F.73| Official Constructive Criticism Thread | MOD APPROVED

[Evolsine]

Offizier Wolfgang

This one feels promising. Progressive Trance going 140 BPM. I'm going to see if I can make some ambient pads using Massive later on. Don't mind the repetitious drum pattern. I plan on changing it later.

Alte Europa

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[Evolsine]

Layra-chan

Offizier Wolfgang

Layra-chan

Offizier Wolfgang

Layra-chan

Offizier Wolfgang

This one feels promising. Progressive Trance going 140 BPM. I'm going to see if I can make some ambient pads using Massive later on. Don't mind the repetitious drum pattern. I plan on changing it later.

Alte Europa

Could you actually post what you have without the drumming entirely? I think what you have is pretty good, except the drumming is both terrible (boring, too rumbly, too loud, too dry) and really distracting.

I was trying out different drum patterns earlier. I thought maybe a dubstep kind of beat would go well somewhere in the song. I just don't want to start the song out with a really generic beat. I know what I have posted now is just that, but still.

Piano and strings only:
Alte Europa

Looking at this, it appears that the strings may be too high.

I think the main melody line of the piano is a bit too loud compared to the lower notes.

Also I think the piece is actually fine devoid of drumming altogether; I'd actually probably just stick a subbass line to give it a bit of body and warmth instead of putting in any percussion.

The lower notes being the bassline, correct? The melody does seem to stand out quite a bit. As for sub-bass, do you mean an extra bass in there? I was considering putting a few more instruments here and there.

Bassline? I think I mean that the treble notes are quite a bit louder than the mid-range notes.
And yeah, I was thinking just layer in a soft subbass pad beneath everything.

I mean, by all means, you can also create instrumental trance out of this with some trance drum packs and a filtered saw wave, but why do it? I agree with the piece benefitting from low end.

[FVKK]

http://soundcloud.com/shawnbukle

Thank you.

[Layra-chan]

OIAM

http://soundcloud.com/shawnbukle

Thank you.

To You: The vocals are a bit too obviously built out of two or three samples and become very irritating very quickly.
The kick+clap section starting at about 3:10 is very abrupt and doesn't really go very well with the rest of the track, especially when you reintroduce the first kick pattern; the two kicks interfere.

Scrolls: Be careful with how much low-end you've got on the kick; it gets too loud if I don't have my sub turned down. It's too loud in general, anyway, to the point where I think it's causing major compression issues with regards to the rest of the instrumentation. Make sure you're not abusing a limiter or compressor on your master channel.

Final Test: At the point when you can see spikes in your waveform from your bass plucks, that might be a sign that it's too loud. Also everything else sounds terribly compressed. Which is weird, because other than the bassline, it doesn't sound too loud, and the pad was loud enough before the drums entered in. Which makes me think that your kick drum has a ton of inaudible sub energy that is eating up your headroom.
Playing with the subboost on my speakers confirms that. Filter/EQ that out.
I'm not sure if it's because the compression sort of eats away all of the accentuation, but the section from 1:40 to 2:18 just drones on for about twice as long as it should.

Alone: The drum rool is too loud compared to the single hits. I'm guessing that you're just triggering the kick without any editing anywhere, which means that the roll hits are just layering on top of each other and making them louder than they should be. Cut the release on those guys.
Again you have too much sub on the kick as well.
Also, could use some bass. Like, actual bass, not the kick being too loud.

Mystery: Your kick and bass don't like each other in the sub range. The kick is eaten quite a bit since it relies so much on the bass for energy. Also the hats are boring. Variation in velocity is important for hats.
Synth is way too loud.

[FVKK]

Layra-chan

OIAM

http://soundcloud.com/shawnbukle

Thank you.

To You: The vocals are a bit too obviously built out of two or three samples and become very irritating very quickly.
The kick+clap section starting at about 3:10 is very abrupt and doesn't really go very well with the rest of the track, especially when you reintroduce the first kick pattern; the two kicks interfere.

Scrolls: Be careful with how much low-end you've got on the kick; it gets too loud if I don't have my sub turned down. It's too loud in general, anyway, to the point where I think it's causing major compression issues with regards to the rest of the instrumentation. Make sure you're not abusing a limiter or compressor on your master channel.

Final Test: At the point when you can see spikes in your waveform from your bass plucks, that might be a sign that it's too loud. Also everything else sounds terribly compressed. Which is weird, because other than the bassline, it doesn't sound too loud, and the pad was loud enough before the drums entered in. Which makes me think that your kick drum has a ton of inaudible sub energy that is eating up your headroom.
Playing with the subboost on my speakers confirms that. Filter/EQ that out.
I'm not sure if it's because the compression sort of eats away all of the accentuation, but the section from 1:40 to 2:18 just drones on for about twice as long as it should.

Alone: The drum rool is too loud compared to the single hits. I'm guessing that you're just triggering the kick without any editing anywhere, which means that the roll hits are just layering on top of each other and making them louder than they should be. Cut the release on those guys.
Again you have too much sub on the kick as well.
Also, could use some bass. Like, actual bass, not the kick being too loud.

Mystery: Your kick and bass don't like each other in the sub range. The kick is eaten quite a bit since it relies so much on the bass for energy. Also the hats are boring. Variation in velocity is important for hats. Thanks, i'm still a beginner so I don't know anything really technical as far as how to improve the sound quality and what not .I'm so grateful for your time though
Synth is way too loud.

[Layra-chan]

First thing you need to do is to find your DAW's mixer. That's where all the problems are. Look for the master channel and see if there's anything on it. Also see if you're clipping (i.e. if the volume bar is going into the red).
Slap a high-pass filter on your kick drum. Also pull down the volume on the kick channel. If you've found the mixer, these shouldn't be too hard to do.

Also, are you listening through headphones or speakers? If you're listening through headphones, then you're probably not going to be able to hear the problems that I'm hearing, because headphones generally have bad bass response.

[Evolsine]

Layra-chan

First thing you need to do is to find your DAW's mixer. That's where all the problems are. Look for the master channel and see if there's anything on it. Also see if you're clipping (i.e. if the volume bar is going into the red).
Slap a high-pass filter on your kick drum. Also pull down the volume on the kick channel. If you've found the mixer, these shouldn't be too hard to do.

Also, are you listening through headphones or speakers? If you're listening through headphones, then you're probably not going to be able to hear the problems that I'm hearing, because headphones generally have bad bass response.

In my case my bass response is too heavy. I have to either tone down the bass or completely rework it on headphones.

[materva]

Made an acoustic/ electronic track.
music

[Layra-chan]

materva

Made an acoustic/ electronic track.
music

The vocals could be louder. The strummed guitar also could be a bit more varied, as opposed to just flat, constant strumstrumstrumstrumstrum.

[Evolsine]

materva

Made an acoustic/ electronic track.
music

Definitely up the singing in the track. Reminds me of Postal Service sans drums meet Tomorrow Never Knows '66

[materva]

Evolsine

materva

Made an acoustic/ electronic track.
music

Definitely up the singing in the track. Reminds me of Postal Service sans drums meet Tomorrow Never Knows '66

It's the first time I have recorded myself singing so I guess I am just shy.

[Layra-chan]

materva

Evolsine

materva

Made an acoustic/ electronic track.
music

Definitely up the singing in the track. Reminds me of Postal Service sans drums meet Tomorrow Never Knows '66

It's the first time I have recorded myself singing so I guess I am just shy.

You sound good! Just quiet.

[Evolsine]

Layra-chan

materva

Evolsine

materva

Made an acoustic/ electronic track.
music

Definitely up the singing in the track. Reminds me of Postal Service sans drums meet Tomorrow Never Knows '66

It's the first time I have recorded myself singing so I guess I am just shy.

You sound good! Just quiet.

Agreed.

[materva]

Upped the vocals. Better?

new

Think I am going to re-record the vocals. I can hear pitch imperfections now.

[peetar]

I remember I did this a while back ago, with ModPlug Tracker, it was kind of hard to get it together, since I didn't know anything about producing and made it in about 2 days of playing around with it. xD
I still don't know much about producing, but it's something that keeps getting my attention o: