Single that I really would like to send out - Nerve Drain / Surrealism

Menosance

aka OSOI
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Apr 3, 2012
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Malta
Hi guys,

I hope you are all well . Basically, here is a single which i really would like to send out to small but good labels.

This here is Nerve Drain. This has already been featured in this forum section but now it has been fixed to sound even more better. Do tell me what is your opinion about the changes and the track.
https://soundcloud.com/menosance/ecachia94-gmail-com-1/s-cUSCe


This here is the B-Side of the single and it is called Surrealism. I went completely artistic in idea and vibe but still kept myself a little bit conventional to D&B. I still classify it as tech though it isn't the same tech that you would expect from Mefjus or Billain. Do please critize. All opinions are welcome.
https://soundcloud.com/menosance/ecachia94-gmail-com/s-krAr4

Finally, my question is this. Are these 2 tracks good enough to send to labels?? Be honest.

Thanks, Much Love
Meno
 
Gonna be honest mate, both are pretty pants, I am not gonna beat around the bush but they are nowhere near good enough for pretty much any self respecting labels, they are lacking punchand definition and the lead in one of them sounds like a nursery rhyme. I hate to be horrible dude, but people have gotta be honest with you for you to improve!
 
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Gonna be honest mate, both are pretty pants, I am not gonna beat around the bush but they are nowhere near good enough for pretty much any self respecting labels, they are lacking punchand definition and the lead in one of them sounds like a nursery rhyme. I hate to be horrible dude, but people have gotta be honest with you for you to improve!

Actually, thank you for your honest. Man, I just can't understand why I have lost my touch in music production. Second time this week, with another two tracks being criticized for being with basic sounds and arrangements. Maybe I am having a bad week but something's wrong. Still, thanks man for the truth. Saved my ass from the embarassment.
 
Actually, thank you for your honest. Man, I just can't understand why I have lost my touch in music production. Second time this week, with another two tracks being criticized for being with basic sounds and arrangements. Maybe I am having a bad week but something's wrong. Still, thanks man for the truth. Saved my ass from the embarassment.

Look into sampling stuff mate, dont be afraid to sample leads and pads, take a listen to the sort of music you like and work on that basis!
 
Look into sampling stuff mate, dont be afraid to sample leads and pads, take a listen to the sort of music you like and work on that basis!

I do some sampling in all of my tracks which makes my case worse. Ehh, this is a strange place for me that I am in right now.
 
nerve drain deffo has potential i just really don't like the synth coming in at 1:28, just kind of kills the whole vibe and sounds a bit amateurish

surrealism is just a bit weird for me, mixdowns are both better than before I think, wouldn't send them to a label though but if you think they are good enough then you should go for it, you always need to ask yourself, is this the best i can do? and if the answer is no just try harder, maybe start a different project in the meantime, I wrote one track in two weeks and am pretty much happy with mixdown and everything and I have been sitting at another one for over a year (arrangement is already done) but I just can't get the mixdown and bass to a point where I am happy with it and I think it sounds professional.

Also One general thing I noticed especially with bass is that often it just sounds that much fuller and more professional if you layer it with the same sound, just with a few variations and bands (more detuning, more/less/different distortion), just don't overdo it.
 
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also being honest, they both need a lot more going on. the first one especially, what you have there is the bones, now you need to add the flesh! make some mid range bass sounds, at the moment theres only really a sub. Make a little hook using some bass noises. some fx here and there, white noise sweeps, tweaks, reverby hits, throw them in everywhere.

Just out of itnerest, how many tracks does the first one contain?
 
nerve drain deffo has potential i just really don't like the synth coming in at 1:28, just kind of kills the whole vibe and sounds a bit amateurish

surrealism is just a bit weird for me, mixdowns are both better than before I think, wouldn't send them to a label though but if you think they are good enough then you should go for it, you always need to ask yourself, is this the best i can do? and if the answer is no just try harder, maybe start a different project in the meantime, I wrote one track in two weeks and am pretty much happy with mixdown and everything and I have been sitting at another one for over a year (arrangement is already done) but I just can't get the mixdown and bass to a point where I am happy with it and I think it sounds professional.

Also One general thing I noticed especially with bass is that often it just sounds that much fuller and more professional if you layer it with the same sound, just with a few variations and bands (more detuning, more/less/different distortion), just don't overdo it.

Thanks man. The thing about detuning is that I just can't hear the difference when I apply it. Different distortion levels is something I was thinking about actually.

I am just going to leave Nerve Drain for now, but still thinking about pushing on with Surrealism. You saw it as a bit weird - that is the point. That is why it's called Surrealism. I made it to be 'confusing' hence, that is why I said that I wanted to go completely artistic. I am having thoughts whether I should send it out or not but I have to see if people like the idea of Surrealism.

Thanks man for commenting :)
 
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also being honest, they both need a lot more going on. the first one especially, what you have there is the bones, now you need to add the flesh! make some mid range bass sounds, at the moment theres only really a sub. Make a little hook using some bass noises. some fx here and there, white noise sweeps, tweaks, reverby hits, throw them in everywhere.

Just out of itnerest, how many tracks does the first one contain?

Thanks man for commenting :). It contains 8 channels.
 
Thanks man for commenting It contains 8 channels.

I think thats where your problems lie! Most of my tunes have between 35-60 different track in. Thats where variation comes in. Even if its just a verby hit thats only heard 4 or 5 times. If you have lots, they all add up!
 
I think thats where your problems lie! Most of my tunes have between 35-60 different track in. Thats where variation comes in. Even if its just a verby hit thats only heard 4 or 5 times. If you have lots, they all add up!

the thing is that when I apply automation to a channel I don't bounce it to audio. I'll still keep it in MIDI form. Or If the kicks and snares are in a audio format, I usually insert their variations on the same channel.
 
the thing is that when I apply automation to a channel I don't bounce it to audio. I'll still keep it in MIDI form. Or If the kicks and snares are in a audio format, I usually insert their variations on the same channel.

thats fine, i never really bounce automations, especially not filters on drums and stuff. all im saying is i think you need a lot more going on in your tracks to keep the listener interested, as they tend to repeat a lot. as i said, youve got a good skeleton here, just needs a bit more flesh put on it!
 
The thing about detuning is that I just can't hear the difference when I apply it.
Are you serious!? There's definitely something wrong if you can't hear it.

Do you realise that you have to have two copies of the thing the same, then detune one a little bit one way, and the other a little bit the other way. It's impossible to hear if you only have one copy of the sound.

I can see that this track has improved a fair bit since last I heard, but you've still got a long way to go. I think it needs a bigger bass sound, really kinda throbbing and powerful, but not wobbly or growly. Try making 2 (or even more) duplicates of the same sound, then detuning them all different amounts. Whilst I respect that you shouldn't copy, the tutorials on youtube for 'make this fat dirty bass from song x' are useful, because they contain so many different sound design techniques.

What synth do you use?
Whatever it is, take some time to learn what the dials do. I don't just mean play with them and listen, I mean use the internet and learn a little bit of theory. Same goes for FX plugins. You don't need to know what they are all for exactly (especially frequency/phase/ampliude/ring modulation, that's a nightmare to understand in detail), but you should have a good idea what their purpose is and how they affect a sound.
 
I listened to Nerve Drain, and I agree that more could be going on, especially in the intro. I also felt there could be more variation in the leads/melodies. I wonder if it's just a question of song organization? You have a lot of good ideas in the track, but they don't always seem to gel together.

Traditional music (which is good to learn from) is surprisingly formulaic and predictable. I found it helped me to study the sonata form, which is basically melody A, melody B, melody C (which could just be A+B), then a second section which is just VARIATIONS and expositions on A, B, and C, and then a restatement of A, B, and C. While I don't follow this structure exactly, anymore, often when I feel a song lack cohesion I start asking myself how the melodies relate to each other, and how they progress as the song's "story" unfolds.
 
Hah, I feel like I'm "overdoing" it personally with tracks, I use like 100-120 tracks per project.
Simplicity isn't always a bad thing, but need to be very careful with it or the track starts to get boring.

This is something which I need to keep attentive on. I try to have as neccessary as possible. But it seems I need more.
 
Less can be more, but with DnB in particular it's good to keep the listeners attention with lots of small fx variations and such.
Or a very rolling break works as well sometimes.
 
Are you serious!? There's definitely something wrong if you can't hear it.

Do you realise that you have to have two copies of the thing the same, then detune one a little bit one way, and the other a little bit the other way. It's impossible to hear if you only have one copy of the sound.

I can see that this track has improved a fair bit since last I heard, but you've still got a long way to go. I think it needs a bigger bass sound, really kinda throbbing and powerful, but not wobbly or growly. Try making 2 (or even more) duplicates of the same sound, then detuning them all different amounts. Whilst I respect that you shouldn't copy, the tutorials on youtube for 'make this fat dirty bass from song x' are useful, because they contain so many different sound design techniques.

What synth do you use?
Whatever it is, take some time to learn what the dials do. I don't just mean play with them and listen, I mean use the internet and learn a little bit of theory. Same goes for FX plugins. You don't need to know what they are all for exactly (especially frequency/phase/ampliude/ring modulation, that's a nightmare to understand in detail), but you should have a good idea what their purpose is and how they affect a sound.

I listened to Nerve Drain, and I agree that more could be going on, especially in the intro. I also felt there could be more variation in the leads/melodies. I wonder if it's just a question of song organization? You have a lot of good ideas in the track, but they don't always seem to gel together.

Traditional music (which is good to learn from) is surprisingly formulaic and predictable. I found it helped me to study the sonata form, which is basically melody A, melody B, melody C (which could just be A+B), then a second section which is just VARIATIONS and expositions on A, B, and C, and then a restatement of A, B, and C. While I don't follow this structure exactly, anymore, often when I feel a song lack cohesion I start asking myself how the melodies relate to each other, and how they progress as the song's "story" unfolds.

Guys, I thank you for your comments. For now, I am going back to the books (tutorials) focusing mainly on the Random and Scale MIDI effect (I use Ableton live 9 btw) and I am trying to find a tutorial on detuning. I am also looking at how to make white noise sweeps. Should I look at other tutorials concerning other stuff?

I shall be making development projects which would help me figure these stuff out. I'll still be plotting new tracks down but only not to lose the emotions that would have.

One thing though, I learned that if you want to create a track, aim for a vibe not just open a blank project and start messing something in it.

- - - Updated - - -

Less can be more, but with DnB in particular it's good to keep the listeners attention with lots of small fx variations and such.
Or a very rolling break works as well sometimes.

Something will be done don't you worry. I want this to be become full - time so bad. I won't stop till I get it right.
 
The intro needs more elements but the ones you already have in place are sounding quite good. You basically need a serious EQ over haul. Your bassline isn't too bad, you just need to change up the drop and get a more appropriate melody together.

Also, the constant hi hat/ride cymbals are a bit naff. Get some individual reverb going on the drums too.
 
white noise sweeps in ableton are very easy man. all you need is operator - select the white noise oscilator. bounce a long midi note to audio. then eq out the low end, add a high pass filter and automate to taste. job done! can add distortion, lfos to the filter, etc etc if you want it more interesting! also automate the volume using Utility. As you say, go back to the books, learn some new techniques, then implement them
 
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