You Smile (Synthwave)

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man made material
Posts: 51
Joined: 13 May 2021

15 Jul 2021

er... if you give it a go, thanks for listening!


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TritoneAddiction
Competition Winner
Posts: 4219
Joined: 29 Aug 2015
Location: Sweden

15 Jul 2021

Nice. :thumbs_up: There are a lot of things I like about this track, vocals, bass line, nice sound selection. All very good. The song has a strong foundation.
But there are also things I'd like to change or alter slightly. Some of it is regarding some mix choices. Other things are about the arrangement. But I don't know if you posted it for feedback or if the track is done. Let me know if you would like to hear more specific thoughts.

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man made material
Posts: 51
Joined: 13 May 2021

15 Jul 2021

TritoneAddiction wrote:
15 Jul 2021
Nice. :thumbs_up: There are a lot of things I like about this track, vocals, bass line, nice sound selection. All very good. The song has a strong foundation.
But there are also things I'd like to change or alter slightly. Some of it is regarding some mix choices. Other things are about the arrangement. But I don't know if you posted it for feedback or if the track is done. Let me know if you would like to hear more specific thoughts.
Cheers sir! I’m always open to ideas, I’m interested to hear, fire away!👍

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TritoneAddiction
Competition Winner
Posts: 4219
Joined: 29 Aug 2015
Location: Sweden

16 Jul 2021

man made material wrote:
15 Jul 2021
TritoneAddiction wrote:
15 Jul 2021
Nice. :thumbs_up: There are a lot of things I like about this track, vocals, bass line, nice sound selection. All very good. The song has a strong foundation.
But there are also things I'd like to change or alter slightly. Some of it is regarding some mix choices. Other things are about the arrangement. But I don't know if you posted it for feedback or if the track is done. Let me know if you would like to hear more specific thoughts.
Cheers sir! I’m always open to ideas, I’m interested to hear, fire away!👍
Ok. I'll take them in the order they show up.

1. The bassline has a bit of decay on it, which is cool in one sense, but in the bass frequencies it gets pretty muddy when notes change quickly and start to ring together. A potential solution could be to split the sound in two. One with higher and midrange frequencies that has some decay. While the second bass layer has less or no decay.
Or perhaps easier shorten (automate) the decay when a lof of notes are playing after one another (during the end of that bassline phrase).
2. When the vocals come in, the background music gets pushed back A LOT. Some push back can be nice to make way for a melody or vocal, but I reacted pretty strongly to this. I don't know if it's intentional or if the song is just squashed in the masterting stage or something.
3. The boom at 1:16 indicated to me that soon the drums will drop. That didn't happen and I just kept waiting for them to enter. I think I would have at least let them come in at 1:50 together with the melody. Or earlier.
4. When the drums do come in, I feel like they could be better, for a lack of better word. I think the rest of the song writing is much more professional and the drums simply doesn't go up to the same level of "goodness". They could use a little more care imo. Maybe try out a few drum beats and see what fits the song the best.

Like I said I like the song writing itself and the core of the song, the most important aspects of any tune. :thumbs_up:

Well I hope that was somewhat constructive.

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man made material
Posts: 51
Joined: 13 May 2021

16 Jul 2021

Hey TritoneAddiction, thanks so much for your detailed reply and there’s some really good useful stuff in there! I’ll take them point by point…
1 really good idea to automate the reverb on the bass when there’s more movement, will definitely help the clarity in the faster moving parts👍
2 I side chained the vocal with the bass, seems I may have overcooked it a bit then! I was aware my voice and the bass occupied the same space, but I can wind the sidechain effect down a bit👍
3 I hear what you’re saying about when the drums drop, it was a conscious decision to hold them back… maybe this is one we’ll disagree on, but your point is valid
4 it is certainly a simple drum pattern, in fact it’s probably the simplest percussion section I’ve put in any song, I wanted to just add a little drive to the track but didn’t want to overcook it, maybe a bit of TLC would help… I’ll have to have a play…👍

Thanks so much for once again, it’s exactly the kind of well thought out feedback that’s really useful 👌

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