|
|
|
This is pretty amazing actually. Should scream some of the parts, that would be pretty dope.
|
On May 29 2020 11:36 Chairman Ray wrote:
This is pretty amazing actually. Should scream some of the parts, that would be pretty dope.
High praise! Really appreciate that man. Thanks so much for listening 
There's plenty of screaming on the rest of the EP 
|
Let me drop a few lines, my opinion only, I am not a musician or something.
Musically it's more than acceptable, I especially like the bass. With djent-like mucis I never know if it's actual bass guitar or something like Animals as Leaders and it's just a guitar but anyway, I liked that, it made the entire track somehow dense and I wanted to listen the whole of it. While it does not come close to distinguished acts like Polyphia and similar genius kids, this track has pleasing melodies and rhythms, all in all it left me with a nice impression. In short - I would gladly listen to it again, this is how I know I liked it.
And take the next lines with a grain of salt - I don't know if this comes from me listening to mostly instrumental music or from me liking some exceptional male/female voices like Dio, Kiske and such but the vocal parts I think were trailing way behind the instrumental parts. Again, I am not a musician nor a critic, I just judge the voice by the standard of the voices that I like and this one seemed inferior for me. He sings correctly, yes, but just does not seem to add the layer of emotion I've come to expect from a powerful vocal. If I can point an exceptional example of vocals in this genre it would likely be Ne Obliviscaris, those guys have hit something of a sweet spot, I think. Also Shokran were surprising in this regard.
All in all - I would recommend the track to some people I know and I will. Thank you for the music and if this is your thing - never stop investing time and effort there! Wish you all the best!
|
I thought the singer struggled to pronounce English, then again, you appear to be from Australia...
The visualization is awesome. I like the composition of the piece. Personally I'd let someone else do the vocals, they are not done terribly, they are done on a good amateur level, they lag behind because the rest of the song sounds actually, actually good.
Edit: You could use this video for reference, upload a version without the vocals and see what other vocalists on the internet could do to make it take off. Even if switching the vocalist is not an option, because it is a for fun project, it could serve him as inspiration to uncover the potential of this song.
|
I like the general direction!
Base, melody, rythm -> nice
Critic:
- Same as JoinTheRain said, vocals are not where they need to be IMO
- a bit too psychadelic for my taste
- I don't really care for the "screechy" sounds too much
|
Interesting sounds and progression! I was hooked from the intro and thoroughly enjoyed the song from beginning to end, knowing that crafting an interesting progression is to me, the most difficult and important requirement of making a good song. I like how well the "dissonant" chords/arpeggios from the intro worked. What chords were they?
I see that others have problems with the keys/stabs (due to their dissonance, I imagine) but I really enjoyed the more dissonant stabs and screeches as ear candy (dubstep inspired I suppose :D), given my understanding of the intention of the track and the visuals that prepare us for what to expect.
While I can relate to the dislike of the more dissonant parts that are not for everyone (I probably would have hated it 15 years ago, before I heard dubstep), I cannot relate to the criticism of the vocals. I don't see a problem with it, but my guess for part of the issue is that metalheads expect more aggression from the voice, but I think that this works since you've stated that you wanted this to be a "single" and a "rock anthem" and as a consequence, be more appealing to a wider audience.
I can see someone using this song in some highlight video :D
|
Very nice track dude, i kinda do feel like something is missing but I have no idea what that is. I mean it's definitely good though, really a great song. Well done!
|
On May 29 2020 19:45 JoinTheRain wrote:Let me drop a few lines, my opinion only, I am not a musician or something. Musically it's more than acceptable, I especially like the bass. With djent-like mucis I never know if it's actual bass guitar or something like Animals as Leaders and it's just a guitar but anyway, I liked that, it made the entire track somehow dense and I wanted to listen the whole of it. While it does not come close to distinguished acts like Polyphia and similar genius kids, this track has pleasing melodies and rhythms, all in all it left me with a nice impression. In short - I would gladly listen to it again, this is how I know I liked it. And take the next lines with a grain of salt - I don't know if this comes from me listening to mostly instrumental music or from me liking some exceptional male/female voices like Dio, Kiske and such but the vocal parts I think were trailing way behind the instrumental parts. Again, I am not a musician nor a critic, I just judge the voice by the standard of the voices that I like and this one seemed inferior for me. He sings correctly, yes, but just does not seem to add the layer of emotion I've come to expect from a powerful vocal. If I can point an exceptional example of vocals in this genre it would likely be Ne Obliviscaris, those guys have hit something of a sweet spot, I think. Also Shokran were surprising in this regard. All in all - I would recommend the track to some people I know and I will. Thank you for the music and if this is your thing - never stop investing time and effort there! Wish you all the best!
On May 29 2020 20:38 naughtDE wrote:
I thought the singer struggled to pronounce English, then again, you appear to be from Australia...
The visualization is awesome. I like the composition of the piece. Personally I'd let someone else do the vocals, they are not done terribly, they are done on a good amateur level, they lag behind because the rest of the song sounds actually, actually good.
Edit: You could use this video for reference, upload a version without the vocals and see what other vocalists on the internet could do to make it take off. Even if switching the vocalist is not an option, because it is a for fun project, it could serve him as inspiration to uncover the potential of this song.
On May 29 2020 23:03 Harris1st wrote:
I like the general direction!
Base, melody, rythm -> nice
Critic:
- Same as JoinTheRain said, vocals are not where they need to be IMO
- a bit too psychadelic for my taste
- I don't really care for the "screechy" sounds too much
Thanks guys! I'm thrilled you seemed to enjoy the composition and production for the most part.
I appreciate the opinions on the vocals! I've always found my voice to be somewhat polarising. I've had every response from "EW QUIT NOW" all the way to "THIS DUDE SHOULD SING FOR PERIPHERY", so it's always hard for me to gauge. I release all my stuff instrumental too so that people can simply choose whether they wanna listen or not
HAVING SAID THAT, I'd be really curious of your opinions on some of the other tunes where I think the vocal performances definitely turned out stronger. You might feel the exact same way of course, but it would still be interesting to know if other people have the same read that I do.
This promo clip is from the second track "Prognosticate" which got a lot of positive feedback specifically about the vocals when I submitted it to various playlists and publications for promotion. It's only a snippet, but I'd be super curious to know your thoughts: https://www.instagram.com/p/CAtzXRiA_NU/
If you still feel the same - no sweat! This is a solo project so I'm gonna continue to do it all myself for any song created under this particular moniker. But again, everything comes out as an instrumental version too so if you like the music, please keep an eye out for that version
On May 30 2020 20:46 JieXian wrote:
Interesting sounds and progression! I was hooked from the intro and thoroughly enjoyed the song from beginning to end, knowing that crafting an interesting progression is to me, the most difficult and important requirement of making a good song. I like how well the "dissonant" chords/arpeggios from the intro worked. What chords were they?
I see that others have problems with the keys/stabs (due to their dissonance, I imagine) but I really enjoyed the more dissonant stabs and screeches as ear candy (dubstep inspired I suppose :D), given my understanding of the intention of the track and the visuals that prepare us for what to expect.
While I can relate to the dislike of the more dissonant parts that are not for everyone (I probably would have hated it 15 years ago, before I heard dubstep), I cannot relate to the criticism of the vocals. I don't see a problem with it, but my guess for part of the issue is that metalheads expect more aggression from the voice, but I think that this works since you've stated that you wanted this to be a "single" and a "rock anthem" and as a consequence, be more appealing to a wider audience.
I can see someone using this song in some highlight video :D
Ah - a fellow audio nerd! Haha this was great to read man. Thank you so much.
The intro melody was an interesting one actually. It was the first thing in the song I made, and kind of acts as an intro to the full EP (which gets quite experimental) moreso than just this song.
I used the first technique in Andrew Huang's video here (1:10) to create the melody in MIDI. I then ran it through a Diva patch, bounced it out to audio and chopped it up to make some sort of pattern/progression to it. It's layered with some super diffuse reverbs that approximate pads/chords and then the song kicks in and we never hear that melody again :p
You're right on the money about the dubstep aspect. I kind of approached the whole EP as a dubstep producer making metal haha. It's definitely more metal than EDM overall, but there are plenty of parts on the EP that are edited and synthesized and processed to oblivion where the guitar serves as an electronic texture rather than an honest snapshot of a performance. I tried to do plenty of both throughout though.
Vocals seem to me to be the most contentious aspect to a lot of metal music, and mine are no exception. I've had every kind of opinion there is about them over the years, which makes it hard to gauge whether I should outsource or just continue doing my own. In the end, PseudoSignal is my solo project and I want it to remain 100% me. I really appreciate your take and I'm glad you found them appropriate!
On May 31 2020 03:29 Kaolla wrote:
Very nice track dude, i kinda do feel like something is missing but I have no idea what that is. I mean it's definitely good though, really a great song. Well done!
Appreciate the comment brother! Thank you for lending an ear and I'm glad you enjoyed it for the most part
|
I checked out the snippet. It is impossible for me to give any useful feedback considering how thickly layered the sound is there and how short is it.
|
Pretty neat. I agree with some of my foreposters that the vocals are lagging a bit behind, but not by much and I really like the sound overall.
Some things I'd change:
- I'd go lower on the distortion of the vocals and try clearer vocals in the refrain. The background is pretty noticeable in the refrain with the dissonant tunes, and imo the distortion takes away raw power. That level of distortion would be fine in the parts between the refrain imo (pretty common to have an autotuned high woman voice there f.e.), but in the refrain you imo want all the power you can get and distorting the voice takes away from that.
- In terms of pronunciation I don't like the repeated low "in the world". Once you go higher or at the end of the refrain it works, but feels like you drag the 'o' in the repeated part.
- Minute 2-3 after refrain 1 and before verse 2 could need some work. Imo the downtuned part alone isn't very interesting without the dissonant notes and it cycles too often. The high guitar part afterwards feels a bit uninspired for me and imo is the spot where you have 4-5 bars to introduce a little melody or a polyrhythm to lead into your verse. Your note progression in the refrain is pretty cool and imo that's the spot to play around with it.
But overall pretty good, I really like the combination of dissonant notes and down-tuned guitar and your intro reminds me of Polyphia. Visuals are top notch too. As a prog fetishist I can't help but feel that there could be a bit more variation though, but that's my general feeling whenever there's repition.
|
On June 03 2020 05:50 Archeon wrote:
Pretty neat. I agree with some of my foreposters that the vocals are lagging a bit behind, but not by much and I really like the sound overall.
Some things I'd change:
- I'd go lower on the distortion of the vocals and try clearer vocals in the refrain. The background is pretty noticeable in the refrain with the dissonant tunes, and imo the distortion takes away raw power. That level of distortion would be fine in the parts between the refrain imo (pretty common to have an autotuned high woman voice there f.e.), but in the refrain you imo want all the power you can get and distorting the voice takes away from that.
- In terms of pronunciation I don't like the repeated low "in the world". Once you go higher or at the end of the refrain it works, but feels like you drag the 'o' in the repeated part.
- Minute 2-3 after refrain 1 and before verse 2 could need some work. Imo the downtuned part alone isn't very interesting without the dissonant notes and it cycles too often. The high guitar part afterwards feels a bit uninspired for me and imo is the spot where you have 4-5 bars to introduce a little melody or a polyrhythm to lead into your verse. Your note progression in the refrain is pretty cool and imo that's the spot to play around with it.
But overall pretty good, I really like the combination of dissonant notes and down-tuned guitar and your intro reminds me of Polyphia. Visuals are top notch too. As a prog fetishist I can't help but feel that there could be a bit more variation though, but that's my general feeling whenever there's repition.
Hey man! Appreciate the comments and thanks for lending an ear
This is easily the most repetitive and conventionally structured tune on the EP - as described in the OP, a "straightforward modern rock anthem". I can definitely see how a prog fan such as yourself would be aching for a little more variation - but I think in context with the rest of the EP, it's appropriately scaled back so that the intensity and experimentation can ramp up organically throughout.
Remains to be seen if you see it that way as well, but that was the intent at the very least :D
Again - thanks for lending an ear!
|
Sure gladly, as mentioned I think it's overall really good.
|
On May 31 2020 13:48 Last.Midnight wrote:Show nested quote +On May 30 2020 20:46 JieXian wrote:
Interesting sounds and progression! I was hooked from the intro and thoroughly enjoyed the song from beginning to end, knowing that crafting an interesting progression is to me, the most difficult and important requirement of making a good song. I like how well the "dissonant" chords/arpeggios from the intro worked. What chords were they?
I see that others have problems with the keys/stabs (due to their dissonance, I imagine) but I really enjoyed the more dissonant stabs and screeches as ear candy (dubstep inspired I suppose :D), given my understanding of the intention of the track and the visuals that prepare us for what to expect.
While I can relate to the dislike of the more dissonant parts that are not for everyone (I probably would have hated it 15 years ago, before I heard dubstep), I cannot relate to the criticism of the vocals. I don't see a problem with it, but my guess for part of the issue is that metalheads expect more aggression from the voice, but I think that this works since you've stated that you wanted this to be a "single" and a "rock anthem" and as a consequence, be more appealing to a wider audience.
I can see someone using this song in some highlight video :D Ah - a fellow audio nerd! Haha this was great to read man. Thank you so much. The intro melody was an interesting one actually. It was the first thing in the song I made, and kind of acts as an intro to the full EP (which gets quite experimental) moreso than just this song. I used the first technique in Andrew Huang's video here (1:10) to create the melody in MIDI. I then ran it through a Diva patch, bounced it out to audio and chopped it up to make some sort of pattern/progression to it. It's layered with some super diffuse reverbs that approximate pads/chords and then the song kicks in and we never hear that melody again :p You're right on the money about the dubstep aspect. I kind of approached the whole EP as a dubstep producer making metal haha. It's definitely more metal than EDM overall, but there are plenty of parts on the EP that are edited and synthesized and processed to oblivion where the guitar serves as an electronic texture rather than an honest snapshot of a performance. I tried to do plenty of both throughout though. Vocals seem to me to be the most contentious aspect to a lot of metal music, and mine are no exception. I've had every kind of opinion there is about them over the years, which makes it hard to gauge whether I should outsource or just continue doing my own. In the end, PseudoSignal is my solo project and I want it to remain 100% me. I really appreciate your take and I'm glad you found them appropriate!
haha I think your skills are better than mine but I am honoured to be bequeathed with the title of "audio nerd" by you
Man I was hoping for some music theory knowledge bombs but all I got was a "cheat"  (regarding the intro dissonant melody).
I persoanlly think that that since your voice had reached a level of mastery (at least in post-production) where most criticism is due to a matter of personal taste (eg. I want my metal vocals to sound like my favourite bands, SOAD, Tool, Metallica, or Megadeth etc.) or intricate technical subtleties (comments on lagging, which in this age, isn't really a comment on your vocals but your production decisions).
Personally I think the most notable achievement is that you have created your own sound (at least I personally have not heard anything that sounds very similar). By creating your own sound which is a combination of 2 "noisy" genres, there are bound to be difficulties for people to get into it.
On June 01 2020 23:46 naughtDE wrote:
I checked out the snippet. It is impossible for me to give any useful feedback considering how thickly layered the sound is there and how short is it.
I have to agree with naughtDE on this one, I don't think that snippet was well selected. I believe it's because there was variance in dynamics so it everything felt thick, loud and the same, in the context of that snippet.
|
Yeah that's fair. It was the only clip that was out prior to release :D
Really the only theory involved is the harmonic minor scale (normal minor but the 7th is sharp). It's just improvisation within those boundaries. It may sound proggy and weird but there aren't any modal shifts or other such complexities within it.
The chords could be worked out by taking a bar and adding together all the notes that appear in said bar. I didn't form them so I don't know their exact names, but I've personally never found value in being able to name every chord structure beyond adding 7ths to make things sound jazzier.
|
On June 06 2020 08:53 Last.Midnight wrote:
Yeah that's fair. It was the only clip that was out prior to release :D
Really the only theory involved is the harmonic minor scale (normal minor but the 7th is sharp). It's just improvisation within those boundaries. It may sound proggy and weird but there aren't any modal shifts or other such complexities within it.
The chords could be worked out by taking a bar and adding together all the notes that appear in said bar. I didn't form them so I don't know their exact names, but I've personally never found value in being able to name every chord structure beyond adding 7ths to make things sound jazzier.
Oh ok thanks that's good enough description. So was it lots of jumping around at large intervals within the harmonic minor scale? That's interesting I didn't know the harmonic minor scale could be made to sound like that. Do you mind sending me the MIDI of the intro of Fissle? If you don't have it in that form anymore it's ok I'll try to use Ableton to get it.
I've just finished your album and I really enjoyed it as a whole, although I don't mainly listen to metal (I only have around 10 metal albums or so). To provide some context, most of the time (80%-90%) when I listen to music from musicians who aren't well known or respected in their genre it would be clear why and even if the production is good, the progression aspect would be lacking. I understand because I struggle immensely with repeating a section while making it still sound interesting to the listener (and I really suck atm and still have a lot to learn), let alone doing it for an entire album.
This is my way of saying it sounded to me like the work of an established and respected band and I personally enjoyed it I liked your own style of dubstep fused sound too. To be able to provide more criticism I'd have to listen to it in detail with the intention to nitpick on more minor stuff.
On June 06 2020 08:53 Last.Midnight wrote:
I've personally never found value in being able to name every chord structure beyond adding 7ths to make things sound jazzier.
I can hear a bunch of jazzers laughing uncontrollably at "le Prog Rockers" in my head hahaha
|
Yeah that's basically it man - it just sounds alien because obviously the MIDI can do octave jumps that wouldn't feel natural to the fingers on a guitar or keyboard. That's what gives it the alien quality I think.
You could achieve a similar thing by improvising within a scale on the keys and then selecting random notes and changing their octave I bet.
I don't have that MIDI unfortunately. After I bounced it out to audio to chop it up I deleted the original track :[
That's awesome brother I really appreciate you listening! Glad you enjoyed it and happy that the production seems to be coming across as I'd hoped.
Haha there's actually a ton of jazz influence in modern prog! A lot of modal changes and interval play are thanks to artists like Allan Holdsworth. Fredrik Thordendal from Meshuggah's style is basically jazz for arsonists :D
|
Got it thanks!
Haha there's actually a ton of jazz influence in modern prog! A lot of modal changes and interval play are thanks to artists like Allan Holdsworth. Fredrik Thordendal from Meshuggah's style is basically jazz for arsonists :D
Yes and the jazzers laugh at the "wannabes" from their pedestals hahaha I have since forgotten the source of the mocking material
|
|
|
|
|
|
EPT
