My first song… any comment to help me?

Sindri
Sindri Member Posts: 23 Member

Hi everybody,

After one month on Maschine, I finally finished my first song. Inspired by Dr Facilier (my favorite Disney Vilain that communicates with the lost ones). The mood is a bit darker that I expected it to be but it is meaningful to me.

Could I ask to take time to listen to it and give my your comments (good and bad ones) and avise? I need to learn so everything is good to take.

Thank you so much… this means a lot to me 🙏🥰


Comments

  • Paule
    Paule Member Posts: 1,328 Expert

    As an AmbieGarde fan I like diminished Arp/Seq sections — but it's my personal mind.

    A good start, Sindri. BTW I'm no musician - a soundigner and Reaktor builder/coder only.

  • Psyearth5
    Psyearth5 Member Posts: 160 Helper

    I will be Objective as Ambient/new age/Space Ambient Artists deeply dedicated. You need to glue sounds together with RAUM but don't overdo it and I'm not suggesting to drawn everything to Raum, you can still keep dry sounds if that is what you want to preserve and in that case you will still have better compact sound with Raum even with longer decay just mix wet signal to your taste and you can save this current Dry Form but with small amount of RAUM over all sound will be more compact with more sound colors .

  • Psyearth5
    Psyearth5 Member Posts: 160 Helper

    I will add another Delay tip , use low cut filter for delays and keep original sound like it is, with low cut you will preserve original sound and Delay will be mixed better without occasionally confusion that it's mistake. For any questions i am always here for help and to be Objective. This track have good parts but "drop" to say it not nesessery and maybe you can make it smooth with keeping sounds in background using, filters ,EQ or Reverb tail just a tiny details that are keeping everything flows .

  • LostInFoundation
    LostInFoundation Member Posts: 4,246 Expert
    edited May 2023

    Overall it creates a good ambiance/mood.

    My 2 cents:

    The keyboard at the beginning sounds a little bit out of tune (but it could be done for a purpose. In this case, maybe is a little bit too much, creating dissonance with the background synth sound).

    I agree With what Psyearth5 said: the track could benefit a lot of glueing sounds together. This can be achieved not only with a reverb (as Raum is), but also with a little more work on equalization. Adjusting some frequencies of the different instruments (giving room for the different instruments and allowing them to fit one another and not to “fight” for the same space) could also help the overall ensemble to feel more cohesive.

    And also his suggestion to work on delays is on point. In a couple of occasions the delay gives the impression there is a couple of mistakes, with notes that sound not in the right place.

    Another (very personal) suggestion is that the track could benefit also from an added percussive sound (not drums or percussions necessarily…maybe a rhythmic mono note viola?). Not in the whole track, but here and there a rhythmic cadence could help the arpeggiated instruments to shine even more. But as I said, this is very personal. Maybe you wanted to do a track without this kind of element and this would be more than legitimate.

    In any case, 3 thumbs up for a very valid first effort 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼

    Now I understand better the type of instruments suggestions you were asking for (oh…thinking about it…since you were asking for an “icey” type of sound, a couple of reverbs could help you even more than Raum to achieve this: Ice and Metaverb will give you the same help on glueing the sounds together adding that cold, nordic, metallic type of sound you were after. Or also a spring reverb could do the trick 😉)

  • Sindri
    Sindri Member Posts: 23 Member

    Thank you all for your answers and taking time to help me.

    I’ll rework on it with your ideas in head but I have to admit that I don’t understand everything.

    @Psyearth5 @LostInFoundation What do you mean by glueing the sounds together? What about dry and wet sounds? You talk a lot about Raum, what is it used for?

    Thank you so much to help me to improve my music and sorry for my very beginner questions 🙏

  • Psyearth5
    Psyearth5 Member Posts: 160 Helper

    LostInFoundation i cannot agree more with you about internal Maschine plugins because i can relay only on those and get amazing results, Techno House, Trance and Psy Trance only using internal plugins and instruments but i am 20 years in Music Production and i reached very complex techniques and momentum when i realized that simplicity nd Basic rules are most important like for example Mixing and Mastering. Mix is a process that should happen under 15minutes with fresh ears and it's all about EQ , compressor and Volume Faders and it is so simple but easy over seen as basic things that people can't accept because it's all in front of all of us. I want to help to everyone but especially new generation because what was free knowledge/information for me for them it cost and usually it is done in confusing way just like with LUFS no matter how straight foward guidelines are directly from Streaming Platforms and i still can't explain to Lables and Master engineers but OK , when i do independent release i do to Optimal solution suited to temper of current track and results are couple of times in a row on Editorial Playlist . One thing i want to point here is a Music without drums because it needs to be unpredictable free from previous Forms and people like Bass and they are listening on big sound systems so maybe that's the case, offcourse i don't have nothing against drums and i like them and play with them.

  • Paule
    Paule Member Posts: 1,328 Expert
    edited May 2023

    Hey Sindri,

    RAUM is a vstfx reverb by NI.

    Myself own the holiday gift from some years ago.

    For Reaktor is a brosis of RAUM named PidL (Portal into different Locations). I use often in my monsters.

    pe. here

    https://www.native-instruments.com/de/reaktor-community/reaktor-user-library/entry/show/14715/

  • LostInFoundation
    LostInFoundation Member Posts: 4,246 Expert
    edited May 2023

    RAUM is a NI reverb fx. You should have it in your Komplete bundle.

    Glueing sounds means to make them work good together. No sound prevails the others, everyone work as part of the same thing, one sound compliment the other…and so on.

    Wet/dry sound: when you add an fx, they call dry sound the “original” one not affected by the fx, while wet is…welll the opposite 😂. Usually on many fxs you find a dry/wet knob that sends an amount of the original sound to the fx, from 0 to 100 %. As an example, if you put the dry/wet knob to 50% it means what you will ear is 50% the original sound, 50% the fx. The more you send, the more the sound will be effected. You can think about it as a “volume” for the fx (even if it is not completely correct…it is more about how much of the sound is sent to the effect)

  • Psyearth5
    Psyearth5 Member Posts: 160 Helper

    Sindri i will try to explain as best and directly i can. Sound you used is basic shape from lately used in Melodic Techno , you have delay which is repeating notes and those repeating notes will sound better if they are present but without lower Frequency of original sound, you have filter on delay i am 100% sure. With Reverb and longer decay you will get effect like the sound is longer than it is and you can filter that signal too. That Reverb can be warm sound it is depending on your intentions or taste and Dry signal is without Reverb and what is produced by Reverb is Wet signal . Glueing sounds together is technique that puts all sounds in one context and can be achieved with different ways but in your Track i think that Reverb will do the best. With Reverb effect you will have something constant and it doesn't need to be overdone, it would be best if Melodic Techno sound have Reverb that by your ears match other sounds so it will sound like it's all one , it would be something that all sounds have in common. As i wrote i will be here if i can help but it's includes you and your will, if it's too complicated for now then my advice is to continue with new tracks and keep this because RAUM effect can be applied later after you have 4 tracks for EP ( for Example) and RAUM can do amazing things that's why i suggested RAUM but Maschine Have good enough Reverb plugins too so just something that all sounds share and that will be subtle effect but enough to make sounds more connected like they are working together, like they are going in same direction. You can ask questions till you get sutisfied 😉 we want you to be satisfied and happy, successful or at least with happy with your work .

  • Psyearth5
    Psyearth5 Member Posts: 160 Helper

    Sensitizer, Man from Mars https://open.spotify.com/track/34MH5dy7xOnlWIHbjzdbZU this is Space Ambient example of how sounds are belonging to each other but it's space and your is maybe more City/Urban Sound but still making them working together like i example i give you will adjust color ( frequency) that your sounds share and i assume you will aim for mid range frequency and less Reverb signal (wet) and then Melodic Techno sound will work with Bass and will be Bass be more fluid with less Rhythmic or you want it to stay as it is, it's your choice. Maybe you are planning Drums i don't know but in any case on Reverb you will have high and low filter and you will be able to adjust so that it will make like Melodic is working with Bass but possibilities are endless and Reverb i suggested RAUM will make sounds more closer together and make difference between them at the same time. If it's track without drums then i suggest making Bass sound smoother by reducing notes to minimum, if you feel like Bass is short that can be fixed easy too . I like your track reminds me of Ambient and dub techno without Drums and it is popular for listening, for chill and what is best you can preserve it to be Urban not so much in Space like i do and it can be always mixed with Drums easily.

  • Psyearth5
    Psyearth5 Member Posts: 160 Helper

    Please don't feel pressure because we're here because we are here to stay 😉

  • Sindri
    Sindri Member Posts: 23 Member

    Thank you @Paule @LostInFoundation @Psyearth5 for all this help.

    I try to work hard and every advise is good to take. There are some words I don’t understand to be honest (as I miss some technical notions in electronic music).

    I listed all the notions I need to know deeper and discover and it makes me a learning itinerary.

    I’m watching the Jeff Gibbons tutorials and they help me a lot. If you have any other to advise me, I’m taking all that is good to be taken.


    Thank you once again. It is very heart warming to be helped and supported 🥰🙏✨

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