NIGHTMARES LP

[Ricky Denzel]

NIGHTMARES LP
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Not as good, but I tried

http://soundcloud.com/nightviolet/sets/nightmares

[North Kozar]

There's quite a lot here. Just at first glance (well, listen), it doesn't seem like very much time was spent behind the songs and more thought was put towards getting a "set number" for the set. If that's the case, it's not a good mentality to have. It'd be much better to spend a lot of time on one specific song and just do single releases. The biggest thing (first of all) is the first song is very off putting. If I was someone else and listened to that first, it wouldn't make me want to listen to the rest. And there are others in there that are much better than the first one (Elektrik). I'll start with that one and do brief statements about each of the tracks:

Elektrik: It's very hard to listen to and the main reason is timing. There isn't any real timing in it. I get you're probably wanting a chaotic, random sound (as assumed from RD's "You're so random" sound clip). But the drums and synth are completely off, timing wise. As well, the arpeggiation on the main synth does not match up with the note changes. There's also very little actual melody. All that being said, the drums are constructed quite well -- which is something I noticed about all the songs, the drums are good. As well it's a rather repetitive looping piece so it gets uninteresting. Another thing to think about is integration of the sound clips, as opposed to them just sitting by themselves.

Hop Skip And A Jump: The drums here are also quite good. Biggest thing? The weird chaos synth completely drowns out Pinkie Pie's singing and there's other volume problems in this one. And the synth doesn't quite match up with the drums, although it's quite better than the first one. Same problem here with the integration of the voice clips, while they're "integrated" they seem to be in there more for the sake of being there and don't lend much to the song.

Issues Of The Young: Ok, now this is really cool. I honestly don't have much criticism about this one. It's a pretty unique sounding drum piece. The only real thing is it gets repetitive fairly quickly and goes on for too long, but it is good.

Metal Issues: Again, while I understand the chaos thing, there's a lot of odd note clashes in this one which don't sound good. And there isn't really anything to the track other than the guitar making it kinda uninteresting.

Nightmares: This one has a lot better continuity with all the tracks, there's a better fitting theme to it. The high synth sounds kind of awkward and out of place, though. But the drums are good (again) and the timing is accurate in this piece. And I quite like the effects done with Fluttershy's voice clip. I like this one and the only real thing that I'd mess with would be to change the ending (which kinda made the theme fall apart, as it didn't fit with the song at all) and the one high synth. There's a glitchy spot around 0:34 that results in a weird timing thing.. Otherwise the voice clip integration is very good and everything else fits in nicely!

None Less: This one has more timing problems most notably after the synth drops out and comes back in at 0:48. The beat is interesting but the synth doesn't do the rest of it justice, and the track feels kind of lacking.

Rainbow Encounter: More with the Chaos notes. However... It almost works in this one. Everything sounds horribly chaotic (I'm assuming you wanted that) and so that's good if you did. But it's chaotic in a way that meshes well. The high crippling distortion, odd glitchy sounding repeats lend themselves to the chaotic feel, but the notes don't feel to clash. I think this works pretty well for the chaos thing. But... It's much too long and much too repetitive. Maybe a bit too much distortion, but that's up to artistic opinion based off the ideas for the track.

The Anarchy Returns: Interesting. Yet again, good drums. The random blip synth at the beginning was completely out of place and unneeded. Same problem here with the high synth, I just don't think it fits/sounds good. But the growl of the guitar plays nicely with the peaceful piano. The random blips of the synth in the piano parts I really don't like. But overall, this piece is pretty good, it has a haunting overtone with the simple piano. Again, nice voice clip integration, although it gets overused. Primarily because it's already been used in an earlier track and also because it's played four times in this one. No timing problems with this clip except maybe a jumped piano right at the very end.

So to sum up... Focus on taking the time to really work on a song. Don't just get a small section and loop it over a three minute time segment. In my opinion, the best song out of here is Nightmares, possibly followed by Anarchy Returns, which are somewhat similar. In fact, you could work to combine those two into one track of the same length... But it's probably best if you just kept working forward. When putting everything together, try to keep a theme or general idea in mind. If something doesn't seem to fit that, change it. You certainly have direction, it's just getting a handle on working with it all. So practice. Don't concern yourself with "getting a song to release," just work on little projects that don't matter if they're finished or if they're only thirty seconds long. Focus on experimenting and learning at this point. If you need help with whatever DAW you're using, there's lots of help already available in the Technique forum, and if you need more specific help, we're all willing to help there as well. I know there was a lot of critique in this post.. But just keep at it and you'll begin to improve. And if you are working on something and just want feedback on it, post it up and we'll give you some. Keep at it!

[Ricky Denzel]

I work all day on these songs. But thanks for telling me.