So basically I set out one day a few months ago, to try and create an piece of electronica with a few string elements to it.  Little did I know where it would take me.

This project is essentially a giant experiment now going through a whole variety of stages - from electronica to solo-piano to epic-orchestra to some hybrid of all of this.  Kept picking it up and putting it down and each time I did this, the song took a turn to reflect the mood I was in at that particular time.

Now the project has just become so large in FL studio that my little laptop processor cant handle it anymore, so its turned into a "Render - listen - find where changes are needed - guesswork the changes in - render - repeat" so I figured why not lob it up on here, get all the suggestions possible on changes needed, then give it one final day of work. 

Warning - it is nearly 7 minutes long, and VERY bassy.  Dont listen to it through anything that doesnt have any ability to produce bass, or it will really sound terrible.  Ive tried haha.  Also - apologies for not having been around the past month - just started uni and have been a weeee bit busy to say the least.

Kobeshi

Not bad!  Arrangement is fine.  What I noticed from the very start is that there is an overall lack of clarity in some of the higher frequencies.  There are, IMHO, some serious mix issues from what im hearing.  Ive said this before and I'll say it now, Mix is highly subjective and very personal.  Having said that, there are a few important "pointers"(and they are just pointers), especially when it comes to electronica.  Bass and beats should almost always be dead center in the mix.  Everything else (besides vocals) is shaped to fit around those.  Some of the higher string sounds here came through fine. Those around the mid range had a "muted" feel to it and could use an eq boost around that area.  The Bass sounds slightly panned to the left which is a "no no" in my opinion.  Im not sure how I feel about the automated panning you did with the strings, I appreciate the effort to add a little innovation to the track, but the choice of instrument, to run the effect on, may be causing issues.  That might be adding to the "muted" feel they have, when they are panning, as they are indoubtedly crossing over other frequencies in the mix.  Overall, put together very well.  At this point, its time to dig in to eq'ing and mix.

Thanks a lot for the feedback MAP!  I think you pretty-much hit the nail on the head here, as EQ (and effective use of compression) is something I know very little about.  I could tell something wasnt right in this song, so hopefully if I have a play around this'll really help fix things up.  Not sure about the bass being panned to the left -  it may be the default settings on the instrument I used but I'll check it out.  Re: the stings - agreed that it sounds a little odd in places.  I may take out the panning from the higher strings and just leave it on the lower ones to a lesser extent. 
I'll have another play with it and see what I can come up with.  Once again thanks for the feedback!!!

Very cool K.
Sounds like you have been putting some effort into this.The strings are awesome in the arrangement idea.I feel like I'm in a movie.very cool track,some Eq and mixing issues but man great job!!!
good marks!
M.

Haha yea i know what you mean about the processor overloads, Try increasing your audio buffer size in options > audio, idealy you should have asio4all... makes for really low latency and runs without the overload crackle of death ... If all else fails export specific midi patterns into wav and load it back in as a sample... cuts down CPU massively... right onto the track

This indeed epic!... soundscapes are awesome, melodies are awesome, drums are way to muddy tho mate, eq em with more middle and high will bring out the crispness in them... It's best to slice up a sample and programme your own beats with the individual hits from a sample, takes a while to get used to the slicer, got to messabout with it for a day or 2 to get used to it...  these strings are awesome by the way, listening as i type, yea, really awesome track... arrangements is wicked, got the break down in there, always important, second buildup works nicely... you got the musical elements down to go really far, in terms of arrangement, buildup and drops, what works etc, just need to work on your production, but i find it comes naturally the more you do it, so keep at it... mad props to you innit...

Thanks a lot man!  I was talking with MaP about this as well, and I really do need to learn to work better with EQ.  I think a big part of the problem for this track was that it was originally composed using headphones, so I overloaded the bass (which is now close to blowing my current speakers haha) but yeah - I'm currently working on another arabic/breakbeat/electronic combo song but might take a break and have another hack at the EQ on this one. 
Once again thanks for the really useful feedback!  Much appreciated 
Kobeshi

Yep, it feels like you stripped the high bands all over to 0. 2:12 - 4:23 is really nice. Good job, work on the mix, also try to make some more changes in the arrangement it sometimes feel too "square", the sections repeats them selfs too mucho sometimes. Overall good work, hope to hear a better mixed version.

The song has some interesting parts, but the individual sections are a little boring for me. Each seems a little boring for me, and massively empty. Expecially that long bit of like just drums. For a like full minute. Then you have the solo piano with a little bit of depth behind it, but still empty.


Then you have that really epic portion just after, and it isn't so bad, but it doesn't redeem the entire song. Anyways after 4 minutes or so its a cool little dance track, but before it its just long and for the average raver (uh me) unappealing. The musicafter all that thouhg at 5 and such is really cool. The outro is fine, but you could cut the little electro between the two bits.

theres no dounbt in my mind.. i like it.. you have an amazing skill to put music where it should be..i love it... I know what you mean when you say you keep picking it up and putting it back down..lol.. thats what music is all about..reflecting moods and feelings.. without that it would be empty.. i think this is like a soundtrack off a really lovely movie,like when the film has finished and you get to hear all the parts of the film in one big encore..7 minutse is a good length of time to chill and go to deep places.... wow! will rate...x xxx x  x x  x x

I know just what you mean about picking the song up and down...and how it will/can/does....change moods/patterns...and sometimes it just takes a different course....I can see where this has done all of the above
I lke it

Nice work
Kobeshi

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Will Rate