Looking for critique on an EDM song I wrote for a game...

[YoungProdigy]

Hey, YoungProdigy here. I recently wrote an intro song for a game called "Octoforce". I would describe it as EDM with a piano lead.

 

Listen to it here:

https://soundcloud.com/youngprodigymusic/octoforce-intro

 

As always, critique is welcome.

[timaeus222]

Note-wise it shows promise. I think the buildups are all the same though, and in some cases it works and in others it gives a false sense of energy. The buildup you have at 0:08 - 0:16, 0:39 - 0:47, 1:01 - 1:09, 1:27 - 1:31 and 1:42 - 1:46 have identical snare sequencing and/or ambient hits, but they're all used for different purposes. The first and second ones prepare me for something so high energy that I feel disappointed when I don't get that. The third one makes some sense, but I'm still not getting something as high energy as you make me anticipate. The fourth one didn't even build up to anything (if it wasn't there, I wouldn't notice a thing different), nor the last one either (is this track incomplete or is that supposed to be an ending?). Huh?

 

Drum programming is supposed to reflect the current level of energy in a track, and evoke a sense of where you are going, structurally. It can also set a particular mood, or, in buildups, make you anticipate a change in the level of energy. Try thinking about what you want your listener to think by the time they listen to the end of the buildups you do, and if your writing doesn't imply or match that, then it doesn't make sense for the buildup to be there, or it doesn't make sense for the buildup to lead to that particular section in your track. Snare buildups with continually subdivided hits implies the anticipation of quite a high energy section.

 

Also, while not quite as important since it's supposed to be for a game AND it's supposed to be EDM, in my opinion, the piano notes sound too mechanical because they're detached at times when the notes played make more sense objectively to ring on rather than stop suddenly in the middle of their decay (0:00 - 0:02, for example, is easiest to notice IMO). To be more specific, it sounds like they're literally being muted as they're being played, which I have never seen a real pianist purposefully do. What you could do to help this is to, again, practice using reverb and putting it to use. Reverb would have helped to hide the mechanical notes on this piano sample.

 

tl;dr: Practice more with reverb, and try to think about when your buildups sound anticlimactic or out of place. For a cliche example of what not to do in EDM:

https://soundcloud.com/zeb-ro/hashtag