Hope everyone is enjoying SC:R and the like. I have recently acquired a program called "Ableton", and I've been enjoying learning something new and delving further into my life's musical endeavors.
In the past week, I've been able to work on several little projects to get used to the program.
Here's a link to my newly made BandCamp page and my first track, titled "Arsenal":
edit3: added a fourth track. Thanks everyone for your input--have been attempting to create a solid mix down that is not too loud, but not too low (A problem I'm having), also corrected a bunch of small noise errors and switched the drums around a bit since the first test mix. Http://th1rdeye.bandcamp.com/track/Dharma
edit4: Used some newly learned skills to re-mix all tracks besides Arjuna. Changed Arsenal, Lunar Groove, and Dharma to updated versions
Basically it's not a song right now, it has little structure.It's just a collection of several decent ideas that need to be further integrated with parts you need to come up with in the future to create a cohesive work.With this style of music I'd say you'd want at least a 5-6 minute tune so you just need a few more ideas, sections and work out how you're going to bridge it all smoothly.
I came in expecting something a lot worse after reading the first comment. I didn't think it's a random piece of collected noise. That's really not bad for your first week. Keep it up!
I like the choice of Album Art too.
On September 14 2017 22:04 PobTheCad wrote: Basically it's not a song right now, it has little structure.It's just a collection of several decent ideas that need to be further integrated with parts you need to come up with in the future to create a cohesive work.With this style of music I'd say you'd want at least a 5-6 minute tune so you just need a few more ideas, sections and work out how you're going to bridge it all smoothly.
I agree with PobTheCad, it has some ideas but it isn't cohesive yet. Let me know if you need more clarification
For comparison, I spent my first 3 months on Ableton working on one track. A lot of time was spent figuring out Ableton and correcting the technical mess I've made. Even more time was spent trying to make everything flow cohesively.
It's bad, but that's perfectly normal. The sounds don't work well together. The production is all over the place, it lacks depth and cohesion. Some nice ideas, but you have to work on the details a lot more. There's also no real dramatic structure, the whole track is more like a mashup of several unrelated ideas.
Thanks everyone for the comments. I agree with pretty much everything, and I was quite aware that it wasn't 100% cohesive, but nonetheless still proud of myself! The "track" technically was not mastered just a rough mix, it didn't sound very well through multiple speaker combinations.
Agreed with JieXian about expecting a lot worse. I actually like breakbeats a lot so this wasn't too bad.
That being said, neither track is actually EDM. I'm not totally sure what genre they would fall under. First track is basically samples tied together by a basic beat with no actual "music" (which is where the dislike is probably coming from). The second piece also has no harmonic entities until like 3 minutes in, and barely at that. This isn't necessarily a problem, but if you want to go in the direction of EDM you'll need to start including some chord structure. My biggest criticism would be that the endings of both pieces really fall apart, it kind of seems like you couldn't figure out a good way to naturally end either piece.
Don't be discouraged though--everyone starts out awful. Keep playing around, figure out what kind of genre/direction you want to move towards, practice a ton, and keep posting your stuff for cc!
EDIT: Also just a small gripe, bandcamp is annoying in that it doesn't allow you to skip around the piece if you want to find something to relisten to. I know soundcloud compresses the audio on upload but it's a lot more convenient for showing off work imo.
EDM is a very broad term. The second track would fit under something along the lines of Drum and Bass or a sub genre of that. There's all kind of low tempo, dub, psydub, etc that focuses on spacial features and rhythm over melody. I would suggest artists such as The Chemical Brothers or Crystal Method.
I've been listening to EDM for many years, there's all kinds of odd stuff out there, and I can name a long list of top name producers that I've seen live. You can't deny this track was created, on my end, 100% electronically. I recorded my own MIDI synths, gathered and cut my own samples, and created the overall mix electronically=D
I am only defending myself because you said it's not "EDM" at all. I'm definitely aware there's no other real grounds for me to defend myself two weeks into creating tracks, haha.
Not going to get into an argument over genre definitions. I'm of the opinion that "dance" music has a very specific meaning, and stuff like breakbeat hardcore / DnB are not dance music.
Here's a basis for a third track that I began working on tonight.. Still needs to be mixed, added to, etc.. but figured I'd post my progress here since this is the only blog I have online at the moment
On September 20 2017 07:20 MMIC wrote: I've been learning to produce for the past year (Ableton as well). Just wanted to say your stuff sounds pretty good, mix-wise!
Thanks! It's been fun, and that program is amazing to say the least. A buddy of mine today (who has years more experience than me) pointed out the fact that if you want to accomplish something in Ableton, there's probably at least 5 different ways to accomplish the same goal.
I used GarageBand in the past ( I actually had a High School classed named "GarageBand" and it focused on basic music production ) and also FruityLoops. So far, Ableton takes the prize for combining both of those programs into one IMO.
MMIC, if you have any tracks or projects you'd be interested in sharing, go ahead and post them here! I enjoy all kinds of electronic/non-electronic music.
MMIC, if you have any tracks or projects you'd be interested in sharing, go ahead and post them here! I enjoy all kinds of electronic/non-electronic music.
I like Bastet a lot. 2:43-3:28 feels a bit like a copy paste section though, maybe consider adding in some keys or a lead imo.
I also appreciate that you're not participating in the loudness war, though I'm not sure if that's intentional or not. Not familiar with the compressor / limiter options in Ableton (aside from Ozone VST) since I use Reason, but I think you can make the drums a bit harder hitting if you're going for more of a breakbeat style than an ambient style.
EPT
