New tunes. In dire need of constructive critique!

[NonEst]

Hello people!

I have been making some new tracks lately (this is the second out of like 10 tracks?) and since I know nobody that likes this kind of music I hope that I could get some kind of constructive critique etc from you before finishing up the rest.

Hope you like it 🙂 

 

[Summon Dot E X E]

Det är skitbra.

Let me know if you ever want to collaborate sometime.

[dcom]

There are some Rival Consoles synth feels in the track that caught my ear, and I would love to hear the rest of the tracks.

[springymajig]

On 7/6/2022 at 2:43 AM, NonEst said:

Hello people!

I have been making some new tracks lately (this is the second out of like 10 tracks?) and since I know nobody that likes this kind of music I hope that I could get some kind of constructive critique etc from you before finishing up the rest.

Hope you like it 🙂 

 

This is beautiful! Really strong sense of melody and the thing I like the most about it is the overall flow and progression of the piece as a whole. It feels like it tells a story, which is something I highly value in music. It just helps to make it feel really polished.

The sound design is really great too, very clean and shimmery with just a hint of organic, warm fuzziness to keep things interesting.

Nothing really obvious comes to mind in terms of what to improve or work on... is there any part of your music that you're worried about?

Listening to "Now Faster" on soundcloud too, I'm really impressed!

[gnarlybog]

Excellent sound design and selection, very emotive right off the bat, to my ears. Strong melodies. A lot of nice production details on headphones. Honestly, unless you feel any major handicaps, I suggest you keep doing what you are doing!

I think if you took your friends for a night drive with this song playing you might get a few conversions 🙂

[milkface]

That track is unreal!!! Love it

[NonEst]

Thank you so much for the nice reception. It is input like this that makes me want to finish mixing the tracks that I have on my "to do"-list, which is increasing steadily every week... I feel it is so interesting to start a new project, but I have a terrible habbit of not properly finish a mix before I go into a new one. Hopefully I can share more new tracks soon!

For the song "June" - I like it overall but I want to change a few things, for instance the reverbed percussion that loops throughout the song. It gets a bit annoying after a while 😉.

 

[rek]

the stereo imaging for me seems to be a bit confusing. for example in the beginning it feels a bit heavy on the left side, and there's some panning going on later that doesn't, for me, contribute to the story. What i mean to say is that some of the panning feels a bit chaotic. I'm not afraid of heavy use of autopan but here it feels like some manually drawn in panning that feels a little jarring at points. i only say this because you said you were in dire need of feedback and this is what leapt out for me. This doesn't mean kill it with fire or you are a bad person 😉 does this make sense? i think that the "story" of the song is most important, and it feels like you are telling it, but for some reason I feel like the stereo field can be a bit bigger somehow, without too much "manual" or drawn-automation panning if that makes sense. it's like in film making, they say the camera operator really shouldn't zoom in and out too much, that's what panning can be like. but i abuse every law of music making and aesthetic so don't mind me too much. on the count of three, don't feel self consicous 1,2,2.5, 2.75, ...

[NonEst]

 

21 hours ago, rek said:

the stereo imaging for me seems to be a bit confusing. for example in the beginning it feels a bit heavy on the left side, and there's some panning going on later that doesn't, for me, contribute to the story. What i mean to say is that some of the panning feels a bit chaotic. I'm not afraid of heavy use of autopan but here it feels like some manually drawn in panning that feels a little jarring at points. i only say this because you said you were in dire need of feedback and this is what leapt out for me. This doesn't mean kill it with fire or you are a bad person 😉 does this make sense? i think that the "story" of the song is most important, and it feels like you are telling it, but for some reason I feel like the stereo field can be a bit bigger somehow, without too much "manual" or drawn-automation panning if that makes sense. it's like in film making, they say the camera operator really shouldn't zoom in and out too much, that's what panning can be like. but i abuse every law of music making and aesthetic so don't mind me too much. on the count of three, don't feel self consicous 1,2,2.5, 2.75, ...

Thank you so much, very constructive. I agree with you, I really have no idea how to better work with panning than playing around with various stereo imagers or manually panning. I also have a bad tendency to apply panning as a ad-hoc solution when I feel that parts of the song feels a bit empty or boring,  and thus not with a great deal of holistic thinking that I think is required from a truly good mix.  

[rek]

4 hours ago, NonEst said:

 

Thank you so much, very constructive. I agree with you, I really have no idea how to better work with panning than playing around with various stereo imagers or manually panning. I also have a bad tendency to apply panning as a ad-hoc solution when I feel that parts of the song feels a bit empty or boring,  and thus not with a great deal of holistic thinking that I think is required from a truly good mix.  

well, there's a lot of new tech with panning where it sounds more spatial, that's something i have to work more with too since i can really end up with 2d stuff.  I'd say normally the most important elements should be in the center. but maybe i'm old fashioned. but if panning is frustrating, work in mono until it sounds perfect to you. if the mix doesn't work in mono, then scoop out stuff that's not essential to the piece. i am telling myself that more than anything. ;)

[springymajig]

...ok I gotta confess... I did not listen to this in headphones before and yeah... I agree with rek... the use of panning is EXTREME...

Thing, is, I know that sort of thing can be really cheesy but I normally really like it, I'm a big fan of old Orbital albums and they moved sounds hard left to right all the time on Snivilisation and In Sides... I dunno if you dig that sorta stuff but it might be a good reference point on how to do it well (IMO).

I have my own personal rules on the matter:

• The song should basically work in mono just about as well as in stereo. So do all that crazy panning at the end when you've basically finished the song. It should be there to help add some atmosphere more than be a main feature.
• I feel like the bass drum, snare & bass synth should never just sit hard left or right. Unless it's just to highlight a short moment for a second or two, like a little "cut-away" effect.
• You can often get away with nudging things just a touch left or right, like 10-15% just to get that wider sound stage.
• Try to balance things out: if the hi-hats are 15% left, put one of the higher melodic sounds 15% right.

Like I say... these are just personal rules for me... but might be helpful as suggestions.

[J3FF3R00]

Killing it, homie. I dig the track!

If it were me, the only thing I’d personally change is I would pitch all of the drums and cymbals down a good deal. It could use a bit more girth in the low end and I think it would help. 

Otherwise, sick as fuck brah. 

[NonEst]

I have tried applying some of your good advice here going forward, especially concerning the extensive panning made on June, hopefully that won't happen again.

I've put out quite a few more songs since last time, though I haven't had the time to put work that much on my music this recent year. All tracks are using a similar tone as the June. Personally I am most happy with the last one since I tried to be more expressive with the the direction of the song, hopefully you guys will like it.

 

 

[Summon Dot E X E]

• June is really good
• not a big fan of the wild, high, pitch-bending sound in "evaporating". it sounds kind of cartoonish and undermines the rest of the song, which is far more serious. I like everything else in the song. the drums that come in around 4min are really nice. 7min mark is really nice. high synth at around 8min sounds fine because it's playing a good sequence of notes and not aimless.
• the choral instrument in the "waltz" is really cool. retro sounding synths, moody atmosphere. i would highly suggest adding a 3/4 section or changing up an existing section, in accordance with the title. i don't hear enough 3/4 in electronic music.
• drums that come in around 1:45 in drommer are really nice and detailed. the glitches around 4:40 are really awesome. this some is really good
• the end is really nice and cheery

this is really awesome. i've reshared one track on soundcloud.

[NonEst]

19 hours ago, Summon Dot E X E said:

• not a big fan of the wild, high, pitch-bending sound in "evaporating". it sounds kind of cartoonish and undermines the rest of the song, which is far more serious. I like everything else in the song. the drums that come in around 4min are really nice. 7min mark is really nice. high synth at around 8min sounds fine because it's playing a good sequence of notes and not aimless.

Thank you, yes I was actually working on a slight alternative mix that I have now uploaded. I agree that the sound was a bit strange so I've dialed down the resonance quite a bit.

[Summon Dot E X E]

1 hour ago, NonEst said:

Thank you, yes I was actually working on a slight alternative mix that I have now uploaded. I agree that the sound was a bit strange so I've dialed down the resonance quite a bit.

Sounds much better now. Nice work.

[hoggy]

Enjoying "Vals pa moln", very dreamy and gothy melodies

If I had any suggestion, it would be to introduce more personal elements - possibly some voice parts or field recording type samples from a personally related environment - just something to give the emotions a bit of context - sometimes I find that helps to stimulate my imagination