Caustic Song file (optional):
My first tune for a few days, I seem to be slowing down as we get closer to release.
The title says it all - I tried to write a new techno track using Jason's excellent C3 percussion pack , it ended up being much closer to 80's pre-house/pre-techno electronic music, the bassline melody is an unintentional lift from Blue Monday.
7 racks, a fair bit of automation, both pattern and song.
really cool track..your right it has that pre techno sound...
my only criticism is your arp at the end sort of ends in an abrupt awkward way...i would have added a 1 measure pattern with a sustained note or something to end it or maybe a quick fade out for that individual machine....maybe ill look at the file and tinker with it so you can see what i mean.
here...i add a G note at the end with a glide which helps to resolve the ending..and it doesnt sound like it was just cut off.
nice drum beat too btw..i need to work on my drum programming..sometimes i get it right,..sometimes my drum patterns sound stiff and boring...sigh.
Caustic Song file (optional):
I know exactly what you mean and when I remember I do try and add a short bar, thanks for spotting that I hadn't on this one
Will DL your mix in a bit.
https://soundcloud.com/james-muir
https://www.facebook.com/james.muir.77
Good track, though when you say you're slowing down, you're still much faster than alot of people when it comes to producing music
Drums are really hard to do well imo, especially if you're not a drummer but don't forget that sometimes the simple stuff works best - especially for trancey tunes.
I really struggled with my drums in Caustic for months, I still think they're hit and miss but I know it's one area where on balance I've made some pretty big strides
Oh, and since C3 I've regularly used up to 4 BB's in a tune to get a good mix of sounds and effects (especially for a variety of reverb and delay treatments)
https://soundcloud.com/james-muir
https://www.facebook.com/james.muir.77
Thank you, and yes, that's very true but I'm happy knocking a tune out in a day or two - some people spend a lot of time polishing and perfecting and come up with amazing, complex and complete tracks...
I don't have the patience and attention to detail that some of you have
I'd like to think that I work best when I work quickly but I don't really believe it, I think it's more that I have the attention span of a particularly stupid gnat
https://soundcloud.com/james-muir
https://www.facebook.com/james.muir.77
yeah i agree...i will recycle some of my better beats..and edit them, switch up the sounds..etc, because i lack good drumming skills...plus a few of my better beats are really (not as good) recreations of someone elses beat...so in some respects ive improved a little over time...because i learn from other peoples stuff.
Man!!! Your not slowing down, your faster than me! :-) You create a lot of Brilliant tracks, you really get into the synths, automation and everything. Me on the other hand, haven't quite got really deep into automation... Great job on this track man....
https://soundcloud.com/k-boog2012
You know you don't have to finish all tracks at once James. Why not save some of your projects for later, you never know how things evolve when you get some distance to it.
Really nice track anyway, love it :-)
Thanks Pan, for the advice and the thumbs up
I got on a roll from the first C3 Alpha and I guess I'm still working from that semi-disposable, 'the save format may change' perspective.
I was actually thinking of having a spring clean and deleting my old C2 tracks that never progressed as far as a first mix - maybe I'll save them instead and see which ones I shelved simply because they were proving too much of a challenge to finish
https://soundcloud.com/james-muir
https://www.facebook.com/james.muir.77
Newer throw anything, my phone is full of short ideas I've put down for later use. I revisit them from time to time and every once in awhile they evolve into something. As a last resort you can always give away your snippets for others to have fun with :-)
3:50 to the end sounds like it belongs in a song itself man, no kidding. I think you should try taking those chords and doing something with them.
Ala 3:54 - 4:20 ...
Mike
Got it, thanks
It's much better - I appreciate it. I'll replace my SC file with this one when I get a chance tonight.
https://soundcloud.com/james-muir
https://www.facebook.com/james.muir.77
Hhmmm I commented on this thread last night, but seems to have disappeared...... But again, sounds awesome, love the drums and varuety of sounds, well done
Comments don't disappear in databases. :) The POST must not have gone through.
Mike
Could be, Mike.... Notta big deal..... James' track is cool regardless of my ineptness to post ;)
BTW sorry bout the POST in caps, I was speaking about the browsers HTTP POST, I didn't mean you "post". When you submit a comment it gets "posted" to the server with an HTTP POST command.
Mike
Language is such an imprecise tool isn't it? Especially when it's written not spoken
Mike, your response did make me think twice before posting any feedback about the SCS website
And Jason and Mike, thanks for the kind words - Mike, I'll start a tune from the coda of this one and see where it takes me.
https://soundcloud.com/james-muir
https://www.facebook.com/james.muir.77
Hey Danjdob
When its a normal pattern it's relatively straight forward to add a new truncated pattern to resolve the progression and avoid that hanging feel. Have you worked out a way to do this with the modular Arp?
On the few occasions I've tried to I've resorted to automated fades.
https://soundcloud.com/james-muir
https://www.facebook.com/james.muir.77
Thanks dude, compared to some I barely touch the surface of the synths but I think I'm okay at picking great sounds to work from.
Every time I DL a Caustic file I'll save any presets that I come across and I use a lot of these to start new tunes.
I'm blown away by the stuff I hear people doing with the PCM synth and assume it's difficult, I tend to use the more synthy synths - modular, bassline, subsynth, FM etc but I bet these can seem pretty complex if you don't routinely use them.
https://soundcloud.com/james-muir
https://www.facebook.com/james.muir.77
I know... I gotta start paying close attention, because I'm diving into this coding mess, and there is ALOT to learn.... it's a whole different language and structure to itself, from what I've been reading up on so far..... wow
no i haven't, i usually try to compose a pattern specifically for an ending...so i dont have to deal with that "hanging feel" or, i automate a fade out...sometimes its not easy to come up with a good sounding end to a pattern...so a fade out might be the best option.
Even when Im not into techno stuff, I have to admit I tapped my feet a couple of times.