My First Attempts

[karan129]

Hi, its taken time but I've made 2 tracks which imo are listening-worthy. Both tracks are long, because I like to have a nice "intro", then build..climax... and end

 

Fever Dream [bPM 139]

Aimed for something offbeat, with enough changes and different sounds to keep the listener interested, there is a nice acidic intro.

 

Alien Machinations [bPM 158]

This track is about a transition from darkpsy into classic trance, so the track slowly progresses from a dark psy bassline, through a lighter full-on ish part through to a happy, melodic classic trance ending.

 

So...am I heading in the right direction?

[qa2pir]

I think you should learn some about music theory. You know; learn the rules, then break them. I'm listening to the first track now. It's neatly arranged, but I really think you could get your idea across more effectively with some harmony knowledge under your belt. That being said, the song still conveys the feeling of a fever dream, like the title promises. It sounds amateurish to my ears, but that isn't necessarily bad. Some good build-up ideas in there. You've listened mainly to yourself which is great. This doesn't sound a lot like any other music I've heard. The closest thing would probably be something from the Australian label Psy-Harmonics, such as Shaolin Wooden Men. The track drags on a bit in my opinion (meaning it's longer than I reckon it has to be).

 

Alien Machinations suffers more from your lack of musical training. The melodies in the end are (?) supposed to sound uplifting, but end up sounding even more quirky, off-beat and weird than the rest.

 

Your mixes are ok overall, but some things are way too loud compared to the rest, specifically the melodies in the end of Alien Machinations.

 

If there's one piece of advice I want to give you, it's got to be this: Approach music from a musical point of view. Many people who start out making psy-trance go for the weird synth-sounds and the side-chaining first. I say listen even more to what your brain wants to express through music. You don't even have to care about standards such as 4/4 kick drum if you don't want to. A great device for converting your emotions into music is musical theory, and preferably some instrumental skills. This will allow you to analyse your thoughts, for example "I'm feeling a mellow kind of sentimental sadness", and turning that into musical output, for example "This calls for minor key with slow, grounded melodies and subtle harmonics" or something like that. You can then start jamming like that on your keyboard, or just putting something sad in your piano roll in FL or whatever you're using.

[buzzman]

I make music myself(amateur level) and have never played an instrument.. I've allways been interested in music and have analized alot, wich i think is a good thing to do if you want to understand what you are producing yourself. so i don't think it's neccesary to "know all the rules to break them" if you just have a good pair of ears, but it will save you alot of trouble and time I've messed around with FL and reason for several years, and now i work in cubase. After several years i've learned to put my thoughts into the music, you know, make my idea's in the way i imagined then.. And im still progressing... But i can imagine that if i had experience with other instruments, i could have saved ALOT of time to get to the level where im at now.

 

But mainly, your music is lacking production skills (frequency interferrence, EQ'ing, compression ect) but it's definatly not bad at all for your first attempts I don't know if you watched it, but Synsuns mixing-secrets tutorial really helped me alot with the production part... wich someone would have told me about it years ago Watch it, learn how to level the different elements, and use a EQ and make the sounds fatter and more pleasent to the ears. It really makes a BIG BIG difference!

 

Like i say to myself, Keep it up, and remember, Rom wasn't build in a day

[karan129]

I'm using FL btw...and those 2 synths that come with it, TS404 and 3xosc, very basic I know, but it works for me and I don't have to spend ages figuring out arcane syth interfaces and settings.

 

I think you should learn some about music theory. You know; learn the rules, then break them. I'm listening to the first track now. It's neatly arranged, but I really think you could get your idea across more effectively with some harmony knowledge under your belt. That being said, the song still conveys the feeling of a fever dream, like the title promises. It sounds amateurish to my ears, but that isn't necessarily bad. Some good build-up ideas in there. You've listened mainly to yourself which is great. This doesn't sound a lot like any other music I've heard. The closest thing would probably be something from the Australian label Psy-Harmonics, such as Shaolin Wooden Men. The track drags on a bit in my opinion (meaning it's longer than I reckon it has to be).

 

Alien Machinations suffers more from your lack of musical training. The melodies in the end are (?) supposed to sound uplifting, but end up sounding even more quirky, off-beat and weird than the rest.

 

Your mixes are ok overall, but some things are way too loud compared to the rest, specifically the melodies in the end of Alien Machinations.

 

If there's one piece of advice I want to give you, it's got to be this: Approach music from a musical point of view. Many people who start out making psy-trance go for the weird synth-sounds and the side-chaining first. I say listen even more to what your brain wants to express through music. You don't even have to care about standards such as 4/4 kick drum if you don't want to. A great device for converting your emotions into music is musical theory, and preferably some instrumental skills. This will allow you to analyse your thoughts, for example "I'm feeling a mellow kind of sentimental sadness", and turning that into musical output, for example "This calls for minor key with slow, grounded melodies and subtle harmonics" or something like that. You can then start jamming like that on your keyboard, or just putting something sad in your piano roll in FL or whatever you're using.

Thanks for the in-depth reply You're right, I have no musical training at all. Before getting FL, I didn't even know what a kick drum was. For a track, I start off with a vague idea and then make whatever comes, or whatever "feels" right. I course in music/music production would definitely be helpful, if I can find the time for it. I like my tracks having a different, experimental edge which is why the track came off as off-beat. The end of Alien Machinations is meant to be happy, so it completes the journey from a dark atmosphere to a light one. I understand what you're trying to say, but I don't have the inclination to make more mainstream stuff first before experimenting.

 

Musical theory and production skills can always be learnt, do you feel that there is some inherent worth in the tracks?

 

I make music myself(amateur level) and have never played an instrument.. I've allways been interested in music and have analized alot, wich i think is a good thing to do if you want to understand what you are producing yourself. so i don't think it's neccesary to "know all the rules to break them" if you just have a good pair of ears, but it will save you alot of trouble and time I've messed around with FL and reason for several years, and now i work in cubase. After several years i've learned to put my thoughts into the music, you know, make my idea's in the way i imagined then.. And im still progressing... But i can imagine that if i had experience with other instruments, i could have saved ALOT of time to get to the level where im at now.

 

But mainly, your music is lacking production skills (frequency interferrence, EQ'ing, compression ect) but it's definatly not bad at all for your first attempts I don't know if you watched it, but Synsuns mixing-secrets tutorial really helped me alot with the production part... wich someone would have told me about it years ago Watch it, learn how to level the different elements, and use a EQ and make the sounds fatter and more pleasent to the ears. It really makes a BIG BIG difference!

 

Like i say to myself, Keep it up, and remember, Rom wasn't build in a day

I tried Cubase once, but it was simply way too complicated. I couldn't even figure out how to get a wave sample to play in it, compare that with FL where everything is super-intuitive. I haven't seen any tutorials till now, just kind of clicked around and figured out stuff, so Synsuns tutorial should be pretty helpful. Do you know of any other good tutorials?

 

As for the "production" aspect, I really don't like that aspect of making music, it isn't as much fun as making melodies and rhythms, so I never bothered learning how to do it but I guess I will have to in the long run. Any tutorials on production, because well whats "EQing"? "leveling"? "frequency interference"?

[XpandoZ]

This guide helped me a lot to understand EQ'ing. I posted it in the tutorial sticky too.

 

Feel free to add my msn too, I might be able to help you out with some things

[karan129]

Awrite...that link has expired though =\

[buzzman]

I'm using FL btw...and those 2 synths that come with it, TS404 and 3xosc, very basic I know, but it works for me and I don't have to spend ages figuring out arcane syth interfaces and settings.

 

 

Thanks for the in-depth reply You're right, I have no musical training at all. Before getting FL, I didn't even know what a kick drum was. For a track, I start off with a vague idea and then make whatever comes, or whatever "feels" right. I course in music/music production would definitely be helpful, if I can find the time for it. I like my tracks having a different, experimental edge which is why the track came off as off-beat. The end of Alien Machinations is meant to be happy, so it completes the journey from a dark atmosphere to a light one. I understand what you're trying to say, but I don't have the inclination to make more mainstream stuff first before experimenting.

 

Musical theory and production skills can always be learnt, do you feel that there is some inherent worth in the tracks?

 

 

I tried Cubase once, but it was simply way too complicated. I couldn't even figure out how to get a wave sample to play in it, compare that with FL where everything is super-intuitive. I haven't seen any tutorials till now, just kind of clicked around and figured out stuff, so Synsuns tutorial should be pretty helpful. Do you know of any other good tutorials?

 

As for the "production" aspect, I really don't like that aspect of making music, it isn't as much fun as making melodies and rhythms, so I never bothered learning how to do it but I guess I will have to in the long run. Any tutorials on production, because well whats "EQing"? "leveling"? "frequency interference"?

EQ'ing(if it's called that) and filtering is controlling the frequencies Ex: You lowcut highhats around 2000hrz... You lowcut EVERYTHING except kick/bass/percussion in a range around 100-250hrz Synsuns tutorial is really good for giving you an idea of what it is about, so you can work with it from there Otherwise you can look around the web, KVRAUDIO has a very good forum where you can find alot of explanations for nearly everything you wanna know

 

I understand you just want to make good melodies and rythms, and thats also the best place to start IMO But production skills is neccesary, and when you get a hang of it, you will suddenly think that is funny to play around with as well

 

Leveling is simply how you level the different instruments You will have to learn something about that as well when you get the hang of using the EQ Get sony oxfords SONNOX EQ if you have the opportunity, it's really great!

 

Good luck with the production mate

[Lemmiwinks]

First a general remark: are you using a sub when mixing? Cause I think that somewhere down the line you hear much more bass than you put in your tracks. IMO there is something that you have to change, either in your sound system arrangement or your EQ settings... [EDIT: it seems buzzman had a more in-depth reply than me ]

 

Now for the tracks:

haha those synthlines in Fever Dream sounds very much like Shaolin Wooden Men indeed The ideas are interesting, the main problem I'm having with your track is the production values: the bass is pretty thin and the mids stand out too much in front of the soundstage... and since those synths are pretty harsh sounding already, pushing them in the front of the soundstage is NOT a good idea...

 

Alien Machinations I like less... IMO this kind of music just doesn't work well without a massive rolling bassline. If you could ditch the thin kicks and bassline and replace them with a big rolling bassine I think it would work out MUCH better. Again, there is the problem of the sytnhs standing out too much in front of the soundstage, for example there is a synth that starts around 6:20 that just SCREAMS, I felt compelled to turn down the volume or else I think that my ears would've started to bleed... Oh and I don't really see where does the track becomes "lighter" and even less when it becomes classic trance?

 

But keep up the good work and don't mind about the music theory, the more theory you'll learn, the more you're gonna want to stick to formulas which will eventually kill your originality... Just do stuff that sounds good to you and if it IS good, others will follow. I'm pretty sure that groundbreaking acts like Kraftwerk or Derrick May didn't know shit about music theory either

[karan129]

I understand you just want to make good melodies and rythms, and thats also the best place to start IMO But production skills is neccesary, and when you get a hang of it, you will suddenly think that is funny to play around with as well

Thanks for the info I'm checking out SynSun't tutorial which looks good. You're right about production skills be neccesary.

 

 

First a general remark: are you using a sub when mixing? Cause I think that somewhere down the line you hear much more bass than you put in your tracks. IMO there is something that you have to change, either in your sound system arrangement or your EQ settings... [EDIT: it seems buzzman had a more in-depth reply than me ]

 

Now for the tracks:

haha those synthlines in Fever Dream sounds very much like Shaolin Wooden Men indeed The ideas are interesting, the main problem I'm having with your track is the production values: the bass is pretty thin and the mids stand out too much in front of the soundstage... and since those synths are pretty harsh sounding already, pushing them in the front of the soundstage is NOT a good idea...

 

Alien Machinations I like less... IMO this kind of music just doesn't work well without a massive rolling bassline. If you could ditch the thin kicks and bassline and replace them with a big rolling bassine I think it would work out MUCH better. Again, there is the problem of the synths standing out too much in front of the soundstage, for example there is a synth that starts around 6:20 that just SCREAMS, I felt compelled to turn down the volume or else I think that my ears would've started to bleed... Oh and I don't really see where does the track becomes "lighter" and even less when it becomes classic trance?

 

But keep up the good work and don't mind about the music theory, the more theory you'll learn, the more you're gonna want to stick to formulas which will eventually kill your originality... Just do stuff that sounds good to you and if it IS good, others will follow. I'm pretty sure that groundbreaking acts like Kraftwerk or Derrick May didn't know shit about music theory either

I think I unconsciously tend to make the lead synth too loud as compared to the beat I re-uploaded Fever Dream with the length cut by a minute, so I hope it doesn't drag now. Yup Alien Machinations needs work, I think I should have continued with the dark theme instead of transforming it. Its supposed to get lighter towards the end, but everyone is open to their own interpretation, since those rhythms are kind of off-beat anyway.

 

Thanks a lot for the review, it really nice to get a review like this so I know where I'm going =))