Hello Everyone.

This is maybe not my first edm track, but the first I would like to share to get some criticism.

I'm not really sure what genere it is, I think it's tropical house.

LINK

I didn't master it.
I would like You to comment about instrument balance, sound and composition.
I also see a problem that for now I don't know how to handle. It was hard to me to mix the guitars.
It was even more difficult because I used both MIDI guitar and recorded real guitar.
I tried that because I wanted to make it sound clearer, yet retain some of the real guitar's dynamic.
Is it a good idea? What's wrong with guitars?

DAW: Reaper
Experience: 6 months with producing electronic music, 2 years with recording.

 

Last edited: Oct 28, 2016

That link doesn't work sorry.

 

What he said, dead link

 

Sorry for that, I fixed it.

 

It's not.

The best advice I can give is listen carefully few dozens tracks that represent the genre you wish to fit your production in. You didn't even nailed the arrangement so look at arrangements, at breaks, at buildups. And go very subtle with the ambience/water/waves.

 

If that's all you can come up with after 2 years of "recording" you should stop wasting your time.You have no talent when it comes to making music.

 

The white noise is way to prominent, dial that way back and go easy with that side chaining (ducking). LFO Tool maybe? The balance between the other instruments is fine, and the arrangement is ok, sounds like you've taken a non EDM arrangement (rock/pop) and applied it to EDM which I like actually. It does drag on a little in the 'verses'. Maybe introduce a new element after 8 bars? Snare is a bit on the nose but meh, if you like it I could live with it.

So if you dial back that white noise, add a little more interest and speed the tempo up, you would definitely have a Tropical House song.

 

Lets have a listen to your song hero.

 

Except... tropical house is low tempo (80-110) in vast majority of the time. Anything else is probably Future Tropical, but not Tropical House anyway. He used energetic rolls borrowed from EDM which ruin that overall chilled and cosy vibe that tropical house should transmit. That's why I always considered that submitting a track for feedback is flawed: the only person that considered this track OK has no idea of what tropical house is...

Take a look at this one: smooth transitions, only white noises and reverse cymbals, atmosphere, unclutered sound.

Edit: This is not tropical house

 

I like the ideas you have there. It's pleasant enough, but agree about the white noise. Maybe a beach sample with gating to give it a touch of rhythm if that's the feel you want to give it. There some other things I would give a try, just to see what what it sound like. One would be to change some of the drums for steel drums. But that's something I would do, so that is up to you if you want. My strong advice to you would be to give the big middle finger to the whole genre thing, and concentrate on making stuff you like to listen to. Oh! don't worry there are some people here who seem to get a kick out of slagging other peoples efforts off, dispite the fact in there time here they posted feck all of their stuff.

I would have to agree on this, and add "try and ditch the standard EDM structure a bit."
Where you playing guitar by the way? or some of it ?

 

I should mention that all I was doing was recording and mixing my metalcore and deathcore stuff for myself. So my mixing was like: over-compressing the snare to get "st. anger effect", making guitars as harsh as fuck and cutting kick to get click effect.

So even getting surf rock tone on guitar was something new for me. I'm still newbie into all electronics stuff. I don't yet have idea what should I search for while mixing that stuff. I hear that there are a lot of things wrong with that: inconstant wideness between parts, guitars dynamics and eq I don't like.

I don't pretend to sound like tropical house or whatever, so sorry if You feel disgusted by that. I just wanted to consult with You guys to get some feedback and get an idea where to go. Ok, then I will start with reducing the noise and improve guitars.

 

It's not disgust, is just... you don't know the genre you're working in, you don't even follow the basic arrangement of a pop/rock song imho. You're fixated on mixing and sounds but the track lacks foundation, lacks purpose. Why did you create it? Whate genre is it? How's different aka iterative on that particular genre? In what setting do you see people listening to it? If you can answer these questions, the rest will fall in place and that's because you'll have a deep knowledge of the things. Your approach (which many have) to "jam around" leads to a lot of uncertainty and doubt which is hard to get over as a beginner. That's why I recommended you to listen closely the genre: so you can hear the structure of many tracks, hear the instruments (each electronic genre has a very distinct set of percussions and synths), hear the subtleties - by only listening with attention you can improve your game tremendously.

These being said, I will try to refrain in the future to provide any kind of feedback - sadly the vast majority of people asking for feedback just made a substandard production and the same people are having a hard time to accept it.

 

Structurally I very much liked the transition point about half of the way through. Maybe you could begin from there. The transitional build up was short though I felt was the most creative point of the demo. For me, the white noise is a tad overbearing but might be put to better use if was attenuated (lowered) by both volume as well as equalization. To me it was too a bit repetitive, unlike the subtle or not so subtle differences in tone one might hear while sitting with your butt in the sand at the beautiful ocean's edge. Put yourself there the next you work on that part and see what difference it makes as you lend us the Tropical experience. The surf guitar sounds good though I would rather hear you play the part live all the way through to help humanize the track. When things are too exact and become repetitive they can turn away the ear.

 

The guitar, at the start, sounds a bit harsh if you compare it to the other soft sounds you included (the nature samples, for example). Around 0:20. Then it gets softer again.
Snares are l o u d in my opinion. I like 1:50 break. Wow now that's really cool , hat you did with that change around 2:20, great.
Oh, well, it didn't last long. Then the main part with the guitar comes in: at this time, I was expecting something a little bit different, or maybe start with some other percussions, or change the melody a little bit, I don't know.

For the genre: it's just modern dance music with some "tropical" influences. Nobody really cares, it's not like you're writing for radios or clubs at the moment. But I quote what jay said: try to listen to a lot of tracks, and think and hear about what's common in these. Is it the atmosphere? Is it the overall feeling they give to the listener? Do they use this or that? What kind of bass are they using? Etc etc

Track is really good and, of course as everything, could be better. Keep it up!

 

@jayxflash Why do you insist on genres? Let him do his music, let's not label it. Yes, I did feel something similar ("hmm, those edm structures should belong to a much faster song"), but remember that's us who notice it and may or may not like it. More important to me is not a specific genre -I bet you couldn't put any of my songs to a certain one- but that it works. In this case it does not work very well together, but that's because he's new to it. Time will tell.

@kasumi The guitar idea is a nice touch. I made something similar with other instruments as well, for example sax. The structure of the song misses a red line. Maybe arrange less light, be brave enough to bring in other lines, inserts, little twists. I really like the guitar riffs, but currently it is the only thing this song relies on. Try some trumpet hits for example, and think about getting rid of all the edm elements and drums pattern and preferring the one that starts at 2:17 (more groove, less stomp)
I agree to the white noise, it is too loud. It should be atmosphere, which means very subtle in the background. However, the basic idea, the riffs, are great.

 

Not only is it unneccessary it is also annoying as hell. You think you deserve to judge that way? Must be a big ego. You probably think a moderator is following you, because he's so impressed, ey?

 

I insist for 2 reasons:
1. All the mainstream genres are commercial. Do it cookie cutter & you may have a chance of someone playing it, do it "dated" and it's dead on arrival. And this reason would not be a problem (and will considered "training" if the producers will be aware of reason 2 (but they never are, so they don't actually train):
2. Not knowing how your production fits a genre and not knowing how your production is bringing something new in that genre is a big barrier in your development. That means you lack lots of ear training, lack skills in identifying genres, lack skills in identifying sounds that define said genres. If this year you're making the edm of 2014, next year you'll make the edm of 2015 in the best case scenario. Knowing the things I've mentioned in italics at least allows you to ride the wave (not being a trend setter, but at least riding the wave on time).

- signing out -

 

I understand your points. I don't think they are as important as you make them. I couldn't read that the OP wants to sell his production, or that he is interested in genre specific production. I've rather got the impression of someone completely new to electronic music that just wanted to improve in general. Of course I might be wrong.
But I'm curious why you think it's either cookie cutter or dated? Maybe he is setting up a new genre. I wouldn't dare to pull him to something already existing, because I don't think I am qualified to see a new genre being born. (Of course I'm talking general and not about this very track. And of course you notice that I'm not a big fan of pigeonholing. I hope that doesn't make you hate me?)

 

@jayxflash
Take the genre you want to produce in and put your spin on it. I can relate to that.
Most popular artist don't make that completely experimental album until they're already established. Then they make the album that they alway want to do.
But that depends on what music means to the OP and where they want to go with it.
All subjective.

 

So Nirvana's first album wasn't grunge? Didn't know that. What about Kraftwerk? Was their first album rock? I think they must have done so then? I just wonder if Depeche Mode started as a Kraftwerk-Coverband? Ah, so many questions!