N00bie learning to build atmospheres. Need feedback/criticism

a few suggestions...

your chords, rather than pitching an entire chord down one note, try pitching just one note of the chord down or up, the top note works well, just move it up one semitone, so for eg C to C sharp, A to A sharp (white note upto next black note, or next white note if there isnt a black one next to it) - this is best done at the end of a phrase for just 1 hit, or half a bar or a whole bar, then back to the original chord, for eg at the end of 4, 8 or 16 bars, this adds 'suspense' to your chord progression and allows the chords to come back in the next phrase feeling fresh

try to build your phrases around more bars, rather than over 1 or 2 bars, build them over 4, 8 or 16, and dont keep things constant, for eg the first 4 bars may have the full chord structure, the next 4 bars only one or two notes or hits, then the chord pitching I described above for the last bar, and back to the full chord for the next phrase

those 2 things are pretty quick ways to help get rid of loopyness in your phrases...it takes time to really put it to good use tho, keep at it :)


for atmospherics, the easiest thing to do is a single note pad, EQ it so that you remove the warmth (~400hz) and also the position in the stereo field (~700hz), depending on the sound you probably want to do a shallow, wide band db reduction on those freq bands, a bit of high end reverb 5-20% will help give a bit more space, and remeber to keep the volume down, hi-freqz dont need to be loud in the mix to have a big impact on the atmosphere and stereo field

put little sounds at the start and end of phrases, 4, 8 and 16 bars, dont repeat sounds, and dont worry about using complex sounds, it could be something as simple as a reversed hi-hat at the end of the bar, with a touch of long-tail hi-passed reverb or delay, or a short vocal sample with ping-pong delay, remeber to keep them quiet, atmospherics should be in the background, unless they are a more important aspect of the track


I like the vibe you got going, try those tips out and see how you get on :)
 
miszt said:
a few suggestions...

your chords, rather than pitching an entire chord down one note, try pitching just one note of the chord down or up, the top note works well, just move it up one semitone, so for eg C to C sharp, A to A sharp (white note upto next black note, or next white note if there isnt a black one next to it) - this is best done at the end of a phrase for just 1 hit, or half a bar or a whole bar, then back to the original chord, for eg at the end of 4, 8 or 16 bars, this adds 'suspense' to your chord progression and allows the chords to come back in the next phrase feeling fresh

try to build your phrases around more bars, rather than over 1 or 2 bars, build them over 4, 8 or 16, and dont keep things constant, for eg the first 4 bars may have the full chord structure, the next 4 bars only one or two notes or hits, then the chord pitching I described above for the last bar, and back to the full chord for the next phrase

those 2 things are pretty quick ways to help get rid of loopyness in your phrases...it takes time to really put it to good use tho, keep at it :)


for atmospherics, the easiest thing to do is a single note pad, EQ it so that you remove the warmth (~400hz) and also the position in the stereo field (~700hz), depending on the sound you probably want to do a shallow, wide band db reduction on those freq bands, a bit of high end reverb 5-20% will help give a bit more space, and remeber to keep the volume down, hi-freqz dont need to be loud in the mix to have a big impact on the atmosphere and stereo field

put little sounds at the start and end of phrases, 4, 8 and 16 bars, dont repeat sounds, and dont worry about using complex sounds, it could be something as simple as a reversed hi-hat at the end of the bar, with a touch of long-tail hi-passed reverb or delay, or a short vocal sample with ping-pong delay, remeber to keep them quiet, atmospherics should be in the background, unless they are a more important aspect of the track


I like the vibe you got going, try those tips out and see how you get on :)
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Thank you so much for taking the time to listen and respond. I greatly appreciate it! I have all day off and will be following your suggestions, Ive only been producing for a year so I have a long way to go but feedback like yours is what will help push me further. Thank you.
 
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