<Pony> <Saddle Arabian Trip/Hop>DJ PON3 visits Saddle Arabia

[VaporBlaze]

Hey everyone!
I finally published a song I've been toying with for a while, and I'd really appreciate some brutal critique.
Find it here:


I'll start with my own after thoughts:
So, this song is just a bunch of loops from the Logic Pro library, nothing incredibly special or any awesome production tricks. I made hoping to somewhat emulate the style of the Bastion soundtrack. (I've also heard it compared to Beats Antique, but I've never listened to them before. I'll check them out later).

My biggest worry is it's continuity: there isn't really a defining chord progression or anything that gives the song unity. My music teacher said that that was a major downfall of the song, but many friends I showed it to liked it's crazy all-over-the-place sound. I arranged it to have 4 main movements, the 4'th tying back to the first a little bit to give it some kind of unifying feel.
The reason I have no over all unity is because I was trying to just experiment with different ways to blend arabian music with hip/hop glitchy stuff, and I wanted to fit as many musical ideas as I could into the song. Also, loopy songs are, well, loopy, repetitive, and often boring because of that. I wanted to counteract the monotony of the song by varying the loops endlessly.

More specifically, I'm still not sure I like the flute section in the middle (3rd movement). I got generally good impressions on it from friends I showed it too, but I just feel like it doesn't fit in the song. It's not exactly arabic sounding, nor is it an arabic instrument (I think the actual loop was called "medieval flute"). I put it in there just because I thought it had a cute, odd sound, and would make for an interesting break before the song's final movement.

Thanks for your attention,
ZF

[hackd]

Gah, I don't know why the timed comments aren't working for me on Soundcloud lol.

So firstly, I just want to state that I love the composition and that the alleged "all over the place-ness" is very reflective of trip hop mixes. Just listen to Ninjatune's compilation albums or The Avalanches.

The opening panning lead and the scratch samples sound sick. At 0:22 the bassline sounds dissonant in comparison to the other melodies. If you're looking to change it, consider bringing it in after the leads drop out and precede it with a simple monotone bass.

In the second movement I really like the syncopation and stuttering of the orchestral and string instruments (I mean throughout the entire piece too). It's exactly what I was going for in one of my latest tracks.

I thought the shakers that you introduced at 2:11 were a little too loud; maybe use a different sample or just eq them out a bit.

And I really like the funky bit at 2:58. I feel that it ties everything together quite nicely.

Lastly, I would make the drums a little more prominent. A couple eq's could probably tighten them up quite a bit (it's really important to still shape your samples to sit correctly in the mix, though I do dig the old school flavor).

[VaporBlaze]

Thank you so much for the feedback!

One of my friends that heard a WIP also said the 2:11 shakers were loud, I thought I had brought them down enough but I can see them still being to prominent of a sound, when they really should be a background noise.

OMFG I love the Avalanches!!! Frontier Psychology is one of my favorite songs and music videos ever!

The dissonance in the bassline is probably because it truly is dissonant: the loop is (could be) in a different key from everything other samples. I tried to make sure the samples were in the same or complimentary keys, but that really limits my selection, and I didnt want to try to pitch bend it to fit everything else. I hope that my next song will actually be composed and played by me, which will solve that problem. But then it will be a midi song, and I lose that acoustic, human aspect.

The final movement is definitely my favorite part of the song, and I'm really pleased with how my splicing/glitching of the oud turned out at that part.

I didn't do any eq work on the samples/channels, just panning and adjusting the faders. I was afraid to muck with it too much. I probably should have put a compressor on the drums, so I could boost the overall volume but not clip on the loud parts. The reason the drums were quiet was because the loudest parts were sooooo loud, it was clipping all the time.

Over all, I guess I should have just put more time into it. I made the first version in about 4 hours, then another 2-3 hour tuneup after I had some time to listen to it over and over again, and bother other people with it. Whatever I do for my next song, I'll definitely spend more time with doing eq work, and maybe adding some plug ins.