MuTaNT•BReaKS••••#14 🙀

Ooh, an ounce of catnip would be a good prize :heart_eyes_cat:

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Lol its like you’re in my head. :rofl:

Edit responding to jorges plan to follow his cat around w his Zoom recorder. Clearly i dont know how to correctly quote on here

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:clownstep: :person_juggling: :person_cartwheeling:

Ah hey what’s goin on… hope everything is awesome for everyone = )

This is my submission for the compo, sounds best on a 2.1 at low/mid volume.
The track is 750k, no vst’s required, and for the point bonus, contains a short
affected sample of me singing (chuckles softly).

Please have a listen and feel welcome to comment, really value everyones feedback.

Jek_MinHouseCat_01.xrns (749.9 KB)

Updating file; fixed some errors in the fx column, also added some more meow:

Jek_MinHouseCat_01a.xrns (853.2 KB)

Version _02 in progress although it’s still got a ways to go, lot’s on the chopping block…
and stumbed across a whole new song idea in the process (chuckles softly).

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I started something a few days ago, with Renoise, with cat sounds, so yes, I’m defo in. :partying_face:

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nice tune! since you asked for feedback, I’ll offer some. the mix sounds very clear. nice work here. It’s a little slow moving in terms of thematic development. even in minimal styles it’s good to introduce some significant variation after two repetitions of an idea, as that’s how long it usually takes for an idea to “saturate” in the brain of the listener. You do keep it moving, which is great, but I feel like the opening section could develop a little faster, and that some of the elements that come in later on could enter less gradually/more dramatically. love the chill minimal house vibes. I’d dance to it :+1:

Solid entry :heart_eyes_cat: :black_cat: :cat2:

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Oh hey, terrific, thanks for listening and the feedback =)
Yeah, would really like to learn more about song structures; like
how many bars before changes, how to make better transitions, etc…

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Nice tune. I think it would have been cooler if you would have built the song around some cat stuff instead of using a single cat sample only 2 or 3 times in a 6 minute song. More cats, less minimal. But the song is good, even though it could be a little bit shorter. And don’t tell me that you’ve made all the samples from scratch… :upside_down_face:

Ok, so I’m in. I had a similar idea like @Jek, surprisingly found a small time frame and first made a pushing Techno track with a lot of cat purr as a bassline and similar stuff, but Renoise started to lag for whatever reason, so I quitted, grabbed another idea and created something else in my favorite style. Be prepared for some Catectro in January. I even created most of the instruments from scratch, even though I won’t get bonus points because it’s all VST stuff. As always there’s absolutely no native sound design in my tracks.

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Awesome, thanks for listening and the suggestions = )
Totally looking forward to hearing some Catelectro!

Glad to hear it :slight_smile:
The more the merrier :heart_eyes_cat::+1:

sorry @sokoban, I meant to reply to Jek. :grimacing:

@Jek Cool, but to be blunt, it sounds like it isn’t finished yet. The mix is great and it’s an excellent skeleton to hang a tune on. But as @slujr already mentioned, it lacks development. I realize you’re trying to make a minimal track but there’s nothing there that hooks me and makes me want to keep on listening. You could add melodies that carry it forward. Or some (rhythmic) tension. Some effects or do interesting things with the sound design to spice things up. Doesn’t have to be much. As it stands, I find it a good frame, a solid start but not a tune yet. Though I think you can turn into one.

And as @TNT said, I’d love to have the cat samples be more integrated into the tune rather than sprinkled on top of it.

There are some basic formula’s you can apply to song structures, plenty of videos on that over on youtube. But the best things you can do is to analyze some of your favorite tracks by big / commercial / successful artists within the genre of your choice. The ones that you feel are the best of the best. The cream of the crop

Find the bpm of the track, load into a DAW (can be Renoise) and count the bars before things change. Often looking at the waveform can give good hints on the different sections. Listens to how they build sections. Are they adding sounds, are they taking them away? What other sounds are there besides the drum and bass? Are those sounds static or are they changing? Etc, etc.

Ask yourself what are the similarities and what are the differences in between the tracks in terms of song structure. And how does that compare to yours? What do they do differently to keep things interesting.

Don’t copy it blindly, try to feel it. Some of your sections may need to be longer / shorter depending on how interesting they are. This is where tunes are forged and is worth spending time on.

Hope it helps!

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You can read The Manual (How to Have a Number One the Easy Way) from The KLF. It’s a bit old now (1988), but some concepts are still relevants.

Note that my contrib for MBC#14 won’t follow these rules at all :joy_cat:

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Just wait until you’ll hear the song. Maybe you’ll have to puke while listening to my song. :wink:

When I create electronic music just like Elektro or Synthwave some guys obviously think that the song structure needs to be like a classical piece of music, always new melodies, always changing and so on. If there’s some melody repeating (just like in any commercial song or in any common genre - and there’s also something called “hook”) they say either “repetitive” or “you already told that story”. I assume they don’t have any clou about electronic music. If you want to know how you need to go clubbing, and I did that A LOT. So just do what you want to do. There is no rule for how a song has to be build. Just listen to music and you’ll know how to build a song. And yes, the song structure depends strongly on the style you’re going to create.

Come on, 1988 was just yesterday. And The KLF rocks, especially “What Time Is Love”. Besides of that old songs are WAY BETTER than nowaday’s music, which always sounds the same and/or is just a remake of a remake of a remake in the worst execution you can imagine.

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@slujr Again, appreciate the tips on variation, repetition, and introduction of new sounds.
@eretsua Great tips and referencing is something ive not done much of at all; inspiring, this really helps!
@sokoban Oh cool, I recall Gaz talking about that manual, quite a story, downloaded it for later.
@T-ger DJ’ing does help with the mixing! And a tracker makes an excellent third turntable!!

Well, guess a v02 is worth a shot …still time left in the compo. Thanks everybody! = )

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That would be a first! :face_vomiting:

No Vsts or pre-rendered sequences used.
(Cat is at 2:52)

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I’m digging the tension in the first 90 seconds. That’s just lovely! The change that happens around 1:30 isn’t really my cup of tea. It gets a bit too whining for my taste. I feel the melody it loses momentum. Which may very well be intentionally but I’m not a fan of it, that’s all. The drums / the rhythm are nice there though. The switch around 3 minutes gets things going again in a way I quite like!

Not sure if I hear a cat there but if you’d said it was a cat at 2:40 and 2:47 I would have believed you. :joy:

Anyways, good stuff!

Fun fact is that I thought deadline was Jan 2, but no, it’s Feb 1.
So I was kind of “rushing” my compo for nothing.
Grumbling about Christmas that would be time consuming, lol.
Good news is that now, I have 6 weeks to polish the said track.
:joy: :thinking: :face_with_monocle: :joy:

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Or if you’re anything like me…5 weeks and 4 days to procrastinate and then panic. :sweat_smile:

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Thanks man, really appreciate it.

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