Well yes, i was listening again today on my ipod and also found that the drums need more definition… i’m not good at mastering, 'cause i liked the sound on my monitors…!
i actually already use the off command to separate each sound but i do it just before the next sound, i should maybe try to do it a little longer…
the tracking is really basic, i have recorded 4 bars on my acoustic drumkit, then i’ve slice it and track at 400bpm / 8LPB
hehe the vocal samples are just stupid non-sens sentences recorded with speech generator
Try and give feedback before you ask for it please.
I like the way your tune builds on top of it self it’s really funky. The two criticisms I have are that the clap makes it sound a bit cheesy to me, I’d have opted to use like a really short female vocal or something like that instead, and it could do with another section on top with a more definite ending.
Peace.
You’re English is better than a lot of English peoples.
Thanks for the words man. I dunno what your recording set up is but maybe replace them for well recorded single hits from a sample pack might add more definition.
Very basic, just a bit of a piss take really. I had the tune stuck in my head all of yesterday and couldn’t sleep so made this. I might expand on it, add the bridges back in and mash them up a bit. Have some sub bass sines in there following the original chord progression maybe.
Hope you enjoy and don’t brand me a musical heathen
For example what you can do, instead of having most things central have like a hi hat panned a bit to the left, main snare a bit to the right etc. If you listen to some of the old Kraftwerk stuff youll notice some sounds are panned right to the left and others to the right, this gives their old tunes made in the 70’s a perfect example of a very good stereo image. Though sub bass below 65Hz should ideally be mono, this is where I put the stereo expander on mono. You can also use an LFO device and set it to panning, and then setup some panning FX there, this works a treat also.
about panning: i always have the issue that my track feels unbalanced with respect to the panning whenever i start trying out panning settings. like it is leaning left or right, if you know what i mean. i know this issue can be resolved by carefully re-balancing stuff, panning other stuff to the right when you got too much weight on the left side and such, but i find it quite difficult to do. proper panning is an art in itself.
because of this i often just do either a Phaser with Autopan preset (customized), or an LFO attached to the pan setting. when you have something like a short-note instrument and you want to make each note pan left then right, so go left-right-left-right-left-right with each subsequent note, check out this thread i wrote some time ago: https://forum.renoise.com/t/sorta-auto-pan/32680 (that thread has my own method as well as an additional bonus method by dblue!)
@Dainhumain: about your track: i think it sounds really good. what i’d add is some short notes, like a very high pitched piano or something really short and spikey like that (or just short sine/square bleeps sound great too) as an accompaniment somewhere. it sounds pretty much low-end to me and lots of kinda-long sounds so i think some short spikes might be nice. just for your consideration.
@ex-sedate: i really like that idea. you should do some more mastering because it does not feel as a ‘whole’ now, more like a beat thrown behind the vocals. this might change when you add the bass you’re talking about though. also, i’d do some glitchy chops on the vocals as well, make it blend in with the choppy beats a bit more. try some 0Exx stuff etc.
also, the original song has a great flow in it that your beats now seem to take away. the beats ‘take over’ from the original flow, or so it seems. i think you could very well remedy this with your planned bassline, making it a sort of dubsteppy bass which flows and drives the song so the original flow is retained somewhat again.
this could be a really good remix!
just for the sake of it i’ll share something of my own. this was my entry for the Renoise Knockout Compo Round 2. obviously needs mastering etc. had 3,5 hours of time, spent 2,5 hours because i left for holiday in Italy the next day. still, it got me through the the semi-finals!
@ToybOx: please be so kind as to follow the instructions set in the 1st post: comment on one of the songs posted here before posting your own, so that we won’t end up with a thread full of posts and no comments.
Yes, panning can be a pain, I get it allot. I’ll try and do some panning FX and it don’t sound right etc, it’s all about experimenting and ill check your thread out.
Thanks for the tip on the track also, I’ll see if can add something in there.
I like the intro noise on your track you posted, and the background noises / FX that are there.
I like your track ToyBox! Good breaks. Personally id use the sound that drops at 1:18 a bit more, there’s allot of tight noises in the track, I think break it up with some of those long noises would be good, but it’s a personal thing! Id play it out, would be good to mix with (Love Vinyl here)
This is what I thought, I just don’t really know how to remedy it. I’m off for the weekend now, new monitors should be here by the time I get back so I should be able to make a better take.
@rhowaldt: I REALLY like what you did in three hours there. It’s an extremely dark track with an entrancing, complex melody and much interesting stuff happening in the background. But yes, there were a couple of things you could of done to master it.
The intro is full and flawless. However, the drop into the meat of the song results in a significant loss of stereo image and wouldn’t hurt with some massive, slow panning {as seen in BARTELS “White Grade (Remain)” about twenty-one seconds in} - on that airy flute thingy especially. Additionally, letting some more high frequencies cut through the mix overall - like them drums - and panning said frequencies instead of suppresing them so heavily with a filter would improve the lacking mastering tremendously.
Not a big fan of the low, old-skoolish synth starting at 1:18, it seems a bit corny and doesn’t fit in all that well. I’d replace that with something else entirely while making sure not to sacrifice the hella good dark vibe you’ve got going. On the other hand, that synth towards the end is really bloody amazing and should never be removed. Ever. I love that melody so much.
@Toyb0x: MASSIVE. ABSOLUTELY MASSIVE TRACK - but not my style of music. Whatever the heck you did at 1:20 is truly genius, but most of the other parts are way to hardcore and compressed for me. Peronally I’d stick a big, atmospheric, glitch-laden break in there from all that madness during one of those walls of sound, but that’s a matter of taste and can be disregarded completely if you like yer ear-bashing stomper as is.
Anyways, here’s a pseudo-ambient track of mine that copies the sound design and meta device tutorial by only using one sine sound and no external VSTs for everything - going to add more based on requests and such:
For future reference - may we post more than one track if we review more than one? Have loads and loads of unfinished WIPs and concepts here that are just screaming for expansion.
@TI: That’s really impressive, I’d love to see the .xnrs file for it, I think I could learn a lot from it. But I think that it might be your restrictions that is holding you back on this one, in most ambient pieces that I really enjoy it seems as if sounds are coming together from everywhere and forming an entire surrounding of music while in your track it seems as if all the sounds are coming from a single source. I’m sorry do be abstract in my criticism, but I think it needs a background so to speak.
I really need some help with this one. I have the motif and percussion down pretty much the way I want it, but I have no idea where to go with it compositionally… The way I usually compose my music simply don’t fit this piece. I’d really appreciate any advice.
I’m afraid that the thing it really need is a song, since it’s a lot more pop inspired than anything I’ve done yet, but I’ve never worked with vocals and I’m not at all a good singer.
yes. i have had those times when i have made something that i realized would need some vocals to make it work, and i’m with you on the singing stuff, not experienced with it much and not up to singing myself. i will try and give you some tips though, from what little experience i have.
you could sing something yourself. really, you could. as long as you make sure that everything is in key, you can then throw some effects on to touch up the voice. this song, imo, could even benefit from some very soft, reverbed, effected singing, and that is something you could really do.
what you could also try is do something with vocoding your voice. that way you don’t really have to sing but you can just talk, and vocode that shit into a proper melody/singing line. this can sound really awesome.
another option would be to use a text2speech thingy to provide you with the vocals. can yield pretty cool results.
so my advice would be to just give it a go. experiment with some of the stuff i mentioned, and if it does not turn out okay at least you’ll have gained some experience in this department.
(also, i had to laugh because it sounds a bit like Owl City, which is not cool at all, but i like this tune a lot more i must say, so sorry if that offended you - oh, you should check out music by The Postal Service… just a single album but that is what that ‘Owl City-sound’ is when you do it correct, and it might give you some inspiration for your song!
Personally, I would stick the note C on the first measure of the 4/4 beat, A# (three semitones down from C) on the third measure, and D# (three up from C) on the third. Funk that pattern up a little and make it work for this particular beat via frequent octave changing and glitching and you’ve got yourself a good basis. Really distorting the bassline while keeping the low frequencies - multiband send to the rescue - and perhaps layering some flowy treble melodies on top of that the as the song progresses wouldn’t hurt either, as well as cutting and panning the vocals more in a melodic fashion.
A drop into the main bit would work well at 0:11, just apply some sort of reversed cymbal sound or air whoosh before that bit and let a wide, driving bassline (driving as at 0:22 mins in this song) and more flowy, dynamic drums make it for you. That’s all I can really think of.
Anywho, second WIP of the earlier tune, meshed together more and much fuller. Again, uses only the in-DAW chipsine for drums and all.
Good track!! I’ve not heard much reggae-infused breakbeats like this. Definitely got a very relaxed atmosphere, the original is showing through and not being bombarded with sound from all fronts. I thought I could hear some small - in my ears awesome - edits in the vocal, especially toward the end.
Here’s my new work in progress, “Power of N” which consist of five samples being pulled through the notes on wheels sequencer. It’s an excerpt from a longer track with two parts, but I’m considering splitting it up because I really like that this thing just keeps on building to the point where it spills over and disintegrates:
- oh, you should check out music by The Postal Service… just a single album but that is what that ‘Owl City-sound’ is when you do it correct, and it might give you some inspiration for your song!