The overcompressed, super-treble sound has become almost descriptive of modern EDM.
Thanks dubstep and complextro through 2011 to 2013 tbqh.
edit: Also soundcloud encoding has always been and is still complete ass, even for 128kbps mp3 or whatever they use now. I push my stuff harder for soundcloud uploads if I'm not enabling downloads (e.g. it's only going to be heard via the stream) because if it's already going to sound like shit anyway, might as we ll make a lower common denominator happier. I have my better-sounding renders for everything else.
Yeah it definitely seems to be a sound people are actively shooting for now. That being said I don't know about the soundcloud encoding thing because I've got terrible ears for that sort of stuff (although I have noticed tracks that have been pushed harder sound better on soundcloud even when compensating for the volume loss by increasing the gain on my speakers/headphones). I should probably get into the habit of mixing for different formats too but I'm still struggling with just mixing so I'm going to keep working on that first.
Back in producing as well!
It's been 2 years since I last uploaded something to my soundcloud page and it's just early snippets but it feels pretty good!
https://soundcloud.com/nyx_1978
Hope I can finish both of these tracks in the coming weeks/months....
Sup, welcome back to the good times. Excellent track naming convention, maybe I should switch from my date+genre+possibletitle combo I listened to both of your snippets, I personally like Snip2 more than Snip1. I can't put my finger on why, I like the groove more I guess, it's probably the vocal sample too. I think the mixing on Snip2 sounds tinnier (sort of hollow?) than the mixing on Snip1 though. I think they both sound kind of hollow? And the drums feel sort of overbearing to me, especially the hats. That being said I like the groove overall even if it feels a bit repetitive and boring to my ears, but that's probably because I generally don't listen to extended minimal techno mixes. You should definitely finish this stuff though.
I guess this thread is getting more attention than the other one. I just finished working on this track and would really appreciate you guys' and gals' critique on it.
https://soundcloud.com/adnan-a-al-sannaa/i-dreamed-of-a-blue-planet
I hate to do this but there's a lot of stuff you could improve on. The first one is that the drums straight up feel like they're not in time. Specifically the woodblock hits. The sounds you're using also aren't inspiring, they're really dry generally, there's not a lot of ambience and everything feels very disconnected as a result. The casio keyboard description someone gave is kind of apt. You should experiment with reverb. That aside the instrumentation is also very sparse, it sounds like you rarely have more than 2 to 4 tracks going at a time and those tracks are all very sparse in nature so the song sounds empty. The riser is also kind of poopy, both in sound design and use. Your music needs feel like it's going somewhere before the riser happens or that whole thing doesn't work. Experiment with things like filtering, adding extra elements, and generally making the orchestration want to move before adding a riser. The best section is probably near the end with everything going but there's definitely room for improvement imo. All that being said please don't let this critique get you down, I'm just trying to provide constructive feedback and if you're enjoying yourself you should continue doing so.
We were churning out ideas yesterday and I followed up a bit on one of them:
https://soundcloud.com/sabit-kozak/sabo-chen-id
Would love to hear what you guys think
The kick sounds punchy, I don't know if it's too punchy, it sounds fine on my headphones. DJ intro's are so boring to me though
. Is that KSHMR Sweep down 01 from the splice sounds of KSHMR sample pack? It's pitched down with the end chopped right? I'm like 91% procent sure it is. I like this more than the previous track I heard from you switch. That being said I'll try to give some constructive criticism. I don't think your 1st riser/buildup section is working because the drop didn't hit me as hard as I know it could. The snare seems to start doubletiming it too early & it's also super loud and drowns out everything, so you should maybe filter it & wash it out with highpass & reverb automation. The hi-hat is also super loud in this section and feels confused, I don't think you need it honestly. You could do with some sort of highpitched riser synthy thingy there too maybe? I'd also mute virtually everything on beat 4 of the final bar before the first bass drop because the bleedover is removing a lot of impact from the bass drop too. I'd tell you to put some snare there too but that's so 2014, so maybe a vocal/synth hit, or some sort of reverse bass sweep, whatever you feel like honestly. You put the purra there for the second drop so I guess you could do that there too. I guess it might be a breakdown instead of a drop? I don't know, it feels like it goes up in intensity to me but then it sits there for nearly a minute without a kick before it goes into the snare build again. I like the final drop when everything comes in but it kind of sucks to have to wait that long to get to the point in a short track because you really didn't drive it home for very long so it's nowhere near as catchy as it could be. I also think your kick is getting masked in that section so it loses a lot of punch but I don't know how to fix it because it's something I've noticed about my own stuff too. Maybe more sidechain or making more room via EQing? Overall I can definitely hear an improvement from your previous track to this one though.
I hope my comments are useful to you guys, and I'm not coming off like a mean asshole. If I should stop making these posts and should just give a one line awesome track bro reply in the future let me know too.
