We Come In Peace

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We Come In Peace

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Author Comments

Official Visualizer Out Now:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNpwyxFeMnM

Good evening fellow earthlings & others. This is my submission for the 2022 NGUAC Final Round. Here is what I used to create this track:

DAW: FL Studio 20

VSTs

Sylenth1 (for leads & arps)
Nexus (for pads & atmosphere)
OTT Compressor (for strong upward multiband compression on the main lead/synth chain)
Fabfilter (Pro-Q3, Pro-MB, Pro-DS, Volcano 2)
T-Racks Suite (TRS Black 76 Compressor)
Endless Smile by Dada Life (for automating extra tension on the master before drops)
Waves Brauer Motion Stereo (for extra stereo and panning movement on certain tracks)
Valhalla Suite (ValhallaVintageVerb, ValhallaSpaceModulator, ValhallaPlate)
iZotope Ozone Pro 9 (for mastering)

For the drums, I mostly used stock FL Studio one-shots. For the kick I blended a top-end kick from Vengeance with a low end kick from a Deadmau5 Splice pack called Chimaera. The claps are also from Vengeance. There are some hi hats and sweeps/downlifters that I pulled from Splice as well, as well as the radio chatter at the end of the track.

To keep this track interesting and moving, there is a heavy reliance on automations as it progresses. Filters, reverbs, stereo image and the gate on the leads/arps open and close intentionally to create tension, dynamics & movement through space.

A little past the midway point of the song, you will notice the chord progression changes and gets darker. This is to break up the monotony of the chords and give a bit of contrast. This is my personal favorite part of the track, and I considered changing all of the chords to these but felt it would have defeated the purpose of the contrast.

I hope you guys enjoy the song. Regardless of the result of the competition, I'm pretty proud of myself for creating this track in the time window that I did. It's one of my best tracks (in my opinion) and took a total of less than 14 hours of total project-file time from start to finish; 9 mixes deep. I'll be releasing it on all major streaming outlets & sound libraries September 23th, 2022.

If you are interested, I cooked the track up live on my YouTube channel across several days which captures the bulk of the experimentation & song creation process. You can watch them here:

PART 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dp3d5aH4iAU&t=425s

PART 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3kWSemR1gQ

PART 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tt9NRGW3C_4

Thank you for the opportunity to compete and have a great night ✌

👽 Ryan Kulesa (Raj Beats)

Follow me on your favorite social media or music streaming platform: WORLD MAP

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TaintedLogic

2022-09-11 00:56:42

I like the filtering work towards the beginning and the catchy synth patterns, although the sound design is a tad cliche. The sweeps and atmospheric details are nice, and I’m enjoying the gradual climax into 1:00. The harmonic content is rather repetitive, but the mixing and mastering are solid and the progression is smooth. I think the lack of variety in the texture is a big problem after a while, though. The breakdown at 2:18 has some more atmospheric elements and different chord progression, but the instrumental hierarchy, rhythmic patterns, and beats remain constant throughout. The production quality is probably my favorite aspect of the piece, followed closely by the atmosphere and sound design. I also like the distorted radio noise at the end - adds an eerie flair to the buoyant and blissful tone of the rest of the piece. That said, the composition is a bit bland overall, and there are a lot of pretty abrupt transitions too. Still, it’s a catchy piece with some neat instrumentation and strong thematic content. Congratulations on your success in this competition, Raj! ^_^

Mixing, mastering, and balance
2/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
.75/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
1.25/2
Instrumentation and sound design
.75/1
Emotion, atmosphere, and catchiness
1.25/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
.25/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
.75/1
Composite score
7/10

rajbeatsofficial responds:

Solid analysis, thank you for the feedback!!

ADR3-N

2022-09-08 14:15:38

Love the clean intro. Reverb seems to be used tastefully through 28 seconds. And continuing onward. This does indeed remind me of deadmaus. That's an achievement.

Great mix. I think the kick may be just a hair too loud. With such a clean mix otherwise it's not a huge issue. Sounds like lead kick, haha.

I really enjoy this piece. Beautiful and deceptive simplicity.

Second half of the song is a nice change. I have virtually no complaint whatever. It sounds indistinguishable from what I would hear from a signed producer. Great work, and wonderful transitions on your part.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

rajbeatsofficial responds:

woo! thanks a lot for the feedback. kick was quite a nuanced pain. its actually 2 kicks layered together, do you feel the high part of the kick is bit too loud or the lows? just curious. thanks again

Mikshuk

2022-09-06 09:21:14

I love it sounds very clean and the drums sound great too, it relaxes me 😸

rajbeatsofficial responds:

thanks for the feedback. glad you like it!

LordAndiso

2022-09-03 13:49:46

Sounds very very clean! Sounds nostalgic to me! good luck on the final :)

rajbeatsofficial responds:

Thanks! ✌👽

X3LL3N

2022-09-03 11:37:29