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Robus
Well-known member
Link?
M
Music Box
Member
Thanks Robus.
https://soundcloud.com/madrigal7/nice-day-for-a-talk
https://soundcloud.com/madrigal7/nice-day-for-a-talk
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Robus
Well-known member
MB, I didn't see that you had posted the link. You're a good contributor to the forum and always take time to reciprocate by commenting on others' tracks. Sorry that yours got overlooked.
The backing synths work well except for some annoying cymbal patches. There are a couple in particular. One sounds like a crash, the other an open hat maybe. They both have more sizzle than body and make nuisances of themselves every time they show up--which is often. Nice bass patch and sound.
The melody is engaging in place. As usual, I'm not crazy about your lead synth patches. They are not overbearingly loud as has been the case in first mixes of earlier songs.
However, there is an issue that stands out #1, above any other, in all your songs. I've written the same about every previous one, and maybe I should just stop writing it. But I must, if I'm to comment honestly. The problem is phrasing. Once one of those lead synths takes off, it does not stop, ever, not even for one measure, barely for one beat. It just goes on and on and on like the Energizer bunny. Then another section comes, another synth patch, and off it goes, on and on and on. I am missing some of the fundamentals of melody composition here: Pauses, rests, phrases that begin and end within some reasonable number of bars so that the listen can take in the phrase, retain it in memory, recognize it when it repeats, etc. I guess our musical sensibilities just aren't too compatible. You can come with some great melodic ideas--that bridge section that I pointed out in your previous song. But most of the time, the lack of phrasing defeats it for me.
The backing synths work well except for some annoying cymbal patches. There are a couple in particular. One sounds like a crash, the other an open hat maybe. They both have more sizzle than body and make nuisances of themselves every time they show up--which is often. Nice bass patch and sound.
The melody is engaging in place. As usual, I'm not crazy about your lead synth patches. They are not overbearingly loud as has been the case in first mixes of earlier songs.
However, there is an issue that stands out #1, above any other, in all your songs. I've written the same about every previous one, and maybe I should just stop writing it. But I must, if I'm to comment honestly. The problem is phrasing. Once one of those lead synths takes off, it does not stop, ever, not even for one measure, barely for one beat. It just goes on and on and on like the Energizer bunny. Then another section comes, another synth patch, and off it goes, on and on and on. I am missing some of the fundamentals of melody composition here: Pauses, rests, phrases that begin and end within some reasonable number of bars so that the listen can take in the phrase, retain it in memory, recognize it when it repeats, etc. I guess our musical sensibilities just aren't too compatible. You can come with some great melodic ideas--that bridge section that I pointed out in your previous song. But most of the time, the lack of phrasing defeats it for me.
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TripleM
Well-known member
everything sounds smooth. No rough edges. Kind of a polished overall tone.
It's squashed fairly hard to my ear. It's kind of squeezing the flow out of it.
Bass sound is little sterile. So is the kick.
Drums are a bit mechanical. You can tell they were put together via copy-and-paste.
It's squashed fairly hard to my ear. It's kind of squeezing the flow out of it.
Bass sound is little sterile. So is the kick.
Drums are a bit mechanical. You can tell they were put together via copy-and-paste.
M
Music Box
Member
No need to apologize.
Thank you Robus for your accurate review. I must confess that I always forget about the pauses. You are right I must improve on that also. I will see if I can change the melodies to include pauses. I will also try to drop some of the sizzle by deleting an HF exciter. If I find another lead sound I like I might change that too.
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M
Music Box
Member
Thank you TripleM for your accurate review. I don't know how to fix these issues you pointed out except for the bass. I can change that and I could try another drum loop. I use loops in drums as my drum skills are not so good either.
easlern
Boredom artist
Hey MusicBox, nice tune. I really like when the rhythmic synth comes in. I might bring down the lead synth a bit and do some edits on the MIDI if you have it, it seems a bit off tempo in places. Song-wise I'm not real sure about the pads, they seem a little bland. The melody is nice.
M
Music Box
Member
Thank you easlern for your informative comments. It might well be off tempo as I have problems with that too. I have also problems with finding good sounding patches people would like. I will look into these issues you guys have pointed out and will try to improve as soon as I have time. I had to put another hard drive into my daw computer as the old one gave warning signals so it might take a little time to get all the software installed. Windows update says I have 224 updates to download. Aargh... But still I have done a little song writing although I was supposed to improve the old tunes.
mjbphotos
Moderator
I don't know if its compression or just an EQ issue, but it seems to be missing some bite - I think probably the mid frequencies, in general, maybe?
M
Music Box
Member
Thank you for your comment and tip. I don't know where the lack of bite is. I will try to check that too.