First Renoise Tracks And Very First Songs

I’ve been registered to the forum here now for over a year, but I haven’t really been tracking until the end of last year, when Renoise was ported to Linux too. I tried it every now and then on my parent’s computer which had Windows but never really focused on it.
So the first three tracks are from January this year and the last two are from the end of last month. Overall just not very well thought out.

http://www.box.net/shared/jd1dk8qquy
http://www.box.net/shared/2g9dfljjs4
http://www.box.net/shared/extha2tlck
These first tracks are a little boring and I was just trying to get at least something done, I have some ideas for them but I’m not too bothered about doing that so I consider them finished

http://www.box.net/shared/c79gcqrhip
Like the first tracks, just made after a month of tracking. I know the bass is a little off at least.

http://www.box.net/shared/pnt6mk0u75
This started from some 65 patterns of a breakbeat because I was just practicing the sample offset command, it ended up not exactly something I had in mind when I started changing it but it’ll do and I don’t know what to do with it anymore so I just stopped trying and just slapped some stuff over it :D Either way this is one of the first things I did put some thought in instead of just trying to figuer out how to use which command etc.

I know the mixing is quite a bit off on all of these so that is especially one of the things I’d like some advice on.

The first three are very drone ambient-like (except for the first one which has the boom-boom tap beat). Interesting samples and atmospheric effects on those. Maybe the 2nd track could be used as an intro to the 3rd?

The fourth track has good drum programming (loops?). I would suggest a fade-in at the very beginning of the track. The low synth or bass has a bit too much reverb for my taste. It gets muddy down there with that much reverb. I like the dub delay on the last drum hit (loop?).

On the fifth track, I like the trippy gnome laughs. The breaks and flute melody are cool. Now it needs a “B” section and perhaps a nice sinewave walking bass line with some synth chords to augment the pads. Sounds like a note got stuck at the end! Press the panic button! ;)

Were these tracks done using any 3rd party instrument plug-ins? If so, which ones? Do you use a MIDI keyboard to play in the notes or your computer keyboard, or both?

#1
I like the melody and harmonies… the instruments sound nice too.
I would prefer a little more complexity and interest with the beat too.
the panning sounds nice at the end… I’d say… fix the drumza and you’d have a fun tune to listen to here.
#2
i dig it :)
there are some interesting sounds here! :)
although, I was waiting for something else to happen. This one makes a good starting point.
marble halls
again… nice sounds but I want it to go somewhere.
#3
this one is more interesting… but I don’t care for the overall sound as much as i did the last ones. the stuff you did to the beat was fun
gnomecore
ha! (wheeee!)
this was fun with the samples. the beat sounds nice and there is some variation and interest :)
the fast part is pretty good… but I wish there was at least a little transition into it.
the flute sounds kinda silly, but I am guessing thats what you were going for :) I think its a little too overpowering though.
It reminds me of the Ocarina of time…

so there you go… take my opinion as if I don’t know what i am talking about. because i don’t. :) I like the ambience and feel of the first three, but would like to have some more complex rhythmic stuff going on.

Thanks for the feedback very much appreciated. Will keep those in mind. I was stuck with these either way so any ideas are welcome.

I know what you mean about them “not going anywhere”, that’s one of my problems right now, I’ve never written any music before so I don’t really know how to keep it interesting the whole way through, and I have a hard time figuring out what should I do after making the main theme or the basis of the whole thing, and when I do know what to do I don’t know how to do it :D

One loop that I changed with 09XX in the effect column.

The same as above and playing with the volume

I had Dreampoint’s Freeverb plugin on I think all of the three first songs for reverb. I don’t think I used anything else, just mutilated the samples with Renoise and used the internal effects. I often record a lot of the samples myself and then completely destroy them.

I use only my computer keyboard for now, my midi keyboard is awful and big so I can’t fit it anywhere near my computer right now.

:P Yeah, but you’ve still got ears and know what you like and what might sound good etc and that’s all that matters in my opinion.