Infinity

[garryknight]

This was my Assignment 3 on the Coursera Introduction to Ableton Live course. At least, it started that way, and is now in the process of being worked up into an entire track. It's complete, except that in the final version I'll be switching some of Live's synth patches for my own. As usual, all feedback is welcome.

It's called Infinity.

 

[BroKen_H]

Piano tone is very fake. Very midi sounding. Def get that one out of the way.
Lot going on in there. Amazing comp. There's some stuff that sounds time distorted. Am I hearing that right?
Some cymbals that have had their clips clipped? Very odd sounding on the L side. Clickky

 

[garryknight]

The piano tone is the one I wanted for this track as it has exactly the tone I wanted to go with the delay effect.

Some of it is time distorted, yes. While it's a piano instrumental, I wanted some layered vocals to add atmosphere. These were mostly royalty-free samples from magazine DVDs, dragged into Live 9, warped, sliced, and repitched. As an example, the woman's voice singing, "I'm so free" was originally sung by someone I would imagine to be in their early to mid twenties. By the time I got it where I wanted it, it sounds like a much more mature woman.

I took the cymbal sample and reversed it, then put the reversed part before the normal part, so it fades in then out. With the rhythm of the drum loop I've got playing over the main percussion MIDI, the cymbals were intended to almost give a kind of tidal effect, as if you're listening in a boat or by the sea.

There's a cabasa sample on the right-hand side - and I checked, I have my headphones on the right way round. I can't hear anything clicky on the left side. But both my KRK KNK6400 headphones and my not-so-good PC monitors seem to be insensitive in the high frequencies, so I might be missing something.

I have to apologise, though. I put up the version that I submitted as part of the Coursera Introduction to Ableton Live assignments. Since then, I've changed the synth pads back to how I originally wanted them and added some more backing vocals using Realitone Blue, then remixed it. So I posted on here too early. The (hopefully) finished version is now up on Soundcloud. Thanks for listening and thanks for the feedback.

Edit: I just had another listen and realised that there was an unwanted kick track on there that I must have forgotten to delete. Shows what you can overlook when you're too close to the music. Maybe that's what was clicky.

 

[GONZO-X]

nice ambient synth fills,
but seems very typical, chord change wise,
like you can anticipate every change.
in other words, it's boring.
nice, but boring.

you should step out and get more inventive with your chord changes,
look for the UNUSUAL change, instead of the 'normal'.

the mix itself seems very narrow,
not much on the top,
not much on the bottom.

sounds like it's all done in a computer,
the piano sound choice is nice,
but would sound SO MUCH BETTER done on an actual piano.

time for a 'field recording', maybe?

 

[garryknight]

Thanks for your feedback.

 

[TripleM]

I thought the synth pads sounded OK in general. The "piano" sounds a bit cheap. Drums are programmed sounding, but for the genre it works OK.

For something that's essentially an instrumental, I think there needs to be a little more going on. Mostly it's cymbal swells and some vocal chants over a chord progression.

Little pop on the left at 1:33, 3:26. I missed a few in between. Again at 3:40. More later. Some sample you're using.

 

[dobro]

When the piano comes in at about the half minute mark, I thought it could be a bit more present. I don't know if that means louder, different EQ, or less reverb - that's your problem . I get the same impression about the female voice that comes in sometimes - it needs to be more present. It's getting buried right now. Even those breathy pan pipes could have come through better. By contrast, those percussion hits that lob in at about 4.03 get heard really well. So what's the difference between the percussion hits and the three things I mentioned? I don't do stuff like this, but it seems that those pads take up an awful lot of EQ real estate. Can you notch them and then complement EQ the other parts so that things get heard better? And turn them up a taste?

Nice tune.

 

[garryknight]

I thought the synth pads sounded OK in general. The "piano" sounds a bit cheap. Drums are programmed sounding, but for the genre it works OK.

The piano is 4Front Piano. Very CPU-light and doesn't use hundreds of MB of samples. The drums are layered: a drum loop, warped in Live 9, and a Drum Rack I put together some time ago, but everything's precisely on-beat. I guess I could humanize it a little.

For something that's essentially an instrumental, I think there needs to be a little more going on. Mostly it's cymbal swells and some vocal chants over a chord progression.

Yes, it's the first track in a collection (album? What does that mean these days?) of relaxing music I'm putting together. The vocals and effects are meant more for atmosphere than anything else.

Little pop on the left at 1:33, 3:26. I missed a few in between. Again at 3:40. More later. Some sample you're using.

[/quote]

That's really strange. If I play from a couple of bars before those times, I hear them. But if I play from a second or two before, they seem to disappear. This is with my KRK KNK6400 headphones and on my cheap PC speakers. Oh, well, got some hunting to do.

Edit: Aha! Maybe that's what Broken_H meant when he said:

Some cymbals that have had their clips clipped? Very odd sounding on the L side. Clickky

Gives me somewhere to start looking.


Thanks very much for your comments. Together with dobro's comments, I've got plenty to think about.

 

[garryknight]

When the piano comes in at about the half minute mark, I thought it could be a bit more present. I don't know if that means louder, different EQ, or less reverb - that's your problem . I get the same impression about the female voice that comes in sometimes - it needs to be more present. It's getting buried right now. Even those breathy pan pipes could have come through better.

OK, I think I can do 'more present' I put a Max for Live Exciter device on the vocals group track and it made them clearer, but really they were mostly meant more as atmosphere, rather than to compete with the piano and pipes. I'll rethink all of this.

By contrast, those percussion hits that lob in at about 4.03 get heard really well. So what's the difference between the percussion hits and the three things I mentioned? I don't do stuff like this, but it seems that those pads take up an awful lot of EQ real estate. Can you notch them and then complement EQ the other parts so that things get heard better? And turn them up a taste?

Those percussion hits at 4:03 now sound over-loud to me. Even the ones that come in at about 1:19 now sound too loud. And that's really all it is for the first drum fill. The second one is phased and flanged - I first used the 32-bar section before the second fill as the breakdown in an EDM track and wanted to turn it into a complete track, and decided to keep the effects. But I definitely don't want phasing and flanging on the main instruments and vocals :-D

Nice tune.

Thanks You've given me more to think about.