From Asia to Acapulco with Love...

I think is my first attempt at even TRYING to make a complete song...and it was hard lol I came up with the melodies and percussion rather quickly, but I realized I still had to make into a "song" so to speak, and at about that time hell decided to break loose.Arranging the song was hard enough, but trying to make different melodic lines sound nice together was way harder. There was no creativity involved at that point, no beautiful inspiration welling up from within me...it was just me comparing notes one by one to see if they sounded OK together lol...yeah, fail.So apart from the ton of other things I need to work on those 2 problems were the most conspicuous. Oh yeah, I got my inspiration by laying down an Asian/Latino sort of rhythm loop first (Fl Studio).Hope ya like it ;)

From Asia to Acapulco with Love...

Nice try!!

Despite it being extremely artificial in that there was no dynamics, I still liked it. The percussive section was groovy :D !

Apart from the 2 problems you listed, I would say that I'd have liked to have seen a little more variation and attention detail. One major cause of the melodies not sounding too good together is the fact that you've done a copy-and-paste job .. am I right?? ;) It's worth taking the time to change certain lines to make the tune fit in with the beat.

Remember, if you're stuck for ideas, don't bother composing good music...it just doesn't work. Instead, take a walk or something, so you come back feeling inspired and ready to go!!

The beginning was somewhat cheesy, but became very grandiose when the percussions came in. It sounded like a fight in a desert. Very good work!

Cool track, Drue!

First off, the title is awesome.

Countermelodies work pretty well when the strings come in. Pan them around so that the each instrument inhabits its own nook in the mix.

1:06 is a pretty solid beat.

Good change at 1:49. We probably don't need so many cymbal crashes at that part. It loses it shock and awe value when you crash them every other beat.

2:35 is another good beat. Let's make sure we can here the piano clearly, though.

What was up with the ending? It sounds a little bit cut-off.

Interesting piece, Drue. You got a lot of good grooves going on. Make sure everything is clear in your mix and fix up the ending.

Peace on Earth,

-John

Great track, Drue! The piano part starting at 2:09 felt a bit out of place at first, but grew into the piece more as time went on. Also, I love how you fit the main woodwind line into the beat, it really set an Eastern sort of feel to the whole piece. Like Sepharite said, I could definitely see the middle segment being a fight in the desert. I did think that the piece was a bit static, but that could be fixed (as already suggested) by panning to give each instrument an imaginary place is space relative to the listener, and by adding some more dynamic contrast between the different segments of the piece. Nice work overall, though!

Thanks for commenting guys! CheeseLord, you're absolutely right, lots of copying and pasting, and I should have taken a walk...or even come back to the piece a day or two later. Good advice.

Umm, Sepharite if that first part is cheesy, do you think I should take it out?

And to John and gameman, what exactly do I do with panning? Do I randomly pan right and left with different instruments? I'm kinda lost when it comes to that :S Oh and I definitely need to do something with that horrible ending! haha

Thanks again

For panning think about how you would set up your instruments if they were performing for real. Everyone has their own space on a stage and your panning should reflect that. Oh, and bass guitar should always be in the centre.

Experiment with it and see what sounds the best!

Peace on Earth,

-John

Ok John, thanks!