Music Surge of Ambient Beat

[AmbientBeat 27]

I uploaded a new handful of tracks from Ambient Beat, the pony expansion of Face for Radio. Here's the link, and hopefully you like it. Be sure to leave critique, both positive and negative, in the comments. Enjoy!

 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxHi2DqrgwrnJZxVtSt_BFw

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,824]

Ok. 

 

Flying Through: Be extremely careful with your strumming. It felt too harsh, and lacked that ambient type of feel. What you need is a volume pedal to help you with what is known as swelling. Swells are a huge key factor when it comes to the ambient genre. The ambient genre lacks attack, which is basically how hard you strum. A compressor can really do you good in this situation. By increasing the attack time, it will give your guitar a more swelly sound, which is what your looking for, rather than a plucked/strummed sound. Also, watch your fret slides and transitions. You do not want to hear your fingers sliding across the frets before you strum another chord. Either

• mute, lift your fret hand off the fretboard, then place your fret hand in the next chord position

or

• Perform a slide trying not to squeak the frets

Your chord choice is okay. I see you were using 5ths: Eb/Bb, F/C, Db/Ab. I would suggest making this a 2-phrase piece instead of a 1-phrase piece. You could this for the main line: Eb/Bb F/C Db/Ab Eb/Bb Ab/Eb Db/Ab

 

I wouldn't have removed the bass and keep the mids in that one section. It sort of threw the piece off. Also, I see you were trying to go for a sitar like sound. You were heading in the right direction, but make sure your fingernail is on the string right as soon as you strum it. 

 

All in all, it's a decent piece but it could use some work. 

 

Back In The Day: That squarewave in the beginning is a little too much for the ears. Don't you think? I would suggest de-fuzzing that squarewave and keeping it a clean and pure pulsating squarewave. You can either pulse it in 8ths or 16ths. The fuzz and the supposed ring modulation just really kill the sound on that squarewave. Plus, some of the pitches it produces clash with each other. In addition, I think you limited yourself too much in terms of chord progressions. Knowing this piece is in Ab major/F minor, you only used the I, vi and the V. Here are some suggestions on some basic progressions you could use

 

I-vi-IV-V

 

vi-I-V-IV

 

vi-V-I-IV

 

I-V-vi-IV

 

There are 20 more ways you can order these chords. 

 

Instead of the pulsating plucked lead, you could make it an arpeggiated plucked lead. This way, the arpeggios can form a melody. Be sure to implement at least 3 of the suggested progressions in order to vary your arpeggiated plucked lead patterns. 

 

All in all, this piece could definitely use improvement. It's a start though. 

 

Trot: I see you were trying to experiment here. However, it was not well organized. Whenever you're experimenting with a new style, you always have to make sure that you don't end one idea abruptly and just start another on the drop of a hat. You have to make a transition on the fly before you can start another idea. Also, watch your percussion because it gets off, but I understand if it was intentional, as this track sounds more like an experiment. Your sawtooths have a little too much high end. Lower it just a tad because it is not so pleasant to the ears with all of that high end. 

 

Equestria After Dark: Sorry, but Imma have to be honest with you...this is not a good track. You were literally using the same vocal sample all of the time. As a matter of fact, it was really just the whole phrase you were looping. The only thing you did on this track was just manipulate the track by starting it on a specific part of the phrase. Really, the actual song does not reflect that of the title. I unfortunately must say you're gonna have to redo this one completely and keep in mind the title and what you really want your song to convey. 

 

Shine: Again, you limited yourself to one part and looped it. You need to start focusing on expanding your ideas. This is the reason why electronic artists don't get noticed as much as others, simply because they don't expand on their ideas. They think about one and only one phrase and stick with it. It may hook your audience for a few seconds, but then they'll before uninterested. Also, watch your clipping, there was some peaking in the main reverse tremolo piano part. Again, this is where chord progressions come in. You're in the key of Bb and limited yourself to the I and the IV. Here's what I suggest

 

I-IV-V-vi-I(1st inversion)-vi-V

 

I-vi-V-IV-I-IV-I

 

The quotes can remain, but make sure they don't clip or peak. All in all, this track is an okay track, but again, you need to work on expanding your ideas. 

 

Love(and some Techno): Again, limiting yourself to two chords won't work. Even if you're using loops, you need to make sure you have well organized phrases and transitions that can lead to new ideas. Knowing you're in the key of G major, you limited yourself to the IV and V in the first part, the vi and the IV in the second and the ii and IV in the last part. Basically, you meshed three different loop ideas into one song by using quotes as transitions, which sadly, was not really a good idea. You cut each part off abruptly and played the quote. You then started the next idea. I suggest you put a build-up fill-in before the quote plays, then cut to the quote, before putting a quick 1-beat fill-in leading into the next section. Backing up to chord progressions, here are some suggestions:

 

I-vi-IV-V

 

ii-IV-vi-V

 

IV-ii-vi-V

 

vi-IV-I-V

 

All in all, this piece could be revamped to a format that involves smoother transitions, expansion of ideas, and use of solid progressions to keep your audience engaged. 

 

Overall, your pieces could use a ton of work. They are way underdeveloped and could use a lot of beefing up. What I suggest is saving up for a better software such as Ableton or Finale. Also, I would invest in a cheap keyboard workstation or MIDI keyboard that allows you to play certain types of synths, preferably leads and pads. 

 

I'm here if you need any help understanding about what I said in my explanations. 

[AmbientBeat 27]

Ok. 

 

Flying Through: Be extremely careful with your strumming. It felt too harsh, and lacked that ambient type of feel. What you need is a volume pedal to help you with what is known as swelling. Swells are a huge key factor when it comes to the ambient genre. The ambient genre lacks attack, which is basically how hard you strum. A compressor can really do you good in this situation. By increasing the attack time, it will give your guitar a more swelly sound, which is what your looking for, rather than a plucked/strummed sound. Also, watch your fret slides and transitions. You do not want to hear your fingers sliding across the frets before you strum another chord. Either

• mute, lift your fret hand off the fretboard, then place your fret hand in the next chord position

or

• Perform a slide trying not to squeak the frets

Your chord choice is okay. I see you were using 5ths: Eb/Bb, F/C, Db/Ab. I would suggest making this a 2-phrase piece instead of a 1-phrase piece. You could this for the main line: Eb/Bb F/C Db/Ab Eb/Bb Ab/Eb Db/Ab

 

I wouldn't have removed the bass and keep the mids in that one section. It sort of threw the piece off. Also, I see you were trying to go for a sitar like sound. You were heading in the right direction, but make sure your fingernail is on the string right as soon as you strum it. 

 

All in all, it's a decent piece but it could use some work. 

 

Back In The Day: That squarewave in the beginning is a little too much for the ears. Don't you think? I would suggest de-fuzzing that squarewave and keeping it a clean and pure pulsating squarewave. You can either pulse it in 8ths or 16ths. The fuzz and the supposed ring modulation just really kill the sound on that squarewave. Plus, some of the pitches it produces clash with each other. In addition, I think you limited yourself too much in terms of chord progressions. Knowing this piece is in Ab major/F minor, you only used the I, vi and the V. Here are some suggestions on some basic progressions you could use

 

I-vi-IV-V

 

vi-I-V-IV

 

vi-V-I-IV

 

I-V-vi-IV

 

There are 20 more ways you can order these chords. 

 

Instead of the pulsating plucked lead, you could make it an arpeggiated plucked lead. This way, the arpeggios can form a melody. Be sure to implement at least 3 of the suggested progressions in order to vary your arpeggiated plucked lead patterns. 

 

All in all, this piece could definitely use improvement. It's a start though. 

 

Trot: I see you were trying to experiment here. However, it was not well organized. Whenever you're experimenting with a new style, you always have to make sure that you don't end one idea abruptly and just start another on the drop of a hat. You have to make a transition on the fly before you can start another idea. Also, watch your percussion because it gets off, but I understand if it was intentional, as this track sounds more like an experiment. Your sawtooths have a little too much high end. Lower it just a tad because it is not so pleasant to the ears with all of that high end. 

 

Equestria After Dark: Sorry, but Imma have to be honest with you...this is not a good track. You were literally using the same vocal sample all of the time. As a matter of fact, it was really just the whole phrase you were looping. The only thing you did on this track was just manipulate the track by starting it on a specific part of the phrase. Really, the actual song does not reflect that of the title. I unfortunately must say you're gonna have to redo this one completely and keep in mind the title and what you really want your song to convey. 

 

Shine: Again, you limited yourself to one part and looped it. You need to start focusing on expanding your ideas. This is the reason why electronic artists don't get noticed as much as others, simply because they don't expand on their ideas. They think about one and only one phrase and stick with it. It may hook your audience for a few seconds, but then they'll before uninterested. Also, watch your clipping, there was some peaking in the main reverse tremolo piano part. Again, this is where chord progressions come in. You're in the key of Bb and limited yourself to the I and the IV. Here's what I suggest

 

I-IV-V-vi-I(1st inversion)-vi-V

 

I-vi-V-IV-I-IV-I

 

The quotes can remain, but make sure they don't clip or peak. All in all, this track is an okay track, but again, you need to work on expanding your ideas. 

 

Love(and some Techno): Again, limiting yourself to two chords won't work. Even if you're using loops, you need to make sure you have well organized phrases and transitions that can lead to new ideas. Knowing you're in the key of G major, you limited yourself to the IV and V in the first part, the vi and the IV in the second and the ii and IV in the last part. Basically, you meshed three different loop ideas into one song by using quotes as transitions, which sadly, was not really a good idea. You cut each part off abruptly and played the quote. You then started the next idea. I suggest you put a build-up fill-in before the quote plays, then cut to the quote, before putting a quick 1-beat fill-in leading into the next section. Backing up to chord progressions, here are some suggestions:

 

I-vi-IV-V

 

ii-IV-vi-V

 

IV-ii-vi-V

 

vi-IV-I-V

 

All in all, this piece could be revamped to a format that involves smoother transitions, expansion of ideas, and use of solid progressions to keep your audience engaged. 

 

Overall, your pieces could use a ton of work. They are way underdeveloped and could use a lot of beefing up. What I suggest is saving up for a better software such as Ableton or Finale. Also, I would invest in a cheap keyboard workstation or MIDI keyboard that allows you to play certain types of synths, preferably leads and pads. 

 

I'm here if you need any help understanding about what I said in my explanations. 

I honestly didn't think of any of that when making these pieces. Usually my method is finding a nice melody or a distorted sound of sorts and holding it. The majority of my songs put sound and melody on top of everything else, since sounds have a big effect on me. I also loop a lot to mimic the hip hop sampling from the 90's, since for some reason I really like the sound of it, but I often avoid it on certain tracks. 

The Flying Through song was actually a Dream Pop/Shoegaze influenced track, the sliding and strumming were intentional  because the sounds felt more personal. I was actually trying to go for the feel of a song by Boards of Canada, who are one of my biggest influences when it comes to my approach to sound. When I recorded it I was trying to aim for something emotional and personal, and I was mainly thinking of this song here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxHi2DqrgwrnJZxVtSt_BFw. 

The same thing goes for Shine.

The other tracks I really dont have any excuses for. Trot was a messy example of me messing with samples, Love(and Some Techno) was a loop experiment that after I finished I realized I made a cheap MLP knockoff of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUF5P5xo7jg. It's also a song I'm planning on remaking, since I like the melody, but not the way I mixed them.

Equestria After Dark is my least favorite. It was actually me trying to make a Hip Hop like tune, and while I like the loops, I think that's the one I definitely couldve done differently  

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,824]

I honestly didn't think of any of that when making these pieces. Usually my method is finding a nice melody or a distorted sound of sorts and holding it. The majority of my songs put sound and melody on top of everything else, since sounds have a big effect on me. I also loop a lot to mimic the hip hop sampling from the 90's, since for some reason I really like the sound of it, but I often avoid it on certain tracks. 

The Flying Through song was actually a Dream Pop/Shoegaze influenced track, the sliding and strumming were intentional  because the sounds felt more personal. I was actually trying to go for the feel of a song by Boards of Canada, who are one of my biggest influences when it comes to my approach to sound. When I recorded it I was trying to aim for something emotional and personal, and I was mainly thinking of this song here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxHi2DqrgwrnJZxVtSt_BFw. 

The same thing goes for Shine.

The other tracks I really dont have any excuses for. Trot was a messy example of me messing with samples, Love(and Some Techno) was a loop experiment that after I finished I realized I made a cheap MLP knockoff of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUF5P5xo7jg. It's also a song I'm planning on remaking, since I like the melody, but not the way I mixed them.

Equestria After Dark is my least favorite. It was actually me trying to make a Hip Hop like tune, and while I like the loops, I think that's the one I definitely couldve done differently  

 

Ok, thanks for clearing things up. 

 

For the Flying Through song, your slides were not so clean. You squeaked the frets quite a bit, probably because you were pushing down a little too hard on the strings when you were sliding. 

 

The best thing to make a hip-hop track is to break up the song into parts. Better yet, start rapping. Make ideas, jot things down. Remember, show, don't tell. 

 

For Shine, it would've been better if you had long reverberated/delayed piano going forwards instead of reverse. The piano should have chorus as an effect on it. 

 

 

But really, the best thing to do when making pieces is to take an idea and just keep on expanding on it. Like I said before, people expect to hear many variations on ideas, or else they'll turn away. By the way, what I was explaining was basic music theory, which can be very helpful if you want to create a stellar track. 

[AmbientBeat 27]

Ok, thanks for clearing things up. 

 

For the Flying Through song, your slides were not so clean. You squeaked the frets quite a bit, probably because you were pushing down a little too hard on the strings when you were sliding. 

 

The best thing to make a hip-hop track is to break up the song into parts. Better yet, start rapping. Make ideas, jot things down. Remember, show, don't tell. 

 

For Shine, it would've been better if you had long reverberated/delayed piano going forwards instead of reverse. The piano should have chorus as an effect on it. 

 

 

But really, the best thing to do when making pieces is to take an idea and just keep on expanding on it. Like I said before, people expect to hear many variations on ideas, or else they'll turn away. By the way, what I was explaining was basic music theory, which can be very helpful if you want to create a stellar track. 

I do know music theory, I just never really used it, which is something I should start changing, because I dont like making a song and not knowing how I made it.

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,824]

I do know music theory, I just never really used it, which is something I should start changing, because I dont like making a song and not knowing how I made it.

It's the best thing to do. You must always know where you're going when it comes to composing music. 

[AmbientBeat 27]

If you want you can give my other music on Soundcloud a listen. It has both Ambient Beat and my main project.

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,824]

If you want you can give my other music on Soundcloud a listen. It has both Ambient Beat and my main project.

 

Alright, I'll definitely go ahead and do that. In the meantime, would you like some coaching in making your music better?

[AmbientBeat 27]

Alright, I'll definitely go ahead and do that. In the meantime, would you like some coaching in making your music better?

Yeah, fo sho, but I still have to finish releasing my older stuff

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,824]

Yeah, fo sho, but I still have to finish releasing my older stuff

 

Ok. I can wait for you to do that. 

[AmbientBeat 27]

Ok. I can wait for you to do that. 

 

 

What genres do you like to make?

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,824]

What genres do you like to make?

 

I mainly do classical, rock, symphonic metal and fusions. 

[AmbientBeat 27]

I mainly do classical, rock, symphonic metal and fusions. 

My main genres are Dream Pop, Shoegaze, Synthpop, IDM, Instrumental Hip Hop, Neo-Psychadelia, Plunderphonics, and New Wave

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,824]

My main genres are Dream Pop, Shoegaze, Synthpop, IDM, Instrumental Hip Hop, Neo-Psychadelia, Plunderphonics, and New Wave

Nice, I don't do that much electronic stuff tho..

[AmbientBeat 27]

Nice, I don't do that much electronic stuff tho..

It's cool. Do you think you could give my "new" songs a listen? They've actually been waiting to be released for awhile

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,824]

It's cool. Do you think you could give my "new" songs a listen? They've actually been waiting to be released for awhile

 

Sure! I can totally do that. But I'd like to send the critiques via another means, since this thread is only about the tracks you posted. 

[AmbientBeat 27]

Could you give them via Private Message?

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,824]

Can't do that right now sorry...

 

 

Could you give them via Private Message?

[AmbientBeat 27]

Can't do that right now sorry...

Okay I'll wait till you have a chance