KVR Audio

Flying George · Post by **Flying George** » Fri Feb 20, 2015 12:54 pm

I’m facing a real challenge, I appreciate your time.

Some time ago I did that piano piece to the girl who needed music for her figure skating program. She liked it and is using a edited version of that. He is managed by this sports agency company. Guy who works there is getting married. Big wedding, 400 quest at least. The guy called me about rights of the music I and we sort things out for the piano piece. Then he called me back sometime ago and asked could I make music to her wedding. I thought that he wanted emotional piano piece, no. Turns out he likes dance music. He is I guess very typical contemporary radio listener. He did mentioned that he likes 90’s in general. When pressed about the direction, ->pop song with dance energy. There was my goal. I said I could try.

I made song with very basic pop song structure. Tempo 130, key a minor at the moment.

Intro 4 bars
verse 8 bars
chorus 8 bars
verse 2 8 bars
chorus 2 8 bars
bridge 8 bars
CHORUS 8 bars
Outro 8/16 bars

I landed just over 3 min, which was my target. I did Piano version(vocal melody)with light instruments to accompany harmony and idea of a song.

SO, I did send that demo to him and he said that he liked the feeling and melody, but he wanted to hear how it would sound with dance/edm elements. He said that he would need the demo for this weekend, ‘cause he needs to set up things for the wedding.

That left me 2 days to make a demo of the electronic side of a song. I worked last night to the morning. Its outro, where whole song is still going with the energy.
I will post file for that, so you can hear it. Just volume adjust, some panning and very basics. I really rushed thought the night with this. No automation and sounds are basic. There is no movement or modulation in sounds, not even filter automation. My plan was to replace all the sounds later and add automation later.
Midi programming was also like train. No velocity or other tricks. It is bounced from midi, so no audio editing either.

From musical side there is parallel fifth’s and octaves a lot. There is still some development in 2-4-8 and even 16 bars basis, some counter also. I did try to keep things simple, ‘cause i didn’t have the time to dive deeper to the harmony. It’s in minor, ‘cause I wanted mix of happy, but serious. Pluck lead is composed for the lift and strings are the serious ones, other elements dance around with the feeling. I did actually compose most parts to my notation book before I did midi or any listening. I felted the rush.
No FX, didn’t have time. IF needed I will use time to program those later.

Self critic ain’t my strong points. I’m seventeen and I have made music so short time. It was night-time also. It’s takes out whole perspective. He wants pre view asap, sunday is def last day.
Tell me is this worth to send out to him? I mean this guy is those young lions type of guy and there is lots of quests. It would be great gig(Some other songs to play also) to have and we could make little money from it.
I know dance/edm gets rubbed here, but I did make an honest effort to write a song to couple who are getting married. That was my purpose, compose for them.

I have’t also never done this kind a live set with electronic side. I have absolutely no idea how to sequence those parts in live situation. There’s 2 months to weddings so I’ll figure those out if I need to. Any advice here is gold.

When I have some vocals back from our singer, I can post a file for the song itself. If you know/remember the game you played in your childhood, 10 sticks on the board(don’t know english name, if there is any).
You have rock under the board where is 10 wooden sticks and you stomp your foot to it and it blows those sticks all over. There’s your idea for the song. I wanted to write about joy and excitement.
It’s also reference to getting married(it was night-time..), shooting those sticks in to the air. We burst now together, but you never know where we are gonna land.

For him it’s gonna be all parts together, 2 x outro 32 bars, maybe some progress to highlight with FX.

For the GS to listen, I will make a pre view with different parts soloed/muted.
It’ will still launch with the 16 outro. After that you get to hear isolation of parts if you want to. There is still natural progress for the listening. It is crappy and fast programming, but try to see beyond that even those elements should be ready for the impact I'm after. There ain't time, simple as that.
I bet he is gonna listen it from the basic laptop or some earbuds, maybe in car or home stereo.
I did try to remember that.

Drums
Bass/sub bass
Chords (strings/piano and high string melody)
Pluck lead ( 1 EFM1 and ESP for the transient, ES2 and ESP for the body)
4 groups. If i remember right it was 10+ tracks.

No FX, I will add those IF I’m gonna send this to him.

Is it good enough to send someone who is used to hear finished products from radio?
From musical side of things, does it stand for the pop/dance/edm tune?
I need reality check!

https://soundcloud.com/flyinggeorge/...gs_mix/s-Zx3OX

Have a good weekend,
-George

D-Fusion · Post by **D-Fusion** » Fri Feb 20, 2015 1:08 pm

I get this message when clicking on your link:

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A report has been sent to our tech team,
and they're looking in to the problem.
Please check back in a bit.

Flying George · Post by **Flying George** » Fri Feb 20, 2015 1:41 pm

I have no idea why is that..
This should work

https://soundcloud.com/flyinggeorge/wed ... ix/s-Zx3OX

My page is

https://soundcloud.com/flyinggeorge

Passing Bye · Post by **Passing Bye** » Fri Feb 20, 2015 2:29 pm

Demo vise it's good, to show of potential and composition, it works, like the content, reminds me of this track

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oHwoqUV9q0

IMO I would focus on sounds little more, something to stand out more, at least some awesome pluck and better bass, something to sound modern or just as big as many of modern tracks appear, wall of sound, many of today's synths have preset's that are literally so big and fat they are just pushing whole track on another level, many of the sounds are so memorable on their own, "that" sound, I think you need one of "those" plucks to stand out little more and fat bass, when you got that, everything else will fall in place.

Flying George · Post by **Flying George** » Fri Feb 20, 2015 2:47 pm

You right, but time was factor here. I would normally use 2-3 weeks for composing, arrange and sound design. It was down and dirty in one night. I didn't have time to do even midi properly. I start to doing midi first, there is some things to do in composition wise. Then proper sound design and def gonna replace drums and get them work with track.

I don't normally use presets, mostly composition phase. You are right about plucks, I'm thinking evolving sound, with more body and release to automate of course. Need to look at midi also, 'cause its flat. Then basics with filters and other things that pop up when programming.

Bass is bad, I admit it first. I was crying inside at the morning

I just should use legato, and side-chain-a-ling it

No not that, but I get what you are after.

I needed these somewhat thinny sounds to sit in their own freq range, otherwise it would have been mess fast. Time factor again. Didn't have time to mix either. Just showcase basics.

Passing Bye · Post by **Passing Bye** » Fri Feb 20, 2015 3:03 pm

I did my fair share of demo's, so I know the deal, maybe I'm just more gimmicky oriented or I had better preset's right from the beginning ,I dunno, it's different when you make demo's in front of customer, than you need to have presets and great ones, you see when his eyes pop's out and you know you sold it good, so kinda with that mindset you work on all your demo's, you know what kind of things people expect right from the beginning and you develop right kind of workflow, that doesn't include synthesizing sounds on spot, just fast tweaks of well know presets and sorted out samples to fit right in, but that's workflow.

But it's good representation, tell him right away that is really fast sketch and ask for the input about rest, what particular tracks he is aiming at and what he really thinks, you would be surprised how different strokes works for different folks, especially when you are working for typical consumer.

Flying George · Post by **Flying George** » Fri Feb 20, 2015 3:09 pm

Those are actually good advices. This was my first do-it-fast thing. I didn't never expect to be in this situation. All I was thinking that I need to be in time. What you said might change my mind and approach to situations like this. It seems that you know what you are talking.

I have couple of solid templates, but those are for composing and one for mixing. I need adjust that and my mindset also.
I need FX also, normally I stay away from pre-made stuff. To work fast with basics and get results that are expected I need to think that trought also.

Thanks.

Passing Bye · Post by **Passing Bye** » Fri Feb 20, 2015 3:23 pm

I had nervous breakdowns in the beginning, working with people and fitting them in your thing, I was against presets, samples and loops, I would spend days just making a kick on my own, but than situation change and you need to adopt to it, to overcame some things and joggle customer expectation and your delivery, so gimmicks, knowing your stuff inside out or at least organize it for fast working, just make your life easier if you can any way you can or see possible, even to save few seconds later, it will pay off big time than

If you need some "ready to go" stuff, don't hold me on this one, but I think Vengeance stuff is as good as it gets for it, as I understand that's what majority use and that's kinda what people are used to hearing, I know that one of those kicks that everyone is using is actually in Vengeance Electroshock Vol.2 pack, I stumbled upon few threads online where some wizards know actually which ones from pack and can spot them in the tracks, that's some good homework there and pretty much many are on that same pack.

Flying George · Post by **Flying George** » Fri Feb 20, 2015 6:01 pm

I know vengeance of course. I'm so used to use Ultrabeat to drum synthesis. I just adjust things to fit in track. I did actually use hours to kicks earlier. No it's second nature, even If i need to fit it to key or if I had to make different parts to kick and tune all those. I have kick template ready to go in my compose template. IF I need to do changes in some point its so clear now. I don't have anything against good samples or loops or pre-made stuff. I did also had that phase when I was against all those things. I can work with those also, it just did take some time to learn right way to process things. I'm pretty relaxed about techniques and most times I'm able to get results that I want. That said I know that I'm far from the sounding solid pro. It's amateurish, but I work on and I have made some progress in my first year.

My main goal is still instruments. Learning classical/contemporary piano. I like playing in band also. I do have soft spot for electronic music, so its always fun to keep learning things.

That song you posted was was pretty solid. There was space and it was tight. Good sounds and movement.

Passing Bye · Post by **Passing Bye** » Fri Feb 20, 2015 7:11 pm

Good call, I see you are on the good road with right mindset

Flying George · Post by **Flying George** » Tue Mar 10, 2015 9:05 am

I did transform a song a quite bit. Main elements are there.

Here is work in progress. Elements are not panned, I just find out that Logic's pan knob ain't working in traditional way. Learning to use directional mixer-plugin. Also I had to go back with my reverb sends. I made it sound worse.

Vol balance and some automation. Little eq and very mild compression, mostly transient shaping to move things front/back in a mix. At the moment it is still only headphones(dt-770). I have tried to listen it other places, but I can't wait to get my room ready.

https://soundcloud.com/flyinggeorge/ash ... x2/s-Ap1Ev

Passing Bye · Post by **Passing Bye** » Thu Mar 12, 2015 9:38 am

Just do proper mix with panning and than post that, now it's good too balance vise

I need reality check! edm/dance