Drugs are for dull minds

Hey,

What do you think about this one?

Some questions:

- I was thinking of adding some sort of texture or pad with very low volume during the first part since it might be too sparse. Is it necessary?

- Are the transitions between the three parts OK?

- How is the mix? Not too much bass?

https://soundcloud.com/zoixx/drugs-are-for-dull-minds

writing as listening . I don't think the intro is too sparse , but if you are feeling it im sure that pad would be fine. At the 1:30 mark I want more to happen, again just personal taste, I find the drawn out transition to loose my interest . The bass doesn't sound too much to me sits well in the mix. The main problem I have is the song has a lot of low energy parts and personally that's just not  my style. I would love to hear a Melodic top line come in earlier in the song and possibly reprise again at the end. I enjoyed the track over all good space and the elements sit well in the mix . For my personal taste I would like to hear more melodic interest going on. :) 

  On 4/28/2017 at 8:41 PM, strangerflesh said:

writing as listening . I don't think the intro is too sparse , but if you are feeling it im sure that pad would be fine. At the 1:30 mark I want more to happen, again just personal taste, I find the drawn out transition to loose my interest . The bass doesn't sound too much to me sits well in the mix. The main problem I have is the song has a lot of low energy parts and personally that's just not  my style. I would love to hear a Melodic top line come in earlier in the song and possibly reprise again at the end. I enjoyed the track over all good space and the elements sit well in the mix . For my personal taste I would like to hear more melodic interest going on. :) 

Thanks for the feedback! Am actually thinking of removing the guitar part and just have the first and the last parts. And maybe add the piano during the first part. Will have to play around with it.

You need to speed it up 123% and reverse it other than that I like it, really cool sounds

Like the transition, relaxxxxxinng

bass is fine

  On 5/1/2017 at 1:27 AM, darreichungsform said:

You need to speed it up 123% and reverse it other than that I like it, really cool sounds

Like the transition, relaxxxxxinng

bass is fine

Thanks mate!

By reversing do you mean switching places of the last part and the first part?

no I was talking rubbish

I don't think the first part needs any more texture, the sparseness works to its advantage IMO. I preferred it to the later parts.

  On 5/2/2017 at 5:19 PM, Rotwang said:

I don't think the first part needs any more texture, the sparseness works to its advantage IMO. I preferred it to the later parts.

Thanks for the feedback. Yeah I'll let this one stew for a while. Nothing really bad seems to stick out so that's good :p

This thread title keeps triggering the shit out of me so i finally listened to your little tune and...

...it's v good, but since you posted it for critique, i'll do that. If it was me, i would:

-lay some faint white noise over the whole thing and put some stiffling sidechain on it

-put brighter reverb on those chords at the end, and maybe some chorus for added emotion

-do anything with that straight sine wave...idk, it's super overwhelming and i keep thinking i'm listening to a sample on boomkat or something

-put in some kind of interlude material starting around 1:40 so i have something to cling to during the bridge

-also i can't keep track of the rhythm/percussion and what it's trying to do? That might just be me, but the little "microsamples" are well done

  On 5/3/2017 at 9:25 PM, BoomTssPhace said:

This thread title keeps triggering the shit out of me so i finally listened to your little tune and...

 

...it's v good, but since you posted it for critique, i'll do that. If it was me, i would:

 

-lay some faint white noise over the whole thing and put some stiffling sidechain on it

-put brighter reverb on those chords at the end, and maybe some chorus for added emotion

-do anything with that straight sine wave...idk, it's super overwhelming and i keep thinking i'm listening to a sample on boomkat or something

-put in some kind of interlude material starting around 1:40 so i have something to cling to during the bridge

-also i can't keep track of the rhythm/percussion and what it's trying to do? That might just be me, but the little "microsamples" are well done

Ha! Nice suggestion about the white noise. Will look into this. That sine wave is actually a phone beep sample. Gonna lower the volume and maybe add some reverb on it.

Thanks, lot's of points here. Really appreciate the effort!

Really digging this. The vocal samples are well placed and choses. Brings to mind Burial with a little fun added. Very experimental-yet-danceable. 

I don't think the beginning is too sparse, and I've never chided a song for having too much bass (and I won't start now). 

I think the transition between the first and second parts could be truncated just a bit. However, it keeps me interested. 

i love the way it enters the transition at 1:36. caught me off guard in a good way. i think there could be less space between the 2 sections as well, maybe just something faint to carry it over so we know the track hasn't ended.

i think the bass sounds fine. the bass ties it together at the beginning itself i think.

Thanks guys! Will look into like an FX or a low pad sound between the transitions to tie it all together. Great getting all this feedback, makes it so much easier to make those small final adjustments.

This is a nice track.  I'd cut out 1:48ish - 2:09, myself, since it moves from "this is a nice pause" into "is it ending, and why?" territory.  But you've gotten some good suggestions for filling that in a bit in any case.   Also, the G-minor chord in the piano at 3:30 etc., to me, comes off more as a mood breaker than a nice contrast.  The bass is great as it is!

  On 5/10/2017 at 10:39 PM, wagneric said:

This is a nice track.  I'd cut out 1:48ish - 2:09, myself, since it moves from "this is a nice pause" into "is it ending, and why?" territory.  But you've gotten some good suggestions for filling that in a bit in any case.   Also, the G-minor chord in the piano at 3:30 etc., to me, comes off more as a mood breaker than a nice contrast.  The bass is great as it is!

Thanks man! Sorry for the late response.

This is great! Especially the second half.

I would probably remove that long gap where nothing much happens or maybe just change it a bit because I honestly thought the track was over until I had a look at the waveform in the Soundcloud player. 

Oh, and another thing, it's a bit weird that after the long break, the track starts up again only to break again 20 secs later (where the piano is introduced). I would probably see if I could merge those two breaks. Should be fairly easy :)

But all in all, this is great! I really like it :)

  On 5/10/2017 at 10:39 PM, wagneric said:

Also, the G-minor chord in the piano at 3:30 etc., to me, comes off more as a mood breaker than a nice contrast.  The bass is great as it is!

And yes to this :)

  On 6/6/2017 at 3:29 PM, Squee said:

This is great! Especially the second half.

I would probably remove that long gap where nothing much happens or maybe just change it a bit because I honestly thought the track was over until I had a look at the waveform in the Soundcloud player. 

Oh, and another thing, it's a bit weird that after the long break, the track starts up again only to break again 20 secs later (where the piano is introduced). I would probably see if I could merge those two breaks. Should be fairly easy :)

 

But all in all, this is great! I really like it :)

  On 5/10/2017 at 10:39 PM, wagneric said:

Also, the G-minor chord in the piano at 3:30 etc., to me, comes off more as a mood breaker than a nice contrast.  The bass is great as it is!

 

And yes to this :)

Thanks man! Great advice, need to polish the track and then maybe send it as a demo somewhere.

  On 5/10/2017 at 10:39 PM, wagneric said:

This is a nice track.  I'd cut out 1:48ish - 2:09, myself, since it moves from "this is a nice pause" into "is it ending, and why?" territory.  But you've gotten some good suggestions for filling that in a bit in any case.   Also, the G-minor chord in the piano at 3:30 etc., to me, comes off more as a mood breaker than a nice contrast.  The bass is great as it is!

  On 6/6/2017 at 3:29 PM, Squee said:

This is great! Especially the second half.

I would probably remove that long gap where nothing much happens or maybe just change it a bit because I honestly thought the track was over until I had a look at the waveform in the Soundcloud player. 

Oh, and another thing, it's a bit weird that after the long break, the track starts up again only to break again 20 secs later (where the piano is introduced). I would probably see if I could merge those two breaks. Should be fairly easy :)

 

But all in all, this is great! I really like it :)

  On 5/10/2017 at 10:39 PM, wagneric said:

Also, the G-minor chord in the piano at 3:30 etc., to me, comes off more as a mood breaker than a nice contrast.  The bass is great as it is!

 

And yes to this :)

Hey guys, sorry to wake this thread up again. Just one question about the piano feedback. So the piano that comes in at 3.30, is just the first chord that you think sounds bad, and the two following in the sequence doesn't? They provide some nice contrast? Sorry I don't know anything about chords i.e. which letter to assign to them and so on :p