Ambient / Soundtrack Music - please give some feedback! ;) (GrafPsychofarmaca - Nuclear Yakuza)

[DaMuh]

Hey,

I thought I'd try making some ambient / film kinda style music,
but it ended up being rather some 90ies loungehouse stuff imo (reminds me a bit of that old wamdue project vibe).

Anyway, actually I'm looking for some constructive feedback as I guess there are a lot of ambient producers around here.

http://k005.kiwi6.com/hotlink/x8c94ghy7 ... yakuza.mp3

http://soundcloud.com/damuh/grafpsychofarmaca-nuclear


Thanks in Advance, and I hope y'all like it!

[seismic1]

I really enjoyed it. I thought it was not necessarily an ambient track, more a chillout/lounge track with some nice ambience. The bass and percs were nice and crispy. I liked all the little details. The pads and arps were great. This made for some really nice Sunday afternoon listening.

Nice work

[tehlord]

I really enjoyed it. I thought it was not necessarily an ambient track, more a chillout/lounge track with some nice ambience. The bass and percs were nice and crispy. I liked all the little details. The pads and arps were great. This made for some really nice Sunday afternoon listening.

Nice work

I agree with this.

The track works well for me, all the elements are pretty much spot on. I kept waiting for a vocal that never happened as well though!

If I were being overly critical, I was missing some warmth from the drums and bassline. They're veering towards the hard and brittle, especially the drums. It might be worth boosting the kick around 100hz and that snare around 200 hz to add some body back into them, and the bassline could use some saturation perhaps.

Small details as you were looking for some constructive feedback, but it works well as it is.

[DaMuh]

Thanks alot!
You're right, I often don't spend as much time equalizing as I should be doing, but that's also due to the fact that I don't know any (free) good graphic eq that doesn't kill my cpu ^^ / Could you recommend one?

[n0rd]

Nice track DaMuh.

[DaMuh]

Thank you
Though it's actually GrafPsychofarmaca, just used the Nick Damuh way back when I first registered here and didn't know any better ^^

[PaleBlueDot]

Nice laid back vibe. That sound brings back some memories. Good work!

[any1particular]

...chilled out with a nice and funkey groove-punchy drums-the variation keeps things interesting...high pitched bell thang is a nice tough...I would like to hear a change of some sort-bridge or a breakdown with with a change up in the bass? what are you using for drums? and the wha wha keys? Kwell!

[DaMuh]

what are you using for drums? and the wha wha keys? Kwell!

For the Drums I just used some Drumsamples from an old HipHop-Sample-Cd with a basic compressor & amp and for the wah wah keys I used Native Pro-53 with Camelspace

[Vintage73]

I didn't mind the tone of the drums, but the bass definitely needs some fattening.

Not Ambient, but nice track!

[Jace-BeOS]

Agreed with the "not ambient but nice" comments. I thought I recognized Camel Space

My two critique comments:

1. It could use a pacing/structural change, as noted by any1particular above. The pauses are good. That's a technique that needs to see more use in music.

2. The high pitched arpeggio synth notes are panned maybe slightly too hard left & right for headphone listening. I like the panning feel/idea for that sound, but there's a slight disconnect between left & right notes when using headphones.

[DaMuh]

Agreed with the "not ambient but nice" comments. I thought I recognized Camel Space

My two critique comments:

1. It could use a pacing/structural change, as noted by any1particular above. The pauses are good. That's a technique that needs to see more use in music.

2. The high pitched arpeggio synth notes are panned maybe slightly too hard left & right for headphone listening. I like the panning feel/idea for that sound, but there's a slight disconnect between left & right notes when using headphones.

To 1. : I know I know ^^ It somehow didn't really wanted to come together so it ended up missing a central theme somehow. That's why I called it ambient (lol).

To 2. : That's probably due to my crappy Speakers, my tracks always sound horrible on headphones! Still working with a 6 year old Creative 5.1 & Subwoofer, of which 3 speakers are already dead so I'm left with front & right Guess that's the explanation for the strange panning you mentioned

Thanks for your honest replies btw!

[macmurphy]

I didn't mind the tone of the drums, but the bass definitely needs some fattening.

i definitely concur. the drums have a nice tight sound that begs for a fatter bass.

the structure needs some tension/release but overall i really liked this - groovy and relaxing

neil.

[DaMuh]

I didn't mind the tone of the drums, but the bass definitely needs some fattening.

i definitely concur. the drums have a nice tight sound that begs for a fatter bass.

the structure needs some tension/release but overall i really liked this - groovy and relaxing

neil.

Thanks, I thought about buying Sausage Fattener for that purpose, do you know it / think it would improve the bass in that direction?

[macmurphy]

i've not tried sausage fattener. you could give Ferric a go - free and fat.
also try layering your bass - a nice clean deep tone with a rougher, slightly overdriven middle tone mixed in on top.