I've noticed that there are quite a few experienced DJ's on TL and was wondering if anyone would be so kind as to help me with this little problem .
So I've been taking this Music technology class at my high school for 2 years now. The first year we really focused on the production side, live recording, mic setup etc. Now we've moved into making music using garageband, digital performer and midi keyboards, and I'm having a blast.
I've been wanting to get some kind of setup to use at my house, as a 49 minute class period really isn't all that much time to get much work done. Time flies when your having fun, as they say.
Anyways, I've managed to acquire a copy of ACID pro, as I heard it was very similar to garageband, but the problem is getting a keyboard! I have virtually no money at the moment, but I remembered in garageband they had a feature called 'Musical Typing' that allowed you to input MIDI without an external device, and was disappointed to learn that there wasn't anything similar in acid.
I've tried searching google, but all that came up was several cheap flash programs etc. which really wasn't at all what I was looking for, so I was wondering, does anyone know of any similar programs that would allow me to input in a similar style
Sup TL, if anyone remembers, I posted a blog a few days ago asking for help getting started in electronic music. So I Went out and bought a small Korg keyboard to get started with and used my awesome student discount to buy a copy of Fruity Loops and started working on some tracks :D.
Anyways, I finally think I've got something that's worth showing to someone, so why not start here. This is the first complete song i've written, so don't expect it to be amazing :X. Youtube:
If you're wondering what the title means, I decided to take the speech from the 'Fire and Fury' cinematic that Raynor gives, as it's my favorite moment in the entire SP, and incorporate it into a song somehow, and heres the result. I didn't use any samples for this, all of the loops I wrote myself.
Feedback would be greatly appreciated as im just starting out and could use all the help I can get. Thanks!
This is actually really cool, the sounds and melodies are both good. I would say a more epic drop in the beginning would be my personal preference, but you're writing it so it's your call.
I would say that you should master it and tweak it a little more, the high sounds are waaay to loud, same as the mids, put some EQ on them, try to adjust the volumes of the channels and try to make the kick more "noticable". For this you can or a) distort the kick (not to much, you don't want it to be overclippng) or b) layer 2 to 3 kicks on top of the original and tweak the volume on them until they sound nice.
Anyway, I think that if you work on the mastering/volume/EQ it will sound very good :D
On November 01 2010 08:24 mucker wrote: I thought that the speech samples were far too quiet, especially when they first started. Quite good for a first effort though, keep it up!
Yeah, i actually have no idea how to cancel out the music thats on the sample already, whenever i tried to turn it up the sound would bleed through >.<.
If anyone knows a good way to do that i would be sooooo
On November 01 2010 08:24 Ko1tz wrote: I would say that you should master it and tweak it a little more, the high sounds are waaay to loud, same as the mids, put some EQ on them, try to adjust the volumes of the channels and try to make the kick more "noticable". For this you can or a) distort the kick (not to much, you don't want it to be overclippng) or b) layer 2 to 3 kicks on top of the original and tweak the volume on them until they sound nice.
Anyway, I think that if you work on the mastering/volume/EQ it will sound very good :D
I agree that the kick needs to be more noticeable, but I think that's more of the kick drum sample itself, I would just try a different slightly snappier one. Although maybe you could get by with just eq'ing it. The kick is bassy enough and loud enough but it's all low noise.
I would say the high sounds a slightly, not way too loud. But I do think a part that's just the four on the floor beat with no loud melody is always good, as a build up.
On November 01 2010 08:24 Ko1tz wrote: I would say that you should master it and tweak it a little more, the high sounds are waaay to loud, same as the mids, put some EQ on them, try to adjust the volumes of the channels and try to make the kick more "noticable". For this you can or a) distort the kick (not to much, you don't want it to be overclippng) or b) layer 2 to 3 kicks on top of the original and tweak the volume on them until they sound nice.
Anyway, I think that if you work on the mastering/volume/EQ it will sound very good :D
I agree that the kick needs to be more noticeable, but I think that's more of the kick drum sample itself, I would just try a different slightly snappier one. Although maybe you could get by with just eq'ing it. The kick is bassy enough and loud enough but it's all low noise.
I would say the high sounds a slightly, not way too loud. But I do think a part that's just the four on the floor beat with no loud melody is always good, as a build up.
Yeah, with the kick I was trying to go for that epic reverb kinda thing for the break. I didnt think to have another one, but yeah it kinda gets drowned out when the whole song is playing.
hmmm, nice thematic elements in your song but your mixing is really bad =X Everything is just too loud and so it gets all distorted, especially the higher frequency synths. You might want to tone down the volume especially on the sustained chord synths.
Also, your mix of triplets and straight up 4/4 beats sounded kind of strange. I've been using FL Studio myself for quite a while so I would advise you to try putting a fruity limiter or the compressor on the overall mix to stop the distortion. Try routing all the higher voice synthesizers through the same mixer track and applying a high pass at 150 Hz to clean up the mix more.
On another note your song structure was a bit...questionable, just melodies flowing in and out. Try using crash cymbals to accent the start of new sections. There's a lot to learn about music production and it would take me forever to try to explain some of the things I know but you'll get the hang of it over time ^^
On November 01 2010 11:20 caldo149 wrote: hmmm, nice thematic elements in your song but your mixing is really bad =X Everything is just too loud and so it gets all distorted, especially the higher frequency synths. You might want to tone down the volume especially on the sustained chord synths.
Also, your mix of triplets and straight up 4/4 beats sounded kind of strange. I've been using FL Studio myself for quite a while so I would advise you to try putting a fruity limiter or the compressor on the overall mix to stop the distortion. Try routing all the higher voice synthesizers through the same mixer track and applying a high pass at 150 Hz to clean up the mix more.
On another note your song structure was a bit...questionable, just melodies flowing in and out. Try using crash cymbals to accent the start of new sections. There's a lot to learn about music production and it would take me forever to try to explain some of the things I know but you'll get the hang of it over time ^^
Were you listening to the youtube version or the other one? The youtube version sounds terrible because it didnt encode right, i was too lazy to set it up properly >.< but yeah, i really have no idea how to mix things lol XD.
On November 01 2010 10:26 Zeroes wrote: what program did you end up using?
I started using REAPER but i was having a hard time getting the sounds i wanted, so i managed to find the money to get a keyboard and started using fruityloops.
For a first try, pretty darn impressive. Now obviously there are a ton of things to talk about, but here are just 3 of my opinions that may improve your track:
1. I wouldn't call it trance. Based on the instruments used and the general feeling of the track, it sounds more hardcore/hardstlye. Bpm wise however... I am estimating it is somewhere along the lines of 130 so that is more trancey. Now you may be thinking, "oh god honestly who cares, trance, hardcore, why does it matter...", but it really does make a big difference. The reasoning is that people who like trance music, will generally search for "trance music". People who search for hardcore music will look for hardcore music as well. If you say that this track is a trance song, you will more likely find trance-listeners that listen to your song for 3 seconds and leave because it sounds hardcore. So yeah, very much recommend sticking to a genre just to boost your views.
2. This track really needs a strong kick. I am using sennheiser hd-25 headphones, pretty well one of the best headphones you can buy, and I can barely hear a kick for the life of me. All good electronic dance music songs have a strong kick. That's really what characterizes electronic dance music, that "boom boom boom boom" over and over. I'd really focus on making your kick more pronounced.
3. I find the actual structure of the song is not standard. Now I am not sure if this track is an edit version, or the full version, but the structure isn't made like most electronic dance music songs. There are way too many build ups and lows, and not enough of the "main" portion of the song (i.e. like the chorus). I'd recommend buying a few popular electronic dance music songs and analyzing them (if you can do it with FL studio, if not just analyze it with a free trial of virtual DJ), to see how they are structured, because structure does make a huge difference.
On November 01 2010 12:46 Zapdos_Smithh wrote: For a first try, pretty darn impressive. Now obviously there are a ton of things to talk about, but here are just 3 of my opinions that may improve your track:
1. I wouldn't call it trance. Based on the instruments used and the general feeling of the track, it sounds more hardcore/hardstlye. Bpm wise however... I am estimating it is somewhere along the lines of 130 so that is more trancey. Now you may be thinking, "oh god honestly who cares, trance, hardcore, why does it matter...", but it really does make a big difference. The reasoning is that people who like trance music, will generally search for "trance music". People who search for hardcore music will look for hardcore music as well. If you say that this track is a trance song, you will more likely find trance-listeners that listen to your song for 3 seconds and leave because it sounds hardcore. So yeah, very much recommend sticking to a genre just to boost your views.
2. This track really needs a strong kick. I am using sennheiser hd-25 headphones, pretty well one of the best headphones you can buy, and I can barely hear a kick for the life of me. All good electronic dance music songs have a strong kick. That's really what characterizes electronic dance music, that "boom boom boom boom" over and over. I'd really focus on making your kick more pronounced.
3. I find the actual structure of the song is not standard. Now I am not sure if this track is an edit version, or the full version, but the structure isn't made like most electronic dance music songs. There are way too many build ups and lows, and not enough of the "main" portion of the song (i.e. like the chorus). I'd recommend buying a few popular electronic dance music songs and analyzing them (if you can do it with FL studio, if not just analyze it with a free trial of virtual DJ), to see how they are structured, because structure does make a huge difference.
Anyway I hope this helped.
Funny story actually, this song started as a hardstyle track, but I quickly realized hardstyle is way above my technical skill level, so I changed a lot around to make it sound like this. I really don't know all the qualifications for the different subgenres so I just called it the first thing that came to mind lol XD
BecausE of that though, when I started writing I was kind of trying to mimic the structures I found in hardstyle tracks which were usually something like intro-bigger intro- break- 'climax' (not sure what to call it lol) - outro. But yeah after not listening to it for a while I do think it sounds kind of strange.
On November 01 2010 12:46 Zapdos_Smithh wrote: For a first try, pretty darn impressive. Now obviously there are a ton of things to talk about, but here are just 3 of my opinions that may improve your track:
1. I wouldn't call it trance. Based on the instruments used and the general feeling of the track, it sounds more hardcore/hardstlye. Bpm wise however... I am estimating it is somewhere along the lines of 130 so that is more trancey. Now you may be thinking, "oh god honestly who cares, trance, hardcore, why does it matter...", but it really does make a big difference. The reasoning is that people who like trance music, will generally search for "trance music". People who search for hardcore music will look for hardcore music as well. If you say that this track is a trance song, you will more likely find trance-listeners that listen to your song for 3 seconds and leave because it sounds hardcore. So yeah, very much recommend sticking to a genre just to boost your views.
2. This track really needs a strong kick. I am using sennheiser hd-25 headphones, pretty well one of the best headphones you can buy, and I can barely hear a kick for the life of me. All good electronic dance music songs have a strong kick. That's really what characterizes electronic dance music, that "boom boom boom boom" over and over. I'd really focus on making your kick more pronounced.
3. I find the actual structure of the song is not standard. Now I am not sure if this track is an edit version, or the full version, but the structure isn't made like most electronic dance music songs. There are way too many build ups and lows, and not enough of the "main" portion of the song (i.e. like the chorus). I'd recommend buying a few popular electronic dance music songs and analyzing them (if you can do it with FL studio, if not just analyze it with a free trial of virtual DJ), to see how they are structured, because structure does make a huge difference.
Anyway I hope this helped.
Funny story actually, this song started as a hardstyle track, but I quickly realized hardstyle is way above my technical skill level, so I changed a lot around to make it sound like this. I really don't know all the qualifications for the different subgenres so I just called it the first thing that came to mind lol XD
BecausE of that though, when I started writing I was kind of trying to mimic the structures I found in hardstyle tracks which were usually something like intro-bigger intro- break- 'climax' (not sure what to call it lol) - outro. But yeah after not listening to it for a while I do think it sounds kind of strange.
Anywayys, thanks for the feedback!
Yeah you can totally tell it sounds hardstyle. What would really make it even more hardstyle would be a BPM increase. Usually hardstyle is running at about 170ish, while trance is at 130-138ish, so it's kind of underwhelming to have hardstyle instruments with a low trance bpm (i.e. increasing the bpm would probably build that high energy factor more that hardstyle really encompasses).
I'll be fully honest I don't know what to call the climax either! Been trying to find out what the heck it's called for months but I suppose climax is a good. For some reason I have the word "lead" in my mind for the definition, but I am not 100% sure. I'm going to have to ask one of my friends who is majoring in music.
I'm actually in the same situation you're in right now. I just got out of high school and have been looking for things do to as a careers and stuff when it just hit me.... Do the thing I love! Listen to amazing music to influence me and off I go to production. I haven't taken any classes myself and have only done stuff from tutorials and such so I'm really no expert, come check out some of my stuff and maybe we could learn off each other.
Aside from what I saw in the tracks, there really needs to be some structure to the song. Although it may sound like some sort of cliche, but the song (as Hakker has stated) needs a rise and fall, but also not keeping out that driving rhythm pushing the song along as it gets there using higher notes and buzzing leads.
All i can say is LISTEN TO MUSIC!! Music will teach you things that a teacher in a classroom can never teach you.
On November 01 2010 12:46 Zapdos_Smithh wrote: For a first try, pretty darn impressive. Now obviously there are a ton of things to talk about, but here are just 3 of my opinions that may improve your track:
1. I wouldn't call it trance. Based on the instruments used and the general feeling of the track, it sounds more hardcore/hardstlye. Bpm wise however... I am estimating it is somewhere along the lines of 130 so that is more trancey. Now you may be thinking, "oh god honestly who cares, trance, hardcore, why does it matter...", but it really does make a big difference. The reasoning is that people who like trance music, will generally search for "trance music". People who search for hardcore music will look for hardcore music as well. If you say that this track is a trance song, you will more likely find trance-listeners that listen to your song for 3 seconds and leave because it sounds hardcore. So yeah, very much recommend sticking to a genre just to boost your views.
2. This track really needs a strong kick. I am using sennheiser hd-25 headphones, pretty well one of the best headphones you can buy, and I can barely hear a kick for the life of me. All good electronic dance music songs have a strong kick. That's really what characterizes electronic dance music, that "boom boom boom boom" over and over. I'd really focus on making your kick more pronounced.
3. I find the actual structure of the song is not standard. Now I am not sure if this track is an edit version, or the full version, but the structure isn't made like most electronic dance music songs. There are way too many build ups and lows, and not enough of the "main" portion of the song (i.e. like the chorus). I'd recommend buying a few popular electronic dance music songs and analyzing them (if you can do it with FL studio, if not just analyze it with a free trial of virtual DJ), to see how they are structured, because structure does make a huge difference.
Anyway I hope this helped.
Funny story actually, this song started as a hardstyle track, but I quickly realized hardstyle is way above my technical skill level, so I changed a lot around to make it sound like this. I really don't know all the qualifications for the different subgenres so I just called it the first thing that came to mind lol XD
BecausE of that though, when I started writing I was kind of trying to mimic the structures I found in hardstyle tracks which were usually something like intro-bigger intro- break- 'climax' (not sure what to call it lol) - outro. But yeah after not listening to it for a while I do think it sounds kind of strange.
Anywayys, thanks for the feedback!
Yeah you can totally tell it sounds hardstyle. What would really make it even more hardstyle would be a BPM increase. Usually hardstyle is running at about 170ish, while trance is at 130-138ish, so it's kind of underwhelming to have hardstyle instruments with a low trance bpm (i.e. increasing the bpm would probably build that high energy factor more that hardstyle really encompasses).
I'll be fully honest I don't know what to call the climax either! Been trying to find out what the heck it's called for months but I suppose climax is a good. For some reason I have the word "lead" in my mind for the definition, but I am not 100% sure. I'm going to have to ask one of my friends who is majoring in music.
EPT
