StaticNomad

Yo. This is cool. But then they're clearly great loops. Not sure why people just give this level of composition away. To be honest, I wouldn't!

Can't fault any of the arranging here.

As you said you were always looking for new music, here are a couple more suggestions, following on from previous recommendations:

Remember the Golden Teardrops mashup? That Wax Audio guy is brilliant and has 3 albums of mashups free to download. The latest is my favourite and I've enjoyed listening to it a lot and prefer some of his mashups now to the original tracks.

Here it is:

http://www.waxaudio.com.au/2012/06/14/mashopolos-iii-mashups-for-the-people-2

And here is Beardyman, probably my favourite musical performer alive, doing his looped vocal (no other instruments or samples) version of Teardrop.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwweTmR3ZoU

Check out everything that guy does as he is a true sonic genius and a great comedian too.

Finally, here is an exceptional remix of the Warpaint song Undertow. Much groovier than their version.

https://soundcloud.com/ikona-music/warpaint-undertow-night-plane

That should keep you going for a bit More suggestions next time!

Oh well done - you finally got around to replying to everyone, including me.

And I decided to listen again and really enjoyed it again, even without any changes and improvements. That really is a remarkable female vocal.

Maybe Nepaul sounds a little like Eminem. But Eminem has a more nasal voice but is a brilliant rapper - one of the best ever.

Good luck with learning guitar and English...

I'm becoming more and more impressed with your stuff.

This is very distinctive work. Probably mostly because of that vocal.

Zplane Vielklang is a hell of a name. Never heard of it before.

With the lack of movement in this (that's not a complaint) this seems quite long enough.

I find this more haunting than dark. Meditative too. I like the end where you remove the ambient beds.

Can you link me up to the original track the vocal is from?

Lots of people will enjoy this, as you shall soon find out.

Well done.

"This means a lot to me and reading it has just made my day."

No problem, man. You deserve it. We all need some appreciation for the music we make and things we do (me included) and it's good to just hear what someone else thought, even if it's critical (which can help you improve).

I write lots of very long reviews of people's stuff and always try to listen closely and give time references for what I'm talking about so they can understand what I am saying.

Reason is awesome. If you need synths, drums, loads of FX that work beautifully, think about adding it. But all DAWs these days are great. We're spoilt for choice! No excuses not to make cool music. Please make some more and upload it here...

I forgot to say that I'm also a Cubase 6.5 user. I've run it together with Reason since 2001.

Not a particular Cubase fan, just have a lot of old work in there which I need to get round to finishing so I'm kind of locked in.

Never really used Groove Agent, Halion a bit a long time ago. Probably got similar things in Reason but maybe I'll give GA more of a try.

Padshop is a pretty cool synth and I keep forgetting to use it more.

Again, well done with this cool bit of meditative hip hop.

Hi. I love the title to this. Not many people seem to comment on track titles on this site - don't know why. I think I have some interesting ones eg An Early Morning Appointment With God.

I'll watch your mashup video later.

Nice arpeggiated stuff in my right speaker. Some of it is a bit dream and/or childlike.

Good lazy drum groove (good snare there) and cool, moody and beautiful strings.

I think I would have preferred it to have been longer but understand it's probably short for a good reason.

Good work!

Wicked. Meant to review this a few days ago, thought I'd made it a favourite but hadn't. So had to go searching for it again. Found it eventually.

Screw the other 20 people who have listened to this and not commented. This is such an awesome chill groove with such a cool vibe. Love that bass, the electric piano lead. Then there's that second lead brass instrument, with its menacing little melody

2:16 cool little stutter.

This is almost perfect, except for the vocal. I will download it and listen more.

Well produced, cool drums. Couldn't ask for more.

That vocal is OK, just not as good as the rest. Doesn't give it much of a lift when it comes in. I like the idea of having the vocal there, just think you could find something better to use.

Excellent work.

If you want to check some of my very long form trippy hip hop related stuff try Right Place Wrong Century, Zero Per Cent Proof and Way Beyond Wrong.

Will check more of your tracks. Take care.

Hi. This is quite emotive stuff and the intro definitely draws me in.

0:16 that's a great main melody and the percussion sits well behind it.

0:48 main theme gets bigger and more powerful. Nice way of extending that melody there.

This is actually really good so, if you are new to this, you are a fast learner.

What sort of music do you normally make?

The overall feel of this is very classy and sophisticated, with a bit of an Eastern vibe. Good, epic stuff that could be in something like Game Of Thrones (for some of the scenes not supposed to be set in Britain).

Good length too. I might have to listen again and more closely to find anything to criticise!

Virkelig godt!

This is haunting stuff and could end up being part of a big cinematic composition with strings and piano and stuff. I guess that would be the sort of obvious route to take.

Or it could be a good starting point for a tight, beat-driven track that would really give that track a great and interesting bed of sound. Could be hip hop or some uptempo pumping dance music.

What sort of ideas or direction or genre/style did you have in mind for this?

The tone of the voice here reminds me just a little bit a brilliant singer called Lia Ices. Please look her up or just listen to this amazing song:

Lia Ices - Ice Wine

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfrwEyyRsIY

Hi. I don't really know what you're doing on here (just vocals?) but it all sounds great. Love that little quick violin intro.

Good vocal with tone and character in the voice. Quite a deep tone it. Lyrics are pretty fast and tight and the reverb sound great. I like the rise of the voice on the words 'hold on'.

Short and sweet so I'd prefer it to be about a minute longer.

Good work.

Well, I didn't plan to write so much. But, once I got started, I kept finding so many things I needed to mention and praise. Gotta let you know I noticed them. You've probably noticed by now that I write as much as or more than pretty much anyone on this site.

Check out all of Underworld's stuff. Their most popular are their first two albums from the 90s but my favourite is the bizarrely titled Beaucoup Fish. It contain tracks like the aforementioned Jumbo and outrageously good, groovy dance classics like this absolute monster:

Underworld - Shudder / King of Snake

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pi9buHnx9rU

So, I of course listened again. 4:26 is that funky, filtered guitar? I'm not sure but if it's just synth, it's very guitar-like and clipped and funky.

That other lead, chilled guitar seems to sound better this time though perhaps doesn't fully develop into something more powerful.

Sorry, but I still don't think you've got the stutter edit right. It's awkward and out of time, needs to last a couple of beats more or not stutter at all, just go into the slowdown effect at the end. Gotta be careful to get stutter edits right.

Check out the killer hip hop stutter edit stuff from another 90s classic electronic act, the Chemical Brothers. This is done brilliantly and I've seen it screw people up trying to dance live at Glastonbury (I was there watching this in 1997).

The Chemical Brothers - 04 - Piku

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7ZoVCuQcD8

" it's the obvious thing to do in a way...but it doesn't do it justice and makes a good thing dull."

Well, I'm glad we agree. I took a slight risk of offence writing that as you might have absolutely loved this version.

If I were a record company boss I'd probably say go with the MOR version.

Damn, just realised you've reverted back to the original so I can't comment on the longer one.

Anyway, the record company would say do the longer MOR version, make a video, have some hot women fawning over your suited lead singer, people get their lighters out and sway and all that.

But, you've got an opportunity to do something unexpected with this. Just through you choice of music over those same vocals.

First off: make the longer version groove a lot more. You'll probably do some sort of electro pop funk though I'd prefer to see a bit of edge. Make it slightly rougher and darker and edgier and it could stand out as something quite different.

I think the 2 min version sort of does everything you need for its vibe and then the other 3.5 mins didn't add anything, just sort of plodded along.

Give the extended version some real balls and people will probably enjoy the surprise.

I look forward to hearing what you choose.

Really didn't understand your previous reply of "Thanks. I think we had the same idea...ish...let me know :)"

Now I get it - there's a full version. But I don't think we did have the same idea!

1:52 drum fill definitely isn't right. It comes in too early, before that vocal and mood has decayed.

So, this continuation continues (when the drums enter)in the most obvious and natural way. With my eclectic sort of tastes, I was sort of hoping for something slightly more unusual.

It's all pleasant but maybe, with those drums, a bit light and middle of the road. They're not really making the track kick or groove. Might be better without them, as in first 2 mins.

I was hoping they'd come in and really make the whole thing take off with some deep grooves. Strange that it overall feels like quite a short track. I'm still trying to work out why as 5:46 is a pretty decent length.

So, overall, and other people may shoot me down for saying this, I preferred the 2 min version. But don't worry too much about my opinion and preferences as lots of other people will love this.

You never did say who the vocalist is.

Yo. You're really very good at this upbeat chillout thing.

A term I came up with in my teenage years, and one style of music I knew I really wanted to make, was 'upbeat ambient'. I probably also enjoyed the supposed contradiction there.

Here's a wonderful bit of upbeat ambient from a group very influential to me in my teenage years:

Underworld - Jumbo (Album Version)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVLAcKRmjt4

Back to your track:

Good, held-note pre-intro. Then arpeggiated part is cool and driven along nicely those tasty reverbed, kickless drums (kickless so you can make the track take off when you bring it in).

Tat's a pretty mean and massive kick - sort of takes this more into a harder type of dance than chillout stuff. As does your big bassline on 1:58.

Everything's sitting very nicely - sounds like it could go on for ages. What's that crunch you have at the start of the bar eg 2:27? Sounds like some distortion there.

Very tasty little keyboard fill on 2:34 and pleasant, sparse little solo after that.

3:26 it sounds like a vocal has come it. No, something else - maybe even guitar.

Really banging now.

4:25 and we is gettin funky. But only for 15 secs or so. Gotta get back to main banging theme.

Next couple of minutes are enjoyable returns to previous themes, without doing anything especially new in them. Net awesome thing for me is fill at 6:37.

So, you've done some sort of stutter edit there and then slow down. However, I'd say you haven't got it right yet Needs to be smoother. Sounds a bit too awkward before the slowdown eg on 6:34. Should probably continue for a couple more measures. Sounds too much like and effect gone a bit wrong rather than a cool way that the track moves. I still like it - I just know you can make it better and more natural-sounding.

Not so keen on the fadeout ending but the rest was damn cool. Good length too.

That should give you a few things to think about!

Word up, bass crusader. I had a 5 min look at the Akai MAX25. I have had something quite similar for about 5 years, though I don't use it much. It's the Novation Remote SL 37. Tiny little drum pads do technically work but are so small - you can only really play them with fingers. So, not much better than a keyboard, really.

I do the great bulk of my stuff (aside from actual instrument playing) just with the mouse. Have always wanted to get into controllers but never got on that well with them though controllering filtering etc with a rotary control (being a knob twidler) is good fun. But I still tend to just draw it in as I'm good at that. But different people get on with different things.

You'll probably tell me you have no keyboard at all. Yes, you should definitely get one and an all-round controller such as the one you mentioned (there are loads of similar ones, I can't keep track of them all, don't even try). You say you're no good on keyboard. Neither am I (especially two-handed) but I can sometimes knock out some pretty cool stuff, which I then loop up. I can even play some half-decent solos, from time to time. But I don't know how much synth-based stuff you want to do. I do a lot but quality drums are probably a more important thing for you to get.

You really misunderstand EZ and Superior Drummer (and similar products). You have to have the actual proprietary host program to play their content ie the drum sounds that they have recorded and named and assigned to each separate part of the kit and MIDI-mapped etc etc. You can't just buy the expansion packs. You're probably getting confused with something such as REX files, which is an audio file format which can be played in various programs. EZ Drummer kits will only play in...EZ Drummer.Go to the websites of companies such as Toontrack or BFD or look for a music tech article titled something like "Which drum software?" Or read reviews in Sound On Sound for, say, EZ, Superior and BFD. That will tell you a lot as they generally discuss what your other options are when reviewing each product.

I wasn't offering you actual drum audio content (ie the sounds), only MIDI files. MIDI files will play in anything with MIDI - even the Quicktime player plays MIDI files.

I may have occasionally lost a whole comment when posting. I also tend to copy it to the clipboard first, just in case. Sometimes I even compose it in a separate document file.

P.S. I have never seen an episode of Jeopardy! (not sure if it's even broadcast in UK) but I have seen it played briefly many times in American movies. Rewatched Groundhog Day (great existential, Zen comedy) this Xmas and Bill Murray's watching it in one scene, getting all the answers right because he's seen the same show so many times.

Wow, this is brilliant. Where the hell are those vocals from? Surely that must be some sort of 'name' singer?

This truly sounds like it could/should be a big hit. Boybands, crooners and all sorts of other people would love to sing it.

You may have gathered by now that I tend to like long (or very long) deep stuff. But I actually think this works fine at this really rather short length.

But it does promise so much more so perhaps you could do two versions?

If I were making it, my longer version might even kick straight into metal, just after the vocal has finished. I challenge you to do a longer version that is a surprise and maybe just keep the shorter version drumless and with the same vibe you have here.

Piano sounds great right from the off and I just had the feeling that everything else would be great too. I quite like how the strings and piano don't start at exactly the same time.

More to say but that will do for now.

Excellent work, no criticism at all.

Hi. I've already reviewed the instrumental version of this track so probably wont say anything about the music (except that it's good).

I was surprised by how good your vocals are on this. Nice tone in your voice - very chilled and they're simple, unforced and natural-sounding lines.

But maybe it would be better without the effect on your voice. Is there some autotune there?

Overall, well done as the vocals you have added fit well.

Yo, puny paramecium - I'm no expert but most drum software should play MIDI files made for other kits fairly correctly. A basic standard is that the kick is on keyboard note C1, snare D1, first hat on F#1. Toms on G1 and A1 - after that it can vary a bit though you can always reassign the MIDI notes.

Will think hard about MIDI files I might send. I could even send files of some of my drum arrangements. There's so much going on in one track that you could endlessly recycle them to make new arrangements. Yes it's my work but it's my recycling other people's skilful playing so just chop it up a fair bit, make it sound different again.

Download some sort of free ZIP program. There may be one as standard in Windows 8 but need to get a separate one for earlier Windows versions.

Playing percussion controller can be cool. Even if your drumming is only OK, it can be very rewarding to add your natural feeling. And fun too. I've had a full Yamaha electronic kit since 1999 but not used it in years - it's not even set up. I'd always planned to get a better one (eg Roland one, probably costing around $3,500) as the brain (the drum machine and sounds) on my Yamaha is pretty crap, as are the non-responsive pads. But I've got so good at programming and reworking other drummers' great playing that it might be a waste of money as my meagre playing is never going to compete with theirs.

I'll bet you're better at fast stuff than me. I can really only play any instrument fast, smoothly, in time and in the groove in shortish bursts.

Adding your own hits (plus some quantising, for error correction and/or variety) may well be quicker than my method of searching for the right drum groove from MIDI files and layering it with others to sculpt something interesting. But I don't mind the longer route. I have to spend a long time on the sort of stuff I do (I think the amount of work that has gone in is pretty obvious to most people) and lots of that is spent procrastinating whilst listening over and over again plus trying to decide on some sort of structure and then trying out more and more stuff in my attempts to squeeze everything I can out of a piece.

Don't forget that how you make the notes/do the playing is separate to the actual drum sounds that are being triggered/recorded. You need good ones. Danny Carey on some terrible, single-velocity GM MIDI kit still isn't going to sound too good!

"what I need to find are more MIDI kits" Yes - that's what the expansion packs that I buy for EZ and Superior are - more well-recorded different drum kits (plus new MIDI files with each one). There are so many types of snare, kicks, cymbals, toms etc. I feel you can never have too many.

P.S. Just in case you missed them, two tracks of mine with great metal drumming are Debt Black Hole and Lord Of Misrule.

Good work here. Definitely coming from a hip-hip background, as Crucethus said. But those guitars set it apart.

They don't sound like real played guitars to me but still work fine. You say they're 'synth guitars'. Is that programmed VSTs or do you mean physical synth guitars that someone (eg you) played?

This also has a bit of a rock/metal vibe and is a bit far out and ambient too. Overall, I'd say it's more rock than pop.

Well done.

Ah, so I'm the Red Giant, you the puny paramecium. Fair enough - I guess my musical might does tower over your feeble musical offerings. I stand astride my party barge filled with two of every musical instrument under the sun, ready to repopulate the planet with exotic instruments in case of a great flood. My barge has never visited the forbidden zone of DubstepLand, though it may eventually pay it a visit in the hope it can spread some of its mystical goodness to those backward, highly excitable savages inhabiting that strange place.

But the barge has often passed by your 4 String Isles, delivering leaflets of wisdom, with the occasional joke thrown in for good measure and mental nourishment.

I can't imagine I've helped you too much with your stuff. It's hard online, with only brief pointers and suggestions. Difficult to really explain stuff in any detail. All I can hope for is a few interesting things for you and others to reflect on, though I suppose I have also made software recommendations that people have followed and then enjoyed. But they might have done that later anyway, without my encouragement.

I continue to reply to your replies and write a fair bit in reviews because you're good at your replies and often give me a laugh and the occasional wonderful phrase and image, such as the party barge (my favourite). Sometimes you can help people just by amusing them and/or providing an interesting view on what it is they do. Doesn't have to be anything technical.

I will look and check what I have in the way of easily accessible drum MIDI files. I think I do have a bunch that could just be zipped up and sent. Others may be a lot more difficult and require me to export each individually, and rename it, which would take ages and ages. There's no way to quickly get access to all the excellent EZ MIDI files that you get with the kits, apart from within the program itself. That's probably to stop people sending them to others, especially as they do sell those same files as separate products (see the Toontrack website).

Maybe I could compromise and send a small bunch of interesting grooves (say, 20) that would serve as decent starting points. You could definitely do with more fills.

One drum fill trick if you don't have any proper drum fills: just add different types of delay at the end of the bar (and then turn it off at start of next bar). That can give the drums some nice movement. Similarly, try adding big reverb to just individual snare hits for emphasis.

However, maybe I will just laboriously export a bunch of other MIDI files I recently got as I want to use them in Superior but they're not currently accessible from within Superior. I'm talking about the BFD Eco product I got for Reason - 8 kits that are cut-down versions of the full BFD product plus a whole load of good MIDI files.

Remind me as I may forget and am terrible at getting (admin) stuff done, as you've probably realised.

Haha, your reply was so late I probably would never have seen it if it hadn't come through to my email address.
I really liked Glitch version 1 but it's damn hard to use now as, for some strange reason, the easy to use interface is no longer displayed in my current main DAW (Cubase 6.5).

So, I have to now deal with a huge long list of boxes in which you type a value rather than different rotary controls that make a lot more sense when you look at them (and they're all on one page rather than having to scroll through pages and pages). And they're not supporting Glitch 1 anymore so guess that's the end of that!

I've just bought Effectrix (at 50% off) but haven't really got on very well with it, though I'm not really quite sure why so guess I'll crack it eventually.

If you'd sent me this message a couple of weeks ago, I might have thought a lot harder about getting Glitch 2! I guess you've got it so good luck with it.

I do enjoy applying subtle glitch effects to guitar parts. Actually, what I'll do sometimes is take a whole section of guitar, then have the processed glitched up version sitting on another track and then blend it in from time to time (with the original unglitched version) ie just use it to emphasise certain sections. If you check my track Pre-Birth Blues (not sure if you already have) you'll hear me doing that a lot to various jazzy blues guitar parts.

Good luck with everything!

One of my great pleasures has always been delivering a firm boot to the ass - two if they'll fit. Though maybe it's more of a drumkit to the ass, in your case.

You're now more of a drum-rich soul though there is still quite a bit of wealth to accumulate. It's great education programming up kits from scratch but I think it's going to be hard to get some really interesting grooves and variations working well. And probably impossible to get to Danny Carey's level doing it by hand. I doubt even he could if he had to program it. He might even be rubbish (perhaps really frustrated by it).

Playing drums involves so many innate nuances and variations ('feel') that I think are difficult to draw on a sequencer grid. That's why I don't bother anymore and generally use the excellent drummers' performances in the thousands of MIDI files I have. Then I modify them a great deal and tailor them to what I want my track to do.

It's not just the timing of the hits that gives the variation - it's all the velocity changes ie how hard each kit piece is hit. And programming up quality fills is particularly hard as there's a lot of complexity in a very short space of time.

I could send you a bunch of alternative groove MIDI files if you like. Get you trying to play along with swung stuff and shuffles and double kick blastbeats, country trainbeats and so on.

I'm crazy about drums and am sort of addicted to having more and more types of acoustic kits. I just think that by combining them I can come up with distinctive drum tracks with interesting character.

Yes, definitely try adding your new-found additional drum control to your older, loop-based tracks. I still use drum loops but am not dependent on them and almost always augment them with acoustic kits.

Yes, your sound quality is improving. I still think you're one element short of some really kickass music. A good singer/songwriter, for instance, and you'd be complete. I'm biased but I don't think my stuff is lacking vocals, though I'd love to work with some in the future (I have in the past, have a few tracks of that online).

I think I just need pro mastering and I've got a whole bunch of stufff nearly ready to go for release online as proper albums. Been selecting tracks for different genre-leaning albums for a couple of years (so: one predominantly electronic, one heavy, one blues etc). More later...

Yeah, remove that bass stuff and just go with the drums and piano. Probably best if you make the switch to synth bass as soon as you can. And starting to rap a bit would help too. Extra points for squeezing in a bit of dubsteppery.

In utterly straight-faced seriousness, this is damn good for a couple nights' work. Not basic drums at all so I'd be interested if you can describe how you do your drums. Are you starting with different MIDI files or just programming in each and every hit? Are you quantising anything?

This wasn't exactly the sort of 80 BPM groove I had in mind. But it's my mind, so that's hardly surprising. Still pretty busy stuff so I'd like you to try leaving more space, letting notes ring out more (maybe with delay). Doesn't have to be for the whole track. Actually, maybe I'm thinking of something like my track An Early Morning Appointment With God, with its long bass and guitar notes and funky grooves (I think you liked that one).

I will check back for a Blast-Keys version, whatever that is.

Finally, what the hell does this track title mean?

Finally finally, I'm no cotton-pickin TV show host!

Hey, no problem. Not really that extensive a comment for me. I almost always write pretty long and detailed reviews of peopkle's stuff on here. It's an interesting challenge to try to express in words how you feel about a piece of music and see if you can find a way to suggest how they can improve on things. Sometimes I do and sometimes people tell me they have taken my specific advice. Thnaks for the brief gear list.

I'm also a Cubase user though Reason is what I love, have been running it alongside Cubase for 13 years.

No real improvement suggestions for you on this one because I didn't really have anything! Definitely some tasty jazz guitar (I also play all guitar in my many tracks). I also incorporate some jazz into the many merged genres that I do (they're almost all far out, groove-driven epic trips) but it's much more jazz drums than jazz guitar.

I'm more of a funk, blues, rock, slide, psychedelic eastern guitarist than a jazz one. But slow-mid tempo jazz grooves I love. Though I also like fast swing jazz and trainbeat grooves, which can also slot nicely into drum 'n' bass. Or metal!

Perhaps you might get on with my track An Early Morning Appointment With God as it has some definite jazz funk in it.

I shall try to remember to check more of your stuff so good to find you.

Word up, Sikdude. Am becoming more and more impressed with yo shit. Not heard anything for a while but this is cool.

I definitely can't say it's a new type of music (that's really hard to do) but your flow is really good on this in the verses and it's quite a melodic chorus. Some of your tracks could actually be pretty damn commercially popular.

I agree with other people that the reverb is a little heavy on the vocals. Maybe they're also a bit too loud. I'd like the drums to be beefed up a little, especially the snare.

I like the far out ambient intro. Sounds pretty epic there. I'm not joking when I say that Enya could feature on this track and it would probably fit.

I don't actually consider this track to be hip hop - there's much more to it than that. Maybe you could call it cinehop (as in 'cinematic hip hop').

Excellent work!