Hey all, I've been hanging around these forums for a while now, but this is my first actual post.

I have just encoded one of my tracks to ogg so I can upload it for you all to hear. I'd really appreciate some comment from you guys on what you think.

BRM - 443 [Strings Mix]

This is one of my older tracks and it's pretty badly mastered (I did it myself). Also you'll probably realise that some of the hihats are a little too loud and it stutters here and there (need a computer upgrade).... Anyways, enough of the rambling!

The link for the download is below:
http://freespace.virgin.net/chris.b...ings%20Mix].ogg (7.5Mb)

Honestly, I'd really like to get some sort of feedback from all the peeps here. Let me know what you think.

Breame

Ah come on, someone's gotta have at least tried it?

Go on, have a listen and tell me what you think.

Breame

good quality and is musically good.. but the track is a little boring perhaps.. some better percussion would probably fix that..

give it a really hard kick, and some intense hi-hats.. and a good bass (not off beat bass) .. that would help this out a lot..

I like the melody though.. even though it needs some FX really bad..

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Any more takers?

Come on, I really need some encouragement from the community. Please help out by just having a listen.

Thanks in advance.
Breame

i would comment, but i cant hear it
whats ogg?
wont work in winamp

quote:

Originally posted by Sunquest i would comment, but i cant hear it whats ogg? wont work in winamp

Ogg should work in Winamp 2.81 and newer. If not - http://www.vorbis.com/

As for the track itself:
It has a very distinct "software feeling" to it. I can't really explain it but I can hear it.

The percs indeed sound quite weird but I see you already know that

I also have to agree with Alanzo, this track needs FX. The breakdown in particular sounds empty.

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Latest releases:
Endless Cycles [Capital Heaven]
The Charlatan [Morphosis]

quote:

Originally posted by Sunquest i would comment, but i cant hear it whats ogg? wont work in winamp

Yeah sorry, I did encode it in MP3 to start with, but it just over the 10Mb limit of my free virgin account.

As Mr. Mystery says, any newer version of Winamp has OGG support built in or you can just get the OGG input plugin yourself.

quote:

As for the track itself: It has a very distinct "software feeling" to it. I can't really explain it but I can hear it.

Hmm, not sure what you mean, but if you could elaborate a little, it would seriously help me to isolate how to improve the track.

For this particular track I did indeed use a large number of software instruments (for percussion and synths), but I did also make quite a bit of use of my hardware - DR202, EMU XL1 Turbo.

quote:

The percs indeed sound quite weird but I see you already know that

Yeah, I just the levels wrong when I was recording it. Not only that, but the mastering process exaggerated the loudness of some of them, making them stand out too much.

One thing I do know is that it is a little full - I need to EQ the individual tracks because they are clashing somewhat and muddying the overall sound.

Once I get myself a nice shiny new Behringer MX9000, it should be a lot easier to eq all the various tracks and deal with levels - at the moment, I have to adjust the mixer in cubase at the same time as my outboard one; it can be pretty confusing at times.

Any more takers?
As this is the first time I've ever let anyone (other than my flatmates) listen to any of my tracks, I'd really like to get as much feedback as I can.

Please, if you do have a spare minute or two, please post.
Thanks loads so far.

Breame

Greetings Bob, just listening now!

Don't like the kick you're using mate, it's not very powerful.
Right there are two areas I guess, tune and production so I'll just pop down my opinions in both@

Production - The perspective doesn't seem to be there in the mix. The clap and it's reverb/delay take an inordinate amount of room up compared to everything else, that stands out more than anything else attention-wise.

At 3:25 that lead may need some reverb on it to give it more feel or something.

I agree with Mr. Mystery, to me it does sound soft synthy, specifically due to the lack of reverb/air and the same volume of each instrument, it seems too "perfect" in a non-good way (although neither would using loads of reverb on everything fix it either - a tricky balance). After kick off, the bass and bassdrum lack the power. Because of this everything else seems over-represented.

If you wanted my personal opinion on what I would do, I would focus mostly on the bassdrum and kick (google for an article by Eufex about this issue, it's brilliant!) take out the lows on the hi-hats as the hats clog some space up that could potentially be freed. Once you've sorted out the bass/kick, then relate everything else to that. On the instruments that are background, just try and make sure they stay there.

Tune itself is a good enough tune, I know it sounds horrible but to me it sounds standard really. It's not bad and there's nothing wrong with it. I would like to compliment you on your counter-melodies though, they show that you've got the talent to write a tune.

These are my opinions mate, take them for what they are really.

Great name matey!

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"If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything!"

anon

So far so good. Comments so far:
*Melody good (maybe a little boring)
*Production bad

OK, at least the production can be fixed. I'll have a little play with the kick & bassline and see if I can make them a bit more 'driving'. I thought that the bassline itself was ok (reasonably energetic), maybe I should make it more prominent?

Also, I'm reasonably happy with the hihat composition, although you are certainly right in thinking they should be EQ'd to take out the lows - something I've been meaning to to anyway. That should hopefully clear up a little muddiness.

I've just got hold of the pieces for a spangly new Athlon 64 3000+. Once I've got that built I might be able to work on the track a little.

I'm also gonna see if I can get a Novation Drumstation in a month or two, since I'm really restricted with the percs; most come from the BOSS through a simple stereo output, along with the bass and the kick. I'm quite hampered for the moment....

I do realise that the mixdown itself is rubbish, I will be working on this with my limitd equipment shortly.

The comments I've had so far has been really useful to me, thanks so much! Any more for any more? You'd be helping me out hugely.

Breame

I just want to say that it's great to see a person who actually takes the criticism the way it was meant to. Some people you just get loads of abuse back from when you genuinely try to help...

___________________
Latest releases:
Endless Cycles [Capital Heaven]
The Charlatan [Morphosis]

I seriously do appreciate the criticism. Whether it be good or bad, it's still constructive and does help.

Most of the people on this board (especially the producers) seem to be really friendly and do help out the community a lot.

Thanks for your comments, they are really useful.

Breame

Any more comments peeps?