Hi, how are you guys?
Hope you are stay healthy and happy always.

Anyway I composed another 90-second piece.
This is the third time.
As in the first and second piece I made, 90 seconds is the max duration I have set.
I might make a long version if you think I should.

I did it all by myself.

And please let me know what you think.
Constructive feedback is greatly appreciated.
So that I can improv better, that's why I posted here and not on the YT firstly.



Here it is :

Mastered version

Mixed version (just in case)

Please enjoy.
And I hope you all have a wonderful day always.

 

damn super 80s soundtrack vibes, at least before the dubstep break then it goes more into anime. thats my sense of song, so you jammed a lot in there for 90 seconds haha. i like the first third the best personally, but again thats my taste. sounds good to me, the mastered version on my headphones but i'm not an expert like some are and don't trust my ears, so maybe you shouldn't either. but i do think its well done. i like stuff like gesaffelstein so i'd be way more stoked (again very subjective) if instead of a overt dubstep wah wah thing it went into more of his style of beat. but thats just me and my taste- i think a lot people seem to be turned off/burnt out by that style dubstep nowadays imho. again sounds good though to me and super creative. cool.

 

Hello, macros
Oh many thanks for your kindness.

Hahaha, you got me. Hahaha

Many thanks, yes personally my fav part is the first and the last.
But the first and the second part (dubstep part) is my first try. Actually I don't have experiences for those both genres.
I'm in learning for some specific genres actually.

Haha thanks, I think it's not the best mastered there, but I try my best as I could.

I googling it and found cool stuff of sound. Interesting.
Maybe I will learn it later.

That's okay my bro.
You have provided input and alternatives as well which is very constructive. Nice.

Ohh I just found that out.
Well, I'll try experimenting with other genres or styles.
But honestly I want to make a longer piece of music. Maybe I'll do it this year. hopefully.

Many thanks for you kindness words and alternative reference.
Have a great day ahead.

 

You too! And to be clear the dubstep part was well produced, better than my first go at it would be I guess haha. If you're aiming for a longer song an idea would be picking just like, one section or like the strings and percussion and limiting yourself to THAT set of sounds for 3 minutes or whatever your goal is. I find it can be overwhelming with all the tools and genres and everything available to us, self imposed limitations can be handy sometimes. Have fun!

also as i sit here and make music too, you can challenge yourself to make a song with like intro verse chorus verse bridge chorus or whatever, that way the verses and choruses are basically the same motifs and you can extend your song out past 90 seconds. its a fun challenge to get things to transition into each other and back out again.

 

Last edited: Feb 8, 2024

Well, maybe if you have time and if you don't mind, you can show me yours. Via PM maybe.

Okay, 3 minutes seems nice.
Anyway, is 1:30 or 2:00 minutes too short for instrumental/BGM music?

Roger that, thanks

Oh, interesting. Can you show it to me via PM?

I could have used that structure.
Do most people prefer music with vocals?
Or do they prefer instrumental music?

 

Last edited: Feb 8, 2024

I say that, in general, people do prefer vocals. I was a nightclub DJ for many years and I found that people preferred vocals over instrumentals by a large margin. I wish that weren't the case because I personally like instrumentals too. However, I never played music like your song (dubstep), so I don't have crowd experience with that genre.

 

it sounds like trailer music for a mobile game; or like part of an employee orientation video for someone starting a job at like a: "super cool, rad!'", go kart racing facility

its overly epic, like its trying to sell me on how majestic it is - thats a feeling you dont manufacture, its something you capture; like going to the top of a hill and looking at the beautiful landscape infront of you, the majesty and sense of epic is organic - that feeling isnt captured in this, but its trying to sell me that it is

 

Eyyyyyyyyyyy look who's back with another piece. Here's a little breakdown because i'm drunk and my daddy never loved me:

Intro feels a little abrupt, but i also noticed it ties in nicely with the ending of the track, so i think it's composed to be looped? Very videogamey of you.

First phrase (let say 0:08-0:23) is very well done, but there's something that feels a bit off to me in the third bar of that section. With the limited knowledge i have about this stuff i'd say part of the instruments are implying one chord and others are pulling towards another in a not so nice way. I cannot pinpoint here exactly what's causing it, but i think it's the arpeggiated synth interacting with something else.

The second one (0:23-0:40), same as before. Great idea, nice epic growth from the previous part to this one. It has the same problem in the same place. Here i think what's making it weird is that Bb on the bass.

The dubstep part feels like it needs a bit more power, you'd expect that part to be more impactful, but here is kind of falls back a little bit. I think it it's more of a mixing thing than a composition one, because the elements are there and they fit well, i just feel those elements are not hitting as they should in context with what comes before, specially the kick.

Next part (0:55-1:12). Wonderful. I don't really understand how are you pulling out that return to Cm, so i'd like to know what's going on there from your perspective. It's like there's a little resolution at 1:10 followed by the big one at 1:15, that's pretty cool. Not a fan of how the lead guitar hangs up on Bb at the little resolution, seems like an odd note to hang on to, maybe it's to avoid using the C too soon?

And the ending is pure bliss. The first half of it reminded me of Ace Combat 7 with the violins going down so maybe i'm biased. Didn't expect a chromatic thing at the second half, a little out of place but could be just a different idea that's there because of a narrative thing if there's any story behind it, it works anyway, and then the big ending.

So yeah, all in all pretty cool stuff, the "bad" things i mentioned are just things that seemed weird to me, but nothing that breaks the track, they may even be intentional, idk. Either way, congrats on another great track.

 

Hello krameri
I see, I'm actually fifty-fifty, I think.
There are pros and cons of both (between using singer or not using it at all).
Sometimes if you meet the right singer, everything will be beautiful. Vice versa.

Anyway, you have a fun and awesome job as DJ. Pleased to meet you.
I probably have a lot to learn from you about electronic music production.

Ahh me too.
Sometimes it's fun to hear the BGM without singer.
But sometimes I miss soundtrack music with singer.

I see.
Is Dubstep very segmented? So not many "mainstream" people like it?
What genre do you usually play? Seems interesting.

And many thanks for listening

Hello Grape
I feel that way too.
I deliberately made a BGM for a certain theme.

Ahhhh. I think somehow in different point of view I felt it right as you said. Hahaha
I imagine it.

If that a compliment, I really apreciate it, thank you so much.
And many thanks for listening

Speaking about that, do you feel that way in this music as a whole or only in some parts?

Thank you for sharing your thoughts about this music.
Is there anything that you think could make this music even better?
Is this short duration enough? Considering the duration of some game and movie scores are also fairly short.

Hello broooo
How you doing?

LMAO

Yes, it was my intention from the start so that the intro and outro could be connected. It's just that I haven't cut it with precision for now.

Hahaha. Do you play video game?

I don't really understand what you mean, but maybe that happened because I used additional chords before the part move, at the end.

But try listening to this version. Is there anything you think is out of sync between piano chord and bass?

And maybe from this version you can catch the basics of all the notes I made for overall.
Or if you're curious about which instruments you want to listen to in isolation like this, just let me know.

Maybe because of the mixing process.
Is there too much reverb? This is the first time for me. I've used transient designer, but it seems it's still not enough. I don't know, I'm still learning about this genre (dubstep).

Many thanks for your kindness words. and many thanks for listening my another piece.

Actually, it's a long Cm, even until the outro is finished, although with slight chromatic note variations on the Cm chord (I don't remember the name of the chord in detail). Hahaha.

At that time I couldn't find the emotion of the right chord to make it move other than staying on Cm. I think I've tried going backwards/forwards the chord, but my feeling says it should stay in Cm for good. LMAO.
Therefore I use slight variations on the basic chord even though it is Cm.

Many thanks and yes, I used twice resolution/climax part.
Initially there was only one resolution, but somehow there was an emotion in me that said "this climax is not over yet". then I tried adding guitar instruments (a bit tiny shredd and bend-pinch harmonics) followed with taikos and percussions.

To provide variation so that the tone doesn't sound the same/monotonous because I use a long Cm.

I seem interested in hearing your references
I will googling it.

Chromatic is also part of me who wants to make a variation because of using Cm for too long in this song.
Why did I choose chromatic, because it sounds random in this case and fits the story I want to tell for the ending part.

I know, everyone has their own taste and point of view. I really respect all points of view here.
Thank you so much for your time listening and exploring each part in detail.

 

I think it is a regional thing. I live in the southern United States and dubstep isn't as popular here as other genres. For example, to my knowledge there are no nightclubs that have a dubstep theme here.

In my time in the clubs, I played breaks, house, trance.

II wish you success!

-Mark

 

Last edited: Feb 9, 2024

Not anymore. Nowadays i just listen to soundtracks of games i've never played.

Not out of sync, but that Bb i mentioned is definetively coming from the bass. In isolation i don't think it sounds strange at all, but with the rest of the instruments there's something off imo. Could you add the arpeggiated synth and the staccatto strings that play in the 0:23 section? I think one of those is causing it, or my tinnitus finally got the best of me and i can't hear shit correctly anymore.

I don't think so. I'm no expert in the gene either, but dubstep sections on these kind of action/epic pieces usually hit very hard, lots of bass, some pumping and movement, a very thick and maybe even squashed sound, just a lot of paraphernalia to ramp up the energy of the track or at least keep it up, and here i feel it somehow has less energy than the part that comes before it. Here's an example, more than the part itself check out how the energy flows from the orchestral part through the dubstep one.

Here's the original:

Here's an edited version, basically a louder and more limited dubstep part, there's probably more options but hopefully you get the point. The orchestral part is untouched:

This is the track in particualr. The part yours reminded me of happens at 4:00, it's the violins and the voice i think, cool stuff.

Damn, i gotta remember that combination.

 

Ahh, I see.
Now I understand.

All three are exciting and I am currently studying/learning all three you've mentioned. Nice.

Many thanks, Mark.
Wishing you the same, all the best.

The same.

Here it is :

What do you think?
Anyway, it's 120 BPM and Loop-able.

Wow that hugeeeee, okay now I get it what you mean.
Noted. I will remember this for the next Dubstep production, many thanks for your advices, sir

Wow, yes it is cool stuff. Beautiful.
More epic and that's inspired me also.

Hope it will work for you, sir

 

I like those arpeggiated synths from fist part,
it could be an epic cinematic music.
Why Just 90 seconds, why you don't repeat some sections(form)(A-B-A-C-B...), Being That short can hurt the piece.

 

Yup, there it is. It's the arpeggiated synth. More specifically the C in that arpeggio. It's in all chords of that section in a "nice place" but when you do the Bb chord (or what seems to be Gm-Bb?) it's sort of dissonant. I tried to replicate it and then move the C away, maybe that explains it better:

Here's the original. Focus on the way the arpeggio interacts with the bass:

Here's moving the C to Bb (doesn't have to be Bb but it makes more sense to go to the closest lower note in this case...i think):

I don't know if there's something else doing a C in the full track, and i don't think the C itself is what's weird to me, but the way it's accentuated in that specific part.

Anyway, by the looks of it i'm the only one who got distracted by that so i don't think it matters at all. But at least now i can die in peace knowing what was causing it. G'day

edit: Can't really tell if in the original arpeggio the lowest note remains C (i just assumed it did), maybe it moves with the harmony and only the upper C stays the same, but the effect is the same, just less pronounced.

 

Last edited: Feb 9, 2024

Hello, MFShreddage
Many thanks for listening my piece and your kind words.

I try to shorten the duration for many needs. As my portfolio to prospective clients (because they sometimes get bored easily here with long duration), but also maybe for competition purposes, maybe for my advertising about my profile, and so on.
But basically this is a short form and an experiment for a longer version later if needed. Like an idea that I can develop in the future.
That's why I haven't uploaded it on Youtube yet (even not released yet on many platform streaming) and tried to pull a lot of information out of it from this forum.

You're right.
Hope this year I can make and release a mini album about all my instrumental musics with full duration of course. We'll see.
I need making maybe two another short version like this and I can begin my instrumental project.

Once again, many thanks for listening my piece.

Ahhhh now I get it.

I heard your samples, and that's make sense. I know that after hear it.
Many thanks for provide the test for me. Apreciate it.

I didn't deliberately change the Arpegiated synth chord (stay on C or Cm) because it was on purpose. I wanted the Arpegiated synth to stay there as the root while the other instruments moved with the chord progression.
I didn't expect that the dissonant that occurred would be less pleasing when heard. Hahaha.
But the samples you made are also interesting. That gave me inspiration to implement it in the full version later.

I used some C chords in there for variation, maybe some on and some off.

LMAO
Many thanks for your concern, and please don't die.

All Arpegio synths are in C. Both high and low notes.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone

 

Hello
Thank you for sharing your work, I think you can add choir and brass(to the background) before dubstep section and to the last section, If you want your piece to have a more epic atmosphere.(My opinion as an audience, I love to listen and make epic cinematic music)
Wish you success, continue creating and sharing music.

 

Last edited: Feb 9, 2024

My pleasure.

I would.
Angelic choir and wet verby brass come in mind.
Initially I want to add Sax for the lead instrument in some parts, maybe I'll added it in the full version.

May I hear yours? on PM maybe?

I wish the same for you too.
Hope everything's going smoothly this year.

 

There I was thinking like, no way this was done in 90 seconds than realized, dumb ass, piece is 90 seconds long

Amazing work!

 

Thanks for sharing. I am a novice and not an expert, but I do like it. Best wishes for your future and great music. Happy Music Making.

 

That's good, you can test a little bit of high strings too.
I made 2 or 3 piece (short version)for fun and did not mix them, I'm not good at it, maybe because i mostly work on other genres.
If I can mix them, I will be glad to send them to you.