Hey guys, I've spent the past year working on this progressive instrumental chiptune song, and I'd like to share it with you. I'd appreciate any and all feedback you guys could give me, as to help me learn and grow better as a composer.
[url]https://soundcloud.com/innerconflict-1/mischiefs-lullubye[/url]
The song's name is Mischief's Lullubye, and it took me a little over 13 months to complete it. I wrote it using Ableton Live Suite, and primarily use the tweakbench peach vsts for the NES sounds. ([url]http://www.tweakbench.com/peach[/url] for anyone interested)
It was a great learning experience, as I wasn't very familiar with Ableton when I started this, and I hope that you guys enjoy listening to it.
I dig it.
Nicely done key changes. This is a nice combination of nostalgic synths and pretty inventive songwriting. Overall impressive, but if you want my two cents on the piece:
This song seems quite a bit like background music for me. The length and somewhat droning sound makes it fade from my attention at parts. That's not a bad thing though. Sometimes background music is the best music. However, if you're looking for something more attention grabbing (for a song this long), I'd say change the rhythm up at various parts.
Either way I dig it.
i really love that one sliding sound
[editline]21st May 2016[/editline]
it kinda sounds like a really hardcore improvised jam session (like throwing on a backing track and just shredding solos on a guitar) like in some parts there are some really nice melodies while other parts feel a bit 'confused' and aimless
i agree it'd benefit from more varied rhythm simply due to it's length but the change in tone and general vibe as the track progresses is still really nice
Rhythm is definitely one of my biggest weak points, something I've been really trying to change up as I write. I tend to run into the problem of trying to over-complicate the rhythm which doesn't meld very well with the lead. Either that or it's too samey throughout the whole song which gets boring fast. Thanks for the feedback though guys!
I'm not sure how I feel it being background music. On one hand I'd like listeners to be hanging on every note to hear all the little melodies I wrote, but on the other hand there's the chance they when they go back for another listen they hear a part they really didn't pay attention to the first time around. I've had people tell me it's good driving music.
Honestly as long as people like it and enjoy listening to it then I feel I've accomplished my goal, but I'm always striving to learn and further better myself as a composer. I feel that there is no true mastery to music, only better understanding.
the rhythm is mostly just a drone that changes key whenever the lead does something fancy which does get a bit repetitive and adds to the "background music" feel; driving music is usually background music as it's not the listener's primary focus, in my opinion it might be something to do with this style of chiptune inherently sounding "soundtrack-y" because the closeness of the sounds and the repetition of the rhythm don't really offer a lot of room for dynamics which makes the listener naturally "tune out"
picture an orchestra playing this same composition, maybe switching up the tempo here and there for fancy crescendo stuff - it'd have a more "gripping" nature as the variety of instruments would give emphasis to the overall dynamics of the piece and would likely leave the listener anxious to hear what might be coming next, whereas the limited instrumental arsenal of a track like this simple feels "samey" after a while
there's a lot of really creative songwriting but the tempo of the track and the overpowering dynamics (there's rarely a change in rhythm or general pacing+volume) make it hard to appreciate all the finely-crafted melodies; everything flies by so fast and you quickly become aware that you're listening to a rapid sequence of meticulously-programmed notes rather than an immersive, 'organic' (i know it's chiptune but you know what i mean) piece
not trying to take away from it of course, i still really enjoyed listening to it, but hopefully you'll understand why it might feel like background music to people who don't thoroughly know the ins and outs of the composition
Nice. I love that 8 bit sound.
[QUOTE=TCB;50361067]the rhythm is mostly just a drone that changes key whenever the lead does something fancy which does get a bit repetitive and adds to the "background music" feel; driving music is usually background music as it's not the listener's primary focus, in my opinion it might be something to do with this style of chiptune inherently sounding "soundtrack-y" because the closeness of the sounds and the repetition of the rhythm don't really offer a lot of room for dynamics which makes the listener naturally "tune out"
picture an orchestra playing this same composition, maybe switching up the tempo here and there for fancy crescendo stuff - it'd have a more "gripping" nature as the variety of instruments would give emphasis to the overall dynamics of the piece and would likely leave the listener anxious to hear what might be coming next, whereas the limited instrumental arsenal of a track like this simple feels "samey" after a while
there's a lot of really creative songwriting but the tempo of the track and the overpowering dynamics (there's rarely a change in rhythm or general pacing+volume) make it hard to appreciate all the finely-crafted melodies; everything flies by so fast and you quickly become aware that you're listening to a rapid sequence of meticulously-programmed notes rather than an immersive, 'organic' (i know it's chiptune but you know what i mean) piece
not trying to take away from it of course, i still really enjoyed listening to it, but hopefully you'll understand why it might feel like background music to people who don't thoroughly know the ins and outs of the composition[/QUOTE]
By all means, this is very helpful to me to help further push my music forward. I'd have tried tempo changes but I've no idea how to do so in Ableton at all, so I ended up sticking with the same tempo for the entirely of the song.
It does feel a bit medley-ish, I could either try to pick apart some of the melodies and try turning them into individual songs. Or I could always go back into the rhythm and try to fine tune it to make it more varied and interesting as to not bore the listener too much. I don't entirely consider this song "done" as it were, but moreso in a refined rough draft, but there's only so much I can do by myself. I appreciate all the feedback and will use it to the best of my abilities.
when you say this took you a year to write do you mean laboriously? i don't mean that in a rude way haha i'm just interested in whether this is that sorta project that you've worked on here and there over time in a perfectionist sorta [sp]hl3[/sp] way or if you've been coming up with more and more melodies and adding them as time progresses?
have you considered just saying fuckit and turning the whole thing into a synth orchestral piece? :v:
[editline]21st May 2016[/editline]
add me on steam if you ever wanna send me WIPs by the way, i usually send earlier demos to a bunch of my friends so if you'd like we could back-and-forth, critique and swap notes and all that good stuff
[QUOTE=villa;50361117]I'd have tried tempo changes but I've no idea how to do so in Ableton at all, so I ended up sticking with the same tempo for the entirely of the song.[/QUOTE]It's actually really simple! Automation on the master track. Just select the mixer as the device and tempo as the parameter to automate.
[QUOTE=TCB;50361143]when you say this took you a year to write do you mean laboriously? i don't mean that in a rude way haha i'm just interested in whether this is that sorta project that you've worked on here and there over time in a perfectionist sorta [sp]hl3[/sp] way or if you've been coming up with more and more melodies and adding them as time progresses?
have you considered just saying fuckit and turning the whole thing into a synth orchestral piece? :v:
[editline]21st May 2016[/editline]
add me on steam if you ever wanna send me WIPs by the way, i usually send earlier demos to a bunch of my friends so if you'd like we could back-and-forth, critique and swap notes and all that good stuff[/QUOTE]
I worked on it here and there over the course of a year. Sometimes I'd spend days at time just straight working on it, but when I started to get bored or felt the inspiration slipping from me I'd take a break and let it mull around in my head for awhile. So the perfectionist way for sure.
PS I sent you a friend invite on steam.
the dedication shows, you can hear it in how fine-tuned and intricate the melodies get
it still kinda feels like a classic pokemon soundtrack in hyperspeed though :v:
[QUOTE=Sojourner;50361165]It's actually really simple! Automation on the master track. Just select the mixer as the device and tempo as the parameter to automate.[/QUOTE]
I'm not going to lie, I understood none of this. I don't mean this in a rude way, I mean it in a "I really don't have that much of a clue as to what I'm doing when I'm using this program" way.
[url]http://en.wikiaudio.org/Ableton_Live:Tempo_changes[/url]
ableton seems pretty well-documented (i only use it when i'm messing around with my launchpad s) so if you're ever unsure about something you'll probably find the answers if you google it
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