Synthwave track instrumental "Cirilla"

Hey guys! This is my first track feedback post here on SA, it’s close to being finished but would appreciate any and all insights as I think it needs something else, just can’t put my finger on it. I’m open to any and all comments or questions, thanks!

Hi there, nice work and cool Synthwave track :wink:

A few suggestions that comes to mind after several listens.

- Mixing wise :

I’m missing stereo imaging as a listener. More reverb and increasing the air band above 4k would help with that.

For the low end you Kick and Snare are taking lot’s of energy out of the track. There’s some unwanted low frequencies in there that you could filter with a HP EQ.

Also filtering the Snare before sending it to the reverb ( if you’re using sends to a parallel bus for your reverb, you can use a HP filter and a compressor before the reverb to solve this ).

You could tame some muddiness with an EQ in the 80 to 240 Hz, but take care of the unwanted low frequencies for the Kick & Snare since it might already help to regain more clarity.

- Arrangement Wise :

You could maybe get rid of this transition part from 1:15 to 1:30 since you’re repeating almost the same to introduce the breakdown at 1:52.

In the break you’re bringing back the kick quite early at 2:04, this section could be longer, with more melodic elements than percussive ones.

The second part could benefit of some variation and introduce another element that I think is missing in the track anyway : a solo guitar or synth melodic riffs like often used in this genre to set peak time and climate if that makes sense. That will break the repetitive feel of this track at the moment, you mentioned it. It’s missing something, it’s like the track is calling for something else but it’s not happening, the solo might bring this.

But again, nice work and good track for the genre :sunglasses:

Thanks for taking the time to listen to my track Tekalight! I definitely agree with your points, ive been going into that project all week trying to fix these things I missed, I normally low cut all of my instruments but I guess I’ve been dropping the ball on that one recently. Im trying to figure out what I should do for the break, for sure its needs a solo of some kind. A lot of my inspiration comes from the midnight and Miami nights 1984 and Lazerhawk, and while the latter two have slightly more complex arrangements, I find that I create stuff a little closer to the midnight. I like a continuous melody that plays throughout and adding filters to them and opening up the cutoff frequencies before choruses etc., and I tend to leave verse sections relatively empty(in hopes that MAYBE ill sing to my own music). The problem is that I’m not musically trained so I don’t really know much about theory so I know I can get stuck figuring out what chords work/won’t work and progressions. Ill keep at it though!

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Hey guys, so I took down my original instrumental and applied some of the advice given by Tekalight. Maybe this version sounds better? Still missing a solo but I haven’t gotten around to actually trying something new, I have very little time to experiment on weekdays but if I think of something maybe ill give it a shot! Anyways thanks guys for the advice and the listens!

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Hey there :wink:

Nice work on this one :+1:

Much more clarity in the mixing now and the arrangement works well, this is now ‘story telling’, different parts well structured and variations keeping interest for the listener.

You don’t even need a solo instrument in this version I think, it feels much more complete now.

Nice one, keep it up ! :+1: