PSN:and I'll move to Germany (Leipzig) in some month
Posted 06 December 2011 - 04:26 AM
Hey
I will group my next tracks here until I'm bored with this thread and want to create a new one. Also I'll keep the tracks of my EP project for myself so that it can seem a little bit new when it'll be ready (one day, you know).
Here's a new one. I would suggest to download the track for a better listening, that soundcloud quality is too much obvious especially on the beginning.
I'm also bothered with something about this track : does it sound as a Modeselektor rip-off ? That inspiration is quite obvious to me but I'd like people to hear something else in it.
Anyway, have a good listening and tell me whatever you want about it !
snow: i like the dense atmosphere but (might be that i just don't get it) there is something in the melody that sounds to me like you don't really know what you're doing (strangely it's mostly in the less busy parts). again might just be that i don't get it. i love the dissonant vibe though, but i could just do with the most melodic and busy parts only. pleasant listen nevertheless :)
smashing the image boxes: catchy start! love the toyish vibe and the dissonances, fits nicely. like in snow i like the melodies, great buildup. in the last part i find the lowest kick too dirty (and too low maybe). last part too short for me, lacks meaning, should be developed imo. other than that, it's one of the best tracks i've heard on here these last weeks :)
PSN:and I'll move to Germany (Leipzig) in some month
Posted 13 January 2012 - 02:34 AM
Thanks you both for your comments.
I would be interested to know which parts of Snow sounded weird for you, Yan G ? Are you talking about the beatless transition between the two parts for example ? I feel concerned because another guy from here told me that some notes didn't fit in his opinion.
They are fine for me (and obviously for some other soundclouders who liked the track) : that's just I don't have any real music theory knowledge and when the melody wasn't born in my head (which is the case in almost every melody of Snow because it's two twisted for being born in my head), I just use to write the notes by trying a lot of them and listening which associations sound good (to my ears).
So I'm pretty confident in all the notes I've eventually putted in that track (especially during this middle transition which I really like) except from one note which is lost somewhere between many others in the first half and which I decided to let because I like the idea of my tracks all having one discreet rhythm or chord dis-functioning
Anyway thanks a lot for your feedback, it's always honest and enlightening.
By the way you caught something about the second part of Smashing The Image Boxes : I was in haste to have some feedback about the track when I made it so I did too quickly. I need to listen the track as a listener some times and then I think I'll work the progression better.
I would be interested to know which parts of Snow sounded weird for you, Yan G ? Are you talking about the beatless transition between the two parts for example ? I feel concerned because another guy from here told me that some notes didn't fit in his opinion.
They are fine for me (and obviously for some other soundclouders who liked the track) : that's just I don't have any real music theory knowledge and when the melody wasn't born in my head (which is the case in almost every melody of Snow because it's two twisted for being born in my head), I just use to write the notes by trying a lot of them and listening which associations sound good (to my ears).
i want to mute the high pitched melody in the beatless section, to heard the chords better. i'm not quite sure what it is but there is something that disturbs me there (the first high pitched note being one probable candidate). i find the first 2 chords fantastic, note sure about the third chord actually. but maybe the direction i would take from there would be one you don't want to follow. maybe i just want something clearer there, where everything fits before it gets back to the dissonances. unlike Mischjok i don't hear randomness in the melodies, i hear a self-taught musician that puts the notes where he likes them without knowing what chords or scales he's using. i definitely heard the dissonances as intended because they do produce a coherent effect. it's just that someone with strong theorical knowledge would have changed a couple of notes that would make the whole more obvious yet still dissonant. it seems to me it's the most difficult thing to do by the way. when i hear some heavily skilled composers/arrangers that use dissonances it just shows that they know what they're doing, and i wonder what it is!
my favourite example would be this:
Quote
So I'm pretty confident in all the notes I've eventually putted in that track (especially during this middle transition which I really like) except from one note which is lost somewhere between many others in the first half and which I decided to let because I like the idea of my tracks all having one discreet rhythm or chord dis-functioning
malfunction is one typical thing in IDM. glitch is malfunction by definition. i love bugs :)
Quote
Anyway thanks a lot for your feedback, it's always honest and enlightening.
By the way you caught something about the second part of Smashing The Image Boxes : I was in haste to have some feedback about the track when I made it so I did too quickly. I need to listen the track as a listener some times and then I think I'll work the progression better.
you're welcome :) thanks for giving my feedback a feedback :)
PSN:and I'll move to Germany (Leipzig) in some month
Posted 14 January 2012 - 02:29 AM
Great, thanks for elaborating. Indeed musicians with a strong musical knowledge and who are clever enough to forget that knowledge from time to time must have something more. But I also think you can develop such impressive skills by being self taught and practising for decades, finding your own ways but never taking these ways as if they rule your music.
I'm quite at the beginning of that learning so it still sounds a lot random and noodly but hopefully it'll get stronger with more time and practise !..
PSN:and I'll move to Germany (Leipzig) in some month
Posted 15 January 2012 - 09:46 AM
Man, I wish you could have some but making that EP is so hard. The tracklisting is perfectly clear in my mind, all I need is to remake two old songs and give a better mix to the other ones but I'm beginning to feel the difficulty of re-making what you've already done. It's like these two songs are from the past and I can't bring them back. But in the same time they could be awesome so I don't feel I can let them go.
Sometimes I spend the whole day working on one of those two tracks, trying things, failing, trying more without believing it'll work, failing again, closing Reaper, getting bored at playing skyrim or doing nothing, then opening Reaper and failing again... Until I feel completely depressed and stop making music for the rest of the day.
These kind of days really suck because I deeply want to make that ep, I see it as an accomplishment, as a big whole track with different atmospheres, with a beautiful and striking cover. Everything is in my head but I experience some difficulties to make it with my hands.
Anyway it's always good to make a track like this previous one, without thinking about it being more than a track, and then to have a nice feedback from you guys. It somewhat gives me the strength to dig that EP-hole even more. Pray for me and I'll succeed lol
Man, I wish you could have some but making that EP is so hard. The tracklisting is perfectly clear in my mind, all I need is to remake two old songs and give a better mix to the other ones but I'm beginning to feel the difficulty of re-making what you've already done. It's like these two songs are from the past and I can't bring them back. But in the same time they could be awesome so I don't feel I can let them go.
Sometimes I spend the whole day working on one of those two tracks, trying things, failing, trying more without believing it'll work, failing again, closing Reaper, getting bored at playing skyrim or doing nothing, then opening Reaper and failing again... Until I feel completely depressed and stop making music for the rest of the day.
These kind of days really suck because I deeply want to make that ep, I see it as an accomplishment, as a big whole track with different atmospheres, with a beautiful and striking cover. Everything is in my head but I experience some difficulties to make it with my hands.
I feel the very very same about some of my projects! I wish you succeed!
PSN:and I'll move to Germany (Leipzig) in some month
Posted 17 January 2012 - 04:38 AM
yanG, on 16 January 2012 - 10:43 AM, said:
I feel the very very same about some of my projects! I wish you succeed!
Oh, glad to hear I'm not alone to feel that !.. I hope you'll succeed too. What doesn't kill us makes us stronger anyway
Also, I've worked on a new version of Smashing The Image Boxes. It's all about that second part. Nothing much actually but the little tweak makes it more naturally flowing I think (still not sure hehe I need to step back from this track).
Inaugurating my Monotribe ! (don't look for one in the picture, there isn't). I've forced myself to work quickly on that one. Using less programming and recording a lot of things "on the fly". That was a pretty good exercise. That's good because I was afraid I wouldn't use that Monotribe so much as it doesn't have midi and as I'm used to compose quite intricate melodies BUT simplifying isn't that hard in the end and yeah it's definitely a good exercise.
So basically, less work, less mixing (I could have done it better but fuck I'm lazy these days), and more life. The ending is probably a little bit approximative
I really like snow, it´s such a nice and melodically brilliant song, nothing to add for making that better, it´s perfect as it is in my opinion.
I agree with YanG on smashing the image boxes, the final section where it fades back in would be so nice if developed more, you could even just bring it back to how it was at the end of the build up, but maybe even more climactic and satisfying! :D Sometimes it´s nice after you´ve taken away the main melody to then bring it back in just after it fades and seems like it´s gone, can be veeerry nice to hear :)
PSN:and I'll move to Germany (Leipzig) in some month
Posted 02 February 2012 - 03:43 AM
Hermann, on 01 February 2012 - 10:30 AM, said:
I really like snow, it´s such a nice and melodically brilliant song, nothing to add for making that better, it´s perfect as it is in my opinion.
I agree with YanG on smashing the image boxes, the final section where it fades back in would be so nice if developed more, you could even just bring it back to how it was at the end of the build up, but maybe even more climactic and satisfying! :D Sometimes it´s nice after you´ve taken away the main melody to then bring it back in just after it fades and seems like it´s gone, can be veeerry nice to hear :)
Peace.
yeah I know I should use these kind of tricks sometimes but the fact is I'm kinda afraid of repetition or "common" song structures and always push myself to make them evolve into something else, which is sometimes (quite often actually) a bad idea because some transitions may sound forced or simply bad. everytime I make a track I'm struggling with that, and that explains why my tracks are often built in two parts.
but that's a bit stupid because I make that rather systematically. I guess my tracks will get better when I'll find a better balance between repetition and evolution into something else...
thanks for the comments anyway, I'm liking what I heard from your soundcloud as well. keep digging !
Man, I wish you could have some but making that EP is so hard. The tracklisting is perfectly clear in my mind, all I need is to remake two old songs and give a better mix to the other ones but I'm beginning to feel the difficulty of re-making what you've already done. It's like these two songs are from the past and I can't bring them back. But in the same time they could be awesome so I don't feel I can let them go.
Sometimes I spend the whole day working on one of those two tracks, trying things, failing, trying more without believing it'll work, failing again, closing Reaper, getting bored at playing skyrim or doing nothing, then opening Reaper and failing again... Until I feel completely depressed and stop making music for the rest of the day.
These kind of days really suck because I deeply want to make that ep, I see it as an accomplishment, as a big whole track with different atmospheres, with a beautiful and striking cover. Everything is in my head but I experience some difficulties to make it with my hands.
Anyway it's always good to make a track like this previous one, without thinking about it being more than a track, and then to have a nice feedback from you guys. It somewhat gives me the strength to dig that EP-hole even more. Pray for me and I'll succeed lol
Hehe, that is so recognizable. I actually haven't finished a track for the exact same reason for a very long time now (besides that I am doing a PhD which takes up a lot of time).
I like the the ideas in your track (edit: so far I have only listened to the first one) very much, although I have to agree with Yan-G that harmonically (I think that is a good term for it???) it sounds a bit awkward sometimes. I still struggle with that kind of stuff myself nowadays but currently I am reading some books that really make many things clear to me within a short time: 'Music theory for computer musicians' and 'Harmony for computer musicians' by Dr. Michael Hewitt. I don't quickly recommend books like these but I like the approach that the author takes in these ones. He argues that it is good to learn some of the 'rules' of harmony and composition. Not because you should keep to them but just as a point of departure (and because it is fun of course).
PSN:and I'll move to Germany (Leipzig) in some month
Posted 17 March 2012 - 09:17 AM
My focus on music making isn't doing well these times but still, just popping here to say I'm still there. I've given up that EP project because I definitely can't work on these old tracks again ; also I decided not to talk about my projects until I've something serious actually finished.
Anyway, here's some acid for you. I wish I worked the track more but in the end I just managed to dash it off just to see if one would give some feedback. Any suggestion about how the track could continue is much welcome (I know the slowing down end sucks..).
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