(robot pop) Surrounded By Machines

This forum is for sharing your Reason creations with the rest of the community. If you post a song expecting feedback please take time to leave some for others.
Forum rules
Remember to begin your thread subject with a genre, ie.: (Hiphop) New instrumental
Post Reply
User avatar
raymondh
Posts: 1776
Joined: 15 Jan 2015

27 Nov 2021

Hi everyone,

A new song with synthesized vocals. cheers.


User avatar
moofi
Posts: 1024
Joined: 19 Jan 2015
Location: hear

27 Nov 2021

While being well produced in terms of balance + clearness I would wish for a little more impact. Like possibly compressing single sounds. Especially the drums translate a little soft here. Otherwise a pleasing song :-)

User avatar
raymondh
Posts: 1776
Joined: 15 Jan 2015

27 Nov 2021

moofi wrote:
27 Nov 2021
While being well produced in terms of balance + clearness I would wish for a little more impact. Like possibly compressing single sounds. Especially the drums translate a little soft here. Otherwise a pleasing song :-)
Thanks for the feedback!
I compressed a lot of stuff. Maybe too much? Or maybe I didn't EQ the kick very well. I removed most of the high end/click.
I used TrackSpacer for ducking the bass and pads for the kick drum. This tends to avoid the pumping you get using sidechain compression. But do you think maybe that would be better for this track?

All feedback appreciated!

User avatar
moofi
Posts: 1024
Joined: 19 Jan 2015
Location: hear

27 Nov 2021

In terms of compression on single sounds I was more like talking about some sort of attack/release-envelopeshaping/sculpting of the single sound with fast attack and fast release settings before any effects like echo or reverb come into play. That way you can introduce punch. I especially use that sort of compression for sounddesign purposes in electronic music (aswell in general yet especially herefor) to enhance the impact.

You can sculpt the bassdrum, snare, hihats (or any other sound) individually and/or simply put a compressor with mentioned settings on the drumbus, though with the drumbus it´s a liitle more complicated if you want to compress before the reverb and echo but with the same compression effect of a drumbus including the bassdrum you usually don´t have reverb on or if, often a different one.
Then what I do in that case is splitting the bassdrum signal and the rest of the drumkit before they are effected by echo and reverb to the sidechain input of the drumbus compressor, so it merely works based on the dry and complete drumtrack.

So I´m not referring to sidechaining in terms of ducking to give room to the bassdrum or whatsoever but using the compressor as a sounddesign tool.

User avatar
raymondh
Posts: 1776
Joined: 15 Jan 2015

27 Nov 2021

moofi wrote:
27 Nov 2021
In terms of compression on single sounds I was more like talking about some sort of attack/release-envelopeshaping/sculpting of the single sound with fast attack and fast release settings before any effects like echo or reverb come into play. That way you can introduce punch. I especially use that sort of compression for sounddesign purposes in electronic music (aswell in general yet especially herefor) to enhance the impact.

You can sculpt the bassdrum, snare, hihats (or any other sound) individually and/or simply put a compressor with mentioned settings on the drumbus, though with the drumbus it´s a liitle more complicated if you want to compress before the reverb and echo but with the same compression effect of a drumbus including the bassdrum you usually don´t have reverb on or if, often a different one.
Then what I do in that case is splitting the bassdrum signal and the rest of the drumkit before they are effected by echo and reverb to the sidechain input of the drumbus compressor, so it merely works based on the dry and complete drumtrack.

So I´m not referring to sidechaining in terms of ducking to give room to the bassdrum or whatsoever but using the compressor as a sounddesign tool.
Got it - thanks very much!

cheers
Raymond

User avatar
Benedict
Competition Winner
Posts: 2747
Joined: 16 Jan 2015
Location: Gold Coast, Australia
Contact:

27 Nov 2021

I think the mix is really nice, clear, and open. Moves well and is very "age-appropriate". The kik + bass come together well.

:-)
Benedict Roff-Marsh
Completely burned and gone

User avatar
Wee Joe
Posts: 40
Joined: 16 Jan 2015

27 Nov 2021

I thought I was not going to like this, after reading the title, but I loved it.
Now on my 4th listen......Wee Joe.

User avatar
raymondh
Posts: 1776
Joined: 15 Jan 2015

28 Nov 2021

Benedict wrote:
27 Nov 2021
I think the mix is really nice, clear, and open. Moves well and is very "age-appropriate". The kik + bass come together well.

:-)
Thanks so much Benedict! Means a lot, coming from you! :)

User avatar
raymondh
Posts: 1776
Joined: 15 Jan 2015

28 Nov 2021

Wee Joe wrote:
27 Nov 2021
I thought I was not going to like this, after reading the title, but I loved it.
Now on my 4th listen......Wee Joe.
That's awesome! Thank you :)

User avatar
moofi
Posts: 1024
Joined: 19 Jan 2015
Location: hear

28 Nov 2021

Listened several times already aswell. :-)

I still remember Raymond&Pacific Deep songs from back in the days, when they started colaborating. Always pleasing 80s tunes, so I had the feeling this could be similar :-)

Btw the favourite part here starts at 2:50, then it´s just too shoooooooooort :-D
Seriously, would love to hear that passage twice as long (at least :-D ), yet, starting from the point where it ends now, even richer with something like an arpeggio and stuff added. Like an everything comes together with cream on top finale.

Wee Joe wrote:
27 Nov 2021
I thought I was not going to like this, after reading the title, but I loved it.
Now on my 4th listen......Wee Joe.

User avatar
moofi
Posts: 1024
Joined: 19 Jan 2015
Location: hear

28 Nov 2021

After listening to your song soundcloud automatically put out this song at some point, where you can hear an example of basically what I ment by impact. Even though it´s a faster, a little more forward electro style it points in the according direction. I feel like it´s even possibly a little too much in that song and might not have to be that intense for your song due to its softer appearance anyway.

Especially the part starting at 0:50 where the bass isn´t so wildly playing shows it pretty well:



raymondh wrote:
27 Nov 2021
[...]
Got it - thanks very much!

cheers
Raymond

User avatar
raymondh
Posts: 1776
Joined: 15 Jan 2015

28 Nov 2021

moofi wrote:
28 Nov 2021
After listening to your song soundcloud automatically put out this song at some point, where you can hear an example of basically what I ment by impact. Even though it´s a faster, a little more forward electro style it points in the according direction. I feel like it´s even possibly a little too much in that song and might not have to be that intense for your song due to its softer appearance anyway.

Especially the part starting at 0:50 where the bass isn´t so wildly playing shows it pretty well:



raymondh wrote:
27 Nov 2021
[...]
Got it - thanks very much!

cheers
Raymond
Thanks. Yes I see what you mean. That example definitely is more in-your-face, and as you say, a bit more than I would want for my track.

I have done more work on the track today, including buying a new transient shaper (Wavesfactory Quantum), which I used on the kick, snare and bass. I've replaced the audio with the new version. Maybe not much more presence but it cleaned things up. I also reduced the amount of final limiting so better dynamics (and the cost of some overall loudness).

I think what is missing now is probably a bit of EQ in the frequency to make it more present, but I'm happy with it as it is now.

User avatar
moofi
Posts: 1024
Joined: 19 Jan 2015
Location: hear

28 Nov 2021

I can hear something already happened though it´s not so easy to tell what exactly without the possibilty of a direct comparison, also I listened at slightly greater volume.

Then I noticed the now quite dominating panned snare within the final part, irritating me acoustically I have to say :-D Feel like it was a lot more balanced before. :-)

User avatar
raymondh
Posts: 1776
Joined: 15 Jan 2015

28 Nov 2021

moofi wrote:
28 Nov 2021
I can hear something already happened though it´s not so easy to tell what exactly without the possibilty of a direct comparison, also I listened at slightly greater volume.

Then I noticed the now quite dominating panned snare within the final part, irritating me acoustically I have to say :-D Feel like it was a lot more balanced before. :-)
Aargh! I've reverted to the older version. A job for next weekend! :)

User avatar
moofi
Posts: 1024
Joined: 19 Jan 2015
Location: hear

30 Nov 2021

:-)
raymondh wrote:
28 Nov 2021
moofi wrote:
28 Nov 2021
I can hear something already happened though it´s not so easy to tell what exactly without the possibilty of a direct comparison, also I listened at slightly greater volume.

Then I noticed the now quite dominating panned snare within the final part, irritating me acoustically I have to say :-D Feel like it was a lot more balanced before. :-)
Aargh! I've reverted to the older version. A job for next weekend! :)

User avatar
raymondh
Posts: 1776
Joined: 15 Jan 2015

02 Dec 2021

I've updated the track, changed one of the pads, used a transient shaper to sharpen up the kick, snare and bass, dropped the snare level a bit. Remastered with the help of a new metering tool (Mastering The Mix Levels) to check I have a good headroom/dynamic range, loudness (LUFS), etc - so I'm happy with that.
Still would sound soft compared to a more EDM type track but I'm liking where it's at.
cheers!

User avatar
pushedbutton
Posts: 1538
Joined: 16 Jan 2015
Location: Lancashire, UK
Contact:

02 Dec 2021

First time I heard it so I didn't hear the original post to compare, but I like it. sounds good to me.
@pushedbutton on twitter, add me, send me a message, but don't try to sell me stuff cos I'm skint.
Using Reason since version 3 and still never finished a song.

User avatar
raymondh
Posts: 1776
Joined: 15 Jan 2015

17 Jan 2022

pushedbutton wrote:
02 Dec 2021
First time I heard it so I didn't hear the original post to compare, but I like it. sounds good to me.
Thanks!

User avatar
TheGodOfRainbows
Posts: 640
Joined: 31 Mar 2015

19 Jan 2022

Very cool and fun track. So what's going on with the vocals? It sounds like the verse is your voice with vocoder, and the 'surrounded by machines' voice is produced using a speak and spell or something. What did you use? I like the chirping/bubbling type sounds starting around 2:50. Cool stuff!

User avatar
raymondh
Posts: 1776
Joined: 15 Jan 2015

21 Jan 2022

TheGodOfRainbows wrote:
19 Jan 2022
Very cool and fun track. So what's going on with the vocals? It sounds like the verse is your voice with vocoder, and the 'surrounded by machines' voice is produced using a speak and spell or something. What did you use? I like the chirping/bubbling type sounds starting around 2:50. Cool stuff!
Thanks very much! Well done on nailing the vocal synth approach!!

The verse vocals are the female voice Windows 10 text-2-speech voice (I can't sing :) ) Vocoded using the Reason/Props Parsec synth, and then post processed with Kuassa EVE-AT1, Synapse GQ-7, Selig Leveler, Jiggery-Pokery Chenille chorus, Reason Master Bus Compressor and then MClass Maximizer.

The chorus vocals are Plogue Chipspeech, doubled, and then an additional vocoded layer again using Parsec. Processing includes Chenille, EVE-AT1 EQ, Synapse Fat Space , DLD Revolution, Pulsar.

Initial sound FXs (burbling stuff) are Korg Arp Odyssey (hardware), processed using Audiomatic, Echobode, EVE-AT1, and Fabfilter Saturn2.
Later sound FX (R2D2 type stuff) are the Odyssey processed with master bus compressor, channel EQ, U-He UHBIK-T (for panning), EVE-AT1, Echobode, Renoun reverb, Valhalla Shimmer, Sennheiser AMBEO Orbit.

User avatar
TheGodOfRainbows
Posts: 640
Joined: 31 Mar 2015

25 Jan 2022

raymondh wrote:
21 Jan 2022
TheGodOfRainbows wrote:
19 Jan 2022
Very cool and fun track. So what's going on with the vocals? It sounds like the verse is your voice with vocoder, and the 'surrounded by machines' voice is produced using a speak and spell or something. What did you use? I like the chirping/bubbling type sounds starting around 2:50. Cool stuff!
Thanks very much! Well done on nailing the vocal synth approach!!

The verse vocals are the female voice Windows 10 text-2-speech voice (I can't sing :) ) Vocoded using the Reason/Props Parsec synth, and then post processed with Kuassa EVE-AT1, Synapse GQ-7, Selig Leveler, Jiggery-Pokery Chenille chorus, Reason Master Bus Compressor and then MClass Maximizer.

The chorus vocals are Plogue Chipspeech, doubled, and then an additional vocoded layer again using Parsec. Processing includes Chenille, EVE-AT1 EQ, Synapse Fat Space , DLD Revolution, Pulsar.

Initial sound FXs (burbling stuff) are Korg Arp Odyssey (hardware), processed using Audiomatic, Echobode, EVE-AT1, and Fabfilter Saturn2.
Later sound FX (R2D2 type stuff) are the Odyssey processed with master bus compressor, channel EQ, U-He UHBIK-T (for panning), EVE-AT1, Echobode, Renoun reverb, Valhalla Shimmer, Sennheiser AMBEO Orbit.
Cool! I love all that behind the scenes info. Lots of interesting things going on there. Thanks for filling me in.

Post Reply
  • Information
  • Who is online

    Users browsing this forum: Ahrefs [Bot], Trendiction [Bot] and 5 guests