Looking for critique on "Street Party" a new 90's inspired song by me...

[YoungProdigy]

Hey, YoungProdigy here. I just finished "Street Party"; a 90's inspired track.

 

You can listen to it here:

https://soundcloud.com/youngprodigymusic/young-prodigy-street-party

 

As always, critique is welcome.

[Ame-No-Naka]

It's great.

 

One small thing: There is a cymbal (?) hit following the hole music and it gets a little annoying. Maybe you can tune it dow or change its straight/velocity in some points to make it more natural.

 

Except for that i thing its pretty good. 

[timaeus222]

I think you should listen more closely to real instruments, because everything here needs more realistic velocity variation. The open hi hat on the right is rather loud, the clap-snare at 0:15 and elsewhere is quantized with no velocity variation, the synth leads all throughout are only sustaining with no expression, the synth guitar and strings are lacking realistic velocity variation, etc. As a result, I just hear a lifelessness to the track. In other words, it sounds like you downloaded a MIDI and replaced instruments, keeping the velocities all the same (which you didn't, but it sounds that way).

 

Try listening for the expressiveness of everything in here. There's motion, vibrato, a purposeful stereo field, tonal variation, interesting chord progressions, a full soundscape, etc.

[YoungProdigy]

I think you should listen more closely to real instruments, because everything here needs more realistic velocity variation. The open hi hat on the right is rather loud, the clap-snare at 0:15 and elsewhere is quantized with no velocity variation, the synth leads all throughout are only sustaining with no expression, the synth guitar and strings are lacking realistic velocity variation, etc. As a result, I just hear a lifelessness to the track. In other words, it sounds like you downloaded a MIDI and replaced instruments, keeping the velocities all the same (which you didn't, but it sounds that way).

 

Try listening for the expressiveness of everything in here. There's motion, vibrato, a purposeful stereo field, tonal variation, interesting chord progressions, a full soundscape, etc

Thanks for the critique. But as far as the drums go I wasn't really going for realism. Even with that being said though, I agree that the clap could use more velocity variation.

 

The strings, hi-hat and clean guitar do currently have velocity variation. But I might try to add more variations in the velocities.

 

I also agree that the synth could have more expression. Other than vibrato, what else could I do to add expression to it.

[timaeus222]

The drums don't have to feel real, but I think the sequencing should be less machine-gun-like to at least be more realistic. I say this because you do have the resources to do so.

 

I did hear velocity variation in the strings, hi hat, and clean guitar, but it didn't come off as realistic to me; if you do vary the velocities, try doing it manually, rather than using some sort of pre-programmed humanization function in your DAW.

 

You could add a few portamento notes here and there, pitch bends, filter motion, more intricate sequencing, or any combination of these. Vibrato really helps at the bare minimum though.

[YoungProdigy]

The drums don't have to feel real, but I think the sequencing should be less machine-gun-like to at least be more realistic. I say this because you do have the resources to do so.

 

I did hear velocity variation in the strings, hi hat, and clean guitar, but it didn't come off as realistic to me; if you do vary the velocities, try doing it manually, rather than using some sort of pre-programmed humanization function in your DAW.

 

You could add a few portamento notes here and there, pitch bends, filter motion, more intricate sequencing, or any combination of these. Vibrato really helps at the bare minimum though.

Thanks I'll probably try to change velocities by hand from now on. Currently I've been using a velocity randomizer; which as you stated, doesn't always come off as realistic.

 

I'll also try to add more vibrato and pitch bends to my lead synths to give them more expression.

[theartinme]

Great track, I agree with what others said about the cymbal volume and instrument velocity.