Hey guys,

I hope everyone's having a great day(or night)! I would love to hear your input and thoughts towards my music and production. All opinions and questions are welcome and I am looking forward hearing from you. In advance, thank you for your given time and opinion.

Links:



All the best!

 

Hi Dubox,

The track is nice overall, but still there's a "shallow" feeling about it. It's like you can feel there's something missing.
The arrangement is kinda rigid and "un-organic", in a way that it doesn't play with the listener's brain in a form that would make him/her anticipate what is going to happen or to surprise in a fluent and cohesive way. For example, try to make the passages of your song to be easy to differentiate the chorus from the verse part, breakdown, bridge or whatever concept your song is based on.

For example, your song starts in the "extended version" mode, but the "extended" part is only 8 seconds. It should be at least 32 seconds or so.
Also in the "extended" type of the arrangement, be conservative and don't throw too much stuff going on at the same time. Start just with the drums and a quick temporary synth shot chopped from your main melody. Then in the next bars add another tonal element. Then in the next bars.. add a glimpse of the track's melody, then in the last bars before your "extended" part goes into the breakdown add the drop's melody with a low-pass or band-pass on it and a bit more reverb so it sounds and act like a teaser for what the drop might sound like even though it's not the drop that it's going to play in the breakdown (so when the listener gets to the drop after the breakdown/buildup, won't feel it totally strange because he already had a glimpse at it in the "extended" part).

The drop can be improved as well. Both sound-design and production side. Play with that synth's filters more, try some different synths layers with a different purpose (to complement the drop's melody). Add also some more FX.. such as a slightly modulated white-noise going on to make it feel full sounding.

Add some excitement by bouncing your main melody synth, then chop the first note of it, reverse it.. add a ton of reverb, bounce it again, then reverse it again and use it as a quick "tonal uplifter" in some specific areas of your track.

I'm really short on time so this is my input so far.

Happy productions!

Evo

 

Hi Evo,

Thank you very much for such in-depth analysis. I have received many comments regarding sound-design and I completely agree with you here. I will take note and will improve these aspects. Thank you again for taking your time.

 

Just by looking at ur waveform there is like 0 Dynamics in you mix. Its Loud at the start and in ur face at the drop thats about it. Dynamics when used properly can bring a real feeling to you music. Try quiet, mid loud, Loud, In your face. The melody is nice, the drop is honestly meh, not impressed. I would rework it if you are serious about ur project. Or just finish and move on to the next project.

 

Hi Tidus1990,

Thanks for your input and your time, I greatly appreciate it. I find myself very often debating over a mix, especially when it comes to loudness. I will try blending these techniques in my next project.

 

hey man sounds very good

which synths you used?

 

Hi Samsome,

Thanks for listening and I am happy to hear that you like the track. In terms of synths I used Sylenth1, Spire, Virus Ti2 and Dune 2.

 

It sounds awesome!!! Nice atmosphere and riffs, very well composed.. Congratulations! keep going , sounds really amazing. I Like very much the main riff full of power and energy as I like a song.

 

One of those I could tell by looking at the file that I wasn't going to like all the squeeze at the top. And I just don't like that pumping compression where all the other tracks get softer every time a big low note or drum comes in. I think the synths could be more on or off the beat , also. Sounds like some latency issues. If they are supposed to be on the beat they are late. If they are supposed to be on the off eighth or sixteenth notes, they're not there either. Sort of in between. And the song doesn't really sound like a "song" to me. More like a bunch of things thrown together, add a drop here and there...etc. Didn't make me want to listen again or dance or groove along.---sorry.

 

i think production is pretty good!!!

you do some pretty interesting things with different sounds and make a coherent sound for the song by making everything feel "right" together..

here are some things that I think may improve the song..

1) dynamics: as others have keenly stated, the dynamics could use some relaxing. if you are making it this flat in dynamics even before it hits the speakers at a club, then it's going to sound like paper mache once it finally does. imagine listening to a song with a defined kick, but with all the instruments sounding awash in reverb...

2) song structure: I feel the structure of the song is a tad weak because there isn't really a lot of contrast
seeing as how you structure your song towards more EDM, I will critique it from that... There is basically only a breakdown (and small variations of the breakdown) and a chorus... so you have really chill and really loud... that doesn't really make for a very compelling story unfortunately.

if you can make an additional part(s) to it, like a memorable 'verse', then it would go a long way into adding spice to things

3) melody and arrangement: i think your arrangement is good; however, i do recommend improving things melodically - everything melody wise at the moment is more ornamentation and rhythmic (usually the vocals of a song fulfill this part -- but in the absence of that, you've got nothing for the audience to remember --a groove and rhythm gives a song its energy.. a melody often gives it its emotion)

4) mixing: there is a LLLLOOOOT of masking going on here.. You can tell because there's so little separation between the high instruments, and the bass line sounds paper thin, and the kick feels like it could be a bit more dominant .. this could be because between the bass and kick with low end information, i'ts already hitting the limiter really quickly or excessive frequency overlap

**
try turning off the limiter... mute every instrument but the kick... hear the punchiness?? it's punchy cause nothing else is getting in the way.. now keep adding instruments and make sure the kick is STILL as punchy as it was BEFORE any other instrument was there...by adjusting the OTHER instruments to fit AROUND the kick... the bass is a good instrument to do right after the kick for EDM

and also there is a sidechained pad possibly that is going on when the bassline is in the chorus.. I would recommend shelving or passing one of those instruments so that there isn't that constant hiss in the top end during that section...

***
if you're really worried about the kick being super punchy and getting max volume - you could do the following benchmark technique
first get the peak dbfs level of the kick..then add instruments one by one
but for each instrument that you add do everything you can to make sure the TOTAL dbfs does not get much higher above the level of when it was JUST the kick on its own..

you won't be able to keep it exact level for sure, but the lower you can keep that, the bigger the kick will sound once the song is done.. clipping and sidechaining is very useful in this situation

clip as much as you can without it being obvious! All those saved peaks will help you get a super punch mix...


5) final notes: I think you have a very good measure of talent; to even get it where its' at now takes a lot of skill. Keep up!! And hopefully one day we can hear more of your stuff!

 

Hi Rhythmatist,

I believe that is side-chain compression that you're referring to. I will try to play around with it on my next project keeping your notes in mind. As well, I do agree with you than arrangement could be more exciting.
Thanks for your input, it is highly regarded.

 

Hi SharkBait O-reily,
Thank you for taking your time and reviewing my work. For some reason, dynamically, I wanted to get that "in your face" effect, but as I see now that wasn't such a good idea, at least for the whole track. My mixing skills most definitely need some improvement.
I took notes from your review and I will give a try to these techniques on my next project.
Thanks again for such in-depth review.

 

Hey Dubox,
I know there is little you can do about this but thousands of plays with only a hand full of comments and 2x followers is somehow fishy...

 

I didn't feel as critical about it as some others--I rahther liked some of the melodies. But. There's some missing piece here-something that needs to be there to push me over the threshold from appreciating it to enjoying it.

The transitions felt a bit too 'normal' for my taste. Maybe get a little experimental. A low pass filter, a noise sweep, a part that sort of sneaks in little by little... all very valid techniques. But by themselves they sound kind of paint-by-numbers. Maybe on the last beat of the last bar before the drop all the filters open up and you get a couple loud ass notes and one drum hit. Or something. Play with people's expectations.

I'm in agreement with @rhythmatist about the timing of the sidechain compression. It may need a longer release to be in time with the instrument parts. If your listener was a group of casual listeners and not a bunch of producers on a pro audio board, they won't know what sidechain compression is, or even that the pumping on the drop sounds out of time. They would know something was wrong but couldn't pinpoint it and will probably hold that against your track/you. I read some very good advice one time. Music is an over-saturated market. People don't need even more artists. Many people are miserable and looking for something to displace their negativity on. Almost everyone who hears your track for the first time is looking for an excuse to dismiss it. Pay attention to the details.

I feel that the drop needs more going on. When you have a huge synth/bass hybrid like that taking up the spectrum it's hard to find parts to fit around it, but all the same you'll have to try. Maybe notch some frequencies out of it and put another part in the gaps. People who listen to your type of music in particular are accustomed to being bombarded with stimuli when the hook comes in. One big synth part isn't gonna get you that kind of hype.

 

it's because he has posted his track up here ofc

 

Hey Cav Emp,

Thank for your input. You're right about paying attention to details. I opened that project and I had some latency issues there because of a plugin. Definitely not a excuse. I am still a little "green" with this.

 

Hey Fraifikmushi,

That's really not up to me.

 

No reason to be contrite about it. You've been taking all the criticism in good stride, which is a GREAT step toward improving. You seem to understand that I am (and others are) trying offer explanations of how to make your work better - not telling you that it was bad. And while I'm trying to give my impressions on how it could be improved, I've lost sight of the fact that we artists are proud/sensitive about our creations, so I'll offer this: the drop is catchy. It was stuck in my head for a good while after I finished listening. This song probably won't be your big hit, but you've got some of the right tools. The rest is just a matter of experience and techniques.

You're doing great, man. Keep at it.

 

That's true, but pride will put an end to any career especially in early stages. Pride breeds ignorance and ignorance never settles a question.

Thank you again for sharing your experience.