Crystal Slave - Determination (Rainbow Dash theme)

[Reuel(Crystal Slave) 287]

Hey guys! Here is a new song I wrote for RD. I wanted to push myself and work in a genre (dubstep) that I am not very experienced in to expand the scope of my music a bit. How did I do?

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6NrvmIUjWY

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,824]

Ok.

 

Perhaps the one thing that really put a damper on your piece was that you limited yourself to the tonic key of e minor. You basically hung around the i chord (except the part where you did a i-i-VI-V cadence, which is still not enough). Here are a few suggestions for some progressions:

 

i-iv-VI-V

 

i-VI-iv-V

 

i-VII-iv-VI-V (last two chords for only a quarter beat)

 

VI-iv-i-V

 

iv-I-VI-V

 

i-VII-VI-V

 

i-VII-VI-iv-V (last two chord for only a quarter beat)

 

Also, watch your transitions. Transitions are a key part when it comes to producing electronic music.

 

In electronic music, each section of the song is divided into parts called phrases. There are 8 measures to a phrase. Each measure contains exactly four beats (unless you're using a different time signature, which is pretty rare for electronic music). When counting in electronic music for phrases, people count like this:

 

1 2 3 4 | 2 2 3 4 | 3-2-3-4 | 4 2 3 4 | 5 2 3 4 | 6 2 3 4 | 7 2 3 4 | 8 2 3 4

 

So, now that this is laid out, you can now pinpoint places on where you want to insert sweep-ins, fill-ins, sweep-outs and other transitional elements.

 

Let's take the first few bars of your song, particularly from 0:00 to 0:11. I see you transitioned on the 4th bar instead of the eighth, which is fine, but the gate wasn't really enough of a transition. I would suggest inserting a small sweep-out filter at the beginning of the 4th bar of this first small phrase. I like how you took 4 bars each to climax the song, thumbs up there. '

 

In the wubby part starting at 0:38, the transition before that was a little too direct. A rapid reduction in pitch to fade out would've worked here, that bring the whole thing out of the pitch reduction to fade filter rapidly, and then start on the wubs, speaking of which...

 

They're to shallow! THEY NEED MORE BASS! Turn up the low end on them to give them the depth they need. That's what dubstep is known for, those deep sounding wubs. Same thing applies to your snare. It's lacking that hard depth that dubstep snares are known for.

 

In the piano part starting at 0:46, I would not have just done blocked chords following the progression that your bass pads are playing. Arpeggiated runs on the right hand would work. For the low piano or left hand, you could do some syncopated beats following the progression. Have the left hand play the root in a pattern somewhat like this:

 

In the part at 1:06. I certainly would at least put a slow down there, as the transition is very sudden.

 

In the second wubby part, you went down from the i to the VII and turned that minor. You shifted to d minor, which was a very awkward key change. I honestly would just stay in e minor in that second wubby part. Again, your wubs need more depth and so does your snare.

 

All in all, this piece could use quite a bit of work. I'm here if you need clarification and more understanding on anything I explained in my critique.

Edited January 9, 2016 by C. Thunder Dash

[SynBassilicious Pony 322]

....................

Edited January 30, 2023 by SynBassilicious Pony

[Reuel(Crystal Slave) 287]

Ok. 

 

Perhaps the one thing that really put a damper on your piece was that you limited yourself to the tonic key of e minor. You basically hung around the i chord (except the part where you did a i-i-VI-V cadence, which is still not enough). Here are a few suggestions for some progressions:

 

i-iv-VI-V

 

i-VI-iv-V

 

i-VII-iv-vi-V (last two chords for only a quarter beat)

 

VI-iv-i-V

 

iv-I-VI-V

 

i-VII-VI-V

 

i-VII-VI-iv-V (last two chord for only a quarter beat)

 

Also, watch your transitions. Transitions are a key part when it comes to producing electronic music. 

 

In electronic music, each section of the song is divided into parts called phrases. There are 8 measures to a phrase. Each measure contains exactly four beats (unless you're using a different time signature, which is pretty rare for electronic music). When counting in electronic music for phrases, people count like this:

 

1 2 3 4  | 2 2 3 4 | 3-2-3-4 | 4 2 3 4 | 5 2 3 4 | 6 2 3 4 | 7 2 3 4 | 8 2 3 4

 

So, now that this is laid out, you can now pinpoint places on where you want to insert sweep-ins, fill-ins, sweep-outs and other transitional elements. 

 

Let's take the first few bars of your song, particularly from 0:00 to 0:11. I see you transitioned on the 4th bar instead of the eighth, which is fine, but the gate wasn't really enough of a transition. I would suggest inserting a small sweep-out filter at the beginning of the 4th bar of this first small phrase. I like how you took 4 bars each to climax the song, thumbs up there. '

 

In the wubby part starting at 0:38, the transition before that was a little too direct. A rapid reduction in pitch to fade out would've worked here, that bring the whole thing out of the pitch reduction to fade filter rapidly, and then start on the wubs, speaking of which...

 

They're to shallow! THEY NEED MORE BASS! Turn up the low end on them to give them the depth they need. That's what dubstep is known for, those deep sounding wubs. Same thing applies to your snare. It's lacking that hard depth that dubstep snares are known for. 

 

In the piano part starting at 0:46, I would not have just done blocked chords following the progression that your bass pads are playing. Arpeggiated runs on the right hand would work. For the low piano or left hand, you could do some syncopated beats following the progression. Have the left hand play the root in a pattern somewhat like this:

 

In the part at 1:06. I certainly would at least put a slow down there, as the transition is very sudden. 

 

In the second wubby part, you went down from the i to the VII and turned that minor. You shifted to d minor, which was a very awkward key change. I honestly would just stay in e minor in that second wubby part. Again, your wubs need more depth and so does your snare. 

 

All in all, this piece could use quite a bit of work. I'm here if you need clarification and more understanding on anything I explained in my critique. 

 

Thanks for all the advice! I'll definitely take into mind your thoughts on this. As I mentioned, I usually don't write actual dubstep songs, so this was largely an experimental track. Now I have things to think about if I try something like this again.

 

I'm going to nitpick and say that some of the snares are too dry (i.e., they should have some nice reverbiness).

 

You might be right - although, during the drop, at least, I had planned for the snare to be pretty dry from the beginning. Perhaps it would have sounded better with a bigger reverb. Thanks for the input!

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,824]

@@Reuel(Crystal Slave),

 

Okay. If there's anything you don't understand, you can ask me.  

[magicguy0711 36]

I liked it, the intro was pretty cool and mysterious and I liked the piano parts! The only thing was that the drop was kind of out of place. Overall good job!