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Hey everyone,

I'm writing some new tracks for my portfolio and wanted to get some feedback. I was going for an emotional/hopeful feel for this first track. Something used possibly in an inspirational ad or farewell scene in a film. Let me know what you think. Thanks!

https://soundcloud.com/shawnkellyproductions/echo

Hey Shawn,
I really like the track a lot. I do get an inspirational vibe. The staccato strings around :38 sound very stiff, but the sustained strings you use later sound awesome. Good job

-Joseph

Joseph wrote: The staccato strings around :38 sound very stiff, but the sustained strings you use later sound awesome. Good job-Joseph

fwiw, to these old ears: the contrast is what makes it interesting and makes it stand out.
agreeing with "good job"... +1
hth,
Peter R.

Joseph wrote:Hey Shawn,
I really like the track a lot. I do get an inspirational vibe. The staccato strings around :38 sound very stiff, but the sustained strings you use later sound awesome. Good job

-Joseph

Thanks for the input Joseph. I wasn't sure about the staccato part myself. I'll see if I can add some variations to it so it sounds a little more fluid. Like your music by the way. You have a wide range of styles all performed very well.

funsongs wrote:

Joseph wrote: The staccato strings around :38 sound very stiff, but the sustained strings you use later sound awesome. Good job-Joseph

fwiw, to these old ears: the contrast is what makes it interesting and makes it stand out.
agreeing with "good job"... +1
hth,
Peter R.

Thanks for the encouragement Peter.

Just for clarification, I like the idea of the staccato notes. I just think the particular sample sounds too artificial and not like real strings. The contrast between the two different articulations is very interesting (as Peter said). Try pizzicato instead of staccato. I also got some good advice to mix the same articulation with two different instruments ie: staccato Vienna Strings with staccato XPand 2 strings (if you work with Pro Tools). Also, you could try mixing articulations like staccato and spiccato or detache together to see if that sounds more realistic.

Thanks for the complement, by the way!

-Joseph

Nice track. Love the feeling. in the mix at the end I'm hearing some sort of overtone from the snare maybe? other from that really good track there.

Joseph wrote:Just for clarification, I like the idea of the staccato notes. I just think the particular sample sounds too artificial and not like real strings. The contrast between the two different articulations is very interesting (as Peter said). Try pizzicato instead of staccato. I also got some good advice to mix the same articulation with two different instruments ie: staccato Vienna Strings with staccato XPand 2 strings (if you work with Pro Tools). Also, you could try mixing articulations like staccato and spiccato or detache together to see if that sounds more realistic.

Thanks for the complement, by the way!

-Joseph

Thanks for the clarification. I'll try alternating between different string sounds to see if it gives it a more natural feel. I'm currently using East West Hollywood Strings which have several different articulations so I'll try playing around with them as well. Thanks again for taking the time to give me good feed back. I really appreciate it!

TheElement wrote:Nice track. Love the feeling. in the mix at the end I'm hearing some sort of overtone from the snare maybe? other from that really good track there.

Thanks! I gave the drums compressor a lot of sustain so maybe that could be contributing to the snare. I'll try scaling it back to see if that works.

shwnkllymusic wrote:

TheElement wrote:Nice track. Love the feeling. in the mix at the end I'm hearing some sort of overtone from the snare maybe? other from that really good track there.

Thanks! I gave the drums compressor a lot of sustain so maybe that could be contributing to the snare. I'll try scaling it back to see if that works.

you could also try sweeping and eq it out.