Self redemption

hi everybody this is my 2nd track to be shared with the forum, it's called self redemption, fits for a plot of a hitman who tried to redeem for all his sins in a form of penance and guilt, trying to approach more and more for god's forgiveness.

to give the impression for the aggression of the character i used the chunk and power guitars mixed em with the hard rock drum kit, also to give the character some mystery i used some low freq pads, and as for the religious side of the issue i actually recoreded some muslim's pray calls in egypt as u will notice in the mix.

here's the link:

Zeta ? GelGel ? Listen free at Last.fm then go for "self redepmtion"

or

Dusk Viper- Music, Video, Photos & News at MyMusicStream

enjoy and feel free to send me critics and feedbacks about this one;)

Hey there,

This was really quite a cool piece. You established the proper atmosphere right off the bat, though it's not really clear at that point that it's "redemption" we're supposed to be hearing – still sounds just like a usual action music beginning.

Anyhow, then you carry on and bring in the guitars somewhere around 0:50. They're nice, but the mixing is off...I didn't feel like they sat well in the mix with the rest, they kind of stick out so you might want to consider re-mixing the track to fix that. The orchestral horn power anthem that filters in right after is extremely cool though, very nice ethnic feel to it. The strings that pop in to accompany it sound really bad though...I'm not sure if it's an issue with the actual sound samples or just the mixing, but they're really jarring and unconvincing; it's like the attacks are all wonky.

All of your synth effects are quite successful and the percussion is consistently supportive of the track without being overbearing, which is great, I always like to see good percussion. Yay for StormDrum.

The prayers were just plain awesome (what did you record with?). That part is incredibly cool and I thought I heard some EWQL choirs adding a bit of sparkle overtop as well, which is just a really brilliant effect. Great layering. I would recommend you take some of those vocals and introduce them briefly right at the beginning, just to establish that "redemption" feel you're looking for more clearly.

Overall, this was a really nice track and I've given you my main points of contention with it, so you've got a couple of small things to fix if you feel like it. But congratulations on an artistic and well-produced track nonetheless! :happy:

Thanks for sharing!

thank u Marius for your contribution, seems like u were the first one to hear my pieces here, i wonder what on earth happened to ppl's ears lol.

anyway...i totally agree with u on some parts and as usual disagree on others lol- seems like we r going to have a musical debate in here - when i first worked on this piece it was supposed to be made for a scene where a hitman just did his last job and some kinda mob members chasing him for it so that's why i chose the power guitars to spice it up " as it's supposed to be a chase " , so the main idea was not about redemption at all.

Then i came up with something else in mind and that was the atonement part, it was like " what if this character had already decided in mind to redeem for all his sins after this one last job and then it's over for good " may be there's a woman in his life, or all out of a sudden he felt guilty for all the souls he took without having the right too..anyway he decided to redeem for whatever reason, by then i decided to add the pray call parts- which btw i recorded them in a mosque here in cairo it's considered to be one of the biggest mosques here using a normal radioshack microfone and i was surprised by the quality it gave me- then i used reverb and delay fx that i've been working on for distant vocals and warmed it up by little EQing, a trick i made it myself and worked for me everytime i use it till now.

And as for the strings, i usually use the "IK miroslav philharmonik" sampler for orchestrational works for it's great realistic articulations, and here's the part where i disagree with u if u would let me of course..lol, cuz i believe that strings ensemble and specially violins was and will always be the first choice for dramatic scenes by all it's means and shapes, and as for me and this piece i had to use em to tempo up the score and i thought it would mix in a harmony with the horns that leaded the score early in the game.

but i totally agree with u that i should have introduced the choir at the start to give the sensation of redemption " btw i intended to form redemption by all it's colors using all religions " jews flutes, church bells and mosque pray calls".

anyway, i have to tell u that i'm really honored by the critical sides of views u sent me and i'm indeed looking forward to hearing more and more from u, it seems like i'm gonna be part of ur gang soon my friend :thumbsup:

I didn't mean you should get rid of the strings, I just don't like the sound of your samples, that's all. They sound very harsh and unrealistic in this mix, but the actual writing for them is fine. My issue is with the production, not the writing. Same thing with the guitars, my problem isn't with the fact that they're in your piece, just the fact that they're not mixed very smoothly with the rest of the instruments from a production point of view.