[Album] Bloody Machine (mp3s in zip)-Synth-ish

[Oliwerko]

Hi there,

I have just finished work on my first album and I got some positive feedback from friends, so I thought I might share it with a little more professional society. Anyway, sorry for the big slow zip download, but my options are very limited at the moment.

Tracklist:

1. Intro
2. Ponghorn
3. Bloody Machine (Join us and live in peace)
4. Bloody Machine continual
5. Pangaea
6. Durch Ost und West
7. Fuzzy spiral of trouble
8. Everyday fun
9. Come speak to me
10. Serious 3

Link:
http://oliwerko.ic.cz/BM.zip

The genre is some kind of synthy minimal music, but It's really hard for me to just label it with a name.

I would be grateful for any feedback and pointers for future production you could give me.

Thanks very very much in advance.  :wink:

[Sam_Zen]

DL is indeed a bit on the slow side, but that's my decision, so nothing to say sorry about.
A bit more info would be welcome, about the audio-tools being used for example.
10 - This XM bonus probably wil be called a 'chiptune' by some members here.

[Oliwerko]

Thanks for reply,

Well, the 10th chiptune song is my first attempt that ended in a funny "stressing" tune, so I moved on to some samples that were not created by me  :wink:

All of the songs except the 10th one, which was created in Milkytracker were created in Renoise. However, I have not (yet) used any VSTis, so all of them are sample-based. I did not worry much about the quality of used samples, I have left this problem for when I gain more experience. I focused solely on melody creation.

[Sam_Zen]

2 - Nice material, but I think still some work has to be done. First of all the duration.
This is always a danger when using sequencers like Renoise.
It may be nice to dance on, but other criteria play a role when one is just listening.
Then it has to be more compact, or having extra things on top of it, to maintain the attention.

[Oliwerko]

Yeah, the long duration was not intentional. I just got carried away and ended up having a huge song. But I was not able to cut anything from it in the first phase, so I have left it out as it is, because it's still good as a background music when I'm working. I am planning to cut it to a smaller piece with not so many melody themes.

[Sam_Zen]

You're right, not only with dancing, a long piece is also functional as background when working.

3 - Punchy fun. Poor end though. The current repeating pattern is just stopped.
It would have been more elegant to, for example, use a copy of that pattern, but with a few changed notes at the end.
A tip : You have complete strophes of spoken text here. Samples like that can be a nice potential for more, because,
when tracking, one can start the sample, but use a code to make a jump forward in the text, so you only hear : "live in peace"

By the way, this choir sample sounds very familiar to me.
Maybe a coincidence, but is it the same sample as in this one ?

[Oliwerko]

Thanks for listening.

The poor end is there for one reason. The next song is directly beginning from the end of this one. The next one is just a kind of "remix" of this song, so I thought it would be fun to make it seamless (I have heard tons of CDs that were all-lenght seamless). The fourth song was just sounding interesting.

Thanks for the tip about the sample jumps, I'll try that out. My first idea when I would want to do that would be using some simple audio editing software to cut the sample to what I wanted it to be.

Yes, the choir sample is the same one as in that song. It is a part of some free vocal sample pack, if I'm not mistaken.

[Sam_Zen]

The poor end is there for one reason. The next song is directly beginning from the end of this one.

Yep, I noticed now. As I said more in my reviews : if it's intentional, it's ok.
The advantage of the sample-jump is the fact you can do it all with one sample, instead of using different samples from the same phrase.
Making the right code for the jump demands some work btw. Some calculations or just trying it out.

It is a part of some free vocal sample pack, if I'm not mistaken.

You're not mistaken. In fact it's a free sample pack from my website.
I derived this sample from a cassette with songs of a male choir from Corsica.
4 - The synth sounds are a bit too naggy to my taste.
5 - Apart from not being a big fan of this 'poppy' style, never mind, but my problem so far is the fact is that everything is happening so "neat-on-the-beat"..

[Oliwerko]

The advantage of the sample-jump is the fact you can do it all with one sample, instead of using different samples from the same phrase.

Well, yes, I didn't notice that difference at the first glimpse.

You're not mistaken. In fact it's a free sample pack from my website.
I derived this sample from a cassette with songs of a male choir from Corsica.

Yeah, I see now. Thanks for the sample pack, the choir samples are quite useful, they have an interesting sound.

4 - The synth sounds are a bit too naggy to my taste.
5 - Apart from not being a big fan of this 'poppy' style, never mind, but my problem so far is the fact is that everything is happening so "neat-on-the-beat"..

Maybe I could lower the volume of the chip-sounds a bit, not to sound so aggresive for the ears.

And thanks for opening my eyes in the fifth one, looking back it has some boring pattern, I see. I was probably focusing on the lead melody too much not caring about the whole beat pattern.

[Sam_Zen]

I mean with 'everything' not only the elements of the beat pattern. The melodic notes also all start exactly at point zero of the beat.

6 - Maybe it's not so much the volume of the chip-sounds, but you use quite a narrow stereo panorama.
I don't understand the content of the intro until 0:48, compared with the rest.

[Oliwerko]

What would you suggest to do with songs like the 5th one then?
Should I play some notes in another time than the beat is in there?

Yeah, I am aware of the narrow stereo. It's a thing I keep forgetting to do again and again. It's hard for me to choose which sounds are good for splitting, into which channel and how much. I guess it's a trial and error?

Ummm, you don't understand the first 48 secs of the 6th one? That pattern is repeated in the background of the main theme for the rest of the song. Do you mean the intro doesn't fit? Why? For me the most awkward thing in the 6th song was the instrument that is played on 1:05, it didn't fit for the ear early on but seemed to be fine after a few seconds, that was an issue I wasn't able to fix.

[Sam_Zen]

Should I play some notes in another time than the beat is in there?

That's quite drastic, so not directly necessary.
There are codes to delay the start moment of a sample a significant time, like 9xx in the XM format.
If so, this can be used to enhance the stereo-presence of a sample by creating a delayed 'reflection' of a duplicate of the channel.
Of course this second channel should be adjusted to a lesser volume.
By giving this channel another pan-position as the channel with the original, some 'space is added.

6 - The reason I mentioned the 48 sec point was not so much the instruments, but a radical switch in atmosphere.
7 - Nice build up. Nice speed. Introducing the common house-beat with the drums at 2:08 was a bit of a disappointment.
Nice end with the HF tone.

[Oliwerko]

Thanks for the delay pointers, actually I was wondering when the delay command is used, now I see. I guess there can be wonders done when you work well with the stereo depth. I'll definitely try these things out.

6 - Oh, the atmosphere switch. I did not notice it was disturbing, sounded OK to me...

7 - This song was a surprise to myself, originally I thought I would never use a piano sample. This song was interesting to do with an instrument that is quite out of the genre. Anyway, the beat is there probably because I did not know how to tighten the atmosphere more. So I added the drums. And the tone in the end is a remaint of the piano sample that I did not notice at first, but then I decided to leave it as it is  

Thanks again for your feedback, it's highly valued!

[Sam_Zen]

6 - It was not disturbing, just a drastic change.

7 -

I did not notice at first, but then I decided to leave it as it is

That's the spirit. Get the max out of the material you have.

8 - I don't feel much with things like this. It's an old tricky thing with trackers :
You set up a nice base pattern, introduce it, and then launch a solo instrument to do some melodic things on top of it.
The urge at some point for a change is still present, so a second solo instrument is introduced, also doing some melodic things.
Then a third, a fourth, a fifth, and so on, and the ways to end the song become some kind of escape.
If so, the songs has 'sections' in time.
So the least one can do is to vary the volume of for example the bass sequence, to increase the dramatics.

The problem with things like this, because of the 'serial' character of events, is the lack of cohesion.
An element is introduced, but never plays a role again later on.

[Oliwerko]

Hmmm. Interesting.
At first I found it quite interesting to have some pattern playing while multiple instruments play one after another. The truth is, that none of them is playing again after the other has finished, and looking back, it really lacks the cohesion. Maybe also because the song is only two-channeled?