My first track made with the virus. deadmau5ish inspired

[Barnelby]

Let me know what you guys think. Be mean. Tell me what you would have done better.

It is still a little rough around the edges in parts; this is kind of my first draft to submit for critiquing. You'll get the idea. :)


http://soundcloud.com/barnelby-jones/say-what-1

[batman]

Your sound and production are good. The mixdown could be a bit clearer and less busy.

On the composition side, you are making the same mistakes as me:
- your breaks are too long, without rhythmic element. So people can't dance during them.
- Your intro has no beat. If you are not famous and have no djs that can remix your track, there is fairly low chance to be played in clubs with no mixable intro and outro.
- your are directly playing minor chords on your arp melody, which can be annoying for a dj (circle of fifths). It is easier to stick with fundamental and fifth at the beginning and end to allow more keys to be mixed with (let's say you got a C minor track running on deck A that outros with only C and G notes, youll be able to mix it with F major, A minor, G major, G minor, F minor or Eb major on deck B). When you are not famous, make it easy to mix with.

[Barnelby]

- your are directly playing minor chords on your arp melody, which can be annoying for a dj (circle of fifths). It is easier to stick with fundamental and fifth at the beginning and end to allow more keys to be mixed with (let's say you got a C minor track running on deck A that outros with only C and G notes, youll be able to mix it with F major, A minor, G major, G minor, F minor or Eb major on deck B). When you are not famous, make it easy to mix with.

I am REALLY glad you brought this up. I am just now getting into DJing and cant help but wonder if DJs actually consider the keys of songs and try to chain them together based on theory principles...and for that matter... does a good DJ have the ability to actually pitch shift songs on the fly, (improvising) to not only match but to be in a contrasting key of another song so that it makes sense?

Cause damn. I know theory pretty well but going through and remembering the keys of all the songs I MIGHT play in a set? :shock:

Do explain.

And where can I hear some of your stuff batman?

[suzzymackenzie]

<genuinely amazed at the notion that a composer could be constrained as to key>!

We got tailz waggin dogz here or what? ;)

I am just old fashioned, however, and a creature of other genres, Barnelby. Your piece sounds sonically good to me, but I can't quite locate the bit that I would hum afterwards, or describe to someone else along the lines of 'you know, the one that goes x/the one with the y'...etc. Other rules apply, I dare say :-)

[batman]

Most of the Djs do this by instinct, or by "it sounds good like this".
But some of us are serious about keys, and more and more as new djs are digitally oriented and can pitch shift/ pitch lock easily.

For remembering the keys, the dj softwares have now a field to note it down. And an old animal like me sticks notes on the vinyl cover itself (bpm, key, and the track/side that I like the most).

http://soundcloud.com/bat-manson for my sound if you drop one comment I would be pleased.

I agree with suzzymackenzie, at some point, you'll need to be a caricature of your style and be unique. Help people to remember your tracks easily. For instance, the sample you put in the middle is a good idea. At the end, that's mainly a melody story I would say ...

You have a pretty good level anyway (or I wouldn't bother answering you), I just try to give you new ideas to come up with and be better imho, I'm not bitching around ;) .

[Barnelby]

AWESOME stuff man. Very unique. I'm going to be showing this stuff to a bunch of my friends :)

My first question for you is how you get the crisp, clear aesthetic quality to your tracks...something that I am very diligently chasing in my sound...

Everything sounds so forward and present in your mix...

I have noticed that using limiters to beef up the signal of individual tracks/the final product really helps a lot... are you using a hardware compressor/limiter?

Where do you get your drum samples?

great work man!

[batman]

Cheers mate !

What kind of DAW do you use ? Ableton ? If so, I can send you over the project you want and you'll be able to deconstruct yourself...
For the perc, I use found sounds and the konkrete lib from sonic couture. I also got a machinedrum hardware for not a long time and will include it in the next prod.
For the "clear aesthetic" quality, maybe it comes from the mixing part. "Cut narrow, boost wide" for instance.

[Barnelby]

I have ableton....though it is still a foreign land to me. (I am a logic native)...

I would love to check out the track ghost circus!

Send it to whitmanbransford@att.net

So. Now that you have dug yourself into yet another hole of my inquiries...when you say cut narrow boost wide, I can't help but picture my EQs....in many of which I simply drop off everything below anywhere from 50-200 hz just to kill any unwanted low end...is this too wide? Should I single out a certain band and chop it out?

Thanks!

[batman]

You can try to google the expression, it is a rule of thumb I would say. ABout EQing, there are many approaches and techniques. I'm not a professional so it will be hard to provide you so much useful and synthetic info about it. For the project Ghost circus, I need to export in audio the part made by some external gear. Give me some time and I expect a remix ;).

[Barnelby]

Oh it's happening