Newbie desperately needing opinions off experienced users!!!

[Gtrance]

hello everyone. would love to hear any opinions on two tunes ive done on ableton. Still new to music production so i know it dont sound great. Any advice/opnions would be great. There are 3 tunes on this link. Ignore the gump tune, that was something i did just playing around in ableton (though if you like forrest gump you might enjoy it). Its the other two I'd like opnions on - "The Begininng" and "Time to Stop."

Thanks for your time.

Greg

The link is www.myspace.com/gumpproject

[Gtrance]

Nobody

[pulsoc]

Time to Stop - nice filter sweeps, I don't like the glitchy sound on the stab synth, but I do like the progression. Maybe there is a different way to do the rhythm?

The Beginning - interesting arp progression there. Is that based on something classical? I got kinda bored with it but this isn't really my style of music either.

The Gump Project - LMAO

[Gtrance]

Thanks a lot for the feedback mate. Have thought myself that the general rhythm of "Time to Stop" wasnt quite right but i seemed to run out of ideas. "The Beginning" isnt based on anything classical.

Cheers again for the feedback.

[pulsoc]

To clarify, I was only refering to the rhythm for the synth stab.

[djfm]

put some more percussion in there and effects
plus a bit of variation and you got a decent track

[Gtrance]

General feedback I've had from a few people is to get more variation on the drums and percussion. Never realised how much proper producers must vary their drum loops. When you are an average joe listener the loop seems to stay the same but its only now Im starting to produce stuff I realise that you need plenty of variation to keep people interested.

Sorry Pulsoc I thought you meant the general rhythm of the track. But i will go back and play around with the synth stab to see if a different rhythm might give a better groove to the track.

[shaneblyth]

hello everyone. would love to hear any opinions on two tunes ive done on ableton. Still new to music production so i know it dont sound great. Any advice/opnions would be great. There are 3 tunes on this link. Ignore the gump tune, that was something i did just playing around in ableton (though if you like forrest gump you might enjoy it). Its the other two I'd like opnions on - "The Begininng" and "Time to Stop."

Thanks for your time.

Greg

The link is www.myspace.com/gumpproject

time to stop sounds a little harsh on my powerbook
It feels like it needs some fine tuning to get the nice smooth shine to it. Have you run it through a compressor plugin and used something like the izotope plugins or something similar to really tweak the eq overall and on each track ? Often the reason a cd sounds so good is all the work like this put into it. Maybe you could "double " a few of the tracks to thincken them up abit and make the it sound "bigger"

It just needs the final touches which can take quite a long time and a delicate ear to get it sounding "CD" quality

[Gtrance]

Compression is something I am desperately trying to understand. Whilst I know what a compressor does, I really struggle to use it in practice. All I seem to do with it is make sounds louder.

I will try doubling up certain sounds. Havent done this before but i have heard it is a good way of thickening things up

[pulsoc]

General feedback I've had from a few people is to get more variation on the drums and percussion. Never realised how much proper producers must vary their drum loops. When you are an average joe listener the loop seems to stay the same but its only now Im starting to produce stuff I realise that you need plenty of variation to keep people interested.

Sorry Pulsoc I thought you meant the general rhythm of the track. But i will go back and play around with the synth stab to see if a different rhythm might give a better groove to the track.

I think one of the toughest things to do is produce enough variation to keep the track engaging. Don't be afraid to step away from the "loop" tendency. You can use elements (like a roll or stab) once in a blue moon to add variation, and I have been experimenting with different kinds of dropouts - like mute everything but the high frequency on one of your tracks, gradually bring the mids up on it, then BAM everything comes back in. There is an endless opportunity to learn, and Rome wasn't built in a day, so keep trying new things.

[Gtrance]

I think one of the toughest things to do is produce enough variation to keep the track engaging. Don't be afraid to step away from the "loop" tendency. You can use elements (like a roll or stab) once in a blue moon to add variation, and I have been experimenting with different kinds of dropouts - like mute everything but the high frequency on one of your tracks, gradually bring the mids up on it, then BAM everything comes back in. There is an endless opportunity to learn, and Rome wasn't built in a day, so keep trying new things.

Im gonna go back and really try to add lots of variety (without losing general structure of course). Feel really inspired to work on it again now. I think that without hearing outside opinions it can be very hard to improve a track. I would listen to it and it just seemed stale with no where to go. Find it hard to get fresh inspiration once i've worked at the same track for a while. Often get tempted just to wrap it up and go on to something else.

But feel now that there are lots of things I can try and do to make it better. Once I've worked at it I will post it back on here to see what you think.

[pulsoc]

I just uploaded a new track, I think it uses variation fairly effectively. Check it out if you like http://pulsoc.com/Phone%20Creeps.mp3