Hi! It’s Uncle Spam! I need a destructively honest opinion on a track I’m working on. It’s one of those obvious 125bpm dancefloor electro tracks, but I’m not sure about the arrangement and especially the sound of the leads. A track as blunt as this needs an arrangement that flows, but I don’t feel it’s ‘sticky’ right now. Also trying to create a sharp square-like sound for the lead, but don’t know how to layer it properly and with what. Not using any VST(i)s, because I have none. Hope you can find some time to share your critical ears!
Damn… I don’t know (yet) what to advise… but… I think the track is way too much messy for dancefloor… Oversqueezed and… that strange “melody”… It’s kinda hard to listen… imho…
Thanks, that IS spot on advice! Yeah, I can totally relate to what you guys are saying… It’s just D# and A#, rinse and repeat… the melody I tried to place ‘between’ the beats, make it more rhythmic than melodic, perhaps it needs a different approach. Perhaps that’s why it isn’t working well… more progression!!
As for oversqueezed, that’s the part I love the most, so I won’t be changing that… except maybe get it more under control. Still very much experimenting with eeter’s internal sidechaining.
DFast! How about we do that NOW? Shall I mail you something like this that I’m working on? Or you wanna start something off? A coop with you is very relevant to my interest.
If it were me, I’d just take those strings and make them bigger after the first breakdown. I’d probably add an octave up and some big uplift chord shift or something like that. I’d also pull some acapella and make it fit. Then again, thats just me and probably not what your going for. (In fairness you did just ask for ideas!) =)
I do love that warble bass thing you have going though. It sounds really good.
Out of curiosity, why don’t you have any VST’s? I have rob papen’s predator which is great for lead sounds. I think fabfilter twin also has a nice sound - and someone posted that alchemy is on sale for 50% off right now. If you are having a hard time getting good lead sounds, an investment into a good VST may make your life easier! (I know you can do lots inside Renoise, but I’m of the school of thought to use all the tools at my disposal).
Thanks for your thoughts! I did ask for your ideas As a matter of fact, I like your ideas of phattening up the strings, make them more ‘in your face’, bombastic, DRAMA! I’d also really like a vocal something going on, but I do not want to use an acapella because I want to do as much myself as possible. So perhaps record something or find someone who’d be interested in recording something for this track. Asking for singers has never been a success though…
As for why I don’t have plugins: I was really interested in buying either Massive or Albino 3. But I just payed off my iMac and can’t afford a financial catastrophe. 200 euros is a lot for me!! I could torrent, but I don’t like that. Thing is: I have nothing against external plugins, nor am I trying to restrain myself from using them (on the contrary! really interested in exploring the possibilities!). It’s just the cash I don’t have. Albino 3 is my next studio investment
Thanks a lot for your advice, guys! Track is updated!
Changed the chord progression, ditched the lead melody, layered the drama differently and did some changes in the routing of the track. Still need to polish up the mix a bit, I feel it needs more colour, but last saturday I was really happy with the track and curious how I feel about it tonight
Oh, and it was dropped in a club this weekend and I can proudly say people went bonkers, despite the dj-unfriendly arrangement and lacking mixdown
there’s bits of this which are nice, but it sounds too bulbously compressed, like it is this heaving mass of sound. i think there is a balance you’re looking for with this, because at the moment the drums don’t cut through, seems like they are being swallowed up by the rest of it. the same goes for bits like the little chiptune-sounding flourishes, they are nice but you can barely hear them. i think you need to strip it down, especially all those middle-range and bass sounds which you’ve got sidechained (?) on the off beat. reduce it to the basics. it may just be the way the particular frequency is resonating on my monitors, but the bass doesn’t sound right on this track… it sounds like you designed it for the kick drum to get the lowest frequencies, and then the bassline comes in slightly higher. again there’s a balance you need to find here but i don’t think it works at the moment.
You have some valid points there, sir. Especially the low-end of the kick was indeed far below the bassline, I’m trying to fix this as we speak The chippish twitting the same, it was horribly sidechained to the kick (as is most of the track, though not as horrible… imho, ofcourse…) and the chips have just been unchained, if you will.
The bass I disagree. I’m not sure what you’re talking about, maybe I should give the track a try on more systems (though I’ve tried a few already), because it sounds crisp and deliciously nasty when I’m around. Maybe a matter of taste, I like the crawling highs and disfigured mids leaping about, but I haven’t experienced annoying frequencies. Is it the ‘highest’ part of the bass, where it sorta sounds like a (martian) cricket? I could imagine it being a bit too high… The low, obviously, I’m already working on
On a sidenote to none in particular, I’m having a hard timing timing the string/brass hits, so that’s in the work, too. The squeezed beats and overly-compressed-sound are not
Thanks for your time, kind sirs! May the Hex be with ya’ll.
first, i generally love your stuff… but since you asked to be critical… (i’m all for that btw… no other way to learn!!) i feel your mix right now needs some work… the low end is kinda hollow…feels weird. if you are doing internal sidechaining than you will find you just wont get the same tightness you can get with other tools… there’s too little midrange in the mix overall… the hats are totally lost in the mix also.
there is much compressing going on, so much that when there is no kick you can hear the snare punch/pump out the mix… thats no good… well at least not the whole time… heheh
i did like the energy/mood/feel… certainly worth to keep working on, but this mix really could be better.
I hear ya! You have some points, and I can agree to most, but I won’t change the direction I choose for this track, which is a wave of pumping drama. I know the mix could be made heaps better, but not by me yet. I simply don’t have the internal sidechaining as much under control as I’d like, but hey… only way to learn is try again and again and again…! The bass, I think, is ‘fixed’ now, maybe a tad too much even in the sub. Oh well, the way I stacked things up in the file right now, brings my cpu to 80%. Not that it can’t be fixed too, but it’s the second day after the last render-session and I still enjoy the track without disturbance. So this one’s done. It’s re-uploaded on Soundcloud for thy entertainment, or not ofcourse… also cause they had just decided we humble soundcloud-using-non-payers are to be denied previous awesome features, like re-uploading a song. Oh well, what can you expect, it’s TUESDAY.
Anyway, I really want to give my sincere gratitude guys, for your time and comments, they helped me a lot! I was really stuck and you guys gave me the perspective to get it moving the way I wanted it to. I know some of you will listen and think: why oh why didn’t unchain that percussion, or why oh why is that kick so up front, claiming spectrum, or dude this needs a melody or you should record something to it. But I really shouldn’t, because as I sayd, I like the way it is now and THAT is thanks to you!
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