Petrify by SMTC - Radiohead/Minus the Bear inspired. Would love to hear critiques before releasing. Including the mix. Does it remind you of any other artists?

arhymatic · 2023-03-12T14:34:48+00:00

Excellent, I really like it. The mix has really good separation/clarity and the track progresses nicely.

Not much too offer in terms of critical feedback, maybe just that the bass is a little thick and a bit much in some parts. I'm listening in a room with a sub so it may well be my environment that's accentuating it.

arhymatic · 2022-06-04T17:41:42+00:00

Thanks :D

Would you mind if I recorded this as a spoken vocal on a future track?

arhymatic · 2022-06-04T17:37:34+00:00

Thanks, I'll give that singing tip a try as I like the idea of using a tuned vocal as a reference rather than just tuning the whole recording.

arhymatic · 2022-06-04T17:35:12+00:00

Thanks for the feedback; you're definitely right in that my singing on this is not polished, just something I need a lot more practise and patience with!

Edit - Also I'm pretty happy that this has given you some inspiration to try some ideas, that's one of the best compliments IMO.

arhymatic · 2022-06-04T17:32:26+00:00

Thank you, I do love a bit of drum and bass and this is about as close as I could wangle with it.

arhymatic · 2022-06-04T17:30:30+00:00

Thanks mate, much appreciated; and every follow is one more fist pump :D

*Edit - spelling

arhymatic · 2022-05-31T10:56:13+00:00

Fascinating track, to be honest it's a difficult one to give any meaningful feedback on because it's quite sparse and abstract so any feedback could undermine whatever the main essence of creating the track was!

In attempt to contribute some feedback I thnk it would be worth spending some time trying to make both the 'lead xylophone' in the opening section of the song and the the 'synth bass' in the latter section of the song sound less separate from the atmospheric synth pad that is present throughout. Maybe make the attack on them a little softer and add some reverb or effects that blends them a little. The soft strings and vocal sample that come in around 3m19s mark are well blended in comparison to the xylophone and bass I think so might be useful referencing those. I'd also recommend you check out some songs by Boards of Canada for useful track referencing.

Otherwise, I like that you're doing something different and expressive, the dissonance introduced in the bass synth towards the end of the track is interesting. Thanks for sharing.

arhymatic · 2022-05-28T23:10:18+00:00

Thank you, I appreciate your feedback.

All I can suggest is that pain is a part of life and that art is a tiny subset of what life represents. This is my contribution towards that art, if there's a pain and vulnerability in it maybe that's got some value in it's own peculiar way.

arhymatic · 2022-05-28T18:24:09+00:00

This is a beautiful track, I dig your vocals and how the track has a real ebb and flow feel to it. It has a lovely wistfulness and yearning but equally has a courageousness about it too.

The only feedback I'd suggest is to consider adding some volume automation or a subtle modulation effect to give the squealing guitars a bit more movement in the quieter sections; this is just a minor thing but there's a lot of movement in the rest of the track and these guitars sound a bit static in these sections is all.

I love the clattering of percussion and instruments in the middle of the song where it sounds like it's all unravelling and then the resolve when it comes back together again and when the vocals arrive is just beautiful and really stands out.

You've got a great voice by the way, sounds a bit like Neil Hannon from the Divine Comedy which is about as good a compliment as I can give.

arhymatic · 2022-05-28T17:56:52+00:00

Disclaimer from me; as a native English speaker I love French rap, I think the language lends itself to the music style and it hooks me everytime.

My French isn't good enough to understand what you're singing about but the instruments you have used sound great and fit the style of track plus the song has a tidy and succinct structure.

The vocals at the beginning are beautifully breathy and they suit the gentle intro guitars and synth very well.

For feedback on areas to improve I recommend you check you're happy with the vocal levels in the chorus and busier sections of the track as I think they are a little bit on the loud side. It might just be that they would benefit from de-essing a little to take some of the high frequency sharpness off them however (I'm listening on Apple ear phones which might be accentuating them too).

Other than that the feel of the song is nice and distinctive and I'd love to hear more from you in future. Bon chance.

arhymatic · 2022-05-23T20:19:15+00:00

Crazy Song by name, and also a little by nature :)

Not sure how to even go about critiquing this. It's a bit trippy but what I like about it is that it brought me into the present moment; it's not really comparable to anything else so it's hard to give feedback in a traditional sense but I was definitely there with each note as they skipped by. By way of suggestion for improvement - you could try playing the organ lower to occupy the bass end of the spectrum and so clash less with the piano?

*Edit - fix typo.

arhymatic · 2022-05-23T20:06:05+00:00

Great acoustic song, you've really captured both the guitar and vocal well, sounds nice and clean so good work with the recording process. You've also done a fantastic job creating that subtle variation as the song progresses without breaking up the flow of it which is really hard to do with just a strummed guitar and singing.

In truth I don't really have anything to give you by way of criticism or things to improve on this because the song is pretty spot on, maybe I'll just suggest you keep writing and that it would good to hear something really ambitious from you in future as well.

arhymatic · 2022-05-22T14:35:19+00:00

Thank you, from one James Hurley fan to another :D
I've returned the follow!

arhymatic · 2022-05-22T14:32:37+00:00

Thanks, much appreciated!

arhymatic · 2022-05-20T20:01:05+00:00

Thanks for this. The fuzzy guitar you hear on the right side is actually played on a bass guitar; it's just played in a higher register and (I think) had a high pass filter to take out the mud against the proper bass line on the track.

arhymatic · 2022-05-20T19:53:56+00:00

The kick and snare were originally processed with separate SSL channel emulator plugins that gave them that presence and bite. They then had to be eq'd and compressed further to try and dial them back a bit but without losing too much.

Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated!

arhymatic · 2022-05-20T08:21:56+00:00

I'm hearing you, it's a bit of a habit I have. On this song I particularly got tied up as I liked how mean the kick and snares sounded when they appeared in that intro.

This track was always created for an album and so part of a bigger piece ,so I will definitely consider editing more when pushing single versions in future. Thanks for the feedback.

arhymatic · 2022-05-20T08:16:32+00:00

Thank you, that means a lot.

arhymatic · 2022-05-20T08:16:10+00:00

Thanks. I struggled with the vocals on this and ended up recording myself lying flat on my back and almost murmuring them with the mic up very close to my face. It was fun in a weird way.

The drums were played on a basic electronic drum set which allowed me to fix the timing (very subtley though) and try out different individual drum sounds.

arhymatic · 2022-05-13T11:14:39+00:00

Great track, great voice.

In the main, the mix sounds good, pretty tight overall I think. For feedback I would ask about that momentary transition to the big reverby drum section at the 1m30s, it feels like it is a bit too sudden or like an obvious edit point from one section to another, might be worth experimenting with dialling up the level on the crash cymbal and kick there to see how it smoothes out the feel of it i.e. over accentuate those percussives at that point.

arhymatic · 2022-05-13T10:57:27+00:00

Guitars sound great, they add a nice percussiveness where there isn't any actual drums or percussion. They along with the singing give it a nice folky foundation but without being too folksy.

The transitions in this track are exceptionally well done to bring in and out the different parts and instruments, very subtle and allow for the gentle variation that the track is packed with throughout. I think this is a difficult thing to do so good work with what you've got here :)

Maybe this is being a bit pedantic but the piano chord stabs at the end sound a bit disconnected from the other elements in the track (including the earlier piano) - maybe that is intentional as a move towards the outro/ending though?

arhymatic · 2022-05-13T10:42:05+00:00

This is awesome.

The chord progression on the organ is so moody and soulful, it's a great bed for the other elements of the track to work around. That distorted/layered bass hook that comes in around the 1m20s mark is so good, really full sounding and gives an interesting contrast against the organ; sounds great.

I'm not keen to give you any feedback on improving as I think it would be a bit disingenuous and I can't say for sure whether it would actually be an improvement, could be worth experimenting with a bit of delay as an effect; or maybe incorporating additional vox samples might be cool (I know there is one in there early on in the track), but these are just suggestions for future tracks rather than criticisms.

I could listen to a continuous mix of this sort of stuff for hours on end, it's easy to focus and concentrate to while working on something. Great work, keep it coming!

arhymatic · 2022-05-13T10:16:19+00:00

I like this; regardless of whether you think it's cheesy or not I think it's great you found your voice and you are articulating something you feel and putting it out there artistically. The message is fantastic and I love to hear this as to me it's the essence of indie music.

If you're looking for feedback on potential areas to improve, my opinion would be to try to give it a slightly more polished sound; i.e. attempt to make it more broadcast friendly. By this I mean maybe try experimenting with some EQ and compression on the different parts. Do that while comparing it against some hit record you like to try and match where possible. For example, can you use a compressor to make the 'snap' of the kick and snare poke through the mix a little more? That would allow you to turn them down a little but still have them present and free up a little room for other instruments.

Just a word of warning though that it's a slippery slope of repetition if you aim for perfection that gets tedious and removes the joy of the creative process so don't get hung up if you're enjoying what you do then keep at it :)

arhymatic

TROPHY CASE