Gingerbread Man on 7/7/2011 at 16:41
Hi I write the songs also.
I used to be a band man, big singer guy me and also keys. Learned bass on my own and now can play bass very well. I know many chords on guitar, and I would be a good rhythm guitarist for a mediocre bar band. But it's good at parties and camping.
Except I discovered synthesizers and computers and a thousand genres of music lately.
Somewhere, someone (probably Noid) has a few mp3s I made in the Before Times. I think I may have been one of the first nerdcore rappers, even though I didn't try very hard and I certainly wasn't about to drop out of university to pursue it.
I have been experimenting with stuff I have no idea about. A lot of the popular music these days sounds like when I used to try to connect to the Internest over a 1200 baud cradle screamer. They say it is dubstep and darkstep and liquid dnb and whatever. I don't really connect well to that kind of music, so i tried to make a version that I do connect with.
I am not the greatest producer yet. I am still learning lots of things about compression for example. I am hoping that someone will listen to this track from front to start and then tell me what they liked and what I need to do to it to make it really good. Also tell me if it sucks. I will pout and sulk for a while like any good narcissist, and then I will pretend that I didn't hear your awful comment even though I will take it to heart and try to do better next time.
AND YES I KNOW BUT WE AREN'T HAVING MEGATHREADS ANYMORE. NOT LIKE THAT. THIS IS FOR WIP AND CRITIQUE.
And please, if anyone else joins in, let's not get dick wavy. We have a lot of creativity up in here, and we all know how thin skinned we are.
Here is a choon from me:
(
http://www.uelekevu.com/tunes/fromage.mp3) Fromage
(It is a pseudo-dubstep chill thing with big wobbly bass. I don't really understand it, but I like the way it's starting to sound.)
Sg3 on 7/7/2011 at 19:33
I listened to the whole thing. I quite like the line which begins at 0:08. Some of the background stuff seems a little out-of-place to me; the timing, mostly. Overall, a modest thumbs-up. I don't typically listen to this stuff, but I can listen to this piece, which is more than I can say for most of the music that I encounter without looking for it.
I'd love to see you move into dark ambient/industrial kind of stuff. I think you'd be pretty damn good at it. I hear quite a bit of it here, and I like those parts.
Hey, I rename all of the MP3 files that I download to the format [artist name] - [song title]. What name should be in the first field of this piece?
gunsmoke on 7/7/2011 at 20:27
Honest opinion? Sounds to me like a bad video game song from 10 years ago. I couldn't do any better, though and at least you have some skills and ambition. Don't listen to critics, make your own shit and let it ride. I am interested in your next release(s) coming down the pipe so keep them coming.
scumble on 7/7/2011 at 21:21
Ah, I miss that Devonshire lunatic. He used to say nice things about my attempts at production.
Well, back on message...
To start with it reminded me of Autechre a bit, but the heavyish back beat coming in further along gives it a more rocking feel, if that makes sense. The sound seems pretty good out of an iPad speaker, and that is a good sign because a good mix should still sound half decent on even the crappiest reproduction device. The arrangement sounds generally good, with some nice transitional "fill" bits, but it gets a little mushy and confused at the end when the electric guitar joins the fray. Might be mixing or just too much in the arrangement? I shall have to give it the headphone treatment in the morning so I can perhaps make intelligent comments about the "stereo image" and stuff.
st.patrick on 7/7/2011 at 21:43
I'm no expert in this dubstep-type style but I quite like it. It feels a little disjointed at the beginning but catches on very nicely later with the fat bass line kicking in. The finale is, as has been already mentioned, maybe a bit too heavy - perhaps it could benefit from cross-linking the individual layers throughout the whole piece.
My overall impression is that it could very well pass for something that Modeselektor makes: (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wQiQQBF6RE) Kill Bill Vol. 4 comes to my mind.
I'll be looking forward to more of your tracks.
Gingerbread Man on 7/7/2011 at 22:39
This is great! I think I should point out that I don't listen to electronica at all, and I only know names of bands really. Noid tried to turn me on to BoC once, but I fell asleep. One thing I am hoping to find out is if people who listen to this kind of music think it sounds like that kind of music. Mostly I write unclassifiable groovy long-winded beat like this (
http://www.uelekevu.com/tunes/922.mp3) 922 and (
http://www.uelekevu.com/tunes/BoomboxSaint.mp3) Boombox Saint
(I have always wanted henke to make an animated video for Boombox Saint, actually)
ALSO
If anyone can collaborate with I, hooray! WORDS AND WORDS I am usually good at but MORE IS MORE
So to reiterate, Fromage is me trying to see if I even understand that genre at all. I tried some psytrance and some darkstep, but it's just too easy to slap tape effects on a drum loop. I don't know how to make it interesting.
PigLick on 8/7/2011 at 03:23
I'm up for some collaboration. I also listened and thought it was good, very late 90's kind of sound. The last minute was the best part, guitar coming in was good. What was that vocal sample toward the end you use a couple of times?
Gingerbread Man on 8/7/2011 at 03:58
Hey Ladies and Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun. :D
Also, and I know I shouldn't, I mix for a big surround sound. Headphones also. I think that's why sometimes things get muddy if there's no real stereo separation. I should work on that for sure!
scumble on 8/7/2011 at 05:58
The cat woke me up so it's time for a more serious listen to Fromage on the 'phones.
The first thing that leaps out is that you've panned the drums to left. If you mixed on speakers it probably doesn't leap out, but it's incredibly rare to pan percussion out of center, particularly the kick drum. In fact you could probably leave the snare to the left if you centred the kick. There's lots of nice ambience on the snare actually.
I'd say forget labeling it with a genre, because it's got something that's uniquely GBM in it. The best thing any musician can find is what their own style is and be themselves.
922 sounds pretty good and funky, but it gets a little repetitive - would benefit from a bit more structure?
You've panned your kick left in Boombox Saint as well. Still not convinced it's a good idea. Otherwise the sound is good, and I like the arrangement of the vocal samples. Your wah rhythm guitar is pretty smooth as well, but it sounds like you've overused a looped section. I think it's showing signs of arrangement overload around 2:55, where the chord thing comes in in the background, and again at about 4:10. The wah guitar seems to have some harmonic incompatibility with the rest of the instruments. Difficult one to articulate in words.
Moving to a different style entirely, this is something called (
http://arpa.bandcamp.com/track/hopeless-love) Hopeless Love, which is another thing to add to my list of unfinished compositions. I think I started it in 2008, but still haven't devised a way to bring it to a conclusion. In some parts it seems to know where it's going, but others are not so sure.
Kuuso on 8/7/2011 at 07:57
This ain't half as bad as I thought (compared to when people usually post their stuff). First of all, fuck genres etc. You don't need them.
About Fromage, there's really good bass in there. The drums are slightly out of place, as stated, but it didn't bother me too much. The vocals are marvellous in their very 90's sound, I like them a lot. Could be just a tad louder and clearer in the mix. The guitar tone should be worked on, it sounds flat and tiny, but could fit in there quite well if done right. What I miss in the song is that I'd like some variation on the bass in the end, not just adding vocals/guitar to it, now it's completely same bass wobble throughout the song.
All in all though, this is quite a good song already.
