Feedback on my quarantine track

Hello all! In this weird global times, I used the time to finish a track

If you could take the time to hear it and give me a feedback, I would be extremely grateful! Thank you! :slight_smile:

Hey there @returnnull

Hope you’re handling this quarantine situation well & that you’re doing good.
Stay safe at home as much as you can :wink:

Nice track but just too polite ! :smile: :wink:

Your kick is very sharp & clean with high transients, you should try to lower the pitch, send it to a return channel with a compressor side chained to the kick placed before a spring reverb or the echo effect in live + a reverb then send back the return channel audio to a new audio track and adjust & blend the levels to create a rumble effect. Not necessarily heavy like in hard techno, it can be more subtle but it will give a different feel to the track. You can also use EQ & filters on the receiving audio channel to adjust the frequency of this rumble effect.

You could also add a drone layer to the track to keep this dark techno atmosphere going.

The hats used as rides should be there only to give a sense of rhythm, almost subliminal & just needed for the listener mind, they are too much clean & in the front at the moment IMO.

Adding other percussive effects & ear candies could also enhance the track, it’s a bit linear with the dominant rides & claps, the drums during transition moments are nice.

I like the bass line and the movement & rhythm it gives to the track. You have also some support bass synths in a higher range, watch out with the clarity & levels of those. The track is almost like dueling between “darkness & light” feel, it’s a nice counter effect but for me it’s loosing weight & impact when it’s becoming too bright.

This 303 type acid line is extremely “polite” and again too much clarity & levels IMO. Try to add some grit & dirtiness to it using saturation, distortion & reverb and leveling it down, it should “accommodate” & support the track, not take the first place.

Nice sounding synths but you could make them really more huge by using more reverb & delays and use automation on those effects, I would perhaps add another layer to the main lead synth pitched down at a lower octave, for the same reason as mentioned before, flirting between darkness & light but for me this one needs to be a bit more darker than it is now.

Mixing wise, issues are coming from the above, get back to your source sounds & levels and try to play with effects, then it will be more easy to blend all parts together I think, you can hear & identify too easily the different parts at this stage, not fully working at a all right now IMO.

But yes, nice track & musical ideas in there, you can play around & develop this one further, might be a very good one to experiment with effects too.

Take care & keep it up, we’ll get through those crazy times, meanwhile stay home as much as you can and therefore music is your friend :wink:

Cheers !

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Dear @Tekalight

As always thanks a lot for taking the time to listen to my tack and for your feedback! Everything you say make sense and the trick for the rumbling effect is super nice! I’ll make some edit, thanks a lot again! until the next one, stay safe as well :slight_smile:

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No worries, I especially detailed this one to keep you busy & occupied during your quarantine :smile: :sweat_smile:

…Just kidding, no, I liked the track & that was my take on it as in which direction to take it & what seemed to be missing for me as a listener. Keep in mind it’s also rather subjective & personal taste & advice, even if I try to focus on more general things. Someone else might tell you he/she would prefer the track to go a bit more to the “light” side, LOL.

Yep, there’s many different ways to create rumble & rhythm textures. Plugins like Eventide “Blackhole” are very good, but also quite expensive unless you can get them on sale.

But sending the Kick to a return channel then back to a new audio track & using compressor, echo, delay, reverb as well as distortion & saturation can really lead to very creative things. The advantage of sending the return channel audio to a new audio track is first that you can separate your basic effects on the return from new ones on the receiving audio track and mangled the sound even more as well as fine tuning with filters & Eq, giving movement with side chain again, or LFO for example, and the second is to be able to have control on the output level in order to blend the rumble or new background/atmo rhythm with the Kick. You can also send this to another new audio track and record it and create different loops playing with your effects settings.

And when you think about it, the only original sound you have running is a Kick loop, hahaha… Live is definitely great for this.

Cheers !

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Ahahah no worries the more detailed the better! I always really value your point of view and everything you say gets duly noted :slight_smile: also yes live is amazing! Yesterday I made the rumbling effect sound and it was a lot of fun! Adding different effects can also get it to so many different directions

Thanks again as always! :slight_smile:

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