I made this over the past 3 months after a ~1.5year period of not making any music at all since my band broke up (*cry*). It is supposed to be some kind of chill out music, at least that's what I've been doing while writing. The title "summer" is inspired after the feeling I get every summer when the sun shines for more hours. + Show Spoiler +

a bad feeling

I hope to get some honest feedback; or just tell me what you like/dislike if you don't know enough "about music". Dissonances, detune, rhythm or anything wrong related to music theory is fully intentional. I also made all instruments myself in the synthesizer, if that means anything to you.

stream: http://soundcloud.com/arikuna/summer
download: http://www.mediafire.com/file/i2zzgikjnk1/summer.mp3

arepa3000

Canada57 Posts

July 02 2010 07:37 GMT

Nice music!. It is not particularly my style but it shows that you put effort to it. I don't know how you get the feeling of summer with this music its kinda more like Halloween to me ^^.

c.Deadly

United States545 Posts

July 02 2010 07:44 GMT

I didn't really understand the summer reference either until I read your spoiler, then it totally reminded me of the desert level in Paper Mario.

I really enjoyed it, there were a lot of unique things that you don't hear much in mainstream electronic music. And I mean musical things like variations in tempo and dissonance. What impressed me was that it all sounded very deliberate, not at all like you 'messed up'.

JTPROG

United States254 Posts

July 02 2010 07:47 GMT

try posting this on www.newgrounds.com you can stream it rather than dl it =P

AcrossFiveJulys

United States3612 Posts

July 02 2010 08:01 GMT

very interesting piece. i associated the song with a hypothetical intense event or set of actions, or sort of like someone's mind running wild. kind of reminds me of some of the tunes from the requiem for a dream soundtrack... the base is at a cool frequency, like a heart beating quickly.

you used the minor version of notes throughout the entire song, but progressions made sense and were predictable by the listener which is an interesting thing i don't hear often.

pretty cool, would like to hear more from you.

virpi

Germany3598 Posts

July 02 2010 09:03 GMT

technically it's not on the highest level, but I like it. especially the dissonances are cool.

red.venom

United States4651 Posts

July 02 2010 09:19 GMT

i think its well done but if you are hoping to convey the feeling of "chill" or summer im not really feeling that in it.

With the simple and unpausing subtractive synth bassline, 4/4 kick drum and the big(though quiet in the mix) "plffff" drum machine snare i get the feeling its more of an industrial track than anything else. Makes me think of dingy warehouses and vaguely sinister urban settings at night haha.

Its a good piece of music regardless but not particularly something im that into

ghermination

United States2851 Posts

July 02 2010 09:35 GMT

To make it as simple as possible:
Sounds good.
Your beats are a little mismatched
It's pretty long, but that's neutral.
Edit: Too simple i guess.
For example, in the beginning, the synth set a tone that i would have liked the rest of the song to follow. And it did, mostly, as it went through the evolution of happy -> sinister (or at least that's how i saw it) but there were wierd ambient/other sfx's that didn't mix in well at all.
However it does sound good, like a video game soundtrack or something. With more practice i bet you could be really good, or even get into live mixing.

nimbim

Germany984 Posts

July 02 2010 10:12 GMT

Thanks for your positive responses, I expected much worse.
I'll focus more and try to write better drum tracks in the future. If there's anything else you think needs to improve just shoot away.

I tried uploading it to newgrounds, but the file size is limited to 8MB and I wouldn't really like to offer this song in shitty quality.

red.venom

United States4651 Posts

July 02 2010 10:56 GMT

#10

just get a soundcloud account

my stuff is at www.soundcloud.com/jamesd : ]

climax

United States1088 Posts

July 02 2010 17:51 GMT

#11

Thats pretty good stuff man! I really enjoy the random pitch bends and such.

In a couple of days, I throw out my soundcloud id soon. Hopefully you can check out my stuff too.

StellarSails

United States32 Posts

July 02 2010 18:20 GMT

#12

Sounds pretty cool dude.
I like the off-tune kind of clashing sounds.
It is a bit long, but that is not necessarily a bad thing.

I'm also curious as to what you actually used to make this.

nimbim

Germany984 Posts

July 02 2010 21:31 GMT

#13

I used Propellerhead Reason 4. I've seen friends using Ableton, but it seems to rely a lot on premade instruments and it took me too long to figure out, so for now it's just Reason 4.

StellarSails

United States32 Posts

July 03 2010 18:32 GMT

#14

yeh. I use reason 4 as well. Like you said I like being able to create and tweak make your own instruments. I also use an M-audio axiom 25 keyboard, its small but has a lot of pads, and other fun stuff to mess around with.

mikehall683

United States159 Posts

July 09 2010 19:39 GMT

#15

great stuff, i like the mood of the song.

i would suggest maybe some breaks in the drums, to break the repetition... and maybe some side-chain compression, but the song is already really good how it is.