At Audiotuts+ we irregularly put up a reader track for workshopping and critique (find out how to submit a track). This is how it works: you upload your song, and every week or so we’ll publish one here and step away from the podium. The floor is yours to talk about the track and how the artist can fix problems in and improve upon the mix and the song.
Thanks for your submissions everyone – and keep them coming. We have enough to publish two or three a week at the moment. Let me know if it gets too much.
This track has been submitted for your friendly, constructive criticism. They have put their track (and their heart and soul) in your hands to learn and get useful feedback.
- Do you enjoy the song or track itself? Does it have potential?
- Can the arrangement be improved?
- How did you find the mix? What would you do differently?
- What do you enjoy about the rhythm track? What can be done to improve it?
- Is the choice of instruments relevant and effective for the style/song?
- Are the lyrics (if any) effective? Does the style, arrangement and genre of the song suit them?
- Can you suggest any specific techniques that might improve the track?
- Do you have any other constructive feedback?
Mythic by Terry Vinyard
Ryan describes the track: “This piece, Mythic, was inspired by computer animation. I was thinking along the lines of a video game theme or some other virtual artwork that would go along with the music.
“I was also thinking of a mix between ancient, exotic sounds and electronic percussion. I feature the marimba because I feel its sound is a mix between those two worlds.”
Author’s website: www.terrydrums.com.
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Terms of Use: Stream from Audiotuts+ website only.
Have a listen to the track and offer your constructive criticism for this Workshop in the comments section.
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hello, good music! i would “improve” both the reverb (i know you like this atmosphere, but i think you can make it better still following your idea of sound” and the medium-high range. Dynamic is good. That is the most! -)
byez!
If it were my track I’d work on the transition in the beginning. It’s almost like 2 different songs. I would start the percussion about 6-7 seconds earlier before the beginning fades out. In other words move the percussion that occurs at 1:05 up to 1:00. That would keep it moving in my opinion.
The other thing I’d do is take a little edge off the melody sound. It’s hurts a little when you hit a few notes. Tweak the EQ on that a bit. A good place to start is around the 5:40 mark. Look for a spike on your analyzer if you have one. It’ll be very noticeable. It’s a nice composition, very serene.
Hope I was constructive. Peace!
Thank you! Yes, the break at the beginning was deliberate in that I did want to convey the distance between the ancient, ethnic sounds to the more modern, electronic textures.
In regards to the lead sound, I did notice when listening to the stream that the MP3 that I had to upload to the website sounds brittle and edgy compared to the original 24-bit mix in Logic. But, I’ll listen back to the mix and see if I can tweak that.
Thanks!
Terry
Hey Terry,
I’m listening on laptop speakers so I can’t really comment on the mix or anything, though I do agree with the previous poster that the lead is coming across as a bit piercing at times.
Very interesting piece, nice chord progression, the xylophone melody is nice. Musically the only thing I’d recommend is maybe throwing in a few drum fills and whatnot to spice up the drum track a bit, it is just a tad bit repetitive right now. A simple slice and dice of the loop would work fine, just maybe move the snare around a bit at the end one section of the song to lead into the next.
Took a look through your site, was liking your videos and whatnot as well.
Thanks. Yes, after posting this I think I am interested in revisiting this piece to try a few mixing and arrangement ideas.
Thanks for the feedback!
Terry