Some feedback / advice on a tune - 'dissonance'

blend107

blend107

Koherent
Joined
Feb 9, 2013
Hey guys,
Finished this tune and sent it around to some labels. One label came back to me and told me that there was dissonance around 55 seconds in. I'm not the best with music theory and as such was hoping that someone here would be able to help me in figuring out how to fix this issue.

The track in question is here: www.soundcloud.com/subdivisiondnb/music-talks/s-c05b1

I would embed the link but it was wasnt working when i tried it earlier (probs me being stupid)
Although I know what the meaning of dissonance is, I can't figure out what sounds off about it.
Thanks!
 
Dissonace is the most obvious music theory problem... you play some notes at the same time and they clash horribly.
Trouble is, people become blind to this when they write dance music which repeats a lot, they hear the clash so often that they get used to it and think it sounds ok. It's called ear fatigue and I I think I had it a bit when I was writing the tune in my sig.

I can't exactly tell you how to fix this because my aural skills are terrible. It would be helpful if you posted the notes around that point and the piano chord would be helpful too.
 
smoothassilk said:
Dissonace is the most obvious music theory problem... you play some notes at the same time and they clash horribly.
Trouble is, people become blind to this when they write dance music which repeats a lot, they hear the clash so often that they get used to it and think it sounds ok. It's called ear fatigue and I I think I had it a bit when I was writing the tune in my sig.

I can't exactly tell you how to fix this because my aural skills are terrible. It would be helpful if you posted the notes around that point and the piano chord would be helpful too.
Click to expand...

Cheers for the reply.
Yeah I went back into the project and uploaded a bit of it so it's easier to hear.

www.soundcloud.com/subdivisiondnb/dissonance/s-7Z2cE

I changed one of the notes at 8 seconds from where is was at 19 seconds - do you think this sounds better?
The pianos in E, and that bass note was in E (19 seconds) but I've now moved it up to B (at 8 seconds).
Think I'm going nuts as I've heard this tune for too long.
Thanks!
 
The loop sounds great until half way through the third bar and then the 4th bar as well, from (0:07 - 0:12) and 0:18 - 0:20). Only in terms of dissonance though. The mix sounds great.
Sounds like you should definitely take a breather and come back to it in a day or two, otherwise you'll just drive yourself crazy. I've been there before.
If you can work out what key you're in, the rest should fall into place.
 
Yea it still sounds a bit off.
If you have any musical knowlegde, just stay in the scale of the rootnote.

maybe it's because of the bass itself too, is de wobble in the bass done with pitch bends/ detuning? if so, it could be because of that as well
 
Thanks for all of your thoughts. I took a break over the last few days and looked at it again - changed some more notes.
Would it be too much to ask for you guys to have another listen? Got the first 8 bars and new notes and the second 8 as old notes, which I think makes it a bit easier to compare.
.I think the new notes might be better but again I might be overtweaking it.
www.soundcloud.com/subdivisiondnb/more-disonance/s-4w849
Much appreciated, thanks for the sound advice so far
 
blend107 said:
Thanks for all of your thoughts. I took a break over the last few days and looked at it again - changed some more notes.
Would it be too much to ask for you guys to have another listen? Got the first 8 bars and new notes and the second 8 as old notes, which I think makes it a bit easier to compare.
.I think the new notes might be better but again I might be overtweaking it.
www.soundcloud.com/subdivisiondnb/more-disonance/s-4w849
Much appreciated, thanks for the sound advice so far
Click to expand...

Yea that's definitely better!
 
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