Pebbledashed

In amongst all the LOLs of the (possibly?) longest thread in memory on YLC, I did actually learn a lot of cool stuff about drum programming.

I took many of the best suggestions that people (especially BCM) made and tried to work them into my latest track. Except this time, I actually bothered writing a tune! And fleshed out the arrangement and gave it actual shape and direction and a plot and proper breakdowns and things. (It's weird how much more difficult I find it to write instrumental music, because I don't have lyrics to guide the shape and direction of the track. I find I have to really think about it, in a way I don't with lyrical pop songs - does anyone else have this problem?)

http://soundcloud.com/evrenkader/pebbledashed

I can't begin tell you what genre it is. It starts kinda SAW-ish then goes a bit Acid House for a while then goes into this noise break and eventually turns into a full-on laser disco before going back to gentle SAW-dom. I ripped off at least 3 of my favourite songs, but I hope it's not too obvious (it would be interesting if anyone can guess. In fact, if you *can* guess, I should probably change the track a bit to disguise it more.)

I kinda really want to make a 10-minute extended version but I think that might break me.

Anyway, hope this thread is as entertaining as the last one. But at least the soundtrack is better!

well, this is definitely a step above your last effort, but the drums don't seem to be very punchy to me. The snare that comes in at 1:26 sounds like it's muted sometimes almost. That one lead is a bit whiney. I'd maybe reign that in a bit.

  On 6/20/2010 at 11:54 PM, sneaksta303 said:

well, this is definitely a step above your last effort, but the drums don't seem to be very punchy to me. The snare that comes in at 1:26 sounds like it's muted sometimes almost. That one lead is a bit whiney. I'd maybe reign that in a bit.

Which lead? There's three of them. The sweeping one is supposed to be droney and whiney, I want it to sound like a far-off motorboat. I probably need to balance the distortion on the flutey lead more. It sounded fine in Reason, but as soon as I exported it, it got really compressed and a bit quiet. (at least on my headphones.)

The snare though - yeah, I'm still having trouble finding a happy medium. The ones on the rolls are supposed to be a bit mushy to make for a fluttering effect, but the accent snares. I tell ya! I brought them up and made them really punchy, then I exported it and I could hear NOTHING BUT SNARE. So I turn it down, guess I turned it down too much if you think it's muted?

Thanks for the comment, definitely appreciate it.

So either I did something for once that was actually alright (or rather, not completely objectionable) or WATMM has got bored of trying to troll me. Cool.

willl come back with a better comment in a moment, but it was quite nice in ways i didn't imagine it would be when i started. the really quiet part of the intro kind of sucks, but the melody and everything that goes on later is really great. the drums lack power. they're there and well programmed (most of the time), but could use a lot of giddup. i'll report back!

i like it. i know you don't like loud drums, but i feel the drums should be louder in the mix and the first lead that comes in (with all the slidey notes), should be a little quieter. in fact all the synth noises could be turned down a bit in relation to the drums..... i think the beat is really good, some nice changes, the fills and rolls are cool... overall though, good effort, thanks for sharing!

Thanks, guys.

OK, actually, this time I'm gonna trust you guys and I'm gonna re-mix it with the drums about two ticks louder.

It's weird, I feel like I'm always fighting to make drums more punchy without actually turning them up. But I guess with this kind of music, it's OK to turn the drum machine way up. With this kinda music, it's not like it's pretending to be a live drummer, it's more like "look at my excellent drum programming skillZ0rs" (tho I've clearly not got mad drum skillz0rs.)

And I'll try and make the snares sharper and less fluttery.

Appreciate the help, peeps!

Masonic-

I haven't been able to listen yet, but it sounds like you might experiment with a transient generator like Waves Transx on your drums. I've found it makes my 808 punch like Tyson without having to increase volume or EQ.

...lol...

And no, I'm not trolling. I mean it. You can accentuate attack.

Oh, and I'd like remix duty

Oh, hello! Sorry, it's been mad at work today, didn't see that there had been further comments.

I'll check out this Transients Generator idea, but the biggest problem is, working in Reason, you can't really install plug-ins.

I turned up the drums to what I thought was way way waaaaayyy loud and actually found after a couple of listens that it was OK. So it might just mean that I need to stop being so much of a sissy girl and not be afraid of drums.

If you're serious about remixing it, erm yeah - PM me. This is the first track I've done in a couple of months that I actually like enough to want to finish & do something with, so that'd be cool.

I like the track, I'd like some delay on the main lead because I love delay.

I cant comment on the drums cause my drums are always shit.

The synths here are absolutely beautiful, I love it!

sorry if any of this is harsh, but it's only because there were moments i really liked that i'm commenting.

around 0:50 i like it, then as we near 2 mins things begin to wear on me.

that wah-wah synth panned slightly left? though pleasant at first, because it repeats, it feels like it's being forced into my head. the repetition i don't mind, more the frequency of it that bothers me. could benefit from a pause between repetitions or at least a little more quiet/subtle meandering inbetween.

i'd say i lose interest between 2:20 and 3:30 and the rest i like

to be fair, i don't really LIKE any of it. I was just trying to be helpful, for an unknown reason.

  On 6/24/2010 at 1:57 AM, Adjective said:

sorry if any of this is harsh, but it's only because there were moments i really liked that i'm commenting.

 

around 0:50 i like it, then as we near 2 mins things begin to wear on me.

that wah-wah synth panned slightly left? though pleasant at first, because it repeats, it feels like it's being forced into my head. the repetition i don't mind, more the frequency of it that bothers me. could benefit from a pause between repetitions or at least a little more quiet/subtle meandering inbetween.

 

i'd say i lose interest between 2:20 and 3:30 and the rest i like

Hey! No, it's cool! I always appreciate non-dickish comments. (i.e. genuine observations on the piece, and talking about the *piece*, not what kind of person I might be) Like, how am I ever going to make anything better if I don't get an idea of what works and what doesn't work?

The synth-panning was a second mix-down thing because I was listening on headphones and got really bored of everything being straight down the middle. What I really wanted was one of those Cubase double-delay pans where it sends half the signal down eacy way - but Cubase won't run on my current laptop.

I think someone said how to fake a double-delay on Reason on another thread, I'll go and dig that out. It is quite a harsh sound when the distortion kicks in - so that I can play with the EQ during the "big" bit and move the soundwave about. But the delay could do with better stereo treatment, that's on my list of things to sort out, next edit.