Mudpeople-Lateral Thinking

[alleycat]

OK, so after a few tracks I've uploaded had no feedback, Ive instituted a poll. You can have this track for free, and you can play it anywhere and everywhere, under ONE CONDITION. You must leave feedback. Written or in the poll. I don't care if its good or bad, just let me know, please!

 

IMO, I like my tracks. I know the mastering needs some work, the track needs an intro, and a few tweaks to various parts of the track... I really want to know if I should keep working at it before trying to share, or what. No feedback is worse BY FAR than bad feedback. I'm left hanging! It sounds good to me, but is that just pride, combined with listening to it too much? Please, help me!

 

It may not be the style you like, thats fine. I like it, and I know theres plenty of you out there who feel similar... I'd name my influences as Terminator, Mubali, CPC, Darkpsy, Para Halu, POTS, Fitalic, Perfect Stranger, Orestis, Sensient, SunControlSpecies, Parasense, Blisargon Demogorgon, Wizack Twizack, Derango, Tegma, Pink Floyd, Iron Maiden, Xyla, Error Corrective, Cactus, Terranoise... I really can go on and on... Lots of different names there, eh? Yeah, I don't always make full throttle night stuff. Why have Filet Mignon for dinner every night, when you can have lobster, sushi, and all manner of other delectables!

 

So without further ado, here's Lateral Thinking:

 

http://www.sendspace.com/file/599e87

 

 

Written and produced by me, using Renoise Tracker and a Korg microKONTROL controller.

[Otto Matta]

Okay, alleycat, here's my review, for what it's worth (I did not vote in the poll):

 

The philosophy I adhere to with music - and all artistic media in general - is that to satisfy me (and most people, it seems), it requires a solid background, midground and foreground. This track of yours is mostly midground and some background, with just a tiny bit of self-conscious foreground. The track is very noisy, which is not in itself a bad thing. Most decent Goa/Psy stuff has a significant amount of noise, but usually as a sort of background canvas upon which the main elements are doing their thing. Because your track is mostly stuff one would hear a little bit of in the midground, your track comes across as very shy and introverted, whereas you have to agree that confidence and boldness is what gets people interested in listening.

 

I suggest taking a listen to your favorite stuff with this background/midground/foreground idea in mind, and see how the successful artists are doing it. Their foregrounds tend to be relatively simple but deliberate and articulate. Their backgrounds - beats and bass - is also generally simple, but usually very confident. The midgrounds (noise, percussion, effects, pads, etc.) tend to be more complicated, and you seem to have this part down to an extent. But then the trick is getting all three grounds to play off each other effectively and confidently.

 

I also feel that K.I.S.S. is a great rule in any artform: "Keep It Simple, Stupid." Always strive to simplify rather than complicate. Or complicate first, then remove everything that is not absolutely necessary, while making the remaining elements as interesting as possible. Complexity for its own sake is rarely interesting.

 

I'd also recommend putting some more practice into your compression, EQ and effects so that the individual sounds are differentiated more. It feels like there's too much central competition going on, which has a muddying effect. It's hard to hear your kick at all, which, along with the bass, is arguably the most important part of any dance track. I realize that one can be very limited by one's equipment, and maybe you don't have an ideal situation. What I can hear of the kick is actually interesting, but is currently ineffective. There are also some extremely high frequencies going on throughout the track that are fairly painful.

 

Hope that helps, alleycat. This is a continuous learning process, and everyone is learning along with you. Good luck.

[alleycat]

Thanks Otto! Great advice... Better than I've ever got previous!

 

This is precisely what I was hoping for... ;D

 

 

Oh, and I just got the new version of Renoise, which includes some new and refurbished DSPs, which definitely gives me more options and ideas... (This track was made entirely in the previous version, just gotta go back and tweak and tweak...)