Pumping electro

[fellis]

Feedback welcome!

[Nephew]

Good start of a track mate, just need to add some groove and a bit more automation to give it some life

[fellis]

cheers! by groove do you mean "Groove" (as in Ableton Groove/swing) or groove as in a funkier drum pattern and rhythm?

[Nephew]

Just have to find that ever elusive pocket groove, doesn't matter how you find it

[ohmyjosh]

I would say that the snares in the build up (about 45secs) are way too clean (and loud?), maybe try distorting them somehow.

I like the high notes that jump about in the background though!

[readysetgo]

Nice start to a track...

Agree with ohmyjosh though could do with distorting the snare... or maybe just using a different sample all together?

Also feel you could do with adding a bit more effects to the lead synth line from 1:00 onwards (don't over do it though).... that could just be me though.

[Sanderbongertman]

Sounding quite interesting! I have a few tips/suggestions for you.

-The lead synth sounds a bit dry in the intro, try putting a light reverb on it there. Not too much though. Wet ratio of about 10%, decay time of about 1 second and a bit of low cut to avoid it getting muddy.

-When the kick first hits it I hear some phasing going on. Can't exactly tell what causes it but I think the lead has too much low-freqs that collides with the kick. Try to put a high-pass on it that gradually cuts out the frequencies below 250-300 hz.

- The highest-pitched melody (0:15-0:30) is at the start of every 1/4th note. Try playing around a bit with the starting points of the notes to create a bit more groove. Maybe also up the attack a tiny bit so it doesn't sound too harsh.

-For more tension in the break try playing around with a high-pass filter so the low-end comes in harder after the breakdown.

-Use a fatter snare OR put a little distortion on it and send it to an aux bus and put reverb on the bus. Reverb can make the snare much bigger.

Finally play around with percussion to get more groove going. I just downloaded it and will make a quick sketch of what I mean if you don't mind, really like the sound!

[fellis]

Sounding quite interesting! I have a few tips/suggestions for you.

-The lead synth sounds a bit dry in the intro, try putting a light reverb on it there. Not too much though. Wet ratio of about 10%, decay time of about 1 second and a bit of low cut to avoid it getting muddy.

-When the kick first hits it I hear some phasing going on. Can't exactly tell what causes it but I think the lead has too much low-freqs that collides with the kick. Try to put a high-pass on it that gradually cuts out the frequencies below 250-300 hz.

- The highest-pitched melody (0:15-0:30) is at the start of every 1/4th note. Try playing around a bit with the starting points of the notes to create a bit more groove. Maybe also up the attack a tiny bit so it doesn't sound too harsh.

-For more tension in the break try playing around with a high-pass filter so the low-end comes in harder after the breakdown.

-Use a fatter snare OR put a little distortion on it and send it to an aux bus and put reverb on the bus. Reverb can make the snare much bigger.

Finally play around with percussion to get more groove going. I just downloaded it and will make a quick sketch of what I mean if you don't mind, really like the sound!

Wow! Thankyou so much for al the feedback, I'm fairly new to the whole production thing so it's good to get a bit of advice That would be sweet if you could do a mock up, would love to hear it. And I'll get to work as well!

[Sanderbongertman]

Ok i very quickly put a stronger kick in there, some reverb and delay and eq-ing and a example of a standard bassline to show what you can do with the lower frequencies instead of having the lead there. Also put in one of my percussion loop samples to show how you can get groove, not really electro percussion but it should get the idea across. Beat is not entirely on time as well but you get the point

can't put it up publicly because it's not my own material so here it is on a private link:

http://soundcloud.com/sanderbongertm...sample/s-wphNC

Sound is a bit muffled by the way because I just layered it all on the mp3 file lol

[Nephew]

As far as the kick and low end, just some very simple mastering will make a world of difference. Just add a compressor, EQ (I prefer the EQ 8 myself) and then a basic mastering chain (Ableton 8 has one called "Neutral Mastering" that's easy to use and effective) on the master channel after you're finished mixing down the track and you kick and lows will sound that much better.

Obviously this won't be as good as a professional job, but it will be good enough to play out and shop around if you so desire.

But just remember, when using the Compressor, EQ and Mastering Chain on the master channel, LESS IS MORE.


And when EQing the kick with the bass, I wouldn't take out as much as Sander is saying. You just have to "dig holes" using the EQ on the bass and let the kick fill in the space, and vice versa. But you should be filtering out anything below 75hz to 80hz on the kick though as a starting point.

Example, lets say the kick is nice and punchy at around 93hz, you would scoop out that space on the bass then and let the punch from the kick fill in the space now, but with upper even harmonics you would then go to the kick at around 186hz and scoop that out and let the low/low mids from the bass fill that in.

In theory everything should be sitting nice and pretty now. And when mixing down, I would try and filter out everything below 180hz-200hz on ALL your tracks except the bass and kick or anything that should obviously have some low end on it. It will help clean up that lower end. And make sure you do it on everything, even your hi hats because you never know what was sampled and there still might be some rumble from the mic when it was recorded.

Cheers mate and best of luck