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would love some feedback
Posted: Sun Jan 09, 2011 7:23 pm
by Wazazo
Hey, whats up? I'm very new to electronic music and ableton live and would love some feedback on a song I just made. The song isn't completely finished right now. I think it needs a better intro and outro. Anyway, Some feedback would be nice. I posted it on another forum and no responses yet... Oh yeah, and if it really does suck just tell me and I won't be ofended, I honestly have no idea what kind of music I want to continue making anyway.
http://soundcloud.com/musikninjaa/funky-fresh
Re: would love some feedback
Posted: Sun Jan 09, 2011 8:49 pm
by Jmoth
I'm no expert on dance music genres, nor do I like trying to fit music into neat little boxes, but if I had to guess I'd say that would probably be considered trance music.
As far as the track, I actually kind of liked the synth melodies. The one synth sounded very Deadmau5-like (and if you like deadmau5 then that's a good thing.) I do have to say that the drums were a bit cheesy sounding for me. Especially the snare. I think if you used some drums that had more boominess (whatever that means) to them then the track would sound better and fuller. Also the part from roughly 2:10-2:50 was a bit boring for my taste.
Overall not that bad. If I was in a club with a light show and that song was blasting through speakers I would certainly be dancing.
Re: would love some feedback
Posted: Mon Jan 10, 2011 12:41 am
by mescalinebanana
Nice track. It definitely has an old school vibe - I don't know if that's what you're going for, but I like it. I would probably call this psytrance or maybe progressive trance.
My comments on the mix:
The hats and snare are mixed a little high.
The lead synth line is cool, but also mixed too high so it overpowers everything else. I would definitely turn it down a bit and apply a reverb to space it out.
Overall, the mix needs a bit more space - the sounds are kind of crowded together and competing. Tasteful use of reverb and panning will help give it more depth and give the sounds some breathing room. Also maybe consider adding a spacey pad to float behind everything and create the space where the other sounds reside. You can also use automation to make the pad swell up to create tension for your builds and breaks.
I love your bassline, but it's a bit mono. Add some stereo effects to the high end (never the low end) to fatten it up. Here's an awesome tutorial for splitting the frequencies: http://www.quantizecourses.com/pages.php/?p=895
It's funny that Jmoth said he/she didn't like 2:10-2:50, as that was my favorite part of the track. Funky and punchy, that part benefits from the lack of reverb. If you add reverb to the mix elsewhere, I think you should automate it out for that part.
The lead synth line gets pretty monotonous. Vary it up a bit and/or bring in other elements to take its place and create more interest in the track.
As for the intro and outro needing work: join the club. I find intros in particular to be the hardest part of composition - I have a few tracks that are basically finished but I just can't figure out the intro. Pretty frustrating.
That's mostly all I can think of. Hope this helps.
Re: would love some feedback
Posted: Mon Jan 10, 2011 8:27 am
by Wazazo
Thanks for your advice guys. I'm already making some changes. Also, thanks for the link to that tutorial mescalinebanana. I always thought it was possible to break up one instrument and add effects to different parts of it but I didn't know how. I used the same thing on the tutorial to put effects on different drums in a single drum track. Anyway, thanks for the feedback.
Re: would love some feedback
Posted: Mon Jan 10, 2011 6:34 pm
by noizesurge
Having a listen now and enjoying the energy it has, so good work. One thing that immediately sticks out though is the initial kick drum is quieter than the snare - I think it would help to bring it up a little as it just seems a tad under powered in this particular mix.
You've got some nice sound design and textures going on, and the variety of synths you've used compliment each other well.
Structure is good although, like mescalinebanana said, some of the sounds do tend to be a bit relentless! Maybe a bit of a sweeping lo-pass filter just to add further movement might help.
Other than my first comment the mix is well balanced so well done. Good work, keep it up!
Re: would love some feedback
Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2011 5:40 am
by Wazazo
Thanks!
I tried to make a dubstep song today, I think that pretty soon dubstep will die though because the yah yah thing is awesome at first but then gets really annoying. Well, on my song at least. Anyway...
http://soundcloud.com/musikninjaa/dubstep
Re: would love some feedback
Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2011 6:19 am
by Trypset
listen to some proper oldschool dubstep
loefah, benga, old caspa, Compound One, XI......now thats dubstep....no yah yah shallow shit.....just sayin
If "dubstep" interest you check out the 06-08 stuff.
Re: would love some feedback
Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2011 7:05 am
by Wazazo
oh, I thought thats what made it dubstep.
Re: would love some feedback
Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2011 11:36 am
by guitFX
I like this track - the first one. From time to time i like to hear electronic music. And this track is a go. So why bothering about the genre. Is this so important ?
Re: would love some feedback
Posted: Wed Jan 12, 2011 4:43 am
by Wazazo
Good point and I totally agree! I hate genres actually.