My newest track.
With this track, I wanted to tell a story. The elements in the track are constantly changing, with something new being taken away, introduced, or re-introduced throughout the track.
Even though the track is one of my longer ones, I feel proud in the fact that I believe I succeeded in writing a story through music.
If you guys want to know what the story is, well...close your eyes and listen. What do you see when you close your eyes?
This is my submission for Bosa's Dreams of Splendor contest.
Love it
Wow this was really nice I really love what you did with the "PIANO" especially at the start of this, if this was even just a solo with that piano I would still be happy but I do like the mixture and variaty you have added in this one, you have some nice skills here some good vibe about it all.
~~SUGGESTED IDEAS~~
Great vibe here no changes needed on such a beautiful piece.
~X~
Alright, lets press play and see what happens.
Starting off with a nice filters piano and a sweep, nice and relaxing. I especially love how the sweep is on a pumping sidechain. I'm not sure if I'm a fan of the buzz lead, sounds like nexus to me, but then again It could just be that generic. I'm not saying that generic is bad or anything, it does have its purpose but I digress. When the kick drops in it feels like it doesn't have a lot of body in the mix, try compressing it if you haven't already. I'm not sure how you set up your signal path in your mixer but I would say try sidechaining more. Another thing you could do is try cutting 500htz on your kick and adding a bit of distortion. So I'm about a minute in and honestly I'm a bit sad because there was no real build up. You just dropped what seems to be the main melody. Well see I suppose. OH, before I forget try using your snare as a light sidechian source to get it to cut through the mix. The sliding lead is neat although a variation would have been nice. Around a minute forty the song is quite muddy, I think this is due to too much going on at once in the song in the same frequency range. Oh when that rough lead drops in I love it, so much attitude. I've been noticing volume fluctuation through out the track. This could be due to heavy compression on the master buss. Three minutes in and I'm kind of getting bored, all of these sounds are quite flat. You should add more effects and percussion. The outro comes a bit late. I think that the song could have been shorter, especially with the lack of variation in the melodies. Finally as the song concludes you fade the piano back in, nice touch.
Hmm..
If your not doing this already I would suggest slapping a hp filter on everything that isnt your kick or your bass around 120htz to leave room for the sub. I would also adjust the levels of your drums in the mix. You know what actually, I figured out what was bugging me. Try using more hihat sounds then just the 909 open. This would make your track a lot more interesting. Also try adding more drum sounds because just a kick, 909 hihat, and snare just doesn't work these days. Especially now that we have access to tuns of free sounds all over the internet. Next time, try to build more suspense in your track before you drop your main melody so that it hits harder. I would say at least a 16 bar 'intro' then the snare role, then boom drop the lead and the bass.
Don't get me wrong, I say this all with love.
{Review Request Club}
Thanks for the detailed and very helpful review. I may not understand some of the stuff you're talking about, but I'm going to figure it all out...eventually.
Yeah, the main lead is a preset from Nexus. It's going to be quite a while until I figure out how to properly make my own leads and synths.
As for the percussion...this is pretty much all I got ^^;;. Sure I've got the other samples that come with FL, but...I just don't feel them as much. And I don't want to slice and mix up the loops FL gives you, just because of me being paranoid about copyright. Even with the free sounds available over the internet. I'll see what I can do though!
It's a shame you got bored throughout the track. But hey, not everyone's going to enjoy my music like I want them to. I see what you mean on there not being much melodic variation. I did try to vary it with the 7 melodies, 2 of them being a lot simpler than the rest. And 7 minutes is a long length for a track, even for me.
And thanks for the tip about dropping the main melody.
Thanks again for this huge and oh so very helpful review. I am definitely taking this to heart.
You certainly succeeded in telling a story! :) Your melodies are always so engaging, DylnMatrix, and I appreciate the constant variation. Your transitions were good, too: 2:06, for example. Around 2:50 and at other parts of the song, it felt a little too "busy" for me, though- I think it was mostly due to that open hat. I can't help mentioning that you've used some of those riffs and instruments before, like the drum at 5:24. Btw, don't feel like you need a track to be 7 minutes long in order to tell a story- you only need to make it as long as it takes to be epic, and you've done that for me a number of times now in under 2 minutes! ^^ I like your style, DylnMatrix, and the ending was interesting and creative. Keep it up! I'll be waiting for more. :)
Thanks! I'm glad you liked the track, and I always try to have great melodies in my tracks. Glad to know I've succeeded again. And yay, I have my own style now~ lol
I get what you mean by having it feel too busy. I was having trouble with finding a good hi hat sample that fit the track, as I'm poor and only have stock samples. I'm thinking I over compressed the hat, and that's why it kind of takes over. And I suck at mixing, I've still got a lot to learn.
As for the track being 7 minutes long, when I went into the "trance" (haha, see what I did there?) I get into when I get a boost of inspiration, all 7 minutes that I sequenced were just what my mind felt was necessary. I know I can create some good stories in a track that's shorter, just my mind felt this one needed to be longer.
And yeeaaaah, I really need to branch out with my riffs/synths more. But I'm keeping my syncopated "driving" melodies until I can't make them anymore. Those are always the most fun, albeit easiest, to make. Ain't nobody taking that away from me. Except maybe Clayfacer, as he's the one who got me into that kind of melody.
Anywho, thanks for the review! It always makes me feel better about myself when someone is willing to take time out of their day to listen to my music AND tell me what they think. Thanks.
Sounds kind of like zelda + megaman. I like the song overall. It kinda gave me a zelda like storyline where a hero wakes up one day and is running freely through a forest at top speeds exploring the world. And at around 2:35, something mysterious happens. I personally think this track Is nice, but a bit too long lol.
Thanks for the review and I'm glad you like it! Yeah, the track's a bit on the long side, but sometimes that happens when you let your mind completely take over as you're making it lol. Thanks again for leaving a review!
Please contact me if you would like to use this in a project. We can discuss the details.
Dylnmatrix 
