Trills - Entire CD

August 12, 2006

I have worked on these tracks for 2 years now trying to make a proper cd...trying to make each song sound different. I think that I have properly captured the essence of what I was going for with these 10 tracks.

Opinions and criticisms are appreciated.

Tracklist:

1. Philm

2. Child's Play

3. 2-XL

4. Tripwire

5. Troubador

6. Kahdre

7. Whir

8. Angela's Song

9. Ocean of Obscurity

10. Veranda Light

http://www.sendspace.com/file/3wzimw

The 10 tracks are 256kbs mp3 in a 67 meg .zip folder.

**Bubba69** · August 15, 2006

I dont know who you are but Ill check it out.

August 16, 2006

Bubba69 said:
I dont know who you are but Ill check it out.

Sorry I forgot to properly introduce myself. I am new to this forum, especially the EKT section.

**zazen** · September 1, 2006

Well, I downloaded the whole lot and listened to each track twice.

I listened on small headphones on the way to work so I may have missed some of the bass detail.

I've made notes about each track below, but generally, what I thought is this:

I think its great that you're focused enough to make a whole album of tracks, and I bet you learnt loads doing this. I think you're good at selecting sounds and using production techniques to create a mood. However I think your melodies are quite weak, and I think you need to work harder on your tunes, chords, harmonies and musical structure. Nice sounds and nice production are great, but if a track doesnt have chords or melodies that I like then I wont want to listen to it again.

A lot of the melodies and chords here sounded like they weren't really in any particular key or scale. Western keys and scales are just a convention, so you dont have to stick to them, but unless you have a very strong musical intuition its probably a good idea. Its worth studying keys, chords, cadences, modulation between keys, and stuff like that. To my ears, a lot of your tunes sounded 'wrong', and left me with the impression that you didn't really have a grip on the musical theory. (I could be wrong, but thats the impression I got).

I think one of the hardest things about making music is listening to your own stuff, and working out whether its any good or not. When you've been listening to the same 16 bars over and over for hours, it can start to sound right even if its a bit off. I do things like leaving the track for a few hours or days and then listening to it, or listening to it in different contexts, to try and catch it as if I am hearing it for the first time. Its hard at first but it gets easier. If other people's criticisms match what you yourself were thinking, then thats means you're staring to judge your own stuff more objectively.

So overall, there arent any tracks here that I really like and will be holding on to, but well done for putting in all that time, it was probably a great exercise to go through. My advice is to look more closely at your melodies and chords and so on in future, and keep practicing self-appraisals of your own tracks.

I hope you find this criticism to be constructive, sorry if it sounds a bit down, I guess I've been spoilt by all the brilliant music that people are posting on this forum ....

PS- you might get more reviews if you put individual tracks for download, rather than a whole album.

01 - Philm

00:18 that melody sounds out of tune

generally didnt like this track, too much out-of-tune stuff

02 - Childsplay

00:35 like the squeeky noise

01:24 too much snare roll

01:34 to 01:58 - that bit was nice

03:01 squeeky thing again!

03 - 2-XL

00:28 that bit was good

01:32 drums too loud?

quite like the atmosphere of this track

04 - Tripwire

00:11 bassline is good

00:19 dont like chords

00:28 this sounds out of tune

01:58 dont like this bit

02:35 to 02:45 like this bit

Are all your drum hits the same velocity? it sounds a bit relentless

05 - Troubador

00:35 sounds odd

00:47 the phasing-in sound here made me jump!

01:15 the stuttery bit here is too long

01:29 to 01:45 dont like this bit

01:50 to 01:58 like this bit

06 - Kahdre

00:22 to 00:28 sounds out of key

01:35 dont like tune here

The different melodic layers in this one didnt seem to fit together

the drum programming was good though, although sometimes it sounded machine-gun like (e.g. like too many of the drum hits were the same velocity)

You have a knack for choosing the right sounds to create a mood

07 - Whir

00:30 good so far

00:40 to 00:54 this interlude doesnt go anywhere, bit meandering

02:15 quite like high bit here

02:37 like the approaching thuds and the bit after

08 - Angela's Song

00:13 4th chord in the sequence sounds wrong

01:22 to 01:32 - quite nice

02:20 like this bit

02:45 strange change of key here?

3:30 to 3:47 this last bit sounds out of tune/key

Are all the notes in the chords of the same velocity?

In this track especially, it seems that you are trying to write 'proper' music, but the result sounds a bit wrong somehow. See my comments above about music theory etc

Still quite a nice track though.

09 - Ocean of Obscurity

The ambient combination of speech and sounds works well on this track, perhaps because there is less structure. it didnt really keep my interest though.

10 - Veranda Light

00:13 snares too loud. all the same velocity?

01:03 make me think of a steam organ!

02:25 getting tired of the vibe here

02:47 this bit seems to clash

03:11 like this bit

**Meadows and Labyrinths** · September 1, 2006

the files is no longer available, but that avatar is sweet as hell!

by the way, i would like to hear this.

September 1, 2006

http://rapidshare.de/files/30377003/Trills.zip

There is a new link.

Thank you zazen for your criticisms. I understand exactly what you are talking about. First and formost I am an engineer, and only recently decided to take on the task of songwriting...you are the only person I have shown this to that seems to have said anything about the chord structure, because I have kind of masked that with semi-complicated beat management and, as you said, nice sound placement. I have taken numerous music theory classes, and am taking piano lessons right now to help with the focus of the chords. I wouldn't say that I am playing out of tune, I just think that stange chords that the ear isn't used to hearing can work quite well. Truth be told, only half of the melodies are in a scale, but that doesn't really bother me at all. But writing music is always a work in progress, I suppose. Most of the time I will get a melody in my head, and then I will transcribe whatever I hear in my head onto the keyboard, perhaps that is why it comes off as not have a central cadence to fall to.

**Bubba69** · September 1, 2006

I remember listening to this a while back and I found it quite nice. Although I was listening to it with earbuds and it was a little loud, it seemed like really good msuci to have on a home stereo. The whole album felt pretty solid as an entire album, which I liked a lot. What is that avatar from by the way?

September 1, 2006

Bubba69 said:
I remember listening to this a while back and I found it quite nice. Although I was listening to it with earbuds and it was a little loud, it seemed like really good msuci to have on a home stereo. The whole album felt pretty solid as an entire album, which I liked a lot. What is that avatar from by the way?

Thanks.

This avatar is from the old Boards of Canada website, btw.