I’ve had the week off and managed to finish a track that’s been sitting as a loop on my drive for months. In fact it’s the first track I’ve done in months. Lots of personal stuff getting in the way.br
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Anyway, if you guys could have a listen and let me have any comments, that’d be fantastic.br
I’m thinking mostly the arrangement and the mix as it sounds on your systems?br
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Cheersbr
Jonbr
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[url]https://soundcloud.com/block-punch/april2014-track-first-bounce/s-TOvmE[/url]
Hi Jon, listened to the track, great mix btw! I’ve only listened to it on my skullcandy’s at work but everything stands apart from each other and yet still sounds as one (if that makes sense)br
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If I was to give any criticism, I’d say that I wish you’d have changed up the melody a bit after the main drop as it all got a little repetitive, which I know Techno is 
but I just found myself zoning out a little. br
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It might have something to do with the lack of sleep I had last night tho, so I’ll check it out again when I get home later…
Thanks mate for always taking the time to listen.br
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It’s good that the mix sounds balanced. I moved between starting this track and finishing it. In fact, this is the first track I’ve done in my new house / studio so it’s a test of the sonics in the room as much as anything.br
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Now, I know what you mean about the riff. I put a lot of movement into it and thought that was enough. But the repetitiveness of it is something I had in the back of my mind. br
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So, I’ve uploaded a new version to the same link. This one has a slightly more varied post-break riff. If you get a chance for another listen, that’d be great. Just use the same link above again.
Hi Sonic Team, br
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Are you guys on holiday this week? ;)br
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Cheersbr
Jon
Hmmm…br
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Its pretty well put together… mix is decent.br
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for me tho there are to many run of the mill sounds in it.br
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It isnt really dark enough or experimental enough for techno and dosnt have the real melodic hook for deeper progressive stuff.br
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The drums are prety basic too. If you are keeping them straight then they need to really pump and sound amazing.br
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With the drums being prettty straight having the bass on the off makes it sound ploddy… the only real element of groove is the percussin which is pretty low in the mix.br
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Ideally I think you need more gorve in the low end… either with some lower tom stuff or a differnt note pattern for Bass.br
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You can obviouslly put together convincing tracks I think you just need to spend more time making the parts interesting. Its lacking a bit of feeling or emotion for me.br
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Spend a day working on nothing but differnt chord sequences… not necessarily progressions but just interesting chord stabs with differnt sounds using differnt effects to come up with something interesting… then you can build the track around that.br
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sorry if im being too negative on this one but I think it needs more work.br
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That’s great feedback thanks Phil. It’s actually MORE useful to have feedback like this I think. Detailed but with suggestions for areas to look at.br
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I’ve been wondering about working with someone else recently - not a specific person - just generally someone to bounce ideas around with. I think this is the kind of feedback people can give each other when they work together like that.br
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I’m trying to transition between deeper progressive and more techno and I guess this is stuck in a half way stage between the two.br
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I’ll go back and tweak and see what happens. br
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Thanks again for spending the time to look at this. I appreciate it.
Hey Phil - As you mentioned pumping drums, are there any tutorials here that you recommend I take a look at (again probably) to refine the sound?
Have you any tracks in mind for the type of sound you are going for… if there isnt a tutorial i could do a tech tip
Ha ha now you’re asking… I think that the following artist’s / sounds are where I’d like to be.br
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I’m a big fan of Christian Smith. You could try thesebr
Get it Done:br
iframe width=“560” height=“315” src=“//www.youtube.com/embed/GDrpSWWJEEM” frameborder=“0” allowfullscreen/iframebr
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Third Floor:br
iframe width=“560” height=“315” src=“//www.youtube.com/embed/6zodOlTWLCo” frameborder=“0” allowfullscreen/iframebr
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Or PigDanbr
Crazy:br
iframe width=“420” height=“315” src=“//www.youtube.com/embed/hOfjHnhZHl0” frameborder=“0” allowfullscreen/iframebr
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This Laurent Garnier remix of Martin Landsky’s classic 100 Miles is one of my favourites tracks in recent years.br
iframe width=“560” height=“315” src=“//www.youtube.com/embed/yNyGzfxbfW4” frameborder=“0” allowfullscreen/iframebr
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BTW - you’re a star for helping me here. I’m struggling so hard on the sound right now. br
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I do think I’ve made loads of progress on the technical end of production and I’m happy that this new track, the first I’ve done in my new house/studio, is mixed well. But it’s the other bits I’m lagging on for sure.
Hey Philbr
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I’ve pushed the toms that were there up in the mix as well as the wood block hit. Plus, I’ve added an extra note into the bass line for a little less ploddy-ness.br
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It’s still essentially the same track though as I don’t want to dwell on it now. Just want to learn my lessons from it and move on.br
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Looking forward to that tech tip when you’re able to do it.br
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Cheersbr
Jonbr
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iframe width=“100%” height=“166” scrolling=“no” frameborder=“no” src=“https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/146454405%3Fsecret_token%3Ds-TOvmEamp;color=ff5500amp;auto_play=falseamp;hide_related=falseamp;show_artwork=true”/iframebr
Sounds much better… way more groove… and it seems to be motoring along.br
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Only thing thats really bothering me now is the notes of the main stabby riff… it seems to be in a major key or have some major notes in it.br
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Close your eyes and solo that part and imagine its talking to you… whats it saying?br
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to me its saying im a bubbly litlle riff just motoring along without a care in the world, life is great.br
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It should probably be saying something like: im a bit scarey, the world is a bit wonky, something is about to happen here. br
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In the Break you probably want to release all that negative tension with a progression that is full of wonder and dark empathy. br
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Use Minors (sus4 will work for pads building up to break) in the driving bits and C7Sus4 in Breaks for some Floaty Tension.br
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I like breaks to tell a differnt story to main sections but thats not to everyones tastebr
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Can I kiss you? ;)br
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That’s good feedback - again!br
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I’ll take a look at it. I was probably lazy in my chord construction in this one. Normally I spend more time on it but during the loop laying down phase I dropped a chord plug in on the synth parts and was really enjoying the loop. Never went back to adjust it as I normally do.br
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I do love your descriptions of what you’d expect/like to hear. Very colourful but also a good way of verbalising the sound.
If I had this much detailed feedback on all the tracks I’d probably be a lot further along by now. So thanks again.br
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Did you have a chance to listen to those other artist’s tracks I posted up in the thread? Find anything interesting there to work into a tip?
Yeah we have a few tech tips possibly going out this week or maybe next.
Hey Philbr
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You guys got that tut done and up really quickly. Thank you so much for that. The processes you used and the info about sample or hit selection were so useful.br
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Thanks again!