WORKS-IN-PROGRESS for February, 2011

[Dreadfunk]

@Captain Planet
One thing that really stood out to me is that you need to work on varying up the rythm of your synths. It sounds a bit monotonous.

@paravrais
Really cool and quirky, it sounds really lush too. It feels like it's lacking a bit of low end to my ears, though I'm guessing that may be a stylistic choice. If it were me I'd experiment with making some of those bass notes longer / more prominent.

@leviticus
Nice tune man. Sometimes it feels like the rhythm section cuts out for too long and the synth line loses it's context. It kinda throws the groove of the tune off for me.

[tbunreal]

@DreadFubk This is awesome :O Love the drumstep vibe, I think you kick needs to be more defined. It's definitely lost in the mix there.

[b_brooks]

@tbunreal- Thanks! I'm gonna give that a try and see that helps develop it.

[MRP5]

left a bunch of soundcloud feedback, will post more as i go threw these...
please critique this as hard as possible
Soundcloud

[Cyberex]

@MPR5

Intro is so atmospheric love it , the mid part is nice as well : )

@Dreadfunk
after the drop madness is coming )) great tune !!

Well i finished the tune i was working on hope you'll dig it ,any feedback appreciated !! cheers
Soundcloud

[paravrais]

Cheers for all the feedback guys! I'm gonna edit this post with some returning comments after I've been for a run!

@Dreadfunk - Haha this is pretty sick. Mixdown feels like it's lacking some low mid but there's a lot going on so it's bound to get a little cluttered in the high ends. Overall a really decent track. The drop is massive, feels like it starts to loose energy/tension a while after the drop though. Agree that the kick gets a bit lost. Personally I think your bassline is an octave too high and also too low in the mix. A booming sub should be totally inaudible on the speakers I'm listening through but I can hear it quite well.

@tbunreal - Sounds very beginner to me. Mixdown/synthesis is poor, not really any melody to comment on. Pretty painful to listen to really. Need to work on all aspects a bit more I think.

@RatRaceProducing - Track felt like it lacked energy to me. I know it's meant to be more of a chilled one but you still need tension. When it properly drops it's a bit better but it still feels very weak. Melody wise it's a really nice track though and the mixdown isn't too bad. I think the arrangement and the drum processing is what's letting it down. Good song but executed poorly in my opinion.

@Crofty - Really liked this. The bass is messed up but you know this already. Lovely melodies. Drums sound a bit weak, maybe need a better mixdown but that could just be the bass muddying them up at the moment. Quite basic sounds in it but they suit the piece well. Like the movement in the drums. Overall I really like it, just needs some polishing and it'll be a lovely roller.

@Leviticus - Aah, I thought this was gonna be good from the intro but the synthesis on your wobbles is really poor and the 'melodies' are incredibly abrasive. Mixdown isn't *too* bad but you really need to learn more about actual music I think.

[FRasch]

cyberex:
Awesome stuff, getting a megaman or atleast old 8bit games vibe from that intro. I like the part after the drop as well, nice job with the details That second drop is pure awesomeness by the way!

MRP5:
Kinda difficult to be hard on the critique on this one... The intro is chill in a mystical way, me like. And the following part is also sweet. Chill and nice vibe overall. I liked that synth on 2:08 also, was an unexpected sound differing from the other sounds used and worked really well. Sorry for not being able to point out flaws in you're tune

Dreadfunk:
I love those drums and the groove you got going from the getgo. Good buildup! The melody part of the wobbles after the drop as well as the synth stabby chord thingie is not too interesting I think, but the sounds are really nice overall. The bassdrum perhaps needs to be abit more defined or not so hollow.. sort of. The second drop was a whole lot cooler imho. Good tune!

b:brooks:
Chill and that, but to me it lacks drums as well as other elements. The mix is also way too, in lack of a better word, subtle I think. I had to turn the volume way up to hear all the elements. Nice foundation tho!


Been trying to finish up that last tune I posted here.
Tweaked the synth melody some, and altered the pattern quite a bit + some minor nitpicking.
Soundcloud


And here is another tune I've been playing around with the last couple of days (having problems focusing on one project at a time:) )
The vocal sample is from a Charles Manson interview. Freakishly enough, kind of the inspiration for the song.
Soundcloud

[Stebrah]

Soundcloud

It's not dubstep, but to be honest, i prefer this forum to any other, so posting here

feedback appreciated .. quite a chilled tune - posted some feedback last week on others tracks, but will check some more out in a few minutes x

[Dreadfunk]

@Dreadfunk - Haha this is pretty sick. Mixdown feels like it's lacking some low mid but there's a lot going on so it's bound to get a little cluttered in the high ends. Overall a really decent track. The drop is massive, feels like it starts to loose energy/tension a while after the drop though. Agree that the kick gets a bit lost. Personally I think your bassline is an octave too high and also too low in the mix. A booming sub should be totally inaudible on the speakers I'm listening through but I can hear it quite well.

I was trying to bring in some low mid by adding some midbass to the "sub" (which isn't strictly acting as a sub), as well as to make sure the bass could be heard on headphones. There is actually a sub sitting below that bass tone, maybe it needs to be higher in the mix. I've tried getting rid of the higher bass, but it makes a really noticable hole in the track from 80-120hz.

[circuitbored]

@dreadfunk - everything sounds great, i would definitely make the kick drum stand out more maybe kick up the highs a tad , and your sub seems to be lacking, its not giving me that bass fix i crave... but better than anything i could ever do! good job

@frasch - on the manson song. dig the idea , sounds tight, a bit muddy after the drop tho.

@mpr5 - bay hoes. absolutely brilliant!

so this is not done by any means, in fact its just the start , but im running into the problem of not having a loud enough overall mix, im trying to use izotope ozone and to no avail am i getting a proper level, i used to use psp vintage warmer to max it out, and still i think the mix is too overcompressed. any feedback and criticism's highly appreciated!
Soundcloud

[Dreadfunk]

so this is not done by any means, in fact its just the start , but im running into the problem of not having a loud enough overall mix, im trying to use izotope ozone and to no avail am i getting a proper level, i used to use psp vintage warmer to max it out, and still i think the mix is too overcompressed. any feedback and criticism's highly appreciated!

I can't really comment on the loudness issue, when I want a quick "loud" button without mastering i just use Ozone like you said. Try some of the different presets maybe, other than that I can't really comment.
Read up on the gain structuring thread if you haven't already.

The intro synth bit is a bit too busy for an intro IMO, I'd try to make it a little more sparse. I like the second bit of the intro a LOT better.

As for the drop and the main bit, I really like the sounds you are getting, but I might use the YOY sounds a little more sparingly to give them more impact. It's a cool sound, but it loses the cool factor if you overuse it.

Sounding sick tho man!

THe second

[Espy]

@Dreadfunk - Really digging this track. Loving the drumpstepish feel and the rolling bass. The mid bass feels really well put together. Top melody is pretty catchy, has a sort of Prodigy feel/sound to it. Doesn't take anything away from the bass. Nice track.

@FRasch - loving the chill vibe on this one. That pad that sounds like it's phasing really adds atmosphere. The heavy drop at 1 minute was a change, but it sounded really well blended. Really digging the pitch bend down, listened to it a few times. Really nice track to listen to.

@circuitbored - I really like the arp in the intro. Reminds me of old gaming systems. Quite a dark sounding intro, quite like it. The drop sounds pretty sick. Not too keen on the 1:02-1:05 mark though. I know the YOI sound is audible in the first part of the drop, but here it sounds way too yoi-ey if that makes sense. Like the high octave rusko-reverby synth later and really digging the hard synth at 1.40. Not keen on the headshot vocal, makes the tune sound a little...tacky(?)

Here's a quite something I put together. About an hour or two. Extremely short and not mixed/EQ'd at all but lately I've been spending too much time 60% completing songs then realising I actually really don't like it and moving on to another project and repeating the process. Would like some feedback from the word go, I guess.

Appropriately titled atm: Mess

Soundcloud

[b_brooks]

@FRasch- I know the mix is low, but I don't exactly know how to put the volume up without clipping (I just started doing this a week ago really). I can try compressing everything I suppose. Hm.

[Isturite]

@Espy- I have one word to describe that... "FATTY!"... really thick, nice big sounds. I definitely want to see how it finishes out : ) My only criticism would be simply to make sure the song doesn't turn out sounding too much like a typical brostep track, but that's more a matter of personal preference

@Circuitbored- Yours was my favorite on here hands down, although I'm not a fan of long intros, it had a nice natural sounding build up and drop. I think an awesome thing to do would have a big part of the song were everything cuts out to focus on the synths before another drop, they are very nice synth sounds and deserve recognition!

@Stebrah- dubstep or not, whatever... I liked the sort of loose drum n bass feel... Nice work with the drums and getting them beefy (I have trouble with that because I synthesize almost all of my drums)... The only thing I would say is that I was sitting there waiting for some big bass to hit me, I was left wanting more but not necessarily in a good way, it has good ascension, but eventually it needs to plummet downward... and yes it is a more chill oriented track, but it still needs to have that feel a little bit

@Frasch- Well composed track definitely, I love the layers and alternation of sounds!!... especially those lead synth and rise/fall sounds. The only thing I would do something about that bass sound though, the main one that repeats itself right when the drop comes in, it needs to be turned down or something. Bass in your face is good, but maybe it's just me it was a little too in my face at times.


Here's one that I made last night in a couple hours, it's really close to done, but I need it to be longer.... and I'm not sure how well all the parts go together... and on top of all that I still could use a lot of help with my mixdowns. Let me know what you think and if there's anything I could do to improve it... and please no getting on my case about it not being dubstep enough, I take influence from dubstep and don't want to be limited to just that genre, I've had enough of that on this forum lol
Soundcloud

[paravrais]

@Dreadfunk - Haha this is pretty sick. Mixdown feels like it's lacking some low mid but there's a lot going on so it's bound to get a little cluttered in the high ends. Overall a really decent track. The drop is massive, feels like it starts to loose energy/tension a while after the drop though. Agree that the kick gets a bit lost. Personally I think your bassline is an octave too high and also too low in the mix. A booming sub should be totally inaudible on the speakers I'm listening through but I can hear it quite well.

I was trying to bring in some low mid by adding some midbass to the "sub" (which isn't strictly acting as a sub), as well as to make sure the bass could be heard on headphones. There is actually a sub sitting below that bass tone, maybe it needs to be higher in the mix. I've tried getting rid of the higher bass, but it makes a really noticable hole in the track from 80-120hz.

Ah I see, I say get rid of it. Create a different sound. Like a midrange growl, standard dubstep wobble type thing. Have it play the same notes as the SUB not on the octave the higher bass part is currently playing. Then have it lowpassed really brutally but also lowcut somewhere above 150hz. That way you will still have that part of the spectrum filled but it will be with a sound that fits the track better. Hope I've explained that clear enough!

[Dreadfunk]

Ah I see, I say get rid of it. Create a different sound. Like a midrange growl, standard dubstep wobble type thing. Have it play the same notes as the SUB not on the octave the higher bass part is currently playing. Then have it lowpassed really brutally but also lowcut somewhere above 150hz. That way you will still have that part of the spectrum filled but it will be with a sound that fits the track better. Hope I've explained that clear enough!

I've been experimenting with that exactly actually, but I'm running into trouble with clashing frequencies. Anything that makes any sort of "growl" audible starts to clash with the midrange leads, and if I LPF too much it just sounds like exactly what you hear now. It might just be a matter of finding the right sound to use, so I'll keep at. Some sort of Saw I'm thinking. What I have currently definitely needs to go though, cause it's taking the oomph out of the sub.

Thanks for the tips!

[Xephex]

@isturite - i love this, the groove is great as well as the progression. I really can't think of any critique, it's nice.

@espy - i like it, just add an intro/build-up before it and itll sound good when you incorporate some EQ. haha i often find myself in the same boat as you, making quick samples or verses and then just scratching it and moving on to something totally different. Just listen to what you make over and over, even away from the computer, and just think up of additions you can add to it throughout the day, that's what i do.

@circuitboard - aaah that pitchdown on the drop was great, wasn't expecting it. i'd add more elements to your intro/build up, maybe change up the beat a little bit. i love the drop.

Here's something i'm working on now, not sure what else to add but i feel like there's something i need to fix up and i can't seem to figure out what that is. i think maybe beef up the kick and snare a little and sidechain them more so they're more dominant, but idk. lemme know what you think.

Soundcloud

[FRasch]

Thanks alot for the positive feedback!
isturite: just wanted to clarify.. it's the first of the two tunes you are talking about, right?
Think I need to invest in a sub...

[Woodllem]

ahhh someone help with my track on page 12!!!!!!

[MRP5]

Thanks alot for the positive feedback!
isturite: just wanted to clarify.. it's the first of the two tunes you are talking about, right?
Think I need to invest in a sub...

cant make dubstep without one