WIP Thread - GIVE FEEDBACK TO OTHERS BEFORE POSTING!!!

[wub]

WIP THREAD

• No completed tunes, WIP only
• Please post at least 3 bits of feedback on other tunes before posting your own

[Brothulhu]

Soundcloud
Guess I'll start this off... I'll give feedback when more are posted

[BOMAN]

@Brothulhu: As I said before in the other thread: dat atmpshere, I love it. Maybe add a bit of variation to the drums?

Here's a song I've been working on for a while now, 124 BPM House track. I have been working on it on and off for 2 months, and honestly don't have a clue if it sounds good or not I need fresh ears to tell me if it sounds even somewhat good, and if the vocals even fit in? I can't for the life of me decide if I should finnish it or just leave it.

Be as critical as you can, I'd like to know what you think.


Soundcloud

[oprs]

brothulu- still a sucker for vocals like that. they are perfect. the slight atmosphere created behind it with the percussion rides super smooth. just needs some boosts in some of the perc, its kinda hard to hear for me. i like the distant beat rhythm, puts you in a far out space thats for sure. i wouldn't mind a 320 when its all said and done.

houston- i could see this getting people on the floor with its upbeat style, the vocals are kinda high up and not really my style. the second "drop" feels a lot better. the chords in the back remind me of nine inch nails, i just feel like it sits super high above everything. the first part i wasn't super impressed with the second really rides smoother.

blak-percussion is super low and that kick just sounds terrible imo, it gets kinda repititve in the end. the vocal samples and then the wubs don't really flow to well with the beat. the kick kick snare kick kick snare can only do so much for ya you know?
i think some different sounds would make you overall happier

jetpack- the bass is a little high but other then that its pretty clear and nice.

boman- reminds me a lot of mosca in a good sense. i like the vibe and the 4x4 bass set up with a nice groove going. i would skank to this. need a longer preview of that for sure.

mthrfnk- the intro comes in nice, i like long filter sweeps, the whitenoise sweep its great to. i feel like the kicks are lacking some punch though. track feels like it really needs that chest hurting kick. the construction of the beat is damn nice though for sure no problems there.

bud- man that bass is spot on. this sound is fucking ridiculous. i would drop this in a heartbeat such a smooth gutter style behind those awesome strings. if you end up finishing it send me a copy man would love to have it.

turnipish thoughts- i think with something like this the kick , snare beats could be changed up imo. its kinda expected i guess, the overall ambiance is great though. also seems like it could be a little higher volume wise.

Soundcloud
just having a little bit of fun, i always seem to like the underwater type feel to stuff.

I typed it and pressed submit to find the other thread was locked, so that includes all of the last page of the old thread.

[Triphosphate]

@brothulu - Wow, that vocal sample and atmosphere really take me to another place, I'm imagining a very dark, old, black-and-white sci-fi movie, or the twilight zone. I like how the sub moves and responds to the kick. I feel like- maybe the vocal sample could use a little more upper-range presence? and that the ghost-hit snares could come up in volume during the climactic parts? But not enough to become the driving force of the beat? hard to explain.

@BOMAN - This has such a great detroit/origins of house feel to it. Love the percussion especially. I'm at work using sub-par headphones, but the bass and kick sound a little disjointed, I'd almost like to feel like the sub action is a result of the kicks, if you get what I mean.

@oprs - Woah man, that sound design, superb. Am I hearing granular synthesis? You did an amazing job increasing the tension. And this definitely sounds like it happens underwater, or more like under jello... a bit purple. I think the kick could stand to poke through a bit more, though.

Soundcloud

[Turnipish_Thoughts]

wow thread got locked...fucking yay...

Here's a re-up of what i posted just before it got locked.

--------------------------

@Dubspencertron

Fully loving the minimal vibe on this track! the chanting in the beginning is lush and really brings the track in. While the chanting is happening, the drums accompanying that bit might need some mud removed in the lower mids, try doing a small cut at around 400/500Hz and a small boost up at around 10k and also maybe a bit of transient shaping (Flux Bittersweet to bring out the attack on them. The plucked/slapped string snippet is perfect for the vibe of the track. Well sampled, well placed. If you're looking to add more depth to the tune I'd experiment with brooding, dark, dissonant soundscapes/pads placed subtly in the background and little echoed fx shots, maybe individual male short tribal shouts, reverbed and slightly delayed, keeping with that cave/tribal vibe. You could also mess with flange/chorus, the odd delay dropped in e.t.c. on some of the samples bought in in the second/third section e.t.c. to add a little progression to the elements there without changing them all together. Great sound so far man, it's got a very clear identity. Props!

@Mthrfnk

House isn't really my thing so I can't say much about this in terms of critical thought. It sounds, well, housy . The drop is groovy and there's a nice relationship between the drum rhythm and the lead rhythm. Maybe the intro is a little too long/minimal? I wouldn't know though, maybe that's a standard house intro? I do feel like the intro does need more elements though, play about with some hats/shakers? and maybe a female chopped vocal sample or two could add some nice movement to the tune once it's dropped? Sorry about the crap feedback lol, i did try!

Boman sorry I skipped you, another house track! Didn't want to give un-helpfull feedback twice in a row! Hopefully the feedback from other people has helped you enough so far though!

@Jetpack.

Mixing ideas! Ok. in the first section> 00:00 to 00:28, I feel like the plucky/attacky keys that come in at the end of each 8 need to be bought forward and the pads surrounding need to be pushed back and to the sides, you could do that with a little mid side processing on the pads, taking down the mid channel a couple of dB, same on the plucked keys with a bit of compression to bring them forward and add more snap to the transients. Only subtly, they still need to gell, but i think their placement in the mix in terms of how close they are to center stage need to be swapped. You could even play about with having it how it is now at the start and automate the change as it leads up to the end of the first section @ 00:28.

At the cross over @ 00:28 There's an obvious quantum leap in the timbre of the pads, I don't know if it's intentional but it's jarring and sounds more like a technical glitch than artistic decision. I'd play about with having some kinda subtle build and drop (white noise/riser e.t.c.) on the intro's repose to mask that.

The break down before the drop sounds ok mix wise, though it sounds quite empty, you have a lot of room to add much more excitement up to the drop, a lot of the freq spectrum isn't being used and the build up seems quite quick. It's a choice you made which is fine, I'm simply pointing out that you have the whole breakdown section to build excitement rather than the last 8 of it.

When the tune drops and the mid range stuff comes in your sidechain comp between the pads and lead is very noticeable, unless it was your intention to have the audience hear this (creative choice?) I'd argue that EQing fighting freqs is a better option as it's more transparent than this (or in the worst case re-thinking the arrangement so clashing elements don't meet). I may be wrong but it's my opinion that sidechain should be done in a way that's transparent unless it's a prominent groove element (most house tracks for e.g.). It works in some cases, it doesn't in others. Unless the sidechain is sure of what it's there for, it simply translates in to sounding a bit confused as to what it's supposed to be achieving. If you've done it as a technical reaction to fighting freqs, the rule is, it should be inaudible. my opinion anyway. See if you can get these elements sitting together in a way that's transparent and compare, see which one you like best.

Drums. You've also got a lot of room to make these drums much more punchy and generally have more presence. It's ok to exploit things like the 100/200Hz thing with the kick/snare (depending on samples of c!). The tops have room for lots of wash/crisp/sheen, the lows could do with some boosting, there's not much going on in the lows so you can fill that with weight from the break.

I almost feel like some of the issues you're hitting with the mixdown come from fighting for headroom, everything seems quite compressed and you're fighting for room when you've not actually got that much going on in terms of elements. Occamz razor dude! Turn everything down, turn your monitors/soundcard/computer up, mix using -12dB as reference point, it'll take quite a few tracks hitting -12 to begin clipping on the 2 buss. If you haven't already check out the thread on here about gain structuring. Mixing tracks of your style is notoriously hard because everything wants to be as loud as possible, you're going to get clashing all over the place, good luck man.


OK. me... Been working on this for the past 3 days, it's a weird one, very barely Dubstep imo lol. I'd like feedback on arrangement and mixing, and of course overall vibes, where it could go e.t.c. Ideas on where to take the second section, what to add/take away, so on and so forth, you know the drill!

Soundcloud

[Triphosphate]

@Turnpish Thoughts - I know you were probably looking for more constructive/critical feedback, but I just wanted to say it sounds great, has an almost cinematic vibe.

[Aufnahmewindwuschel]

@ turnipish thoughts thanks for detailed feedback definitly know what you mean there
hm i feel your tune so far. feel the part after the beat reminds me slightly of that one autechre tune when it drop and you think you are in space. dunno just finish it? personaly the second part is a bit "better" for me so maybe that helps abit to arrange things further

@triphosphate haha feel the vibe only thing i dont feel 100 percent is the hard bass synth the rest grooves all the way i feel the notes it plays though hm i do feel it but maybe go for a more organic sound?

@oprs hm after first listen only big thing i would like is to make it even slower after the real drop like bam tsssss bam sthhhhh with maybe sidechain on the elements of interest could add a whole new level to the drop. and thanks for feedback man if i can make a whole tune out of it i will def send you a 320

@brothulu snare reminds me of arovane theme, one of the best snare rim sounds ever ,so yeah you already got me with that snare rim clap thingy. only thing maybe tiny bit more changes; sublime though nothing big maybe different hi hat line, pad sound 5 semitones up or layered, or different filter work? definitly nice tune so far

a remix i started for fun, a fellow producer friend gave me the stems from the band to play with
Soundcloud

[OfficialDAPT]

@Turnipish Thoughts: I love the percussion and atmosphere!At :58 I love the change of pace and 1:23 I love the drum build up, maybe they are toms I'm not sure. I would have loved to hear a string section at 1:23, it's hard to describe what I mean. Instead of having a breakdown, maybe put in string section that keeps the energy going and hold off on the breakdown until after that section because I really love how it sounds. It's hard to put in words what I hear in my head! Overall, it is your song or course though and I'm really liking how it's turning out so far.

[zorboT]

@oprs - that sounds really atmospheric which i like vocals are great and the drop made me bob my head i dont know much about production but i like how thats sounding so far

@triphosphate - i like the glitches at the intro and mixing up of the synths, also the snare sounds similar to Figure's snares... Which is a good thing Also, the haunted taste does give it that vibe

@brothulhu - the atmosphere and vocals are pretty cool and i really love the snare... i can't really give much criticism but i do like how it's sounding so far

as for myself, i'm still trying to work on a proper intro... it's just a start so yeah...

Thanks!
Soundcloud

[wewuk]

@zorboT: between the intro and the 'drop' give it a bit of silence, that way you build expectations and when it drops it's even bigger. I do feel that the intro beat itself is not really rolling. with this I mean the kick/snare combo its a bit, meh.

@budspencertron: the kick/snare are bland, really dry, give it a bit of reverb/delay. I like the pitch shift thingie on the vocal sample. the ooohoooo's are a bit too much I feel, use the singer for the intro but don't use the chorus, I think. the fade out/in into the second part is a bit strange, maybe have the guitar element coming in earlier a few times so we know it's getting there.

the synth melody line I do like, same goes for the bass. althoug I feel the bass is a bit too much there. it can be turned down a bit.
the arrpegiated part is nicely done.

All in all you got a good base.

@turnipish Thoughts: love the melody line and percussion right off the bad, the birds are a really nice addition to the song. I do feel everything is quite soft, the kick/snare can go a bit louder. love the drum percussion rolling in. the part after the break is a bit strange, don't know if I like it or not. not a big fan of arrpegiated stuff myself. I think I heard some screams after the second part, if so I like em. nice panning too everything is moving around really nicely.

@triphosphate: I like the distortion sounds in the beginning, but it really sounds like circus music with all those organs. not a big fan of that. love the reggaeton-ish drums of the second part. yeah really not a big fan of the organs.

@oprs: as usual the soundscaping etc is on spot, big up got a nice dark and twisted vibe to it. I do feel the build up in the intro is a bit too long and the transition is a bit strange. Love the bass in the second part, that's some good shit there. keep it up! I do feel the open hh was a bit too loud/dry? maybe put it more in the background?

@boman: house vibes, like it. the vocal sample is nicely used and the little percussion sounds are spot on. it's waayy to repetetive though, i would love for some more elements to fade in and fade out. the clap is too soft, I allmost don't notice it, could make that more snappy.

@brthulhu: the percussion is really nice and floating in the background, really well done. the sample is also well used in the beginning. nice use of the filter on the snare in the break. I do think it's a bit too much of the same. after the second drop a nice melodyline or something it's nice but it need something more!

new track which is I think my first track ever with 'wobbles'
Soundcloud

[Krave]

Hello Dubfriends, I'm 1/2 of 'Substance', and all of MDRN. I came to give feed back so you guys can make your music as nice sounding and as "Dubstep"-py as possible.(Hence your on a Dubstep Forum) Yes, I am biased, but thats because if your trying to get signed or "picked up" your music has to meet standards. So that being said i'm going to be real with you guys. I love hearing new and interesting music, that being said, if it's like the rest i'm gonna tell you. You don't even have to care about what I have to say but I've also done remixes with Ratatat, HopSin, and Dizzy Wright.

@wewuk - You've got very nice drum tracks, i'd suggest working on some layered synths to start shaping some more of your personal sounds, and getting into putting little sound effects and sweeps!

@zorboT - Nice drop, having a silence like wewuk said is a pretty good technique before the drop, adding drums or a break would add some depth to it. In terms of getting an intro, adding a filter and going through the frequencies while what you got laid out plays should add some depth and length aswell.

@BudSpencertron - I like what you did with the vocals, your background and atmospheric sound are very nice as well. I'd say turn down the snares in the intro and bridge just a tad, and layering your bass drum will do loads. nice track.

@Turnipish Thoughts - haha i agree very rarely dubstep, but would be a sweet soundtrack for a video, wasn't feeling it around 0:57 aswell. If you want to make this more "dubstep"-py your gonna want to make your bdrum and snares to really come out at ya. i feel like you have a constant build up and should add more structure in terms of whats happening in the song, im not that in to trance so im not really into the same beat for 3 minutes. Try introducing what you have at the end of your song earlier, then playing more in the same key to add different parts to your song rather than the one constant build up. ya know?

@Triphosphate - Think you got a tad too much bitcrush in the very beginning and a little too much high on your highs. But very cool concept, Id suggesting adding more bass synths because when your main synth isnt doing something crazy, it gets a little boring. Nice tune!

@BOMAN - add or change the beat/rhythm at 23 seconds, don't like how you kind of just looped the same bars over and over for a minute. Try looping every 9 bars, then just adding what you have like a train, and for your intro introduce all the things you added one at a time.


And that's the end of it, I don't have any WIPs to offer but if you want to show some love, you can hit up my soundcloud.

http://www.soundcloud.com/nathanpacheco

[Bola]

@brothulu - some deep chill business, diggin it. I would suggest some more percussion and some fx to add to the atmosphere depending on the direction you want to take for the track, good start

@boman not my kind of tune but maybe reduce the volume of the vocals + some reverb if you want to keep them (could take them out for a phrase and bring it back), more percussion like hats to keep the house feel

@turnipishthoughts kick/drum sound alittle thin, suggest beefing that up in the mid/low freq range, nice pad vibes in the 2nd half reminded me of mass effect 3 since im playing that atm lol

@budspencertron pretty cool, i would suggest more hats but nothing too crazy to keep the chill vibe. maybe its just me but i feel the synth is alittle too loud, i would drop it a bit in volume

@zorbot get rid of / improve the synth in the intro. drums could be better, kind of stiff and generic sounding, + more work

@wewuk remindin me of some old vibes, turn up the wobble in volume a bit more + add some thickness and add some more atmosphere with pads. alittle more variation also would be nice, maybe percussion changes add / remove and maybe a breakdown in the middle of song

@nathan check'd your sc ez


heres a track ive been working on the past 2 days on the brownman tip
all feedback welcomed especially about the mixdown
2nd half not finished yet




Soundcloud

[subfect]

@brothulhu - sounding great man, that sub is a little too heavy though, overpowers everything. That'd sound really bad on a big system. Drop it down 4-6dbs so it sits in line with the rest. Really hard to hear the rest of the tune.
@boman - that's dope man. Again, I feel the sub is a little too loud, though not as loud as brothulhu's tune. Love the vox, and those poppy synths are dope as.
@Turnipish Thoughts - lovely vibes man. Not sure how you feel this is "barely dubstep". Ticks all the boxes. lol. You need to check your eq on all your elements, there's a lot of clashing going on, and levels seem a bit odd. Kick needs to be rolled off a bit higher up.
@BudSpencertron - I feel your mids are a bit too loud, seems to overpower everything else. Really like the vocal sample, not sure the snare sample choice is suitable though. In generally, really like the bass automation.
@wewuk - there's a hat sample you're using I reallyyyyyyyy like. Just a really nice sample. Bass gets repetitive really quick, try connecting it with your beat a little more by cutting it out at certain points.
@bola - not my style at all, but I'm digging that a lot. I really like that first bass stab, just a nice combination of filtering and distortion. Mixdown sounds superb. Not much to say really

Here's mine - new deep tune that I've been on last few days.

Soundcloud

[Rejinx]

Okay, first time at this, so don't take my advice too seriously if you don't want to, here we go.

@subperfect -
Very deep, sinister, and above all it's subtle. You are using some great drums.
I'd try widening your build effects/ hats to give them that big surprising feel.

@bola -
Nice intro. Not really my type of dubstep, but you've done some good work.
The reason I don't really like this style is that I feel it's super repetitious,
but hey if that's what you're going for then go for it.

I feel like your wobble is trying to be a bit squelchy but at the same time is hard.
If you want to experiment with a more squelchy feel trying resampling the wobble
with some vocoder work or some granular delay (that's been automated) and mixing
it back in, you'd be surprised what sort of sounds you can come up with.

@wewuk -
Love the beats you're using. I like the glass jar sounds. Your sub becomes
a little lost when you add in the wobbles, try to cut some frequencies
and allow the sub to breathe.

The wobbles themselves are kind of a point of loss for me.
They lack width and I feel like they aren't quite working with the other sounds yet.
Maybe try adding in some delay where your delay timing on one channel is set
to 1ms and the other at 10ms. This can help widen the sound. Also try phasing
the bass (provided it is comprised of two or more oscillators.)

You could also try adding in a high reverb pluck to respond to the snare hits.

Not really sure if you'd call this dubstep, but here's a little halloween thing I've been working on:
Soundcloud

[wewuk]

first of all, thanks for the feedback, always welcome and as usual it actually confirms what im thinking.
i'll give feedback on newly posted tracks when I get home.

[Blak]

These are from the other thread, hopefully you guys are aware ...

@mthrfnk - http://soundcloud.com/spectrafunk/idk-i ... se/s-mk2wv
I didn't even know there were .midi's in those -_-* I'll try and use some next time for you lolz. Thank you for your feedback.
I like the track, nice and dancey. Diggin' the hit at the transition. Can't say a whole lot but it did feel like the whole main was either phasing too much or maybe sounds like compression releasing too quickly??

@Jetpack
Cherry (pretty sure I said that for this same track before ...), but I'm on $40 computer speakers so anything I say for the mixing isn't going to help much. When the hats start back in around :31 they sound different compared to the rest of the track, difficult to describe, tinny? Prolly just me.

@Wewuk
I liked it. Pretty sure I like everything you're throwin down out here. Can that lead make a slight upswell at around 3:12? I think it'd add a bit more variety of the good kind. Great track.

@Boman
Admittedly I don't listen to much house, if it was blastin' in the club I'd dance to it though. I agree with mthrfnk @ the stabs at the beginning. Definitely kinda felt like it was just bass, white noise, and the lyric. Again, not too familiar with house so ... Still good, bring us more.

@BudSpencertron
Love the way the percs are evolving. Sounds like the bass starts stuttering some between 1:07 and 1:15? More samples for variety maybe.

@Turnipish
Very cherry vibe right from the get go. Transition is nice at :14. As for a second section, I really felt like :56 lead is in to a second main ... But I would shoot for some of those delayed chords, the leads from both parts, and maybe ducking the ambience further back and alternating between the two dominant leads (I probably do that too much). There seems to be a lot of places you could go with this.

@OfficialDAPT
This is sweet. Wish I could dance ... Anyways ... I think the shaker is a bit dominating over everything. Love the piano. This stutter at 4:07 is cake, made me giggle a little bit. I dont have a decent system, but I didn't feel any bass When I first heard it, the transition at 1:27 seemed like the speed-up should have happened sooner (second time it seemed just right, ftw?). And I'm not sure you need a downswell there ... Seemed to me like an upswell with quickening hits, and a stubby ducking right beforehand would've been nice.

Thank you everybody for the feedback on that previous track, but I've been feeling something faster this week after a bout of old-school Metallica ... So ... Please be critical, my volumes I think might still need adjusting, I really want to cut a lot without losing too much sound and am still undecided about the vocal clip + impulse. I like her voice though ... And the last 2 second stutter is just a place holder for the breakdown. Thought some peeps might raise an eyebrow.

(No, I didn't misspell Dominor, I label all my tracks in their key, plus this is only my third track, gimme a break? lolol)
Soundcloud

[Edit]
So I've adjusted some volumes, and taken the delay off of the hats, cause the bass was just overpowering everything and I really wanted to hear more of everything else, but I figured I'd let you guys decide which was best so ...
Soundcloud

[yungkay]

@blak :i like it, maybe making that snare hit harder would be better

@rejinx : sounds koo id enjoy some kind of dark basses to make it spooky

@wewuk: maybe some variation of basses would come out koo

heres mine i dont know if its okay or missing something?

Soundcloud

[Reversed]

http://soundcloud.com/mbola/jeer

I'd put more work into the snare, maybe layer it with a rimshot? Or maybe transient shaping... Other than that, I like it! Maybe a bit more variation in the drop.

https://soundcloud.com/subfect/subfect-murky-clip

I'd try putting a very low gain midrange bass (maybe some low pitched square based, very simple bass) on the sub and automate some compressor / LPF on it. Like it other than that.

http://soundcloud.com/shawn-smith-38/dminor

Less distortion, more stereo image work on the midrange bass, also put the bass lines on a similar output level, and your gain structure sounds off a bit

Don't do deep stuff that often and am not really good at it. (Square/Sine waves all the way though!)
Soundcloud

[Blak]

@Reversed - http://soundcloud.com/reverse23/a-perfe ... he-package
Unfortunately I don't have much to say in the way of destructive or constructive, except for maybe it seems like the bass is compressed or limited too much, I didn't feel like there was much character to it. And up to about 0:24 the little synth seemed like the hits were off or too syncopated? I'm thinking maybe there's some delay on it that needs some very minor tweaking.

http://soundcloud.com/omega-point-music ... int-evolve
Wasn't sure if you were putting this one up for review as well, but it felt like all the other sounds were being squeezed by the bass and the bass was squeezed by the kick(?). Creates a nice effect in there sometimes, but that it happens often screws with my ears :\ Awesome effect here starting at around 4:20 (sounds like it starts sooner?) with that synth. Closes the track beautifully I feel.

Love the tracks.

@Yungkay
Wonderful how you get that "Jaws" style feeling going at the front of the track, like a monster is coming =0. It felt like at the very least there should be some type of automation setup so every bass hit isn't exactly the same ... probably didn't explain that very well. I like that vocal sample at 0:56, leads it nicely in to that next section. The bass seemed to kind of drowned everything else out, personally I like to here every perc hit as much as possible, but it's your track.