Feedback on SUSPENSEFUL, INVESTIGATIVE TENSION INSTRUMENTAL CUES

[Margaret]

I'd do some variations on the timing and the velocity of the piano. It sounds a bit quantized and mechanical now.

HA! It was quantized with no randomness whatsoever. Good catch, thank you.

[Margaret]

Hi Margaret,

I think it's solid and a few tweaks can really help.

The piano sound isn't up to snuff in my opinion. Could be an EQ issue (many youtube tutorials on making even stock pianos sound pretty good) or maybe it's worth investing in better software samples. You might see if there are free trials that could even get you through to submission

I think you need more variety in the percussion as well. The same repetitive stab motive needs something to bring variety - listen to the refs, a lot of the percussion isn't complicated but there are subtle modulations, filters, automation, panning to make the same general riffs have more variety.

For me, I wouldn't do the ritard and pause after :45 - this grabs too much attention for my ear and also changes the feel, so I can't imagine it sitting under dialog easily. Just my two cents.

Cheers,
Mike

Hey Mike, thank you for the input! I got slammed with a school project last week and only just got to pick this up again today.

I agree with eliminating the ritard and pause. I did still drop out the piano briefly, just to add some textural differences and break things up. I'm not sure if it's still "too much" of a drop though...

I tweaked the piano eq and stereo width slightly. I briefly plugged in my East West Steinway for kicks, but it actually sounded much duller in the mix, and not in a good way.

Latest iteration is here if anyone wants to keep listening to this thing. https://soundcloud.com/margaretkalb/tax ... JbyTKDvSV4

Cheers,

Margaret

[mwb2]

No worries! Also classically trained here. It's surprising what helps and what doesn't, isn't it? For one thing, I really think our ears "fill in the blanks" more when traditional instruments are involved (as in, a piano is a piano is a piano and we "get what it's trying to do"). But that said, I'd say it'd be worth listening to pianos in, if not the ref tracks, then in other tracks by those same composers, and seeing how they sound compared to yours. Do they sound closer, further away? More reverb, less? More 4k frequencies, less? etc. I can't remember what I watched but I did see a few nice virtual piano EQ tutorials on youtube a while back (though I ended up just buying a better library since that makes it a lot easier).

Cheers,
Mike