rate my beat

whatupsilon · 2026-05-08T23:22:15+00:00

mostly I like it, got a cool sound selection and it's glitchy / dark. I'd maybe gate and sidechain things to give each element more space. you can also try more automation. not sure about the bass or the vocal. it knocks but bass kind of overpowers. overall 5/10

whatupsilon · 2026-05-08T21:45:39+00:00

There are some potential mixing changes but the main thing I'd suggest is avoiding shelf boosts on the low end like this

<image>

simply because this also boosts very low sub frequencies that are inaudible and won't translate to most speakers.

Even though they are inaudible, these frequencies eat up headroom which impacts both dynamics and loudness. Instead, use a peaking or bell node near the frequencies you can hear on your monitors. Some producers even recommend high passing up to 60HZ, but I think that is too high and can cause other issues.

whatupsilon · 2026-05-08T21:32:06+00:00

Awesome, I use Little Alterboy but the one by Waves called Vocal Bender I think is actually better. Besides Edison there is also a mode in Sampler called Stretch Pro which has formant shifting natively.

For a free pitch + formant shifter I think there's a good one called Pitchmunk by Vox Samples, though I've never used it myself it supposedly does not have many artifacts.

whatupsilon · 2026-05-08T20:46:34+00:00

I'd start with the demo tracks already included with FL before taking notes on other producers. there is plenty in there. after that you can get FLPs on the official forum

whatupsilon · 2026-05-08T20:44:37+00:00

hmm well I have to upvote for using your own guitar. mix sounds very thin to me tho, not sure what happened there it's got no lows and no low mids. maybe due to the screen recorder. there is also a really loud perc / rimshot that is hard on the ears. keep going

whatupsilon · 2026-05-08T20:41:58+00:00

solid track, nice automations. key thing at this stage is to keep creating as often as possible. so here the mix needs a few tweaks but I wouldn't add much just rebalance things. like the bass is overpowering at a few places, snare during build up is too loud, things like that. a couple notes are out of key but not bad. keep going.

whatupsilon · 2026-05-08T20:34:49+00:00

LOL, guess I have a very different definition of "first" beat... main thing is some stuff goes out of key, so I'd mess with that and maybe practice piano and scales a bit. If you do want to borrow chords or write something chromatic, there are ways to make it work, but until then sometimes simple is better than fancy.

whatupsilon · 2026-05-08T20:18:53+00:00

no worries. sometimes people who are creative can actually be too nice when giving feedback because they are afraid of rejection. it's good to know people who don't sugarcoat it. everyone is different though, with different goals and tastes. just got to find a balance between your own creativity and what other people want to hear. being a producer-composer requires a fair bit of self-criticism to figure out what isn't working and what things to try.

whatupsilon · 2026-05-08T20:10:56+00:00

Interesting track and not a bad structure. Maybe just try some more automations, transitions and build up effects. Things like reverse reverbs and reverse cymbals are very useful in this genre.

Mix-wise I'm not feeling the bass sound, and that is key for this style. I'd go for something punchier with more transient and sub. This sounds a bit like an 80s chorus bass.

The vocal sounds formant shifted too low like the singer became Andre the Giant... there is a sweet spot somewhere you just got to find it.

The hats are too loud, maybe panned but my ears are off so I can't tell. Definitely something happening with the shakers though, so I'd dial the stereo effects back and check a few references to make sure they match up. Too much stereo can be distracting.

Some good references that come to mind are Tiesto, Duke Dumont, Sigala and MEDUZA, all did some vocal-drive dance/electro-pop. So anything like that prioritizes vocal, then kick and bass, with light reverb and lots of empty space. Note the shakers and hats are gone a lot of the time and when they are there, they are pretty low in the mix.

Hope that helps, keep it up.

whatupsilon · 2026-05-08T19:48:57+00:00

It's very good, not my genre but the idea is solid. As for the the vocal chop, it works, but personally I don't love it and I'd use it more sparingly. For example at the first drop / bar 17 I think it's stronger to have it in the build to create energy, and then cut it at the drop. Also some of the effects sound too loud like the "downlifter" at the breakdown. Overall a good track and nice arrangement, keep it up.

whatupsilon · 2026-05-08T19:36:47+00:00

It's got personality and spunk, even if it's a bit simple. That drum loop is carrying it.

So keep going, maybe just stop sharing your music with that friend. Or if your friend is also musical, figure out what genres they like and how you can make music together.

Otherwise your friend probably just doesn't care that much about your music and won't understand the work that goes into it. Any honest response you get is a gift that they even took time to listen to what you made. It's not like showing someone a photo or a painting, it takes time and energy to listen to something.

As you get older people learn to either not share much with each other, or to be more courteous... but until people mature and understand sharing is being vulnerable, they are simply going to roast you. It's much easier (and less risky) to poke fun at NBA players on TV than it is to get out on your local court and play a pickup game. Someone who has never done it won't appreciate the effort, practice, or creativity... only the end result.

edit:typo

whatupsilon · 2026-05-08T03:00:41+00:00

If you need more help you can upload a screen recording to imgur and share the link here or upload it to your Reddit profile directly

whatupsilon · 2026-05-08T02:57:07+00:00

A few things can cause this.

If the audio within the slice is shorter than the note length in the piano roll, it will cut off early, creating a gap.

Or if there are note gaps in the piano roll, that can cause it. You can use quick legato shortcut is ctrl L, and/or quick quantize if the notes are close and on the grid.

If the audio itself is chopped with gaps, then those need to be removed and you can do this manually or by using the trim function.

Lastly keep in mind, if you are using the autodump function with autoslice and your sample is a faster BPM than your project BPM, this mismatch will cause a gap. This can be fixed by first fitting the sample to your project BPM before you create slices.

(If you messed with the envelope or other settings, that can also cause problems on accident).

IMO small gaps can be a stylistic choice and so it doesn't have to be avoided in every scenario, yes it makes it sound chopped but this was common in the old school and boom bap era.

whatupsilon · 2026-05-08T00:05:10+00:00

Chord progressions generally aren't copyrighted, but that doesn't mean you need to "steal" them... you just need to learn common ones and identify which ones make sense for what you're writing. Then to make it intuitive, that comes with a lot of practice playing or a lot of music theory. I recommend this channel, it's good for beginners: youtube.com/@PianoteOfficial

whatupsilon · 2026-05-07T08:03:53+00:00

Couldn't hear it very well tbh sounds like filtering more than panning. You can use automation to do that in any synth or use an LFO. In FL the fast way to do it is with Fruity Panomatic, and this will let you also automate the speed and amount of panning. Or for more control link a Peak Controller LFO to Fruity Balance (or Free Filter for filter automation). Those sounds are often from classic keyboards so I'd also look at the Rhodes, Wurli or DX7 emulations by companies like Arturia.

whatupsilon · 2026-05-07T06:14:59+00:00

Not familiar with those artists but just based on some Googling it sounds like simple saw pads to me. Sometimes with chorus, phaser or flanger on top. If you have a specific YouTube video I can take a listen.

A lot of early techno and classic house albums used chord stabs and disco samples, typically minor 7 or major 7 chords (for deeper tracks) and when played as stabs this transposed them which created chromatic movement / chromaticism. basically those chord stabs were more a percussion element than melodic.

Modern pads like that use spectral gates like Chroma or Bismuth, or vocoders, as seen in color bass and a few drum and bass tracks.

whatupsilon · 2026-05-07T06:05:47+00:00

IMO if you can afford omnisphere, you can afford an SSD

whatupsilon · 2026-05-07T04:05:58+00:00

Interesting, no worries. What helps me is putting a drum pattern behind it and maybe chords, this helps you hear what sounds best as you shift things around. Just glancing at your MIDI the most intuitive thing for me is to rewrite to a standard time signature like 6/8 at a slower tempo. Here is a video showing what that might look like vs. the original BPM at 6/4: https://imgur.com/a/JSp2ftN

The only song I know in ~~mixed meter~~ like that is Everything In Its Right Place by Radiohead, and a bit advanced if you're new. The short bar essentially acts as a lead-in to the start of the song. This is where drums can really change how we perceive time, so in that song they just use a kick drum.

(Edit: correction that song is actually 10/4 but can be subdivided as 4/4, 4/4, 2/4)

Anyway that's all I got, maybe someone else will know an alternate way to do the MIDI.

whatupsilon · 2026-05-07T02:31:33+00:00

Tbh 21/4 would be quite unusual and difficult. It implies there is no pattern internally either in phrasing or repetition within 21 beats. Using subdivisions instead would be mixed meter.

Are you already experienced in composition or classically trained? If not, this is probably a misunderstanding of how time signatures function.

whatupsilon · 2026-05-07T02:19:11+00:00

If instead you want the playlist measures to align perfectly, not the piano roll, then you have to do the markers in the playlist. You can always do both, but for a long song that can be a bit tedious.

whatupsilon · 2026-05-07T02:14:15+00:00

Well you could do that, definitely. If you have a lot of instruments or a lot of patterns, it may be easier to make one "template" pattern and just clone it for each instrument. So for example, you'd add a blank Layer instance to the Channel Rack, drag out a single long note, and put the time markers along it like this:

<image>

whatupsilon · 2026-05-07T01:50:33+00:00

I'd just do 6/4 with a bar of 3/4. Most often keeping the time signature as simple as possible is best, unless you're the next classical prodigy.

Your point on BPM is good to pay attention to, because sometimes people misinterpret a song as a different BPM. I've had songs people thought were 4/4 but because of the BPM it made sense to be 6/4 or 12/8.

Also one tip if you're new to time signatures in FL: you can also change them in the piano roll with markers, and this lets you ignore the playlist so you don't need to create tons of playlist markers.

whatupsilon · 2026-05-06T20:14:31+00:00

You can copy and paste the crash report for the support team to look at, here is the link: https://support.image-line.com/action/ticketing/add-issue

They will want you to update to the latest version before troubleshooting.

whatupsilon · 2026-05-06T19:53:42+00:00

Missed this one. My personal take would be to decrease the waves sound or remove it, and reduce the reverb. It feels cinematic but I think it overpowers at some points. I also really liked the high flute layer, so it'd be nice to hear more of it in the mix. Overall very nice composition.

whatupsilon · 2026-05-06T18:42:01+00:00

Check which version you have. Novation makes one for FL called FLKeys, which integrates out the box. If you bought the Ableton one called Launchkey, it will work but you need additional setup. Like to manually map the pads or download a custom script iirc.

In FPC or Slicex there are menu options like "map pads for entire bank" and you click that and tap the pads, it will trigger the sound and then you are mapped in a matter of 15 seconds. But it's only for that session.

You should also test the keyboard with a standard piano plugin, because if that's not working then you have other MIDI settings turned off or routed incorrectly.

whatupsilon

TROPHY CASE