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An attempt at a meditative style 140 track

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#1

Whilst I do love making tracks, I often find it difficult to put my ideas down. This one went down ok-ish but one of the main things for me is that I enjoy photography so i’ve used some sounds from a Canon DSLR camera within track, for example the shutter click of a Canon DSLR for the snare/clap.

I was hoping to achieve that sort of “deeper” “meditative” sound.
I hope that I have struck the right balance of repetition and variation to keep the track interesting but to also make it “meditative” Hope you enjoy!

4 Likes
#2

Hey,

I like this. It’s definitely going for a more introspective thing. Personally, I would either shorten the intro bit, or add some sort of a wobble effect, modulation thing on that first synth.

I also think it would sound really good if you put some echo or delay on the shutter sound.

But it’s definitely well made.

Best,
Jonas

1 Like
#3

Yo, I really like this idea actually! As the last reply says, the intro is a little long and you’d hate for the listener to lose interest before the “drop” section hits. I feel like an extra element could be introduced early on - perhaps just a couple of keys or plucks in a top melody - would work really well there.

Love the ambient sweeping sub you’ve got going on, I’d personally say it’s a bit quiet but that’s just because I like bass music :wink: not sure if you’re familiar with the label Deep, Dark & Dangerous but this has real vibes of that. Keep at this one for sure!

1 Like
#4

Really like this @Oblong - love that minimalist vibe. As @JonasJ said, I think you could mess with the shutter sound a bit and add another dimension to the percussion. Always appreciate it when producers add interesting captured sound into their arrangements. Good stuff!

Also, we’ve got a P Money remix competition live over at the Challenges category. Would be super interested to hear what you’d do with that track!

1 Like
#5

Cheers man, will definitely take a look into making the intro more interesting. Thanks for the feedback! :slightly_smiling_face:

#6

Yo! Yeah I am familiar with DDD :slightly_smiling_face: I’ve got the bass as loud as I could before it starts to sound distorted - I think I need to look at the EQ which is something i’m not that confident in doing right now but will take a look for sure! Thanks man!!

#7

Thank you @Dan_Pirate appreicate it!

I’ll check it out!

#8

I like this vibe fr! I would say a shorter intro though but I like the minimal vibe of this

1 Like
#9

Love the vibe on this, particularly the really nice camera samples!

I can’t say much that hasn’t already been said. You could try to develop some of the rhythm patterns a bit so that there’s some clearer structural contrast rather than a single building A section, but if you’re trying to keep things meditative, overt section changes might not suit it anyway. Nice stuff!

1 Like
#10

ayooo, i cba to read comments so sorry if others have said this lol

Great start dude, imo i would half that intro in length, add some sort of detuning modulation onto the main synth when it drops in (RC-20 wobble with a low rate speed is usually enough for synths like that, but chorus or flanger can get a similar flavoured effect - be careful not to accidentally make the synth too wide tho). also when it gets to the second ‘drop’ you should wack in a heavier snare layer under your current one so the drums sounded like they have developed. reverb tail on every other snare usually does the trick with this kind of thing, you can automate the dry/wet on the reverb on every other one so that the reverb applies different movement throughout . You can certainly reference some Tectonic records or any current, well-produced dubstep, if you don’t know what i mean by that technique.

hope it helps bud, doesn’t sound far off finished to me mate!

1 Like
#11

yo @Oblong i’m really into this! Great atmosphere, I’m gonna be a bit a of a contrarian here, I actually like the longer build up, makes the drop when the sub kicks in pay off more for me, maybe just experiment some subtle modulations and stuff and some chord turn arounds so that sustained chord in the higher register doesn’t become fatiguing on the ear, but again imo just subtle details to break it up and a few touches here and there would be enough.

Shutter click as the snare is pretty dope, maybe try layering it with some other foley so on the 2 + 4 or 1+3 you get a slightly different sound, again just to break up the sound being normalised by the ear. Spreading our the hats in the stereo field would give it some space and further subtle variation on the ear too I think.

Overall though, I think you’ve hit the meditative vibe on the head, def puts me in a calm and focused state, just needs those final touches, and polish, devil in the detail vibes. :boom:

2 Likes
#12

@faisal_pirate @Modelle @Diane_Pirate @Nics

Hey guys, thanks so much for the feedback and taking the time out to listen and reply!!! I appreciate your thoughts, inputs and ideas and I look forward to finding some time to put some of these ideas and improvements down.

Thanks again,

oblong. :v:t3:

2 Likes
#13

Hey, this is really cool! I think a few extra subtle variations would fit nicely, maybe you could automate the volume/sidechain the sub a little bit in some sections? Not a simple to-the-beat sidechain, but something a bit rhythmic.

3 Likes
#14

Glad to hear you got something valuable from the feedback @Oblong. We’re going to create a blog post on the pirate.com homepage to celebrate some of the tracks shared on here. Update us with where you get to with it - super keen to hear how it might evolve!

1 Like
#15

Cheers pal. I did sidechain the bass against the kick but it is very subtle - i’ll check that out. I wanted to do this on the pad/s that runs throughout but have it duck off-beat like you suggested… I set it all up, placed kicks where I wanted it to duck and then muted the kicks, however muting the kicks stopped it sidechaining :persevere:(I didn’t realise it responds to the acutal sound, and not just the software thinks that something is placed there so it should drop the volume)… i’m using FL and used Fruity Limiter for the sidechaining but as I said, it doesn’t want to work once I mute those kicks.

If you have any ideas of where i’m going wrong i’d appreciate some pointers!!! Alternatively, I was thinking to just automate the volume to mimic the effect of sidechaining.

Thanks :call_me_hand:t3:

#16

Hey Oblong,

Are you able to create a send on the kick track to feed the limiter? If you make the send ‘pre fade’ you can then just mute the track so its not going to the master output (and your speakers). The pre fade send ignores the mute and sends the signal to the limiter.

Does that help?

1 Like
#17

Hey @Ben_Pirate

I’m not sure how to do this or sure if FL even has the capability but i’ll definitly find out! I’m sure there’ll be info I can read/watch now that I know what i’m looking to do! Thank you! :facepunch:t3:

#18

This guy might explain it a little better!

1 Like
#19

How you getting on with this track @Oblong? Interested to hear where you got to with it!

#20

Hey man, I’ve not done much yet tbh haha. Been spending my limited music time on a P Money remix entry :slightly_smiling_face:… which has been super fun to do!

3 Likes