Gimme some feedback

[Spindrift]

Have a couple of new tracks that I would love to hear what some ppl in here think about.

 

Chaotic and crazy style....maybe totally over the top and only something crazy ppl can like, what do I know...just did them and have no perspecive on my own productions until some time has passed

 

Jack to the sound

 

Invisible World

 

Give it to me straight doctors

[Frontier Psychiatrist]

I found myself really drifting away with the Invisible World tune.

Sounds like a nostalgic Goa number with updated rhythm.

I like

Will hear the second tune later

[Gnome]

Only one comment???Bad psynews,bad!!

 

Invisible War : wow nice starting phat bass...nice going track,cool melodies....after 3:00 track starts to be extremely good!....pure Goa sound....with phat bass that wont let you stay on your feet for more than 1ms.....Well done Leo !!

 

Jack to the Sound : tracks starts in a dancey mood...was that a Monty Python sample?....melodies start rising,i like this style...the track has a deep dancey mood yet melodic and trippy I like it too!

 

The proof that Goa is alive and kicking.So simple.Both tracks are great,Invisible War is a track not to be missed by Goa freaks.

 

 

Go Go Leo

 

 

You should release a split cd with Ka-SoL

[Insejn]

I just love that bassline in Invisible World. How did you make it?

I would appreciate more changes in the track. Maybe some more soundeffects what do I know. Altho, that could make less goa :/

[AmithabaBuddha]

hey Spindrift , ive heard you were part of a goa band that released a song in the destination goa compilation. is it true?

if it were why dont you continue to make music like before?

hugs.

[ukiro]

hey Spindrift , ive heard you were part of a goa band that released a song in the destination goa compilation. is it true?

if it were why dont you continue to make music like before?

hugs.

228245[/snapback]

Exotonic

[Spindrift]

Thx for the feedback

 

@Gnome

I don't find my music that similar to Ka-Sol most of the time, but of course I would be greatly honoured to share a CD with him.

I'm really not fishing for realeases at all though. It's too slow system and doesn't generate any money for this type of music anyway, so I much more enjoy releasing the music on resonantearth really.

And Ka-Sol doesn't only deserve one whole CD on his own, but rather two, which is upcoming on shlab what I understand

 

@Insejn

The Pulsar modular with flexor modules makes a very nice bass machine.

You are probably right that it could do with more variation.

I tend to make tracks very fast, and it's not everytime they feel 100% complete.

But if I work to much on them they seem to loose the original spirit instead, so at least for me it's usually a tradeoff.

 

@AmithabaBuddha

Because I went to parties 1-3 times a week in the mid 90's and have gotten my fair dose of mid 90's sound already.

But you can have a FLAC of an unreleased track from that time Volfin

[ukiro]

Now, to properly review the tracks (writing as I go along). Beware though that I'm a whiny bastard! I'm not trying to put you down, so don't kill yourself over this:

 

Jack To The Sound

The sound pressure here is immense - My ears tire easily from this type of mastering, but you appear to have been able to keep it clean and airy despite the loudness. Well done!

 

The "underground" vocal sample feels painfully cheesy, while the monty python one is a little better. Your bassline here has a nice chunky quality to it, while I'm not as turned on by the kick drum. While it might not be a good match for this bassline, I would have preferred a deeper one with less mid (faster transition from attack to bass tail).

 

I'm not hearing much emotion in this track, it feels a bit absent-minded somehow. Perhaps it relies too much on the bassline? The lead sounds present are a little too noisy to achieve good "tonal" effects on my senses, and might be a tad low in the mix - but if you were to raise them, cutting some high frequencies might be in order.

 

I'm starting to realize that I perhaps shouldn't review this type of track - the entire mood that it's trying to capture is one I seldom or never seek in music. A little too happy in that non-euphoric, cheerful way. I think I would have liked this track much better if it was in a different key, and sans that voice sample. Although I understand that some people, perhaps you included, have grown tired of phrygian scales I think it would fit nicely here. The bassline would have become a lot more ominus and sinister and there would, at least to me, have been a bigger emotional reward to be found in it.

 

At this first listen, I didn't get the feeling that it goes anywhere. It didn't induce a change in my mood or state of mind, which is something I pretty much crave from music. I'm not sure I want to blame the arrangement or something else, but I felt quite indifferent when it ended.

 

So even though I'm now trying to judge this by something it's not trying to be, I hope some of this has been of use.

 

 

Invisible World

Again the bassline feels much deeper than the kick drum - I like it when the kick digs its way in underneath the bass, but here it lies on top. A matter of taste perhaps, and having it beneath might demand clipping some bottom end of the bass sound.

 

The first little break does absolutely nothing for me. It's a break just for the sake of having a break - letting the melody in without that stop of flow would be nicer I think. The voice sample feels pretty daft as well - all your other sounds are very nicely done, but that voice sounds amateurish and out of place.

 

The mix is tight, you know your shit when it comes to that. Respect. (although dynamics is always nice when letting a big lead onto the soundstage...)

 

I find myself waiting for filter sweeps, but in vain it seems. This track would be much better if the filters weren't static. I like the mood here much better than in the other one, but it still feels a bit restrained, as if you're afraid to let go properly. I could be wrong, but I expected more craziness and unrestrained emotions. Perhaps weirder sounds, more unorthodox structural shifts, etc.

 

In the last half of the track there are no breaks and it just chugs along all the time - I love this in a track! psychedelia and trance induction (i.e. psy-trance) needs much more of that. Stop the flow ever 8 bars and you're not taking anything into trance.

 

It sounds like you left some room in the low mid frequencies in order to make the bassline stand out in the mix - I think some of the lead sounds would benefit a lot from getting some space here. This would clog the mix up quite a bit though.

 

I'd advice you to record some filter sweeps and tweaks for this track. That might have it sound more "goa" than you'd be comfortable with, but I think it would make this already nice track much, much better. Mixing will be made more difficult, but if you just sacrifice a dB of overall sound pressure you'll be fine - this is loud enough anyway.

 

 

 

ok thats enough besserwisser whining out of me, I hope some of it was helpful and not too negative =)

[Spindrift]

I did say Give it to me straight doctors

 

Thanks a lot for taking the time to make such a lengthy review.

Nice to get such a thorough and honest opinion.

 

Now for my defense speech

 

Sure the "jack to the sound of the underground" sample is stupid and silly.

Thats why I personally like it. It's far too less sillyness in much trance today for my taste. I like it funny and unpretentious.

And for sure the whole tune sound very uncool and bordering on stupid sounding, but in this coke infused scene it's what I miss in music personally many times.

 

But you are probably right that the track could be more varied.

The arrangement could do with a bit more story telling aspect.

But like I said for me trying to achive that all the time kills the spirit in the tracks for me.

Sometimes it just happens, and then I'm very happy.

I think in neither of this tracks it did really, so I just hope for better flow next time

 

And what you mentioned about the leads being a bit too "noisy" is very observant.

I do like a very "middy" bass.

But I also really dislike when all leads is severly HPF filtered.

So it's a fine balance that is hard to get really right, especially working with many layers.

I will work extra hard on getting more depth in the leads next time though, maybe at the expense of making less layers.

 

And about sound level, I try to keep my masters on par in level with releases I find well mastered.

If I sacrifice a few Db it will sound lower than those releases and compared to other tracks on the site.

I think maybe more than the mastering being loud it's the intensity of the bass and kick machines I use that contibutes to the pressure in the sound.

I did not do much mastering an these tracks, but rather fairly gentle limiting and did not use so much compression when mixing.

So I think the impression you got was more from the sounds used than about mixing or mastering.

But why it sounds like it does doesn't really matter of course, it's about the result.

I do obviously persoanlly like a very dry, strong and punchy kick and bass myself, especially when listening on a PA.

 

Although I can see that we have a bit different taste I found you comments very interesting and can agree with many of them, and might keep some of them in mind for my next tracks.

[ukiro]

Sure the "jack to the sound of the underground" sample is stupid and silly.

Thats why I personally like it. It's far too less sillyness in much trance today for my taste. I like it funny and unpretentious.

And for sure the whole tune sound very uncool and bordering on stupid sounding, but in this coke infused scene it's what I miss in music personally many times.

 

Ah, as I suspected then - the track is simply not for me. I have never ever "understood" music that isn't serious. Not that it always has to be gloomy or depressing, but when it comes to happy music I can only swallow the introvert kind. "Party music" is something that I've never come to terms with. And to an extent I can really appreciate pretentious music as well. I have lengthy theories as to how this is tied to my personality and neurotransmitter configuration, but I'll leave that aside for now.

 

 

But you are probably right that the track could be more varied.

The arrangement could do with a bit more story telling aspect.

But like I said for me trying to achive that all the time kills the spirit in the tracks for me.

 

How about leaving it as-is and then go back to it with a fresh head in a week or three? Thats how I try to approach this problem, although when it comes to music production I'm a dabbling amateur at best.

 

And what you mentioned about the leads being a bit too "noisy" is very observant.

I do like a very "middy" bass.

 

Middy bass works much better in a PA than a rumbling 70Hz thing and doesn't eat as much dynamics in the mix, but I have a very soft spot for ultra-deep bass. With a very powerful system and in an outdoor setting (devoid of problems with room resonance) it can be awesome, but if these criteria aren't filled, it will very easily sound like crap. Because of this I have recently tried to go for more of a mid bass with a deep kick that goes underneath it - Getting a messy bass sludge is less probable when the really deep frequencies are on a slower pulse (1/4) as opposed to having a 1/16 bassline hitting the lowest frequencies.

 

Since I listen to very little new stuff I'm probably missing out in the evolution of bass production, because some of the kids today do amazing things.

 

But I also really dislike when all leads is severly HPF filtered.

So it's a fine balance that is hard to get really right, especially working with many layers.

I will work extra hard on getting more depth in the leads next time though, maybe at the expense of making less layers.

 

My mixing skills are quite unspectacular and this may be old news to you, but I find that different reverbs and/or delays on different sounds can help the listener to tell them apart, as well as using different basic waveforms, panning, octaves etc.

 

Also, I think many people today are a bit too afraid of layers because they want everything to be 100% discernable - I think this isn't necessary, and in fact some of the charm of older stuff is that sounds appear to come and go even though they are never truly gone - they might have the filter tweaked so that there's only a low mumble or a thin sliver of sound left. This also adds to the effect of the music being organic, a pulsating beats that wrestles with your mind. Overly sterile and clear production cannot hide any secrets. There is a balance to be found ofcourse, but I think you see my point.

 

If I sacrifice a few dB it will sound lower than those releases and compared to other tracks on the site.

 

And why would this be bad? For a DJ, it's merely a matter of tweaking the gain on the mixer, and a home listener can surely alter the volume to suit his/her ears. I think there is an unhealthy obsession with loudness these days, with producers sacrificing musical ideas on the altar of decibel. One of my favourite tracks ever, Transwave - "Rezwalker" (the original mix, I should point out) has the first two thirds of the track peaking at -3db or somesuch... Certainly more challenging to mix from a DJ perspective, but it gives the finale an effect that would be lost with todays mixing aesthetics.

 

Now don't get me wrong, the wall of sound approach can be very interesting - I listen to a bit of black metal from time to time, where dynamics is something totally unheard of. This is a genre with plenty of mind-altering and hypnotic music, and icreased dynamics would only distract. But in order to achieve psychedelia, I think a more liberal view of dynamics is in order.

 

 

But why it sounds like it does doesn't really matter of course, it's about the result.

I do obviously persoanlly like a very dry, strong and punchy kick and bass myself, especially when listening on a PA.

 

Very true. bass tends to trail in a PA, so a 1/16 kick can sound like it's 2/16 or even 3/16.

[Spindrift]

How about leaving it as-is and then go back to it with a fresh head in a week or three? Thats how I try to approach this problem, although when it comes to music production I'm a dabbling amateur at best.

 

I used to work for weeks on tracks many years ago and try to tweak them to perfection.

Now I go back to a track about once every 50 tracks I make.

From my experience I tend to prefer the original version if it's not something really bad with the track that needs fixing.

But I tend to have more fun and get better results by just moving on.

A bit unpretentious hit and miss approach, but thats what I feel most comfortable with

 

Also, I think many people today are a bit too afraid of layers because they want everything to be 100% discernable - I think this isn't necessary, and in fact some of the charm of older stuff is that sounds appear to come and go even though they are never truly gone - they might have the filter tweaked so that there's only a low mumble or a thin sliver of sound left. This also adds to the effect of the music being organic, a pulsating beats that wrestles with your mind. Overly sterile and clear production cannot hide any secrets. There is a balance to be found ofcourse, but I think you see my point.

Yeah, I totally agree.

I dislike overproduced music, and think that masking of sounds is a great effect rather than something that should be avoided.

 

And why would this be bad? For a DJ, it's merely a matter of tweaking the gain on the mixer, and a home listener can surely alter the volume to suit his/her ears.

My experience is that when DJ'ing people do not like when the volume is percived as lower, so if I play a track that have some part sounding a bit lower in level I tend to boost that part.

That will result in the louder part hitting the limiters on the PA or me lowering the level again.

IMO that work is better done in the mastering, or preferable mixing stage.

And if I have to change volume on a CD on different tracks when listening at home I do find mixing and/or mastering being amateurish and get annoyed.

And I'm sure most people is just as lazy and do mind.

But I can understand the point, but again it's a matter of taste.

For me dance music and metal is quite similar in the approach I like for mixing and mastering.