needs some form of movement on the bleep and maybe some groove quantisation on it also. I am a believer in the fact that constant modulation and envelope changing throughout a track so slight that it's not heard does keep people listening as the sub concious hears the change but not you if you know what I mean but I didn't put any on the bleep sound for some reason and everyone has spotted it so good listening everyone! It does become a bit drill like to the side of the head

All comments gladly taken on board and thanks again.

It's a funny old game this production lark!