First Track - Critiques please :D

[zlatan]

Hey everyone, I'm pretty new to Logic and am still trying to get around the basics. I had a few hours to kill tonight so I've just finished my first bounce of a track and need someone to tell me what I've done wrong/can try differently.

It's a cover of the X-men theme, which is always fun.
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

Thanks,
Zlatan

 

[VomitHatSteve]

Sounds much like the sort of midi version of the song that would have been used in the video games of the era. e.g.
The mix is pretty coherent, but the sounds don't have much of a sense of realism. It's a pretty good start tho.

 

[zlatan]

You're right, it does. Thank you for the feedback.

It was recorded using a Nord stage 2 and a Moog Little Phatty, there are no plug ins or anything on it. The drums were Logic's "drummer" thing.

Any advice on where to go from here if I wanted to make it sound bigger?

 

[VomitHatSteve]

The big thing I noticed is that there aren't really any dynamics to any of the instrumental performances. Each note is at the same basic volume throughout.

A humanizer plugin on the drums would probably help. Maybe the moog could have some parameters fluctuate throughout the note? Manually put some vibrato on the tails of the longer notes.

Plus, any live instruments usually help. (Human error is a surprisingly important part of making music sound interesting)

 

[zlatan]

Thanks for the feedback man.
Some dynamics definitely wouldn't go amiss!

Haha, they're all live instruments (except the drums). Keyboards, but still recorded live

Maybe I'll layer it with an electric bass to beef out the bottom end a bit

 

[andrushkiwt]

Any advice on where to go from here if I wanted to make it sound bigger?

Playing with the settings on the synths/pads is always a good thing. You can get some pretty creative/unique sounds by messing with delay/reverb or adding any of the sound-manipulating autofilters. Whenever I settle on a base sound for a synth/pad, I usually go check out the autofilters vst's next...they take those sounds to another level completely, though leaving the base of what you had to begin with. I'm talking about things like envelope/LFO/etc... autofilters that take your original sound and do whacky sh%t to it.

What you have going on here is typical of what I'd get by loading up a vst synth and simply selecting an instrument and using it as it comes stock. Def get in there and mess with the synth properties and settings.