New album: Hello Calm

I'd appreciate any constructive criticism regarding my new album. It's on Bandcamp and Last.fm. Thanks everyone!

  On 7/29/2010 at 12:12 PM, Mesh Gear Fox said:

- Girl posts on watmm

- no replies

 

maybe they're too busy trying to find pics of you on facebook?

Good luck to them, I'm not on Facebook. Hey, here's a good idea, let's talk about something other than my gender. :D

i like this, neon in midnight rain is awesome, just wish it was longer. walking in the rain is pretty sweet too.

also, it's refreshing to see someone who for once doesn't refer to themselves in third person in the artist description.

  On 7/29/2010 at 2:51 PM, data said:

i like this, neon in midnight rain is awesome, just wish it was longer. walking in the rain is pretty sweet too.

 

also, it's refreshing to see someone who for once doesn't refer to themselves in third person in the artist description.

Thanks! :D After listening to your Burning Chrome preview, I'm wondering if we should swap tips for ripping off Blade Runner as a starting point? It's a great sound to springboard from, and you seem to have worked out how to emulate Vangelis's style much better than I have.

I thought this was a pretty good album, and certainly well produced. A few moments reminded me of Decal - 404 Not Found, you should check that album if you've not heard it.

  On 7/29/2010 at 6:10 PM, hautlle said:

I thought this was a pretty good album, and certainly well produced. A few moments reminded me of Decal - 404 Not Found, you should check that album if you've not heard it.

Thanks! I'll check that album out, thank you.

  On 7/29/2010 at 4:11 PM, ZoeB said:

  On 7/29/2010 at 2:51 PM, data said:

i like this, neon in midnight rain is awesome, just wish it was longer. walking in the rain is pretty sweet too.

 

also, it's refreshing to see someone who for once doesn't refer to themselves in third person in the artist description.

tips

haha :D

Technically this sounds very nice. Ear pleasing stuff. My only hangup is that I generally prefer music with beats, and most of these didn't have them. When you DID have beats, they were weak in every sense, although Walking in the Rain was very nice. Dead inside is awful. On the other hand, Inner Harp is very good, as is the Neon one. I'd say you have a good flair for melody, just work on your beats. Also, this seems a bit "presety" to me.

maybe if you work hard enough you'll be signed to FEM Records!

All of Zoe B's stuff that I've heard is awesome. Highly reccomend this album. Very beautiful, sweeping ambient stuff.

(p.s. did the rest of you ever maybe think that creepy shit like the first few replies is the reason you *have* so few girls on this forum? Wait, don't answer that.)

  On 7/29/2010 at 9:09 PM, sneaksta303 said:

Technically this sounds very nice. Ear pleasing stuff. My only hangup is that I generally prefer music with beats, and most of these didn't have them. When you DID have beats, they were weak in every sense, although Walking in the Rain was very nice. Dead inside is awful. On the other hand, Inner Harp is very good, as is the Neon one. I'd say you have a good flair for melody, just work on your beats. Also, this seems a bit "presety" to me.

Thanks, I appreciate such an honest assessment. :) I'm curious about it coming off as sounding like presets... do any particular tracks have a preset vibe? Some, like Inner Harp and Walking In the Rain, mostly use patches that I made from scratch myself, which is why they sound so simplistic. Others, like Gliding Over Mountains and Swimming In the Deepest Oceans, use patches by Adam Fielding which certainly sound more professional than my own. So is it that any sufficiently good sounds come across as being by someone who specialises in that craft rather than music making itself, lending it less credibility? (Although for the record, he does make very good music too.)

I'm looking towards making more of my own patches again, moving on, just because I like that kind of simplistic sound, but I'm more worried about that making my music unnecessarily limited, compared with just mixing in whatever works best in a heterogenous manner.

I think the beats are just personal taste. While I love manic beats (I've mentioned my love of Rushup I Bank 12 many times), I think others have that area pretty well covered, so I'm not convinced I could contribute too much in that area. At the moment, at least, I feel more laid back music is somewhere I can start to cover new ground at some point. (This may, of course, be hopelessly naïve of me.)

Thanks again for the honest feedback, it's very useful.

  On 7/29/2010 at 9:43 PM, Retape said:

maybe if you work hard enough you'll be signed to FEM Records!

I'm not sure if you mean this or if it's sarcasm... taking it at face value then: I'd rather be known for my accomplishments, what I create, rather than be known for who I happen to be as a person. I don't think that the fact I happen to be a woman has anything to do with my music, except in the rare cases I write songs which touch upon the subject in their lyrics. So thanks for the vote of confidence, but I'm going to self-publish my work for the time being.

  On 7/30/2010 at 12:09 PM, Masonic Boom said:

All of Zoe B's stuff that I've heard is awesome. Highly reccomend this album. Very beautiful, sweeping ambient stuff.

 

(p.s. did the rest of you ever maybe think that creepy shit like the first few replies is the reason you *have* so few girls on this forum? Wait, don't answer that.)

Thankyou, I'm glad you liked it. I really can take criticism though. I know my music's still far from perfect.

Sadly, XKCD 322 still seems to apply as much as it did back then. It would appear such changes in society are painfully slow. Hopefully the problem's not a lack of technically minded women so much as societal pressure, in which case it should get better eventually, for subsequent generations.

I'm grabbing it now. I still dont understand why regulars on watmm, such as yourself, dont put think in Music Discussion or New Releases. Those sub forums see more traffic, and we generally get some twat with 2 posts coming in and flogging their stuff.

Ill be back after a listen.

Inner Harp:

very peaceful

i pictured being in Hermann park, in Houston, and slowly zooming in on people throughout the park, using each beat of the pad as a cue to change subjects.

Pistyll Rhaeadr:

i like this as it feels built around something like a heartbeat. sort of a beat to sit still to. everything fits nicely.

Walking In the Rain:

has a cute and marching quality, pleasant. i smiled.

These are the tracks that stood out to me and i enjoyed. The rest didn't entirely grab my attention or didn't inspire imagery, making them difficult for me to comment on. In some spots i found myself a bit bored and wanting more variation, but good job overall.

  On 7/30/2010 at 4:09 PM, chassis said:

I still dont understand why regulars on watmm, such as yourself, dont put think in Music Discussion or New Releases.

If the second comment there is any indicator, I think you've got your answer.

What a dick. Welcome to the internet, home of the dicks.

EDIT: Oh yes, I gave it a listen. Im afraid I have to agree with sneaksta. I'd like some beats in it. The melodies are beautiful but because theyre so prominent you expect some sort of beat. Other than that it was an enjoyable listen.

I think the "presetty" feel stems a bit more from production technique than actually USING presets, and I should also say, using presets isn't a bad thing if you change em up a bit. Going by what you're saying I think I may prefer your "from scratch" patches. Maybe I meant to say "plasticy". Grime it up a bit. Warmth. Saturation.

RE: Beats. I wasn't suggesting you go all crazy with the beats (manic), just take more care in integrating the beats you douse. The general lack of beats is personal preference obviously, but since you DO incorporate beats sometimes, I'd take more care with them, like better sounds, and more effort making them sit in the mix.

Does any of this make sense? I'm kind of high.

  On 7/30/2010 at 4:48 PM, Adjective said:

Pistyll Rhaeadr:

i like this as it feels built around something like a heartbeat. sort of a beat to sit still to. everything fits nicely.

Ha, yes, I was shamelessly using the cliches of a heartbeat da-DUM rhythm and the chords to Pachelbel's Canon in that one. I would apologise (or, for that matter, keep it hidden in the vault instead of putting it on an album), but I really like it, so I guess it works.

  On 7/30/2010 at 7:21 PM, sneaksta303 said:

I think the "presetty" feel stems a bit more from production technique than actually USING presets, and I should also say, using presets isn't a bad thing if you change em up a bit. Going by what you're saying I think I may prefer your "from scratch" patches. Maybe I meant to say "plasticy". Grime it up a bit. Warmth. Saturation.

 

RE: Beats. I wasn't suggesting you go all crazy with the beats (manic), just take more care in integrating the beats you douse. The general lack of beats is personal preference obviously, but since you DO incorporate beats sometimes, I'd take more care with them, like better sounds, and more effort making them sit in the mix.

 

Does any of this make sense? I'm kind of high.

Thanks, that's even more useful this time! :D It sounds like I shouldn't be so concerned about using more of my own simple patches. I'll try to go further in that direction next time, thanks. I just worry sometimes I'm trying to do too much at once. The creation of goods (music in this case) always seems to lead to specialisation, people having insanely specific jobs. We're pretty much at the level now, as far as I can tell, where people are expected to choose between being a patch designer or a musician or a producer. But judging by this, I guess I shouldn't worry about taking the polymath's jack-of-all-trades approach at the risk of not mastering anything.

I'm assuming this kind of thing keeps other people up at night too? :D Hehe...

Thinking about this more, it might be that I'm afraid of "breaking" someone else's creation, whereas with my own patches I'm happy to alter them in various ways to keep things interesting. Maybe that's where I was going wrong with using other people's patches, I wasn't being expressive enough with them... Thanks, that's really helped! :D (Bonus points for really helping me while you're high.)

Yeah, wow, I can only imagine all the things you're thinking when you're actually composing. A jack of all trades approach is the only way to go if you like making music. Let all that other stuff go. Trying "too many" things at once is a great way to learn.

sunshine is my favorite trac - definitely some 'new age' moments on the album - but for the most part i enjoyed this zoë

  On 7/30/2010 at 8:22 PM, troon said:

sunshine is my favorite trac - definitely some 'new age' moments on the album - but for the most part i enjoyed this zoë

yeah that

  On 7/30/2010 at 8:22 PM, troon said:

sunshine is my favorite trac - definitely some 'new age' moments on the album - but for the most part i enjoyed this zoë

Haha, yes, thanks. I think I annoy everyone by writing that kind of music yet having a staunch materialist view of the world.