Since I’m new here I thought I’d ask: is requesting track feedback kosher? Or is there a specific place online any of you know where this is more common? I ask because while I’ve been making guitar-based music for many years, I’m newer to electronic composition, arrangement, EQing / mixing / mastering, and I was wondering if there was somewhere online where I could submit tracks for constructive feedback. Unfortunately I don’t know anyone in my life who is into or makes electronic music, so while I can send it to my friends, they’ll all more or less say “Sounds good,” lol. Which is not really what I’m looking for.
There are places on the internet where you can go get flamed even if your track is good, but this is probably where you’ll find the most constructive criticism or encouragement if you specifically ask for feedback.
If you have completed tracks then starting a topic under the “our music” section is a good start, you can request feedback or state the type of feedback that you’re looking for to make it easier for people to direct their analysis.
You can also just post music and if people enjoy it they usually hit the heart button, but that’s not necessarily going to inform you of areas for improvement. Unless you act inappropriately most people here are generally polite even in offering criticism, and like you, they’re also looking for a community within which they can improve themselves and their music.
If you’re looking to get ripped to shreds you might have to try another site, but for most people this is probably a good place to learn from others with more experience. I’ve certainly learned a lot from people on this forum and if you’re hitting a dead end with watching youtube videos, sometimes searching old posts or asking people with an actual pulse about the things that aren’t clicking can be very useful.
TLDR: asking for feedback on tracks in a topic you start for that purpose and update with works you want critiqued is definitely an acceptable use of the forum. Whether or not people participate is up to them, but there’s no guideline that says don’t do it.
You can also use existing threads which people already look at and ask for feedback there if that’s more your style:
this is mostly people posting completed tracks.
this is mostly people posting parts of jams or bits of synthesis, some full tracks pop up.
this is a thread for non-electronic genres, people still share all kinds of music in the other threads but this is dedicated to that.
Please share! SoundCloud links work great for this. Would be happy to listen on multiple sources and give feedback.
Also don’t worry about mastering your track for us. If the mix is good, it will be good. Mastering is for releasing and I would advise someone professional to do it for you once you have decided to put out some music
Well, since I already have this thread going, I might as well share this! A track I just finished today. I suppose the feedback I’m looking for is more formal than aesthetic—things like arrangement, mixing, etc.
Artists I like, if this matters at all: Theo Parrish, Larry Heard, Galcher Lustwerk, early 2000s “IDM” (Basic Channel, Farben, the early Tim Hecker albums, Villalobos). I’m also a sucker for a lot of 90s/early 2000s JRPG music, which I think finds its way into the things I’ve been making. This is all Ableton, no external hardware. I’m going to buy myself a Syntakt for my birthday at the end of next month and am excited to see how it might change composition. I don’t use sequencers (not because I don’t want to), so all of it is “written out,” as it were. Still a beginner, trying to get better.
Thanks for sharing. I’m not a fan of the composition as it feels too linear for me, however that is completely irrelevant as the most important thing is that you are happy with it. I’m very certain others will love it!
Now as for the mixing. Mixing is also a bit of a subjective thing, so please adjust to your own taste.
There are a few sounds in the mix that I would personally turn down:
The hats
The Rimshot (or at least make the delay softer to give some more dynamic. Now it’s too static which is in contrast to your choice of organic sounds)
The Pad and synth sounds drown out your bassline which kinda hides the nice groove you made. I would turn the pad down to give the bass some more prominence.
While I like the basic composition/progression, I understand what you mean, and is one of the reasons I’m excited about jumping to using hardware like the Syntakt—the pads are “chord mode” MIDI, and the effect of that is very static / linear / old school sounding. In the future I would prefer a little more variety. A lot of the time when I use Ableton I can’t help but feel that the end results always sound a little too basic.
Thank you for the mix notes! Always struggle with the hats. There’s also something out of my control, which is that after I mix it down I imported the wav into iMovie and then uploaded to YouTube, which has made the track sound different. There’s a little bit of midrange distortion that I don’t hear on Ableton.
By all means get a syntakt, but honestly Ableton can do absolutely anything and runs circles around any Elektron device in terms of sound design abilities. I absolutely love hardware, but please don’t fall into the trap of “I need this hardware to make that”.
It is a taste thing, but a good tip for mixing is to listen at very low volume. It will give you a clear picture of sounds that are too loud in your mix.
Please upload your wav to Soundcloud. I get that YT is an accessible platform, but for the sake of getting feedback, sound quality is much more important.
Ha, thank you for all this feedback, Zijnvelt! You’re right, I’ll switch to Soundcloud. The low volume thing is a decent tip. And yeah, I know you can make anything on Ableton, but the endless possibilities of the software have in some ways felt prohibitive to creativity. So the workflow (or in some ways, limitations) of a box like the Syntakt may help in freeing myself from that.
My pleasure! I hope the tip helps! I completely understand what you mean in regards to Ableton. I filter out everything I like and never even go to the main tabs anymore. It helps a lot. But I hope going hardware will be an inspiring journey for you!
Frankly I don’t mind the composition, I like the progression but though I know the genre allows for it, five minutes of this progression feels a bit long. I think the volume of the pad is ok but I wouldn’t leave it so static, meaning I’d consider adding a filter sweep and maybe side chain it. I also felt that the rimshot type sound is a bit loud in the mix and if it were me, I’d try panning more effectively.
The buildup and breakdown are ok for me, I like the background sounds that are sort of like a chime tree or whatever that is and I’d want to hear that a just a little louder in the mix. It also sounds a little polished to me, I might run parts of it through a tape effect or something else with a vintage feel to give it a bit more grit.
Otherwise, I like it and I don’t think you’re doing bad at all, sounds better than some of my stuff although I don’t necessarily make music that fits with this genre. I’ve listened to a lot of music though and I hear where you were going with this.
I’d encourage a bit more movement in the sounds themselves and keep the progression as is after some adjustments in the mix. Thanks for sharing and taking feedback on it as well.
Also, if this were on an elektron device, first thing I’d do is put an lfo on the hats to modulate their velocity dynamic a bit. I think it would help the movement overall.
Ah, yeah, filter sweeps—I need to figure out how to do those better. Whenever I’ve tried they always sound very sudden and jarring. I know there’s probably a YouTube tutorial out there.
So the tape thing—yeah, this is something I’ve been thinking about. I do love that sound. I’ve been listening to some D. Tiffany tracks lately and she has this really wonderful balance of grit and distinction in her mixes. Passing it through some tape might be useful.
Having a controller with a knob or fader assigned to the filter and practicing doing it manually will be a big plus for you I think, easier to do it by feel.
Re-reading these comments in the morning, and if you don’t mind, I have a question about what you said re Ableton—what do you mean that you “filter out everything” and don’t go to the main tabs anymore?
I just added everything I want to use here. I never browse the main library tabs anymore. Too cluttered.
Filtering out what I want to use allows for a focussed workflow. Sometimes I’ll remove stuff from my filters if I don’t use it as often.
Making music is all about having as little latency between idea and recording as possible so browsing folders with stuff I don’t need has now been removed from my workflow.
For example, here are all the instruments I’m using at the moment. The folders change overtime depending on what I want to make. You could compare it to having a clean workspace. You don’t need everything out on the table and connected.
Yes, although I don’t handle distribution myself. Tbh, I’m not really interested in sharing it here. I’m mostly here to chat and be the occasional troll.
I’d agree that the hats are a bit loud and a bit static. Maybe vary the velocity, drop them out entirely at times for x number of bars, add scatterings of delay on them to give hints of 16th notes (I think!)
Admittedly I’m listening on my phone but I wasn’t really aware of the bass apart from the beginning and end section. It’s a nice line when you can hear it!
The pads are nice too. And the atmos/field sounds.
I think generally it could do with a few breakdowns, builds, dropping parts in and out or more subtle changes to the sounds playing with filters, adsr etc etc But that might just be my personal tastes and I’m not massively familiar with the artists you name just the odd tracks.
I hope that’s of some use. I don’t feel like I know what I’m doing half the time so take what I say with a large pinch of salt It’s not easy sharing and asking for feedback so well done for doing it!
Edit: just realised @shigginpit said very similar things, whoops!
It’s not easy sharing and asking for feedback so well done for doing it!