It's nice. Overall form and structure is solid. Progressions and melodies evolve naturally and as one might expect. I hope you're up for unsolicited critiques, observations, and advice because I just wrote a load. I think you main working point compositionally would be adding detail to your tracks. This is one of key factors that separates an alright (electronic) track from a good or great one. Because you have the base loop to the track and every 16/32 bars it is updated with a new sound. This is the fundamental basis of electronic. But how you add subtle variations to and within each loop is the real art of it I think. There's a tonne of ways you can do this: - Variation of the melody: You could invert it. Have some notes on a different octave. Reverse it. Alter it rhythmically. You could play around with the panning. It needn't be too obvious, it can be subtle. - Talking of the panning, the stereo field of your track is quite one-dimensional. Getting your pan game on and playing with how elements move within that space can really spice the track up. Obviously don't go too mad. If everything is wide or panning then nothing is. Play with the contrast between centred and wider sounds. - Variation in the rhythmic hits. The best rhythmic element of your track is the hi-hat line. This is because either through delay or how you've programmed it, it's velocity is dynamic. Or at least it sounds like it is. This not only makes it aesthetically more interesting but also makes it sound more human. Those subtle differences and variations hit to hit is what humanises a rhythm section. The snare or percussions could have a slightly different sound/character hit to hit. There could be [ghost notes]. One off fills and one of hits.(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_note). Also, play around with having some hits of rhythmic elements hitting slightly off the grid. This just makes it sound a bit less robotic. Your DAW will often have functions to do this automatically for midi stuff. - Looking at how each phrase reflects the last one and pre-empts the next one. Electronic music especially is very much about the suspense/tension of what's to come and the release when it arrives. The obvious example of this is of course the main build ups and drops. However, this can also be taken advantage of at the end each phrase. Even each bar if you're so inclined. These areperfects area to add structural variation,without throwing the listener too of the rails. The heart of the loop stays steady but the ends can flirt with other possibilities and introduce what's to come. This track is a great example of this: Listen closely once it drops to how things change and start to be introduced as we approach the end of each phrase. It all flows into each other, as if it was meant to be. Or maybe sometimes it teases or tricks you? What this does is constantly play with audiences expectations and keeps them on there toes and in expectation. It also makes your music compositionally stronger by introducing and end elements in a dynamic and interesting way. There's really no end to how you can play with all these things and similar opportunities to variate your loops. The only limits are you imagination and how long you're willing to tinker on sometimes minute details! Something else that might be interesting to try is just to scan through your tracks and every 30-45 seconds or so listen to a few seconds of the track. Does it sound like it's progressed or changed. Does it's atmosphere, mood , or energy change? Does it stay on a straight path the whole way through? Or does it go somewhere else? Does it end where it started? Why/Why not? These are all possible questions that might elicit some interesting answers for your music. --- I had some comments on the production too but I see I've already written quite a bit. Plus I'm high so it could be vapid nonsense for all I know. But yeah, good stuff man. Keep it up and I look forward to hearing more soon.
I'll post a picture of the pan spread on this track which is actually massive, but again there are around 50 element and some melodies are doubled at full l and full r, but this one ended up kind of a distorted mess when it gets bigger. This particular track was more melodically than rhythmically driven, so I kept the drums pretty simple. There are a ton of tiny shifts in the melody lines throughout the track and I is not want I distract from the subtle changes. Thanks for going through and analytically listening, feedback is always appreciated. :) any time you feel like good through any I my tracks like this I'm down for it.I think you main working point compositionally would be adding detail to your tracks.
This ones a bit of an ambient mess, there's around 50 elements going on and quite a few of them have intentional tube distortion, this is mostly dependent on my mood at the time of composition. Kind of like old Indy m83 or Trent reznors older compositions. - Talking of the panning, the stereo field of your track is quite one-dimensional
- Variation in the rhythmic hits. The best rhythmic element of your track is the hi-hat line. This is because either through delay or how you've programmed it, it's velocity is dynamic.
Man, I just borked my community tag. Took me a while, but I was able give this a good listen. Great melodies. Made me want to sit at a piano and play. I dig the build. You should sing :)
Singing may be the next addition, I need a good singer, lol.(or I need to get a decent mic)