Whale Bird - new track (sort of...)

T

Tekhed66

New member
Hi all

Just thought I'd post this track which is sorta-kinda new... I anonymously posted it on Soundcloud a little while ago and left it at that ... anyway ... I decided to fly the flag and list it here.

This is the sort of stuff I usually write (synth/keyboard) ... I recently recorded a guitar based track and it nearly did my head in even though it was pretty good thrashing away on a guitar for a change.

Well... here's the link... hope you enjoy it:
Whale Bird by Un-Sound | Un Sound | Free Listening on SoundCloud
 
Many thanks for your feedback...

It sort of evolved into a soundtrack piece and I just went with it... mixing this was surprisingly easy as I've had some tracks that just sound bad no matter what I try... I'll take a win whenever I can.

The name comes from a drawing my daughter did while scribbling on a packet of post-it notes... she literally drew a big fat bird and gave it fins and belly stripes like you see on a blue whale... the post it note is stuck above my computer and that gave me the track title.
cheers!
 
I like this. The thing with any kind of electronica or ambient music is this: It needs to take you on a journey, introducing new elements to the soundscape along the way. This does that. Five and a half minutes is on the long side for an instrumental composition, but it kept me engaged to the end.

I don't have much to offer. The rhythms were good. Melodies were attractive. The mix sounded fine. Perhaps a bit more low end--synth bass, kick, etc. The patches mostly sounded good. An exception is that windy, rainsticky, airy synth in the very beginning. It's hitting some midrange frequencies that grate on my nerves just slightly. When that keyboard comes in underneath it, I want to hear the keyboard and a lot less of the airy thing. Maybe the volume could come down a bit. When it comes back in a the fade out, it sounded fine.
 
Robus said:
I like this. The thing with any kind of electronica or ambient music is this: It needs to take you on a journey, introducing new elements to the soundscape along the way. This does that. Five and a half minutes is on the long side for an instrumental composition, but it kept me engaged to the end.

I don't have much to offer. The rhythms were good. Melodies were attractive. The mix sounded fine. Perhaps a bit more low end--synth bass, kick, etc. The patches mostly sounded good. An exception is that windy, rainsticky, airy synth in the very beginning. It's hitting some midrange frequencies that grate on my nerves just slightly. When that keyboard comes in underneath it, I want to hear the keyboard and a lot less of the airy thing. Maybe the volume could come down a bit. When it comes back in a the fade out, it sounded fine.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your comments... you hit the nail on the head with some of your observations... once you pointed them out, it was pretty obvious to hear how the track could be improved.

The intro with the windy synth is the first job on the list.... I'd played this track to death while recording and mixing and never thought to drop the level of that synth once the other keyboards started... you play the same mistake over and over and it becomes correct (does that make sense?)

The bottom end needs a little bit of oomph but that's no biggie... previous mixes were too bass heavy so I backed off until it cleaned up though I may have gone a bit too far.

I'm glad you found the track interesting all the way through despite the length... I tend to get carried away a bit and usually struggle to keep things concise... too many years of listening to extended prog pieces I suppose (!!!)
 
I thought the sounds on this were very nice. I like that sound on the "lead" synth.

I like the way the focus of the song traded off from one instrument to another.

Reminded me of the Alan Parsons Project.
 
TripleM said:
I thought the sounds on this were very nice. I like that sound on the "lead" synth.

I like the way the focus of the song traded off from one instrument to another.

Reminded me of the Alan Parsons Project.
Click to expand...

Thanks TripleM...

The lead was a tweaked Jon Lord organ patch on my trusty JD800... a good ol' girl.

I can live with being compared to Alan Parsons (as long as it's not Eye In The Sky... I really hate that one!!!) ;-)
 
No nits here, sounds cool. Like TripM said, the different sounds coming in was cool, taking my attention to different places. The section that starts at 3:02 reminds me of late 80's Rush, something from "Hold Your Fire", which is one of my favorite albums of all time. The part didn't last long, but still went to some cool places after that.

I'm assuming this was all layered stuff you actually played, or is there some midi also? Nice work.
 
JohnnyAmato said:
No nits here, sounds cool. Like TripM said, the different sounds coming in was cool, taking my attention to different places. The section that starts at 3:02 reminds me of late 80's Rush, something from "Hold Your Fire", which is one of my favorite albums of all time. The part didn't last long, but still went to some cool places after that.

I'm assuming this was all layered stuff you actually played, or is there some midi also? Nice work.
Click to expand...

Hiya
Thanks for listening and for your comments... I'll have to show your post to a mate of mine ... he's a Rush fanatic :-)

The playing is a mix of both live (as in 'me') and Live (as in Ableton)... I played most of what you hear (solo, pads/keys, SFX) and used Live for the bass line and drums / drum loop ... sometimes I play a part on a synth but only record the midi notes which I can then edit (melody, arrangement, fix mistakes etc) and then re-feed that back into the synth via Live and record the audio.

cheers.
 
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