Ableton Forum

Hello, Ableton community. I've posted a new track online. I hope you like it. I've been listening to a lot of Weather Report and Return to Forever recently, and I'm trying to capture a little bit of the 70s fusion vibe. Any suggestions for improvement will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

https://soundcloud.com/yorick23/king-peter

I'm a big fan of fusion. As a bassist, most of what I record at home falls somewhere in the black hole between the trip-hop/fusion/space rock genres.

I like the top part of your track, the bottom not so much. As a bassist (again) I found the bass line overly simple and monotonous...not grooving! Certainly something Weather Report never had problems with Working up some bass ostinatos and less sparse percussion would really open up the track.

Also, I'd trim the intro. That's a mistake I almost always make, place a long spacey intro into a track and 90% of the time it ends up being deleted from the final mix. The point is to get the listener's ear hooked early than 90 seconds into the track!

Thank you! I've always struggled with bass lines. I thought I'd done a reasonably good job of keeping it varied, but I guess this is something that I need to continue working on. As somebody with zero musical education, I have no idea what ostinatos are. Off to Wikipedia I go ...

I agree with your comment regarding the intro. I had it there as a placeholder while I tried to figure out how to start the track, but it got kind of stuck there.

Thanks again!