Feedback on new track: Tropix

[Kc1336]

Hullo guys, I've been high on life recently and got back in the swing of writing happy-go-lucky tunes and this is the result of that, I call it..

Tropix

I'd love to hear your feedback on it, production-wise I'm still a little foggy on as I'm actually studying mastering on these tracks a little more than my previous ones, I'd really appreciate and tips and advice on the subject!

Cheers,

Case.

[Dissidia]

1:28 could have a new melody to give it some more variation and make the main melody/chorus feel more special.

Pleasant song, not sure what it reminds me of but some kind of Donkey Kong/Crash Bandicoot mixed with Destiny Island from Kingdom Hearts.

[Kc1336]

Thanks, I'll have a play around with a new melody for that part, I feel the bass could use a bit of variation since stepping back from the music and listening to it with fresher ears too. Thanks for the feedback!

[timaeus222]

Sounds like a beach house song.

Instrumentation makes sense; it's just the instrument quality that is a bit on the weak side. The claps in the intro are a bit mechanical in terms of velocities, and could also benefit from some wide panning (stereo delay with really short delay times).

0:06 toms feel backwards. Naturally, toms are panned from right to left for tom rolls. 0:07 lead is nice, but it needs some phrasing on the velocities, as well as some expression modulation (vibrato).

0:22 could benefit from a soft cymbal to connect the two sections. I notice the calliopes are widely panned, so you know how to do it, I think.

At 0:37, the two leads are fighting for attention. Try panning them further apart from each other for more clarity. 0:53 adding in that guitar clutters things up some more. Maybe that panning will alleviate that guitar's position in the center.

Drums at 1:07 are a bit mechanical. Try adjusting the velocities a bit more while imagining a real person playing it. 1:20 snare roll is the most evidently mechanical, for instance.

Any section with those claps, like at 1:53, feel slightly mechanical on the second clap on every pair of claps. Guiro is a tad dry.

Fun atmosphere though, and pretty decent production.

[Kc1336]

Thanks for the critique, timaeus!

I see my biggest problem is the mechanical sound, I'll take some time out to play around with these techniques to humanize the sound more. With the panning, I actually used the default panning on these instruments as it sounded pretty good at the time, listening through headphones, however, bring outs the cluttered-ness, so I'll definitely amend that.

Thanks again for the feedback!