PLEASE HELP!

Hi everyone. I'm sick of my songs being "Okay." I want them to be good.

If it's not too much trouble, can some of you visit

www.myspace.com/beaukimber

and listen to the song "Ethertonic" and tell me how to improve it? I made it using Cubase SX and recorded it from my keyboard and microphone. It's meant to be an uplifting, slightly-ambient piece.

Sorry, but this song is as good as I can do, so I need advice on how to improve. Maybe I should learn to sing?

Anyway, thank you in advance.

Well, it certainly sounded like incidental music.

It was very techno-esque. More like something a D.J. or a hip-hop "artist" would like. Maybe try something more orchestrated? Perhaps a piano thing? Anyways. Keep on trying. You'll get there. :)

Keep on composing. And don't stop just because someone didn't like it. :thumbsup:

Whoa....! That was pretty cool! I loved the chord progression. The drum entrance was pretty good, but I think they should be a little bit quiter.

From a classicaly point of view, I can see what Edwin and Songjun were saying, and maybe it could do with a few more isntruments and stuff, but as a huge Acid Jazz fan, I liked it.

~Kal

alrighty

well, since this an area i can actually know what i'm talking about i'll say a few things

I liked it, not my style, but i see where youre going. I could see it in the backround of a movie or something, or a yoga class. That one instrument that came in at the end sounded cool, kinda ethnic sounding, which is original.

I have a few questions

1.So you say you use Cubase SX for a sequencer, are you using its native vsts/synths or are you using others?

2. Are you programming your own synths and sculpting the sound you want, or just using already made patches?

3. How long did it take you to write?

4. What exactly are you going for here, the mood and that kinda thing.

For me and electronica, whether its hip-hop ish, dancey, trancey, or whatever, i can come up with an "OK" song in a few hours easy. The thing is, to make a song, especially something like this go from "OK" to "good" it needs thought put into it, time put into it. Did you throw this together and never go back and revise? Did you think about these progressions and sounds as what you exactly want or they just sound "ok" together. Is this a precise composition, or a thrown together improv throwing loops and patterns together. I'm not saying it is, thats why i'm asking.

Also, i would add more to the synths/instruments. Add some motion by using a filter (low pass/high pass/band pass/ whatever) or an lfo controlling something like the pulse width, or cutoff frequency of the synth. Theres lots of things like that that make this type of music come alive. I would recommend spending more time, and really putting down what sounds great to you, not just acceptable. Thats what i would say.

Sorry, this turned into a really long post, just trying to help.

Overall though, very chillish, in a good way, calming. If thats what your going for youe pretty close, and its certainly not bad. If you wrote it, and its what you want it to be, its youre creation, so it can't be bad. Sorry this is alot to read.

Scott

Not a bad start. The first thing that came to mind when I heard that song was "Boards of Canada", so if you're going for an IDM kind of sound, you're on the right track. However, you have a conflict in your style: if you're going for an ambient style, you should make it sound a bit less abrasive; if you want a more engaging style it should be more melodic, memorable, or catchy. I know that's vague but I hope it helps. Good luck!

Thanks very much everyone. I think I will start trying to compose more orchestral stuff.

Also, in reply to Annon, with electronioc music, I don't spend much time at all tweaking the preset VST intruments that come with Cubase for my music.

I could also, like you said spend a bit more time working on parts. I think I have got in a bad routine where I find one good theme, then make crappy support tracks for the theme, and then leave it.

I have one question. How do I know which alterations to synths, (such as filters, cut-offs, and the sound itself, etc) would work for a paticular type of music. I have trouble seeing how a basic square synth would work in a certain situation as opposed to a saw synth. I hope that makes sense.

Thanks again for all your replies, you have raised my composing confidence.

Well, that depends on what youre going for. Your question is like asking what would make the music work picking a oboe stating a theme instead of a trumpet. Its a diffrent sound, a diffrent timbre, what do YOU want it to sound like? If you are basically using presets i would REALLLY recommend programming them yourself, not nessicalry from scratch, but at least altering it for the sound you want. The cool thing about electronica is you aren't writing for winds, or strings, or whatever, as such you can make your own sounds EXACTLY what you want.

read articles like these

Subtractive Synthesis- Basics, Waveforms, Filters, Envelopes, Modulation, Other Features - Yala Abdullah

basics of subtractive synthesis

or something like this which is much more readable

KVR: WIKI: The Basics Of Subtractive Synthesis

hope that helps with sound design

edit* i re-read your post and in response to how to know what sounds like what, what to change etc.

Experiment, read about how synths work. Reading about it, googling it, reading on forums like kvr, or any electronica production forum.

Thank you very very much

So, I listened to ethertonic. I really, really, really liked the sound that you had. It had a sort of fast-paced, sophisticated, cosmopilitan quality to it. At least that is the way I heard it. The chord progression at 1:45 was cool. It is not usually the kind of music I listen to. One of the reasons is because the style tends to be too random for me. Genreally, I hear techno acid stuff and I just hear random ideas popping up out of the clear blue one after the next. If I was trying to do that style the first thing I would do is to try and give some kind of loose developement and coherence to the whole thing.

So, I just have one comment to make about what you have done besides trying to work some development into the whole thing. And that is that around 2:25 you have this dead thing come in and to me it sounds awful. I wish that you would change that to a nice violin and play a somewhat romantic but still contemporary phrase with that idea.

I disagree.. i like that wierd thing :)

each to his own of course :)

Sorry to bump this, but I just wanted to let you guys know that my song was recently a featured song on "Triple J Unearthed" in Australia. Thanks! xo

:w00t:

My main thought through the first 30 seconds was "Will this please drop a beat?" By which I mean, I wanted one to come in and start some sort of definite groove. And when it came, it sort of crept up on me, which I didn't really appreciate - I would much rather have had it go "bomph!" and for something to have happened.

I just think it needs a bit more aggression, a bit more passion, a bit more, well, oomph. You know what I mean? It's gradual, it's vague, it seems to move slowly, and I'd rather it just came out and kicked me in the face with a blatant groove. And possibly something big and bassy to move things around a bit too.

That might be nothing to do with what you're going for, but if this were my piece, it's what I'd do. And maybe consider a pause before the church-organ sounding thing comes in at 1:20, just to add something. As it is, I feel the piece is too floaty and vague - I want it to go out on a limb and hit me with something, frankly :(

Sorry to bump this, but I just wanted to let you guys know that my song was recently a featured song on "Triple J Unearthed" in Australia. Thanks! xo

:)

Congratz :P

I listened to Ethertonic and I think it's quite done. Your style of this piece makes me think of "Carbon Based Lifeforms".

You said that you are sick of your songs being "Ok". In my opinion it's the lack of a building and supporting melody. That's the thing people mostly remember.

At 1:40 there was something that went in that direction and I liked it a lot. But maybe you aimed for that style and feeling...a passive one...without any clear melodies.