<Original> Living by Lunarz

[lunarz]

http://soundcloud.com/officiallunarz/lunarz-living
My 1st attempt at proper house, it aint that bad in my opinion.
Tell me what you think

[colortwelve]

The intro is sort of really repetitive, you could definitely get away with shaving at least half of it off. Actually, the whole thing's a bit long. And the sounds are a bit... I don't really know how to describe them, actually. They just sound like they could have fit better with a bit more work. I'm also having a hard time hearing the kick, I'd let it have the higher frequencies that it sounds like you EQ'd down.

But on the plus side, the melody's pretty cool, you can tell that concept-wise it's pretty good. I'd work on it some more, but I can see this being made into something decent.

[the4thImpulse]

First off I really don't like that kick, its way too muffled and distorted to sound good to me. Like colortwelve said the intro is too repetitive. I thnk there is too much reverb/delays on the melody synth, you could quite them down in certin parts and bring them out in others. That kick falls way behind the rest of the mix, almost to the point where I don't hear it in places. Keep working with eqs and mixing, give every sound its own spot in the frequency spectrum. It needs a lot more variation to keep people interested.

Also is there a snare or clap?

[lunarz]

No clap, there is a snare, nd yeah i know it sucks, im still a newbie at this whole music business, however it dosent seem like im getting any better :/, i dont know, i followed a guide to make this song.
This was it.


4/4 133bpm

INTRO:
First 16 bars: intro, basic introduction of the main theme, sparse mix with loud kick drum for easy mixing. NEVER NEVER NEVER fade in the track, __ALWAYS__ start the track with a loud clearly discernable kick drum so that the DJ can match the kick with the record currently playing and then adjust the pitch accordingly.

FIRST SECTION OF HARD TRACK:
Bars 17-24: This is your very first section of hard track. All house music is based on the 8 bar loop. Bare minimum there should always be some kind of fill on the 8th bar of every section. This is where you bring in your first layer of additional instrumentation into the mix.

Bars 25-32: Repeat bars 17-24 with slight variation on the fill for bars 28 and 32.

Bars 33-40: Repeat bars 17-24 verbatim

Bars 41-48: Repeat bars 25-32 verbatim

FIRST BREAK:
Bars 49-56: This is the first 8 bar section. This is a very hard part to write because you have to transition from the first 32bar section of hard track into the second section of the break where you drive the crowd into a frenzy. You need to deviate enough to let people know something is coming, but you cannot go too far or you lose the energy. This is where you start building the tension.

Bars 57-64: This is where you drop out the kick drum, break into a more complex rhythm and introduce the next set of weird noise that are going to be the hook for your track. It should build up in two bar units 2-4-6-8 so that by the last two bars of the break the crowd is about to explode.

SECOND SECTION OF HARD TRACK:

Bars 65-104: This is where you drop whatever hook you have come up with to really bring the track into gear. This is basically two 32 bar section pasted back to back. This is where you track it out and let the groove work. The same structure that you used on the first section of hard track applies, but you will want to think about using other sonic tricks to keep peoples ears.

FIRST MIX OUT SECTION:
Bars 105-120: You have just beaten the crowd over the head with the main theme and your first set of production tricks, you need to give the crowd a half minute to catch their breath or give the DJ a chance to mix out into the next record. The arrangement becomes sparse again, and you make it easy for another similiar record to overlap with this section so that the DJ can seamlessly mix out of this record. This is basically the second break, but it is just a stripped down version of the first hard track section. You might want to introduce a new theme here that will be carried out in the next section of hard track, but the main idea is to keep it simple and sparse.

SECOND HARD TRACK SECTION:
Bars 121-184: This section works just like the first section of Hard Track, but with a slightly different hook and a different set of production tricks. You want this section to have a little more punch than the first section in order to justify the second repetition of the track.

SECOND MIX OUT SECTION:
Bars 185-200: This works exactly the same as the first section, but is a little more complicated because it needs to lead into the next section which is:

SECOND BREAK SECTION:
Bars 201-216: Works just like the first break section, but it needs to be even more spectacular because the crowd has already been listening to this record for the last 5 minutes. You need to bear in mind that a beginner DJ may have already flubbed the mix on the last two mix out sections and is starting to sweat it a little.

THIRD HARD TRACK SECTION:
Bars 217-280: This is the last section of Hard Track and this is where you pull out everything you have got to make this track storm.
This track has already been playing for six minutes, so you have got to hit them with the best variation of the theme.

FINAL MIX OUT SECTION:
Bars 281-312: This is the outro for a dance record. You just state the basic theme of the record and make the mix sparse and kick drum heavy so that it is easy to mix out of.


I guess its a pretty shit guide huh?

[colortwelve]

Well, that's a guide for progressive house, and trust me, it's easier to make a simpler progression and have your track last only 4 minutes without getting boring. Granted, if you can make a longer melody and enough variation on it, then your progression can stretch the song out into 6, 7, 8, or even 9 minutes. But tracks should always be as short as you can make them.