(Piano ballad) Everlasting Promise

[CYSYS8993]

A sentimental piano track I made. I may have went a little too happy on the high end.

[Benedict]

It is that very M1 sound, right down to the slapback echo - East 17 "It's Alright".
If you want to warm this up then cut that echo and look to push the body of the instrument for character rather than cut.

I don't hear sentimental here. Frustration or even anger maybe. Is it really a song, as there is no lyric?
I find it very rushed too so once the slapback is gone if it still feels rushed (and remember you need to hear it as I hear it not as you want it to be - this is not EDM, you aren't chasing the 909) then either slow the overall tempo or look at creating spaces between phrases or sections to help it be more digestible.

If you want another set of brains on it, I would be interested in running this through my Mix Walkthrough video series.

[CYSYS8993]

It is that very M1 sound, right down to the slapback echo - East 17 "It's Alright".
If you want to warm this up then cut that echo and look to push the body of the instrument for character rather than cut.

I don't hear sentimental here. Frustration or even anger maybe. Is it really a song, as there is no lyric?
I find it very rushed too so once the slapback is gone if it still feels rushed (and remember you need to hear it as I hear it not as you want it to be - this is not EDM, you aren't chasing the 909) then either slow the overall tempo or look at creating spaces between phrases or sections to help it be more digestible.

If you want another set of brains on it, I would be interested in running this through my Mix Walkthrough video series.

Okay, tell you what. I'll redo the mixing on the song and send the updated version to you. I think the only reason you're not getting the intended feeling is because the mixing is horrible, and that's my fault.

What do you mean by "push the body of the instrument for character rather than cut"? Are you talking about timbre and EQ respectively?

Also there aren't supposed to be lyrics in this song. Not all piano songs have to be accompanied with vocals, you know.

[TritoneAddiction]

Pretty cool. Nice melodies.
It did feel a little strange having the piano in complete mono, especially since nothing else is happening in the mix that's taking up space (except for a low Booom everynow and then). I don't know if the mono thing is intentional or not. If the piano is sampled in mono you can still get some width with reverb or playing around with the panning of the delay.

[Benedict]

What do you mean by "push the body of the instrument for character rather than cut"? Are you talking about timbre and EQ respectively?

Also there aren't supposed to be lyrics in this song. Not all piano songs have to be accompanied with vocals, you know.

In reverse order:

A Song is words set to music. Music without words is a Piece or even an Instrumental (which is the common term for a song version where the words were removed). I know that post-mp3-player people call everything a Song (because some Devs didn't realize Track was the right word) but it gets confusing when we use wrong words in a specialist situation when we have better ones. Be upset if you need but asking if your Song was missing words is actually correct language seeing people often post songs before they put the words on. That affects mix advice.

Now we are clear that it is a Piece, therefore a human voice does not need to be considered:

Right now you have pushed the brightness part of the piano which means that the Body or mid-frequences where many of the unique resonances of an instrument live is lacking either from being EQd out, masked by the brightness, or simply not in the core Piano sound. Seeing you want Sentimentality then see what interesting timbres are lurking in the 200-1,000Hz range that can be given a bit of boost as you don't need the piano to Cut through a busy mix so much as make us feel warm, thick engaged...

[Benedict]

I got a forum alert about activity here but don't see anything, did you want my attention again?

[CYSYS8993]

I got a forum alert about activity here but don't see anything, did you want my attention again?

My apologies. I was trying to send you the same song with the mixing redone, but for some reason I can't attach the file. It keeps saying "HTTP error".

[CYSYS8993]

I got a forum alert about activity here but don't see anything, did you want my attention again?

Anyhow here's the newly mixed version:

And for comparison, here's the original one:

[Benedict]

I got a forum alert about activity here but don't see anything, did you want my attention again?

Anyhow here's the newly mixed version:

And for comparison, here's the original one:

It seems to be 24+db too quiet.
I will say that I still think that the M1 style piano with that Pop/House style slapback and the occasional hard drum seems totally at odds with the softness & lyricism common to any Ballad which is normally about eliciting an emotional response outside of the range of a Techno/EDM track.
What is the purpose of the piece: as a listener, what am I supposed to feel?

[Proboscis]

To my ears, this feels like it should be a punching rock song, perhaps what might be called Anthemic. Some great ideas you've laid down, in my head I'm filling in the blanks with a solid drum track and guitars. Sound-wise, the piano lacks dynamics, maybe throw it on to a track with Reason Piano' ReFill (there's a nice Steinway in there) if you own it, or some other quality sampled piano, and don't muck around too much with post production. I might even go so far as to say do nothing to it, if it's a solo piano track, as it's got no other sounds to compete with.

But overall, I really liked the song... sorry PIECE .... it has a nice flow to it.

[Proboscis]

My apologies. I was trying to send you the same song with the mixing redone, but for some reason I can't attach the file. It keeps saying "HTTP error".

For attaching files to posts, I discovered that you need to zip it first, then upload. I imagine the same goes for DMs, if you're still getting errors.

[CYSYS8993]

Anyhow here's the newly mixed version:

And for comparison, here's the original one:

It seems to be 24+db too quiet.
I will say that I still think that the M1 style piano with that Pop/House style slapback and the occasional hard drum seems totally at odds with the softness & lyricism common to any Ballad which is normally about eliciting an emotional response outside of the range of a Techno/EDM track.
What is the purpose of the piece: as a listener, what am I supposed to feel?

I was trying to aim for a sentimental feel with just the piano sound alone. But apparently I failed. What improvements can you suggest, now that you have an idea of what my intentions were?

[Benedict]

But sentimental in what way? For East 17 and 1990 or in an I lost my love and have been crying for 20 years?

It is a broad kind of thing and pianos are so versatile.

As I indicated before, if you want I am happy to give what I feel off the piece and rework it for you but I am interested to know what your Story for this is/was.

[The_Real_DeanC2000]

It's an ok piece of music. The actual sound of the piano is a little thin and shrill. It sounds like an NN19 preset, with only one velocity on every key. Try the NNXT Grand piano preset. Also, yes it does sound just a little rushed. Slowing it down just a little bit will help add emotion. Also, don't quantize. These emotional piano pieces weren't meant to be played by a robot. The pianist is an artist, trying to invoke emotion from music, and the little nuances in volume and timing adds so much to the music.

Well. Hope this helps.

Dean.

[CYSYS8993]

It's an ok piece of music. The actual sound of the piano is a little thin and shrill. It sounds like an NN19 preset, with only one velocity on every key. Try the NNXT Grand piano preset. Also, yes it does sound just a little rushed. Slowing it down just a little bit will help add emotion. Also, don't quantize. These emotional piano pieces weren't meant to be played by a robot. The pianist is an artist, trying to invoke emotion from music, and the little nuances in volume and timing adds so much to the music.

Well. Hope this helps.

Dean.

Now that you mention it, I did indeed use an NN19 preset. But the velocities are not all the same; they were all inputted directly from my MIDI keyboard.