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Whenever I sit down at the computer, whether it's ostensibly to play StarCraft or otherwise, I always end up doing the same thing... and I mean besides porn because that's like 40 minutes max per 24 hours.
In a previous blog I mentioned my death metal band and posted some songs. And now I'm pursuing other musical endeavors but in a different venue...
Electronic music is obviously getting bigger and bigger and that's what I've been doing. Dubstep specifically. And although it pains me that I have trouble even starting to play SC, I at least am really enjoying the fact that I'm so passionate and dedicated about something. And it's been going strong for almost four months now.
I'll link two songs, out of eight I plan on releasing as a first demo / EP. These are unmastered and the mixing was done quickly. But I haven't shared much with the public and I'd like to hear the opinions of the masses. So please listen (it's only 10 minutes of your time!) and let me know what you think.
I think I am doing well, but it's good to hear feedback / raise awareness. And I know an SC site may not be the best place but I'm sure some of you are into this sort of thing 
Also several other people have posted electronic music endeavors. Feel free to rep yourself here, and discuss the topic in general. I love the EDM community! (almost as much as SC community).
I'll blog again when it's done and not spam any more than that but I am excited.
Pills are Good
Blaze
P.S. Play them very loud please. I want to know your roommates, neighbor's, and the police's opinions too!
Edit: P.P.S. The main purpose is to expose my music to criticism. But the title means I waste all my time writing music so can't practice ... this is really true and for the time I spend like 30 hours a week on music + work, school, and cycling. SC is very important and it's bad that I neglect it so it is truly and issue. But yeah .. music is good. Plus if I become a famous producer I'll have so much more spare time to just play SC!
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wait why are you terrible at sc?
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On December 13 2010 12:02 puppykiller wrote:
wait why are you terrible at sc?
Because I say "alright, next three hours are SC ONLY FUCK GET GOOD MAD DON'T JERK IT THINK WITH YOUR HEAD FOLLOW JESUS" but then end up writing another song.
BTW, if you want to follow the namesake of the second song I listed while listening I highly suggest it.
Edit: End up writing another song instead of playing SC, is the point. Actually I've neglected a lot of things for this, but SC is by far the most important. And I am making good musical progress.
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Hong Kong20321 Posts
pretty cool lol blaze is pretty typical LFO dubstep and pils are good is kind of different? not a very dubsteppy beat.. haha
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On December 13 2010 12:40 alffla wrote:
pretty cool lol blaze is pretty typical LFO dubstep and pils are good is kind of different? not a very dubsteppy beat.. haha
Yeah man, a lot of my other tracks are kind of like that... Housestep, Trancestep, if those are real things. I've heard so much weird shit that I kind of decided there are no rules except people have to like it.
And the middle of Pills are Good is straight dub imo... but I'm not an expert at all and am in fact a total noob (just like in SC  )
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I would most def. listen to blaze. Pills are good had two good clicks (one in the mid, another around 3/4 the way through the song) but other than that I didn't really like it Keep doing your thing, though...the more you do the better stuff you'll put out.
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I have the opposite problem. Starcraft makes me terrible at everything else.
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I really like it. For some reason i get the sense that you're full of ideas, and can just let the music flow out of you instead of having to work really hard to conceive of a base and then force all the layering out afterwards. The music seems very natural and real. That might be the hardest thing to acheive artistically. The style of the music is not what i'm used to though. Really rich rhythms and barely any melody at all, usually quite simple melody. But that's fine, it just means that you take a less expansive theme or motif and explore every inch of it. This kind of electronic music is weird, sort of like it gets in touch with the gurbling baby that resides within all of us, hearing the mechanical droning noises of our environment and instinctively wanting to imitate them expressively. Keep your music rigidly aligned with who you are, and as you mature as a person your music will mature also.
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I feel like I'm lacking the lowest two octaves. Both tracks seem very lacking in the sub region. Without that they feel light, pretty boring. I know they were quick mixes, but even your raw sounds should be reaching down there. The bass is just really poorly represented.
The first track's opening doesn't interest me. It feels really fucked up until things really start kicking in. If I was just browsing tracks, you would have lost me in the first 5 seconds. One of the keys to a great track is capturing your listener in less than 10 seconds. That's more important now, people will open a track, hear nothing worth their time, then move on to the next readily available track. Get something at the top that makes people want to stick around until the end.
Blaze opens up somewhat more interesting, at least not as irritating as the first track, but it's still lacking low frequencies and stagnates a bit too much at the top. I really don't like the cymbal samples you are using, they are also really distracting and pull me out of the track.
What are you using to monitor your tracks with? Most headphones will show you what's in the low end, but yours might be over compensating. A good test would be playing a track you like right before your mix. (edit: make sure the tracks you are comparing are playing at the same volume. If one is noticeably louder you can't learn anything in the comparison). Are you using reference mixes to make sure you are on target for the "sound" you want to get? Get a reference mix, play lots of tracks through what you are using, imitate that sound until you understand what makes you want to get out of your seat.
Also as far as turning it up is concerned, that is good, but blasting any track emphasizes the low and high frequencies. Basically the top and bottom octave gets over represented. This will lead to really uninspired sounding tracks. Mix at reasonable volumes, then pump it to make sure you are getting the right feel.
Good luck man, hope this was helpful. Good start at any rate.
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On December 13 2010 13:22 zobz wrote:
I really like it. For some reason i get the sense that you're full of ideas, and can just let the music flow out of you instead of having to work really hard to conceive of a base and then force all the layering out afterwards. The music seems very natural and real. That might be the hardest thing to acheive artistically. The style of the music is not what i'm used to though. Really rich rhythms and barely any melody at all, usually quite simple melody. But that's fine, it just means that you take a less expansive theme or motif and explore every inch of it. This kind of electronic music is weird, sort of like it gets in touch with the gurbling baby that resides within all of us, hearing the mechanical droning noises of our environment and instinctively wanting to imitate them expressively. Keep your music rigidly aligned with who you are, and as you mature as a person your music will mature also.
You're definitely right about just coming up with ideas, I have absolutely no problem at all about that. And if you look at my old blog about my death metal band, the music is definitely more complicated than this is. But that's something I like, and I get what you're saying. It is really basic as far as chords and melodies are concerned, but that's okay. I may not be the best at it yet for sure. And making something rich, melodic, repetitive, and interesting is difficult. But that's the nature of any dance music I think.
I'm not sure how much house, trance, and dubstep you listen to, but a lot of it is simple. Trying to capture feelings with sounds is what it's about, but also expanding on a really good melody. If you make it too complex I think there is a risk of freaking people out who are trying to dance to it when they're fucked up. A couple of the other songs are focused entirely on melody. They're all pretty different since I haven't found a style yet within dubstep, but you're right it does feel natural. Writing electronic music is completely different than anything else because it's just a computer, and I've only been doing it for three months. But I'm confident that as I keep writing it will develop well.
On December 13 2010 14:44 TheGrimace wrote:
I feel like I'm lacking the lowest two octaves. Both tracks seem very lacking in the sub region. Without that they feel light, pretty boring. I know they were quick mixes, but even your raw sounds should be reaching down there. The bass is just really poorly represented.
The first track's opening doesn't interest me. It feels really fucked up until things really start kicking in. If I was just browsing tracks, you would have lost me in the first 5 seconds. One of the keys to a great track is capturing your listener in less than 10 seconds. That's more important now, people will open a track, hear nothing worth their time, then move on to the next readily available track. Get something at the top that makes people want to stick around until the end.
Blaze opens up somewhat more interesting, at least not as irritating as the first track, but it's still lacking low frequencies and stagnates a bit too much at the top. I really don't like the cymbal samples you are using, they are also really distracting and pull me out of the track.
What are you using to monitor your tracks with? Most headphones will show you what's in the low end, but yours might be over compensating. A good test would be playing a track you like right before your mix. (edit: make sure the tracks you are comparing are playing at the same volume. If one is noticeably louder you can't learn anything in the comparison). Are you using reference mixes to make sure you are on target for the "sound" you want to get? Get a reference mix, play lots of tracks through what you are using, imitate that sound until you understand what makes you want to get out of your seat.
Also as far as turning it up is concerned, that is good, but blasting any track emphasizes the low and high frequencies. Basically the top and bottom octave gets over represented. This will lead to really uninspired sounding tracks. Mix at reasonable volumes, then pump it to make sure you are getting the right feel.
Good luck man, hope this was helpful. Good start at any rate.
I'm really meh about the cymbal samples and at this point I'm just used to hearing them, so that's a fair criticism.
I don't know what you're listening on but there is a lot of low end, at least in blaze... like it's overpowering on big systems but getting it right is what mastering is for. It might not have the right spread of frequencies though. And since it's not mastered I definitely don't expect it to sound equally good on all systems, since I mix on computer speakers and don't really know my way around spectrum analyzers etc.
And getting the volume up is not possible when all you're using is a DAW. So that's something I have to pay for, or find some other producer who "knows a guy" or something like that.
I feel there are plenty of songs with slow openings ... I don't know how much stuff like Tiesto or deadmau5 you listen to. Although I definitely concede that the very very beginning of the first one is a little awkward with the progression. And if the next part is not interesting I think that's a problem with ambience and equalization... I wrote what I wanted to.
Your criticism is definitely on track as far as overall sound quality though. It's just not possible to do a good mix with the speakers I have. But I promise you there is bass... but there could definitely be more really fat low end. It's also not possible to make it as loud as radio tracks with just software, at least not without a loss of quality.
I hope at least your criticisms with the sound will be fixed once it's mastered. I do need to mix some things around with Pills are Good though, it's the first track that I used really house-sounds for so I'm not an expert at it yet.
Thanks for listening both of you!
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Fuck being good at Starcraft  . If you have more fun doing something else, then why try to be good at Starcraft? I'm much like you. I say "I'll go play SC for 2 hours today!" and instead of playing it I don't. I just launch the game and let it sit in the background while doing other things.
Great songs btw. The first one was my favorite, but the "stop" thing got really annoying after a while.
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Woah, really experimental style, i dig it.
:D
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On December 14 2010 09:58 Joementum wrote:Fuck being good at Starcraft . If you have more fun doing something else, then why try to be good at Starcraft? I'm much like you. I say "I'll go play SC for 2 hours today!" and instead of playing it I don't. I just launch the game and let it sit in the background while doing other things. Great songs btw. The first one was my favorite, but the "stop" thing got really annoying after a while.
Yep, I've noticed that too after a while.... I like the idea but it can be grating. The best part is, I wrote it so I can change it however I want! Thanks for listening of course, glad you enjoyed.
I do want to un-chobo myself... I think I get better but at a very very slow rate.
On December 14 2010 10:15 Creek wrote:
Woah, really experimental style, i dig it.
:D
Hah yeah, I like to fuck around. And also there's so much I don't know that I tend to come up with weird stuff, like I said the process is so different than writing other music where you just sit with a guitar a sing until you find something you like.
It's so fun!
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On December 14 2010 11:40 Ancestral wrote:Show nested quote +On December 14 2010 09:58 Joementum wrote:Fuck being good at Starcraft . If you have more fun doing something else, then why try to be good at Starcraft? I'm much like you. I say "I'll go play SC for 2 hours today!" and instead of playing it I don't. I just launch the game and let it sit in the background while doing other things. Great songs btw. The first one was my favorite, but the "stop" thing got really annoying after a while. Yep, I've noticed that too after a while.... I like the idea but it can be grating. The best part is, I wrote it so I can change it however I want! Thanks for listening of course, glad you enjoyed. It's so fun!
I don't know much about the songs, but if you want my 2 cents. Make that whole "stop" thing a bit shorter. Transition into something else like you did (great transition IMO) and then go back to the "stop" thing, but just don't make it too long. You might have to shorten the song a bit, but at least it'll be a good song. For some reason, the "stop" thing the 2nd time around wasn't as bad.
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EPT
