What do you think of this...

Lars · Posted: Tue May 25, 2004 4:00 pm Post subject: What do you think of this...

Hi everybody,
I'm curious how you will like my new track. It is called Nomad It starts off with a spacy intro, but then fades into a slow, melodic summoning. Atmosphere and building a "wall-of-sound" was my highest priority, and I personally think I've done quite well (it's my third track). Will you think so, too? Wink

I created this one in fruity loops studio 4 (without any "hardware" instruments) and its included plugins, plus Spectrasonics Atmosphere which just impressed me.

Now here's the link:
Sol Septem - NOMAD ... hope all the traffic won't kill my bandwidth Wink

And, feel free to critisize everything you don't like about this track. I need any suggestion to improve my music Smile

Bye

elektro80 · Posted: Tue May 25, 2004 4:19 pm Post subject:

I really liked the first half of this one.. well.. all until the last technoish section. I am not big fan of techno in general so this has not really anything to do with you or your music. That melodic/rythmic section which comes in at the middle could possibly benefit from losing the "" loop. It has a great effect in the more ambient first section but breaks the mood when it just continues.
All in all this is very good and promising and you should be pleased with the result. One thing.. if you have very strong reasons for having this and that going on in there.. do not change it.

Lars · Posted: Wed May 26, 2004 6:03 am Post subject:

Thanks for your comment elektro80.
Of course I don't damn anyone for their taste... Wink

It always feels good to recieve some honest critics. And yes, you're right with the fact that my music could be less looped. I'm still working on it.

Creating atmosphere (and keeping it up) is another thing I still got to learn. You know how to do that, just to mention your 'Scharnhorst' track Smile

I am still undecided whether to head towards techno or towards ambient.

But...all in all, I feel very content with this song, because my two previous tracks were too plain. Here I got layers fitting together, building up a 'wall of sound'. There is progress Smile

elektro80 · Posted: Wed May 26, 2004 6:24 am Post subject:

You should be pleased about this song of yours. Very Happy

Deciding between ambient and techno might kinda obscure a lot of more relevant options. Techno itself is a pretty much defined genre. Ambient is not. What we call ambient today does in fact cover a wide range of different musical directions and traditions. You could try to explore different musical directioons and then actually decide on something you like and find to be your voice. You can of course also combine rythm and ambient sounding stuff.. no problems.. but techno itself is something I see as pretty confining.

elektro80 · Posted: Wed May 26, 2004 6:35 am Post subject:

I guess a vital part of learning to compose is to actually learn .. or get familiar with different methods and traditions. This will increase your number of available tools and perhaps also inspire you. I have seen that people have labelled Mahler, Stravinsky, Satie, Lustmord, Vangelis, Arne Nordheim,Brian Eno, Tangerine Dream and Pink Floyd as ambient artists... well. hmm.. sure..

When I say that techno is confining.. well... this is not quite true.. but if you actually try to use that genre as if it was ... polka.. well then it would be. On the other hand, I guess techno is a nice genre when learning the tools of the trade.

aquanaut · Posted: Wed May 26, 2004 8:31 am Post subject:

I liked the intro...sounds good...you have a nice up/down movement with those two sound. i tought also that the blending of element were lackings some sort of musical gesture. your mix would have been different if it had been done with a hardware mixer with your two hand on it. for the sequenced part: do you have a tempo tracks in fruity loop? if so agonize with it until your sequencing grooves without a doubt.

mosc · Posted: Wed May 26, 2004 9:18 am Post subject:

Hi, Lars, and welcome to electro-music.com. welcome

I take from this discussion that you are just beginning. You're off to a good start, in my opinion. This piece starts off pretty dramatically with the police radio and the shooting sounds. There is a very reverberant ambiance. I was set up for drama. The sequencers and percussion sorta threw me because they seemed unrelated. So, I got a sorta skitzie felling from this. That's not neccessarilly bad, just my opinion - I could be, and probably am, wrong.

Norm, http://www.normusic.com/ , works in techno and abient. Some of his later stuff gets the two forms together. You might find it of value to check out Norm's music.

Lars · Posted: Thu May 27, 2004 10:12 am Post subject:

First of all, thanks to everybody here Smile

elektro80

Yes, I know what you mean. My target is not breaking musical boundaries. I'm (of course) trying to find my own sound, but I feel more confident when not sailing in unknown waters. Creating music that "sounds good" to me should be enough at first...
But you're right when saying I should explore different methods of composing, that's what I'd recommend others too. It's just... learning Fruity Loops took a long time, the plug-ins theirselves, like synthesizers etc., also need to be introduced, and I still have no idea of 95% of all the music production software/hardware/etc. I fear to spend a lot of time and money for an "insufficient" result.

niko_91

I actually don't really know whether you can call the small plug-in in Fruity Loops tempo track, but this might be possible. I'll try that, thanks for your hint, too Smile

mosc

Yes, there were some doubts with me, too. It seems the intro doesn't fit to the song somehow. Although I was quite content how it worked, there is some kind of contradiction between the dramatic, outer-space setting the track is building up and the following much warmer and relaxed melodies. Still don't know if I should leave it this way.
And Norm's tracks are surprisingly interesting. I like them a lot. Smile

Thanks

mosc · Posted: Thu May 27, 2004 11:35 am Post subject:

astroid power-up! · Joined: Mar 23, 2004 Posts: 334 G2 patch files: 15

-mahler and stravinsky as ambient artists?

ok ok.

listening now. nice ambient loops. the police thing sets up a pretty grim feeling to the track. the toms that come in sound a tiny bit clean in comparison to the track, maybe a touch more of reverb to blend them, at first. nice pads after that. the swelling, evolving pads are really nice.

so, i like the ambient stuff better. that's my opinion. some of the drum sounds are a little dry/too realistic sounding to me, and it makes them stick out against the rest of the track as being very "programmed". another way you could get some more mileage out of this track is to do some riding of faders- the techno stuff seems to stay at the same volume throughout, except for the one drumroll. if you were to give it some more texture, i think it might sound a little more real.

so, to recap, reverb and volume texturing on the "techno" sounds. not a whole bucket, but just enough to mix.

as far as direction, i find that having to wrestle with the interaction of genres is what makes my music original. if you hear ambient/techno, then just wrestle with it until you get the sound in your head. never be afraid to integrate the impossible.