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Would love feedback on this uncharacteristic (for me) track

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#1

Hey people,

Hoping this finds you well in crazy times. A few months ago (when, tbh, I was in a completely different headspace music- and life-wise), I for some reason decided that - in contrast to the sample trap I usually stick religiously to producing - I’d make I guess what you could call a 2-step track? Different techniques (scary stuff not using grossbeat), different creative process - even a different tag (not that I’d expect anyone to pick up on that bit, lol).

I’m very much an amateur producer, and really struggle when I’m out of my (sample-based) comfort zone - default plugins, and I only learnt what sidechaining was about a week ago - so would love some feedback on this. Specifically - how could I add a little bit more movement to this track? What would you do to it to make it feel a little less video-game-background-music and maybe a little more…general listening music? Not that one is necessarily better/worse than the other, I suppose. Other more high level thoughts also welcome!

Basically, though - anything you can help with, anything you hear which doesn’t quite work/could be better…I’m all ears!

TRACK LINK: https://soundcloud.com/shrykeox3/cold-reception/s-Nc9xN3cOMQf (let me know if it doesn’t work!)

Many thanks in advance!

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#2

Hey @shrykeOX3, its always daunting but rewarding pushing yourself out of your production comfort zone so nice one on that!

As far as movement goes, first thing id look at is the drums as those set the pace. I really like your sound selection here, kick, rimshot and closed hat sound great, what I’d look at doing is subtle expansions on them. Like the hi-hat right now is very static, same sound on a loop, its more acting like a function of time keeping like a metronome than expressing anything musical. Try layering a few sounds maybe even some foley and build up a more expressive top end, I’ll sometimes use 5-7 different sounds to make the hats and let the timing swing off the grid here and there, picture a real drummer playing it in. No performance is ever 100 in velocity and timing. Same advice can go for the rimshot, I know you’re accenting it here and there but again try and make it more of a musical motif than just a function of time keeping. The drums are a huge part of this track so I think just improving these would take you a long way. Actually that last part is pretty key, to summarise try and make your drum parts more of a musical motif than simple functions of time keeping, give them a musical purpose in the song

Second part to make it sound less like background video game music is you need to think about the arrangement as much more of a journey rather than loop sections. Looking at your soundcloud I can see you DJ so think about it like a good DJ set, how you build up the crowd to a certain point then bring them down just a bit so the next high hits harder, its that kinda emotional journey that takes loop tunes into songs. I don’t think you’re far you’ve got pretty much all the material in your track to do this, just dive into the arrangement more and really think about how you can pull the listener along the journey that you want :boom:

#3

Thanks for sharing this @shrykeOX3! I think @faisal_pirate’s feedback is pretty spot on. Couple of things I noted when listening through:

  • I’d think about the structure of the composition and what sort of journey you want to take the listener on (Faisal hit the nail on the head with his last paragraph). To my ears, it sounds like you’ve got a good foundation - now I want to know what you’re going to build on it.
  • I think adding some ambience / atmospherics as the track builds could really help to create something more expansive (getting you away from the video game sound). This could come from adding texture to you percussive elements, or throwing in some more instrumentation. Have a play around with it but have an idea in your head of where you want to take the listener.

I think you’ve got something really interesting here and I look forward to hearing where you take it!

Also, thought I’d mention in case you missed it - we’ve got a producer competition live over in the #challenges category. Would be interested to hear what you’d do with P Money’s vocal. Cheers again for sharing your work!