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Spockie-Tech
Site Admin
Joined: 31 May 2004
Posts: 3160
Location: Melbourne, Australia
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Actually I was going to comment before but I was reading that message at some stupid hour of the morning so I was too tired at the time..
Keep in mind I'm a techie-type, which means I tend to focus on what "needs to be fixed" first, so the highest praise from me is to not be able to find much wrong with something to "fix", so dont take any negatives from me too hard..
For someone of your age, that is some good work..
Especially given that you used Cubase which is quite a tricky program to master, but worth it since it what all the pc-based pro muso's use nowadays (since Logic got bought by Apple).
Structurally, I found the CRC track had some good elements in it, but was a little "teasing", as in it always seemed to be building towards something, but never quite got there.. lots of big snare rolls, and good melody builds, but not much "meat" in the middle.. Once you do the big build, you have to follow it up with something related to the overall pattern to add another layer without cluttering it up too much..
Try using some automation on the EQ's and track panning to "move" some of the build sounds "out of the way" (some off to each one side, some to the other), or take down some of the midrange to keep them audible, but leave space to introduce a new sound without clashing or dropping the existing ones out.
On that note, "placing" your sounds in an imagined 3d space is important to give it "atmosphere". Putting all the sounds in the center sounds mushy.. again, Pan and Parametric EQ's on a track-by-track basis are what you want.. thats why pro-mixing studios have those huge desks with thousands of knobs on them. they allow the mix-engineer to precisly place each seperate sound in a different spot in the sonic space. Work on keeping your sounds away from each other frequency and panning-wise and they will come to life
Alos, the fuller your music is, the less room you have for interesting effect environments. Experiment with thinning out the mix, then filling it with ping-pong echo and delays, *Subtle* combinations of reverb and chorus and a slight dash of something weird and spacy. A muso friend of mine said effects are like food spices.. you dont make a dish with a pound of oregano.. Good use of effects should be such that you cant pick any one of them out on their own, but the tiniest touch of them all combine to add an indefineable but interesting "flavour".. So dont add enough reverb so its noticeable, *then* go and work on a different effect. Put a near-inaudible touch of one in and synergise it with something else.
Keep the effects to a "theme" to keep the environment constant.. dont paint half on canvas and half on paper any more than you would write half a book in one font then change to another half way through.
You have some nice sounds and some very good rhythms, your percussion patterns are pretty inventive and interesting but could probably do with a touch more variation over the course of the track. Imagine yourself to be a live drummer and put some "flourishes" in every 2 or 4 bars.. Some extra hi-hat's in the 16th or 32nd positiions and some off-beat kicks.
At the risk of sounding silly trying to sound in text.. doof-doof-doof-da-doof-doof-doof-doof-da-da-doof and slide the hi-hats around a bit as well to give it that "live drummer" feel rather than programmed patterns. Counterpoint and Segue give it life.
Keep the bass *tight*. Its a hard thing to define.. but imagine the sub-woofer as a skipping rope and your bassline as the wiggles in the rope. If the wiggles get out of control, the rope flops around like a spastic snake and the bass sounds muddy. Keeping a tight reign on that big speaker cone and making it hum and resonate rather than flap will give your bassline a deep groove. Again Careful EQ'ing and good bassline structure with appropriate spaces to keep the ball bouncing.. kind of like a basketball player running while dribbling the ball.. one push (note) in the wrong place and its off out of control..
The bit that needs the biggest improvement is your levels ! I could hear distortion creeping in in quite a few places here and there.. watch your level meters ! Especially when you have a few layers blending at once.. the bad part about digital/software gear is that distortion is *harsh*. Analog gear has a softer sound when overdriven. Digital *crunches*, so keep well away from the red.
If you want to write "Trance" as opposed to the simpler but energetic "techno" then find a copy of Native Instruments "Reaktor" or some other similair flexible midi-controlled modular software synth and play with the modules and preset examples in unusual ways. Cut-off Frequency and Resonance sweeps are so '90's-rave dahling
Tinker with the granular synthesis and midi-controlled comb filters and stuff like that. Formantor Vocal blocks and melody-pattern-controlled time-stretching and compression. Write a melody, but instead of using it to synth a note, use the pattern to tweak a melody line like you would tweak a knob with a sweep, but with structure instead of curves. Establish a rhythym then warp it about in audio-space according to another rhythym. Imagine the notes as carboard boxes of sounds, then write up and down the sides of the boxes.. Percussion-Pattern-controlled Audio Gates are good too for that stuttering "ah-ah-ahh-ah" effect.
I hope thats not getting too techie for you.
Like I said, overall I think you show a lot of promise, but I'm primarily a psy-trance DJ, which means about the most intricate multi-layered form of trance music there is, so I'm a harsh critic musically..
You've already taken a big step in actually finishing a couple of tracks and releasing them, so you're well on the way.. I have some old Dat tape recordings of artists who would send me music years back that sounded less polished than your tunes do and 3 years later they were playing at internatonal festivals in front of thousands and sounding very pro.. It easier to do that now too with the power of computers to make sound.. you dont need a studio full of vintage moog synths anymore.
Hows that for a detailed review.. keep up the good work ! _________________ Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people
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Fri Aug 26, 2005 2:27 am |
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