My work

[Shan]

Hi Alchemy. You emailed me to check out your song and say a few things about it.

I like the opening arpeggio that starts the song and continues through out. You also have a really low percussion hit on beat 1 that I really like and it continues through out the song.

The song seems alittle short and seems to need more of an arrangement. But then again I'm not familliar with this style.

The vocal seems a bit off from the music and there is a word that seems to be an editing mistake. It seems like it's cut off. If I knew the language I would point it out to you.

With loops I like to treat them the same as real drums with a drum master channel and compressed channel. Check out Charles' column on drums. You will find some great info.

I also like to give my loops a real room sound. What I do is send my loop through a monitor in the studio and mic the room with 2 mics to capture a real room tone. I treat this track as an aux and add it to taste. It really brings loops to life. I also pan my electronic loops the same way I would do a real drummer.

I also cant hear your bass track. (Is there a bass track?) You might want to bring it up a bit.

Definitely check out Charles column called 'Making Magic Happen - Automation'. There is some great stuff on Transitions and effects splashing.

Those are some of my suggestions. I'm sure others here can offer you more with this type of style. Hope to hear your progress with this track.

Shane

[magnetic]

Where can I find these articles by Charles on drums and automation?

[Shan]

Originally posted by magnetic
Where can I find these articles by Charles on drums and automation?

Check out his first post at the top.
He has an index of 'Hard Disk Life' columns. It's great stuff.

Shane

[magnetic]

Thanks Shan, I just found it. Looks like I have enough reading to last me till next Easter. Great stuff, indeed.

[Jose Mrochek]

Hi Alchemy, I downloaded the song and even though i'm not much of an electronic person, I really like the arragements or little riffs going on. ON the other hand I am assuming the whole song was not posted ??? or should I add you need a chorus ? maybe a bridge somewhere ? I did imagine acoustic drums with maybe a guitar riff coming in right after the end of that "spacey breather" in the middle. I think it could help alot on keeping listeners attention. Remember you want to keep the listeners attention throught the song, so avoid "over looping" Hope to here more stuff!!

[Alchemy]

Thanks, Shane and Jose

My 37 seconds before HDL
http://www.alchemy-music.info/smash_dry.mp3

After HDL
http://www.alchemy-music.info/smash.mp3

Thanks, Charles

[Shan]

An improvement indeed. Sounds like you've been applying some new mixing knowledge. I would probably add some bass but then again, I dont know if this is an intro or breakdown etc. If you post a whole song I'm sure many will give you some tips and we can also learn stuff from you regarding how you created certain sounds etc. This is the place for gaining knowledge thats for sure.

Shane