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  • Tear It Up! Please.

    J
    J

    http://sonicpsyops.com/audio/SONIC_PYSOPS-Guilt_Trip-2.m3u

    Any constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated.

    Thank you  
  • J
    J

    Well, I see nobody's posted any feedback yet.  I hope it's not a case of, 'if you don't have anything nice to say...'

    Usually, I'm my own worst critic so I'll 'tear my own stuff up.' 

    This piece was my first VSL project.  Before I started working with VSL, I was strongly advised to start with something small to get the hang of it first then expand as your experience did.  Being the great listener that I am I completely ignored that advice.  BAD MOVE.  It took me about six months to do this piece when it should have only taken a week at the most.  Lesson learned.

    My biggest complaint with this piece is that it's too predictable.  It's runs kind like a formulaic sad lost love story where you know what's going to happen before the scenes end.  Some people may find that boring and superficial and I understand that but I kind of like predictability in music.  I like a well-defined beginning, middle, climax, and end.  Frankly. music that wonders with no definate path for only the sake of being spontainious and/or "different."  puts me to sleep.  I don't have anything against that it's just not my cup of tea. I don't know, call me low brow but that's how I feel. 

    Too long perhaps? It's basically three themes with the main theme being varied several times throughout the piece.  This was actually two pieces that I ended up merging into one.  As I said before I should have started with something small.  If the length is what's turning people off then just listen to snibbits here and there and tell me what you think of what you heard.

    As far as mixing and mastering is concerned.  Other than the reverb tail on the brass parts, which I never could get to sound like I wanted them to, it sounds fine to me otherwise I wouldn't have posted it.  When it comes to recording engineering I'm no expert I just know a thing or two about a thing or two, that's all.  Perhaps the mix and master could use some work?  You tell me.

    Now that I've started ripping my own piece would anybody else like to do some tearing of their own?  Appreciate the feedback.

      
  • C
    C

    Hi Jasen.

    No expert here either but, re the mix, it does sound as if it's being performed in more than one sonic environment, so I'd suggest working on the reverb. It sounds better on headphones than it does through my monitors- did you do the mix mainly with phones? The percussion sounds a bit muffled.

    I don't think it's too long, maybe as you said, just a little predictable or repetitive at times. It would probably benefit from a greater dynamic range- the ending is the same volume as when the theme gets going first time round.

    It's not a bad piece for your first project, it just needs more work to get the finished article. Hopefully one of the expert users will give you some more practical advice than this.  Best of luck.

    Colin
  • J
    J

    Greetings Colin,

    Thank you for taking the time to listen and write a sincere critique.

    You hit the nail right on the head!  I did use headphones to mix it.  The room that I record in is not acoustically treated and when I listen through the monitors, the lower frequencies are boosted at the expense of the higher ones.  Subsequently, I resort to mixing in the phones which, according to some more seasoned mixers out there, is not a good idea.  I've only recently discovered this.  Lesson learned.

    It's interesting that you mentioned the percussion sounding muffled.  I thought the same thing but only when I listen to it in my car.  In every other listening environment, the percussion was more defined and actually had a bit of a punch to it.  I thought it was just my car stereo EQ settings.  Maybe its got something to do with the reverb as well.  Thanks for that observation I'll have to look into that. 

    I've listened to this piece so many times that I think my subjective judgement in things like dynamic range and structure has become tainted.  Maybe I've become fatally attached to its structure and progression that altering these aspects would make the piece sound naked or inconsistant to me.  For now, I'm going to leave those aspects alone but if enough people say otherwise that could change. 

    Basically, I guess it's the reverb that really needs attention and I kind of figured that myself.  Thank you for the "not a bad piece for your first project" comment as that lifts my spirits.  Frankly, I was expecting a lot worse.

    Thanks again Colin.  Anybody else?