Quick Feedback!

[bright schooner]

Hey All!
Quickly put this together after I came up with the melody last night. Really liking it so far. Wanted to get some feedback while its early in the works. I'm thinking I can make a track with some vocals.

PS I'm still very new to producing

[cunning flame]

The synth lead you've got in there needs more sidechain I feel. And you've got the short notes directly landing on the downbeats, should have them a little off it gives it a less robotic feel and more 'natural'

[bright schooner]

Thank you bro! Appreciate the feedback

[bright schooner]

So give the short notes some swing?

[round jetty]

Sounds pretty good for someone new to producing, not sure what key you're in but the bass feels like its lacking quite a bit of low end, you could try moving it down an octave but that might be to low in which case I would try changing keys or bass presets. G tends to be a really good key of a nice warm and full bass but feel free to experiment

[bright schooner]

The whole track is in C#. I also felt the bass is lacking, also realized my kick was only playing 1/4th if the note instead of the full thing because I laid the midi wrong. Will post an update to this maybe tomorrow.

Is it wrong for the bass to be in a different key than other things?

[round jetty]

Generally all melodic elements of a track should be in key, thats not to say you can't make a great track that breaks this convention but you have to understand the concept before you break it

[round jetty]

C/C# is for the most part a difficult key in terms of bass, it either feels too high or too low. Certain bass sounds can work well in this key but something like what you are using most likely will not. I'd recommend changing the key of the track to soemthing like G or F and let me now how it sounds

[bright schooner]

I’ll try it out for sure

Maybe I can layer some sub bass in C# to follow it also?

I’ll play around with it

[round jetty]

Haha, this just popped up on my fyp, perfect explanation https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRbxyLQT/

[bright schooner]

Haha sick

[bright schooner]

@round jetty Added in some vocals and did some automation. Also lowered the bass a whole octave. I'm using headphones so I can't really tell how it sounds, but it sounds better on my end and definitely hits harddd.

Let me know what you think

[round jetty]

Are you sure the bass is in key wiht the rest of the track?

[bright schooner]

Oh shit you're right. Its in F 🤦🏽‍♂️

Problem is. If I change the lead its not as bright and bouncy

@round jetty

here it is with the C# for the bass

[round jetty]

Souding better, i still think it the bass is a little low, could you send it in f and see how it sounds?

[bright schooner]

This one is in @round jetty

[round jetty]

Yeah but the whole track in one key being f so including the lead

[bright schooner]

I gotchu. I’ll do it and send it. Midnight here for me so I’ll get it tomorrow. Appreciate you fam!

[round jetty]

No worries

[cerulean owl]

sick track, you need to change the kick tho it doesnt even sound like theres a kick right now, you need to have a heavier kick, also u got some glitches on the vocal try fix that maybe, also sounds like u got some low end on one of ur risers, try cutting the volume when the drop hits on the clap u have right before the drop so its still got the reverb but it cuts out when the drop hits to make it hit harder, also maybe change the snare roll something a bit more open bc rn it sounds like the high ends cutoff but sick idea love to see what u do with it 🙌

[cunning flame]

yep, even just moving them slightly left/right makes a huge difference imo

[cunning flame]

he could just throw a sub in there

[cunning flame]

Not sure if you have endless smile, but if you do, throw that on the vocals for the build, automate it up. Lose the vocals and gain the synth, great ear candy. If you don't have, can just do heavy reverb / delay

[bright schooner]

Thanks bro! Noted all of this. Haven’t really put in more than a couple hours of work yet but going to look at everything mentioned

[bright schooner]

I don’t have endless smile. Not yet. I did download some vocal racks I found online, so going to play with them a bit

[cunning flame]

Nice. Easy workaround is just messing around with your own reverb/distorition/delay, etc, and routing all to a single macro, and automating it.

This is a decent read iirc

https://www.tealcheese.com/2017/07/27/what-does-the-endless-smile-by-dada-life-actually-do-vst-plug-in-tutorial/

[bright schooner]

Oh sweet! I’ll check it out! The only reverb I have it on it now is when it rises but I do need to play with it more and record some extra bits with FX to use throughout the drop and break down 2

[round jetty]

Yes but it would be the same problem and even more so with a sub being way too low

[bright schooner]

Time to get the vocals on lock!

[bright schooner]

I put the whole track in F and it sounds way different from where I want it to be. Specially because the vocal just goes down 5 semitones

[cunning flame]

yessuh

[bright schooner]

Made a bunch of minor tweaks to everything you guys mentioned. Thoughts before I go further on building out the rest?

Thank you guys so much btw. #Hypefam is real. @cunning flame @round jetty @cerulean owl

[round jetty]

Sounds a lot better!

[cunning flame]

Absolute fire! Not sure if it's the sample itself, or you've put distortion on the vocals, but there's something with them that makes em sound shaky?

[bright schooner]

BROO THANK UOU! That really means a lot. No distortion on it. There is also some clicks in it I tried fixing. Need to check splice again for the dry vocal and mess with it myself

[cunning flame]

Are you on abelton?

[bright schooner]

Yea

[cunning flame]

Try messing with the fader at the beginning / end of clips sometimes that can cause weird popping

What was the original bpm of the sample?

Cuz sometimes if the quality isn't great and you change it a bunch it can become distorted like that

[bright schooner]

124 it’s only 2bpms off so it hasn’t really warped much

[cunning flame]

oh yea interesting

[bright schooner]

I think it’s just the sample

Hopefully they have the dry one

[bright schooner]

So I found the Dry vocal. What plug ins do you guys recommend for processing?

@cunning flame Mind if I DM you?

[cunning flame]

Yeah go for it

[bright schooner]

So im looking at the original wet vocal, and is super clean. I realized when I pitch it up, thats when the clicking and strange sounds occur...

Found the problem. Warp mode was beats. Changed to complex and good to go

[cunning flame]

yep!

[bright schooner]

Alright guys! Finally built out the full structure of the song. I've been listening to it wayyy too much and can use some critical feedback/notes!

[bright schooner]

@cunning flame @round jetty @cerulean owl let me know what you guys think if you get some free time!

[cerulean owl]

alot better bro, but i feel like the bass needs to be tamed a little bit more maybe, try adding a bit more to the drums aswell, i feel the kick is not hitting hard enough tho so try making it louder maybe or swapping it out, the snare roll still sounds like the highs are cut tho not sure if its the sample or if youve got a filter or eq on it maybe on the first drop try not having the ride for the first 8 bars and try introduce it after the first 8 bars and then on the 2nd drop have it come in right from the start, sick tune tho ur getting somewhere with it

[cunning flame]

Not sure if 1:05 is a second lil drop but I think at that point you should go straight into the breakdown, but add a noise riser / some other riser to indicate youre going to transition, it's a bit abrupt atm. I like the synth, but it's too present in the entirety of the song, it should be completely gone in the 2nd buildup IMO, with just vocals present. And maybe do more vocal chops (throw some part of the vocal in abeltons SIMPLER), and mess around with automating different things. Then when you hit the drop the synth will sound way more unique and fresh etc. For In the drop itself, def need more low-end on the bass. And after 4/8 bars, you gotta introduce something else. Maybe a shaker loop or something simple

[bright schooner]

Thank you bro! I’ve tried taking out the synth from the second build up but it sounds really boring and there’s nothing there. Maybe I’ll continue filtering it out a bit to make it less present. I also added a high pass kick in the second build up for an extra element of interest. I have 2 extra drums added in the second part of the 1st drop also but I do need some effects. Will see what it’s like to get rid of the third part of the first drop.

[bright schooner]

You were right about the kick and the snares. My filters were on and not open all the way. Sounds way better now

[willow rampart]

Hahaha i just saw all this. I just used that vocal sample in a tune as well

If anyone has any tips for additional mixing/mastering ❤️ and just general advice

[bright schooner]

Nice lol