Hello all..

Comin from a little diffrent background as a musician im now reaching out to this comunity. In the process of doing a project on my own for the first time. Without a band or any partner leaving me a little bit in the dark. Been posting before regarding drums, the genre itself and so on but as i now got 20+ tracks ready to go for mastering i like to be a little more sure that the sound is on hte right track. Knowing im not using the old school "sounds" it probarly stick a little for some true classic "Synthwave" fans..

In other words, im not sure im on the right track when it comes to getting the sound right so it can be called "Synthwave" or any other sub genre to it. Coming from melodic rock/hair band era in the 80's rediscovering the 80's music with todays tools is amazingly fun. But as said, hard to be sure of the sound. What im trying to archive is something in the vains of the midnight etc but with a little "modern" touch of the sounds i like.

Listening to alot of post here and on other places i feel i need to get some kind of feedback. It may sound a little naked and empty casue of the guitars and vocals aint in place in this and i just sat up a Bandcamp page to get things started and i would love to get some feedback from some of you experinced gurus. Feel free to listen to both clips.

Please let me know, crush me if you want even if i prefer some contructive critics and/or even better some tips.

(Edit: Put up a link for the other clip to show more of the direction this project is going)

 

Last edited: Sep 6, 2018

bit less understatement bit more tension...im not in this genre but i think the really right singer needs to be on this stuff to get from background movie or comercial track to an souverane 80 pop song....these 80ies guys had heavy attitude and style ....
the right hook maybe lacks the special hook melody or so what do i kno im just an i......keep up...great stuff...

 

great track well done I really like it but only in min 0:48. this synth oW Ow Ow WO ow I think you should to remove it it not fit
when it speak with another synth then it's great . (in min 1:23-28) .

if you will add vocal to this track it will be great song !

take a tip.
if you will go and download some voice to speech software you can record word by word
then with vsti plugins such vocal tune / sound shifter / voice pitch/..etc
you can edit the vocal which will sound realistic. in the waves bundle you have amazing vsti for vocal editing

check this website you can use it to record voice to speech
http://www.oddcast.com/home/demos/tts/tts_example.php

if your'e Mac user then you have the best voice to speech in Mac pc. , you even can download from the settings more voice's

but rather then your'e track song great just remove the synth in 0:48. or add before it another synth
to give it more color like Question&Answering. like you done in min 1:23 - 1:24-28

 

Thanks for the input guys.. @wasgedn you are probarly right.. As i know it's a very laidback example some of the other tracks are harder and not this slow. This track im trying to get close to The Midnight way of writing. I like the feel they create in their tracks.

@SmokerNzt totaly agree, the effect it creates becomes obslete when the other synth comes in. and to be honest i totaly forgot about it while working on the guitars and vocals. The vocals and guitar is left out casue i want that to come with the official release once its done. And its "real" vocals even if i may use the tips your left me casue it can be really useful on some sticks etc that are in some tracks. So thanks you for that.

thanks again both of you for your input.. and i will take your input and try put it in use..

 

Last edited: Sep 6, 2018

Pretty good.

A few things have already been said, with which I agree.

To me the bd - sn balance is not completely there, but almost. Maybe give and take ~ 1dB.

And did I get it right, no 'forward' crash in the second track and only one in the first (at the beginning)?

 

@No Avenger Thanks for giving me more work when i thought i was done haha.. Seriously, thanks for stopping by.. You know i value your opinion. Thing is theese two examples are very rough and hardly mixed. I would have bugged you much more if i hadnt worked very hard on setting up this DAW template for the last few weeks. So theese two are pretty much just moved over to this template so there are alot of work left when it comes to drums, eq synths and as you noticed , some drums are not there and some are hits are played by the wrong drums.

What ive been doing here is shaping my sound palette and "room/space" for all the tracks. All is shaped after the vocals actually so i already know it sound a little better when they are in there aswell. But i will for sure check if i can get better balande between Kick n Snare. They sound almost done in the faster tracks but in the slower ones they lack alot of stuff cause of the room.

I just noticed i have a message wating that i belivie is from you and our earlier chat. I check it out when im back home.

Thanks and continue to stay awsome

 

You're welcome.

It's pretty common that (drum)sounds which work in faster tracks, don't do this anymore in slower tracks that good and vice versa. It's because in slower tracks there's more time between the sounds/hits and it sounds better if you adjust some frequencies and the room/room amount.

Imagine the bd of Black Velvet (remember ) would be used in a Speed Metal track, that wouldn't work anymore.

 

Last edited: Sep 7, 2018

Excellent work... Love both tracks!

 

Simply - You have been so open with a genuine desire to be the best you can be and generate the best thing you can from a humble perspective.
Anyone that decides to crush you should not post or call themselves an experienced musician, because an experienced musician wants to pay it forward and see music as a whole develop, not just their own ego.
If someone posted saying: "this is the only way.." then that person opens themselves up to be crucified.

I think you are creative. SpyFX and TonyG I believe do a lot in this department at producer level, so it might be worthwhile personally messaging them as they are always two of the most helpful people on this site.

P.S - NoAvenger is a good guy and smarttoo and is always honest - from what I have seen too

 

@Kinghtsurfer Thanks.. happy to hear someone enjoys it in current state..

@BaSsDuDe Yeah you are totaly right, @No Avenger is an awesome dude.. Enjoy reading his post cuase it has some substance and are always straight to the face. We could use more of that honesty in this forums and even out in the big world.. Anyhow, Also agreeing with you that its very easy to say do this or do that and not showing anything for it. Like their own work. on top of that music is very personal and if a creative person or artist doing something there normally is a goal he wanna reach. The way there can be very frustrating and showing stuff before its done can be somehow devestating for the process. Ive learnt to handle it on stage but it still can be destuctive to do it. A not so good day could be enough.

I will see if i reach out to SpyFx or TonyG at this point. Heard some stuff from both of them and some things are really good. Meaning that a like all about it. Production, sound etc.. At this point im still trying to find a way to implant my guitars into the tracks so it sound right for the whole project. The problems i have with that is either its my guitar playing style that just dont fit for this kind of music or its the sound i prefer playing with, just dont sit right in the mix. The vocals sit as i like them so the final piece to the guitars. Puttiong them in there as they are now it just sound like melodic rock aka hair band era and so on..

Anyhow, i value all inoput ive been getting and will try my best to try out any suggestions. maybe even let someone lay down some guitars to see if it changes anything.

Have a great weekend everyone..

 

I really dig these two songs! I feel like you nailed the Eighties' vibe and that these belong on a direct-to-video movie soundtrack from 1986. My one and only criticism is the same one everybody else on here seems to have: your kick and snare. On "Mindfield", your kick starts out right, but once the snare comes in, it suddenly goes down to 1990's levels (your drum bus compressor, maybe?). Meanwhile, on both songs, your snare is too forward and too sharp in the mix and has a completely different sound than the rest of your kit. Again, this could be your compressor's fault -- try something with a faster attack and a slower release, or a "tape-style" compressor that rounds off the transients. Better still, find an older-sounding snare drum that sounds a little rounder than this one. You may also want to back off your compressor just a little, or turn up your kick just a little so that it maintains the level it starts out on in "Mindfield" (Eighties' music had huge kicks, huge round snares, huge toms ... and hats and overheads were almost buried in the mix). Small complaint. Everything else is dead-on!

 

^
Hello @Vaijj
Both tracks are excellent !

^
you are on the right track

Thank you for sharing with us & best wishes with your music !

on track 1: it will benefit from more punchy drums & raising them 1-2 db more imho.
also vocals can work
on track 2 (mindfield) i like this one more & with the right mastering, sounds ready to me imho.
Also i would like to hear something / an element that is unique to the @Vaijj "sound" if you feel/know what i mean ,maybe this is where the guitar parts come into play ?

 

@Iggy Thanks for that.. and i think you are right.. Ive been experimenting alot with drum. Months actually and came to the conclusion that i didnt likethe standard drum form that era, like linn or any other drum machine for that matter. And that surely limits me some here cause i need to blend some 80's feel into a "live" standard drumset. Luckily SD3 and some other tools have good ways of layering drums. And then you your point where i think you are right is that i sidechain my the kick at this point against the bass. i probarly that mess things up a little with my current setting. I will for sure look into that. Thanks for pointing that one out.

@Spyfxmk2 awesome that you stopped by. By listening to some of your earlier post (miss them actually) i clearly take tips from you on the matter of drum seriously. Other points aswell ofc and will try to follow up on the points you left me here. Ive planned to message you at a later stage after suggestion from others here but wanted to fix the guitars first. As said above and after some nice talks with No Avenger i need to look over my porting between projects since i havnt used the same drum plugins and the drum midi varies alot on them. As i dont work much with samples other than layering i kind have to go with trail and error alot of times.

Value tips and some really nice thoughs about this project so far.. so thanks for that guys..

 

Instead of side-chaining (a more modern practice), just output your drums through a drum bus directly and let the compressor do the work. I definitely understand your views on the snare (sharper snares like the one you used didn't get popular until the early Nineties, when they stopped gating drums). I think if you rework the compressor and dial the snare back just a little bit (or bring up the kick to match it), you should be able to keep the sound.

 

You have a great gift with your production values here. Very pro sounding and I really liked both tracks. They are certainly steeped in 80's type production but with a modern twist. The second track seemed to be steering towards a mid 70's Floyd theme just at the end there.
Brill! What can I say?

 

Thank you @DieM .. I think you have nailed a little of my thinking while doing this.. Even if i want it to sound Synthwave or close its hard to deny my influences from the past.. i also think thats why i somehow struggle to fit the drums in as in how they "should" sound. I just cant handle that sound. I even posted on a synthwave forum why the majority of the drums sound like crap.. Imagine the response on that one First post and dissing pretty much all the drums in the genre.. not popular..

Just to be clear, im not saying mine souond any better or that they are good but im striving for something between real drums (like in the 80's, Toto, Yes etc), Simmonds and then just topping it of withsomething from todays pop music..

So now im following some tips like from @Iggy and skip the sidechaining.. someone from the old days said you dont need it if you took care off the kick and bass the right way.. So im aiming for that now..

Thanks again..

 

I would agree with you there that percussion and drums from the Eighties were rather harsh sounding and spoiled some great songs. (That is a matter of personal taste though!) I think it's great to use influences of older styles and then to add your own ideas and changes using more modern techniques.

 

IMO this is a solid and brilliant sound, musically well done, the next and final stage for a great achievement would be inspired lyrics and voices

 

This is stuff right out of a direct-to-video Eighties' movie (except with better production) -- while I think vocals might work on it, he could probably get work scoring any number of "retro" movies based on these demos, as the whole "Eighties synth sound" for movie scores is popular again, and it's juuuuuust modern enough to sound "old but new".

 

I haven't read anybody else's comments before writing this. And btw, F@@ck the 80s retrograde (looking backwards) idea, waste of bloody time, you nor anybody else will ever nail it; you'll die of utter frustration trying.

Your music sounds really good. Here's what I think is happening: In both tracks the synths are really awesome but they sound like 'background' to your drums. For me, the synth is the melody not the drums, the synth is taking the tune somewhere not the drums, but they're very quiet when they should be front-and-centre. If you reversed what you're doing, by pushing the drums back a bit, the story or the feeling is better told by the synths, and the drums could still be used to give it the punch and excitement. The way you have the drums at the moment it's like the drums are in a big hurry to get you somewhere. But if you let the synths lead the story, you have the makings, in the second track, of a really interesting, like Psy-Ambient trip - my kind of music.