Sea To Sky: some nice electronica with a piano

Hi – my latest track I’d like to share with you for your pleasure and some constructive criticism.

I’ve enjoyed making this and I’m pleased with the sounds and production feel to it. The only thing is still the arrangement almost entirely consists of layers buildling up and down, and I’m finding it hard to break out of that in my tracks (been experimenting with music for almost a year now). Any thoughts appreciated, thanks!

http://soundcloud.com/markwax/sea-to-sky

Very elegant work. Music is special due to its deliberation and sofntess of lines. With each beat, the track discloses its beauty; first, it’s piano tune and vocal sample, then lead piano enters the theme developing its own melodics. Electronic effects match the track greatly, switching on and off in time. Bridge is worked out nicely. Kick is slightly rude, in my opinion. In general, this track was interesting and pleasant to listen to.

Cool, a proper review! Thanks for the kind words.

The kick is something of a learning curve for me. I’m finding in my tracks that it can come out very different to what I intended. For the main production I used my Yamaha HS80 speakers. Things seemed to improve when I started listening on my headphones to check, and used a filter to take out the very low frequencies. I did try it a little lower but it seemd to get lost in the mix, maybe it’d be worth experimenting with some different kick sounds.

Glad you enjoyed the track – thanks.

Not too bad on the whole, but I agree that the kick drum is too aggressive.

I might suggest dropping the kick volume and if necessary looking at the sound graph on Renoise to see how it shapes up relative to other tracks to get some balance. You can drop volume without losing much punch by doing a little bit of ducking on other tracks, or by adding effects which highlight it a bit.

To solve the problem of just building layers, try the following strategy: choose a layer and with every repetition of the track, change something about it. Change it again, and again, and again until in the end it is barely recognisable.

Now do the same thing to each other repetitive track, and guide your melody voice(s) with those changes in mind, and you’ll have a much more varied feel.

I might suggest dropping the kick volume and if necessary looking at the sound graph on Renoise to see how it shapes up relative to other tracks to get some balance. You can drop volume without losing much punch by doing a little bit of ducking on other tracks, or by adding effects which highlight it a bit.

Thanks for the tip. There’s actually already a fair amount of sidechaining of compressors, and then the final output is compressed too (though I didn’t go as far as to use a multiband or anything fancy)

Is the general opinion that it’s just at the start that the kick is a bit brutal, or throughout the whole track?

I did try it quieter when I was producing the track, but it meant the kick tended to get lost below everything else. And definitely it’s jarring at the start so you don’t forget it – certainly I noticed it in my friend’s car. But once the track was in flow it didn’t seem to be an issue. So maybe I just need to quieten it at the start.

Anyway, less talk more action – I can easily try this, just when I get some time to open Renoise again :frowning:

Thanks

nice and chill. :slight_smile: