StaticNomad

I'm going to take a wild guess and say that you're a big fan of Calexico. I am too.

I don't really think of this track as blues - more the Calexico kind of western/desert/Mexican/Spanish kind of atmospheric, moody and melodic vibe.

Definitely perfect soundtrack music for any sort of Western or anything set in a North American desert. Or could be fun to use this on a soundtrack for an American or Mexican travelling in an African or Asian desert.

Cool guitar and simple movement of the drums. Only complaint is that there's too much noise on the track. Maybe you could find a way to remove it. But the noise doesn't interfere too much with the enjoyment of the piece as I can still hear everything clearly.

Cool stuff. Great bass tone. You can really hear the buzz of those strings.

While this is only just over a minute, there's a lot in it becomes it's very busy and doesn't bother with any introductions or breaks (though the one pause is nice) so it feels kind of rushed. So, bit like an interlude on an album.

Or maybe more like an interlude on a TV series with lots of fast cut moving activity going on. Could definitely be effective used that way.

Acoustic instruments are all really well recorded and played on this one. Nice reverb on mandolin and classical guitar. Can't fault their production.

Well done!

I'm not so keen on phased strings but keep them if you are.

I like the lead part that comes in 0:48. Might be a VST guitar.

Good bass stuff. Sounds like double bass, maybe some cello in there too.

There are some quite effective triplets in this piece eg from that lead guitar type of instrument.

Slow introduction of the drums works quite well.

Maybe it's slightly too samey but it does sit nicely and there's good movement going on so it's certainly not boring. Probably just the right amount of activity for soundtrack music that you don't want to interfere with dialogue.

Overall, I think this could be improved with some higher quality instruments but I appreciate that you're using what you've got. However, I have updated pieces of music by replacing older parts with better synth/sample-based instruments that I have bought/acquired since starting the piece.

I hope you didn't miss the recent Black Friday weekend crazy sales. I bought some great stuff online at 70% off. Got some lovely new sample instruments, including harps, sitar, guitar, koto and many more. Now I can update older sitar parts with the much better samples I now have.

Hey man - thanks for the excellent reply. Damn right this track is worth commenting on!

I certainly also do music as a type of self therapy as well as obsession and sort of intellectual and emotional puzzle as well as other reasons.

Music can be so very therapeutic and I appreciate you sharing your physical condition as that's interesting, sad and inspiring to read about. I've wondered what I might do if I was injured in such a way that I couldn't play any instruments. I think I'd just make loads of electronic-based stuff. I do a fair bit of pure/mostly pure electro anyway though I guess I would miss being able to add my own natural sense of timing and feel to the track.

I program most of my synth stuff as I'm a poor and lazy keyboard player. But I've got good at knocking out a part or two on the keyboard and then quantizing it and copying and rearranging it endlessly with the mouse.

But, as you can no longer do the instrument playing, I totally respect the stuff that you do. Maybe you could try to collaborate more with some good instrumentalists? Also, you could get some guitar VSTs (eg one from Sugar Bytes). I've just got one guitar sample instrument which I'm looking forward to making do stuff I probably can't do on the actual guitar neck eg complicated, fast, tight, arpeggiated patterns.

This old-school musician has come a long way in five years. I've been doing it on PC for about 14.

All the best to you and your musical excursions. Hey, why sleep when there's music to be made!

Yo. I like this but it wasn't until the vocals came in that it was really much like hip hop (not that genre names mater too much).

The excellent vocals remind me a bit of a great Australian hip hop group called Hilltop Hoods, who have a quite a few good albums.

I like the simple backing pad synth riff (also intro) as well the lead, which is pretty damn funky.

Drums are tight and well balanced.

I guess this isn't finished as it's a colab request. I'd say it needs to be longer and with a change or two added in.

Otherwise, I'm not sure how to fault it as it's good, professional-sounding stuff.

Some great bass sounds in this and I like that tinkly intro synth.

I think that main bass riff reminds me of a faster version of the main bassline from The Prodigy's excellent Diesel Power, though I might be wrong.

These parts and sounds have some real balls to them and they're not cheesy or annoying or too harsh so all nicely controlled. And mixed.

It just sounds like really professional stuff that a lot of people would enjoy on a dancefloor.

It's kind of a bit samey for my tastes, despite the variations such as removing the drums, but it would be excellent for a club. And I'd probably appreciate it a lot more there than listening at home here and now.

Lead riff at 2:25 is cool. Sounds a little bit like some funk wah guitar. It might even be but I'll guess synth anyway.

Ending is very cool and stylish too.

Not much I can fault apart from the lack of variety so well done.

Sorry if I'm perhaps being pedantic but I wasn't suggesting changing the drum tempo (though you could ) but, instead, the drum groove as well as the drum kit used. So, you could have the same tempo but swing the drums on an acoustic kit that would make it jazzier rather than housier. This could fit well with the piano too.

You're good at doing melodic electronic music and there's lots to like in your tracks. Yet sometimes I feel they're a little too genre-based ie do things that I've heard too often in the particular genre. Trying to get some other flavours in there might help and would probably make the tracks stand out more.

As I said, I'm really making suggestions based on what I might do. But I only have my ears and ideas and do try to think differently. It's all just music anyway and you really can make pretty much anything fit any other sound if you work at it. Sometimes it's a lot easier than you might think!

Good luck.

Yes, I certainly did hear the crackle intro as record scratch rather than rain. I thought it suited it really well.

Maybe you could also add some rain or small amounts of other atmospheric FX - perhaps almost as fills at the end of the bar.

That piano is cool too.

I like the drumless drop on 1:32 and how the delayed note fades out.

I find the rest is pleasant though I'm generally not such a house fan. I think I would have preferred the main style to be something else groove-wise - funk grooves, d'n'b, whatever. Or swing jazz would be cool.

Actually I'd really like it if you had swing jazz acoustic drums and kept the same other instruments as it would be the kind of genre crossover I'm into. And would be unusual.

Just an idea based on my preferences. You go with yours...

I forgot to ask: I'm a big fan of the first two Morcheeba albums. Where is this acapella from? I don't recognise it. Must be some of their later work that I'm not so keen on, though the latest album is good.

Can you just use this acapella for free? Did they just give it away and let people use it?

Yo, dude. This is damn cool stuff that I'm sure you had a blast making. Can't resist that main synth part and bass.

Beat excellent too. Simple but moves nicely. Vocals work really well and the mix is just right.

I've downloaded so will listen more.

My only complaint was the lack of an obvious change. If you could get a variation in as good as the main figure, this would be even better.

Hello. Oh no - I'm so offended by that one word! Actually, I don't know which one it is. Didn't spot it so you may as well tell me what it is.

This has a cool beat. But you already know that as I'm sure you enjoyed grooving big time to it. Reminds me of Teddy Riley sort of stuff eg some of what's on MJ's excellent Dangerous album. Maybe a bit like the groove on opening track Jam. Also a little like Prince's Gett Off, which I'm fairly sure is one of hundreds (thousands?) of Funky Drummer-sampling tracks.

Good use of guitar and bass and your verse rap is really good. Has quite an old skool played musical instrument rap sound to it rather than just layering of samples. So, a lot more life to it than lots of stuff I hear.

With a cleaner sound, this sounds like something that would be quite a big hit. Overall, it's a bit too 'pop' for me but I totally appreciate it.

I also like the end where we get to hear a bit more music and sound effects. It's good to lose your vocals there...

I prefer this to your bathroom recorded track.

Hi. This is good but can be improved. First problem I hear is that the drums and guitar don't sound at all like they're playing in the same space together.

Quite simply: the drums have quite a bit of reverb and the guitar none. A simple fix would probably just be to add some reverb to the guitar. Personally, I don't like instruments all to be dry but then I make far out, psychedelic stuff so I guess would say that.

2:56 the guitar returns in a really abrupt, awkward sort of way.

I agree with the previous comment that this track should be shortened by probably about 2 mins. And there are also timing problems in various parts.

Sorry if it just sounds like I'm giving a list of complaints! Some tracks don't have so many 'errors' but the playing is really boring. This is good playing but lots of things need to be tightened up.

As Danke said, that end synth part is also strange.

Good work and I hope you can fix some of these issues.

Hello. I'm also only very occasionally a fan of r'n'b though I do love No Diggity.

However, I can hear a lot of talent here. Lots of vocal ability and I find that guitar interesting. It has a nice lilt and tone to it.

Both the mix and recording need to be improved as they're totally letting the song down. I think there's a lot of noise on the vocals and guitar (it's more obvious without the beat)so recording process needs to be better worked out. If not (or maybe as well) noise removal tools can be employed to help remove some of it.

Ah, I've just read it was made (recorded?) in your bathroom. It does actually sound like that as I can hear the bathroom sort of reverb on it.

I can hardly hear any bass on this and was going to ask if you plan on adding a bassline of some sort. I now see there's some sort of bass sample in there though I still can't really hear it.

Also, the track's a bit short.

Good work but I hope you can improve your recording and do this song the justice it deserves.

Yo. Been checkin out quite a few of your tracks (remember I said you should recommend some)and reading some of your strange, lengthy descriptions. I have long descriptions but they're just listing the instruments. Yours are some odd flights of fancy! Can't say I understand some of them.

Anyway, this is a cool chillout vibe. Quite graceful and trippy. You should definitely check out a current featured track called Lotus-Eyez by Deepthought9. This one could easily be on the same album as his excellent track as they have a spacey hip hop vive in common.

Maybe this could have been longer but it's pretty cool as a sort of sort interlude on a hip hop album that allows you to just drift away for a bit.

Lots of warm sounds in here. And that's some deep, rumbling bass. Good reverb on the snare.

I'd say this belongs in the genre 'spacehop'. But not spacehopera, unless you can weave some operatic vocals in. Please make some spacehopera as that's a cool genre name. And probably a cool sound too...

Yo, dude. This is cool stuff. Glad I found it. Have now favourited it.

Where's that female vocal from? She's got a very warm voice in the first minute that reminds me of old movies - like a fairy godmother or something. Old style jazz in there too.

Love the keyboard chilled stuff going on in the background. Really creative. My only problem is there's a fair bit of noise at times on the track. Not sure if that's intentional.

Otherwise, I don't have much to criticise. It's obviously a killer beat. And has enough variety to stop it getting boring.

This could be really commercially popular. I think it's the spacey, dreamy stuff that sets it apart.

And is that you rapping? Very good too.

One that I truly don't understand. It says the track is 4:03 and 4.6 MB. But then it goes on for about 10:45. What's up with that?

Please also suggest some of your best other tracks I should check. I love spacey stuff (and make lots of it myself).

No problem. It's kind of an exercise and challenge for me to work out what I like about a track and then try to determine what could be improved. And then see if I can express that in any helpful way. I have to do this stuff constantly with my own music.

Careful about contracting me to be the producer. I don't think you've heard any of my productions yet!

I checked out your profile briefly and it turns out we have a couple of things in common. I am also a Cubase user and have been using the Boss GT-5 since I got it in 1998. I mostly just use a few settings but all my guitar and bass goes through it.

I'd actually like to switch to pure software guitar effects and record with none on. Then I can automate them all afterwards and really, really vary my guitar sound and movement as the track requires.

These days, I rarely record with delay. I add it afterwards because it makes it much easier to chop up guitar parts (I do that a hell of a lot) if there's no delay. I also like to sometimes automate the feedback on the delay to make single notes ring out for longer as they decay away.

So many tracks of mine I could recommend featuring prominent GT-5 guitar tones. One mega blues one would be Thousand Ball Blues. There are some good tones and playing on that.

Hey, no problem, man. My comment was actually quite a short one from me. I generally go into more detail, with specific time references etc

I've listened again and still think you need some other sort of change and quite possibly an instrumental break section. Could be an opportunity for the bass to break out and do more of a solo. Also, good opportunity for the drums to do more. If you could program up some more fills and move away from the drum loops, that would give it a lift.

Just moving the drums to the ride cymbal would give it a lift and also the opportunity to drop back down into that hat verse, something people always like when it's done well.

I also think the slight monotony here comes from the bass always dropping back down into the same funky verse pattern. You could work out how to play the same notes/follow the same chords in a different way, which would make a difference.

This sounds quite classic but if you look to do something a bit more unusual, you could really make this track stand out. It's got a classic vocal on it and all the other elements are good. When you've got those things, you should be trying to think how you can bring in unexpected (but still somehow appropriate) elements to make the whole thing more distinctive.

That's what I try to do. But some people like classic and are good at it so please choose what feels right to you.

Good work. I instantly liked this. Lots of people won't be able to resist that bass.

Good vocals and I particularly like the first phrase eg "Thinkin' about".

Good key change though I guess it's necessary so that the bassline doesn't get boring.

Some useful wah guitar chords.

This is one laidback lounge funk groove.

Maybe something missing from it is some sort of proper change or breakdown or guitar solo or similar. It sort of feels quite long even though it's only 3.5 mins.

Hey, I checked it out.

Spivkurl - you're officially an electro madman. A circuit bent nutter. A crazy squelchbleeper.

This is mad, weird sort of circuit bent electro punk.

Robotic orgasm is also quite an accurate description for it.

Good stuff for crazy drug-filled parties. You can definitely dance to it as there's some groove in there, despite all the weirdness.

It's not my kind of thing but I appreciate it. Especially as I can hear the twisted mind behind it enjoying doing it for the sake of it.

Hey - no problem. If you have a look at my comment history, I almost always give a decent analysis of a track, with exact time references and I try to make suggestions for how I think it can be improved (occasionally I don't have any suggestions). I only comment on tracks I either really like or think are good but could be better.

I love music very deeply so it's easy for me to write out some thoughts on a piece of music. And I could easily make my comments longer. I don't understand what the point is of people giving one sentence reviews/comments such as "I like it" or "This is really good". That's not helpful or interesting, though maybe it makes the person who made the track feel a little bit better.

Anyway, I thought your track was good but perhaps has too many different sections in it. Maybe you could split it in two and then extend those sections into their own tracks. I don't know really know - I'm just making suggestions based on my feelings. You may completely disagree! Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

Yes, Shatner kicks ass again. Thanks for leading me to this as it's dark, mysterious shit. With added moody dopeness for good measure.

Hey man, I use dbBlue Glitch but I mostly use it on guitar (as you've heard on my track Immemorialis, also the scratchy stuff on Zero per Cent Proof).

Shame that I now use it in Cubase 6.5 and the old GUI (user interface) has been lost so its now damn hard to program. I can't see those steps anymore and I've got a horrible list of controls that I have to type values into (lucky I have some of the old, good settings I made).

Need to get me another glitch plugin, maybe that Effectrix one though there's a good one from Isotope, I think.

I love this dark, industrial kind of hip hop. I wonder what sort of hip hop subgenre name it's got.

Are you mostly using dbBlue for the tape slowdown/speedup effects on this? That's mostly what I use on guitar though retrigger is also damn cool. Stick that subtly on an instrument and it doesn't sound like an effect.

Instead, it makes it sound like the instrument is playing more notes closer together so guitarist plays some simple runs and then they sound really fast and intricate.

Excellent work again, really like your style.

Thanks for the reply. By fake guitar, maybe you mean some sort of guitar VST? I've never used one but I have used guitar samples. I don't mean samples of people's actual playing but samples of individual guitar notes laid out across the keyboard as a playable instrument.

I'm wondering if you've ever gone back and tried cutting down those 6-8 min tracks that bored you. My view is you do one of two things: after very careful analysis, you work out which section/s is/are dragging and not really adding much. Then you either completely or partially remove it (partially would be keeping some of the parts and using them elsewhere in the track or turning them into a new one) or you find a way to make it less boring - generally by adding more to it. But, if you remove a whole section, you still have to join the other parts back together so might have to add another little transitional section to make that work, though sometimes they join almost perfectly.

I do all sorts of close analysis to try to ensure that no section, not even one bar, is boring or unnecessary (don't always get it right). My tracks are really only the generally extreme length they are because that's how much I 'had to say' and how much interesting stuff I felt just had to be included. Many tracks turn into other tracks and the truth is I only about once a year start a new track/project completely from scratch - everything else is turning leftover/excised parts into their own tracks.

Zero Per Cent Proof is all my guitar playing and was, 2 years ago, a 17 min track. I thought I'd finished it but have improved my production and listening a great deal since then and got much better drum software, for starters. A couple of people pointed out that one 6 min section a few minutes in was particularly good so would work well as its own track. So, I removed it, greatly improved it and it's not too far off being its own extremely intense and powerful 8-9 min track. Zero Per Cent Proof was me mostly just joining the remaining sections back together.

I could turn all of my long ones into separate tracks but I like deep, trippy journeys and am just about to upload an 18.5 min one that I don't think is boring at any point, though some may disagree.

Great work again on this track and I hope you haven't discarded your 6-8 min ones that bored you. Finally, I've heard 10 min tracks that are way too short and 5 min ones that are way too long. I seem to remember The Beatles' She's So Heavy was too long, as was Hey Jude.

Damn, I found this track from reading the forum hip hop thread I've just posted to.

This is excellent. That vocal just keeps going and going!

Shatner: you kick ass on that mic! I love everything about the beat and the simplicity. I'd normally suggest adding more elements to a track but I think this works damn being so sparse. It's kind of intense and the lack of changes are sort of one of its strengths. There's still some cool stuff going on with additional percussion and the odd little bits of bass.

Very impressed, favourited, must check out more of your work (recommend some to me if you like).

More good work from you, prompting almost every listener so far to say just that. Pretty good plays-comments ratio so far, eh?

Does actually sound like a love song.

Good use of 6/8 though I'm sure this would work well with whichever time signature of drums you chose to put to it.

Nice drum fills at the end of the bar that really drive it forward into the next.

My favourite section was when it really takes off on 2:27. Sound like a guitar comes in there though I guess it's not.

Good as this is I thought it could have been a bit longer, maybe gone into something else a bit more powerful and epic after 4 mins. Though, as I make such long tracks, it's not surprising I say that.

Good choices of synth sounds and this has a real depth to it. Well done.

This is fine to have in 'acoustic' as that's what it sounds like.

Good for soundtrack music - maybe something like a Spaghetti Western.

I like the mandolin on 1:20. Nice walking/swaying runs there.

I like what the main acoustic guitar is playing but I'm not so keen on the tone of the guitar - a little too bright and clean for me. I'm not sure if that's the plugin or the real thing.

That main guitar part certainly has something in common with Warpaint's Billie Holiday song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWcTp1r_Nls

They are a brilliant band!

Good work though I felt the end could have been a bit more definitive. It sort of faded out but not that cleanly (sorry, not sure if that makes sense).