Post
by andygabrys » Thu Nov 02, 2017 4:39 pm
Hi Freddie,
Mark had some good feedback.
I hear some of the same things - this is what I can say considering the sounds you use. Everybody uses Komplete Ultimate and Superior Drummer (or variations of the same). The difference between those that are successful and those that aren't is really producing skillfully.
this is what I would look at:
1) Make great arrangements - Like it or hate it, something new happening every 4 bars really helps make a piece move. If its a faster tempo, maybe every 8 bars. If its really slow, maybe every 2.
That's more difficult with a solo piano piece, but easy with a motown or Meters funk kind of thing. That also doesn't mean totally NEW - doubling a rhythm, or a melody, or a chord with some other texture or sound, or even moving from a more sparse to a more dense rhythm can be enough. If its a pad sound, just moving a couple notes of the chords up for the next section can add some drama
2) make things rhythmically clear - If you hear 3 or 4 rhythmic clams in a short listen, you are going to need to go in with a magnifying glass and make things closer to on the beat. That might be ironic because as Mark said, the SD drums are a little mechanical because they just play those patterns. But if everything else doesn't agree, or if the pattern doesn't really work - its going to sound off. I heard a few instances where entrances of instruments need to be tightened up.
3) make things harmonically and melodically clear - there are a couple examples in your pieces where you have made choices that lead my ear to a different place than where you went.
E.G.
Summer Serenity - at 0:28. You have F-, going to G7 (which lead my ear to expect C- as the next chord) and then Ab, to Bbsus.
If you were looking for the smoothest sound, I would go F-, Eb/G, Ab, Bbsus. Its a slight difference, and things that sound a little ambiguous may or may not throw the listener or screener off.
4) make your mixes sound "broadcast quality" - relative balance of instruments needs to be similar to a commercial recording in the same style.
Reverb on instruments and vocals needs to work together. If its a vintage sounding guitar amp some spring verb can help, but experience will tell you how much to put on to make it sound Motown instead of a surf band.
Orchestral (or dramedy) arrangements need to have believable room and reverb sounds too. Strings might be more ambient - woodwinds have space on them too, but they can't have so much sauce that they sound 300' away.
Instrumental and vocal sounds have to be produced in an appropriate manner for the era and genre of the music. That means that the default kit in SD 2.0 or SD 3.0 although they sound amazing - isn't the best choice if you are going for a Motown type vibe. Check out Stevie Wonder's drums on "Uptight". Or maybe if your piece "Going all out" was after more of a Meters type vibe - check out Sissy Strut or something like that and cop those sounds.
experience will tell you whether or not to copy the panning in older styles.
When using virtual instruments, explore the difference that the velocity of each note makes. Your piano piece could use the softest velocities to get a certain sound, and some notes do stick out to me as being loud. Like the downbeat at 0:28 - its really out there.
sometimes you need more velocity differences to make things sound right (some funk lines on sampled bass guitar) and sometimes you need less (pounding 8th notes on a rock tune on a sample bass guitar).
The main thing you need to do to transform what you are doing right now to something that gets forwarded is:
A) listen to those whose music gets forwarded as Mark suggested on the TAXI blog, or by listening to the soundcloud or website offerings of more successful members, or even google the big production music libraries and listen to their catalogs (the ones owned by major labels would be a good place to start) - get a better idea of what other people are doing and how they do it.
B) start using references when you record and mix your productions. Have something that sounds good. Try to recreate that vibe with your own musical ideas. There are many ways to do it - the Magic AB plugin makes things pretty easy to reference back and forth.
Try to avoid buying a bunch of new sounds unless you truly can employ the stuff you already have in a skillful manner. When screeners say "update your sounds" it usually means "use the sounds you have more skillfully, in a better production, that is closer to what could be broadcast today". This applies to both virtual instruments and mix plugins.
Thats my take. Hope that helps.
