Rough Draft

I'm so terrible at finishing/uploading/presenting anything beat based I rushed this out the door and would like some thoughts/comments on it.

Things I already think it needs:

+Several different beat type nudges

+Some slight variation in the bassline at times

+Perhaps a new pad at the end

+A second theme entirely

+I'm sure a new mixing/mastering job, since my setup is by no means "reference"

it's good

i want theocide's opinion

you can't have it

i will :angry:

Sounds pretty fresh...

The main 303 type sound is kinda boring, you might want to put a bandpass filter on it instead of low pass and maybe a fast delay and tweak both accordingly.

Also you might benefit from some destructive audio editing. Select a piece of the song, apply some effect, bounce to disk, move on to next section etc

Yeah this is alright, fairly goofy, nice beats, solid, nice string action, good reverb

  acid1 said:

Sounds pretty fresh...

 

The main 303 type sound is kinda boring, you might want to put a bandpass filter on it instead of low pass and maybe a fast delay and tweak both accordingly.

 

Also you might benefit from some destructive audio editing. Select a piece of the song, apply some effect, bounce to disk, move on to next section etc

Hmm, you mean in addition to the lp filter? I have run out of cables for my dotcom unfortunately :( Actually I could hook up the bandpass in addition, but I'd need some seperate cables to mush together the envelope mod and the only midi cc controllable tweaking (via velocity) that I can get off of my midi -> cv module. I really need to order a spool of cable and some 1/4" ends and just go to town making cheapy patch cables someday soon. All of the current filter sweeping is done by hand (actually you should see the expert knob twiddling in action as I have my left hand controlling BOTH the cutoff and env attack time knobs on my nord modular for the strange background tweaky noise, and my right hand doing the filter cutoff on the dotcom. I knew those violin lessons would pay off).

Thanks for the listens guys. Wasn't sure how the cheeseball 80's drums would play out to everyone but I'm in love with them.

first impressions, good starting..

not liking the drums, or the drums reverb.

don't like the lack of panning on the weird sound effects.

you could sync the weird effects better for a better groove..

pad coming in now, and the track is changing directions from the starting *a lot* (not a bad thing, but you might want to adapt the instruments / drums to fit the new mood)..

coming to an end and the heavy drums are back on.. you could have added a kind of, heavy sound effect to show presence of a changing section.

finished.

I think it's got a lot of potential, but you lack some key bits of knowledge for what sets the mood in the track..

the track doesn't know where it's going, and i think with some more planning you could fix that.

needs to be a lot longer of course but you already know that..

better mastering, eq'ing panning..

more instruments, or just rather some different tunes coming in..

keep it up.

p.s.

listen to this track http://forum.watmm.com/index.php?act=attac...ost&id=7145 and analyse how the guy made it, how he changes its direction, pans some instruments - so you focus on different elements, changes the drums smoothly.. I think this will help you.

thanks for the comment!

drums are totally non negotiable. I love heavy, basic 80's drums. Not necessarily fashionable roland ones either. That's a Sequential Circuits Tom kit and I love it. I wanted to get the sound/feel of the drums used on "The Message" LP by Grandmaster Flash and I like the way it came out.

I see what you mean about the weird effects. Problem is, I can't stand to automate everything, that's all live tweaking in one shot. Same with the filter sweeps on the bassline. I suppose I could refine that with more practice/being more selective with the takes I use.

It's also tough to pan things correctly because I have everything coming in over one "line in" device into Renoise. I'd either have to do each Synth take seperately so that I could get seperate tracks out of them, or get a different setup. I agree though, the flat planning is a bit dull. I could pan from the mixer, but with tweaking of 3 knobs between two boxes already, that could get tricky. I will have to ponder that.

It's funny that you said lack of planning, this is probably the first track where I wrote an outline of what I wanted to do after I had some basic parts down, for a laugh:

  Quote

just blarble

blarbe with rev cym intro

just beat and bass

stutter beat and bass to bring in blarble

beat blarble and simple bass

modulate to high key briefly

drop beat to go back to complex bass

complex bass and blarble with beat

modulate blarble a few times

drop beat at end of pattern and rev cym to bring in main pad

main theme plays a few times

play end theme pattern

play simple bass and beat with blarble

play beat with no hats and blarble

play just blarble, modulate it on out

lol, thanks again for taking the time to comment

  ten fingers ten toes said:

thanks for the comment!

 

drums are totally non negotiable. I love heavy, basic 80's drums. Not necessarily fashionable roland ones either. That's a Sequential Circuits Tom kit and I love it. I wanted to get the sound/feel of the drums used on "The Message" LP by Grandmaster Flash and I like the way it came out.

 

I see what you mean about the weird effects. Problem is, I can't stand to automate everything, that's all live tweaking in one shot. Same with the filter sweeps on the bassline. I suppose I could refine that with more practice/being more selective with the takes I use.

 

It's also tough to pan things correctly because I have everything coming in over one "line in" device into Renoise. I'd either have to do each Synth take seperately so that I could get seperate tracks out of them, or get a different setup. I agree though, the flat planning is a bit dull. I could pan from the mixer, but with tweaking of 3 knobs between two boxes already, that could get tricky. I will have to ponder that.

 

 

It's funny that you said lack of planning, this is probably the first track where I wrote an outline of what I wanted to do after I had some basic parts down, for a laugh:

ok, my message wasn't as though you had to follow it or anything, just my personal suggestions.

Anyway, as for the automation hassle, I have put together a step by step process in which I go through to speed up the process.

That would be terrific if I had Ableton live - I use Renoise though. Seriously, that's a very well put together set of screenshots for a tutorial though!

  ten fingers ten toes said:

That would be terrific if I had Ableton live - I use Renoise though. Seriously, that's a very well put together set of screenshots for a tutorial though!

I'm sure you could do something similar in renoise.. it's up to 1.8 now isn't it.. surely it has a 'duplicate automation' function.

no, ignore me, I've used renoise before.. you use characters on your keyboard to control functions, don't you?... I know for a fact you can duplicate certain key columns (functions) to how ever many you want..

You may have already been here; http://tutorials.renoise.com/

  joshier said:

  ten fingers ten toes said:

That would be terrific if I had Ableton live - I use Renoise though. Seriously, that's a very well put together set of screenshots for a tutorial though!

I'm sure you could do something similar in renoise.. it's up to 1.8 now isn't it.. surely it has a 'duplicate automation' function.

 

no, ignore me, I've used renoise before.. you use characters on your keyboard to control functions, don't you?... I know for a fact you can duplicate certain key columns (functions) to how ever many you want..

 

You may have already been here; http://tutorials.renoise.com/

Yes I know I can, and I know how to do so.

i really like this, i sort of agree on the fact that it may be missing something to make it stand out more, but i like those drums you have got in there, some more modern drums would not sound right i reckon. but well done, its sounding great

  Dale said:

i really like this, i sort of agree on the fact that it may be missing something to make it stand out more, but i like those drums you have got in there, some more modern drums would not sound right i reckon. but well done, its sounding great

glad you liked it! thanks for the feedback