The Musician's Gig Room Chat V1 - Songwriting and Sound Design for all! - Creationism Corner

What I do is I listen to my stereo mix and use my analoge board to make it mono. If I hardly hear much difference, my mix isn't good and I need to figure out what I did wrong

Generally I just collapse to mono to check for phase cancellation differences. If it sounds the same its all good. Still mix in stereo though, using space adds a lot to a track. Stereo width is only one axis, depth is like delay and reverb and stuff.

[QUOTE=Ms. Gyroscope;48403905] [media]https://soundcloud.com/corn-mouth/sik-az-fuk-gabba[/media] This is a gabber-ish track by me and my friend. I went ham at 1:50[/QUOTE] Maybe this just isn't my cup of tea, but I thought it was terrible. I had to stop half way through as I was getting a headache. Maybe people like that genre, so I guess good job, if you're pleasing someone. ____________________________________ Piece of music I just finished composing for Portal 2 Repercussions. [media]http://soundcloud.com/russiangodfather/unspoken-passages[/media]

[QUOTE=Rich209;48418242]Maybe this just isn't my cup of tea, but I thought it was terrible. I had to stop half way through as I was getting a headache. Maybe people like that genre, so I guess good job, if you're pleasing someone. [/QUOTE] To be fair, that's not constructive criticism, that just comes down to "It's not my taste". This doesn't really help him.

[QUOTE=Rich209;48418242]Piece of music I just finished composing for Portal 2 Repercussions. [media]http://soundcloud.com/russiangodfather/unspoken-passages[/media][/QUOTE] One of my favorite things I've heard in here... Sound libraries are sounding so good it's unreal. My only issue with the song is that it's too short. [media]https://soundcloud.com/26carat/cruisin/[/media] Just dropped this one a few minutes ago.

[QUOTE=Number-41;48418349]To be fair, that's not constructive criticism, that just comes down to "It's not my taste". This doesn't really help him.[/QUOTE] Fair enough. I'll try to review some other stuff in here tonight to make up for my terrible post. [editline]9th August 2015[/editline] [QUOTE=MonkeyFun;48418432] [media]https://soundcloud.com/26carat/cruisin/[/media] Just dropped this one a few minutes ago.[/QUOTE] Very chill. Had some good beats, and the melody was nice. One thing to consider when you're writing longer pieces is you want to keep the listener in engaged throughout. So how do you go about doing this? Well there are several different ways. One, [b]Dynamics[/b] - going from soft to loud or having sudden silence are just some examples. Dynamics were pretty much non existent in your piece. Dynamics are a minor thing, it just adds to the overall piece. Two, [b]Rhythm Diversity[/b] - Most people in this thread are quite good at this. They are able to give the listener variety in the rhythm. You do a good job with that in your piece. Three, [b]Layering and Orchestration[/b] - This is a pretty important aspect. When I'm writing a piece I usually start with just the piano. Once I'm finished writing I orchestrate it. What I mean by that is that I take the different music lines and give it to different instruments or sounds. Layering goes hand to hand with orchestration. You are layering different musical aspects on top of each other. What you do right in this piece is layering. What I found lacking was the orchestration. There just wasn't enough variety of sounds. By the time I make it half way through I realized that this piece could go places if the instrumentation changed up some. Or in other words surprised me. Four, [b]Chord Progression[/b] - This is the most important aspect to me. Some people may disagree, but that is their opinion. The chord progression you have is great, but it definitely got old fast. So when you're writing longer pieces it is so important to bring new things to the plate. That way the listener is engaged throughout the whole piece. Because what you don't want to happen is for them to listen for the first 60 seconds and then them realize that nothing about the chord progression is going to change. So they exit out of your song and stop listening. Now with all of that said. All of these aspects work together. You can't just have an amazing chord progression, but zero dynamics and zero rhythm. People aren't going to listen to that. In general you have a good piece, but I think it could be a great piece with some more thought. Anyways these are just opinions and you can use what you wish or not use anything I have to say. Either way I look forward to hearing more from you.

[QUOTE=Rich209;48418684]Very chill. Had some good beats, and the melody was nice. One thing to consider when you're writing longer pieces is you want to keep the listener in engaged throughout. So how do you go about doing this? Well there are several different ways. One, [b]Dynamics[/b] - going from soft to loud or having sudden silence are just some examples. Dynamics were pretty much non existent in your piece. Dynamics are a minor thing, it just adds to the overall piece. Two, [b]Rhythm Diversity[/b] - Most people in this thread are quite good at this. They are able to give the listener variety in the rhythm. You do a good job with that in your piece. Three, [b]Layering and Orchestration[/b] - This is a pretty important aspect. When I'm writing a piece I usually start with just the piano. Once I'm finished writing I orchestrate it. What I mean by that is that I take the different music lines and give it to different instruments or sounds. Layering goes hand to hand with orchestration. You are layering different musical aspects on top of each other. What you do right in this piece is layering. What I found lacking was the orchestration. There just wasn't enough variety of sounds. By the time I make it half way through I realized that this piece could go places if the instrumentation changed up some. Or in other words surprised me. Four, [b]Chord Progression[/b] - This is the most important aspect to me. Some people may disagree, but that is their opinion. The chord progression you have is great, but it definitely got old fast. So when you're writing longer pieces it is so important to bring new things to the plate. That way the listener is engaged throughout the whole piece. Because what you don't want to happen is for them to listen for the first 60 seconds and then them realize that nothing about the chord progression is going to change. So they exit out of your song and stop listening. Now with all of that said. All of these aspects work together. You can't just have an amazing chord progression, but zero dynamics and zero rhythm. People aren't going to listen to that. In general you have a good piece, but I think it could be a great piece with some more thought. Anyways these are just opinions and you can use what you wish or not use anything I have to say. Either way I look forward to hearing more from you.[/QUOTE] Good shit, haven't had much feedback like that except from my composition teacher. Thanks for taking the time to write all that out. I would say there's a lot of dynamics in the piece but the bass doesn't which I could see how it could give you that impression. Definitely a good call on the chord progression, I'll check that out in future works, thanks.

[QUOTE=Rich209;48418684]Fair enough. I'll try to review some other stuff in here tonight to make up for my terrible post. [editline]9th August 2015[/editline] Very chill. Had some good beats, and the melody was nice. One thing to consider when you're writing longer pieces is you want to keep the listener in engaged throughout. So how do you go about doing this? Well there are several different ways. One, [b]Dynamics[/b] - going from soft to loud or having sudden silence are just some examples. Dynamics were pretty much non existent in your piece. Dynamics are a minor thing, it just adds to the overall piece. Two, [b]Rhythm Diversity[/b] - Most people in this thread are quite good at this. They are able to give the listener variety in the rhythm. You do a good job with that in your piece. Three, [b]Layering and Orchestration[/b] - This is a pretty important aspect. When I'm writing a piece I usually start with just the piano. Once I'm finished writing I orchestrate it. What I mean by that is that I take the different music lines and give it to different instruments or sounds. Layering goes hand to hand with orchestration. You are layering different musical aspects on top of each other. What you do right in this piece is layering. What I found lacking was the orchestration. There just wasn't enough variety of sounds. By the time I make it half way through I realized that this piece could go places if the instrumentation changed up some. Or in other words surprised me. Four, [b]Chord Progression[/b] - This is the most important aspect to me. Some people may disagree, but that is their opinion. The chord progression you have is great, but it definitely got old fast. So when you're writing longer pieces it is so important to bring new things to the plate. That way the listener is engaged throughout the whole piece. Because what you don't want to happen is for them to listen for the first 60 seconds and then them realize that nothing about the chord progression is going to change. So they exit out of your song and stop listening. Now with all of that said. All of these aspects work together. You can't just have an amazing chord progression, but zero dynamics and zero rhythm. People aren't going to listen to that. In general you have a good piece, but I think it could be a great piece with some more thought. Anyways these are just opinions and you can use what you wish or not use anything I have to say. Either way I look forward to hearing more from you.[/QUOTE] Damn, makes me want to finish a new song to get this thorough of criticism I had a project decently completed but an HDD crash killed that. I write out notes on my songs so I can recreate the chords and Bassline, but gotta redo the drums and fx and all the ambient sounds and stuff. And I keep picking up long 8 hour shifts at work so time is limited but hey Jupiter-80 may be in my future and that's worth it :D [editline]9th August 2015[/editline] Holy shit totally misunderstood how payment system at work works out, turns out I'll be making a little under double what j thought I would make. Jupiter 80 was going to be a stretch, but now its actually quite feasible and I'll have money to spare for lessons and more books :D

Made this with logic and triggering with my Roland V-Drums [video=youtube;AapI0RhyIHo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AapI0RhyIHo[/video]

[QUOTE=MonkeyFun;48395891]Posted that track that I linked in here the other day, finished. Just linking in case you guys wanted to hear the finished product. I took the acapella out cause there's a copyright scare going around on SC right now. [media]https://soundcloud.com/26carat/millions-w-snbi[/media][/QUOTE] This sounds super chill, I really like the attack on the voice/synth towards the end! [QUOTE=halofreak472;48398366]Has a really nice trance feel to it overall. Piano might have come in a bit early though, also the intro feels like it's building up to something bigger than just that kind of dubsteppy bit. I also really like the part that starts at 1:15. It also sounds like it's a buildup to something though, it was a bit disappointing to hear the song just slowly end from there instead of moving into another chorus or something like that. Tried making another drum and bass song in the style of Unreal Tournament [media]https://soundcloud.com/grandmamax/can-you-hurry-up[/media][/QUOTE] As said before, the drums could be a bit punchier (maybe gate the bass and some synths with the kick very slightly). [QUOTE=Qwerty Bastard;48401212]Personally I prefer samples over making my own drums, acoustic drums always sound a lot more lively and can add some nice organic edge to an electronic melody. I still make my own drum tracks when necessary but lately I've gotten into chopping up drum samples and making my own beats with them, to varying degrees of success. The drums on your track seem fine though, all I'd do is add some variation to the hihat velocity/volume, maybe a little reverb on 'em too. Seems kinda busy, like there's too many higher pitched synths competing with each other instead of settling into a groove. Really well mastered though, despite the business it never felt like an overload of noise, there's just moments where some of the synths get distracting. ----------- I'm not actually sure if I posted this before but oh well: [media]https://soundcloud.com/drfacedoctor/fixer[/media][/QUOTE] Dang this is pretty cool, not really the stuff I listen to but its good! [QUOTE=Ms. Gyroscope;48403905]Dude I like what you have going. Try messing with the drums cus that kick needs more punch on the low end. I like the compostion too really catchy and dope. [media]https://soundcloud.com/corn-mouth/sik-az-fuk-gabba[/media] This is a gabber-ish track by me and my friend. I went ham at 1:50[/QUOTE] How do you make this kinda stuff? I'm very curious. [QUOTE=Rich209;48418242]Maybe this just isn't my cup of tea, but I thought it was terrible. I had to stop half way through as I was getting a headache. Maybe people like that genre, so I guess good job, if you're pleasing someone. ____________________________________ Piece of music I just finished composing for Portal 2 Repercussions. [media]http://soundcloud.com/russiangodfather/unspoken-passages[/media][/QUOTE] Its good, really good stuff. [editline]10th August 2015[/editline] [media]https://soundcloud.com/giggleblizzard/classic[/media] here's something I threw together today, there is a big lack of melodies and leads atm but I'm gonna experiment with putting vocals on it if the track turns out good [editline]10th August 2015[/editline] hmm soundcloud doesnt want it to work, i uploaded it on private to my other soundcloud, so heres a link if above doesnt work [url]https://soundcloud.com/messier-51/classic2/s-30uKa[/url]

[QUOTE=MrJazzy;48425348] [media]https://soundcloud.com/giggleblizzard/classic[/media] [url]https://soundcloud.com/messier-51/classic2/s-30uKa[/url][/QUOTE] Overall I really like it. The sounds you're using are great, what are they?

[QUOTE=redBadger;48425611]Overall I really like it. The sounds you're using are great, what are they?[/QUOTE] Well, I just mess about in Massive and Albino 3, I love playing with synthesizers

[QUOTE=MrJazzy;48425348][media]https://soundcloud.com/giggleblizzard/classic[/media] here's something I threw together today, there is a big lack of melodies and leads atm but I'm gonna experiment with putting vocals on it if the track turns out good [/QUOTE] Love that piano type synth playing throughout. You should post the NMSV file for that if you're not too bothered. The rhythm transition at 155 is great, I've always loved when an simple downbeat transitions into a dubstepy or hiphop rhythm. The actual percussion sounds are a bit weak though, but I like that they start out soft. I don't care for the part between 114 to 130. In particular I think the upper synth is pretty anticlimactic.

I've always wondered what everyone looks like in this thread. This is me. [img]https://scontent-atl1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xta1/v/t1.0-9/11800407_10207618706451948_4473480585066888288_n.jpg?oh=037db2b82cfe8ea45e0ed3fe94ec5536&oe=564D73B3[/img]

I bought komplete 10 ultimate a couple days ago lmao. Haven't really posted anything in here for a while, but I've been lurking and listening some of the stuff [editline]11th August 2015[/editline] [QUOTE=Rich209;48432824]I've always wondered what everyone looks like in this thread. This is me. *pic*[/QUOTE] [img]http://files.1337upload.net/Kuva0206-aeb173.jpg[/img]

Can anybody recommend a good pair of monitor headphones? I've been needing to get a pair

[QUOTE=Hoyticus;48436993]Can anybody recommend a good pair of monitor headphones? I've been needing to get a pair[/QUOTE] I hear the Audio Technica ATH-M40X are p much the best bang for the buck. They're around $80 in some places

So I got a message from this guy today who does a lot theater work in a town near by. He apparently wants to discuss with me about arranging some music for The Rocky Horror Picture show, a production he's currently setting up at his theater. Could be a nice little paying gig, so I'm excited.

I'm producing and mixing/mastering a Christmas album which I'm excited for too

Anybody have an opinion on omnisphere? I'm considering getting it

Been trying to get my producing game up, so I made these two tracks [media]https://soundcloud.com/spaceman-42/clocks-lewis-lancaster-remix[/media] and this [media]https://soundcloud.com/spaceman-42/clocks[/media]

Hey buddy, don't forget to feedback some other tracks too :)

I wrote two melodies and two chord progressions yesterday and was actually pretty satisfied with them :D Also pared down my VST library to the bare minimums, and started making most of my own instruments. Made a huge orchestral sampler library which I wasted 4 hours just playing around with. And also read the Ableton manual and watched videos on how to do FM synthesis and had fun with that, all of which makes the decision of what synth to buy in the fall [I]so damn much harder[/I]

I was playing around not getting anywhere, so I loaded up an old track, redid it and wrote lyrics for it. I feel like I got the chord progression and all right and I even tried recording some vocals on it and even for a lousy attempt I liked how my voice sounded on top of the synths. Maybe this is the one, I had to force myself to save and stop cause I've gotta change bedding for my guinea pigs and go to bed but I know what I'm gonna be doing tomorrow.

Are there any alternatives to Soundcloud? That possibly don't limit the amount of stuff you can upload?

[QUOTE=SebiWarrior;48452884]Are there any alternatives to Soundcloud? That possibly don't limit the amount of stuff you can upload?[/QUOTE] i use soundcloud for various independent tracks and tests and bandcamp for full albums, don't know of any other sites like that

saw this and thought some of u might get a kick out of this [IMG]https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpt1/v/t1.0-9/11826044_10153573545611103_6256066831033851501_n.jpg?oh=077b70796310890b816c2d658852700e&oe=5636DDAA[/IMG] the fuckin cheek of some people

wooooooooooooooooow

$200 for 2 days is a steal lol what

[QUOTE=SebiWarrior;48452884]Are there any alternatives to Soundcloud? That possibly don't limit the amount of stuff you can upload?[/QUOTE] Is there anything wrong with just using Youtube?