each person’s opinion / feedback is it’s own measuring stick and helps to quantify overall perceptions. you aren’t mirroring my response, you’re presenting your own.
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Most people listen on phones/headphones anyway so it’s good to reference that
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Thank you! One thing I’ve struggled with is creating interesting moments of transitions—I have always hated the cliche of the backwards crash cymbal / noise riser in electronic music. It’s too flashy or something, it reminds me of Darude’s “Sandstorm” and other cheesy, over-the-top electronic production lol You know what I mean?
Appreciate the kindness and honesty in your feedback. And everyone’s feedback on this thread. Happy to have found this corner of the world!
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How dare you 
But no, I get it. I suppose instead of the big cliches like that it could be worth experimenting with all the stuff around subtle changes to sounds including volume, panning, filter changes, delays etc. and just trying dropping parts out for x number of bars, sometimes dropping things slightly early or late etc. It’s quick to try in Ableton and there’s always undo if you don’t like the results!
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Also only listened through my phone and don’t know too much about mixing, so what I can tell you is:
- cool that you’re seeking out feedback here and are willing to share that publicly
- it’s a nice chill tune that you can put on in the background. If this was playing somewhere where people are hanging out without focusing deeply on the music, they would probably feel comfortable and don’t think „oh my god, what is this amateur music playing“
- if that’s the vibe you’re going for, I‘d also say you can try to play with a bit of sound design that makes elements sound more gritty
- and you can record some variation that’s subtle but still noticeable. Like people are hard pressed to tell what exactly changed but they felt it. One way to do this would be to pick 1-2 parameters for each track and live record some subtle automation, one at a time for each element throughout the whole track. You can practice what sounds nice before recording. Optimally with a simple MIDI controller.
- You could also play around with muting/unmuting certain elements at time or bringing their volume up/down or filter lo or hi parts of them out. Then you can also record that, ideally with a MIDI controller.
- If you’re going for a more involved listening experience, you could add more dramatic changes or effects. But I don’t get the impression that’s what you’re after (which is totally fine, hope this doesn’t sound judgy)
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Not at all judgy! And in fact, is pretty much what I’m after—I love the idea that it’s music that would make people feel comfortable. I think conceptually that’s something I’m interested in, and probably where some of that JRPG soundtrack influence comes in. There’s probably a bit of nostalgia at play in this (I can’t help but remember being a kid in 1999 or 2000 playing this), but as a grown man now I occasionally go back to tracks like this and marvel at their simple and comforting beauty: https://youtu.be/gpPHwByQmMk?si=O_nJZNk7TZxaBfHJ
Neither here nor there lol Anyway — I’ve actually never tried what you suggest about live automation with a MIDI controller. I’ve always “written” it in, which always feels a little arduous, or I’ve used an LFO, which can be fun but at times the results are a bit too random. Going to try this next time. Great practical bit of advice, thank you!
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Cool aesthetic to chase, have fun with trying the automation thing!
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