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.
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?
Rolando by Tonedeaf
Description of the track:
A beginner to EQing and mastering this track is far from finished but just trying to reproduce that classic detroit house sound.. any constructive feedback would be much appreciated
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Have a listen to the track and offer your constructive criticism for this Workshop in the comments section.
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Not sure why you want to reproduce old sound, as it is simple enough task to do. You can better take something from it and go much further as in 21st century you have so much possibilities just using your PC.
Anyways talking about your track within your own task: those pads sounding all the time during your whole tune are so simple and so boring try to take them out in some parts and add bouncy groove. Try to make them more lively by adding filtering and ambience… you can add some extra pad sounds on the top of that as well. I clearly understand that you tried to keep it “old skool” but percussion and drums can be much more interesting and funky… and groovy.
I like it, but I’d make the filter deeper on the pad at the start.
And although it dropped, it didn’t feel as “boomy” as it should.
Also not sure on the fast snares when they come in. I think it should be kept mellow and chilled. Love the voice FX’s.
Maybe add some more percussion elements in there as well (bongos, congos).
@DVS – “Not sure why you want to reproduce old sound, as it is simple enough task to do.”
Please write me a track as compelling as Knights of the Jaguar or Strings of Life, and I’ll release it today. Should be easy, right? ;)
@Tonedeaf – great start on the track, but you’re putting all your cards on the table right away with the portamento string pad. You’d want to slowly filter that in as you build the arrangement, with the patient introduction of more layers of sounds.
While the original Detroit tracks usually had very dry percussion, your track would benefit from a little reverb on some elements. The analog tom sound is too loud – that should not overwhelm your mix.
Experiment with using subtractive EQ to remove frequencies from the sounds so they all fit together better. You should be rolling off everything under 120hz from every instrument except your kick and bass. Use panning to create motion and space – get call and response effects by placing sounds left & right.
You may consider slowing the tempo down a bit too – with the smooth feel of the strings, you might want to bring it down a bit.
Lastly – try to find the “hook” of the song, and have patience building up to it – give the listener a payoff for listening all the way through your track.
Finally – get an account on soundcloud, and upload your tracks. Don’t make them downloadable, and message me on there – nudephotomusic . I’d like to hear what else you do.