Feedback Request: Indie Rock Instrumental

[DouglasKnight]

Hi Doug
Nice track but I don't think it has that contemporary indie sound like the references. It sounds more generic rock/retro-rock. I think you have to step back, pick one of the references, strip it apart in your mind as to what the drums, bass, guitars, etc. are doing and model after that. It does appear to be a fairly high bar listing so it won't be easy.

Best,
Casey

Hi Casey and thanks listening and commenting! I had accidentally uploaded an older mix without the lead synth, but I've fixed that now. I was going for the Wet Leg vibe but tried not to copy too closely. Sounds like I may have missed the mark though... Does the synth lead help? Thanks again --- much appreciated! Doug

Still not hearing something close enough to the reference. Maybe take out your lead guitar and first listen carefully to the bass and drums vs. the ref. I also noticed you have a prominent lead guitar through most of your track while the reference doesn't. And where they have it, it's lower in the mix. Your lead guitar melody lines seem too retro too. If I didn't know this was for a contemporary indie listing, I wouldn't have thought of the track that way at all. It's a cool track, but MHO is off target here.

PS I'd rather be wrong!

Casey

Hey Casey! Thanks again for the constructive feedback --I'll keep tweaking this to better match the reference. Really appreciate it....

Doug

[DouglasKnight]

"Great track Douglas! Those fills are spot on to the reference in my opinion. The guitar melody is great. I think Dave's suggestion to add a full breakdown/edit point and build is good. For the build you might consider doing the fill with a quick pause/then reverse build up. The claps add a good build the second time around. Honestly I feel this may get a forward as is. Nice work!"



Hey Ryan -- Thanks for the encouragement and input, I really appreciate it! I'm getting lots of great ideas to improve it, so will continue tweaking. Thanks again! Doug

[DBarnett]

Nice breakdown in the middle
Is that middle new or did I miss that the first time?

The balance and all the parts sound great, well produced IMO
Good luck!

[cosmicdolphin]

Hey Doug - Diving right in here without reading previous comments.

Not bad at all, I've had the Wet Leg album on my playlist since it dropped and this is very reminiscent musically to Wet Dream , I think you did a decent job of decoding what was going on in that track.

There are a few thing I think you could improve which are mostly production related :-

Try A/B ing your track with Wet Leg , you might notice that the drum sound in particular is quite different, Theirs is thick and full - solid sounding kick and short snappy tight snare. I think your kit sound needs tightening and thickening. Hopefully whichever drum VST you use will let you easily switch kits as I think the one you have now is not dry or tight enough sounding so it ends up more like a trad rock kit and not coool indie. If you underpin your kick with an eletronic one I think that will help as well. I think that will help make it sound more contremprary.

The intro guitar is too loud. Try listening in mono..the kick and the guitar should feel like they are at the same relative level...so more kick and less guitar would be my mix move

Once the whol thing kicks in I like the music but it sounds a bit too wet and it's cluttering the mix a bit , making it sound a bit 90s as there is too much blend. You could try chnging out your reveb for something shorter with some pre-delay / but more ambient so you get that dry but spacious type sound. Then you can have one or two parts that keep the longer reverb for contrast.

At 44s try killing all the reverb dead on that stop and don't bring it back in until after the drum pick up..it will make that transition more dramatic and a better edit point

53s not sure those 2 guitar parts work together - they are kinda fighting for the same sonic space - a call/ response part would work better or you could just octave double the main riff with guitar 2 at that point

Breakdown at 1:02 is cool but woudl benefit from some sort of ambience in the background just to make it a bit less stark and tie it to the main track more

Clap at 1:06 seems a bit lazy....how about a little tssst-tshhhhhh on the cymbals

1:07 Solo synth is a bit high and I think it's not enough on it's own ..you could try adding something an octave lower and doubling it or double on guitar or a bass played high up with some FX on

Other than that I think it's pretty good

Mark

[DBarnett]

Nice! Now that's some great detailed advice
Kudos!

[DouglasKnight]

Nice breakdown in the middle
Is that middle new or did I miss that the first time?

The balance and all the parts sound great, well produced IMO
Good luck!

Hey Dave! Yes, I've been implementing the great feedback I've gotten on this and tried to strip away some of the repetition and give a good breakdown section, so it's really different than when I first posted this! I really appreciate the encouragement, thanks so much for your help! Doug

[DouglasKnight]

Hey Doug - Diving right in here without reading previous comments.

Not bad at all, I've had the Wet Leg album on my playlist since it dropped and this is very reminiscent musically to Wet Dream , I think you did a decent job of decoding what was going on in that track.

There are a few thing I think you could improve which are mostly production related :-

Try A/B ing your track with Wet Leg , you might notice that the drum sound in particular is quite different, Theirs is thick and full - solid sounding kick and short snappy tight snare. I think your kit sound needs tightening and thickening. Hopefully whichever drum VST you use will let you easily switch kits as I think the one you have now is not dry or tight enough sounding so it ends up more like a trad rock kit and not coool indie. If you underpin your kick with an eletronic one I think that will help as well. I think that will help make it sound more contremprary.

The intro guitar is too loud. Try listening in mono..the kick and the guitar should feel like they are at the same relative level...so more kick and less guitar would be my mix move

Once the whol thing kicks in I like the music but it sounds a bit too wet and it's cluttering the mix a bit , making it sound a bit 90s as there is too much blend. You could try chnging out your reveb for something shorter with some pre-delay / but more ambient so you get that dry but spacious type sound. Then you can have one or two parts that keep the longer reverb for contrast.

At 44s try killing all the reverb dead on that stop and don't bring it back in until after the drum pick up..it will make that transition more dramatic and a better edit point

53s not sure those 2 guitar parts work together - they are kinda fighting for the same sonic space - a call/ response part would work better or you could just octave double the main riff with guitar 2 at that point

Breakdown at 1:02 is cool but woudl benefit from some sort of ambience in the background just to make it a bit less stark and tie it to the main track more

Clap at 1:06 seems a bit lazy....how about a little tssst-tshhhhhh on the cymbals

1:07 Solo synth is a bit high and I think it's not enough on it's own ..you could try adding something an octave lower and doubling it or double on guitar or a bass played high up with some FX on

Other than that I think it's pretty good

Mark

Thanks so much, Mark, for taking the time to listen and give such detailed feedback on this -- I really appreciate it! Going to jump in and try to implement all of these ideas asap. Thanks again! Doug