Chill/Jazzy/Funky (Amon Tobin-ish) I would love some advice

[DirkDingleberry]

https://soundcloud.com/onderlust/cowboy ... ion-2-demo

Also, what do you think you would consider this genre? I didn't set out with any genres in mind so I don't know how to describe this to people I played guitar and bass, programmed the drums and threw some samples in on top. This is one of my first projects on Ableton so if it sounds like I'm doing something wrong let me know!

Don't hold back, I would much rather hear how terrible it is and how to make it better than to sugarcoat it

Thanks so much!

[Angstrom]

I'm not a giant fan of that bassline riff, too naive for me. It's neither economical nor making a statement, it's meandering but only in a placeholder kind of way. I like minimal basslines, I like hypnotic basslines, I like syncopated basslines, I like basslines which surprise, and basslines which get a nod on. This isnt any of those.

The movement it has is predictable and to my ear (which heard too much stoner festival spacerock) a bit one-finger trite. On the plus side when it's paired up later with the matching top line it does at least become a coherent sound slab.

Similarly. The funk guitar. What is its purpose here? No I don't mean an answer like "Sounding funky" . I mean - what is it adding to the narative. Why is it making an entrance there? To me again, sorry but predictable. That's like a pastiche of "funky guitar" . Aim higher. The tone is a basic strat into a channel sound and too high in the mix for what its doing which is essentially just tonal percussion.

Tobin would have the guitarist jam around, then chop it up and squash it to fuck and make an off-kilter melody out of it. We have the technology, if we aren't Carlos Alomar we can use control&E to make something equally personal.

Really what this track needs is a direction. It's currently a collection of disjointed parts. Its like a movie with no lead actor, disjointed editing and no narative or established tone.

You can probably salvage it, but you need to establish tone, setting, aims and objectives for it first.
Make it interesting, make it have a purpose. Dont just add parts because you have an open channel and an instrument to hand.
Give it some purpose.

[DirkDingleberry]

Thanks for the feedback.

I come from a background of playing in bands and I just got into making stuff on Ableton. This is only the second thing I've finished so far, so I'm still trying to figure out how to make stuff that isn't super loop-heavy that I can possibly perform live in the future. Most of this comes from a live take of the song on a Launchpad, so that may be why a lot of the parts may sound so repetitive and without purpose. I'll work on that. I'm also going to work on making parts more cohesive and flow better, for sure.

I really don't like the tone of the bass yet either, but part of my problem is an equipment limitation. I don't have amps right now for guitar or bass, so I'm stuck doing it digitally, and my interface is a bit cheap (Roland V-Studio 20), which means I have to heavily process things to make it not sound super thin. I'll definitely work on writing better parts rather than focusing so much on the mixing/engineering side of things.

Anyways, thanks again (I didn't mean to suggest that I thought this was on Tobin's level at all either, he's just an influence).

[Angstrom]

I'd say that if you are going to feature the guitar then really use it, bring it in early and use it to pull harmonically away from the tonal center to give tension. Pick a tone a little more unusual.

Imma point at Alomar again, here the funk quacks are strong, and lead the songs direction, but they are full of purpose and confidence,
http://youtu.be/6g34goy0mos

[slurm]

I enjoyed this track, it's trippy and weird. I agree that it's sort of disjointed but I think that's a valid musical device in songwriting.

I think some more contrast between the sections might be nice; ie using a different pickup on your guitar, or eqing it differently, or drastically altering the tone in some other way

OR going in the opposite direction, less abrupt / obvious section changes might be nice too, like if certain riffs were introduced in earlier sections, or came in on the last couple bars of the previous section; for example, the new riff at the 1-minute mark could start fading in towards the end of the previous section; could give the song more flow.

Anyway just some ideas. Cool track!