New song - "Europa" (WIP)

**helix eternal** · 10-22-2006, 10:27 AM

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/song...songID=4575988

comments, criticism, ideas for improvement?

DjMeas · 10-22-2006, 11:56 AM

Hey Helix, how's it going? Just listened to Europa:

Nice intro, i like the effect there, sounds like it's setting up for something really cool.

Kick and bassline coming in with some piano now~ I like the reverb you put on
the piano but the the melody leaves me a little lost. I'm not sure whether
to focus on it or something else that's playing. The piano keys just kind
of drift in and out.

1:21, the main melody comes in (with the piano) and it's sounding pretty
nice (especially love the synth arpeggios on the left). Now it's calming down
with the strings and the beat comes back with the piano again. What bothers
me now is that you're in the same bass that you started off the track with.
I expect this from a techno track while it's building towards something grand,
but playing all your accompaniment and melodies on "C" throughout the whole
track has really watered everything down in my opinion.

3:30, i really like the synth you chose, and the echo really sounds nice.
Again, when this section is done, and you've built up to the "climax" of
the track with everything coming back together, you're still playing "C"
over and over on the bass synth. It really gets me lost. I would have
expected you to use the bass notes from the arpeggios from 3:30+ but
you didn't. The reason i say this is because 3:30+ is like your chord progression,
it went: C > G > A > B / C > C > D > B / ... and so forth.

Your baseline should really be focusing on that progression as well when
everything comes back in~ Not just playing off "C" alone. So in the end,
you have [C > G > A > B / C > C > D > B / ... ect] PLUS ["C"(bassline synth)]
and it sounds really jumbled and confusing. What i really mean by saying
i feel lost when i'm listening to the track as a whole is that it never keeps
my attention focused on it. I'm not really sure what to listen for.

I hope i made sense (i know this post is lengthy) but all your samples and
sequencing sounded great, it's just the lack of variety is chord progression
and working the whole track around "C" that drags this WIP down.

**helix eternal** · 10-23-2006, 11:45 AM

Thanks for the breakdown, Meas

This is only v0.4 of the song, and yeah I realize the bass plays C the entire song =P That was one of the things I still needed to do. I'm also going to add some variation in the percussion (mainly different hi-hat patterns)

I think another reason you may have been lost is because the melody with the piano is way too busy. Someone else helped me realize that, so I'm changing it up some.

DjMeas · 10-23-2006, 08:16 PM

Ok, awaiting the next update ^_* b good luck!

**helix eternal** · 10-24-2006, 11:11 AM

Version 0.5 now up, I put it on Acidplanet, also...

http://www.acidplanet.com/artist.asp?PID=889682&t=3417

**helix eternal** · 01-07-2007, 12:26 AM

HOLY BUMPING THREAD BATMAN!

http://www.acidplanet.com/artist.asp?PID=889682&T=1475

updated again...

jihnsius · 01-07-2007, 07:38 PM

That synth at 0:53 is awesome. What is that?
Can't say I like the bass too much. As usual, I'd have to complain about your percussive choices, but everything else sounds perfect. Very nice track.

**helix eternal** · 01-07-2007, 08:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jihnsius

That synth at 0:53 is awesome. What is that?
Can't say I like the bass too much. As usual, I'd have to complain about your percussive choices, but everything else sounds perfect. Very nice track.

a good magician never reveals his secrets

Vospi · 01-13-2007, 11:53 PM

excuse me, but i barely listened this to the end. you are paying much attention to the sound production, and it is pretty clear for me... but melodies and their combinations are awfully off-key (i'm not sure i'm using right term...). altogether, they make a total mess.

**helix eternal** · 01-14-2007, 01:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vospi

excuse me, but i barely listened this to the end. you are paying much attention to the sound production, and it is pretty clear for me... but melodies and their combinations are awfully off-key (i'm not sure i'm using right term...). altogether, they make a total mess.

It's all in C major so I don't know how any of it could have possibly been off-key...*is very confused*

Enoch-Fox · 01-15-2007, 02:36 AM

I think it's that... the melodies are following different progressions here which is kind of confusing and none of them seem to really lead anywhere... like, i'm not sure how to say this, but the way they flow doesn't suggest any sort of natural beginning/ending points or paths for the notes to follow... it just sort of flows about and mills around... I don't think it's 'muddy' but I do think it seems to stagnate the entire song... instead of building up it seems like just more stuff keeps getting layered onto it. I think it's mainly the fault of the piano not changing when everything else does. The piano's 'hook' isn't interesting enough to justify it staying the same the entire song, IMO. THe song gets a lot more interesing when the synth & pad are unified in an interlude near the end... it seems to build more then.

None of it's off key, it's just that your melodies are all going different ways so they don't seem to accomplish much together.