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Vylet Pony - Little Dreams (Subcascade Remix)


Grepper

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Constructive criticism you ask? Well here goes...

 

Kudos to starting everything in a filter and using a sweeping noise rise to bring everything out of the filter. However, I wouldn't sweep the noise back in. I'd keep sweeping it higher through the frequency spectrum until it fades gradually because of the high frequencies. 

 

Love that depth you have on your kick. It's nice and bulky. Your high-hats are also well-equalized, some people have the highs backed off on them which dulls them out. However, that beginning beat could use some fill-ins, specifically on bars 4 and 7. The way electronic music is divided is by beats and bars. Take a look at this for reference:

 

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|

 

You would stick a fill in bars 4 and 8. Sometimes, when you want to build, you can even start something on bar five. 

 

I like that sweeping plucked lead you had running in the beginning. I did notice a change in attack though, right before the lead was swept fully into the filter. You might want to look into that if you want to keep the plucked lead at a sharp and fast attack. 

 

As the song advanced, your kick started to obtain a little too much high end. You never want your kick to do this, because it can then sound like a bouncing beach ball. Lower some of the highs to maintain that bulky kick you had before the sweep-out. 

 

I like that bright sawtooth you swept out of the filter. It's also well equalized. To help you remember this setting, for that classic saw you had running, always keep the high-end up, but not too much. In this case, you had it at just the right value, because almost no high-end noise was heard. 

 

Your vocal work is great. For extras, I'd add some reverb to the vocals to give them more space, since this song is in fact about dreams, and songs about dreams tend to have more reverb depending on the genre. 

 

That solo square/pulse wave fusion rise was awesome. That build up was great. I would run the ascending square/pulse fusion wave through a quarter beat gate though. The gate should be smooth. A gate is an effect that mutes or dampens the volume of a sound. Advanced gates are capable of doing this to beats, which is explained above. Sending the clap through that beat sweep-down filter was amazing. It gave me that transformers feel, since the transformers sound effect is along those lines...

 

The ending was very creative, sending everything into a filter and continuously lowering that filter until the sound is no more. 

 

All in all, great remix, but things could be tweaked here in there. I'm always here if you need any help with understanding what I said in my critique. 

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(edited)

 Kudos to starting everything in a filter and using a sweeping noise rise to bring everything out of the filter. However, I wouldn't sweep the noise back in. I'd keep sweeping it higher through the frequency spectrum until it fades gradually because of the high frequencies.

 

I swept back the high frequencies before the hihat started because it made the hihat sound weak. I'm not quite sure what "until it fades gradually because of the high frequencies" means. Does that mean to fade the noise when the hihat starts?

 

After reading this, I tried leaving the lowpass fully open after the first sweep (while adjusting the release and timing so it would fade before the hihats start) and I didn't like it as much.

 

Love that depth you have on your kick. It's nice and bulky. Your high-hats are also well-equalized, some people have the highs backed off on them which dulls them out. However, that beginning beat could use some fill-ins, specifically on bars 4 and 7. The way electronic music is divided is by beats and bars. Take a look at this for reference:

 

 

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|

 

 

You would stick a fill in bars 4 and 8. Sometimes, when you want to build, you can even start something on bar five.

 

Thank you for the compliments on the drum mixing. I'm glad I got it right for my first track. :grin:

What type of instrument would you suggest for a fill-in? Probably a drum, though I'm not certain of which type or rhythm to use.

 

I like that sweeping plucked lead you had running in the beginning. I did notice a change in attack though, right before the lead was swept fully into the filter. You might want to look into that if you want to keep the plucked lead at a sharp and fast attack.

 

I never paid much attention to the difference in attack time. Now that I think of it, I do want to keep the attack sharp and fast. I should look into reworking the filter.

 

As the song advanced, your kick started to obtain a little too much high end. You never want your kick to do this, because it can then sound like a bouncing beach ball. Lower some of the highs to maintain that bulky kick you had before the sweep-out.

 

That's interesting, I never thought that much high end on the kick was undesirable. What frequency range would you suggest reducing/cutting out?

 

I like that bright sawtooth you swept out of the filter. It's also well equalized. To help you remember this setting, for that classic saw you had running, always keep the high-end up, but not too much. In this case, you had it at just the right value, because almost no high-end noise was heard.

 

I didn't EQ the saw pad at all, so that's interesting. Maybe it's because of the shape of the waveform is a smoothed-out sawtooth (fewer high harmonics.)

 

Your vocal work is great. For extras, I'd add some reverb to the vocals to give them more space, since this song is in fact about dreams, and songs about dreams tend to have more reverb depending on the genre.

 

Just to be clear, I didn't record these vocals, but maybe that's not what you were implying. I did add a touch of reverb just so the vocals didn't sound dry. I tried adding more reverb at your suggestion. I found settings that I liked, but I also noticed that the extra reverb also accentuated the clicking noises in the vocals that I was trying to hide in the mix.

 

That solo square/pulse wave fusion rise was awesome. That build up was great. I would run the ascending square/pulse fusion wave through a quarter beat gate though. The gate should be smooth. A gate is an effect that mutes or dampens the volume of a sound. Advanced gates are capable of doing this to beats, which is explained above. Sending the clap through that beat sweep-down filter was amazing. It gave me that transformers feel, since the transformers sound effect is along those lines...

 

I am familiar with gates, but I didn't think of using one. I tried a short-short-long trancegate and it sounded pretty good. I don't mind it either way, though.

 

For the buildup I ran a highpass filter and a bitcrusher on the drums simultaneously. I didn't do anything to the clap exclusively. By the way, the new sound you hear after the drum buildup is a closed hihat sample pitched down one octave and progressively distorted with a bitcrusher.

 

The ending was very creative, sending everything into a filter and continuously lowering that filter until the sound is no more.

 

Thank you! I thought it sounded better that a simple stop or a fadeout. :rarity:

 

All in all, great remix, but things could be tweaked here in there. I'm always here if you need any help with understanding what I said in my critique.

 

Thank you for the critique. :)

I will keep it in mind for projects in the future.

Edited by Grepper
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I swept back the high frequencies before the hihat started because it made the hihat sound weak. I'm not quite sure what "until it fades gradually because of the high frequencies" means. Does that mean to fade the noise when the hihat starts?  
 

 

Well, the higher you raise the frequency of the filter, the higher the noise rises in frequency itself. You ever notice how when a soundwave goes way high in hertz it becomes quieter? That's the effect that should be achieved with this sweep-up.

 

 

 

What type of instrument would you suggest for a fill-in? Probably a drum, though I'm not certain of which type or rhythm to use.

 

You can use toms. Tom-toms are great for fill-ins, because they each vary in pitch. You can also use a bubble-like pop sound that varies in pitch too, since this is electronic.

 

 

 

That's interesting, I never thought that much high end on the kick was undesirable. What frequency range would you suggest reducing/cutting out?

 

Cut out some of the high-mid and high. Using a 7-band equalizer will certainly help you pinpoint the unwanted frequencies, so that way you can cancel or dim them out.

 

 

 

didn't EQ the saw pad at all, so that's interesting. Maybe it's because of the shape of the waveform is a smoothed-out sawtooth (fewer high harmonics.)

 

So I'm assuming this was a preset...?

 

 

 

Just to be clear, I didn't record these vocals, but maybe that's not what you were implying. I did add a touch of reverb just so the vocals didn't sound dry. I tried adding more reverb at your suggestion. I found settings that I liked, but I also noticed that the extra reverb also accentuated the clicking noises in the vocals that I was trying to hide in the mix.

 

Clicking noises like s's and t's?

 

 

 

By the way, the new sound you hear after the drum buildup is a closed hihat sample pitched down one octave and progressively distorted with a bitcrusher.  

 

So then you probably worked with the filter settings of the bitcrusher I assume?

 

 

 

Thank you for the critique. I will keep it in mind for projects in the future.

 

No prob, I'm always here to help. :) 

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 Well, the higher you raise the frequency of the filter, the higher the noise rises in frequency itself. You ever notice how when a soundwave goes way high in hertz it becomes quieter? That's the effect that should be achieved with this sweep-up.

 

I'm using a lowpass filter, and the noise is still audible with it fully open. I think I understand what you mean now, and it works the way you intend if I change it to a bandpass filter.

 

 

So I'm assuming this was a preset...?

 

I made all of the synths myself, except for the bass synth (I followed a tutorial for that one.)

 

 

Clicking noises like s's and t's?

Yes. There are also amplitude spikes on "C" sounds. I can't really fix this. They are in the original song as well.

 

 

So then you probably worked with the filter settings of the bitcrusher I assume?

 

The bitcrusher has a sample rate setting that I reduced on each hihat play to make it sound more and more low-fi.

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Eeyup. There are also amplitude spikes on "C" sounds. I can't really fix this. They are in the original song as well.  

 

There is a reason for that. The original artist may have used what is called a "presence" track, in which all of those C's S's and T's are emphasized due to the low pass filter and increased mid-highs and highs.

 

 

 

The bitcrusher has a sample rate setting that I reduced on each hihat play to make it sound more and more low-fi.

 

Then therefore, the lower the sample rate, the lower the pitch.  

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