@oleg71 vocals! Massive bonus for points for that. It has post-punk/new wave vibes from the late 70s / early 80s.
If you don’t mind me saying, I think your track is not as strong as it could be. Part of that is the production. It feels muddy & dark. I think it would benefit from a tighter mix. A bit more compression on the individual tracks, give them all a bit more bite.
The other aspect that I think it is holding it back is that the energy level through the track is constant. Just a flat line. I could be generous and interpret it as a meta comment on how AI is turning everything into monotonous robots. But I think the listening experience would be better if there were some shifts in energy. Anyway, that’s just how I feel about it.
@Zoiper Takes a moment to get going. But I like what it grows into.
Yes, if you split and divide them over and over again ending up in tiny, undefinable micro genres that actually sound the same.
I say it’s simply Trance. Period. Ambient Trance? Not really. The BPM is too fast, the kick too strong and the composition too “uplifting”. Anyway, I like the tune despite you’re using the clap the “wrong” way imo. One could use a clap that way of course, and there are a couple of tunes that did it exactly like that, but I think it’s better to use it as a snare replacement. Especially because in fact your track doesn’t have a snare.
I like the idea and the mood that you’ve created. But there are a couple of problems:
the vocals are completely out of sync
the vocals are twice as loud as the sound
there are a couple of pop sounds regarding the vocals
the mix is very flat, very muddy and weak without any punch
there are crooked notes especially in terms of the organ (for example at 1:36)
Nice vibe, I like it. Personally I would drop the breakbeat section starting at 2:26. Not because it’s bad and doesn’t match the sound in general, but It doesn’t fit to the style of beat that you’ve used before.
@TNT You are at least an honorary guard of the genre police. I don’t mean that as a bad thing. But rather that you have clear ideas about the subject.
I tend to think that if you want to label something as “trance” you are required, by international law as well as the laws of nature, to use stabs. But maybe that’s a very retro interpretation of trance. And ambient is such a vague and personal term it always fits if you think it fits. Regardless, I’ll try look into genres a bit more closely next time.
Oh, about the clap vs. snare thing. It has a practical reason. Currently I can patch up one or the other, not both.
As always, thank you for listening & your feedback. Much appreciated!
There’s nothing “vague” in terms of Ambient music. It’s similar to Chillout or Lounge music, but it has a different vibe. It’s more like from outer space, whereas Lounge has groove and often also uses “normal” instruments like organ and guitar, that also create some jazzy vibes. And Chillout is in between those two, but in contrary to Lounge it’s usually 100% electronic.
This is Ambient music:
This can be considered as Ambient Trance:
There’s also another type of Ambient, but usually it’s not music, instead there are calming sounds such like raindrops falling on a window or a crackling fire. But when we’re talking about Ambient MUSIC, then it’s pretty obvious that it’s calm, chilly “space music”.
@eretsua @ TNT Thanks for the feedback, this is super helpful and motivates me to work on an improved version of the Song ! (just wished I had more time for Renoise )
Thank you for listening eretsua! I did edit out some “atmosphere” since it was a bit long, perhaps I could have introduced the bass and drums at the same time to get to the point
Ok here an improved Version of the Song, still far from perfect but I think with more punch, new interim and end sequence and corrected some mistakes (Vocals still not 100 % synced, need another session to resing some of them, this is really hard with Renoise only…)
Just do it! That breakbeat section was great combined with that instrumentation, it just didn’t fit to the “main style of beat” of your song. IMO.
You definitely improved a lot. The mix is easy twice as good as before. Vocals and sound are almost equally loud now, time to make the vocals audible, too. If you want to improve the mix you need to finish the instrumental mix first, afterwards add the vocals. So first of all you need to get rid of the mud in the sound and to gain some bass as well as more punch. I would recommend to start with the kick, make sure it has some bass and puch (regardless if it’s supposed to dominate in the end or not). Add the bass, adjust the volume and make sure there’s no distortion (sidechaining also helps). Add the snare and adjust the volume, add the rest of the drums and adjust the volume, add an instrument and adjust the volume and so on. Check the mixing thread for mixing hints. But the least you need to do in terms of filtering and loudness is the following:
Activate auto gain and maximize the volume.
Put (at least) these (native) devices in your master track (right click to open a bigger version)
While mixing you can switch between mono and stereo by turning on/off the stereo expander (mono).
Put this in every track except kick and bass
These values are the average minimum requirements, of course you’d get better results if you check every track individually. But you need to get rid of those low ends (which prevents mud and gains loudness).
Thanks, yes will definitetly follow your advise, this will help me also with future projects. Will post again if I think I reached the next Level Mixing and Mastering is obviously not my favorite task but I understand that it is equally important as composing and texting, so I have to learn .
)
