Stares

http://soundcloud.com/ceqn/stares

Hey everyone.

Been working on this track for a while now, so do enjoy!

Let me know what you think. I love constructive criticism.

Good stuff man. I like the little mini sections it runs through. It's real thick in places and in others it's sparse. A nice flow overall. The change up halfway through helps break it up and give a sense of movement through the track. Great stuff. What kit are you using? The drums sound really nice.

very cool

from 2:07 til the end -

if i didnt know any better then i would probably have mistaken this for aphex or autechre. nice work!

I really enjoyed the ending! Nice work with the percussion, I liked how you kept it interesting and full of variety.

Thank you all for taking the time to listen!

@slightlydrybeans: The hi-hats/snares were all noise oscillators and the bass drums were layered sine waves that were sometimes fed through saw waves via FM. They were all software, but I am practicing this way to migrate into the modular world and still have the sound I strive for, but much fatter ;).

There will be more to come fellows!

  On 9/5/2012 at 6:23 PM, Piotr said:

from 2:07 til the end -

Seconded. That's where it gets good.

The first part was well made,but not really my cup of tea. But that's just me, so don't worry about it

It's got a really awesome atmosphere, but feels sort of directionless (as is common in longer WIP tracks). From 2:07 to *whenever that section ends* it starts to tie together more, but I wish it incorporated the spooky pads from before more.

Basically my thinking is if this is gonna be a beat track the steady beat should come in earlier, or if it's gonna be an ambient track then everything should be really drawn out & given time to leave a big impression. I think you've got a nice enough sound palette here to go either way

  On 9/6/2012 at 4:56 PM, Friendly Foil said:

  On 9/5/2012 at 6:23 PM, Piotr said:

from 2:07 til the end -

Seconded. That's where it gets good.

Thirded. Really, really good percussion at this point. Very nice sounds throughout. That lush pad right from the beginning is nice. Good work.

you've got skill mate, I really enjoyed that ambient intro and your percussion is masterful.

the pads are sweet. the intro percussion is very nice and subtle but still energetic...the synth break after it, from 0:40-1:10 -ish is a little much though, i think the track kinda lost moment unnecessarily there.

not sure about the main snare for the most of the track, the sound is a little weak or out of place perhaps. i love the transitions between beats, and the soft melody introducing itself and stepping back is very well done. i wish the track kept on going though, it's really good so far!

love the pads on this. nice work. especially like the part at 1:56 when that bass sort just swings by : )

There's some solid production work here, and you clearly know what you're doing in terms of sound design, but I found this to be a little disparate. Lots of nice individual bits, but they don't really connect to form a cohesive whole.

I can see you're aiming for a relatively non-linear Ae-type feel but, for me, some stronger recurring motifs and/or themes would turn this into a fuller and more joined-up track.

Thank you all for your comments! They have really helped me find a direction for the piece and will be reminders when I try to create other layers of this track. Maybe some skewed field sample that could be used towards the atmosphere perhaps? It's sometimes difficult to know when a song is complete.

With this newer version of the track I did some general polishing of my compressors and added some themes from the middle portion of the song to bring about a sense of wholeness like Bezhin suggested. I also gave the snare a bit of tweaking so that it doesn't over power the other instruments, and now adds a subtle bounce to the rhythm section. Also, let me know how you feel about the end of the song this time around.

Keep up the awesome feedback!

http://soundcloud.com/ceqn/stares-edit1

i like the last part best (especially at the 2 minutes mark) cool sounds

I really like the snare. And some nice hi-hat work. But the strings is what really makes it for me.

Overall very enjoyable track.

Enjoying it!