(future house)(non-pony) Sometimes I Just Think

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(future house)(non-pony) Sometimes I Just Think

Postby NightmareRare » 24 Oct 2015 22:26

Hey it's me again! :grin:

I wrote this song last month while trying to develop my sound more, it's sort of a soft/dark dance track influenced by a couple different genre and meant to simulate progression of an idea. I'm really interested to hear what everyone thinks of the general tone and feeling of the track, I also arranged it to feel like a journey and would like to know if it felt like that to you? Thanks for you time :)

https://soundcloud.com/hwired/sometimes-i-just-think
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Re: (future house)(non-pony) Sometimes I Just Think

Postby Thunder Dash » 25 Oct 2015 18:27

To be honest, the repeating percussion sort of took away from the "journey" feel. It just made it really like a driving song, which just continues to loop. You limited yourself to the i and the VII, knowing that this piece is in the key of c minor. It would be best if you had four chord progressions involved, such as these here:

i-VII-VI-V

i-VI-VII-V

i-iv-VI-V

iv-VII-ii-V

i-VII-iv-V

You can mix these around and even stretch them beyond four bars. This would mean the progression would last eight bars and each chord would last two.

Also, why not start with the whole thing in a filter and slowly sweep it out, through the course of the song. At a certain point, bring in only a kick, because the extra percussion just seems to take away the "journey" feel, like I said earlier.

Also, run your sawtooths through a compressor and adjust the attack to give it that pulse-like swell.

All in all, it's an okay start, but it could always be improved.
Last edited by Thunder Dash on 04 Nov 2015 09:54, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: (future house)(non-pony) Sometimes I Just Think

Postby NightmareRare » 25 Oct 2015 21:45

Hey thunder thanks for the notes!

I felt the drums may pull a bit from it but it is a dance track after all and I felt I needed to provide a steady beat for people to move to while I got creative with everything else. It maybe the arrangement that took away from the experience for you as its far from standard, given sections develop and build over time until the end at which point the song is very different from when it began. Which made the drums more necessary as they provided something people could hold onto. :/

I'm glad you pointed out the harmony as this was something I was experimenting with, but I gotta ask which one were you referring to? There are three chord progressions that add melodic/harmonic content, 2 are 8 bars and repeat only once the other is during the bridge and the outro and is the only times I bring chords up to play a bigger role , there simple but unique and definitely use more then 2 chords, they actually use 4-5. Maybe your thinking of the under layed bass? Which in that case I should pull it back as its use is mainly for groove and to a lesser extent to support atmospheric harmony.

There are a couple more chord progressions like what you described but I made there presence obscure so they would only add to the atmosphere and not draw from the melody and the coincidental melodies. As this songs main point lays in ist melodies. Thanks for commenting on it though I didn't think anyone would pick up on what I was going for, and I agree I could use improvement always.

I'll give you my kudos Thunder I appreciate your frank criticism, it's far more helpful then " Great track ;D" haha! I felt my chord progression skill could use more refinement and I guess if that's what stood out I'll have to do better next time.
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Re: (future house)(non-pony) Sometimes I Just Think

Postby Thunder Dash » 27 Oct 2015 08:27

To be honest, now that you've told me what you did, now, I feel the progressions were quite obscured, which can be both and good and bad thing. It's good because it gives the piece a bit of a "mystery" feel. However, it's not so good, because the limiting progressions are in fact overpowering the progressions with more chords. This can cause a bit of chaos because then your chords will have 9ths, 11ths, 13ths and even 15ths.
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Re: (future house)(non-pony) Sometimes I Just Think

Postby NightmareRare » 28 Oct 2015 02:26

Hmm, you've given me something to think about.. But I don't think it's quite that, I was trying something with the main chords where I remove the 3rd and basically leave it as a 5th interval, then I used the melody to add the major/minor quality to it. That way it's quality would change every note in a way. I think my mistake may have been in forgetting to factor in how my coincidental melodies and fx would change how the chord was perceived. This would account for issues I noticed myself and possibly created some unintended chords across instruments.

Wow seriously, thanks. I just now pick up on a big mistake I've been making the last few months I probably would have thought of it that way otherwise.

Back to the drawing board!
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Re: (future house)(non-pony) Sometimes I Just Think

Postby Thunder Dash » 28 Oct 2015 08:29

I see what you were trying to do with 5ths. But really, leaving open 5ths renders you piece keyless, meaning it has no specific key. Having your progression solely depend on the melody note, which you say is the 3rd, causes some clashes among notes and intervals, which generally doesn't sound good.

And just remember, make sure you completely define your chords. This way, you wouldn't have to work so hard to make accommodations in attempts to define them.
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Re: (future house)(non-pony) Sometimes I Just Think

Postby NightmareRare » 28 Oct 2015 08:51

Maybe I strewed my point lol. It definitely had a key, I was just shifting its quality,This song more or less was an experiment in some harmony theorys I've be working on. I got tired of the standered chord progs I was used to hearing and thought I'd try to develop something more expressive, it's still a work in progress as you can tell.
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Re: (future house)(non-pony) Sometimes I Just Think

Postby Thunder Dash » 28 Oct 2015 15:21

Yeah, can't wait to hear the final though!
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Re: (future house)(non-pony) Sometimes I Just Think

Postby Ambient_Monsoon » 03 Dec 2015 08:52

You're track is a great concept, you definitely have a solid idea of your style even if you haven't found it completely! If I were you I would just go more in to detail when you mix your music, this will of course give you more polished sounds but can even open up ideas for you in composition. I'm sure you're no beginner to production because your mix is sounding great, you just need to sometimes sit yourself down and really focus on listening to one part at a time, then a couple parts collectively and keep brushing back and forth through your track because if there is any little "blip" that you don't like by the time you finish your song then you didn't really complete the song. I understand we don't want to obsess too much over our songs then get the mentality to never finish it and always put it on hold but it's just discipline and that's a big part of your sound.

***So far I hear you have discipline in placing your sounds correctly through panning and stereo imaging...
***What I do hear is a lack of discipline in variations of the instruments to spice things up and because of that you have a lack of fluidity: basically, how one part flows to another and keeping the listener always moving forward in the song. You never want to leave a part in your song that makes the listener think backwards unless they're thinking "Dang, that was sick...I got to replay that".
***You do need to mix your drums in better, i feel like more detail to reverb and general volume leveling will set you far ahead in your mixing (compression and limiting are your friends!)

I would feel like I'm going on a journey if this song had a drifting and flowing MIX to it, and not just in the NOTES and sounds used. Great song though!
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Re: (future house)(non-pony) Sometimes I Just Think

Postby NightmareRare » 23 Dec 2015 22:04

Thanks monsoon, I'll keep that in mind!
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