quote:

flat, boring, predictable.

ahem, were not talking about your sex life hudson

Just because your online, doesn't give you a license to be a f***ing prick. Id like to see you say that about someones work in real life and see what happens.

I value peoples opinion who actually are helping me by giving me feedback I can work on. I wasnt expecting to get all praise or anything, im just trying to improve my music, and actually a lot of people really like my music as one of my songs "catacomb" got voted to #2 on the soundclick charts. When people say something politely and respectfully that they dont like my music, they say how I can improve it, and what area to work in.

The thing I really cant stand about negative attitudes from ppl such as yourself, is that your whole point is to not even try. Not one person on earth started off being a expert in their field. They learn through trial and error, and working their skills. Dont try to slam me down for trying. Id bet a lot of money that your pathetic ass hasnt gotten near as far in any art. Or that you would have the balls to show some vulnerability and display some of your work to a group of strangers asking for their input. But since you claim to have be an expert who makes "mindblowing" shit, I would really like to see what you do. Really, please link it here so we can all learn from your godliness. And I do hope it isnt as retarded and immature as "I would attack and primatively hump the chiffron slip clinging to blondie's boobie curves with the feral rage of a Madagascar porcupine."

For you other guys, thanks for your input. Its really nice to get some feedback I can work with and to see what people are actually thinking. I do agree that the drums are a little bit empty and their isnt much variation in the melody. Im not where i want to be yet, but ive come a long way since ive started.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Baas,

I agree with some of the others...while the song definitely has promise, it could use a bit more variation--whether it be in the bass line, the sonic palette, whatever. I'd also recommend using different drum sounds.

It's definitely a proficient genre exercise, but I think if you threw in a bit more quirkiness/personality you'd end up with a vastly superior song.

I'm also a musician, and I think it's pretty cool that you posted this here, to a forum of critics...so, I'll do what I do whenever I encounter something cool: copy it.

Here's something of mine, I'd love to get feedback of any sort, even if its from hudson (at least he's honest about how he feels!)-

Baas,

My biggest beef with your song is that it sounds like it was produced on some sort of free download software. It reminds me of a program I farted around with about 10 years ago.

It is a bit predictable, as a listener I was never surprised by a left turn or an unanticipated change (not even sure there really is a change). There's also not too much of a low end. It feels a little too airy for something that's got a steady beat.

It does have a bit of a "fun" feel to it, but I don't know if I'm having fun listening to it.

I agree with the others that maybe some vocals would help it out, but ultimately, I believe it doesn't offer me something new or something I may not be able to do myself if I had a similar program.

There's a synth in there that I do think would sound pretty bad ass if it was a guitar playing it (a la NIN) instead.

JohnnyNotToScale, I love your tune. Wow. It's got a lot of different melodies in the background. Nice mixture of sounds (I particularly like when the bells come in). Great mixture of dark and light. The tune becomes very warm sounding, after starting out with a dark vibe. It sounds like you've got some nice equipment on your hands.

I'd even seek this out, and probably buy an album of yours if it weren't for one thing: The vocoder. I think that the vocoder is the cliche of IDM, and I frankly, I can't stand it. It seems to me that you're not 100% comfortable with your singing voice, but don't be afraid. I think your tune would be much better if your vocals were "straight up" (maybe harmonize with yourself, for a stronger voice).

Nice work though. I just listened to it back-to-back-to-back. Made my morning. Post some more.

Baas - I liked the song a good bit, i like electronica in general, although some lyrics (even sampling) and some reved up drums coulda helped. Id give it like a 6.5 or 7 out of 10 at this point, with some more kick ass drums, it could easily be an 8 or more.

JohnnyNotToScale - if you can produce an entire album thats as good or better than this song, I'd buy it, for sure.

Edit - By the way, what does each of you use to produce your songs?

Thanks so much, I really appreciate the feedback!

Il Mago - You're right about the vocals, I'm not yet totally comfortable with singing (I think of myself more as the "mysterious," silent guitar player type :P), so I buried them in the mix and ran them through so many effects as to make them sound almost robotic. The remarkable thing is, there was no vocoder involved...just absurd levels of auto-tune, a la Cher's "Believe"

Winnebago - I actually used Garageband primarily for this one, I just tweaked the shit out of the software instruments until they didn't sound cheesy to me. I did do some final mixing in Logic with some pretty nice Waves plug-ins, however.

quote:

Originally posted by hudson:
Baas isn't worthy to lick the ground that Boards of Canada walks on.

for someone who appears to be such an elitist you couldn't even pick an electronic musician who fit the same genre as baas' song. either you are lazy or just uneducated when it comes to this kind of music. in which case, why the hell are you even offering a response to the song?

quote:

The remarkable thing is, there was no vocoder involved...just absurd levels of auto-tune, a la Cher's "Believe"

i think that is the problem - it sounds pretty cheesy. the song has potential, but i don't think the vocals are helping you. throw something else into the mix instead.

quote:

And don't you worry about me eric, I create plenty. My creations would blow your mind.

i think he is just fucking with us at this point. trying to elicit a response.

however, if not - i would love to hear it. post a myspace, a link, whatever.

if you don't i will assume that either you are a troll who should be banned from this forum or you a coward. hell maybe you are both.

quote:

Originally posted by hudson:
Baas isn't worthy to lick the ground that Boards of Canada walks on.

Quit trolling around making useless contributions and being a complete jerk (as usual) hudson. That is, in very succinct terms, your last warning; if you ever thought I was specifically checking your posts, I sure am now.

Johnnynottoscale, I liked your song alot. But the vocals need to be changed. Like Il Mago, I would love to hear it with the vocals just 'straight up'.

Baas, I think the over all melody has potential, it’s pretty catchy, I don’t listen to much electronic music, so I’m not exactly savvy when it comes to electronic arrangements but my main let down was a bit before a quarter of the way into the song, there was a split second of silence just before you dropped the melody into this lo-fi effect which I thought was really cool because it felt like it was building, but then after what I thought was about 8 bars, it blended back into the main beat when I was anticipating another split second of silence before it kicked back in. When the melody blended back in, another thing I felt was it needed more oomph, by this I mean maybe the volume just needed to come up, or some tweaking of the kick and bass to make it a bit louder or punchier as it kicked back in.

Maybe double up the kick and bass in the main melody and beat sections, particularly the sections when you’re trying to make a point by kicking back in from a quieter section, other then that I thought it was alright, and I wouldn’t question it if I heard it in a club or something like that.

If you’re trying to advance your composing skills, I suggest take a look at all your influences, or even just other successful songs of any style, in fact, solely for exercise purposes, if you haven’t already tried this, try and recreate something you love by another artist with your melody with the exact same arrangement, not to rip them off, but to see if you can discover things about how and why certain things work, it might help to find ways of making much more subtle and original touches to your music, even try exploring with arrangements from songs of completely different genres.

Hello Baas. I think your song has potential, and is well crafted. I'd kinda like to hear Bjork sing along to it though. I get bored with intrumentals. I understand that you are making a dance song, so I suppose vocals would be unnecessary. In that case, I am a poor judge as I wouldn't be too interested no matter how great your song was. Nice work though. Thats cool that you can put your own music on the internet. I make a lot of music myself, on a trial version of cool edit pro lol. I'm making a strange concept album that dabbles in electronica now.

I stand behind my critique 100%. Baas, if you can't take unfavorable reviews, don't publicize your work. I'm not into stroking egos.

You claim that you want input from others, but it's your art. You have to shape, create your own art. And you either have it or you don't, period.

A critic's job isn't to help the artist with the creation of their art, it's simply to tell them what they think about it. So if your art isn't finished and you're looking for help in finishing it, that's a whole nother issue. Post a new a thread entitled "help me finish my song".

But you came on here looking for critiques, and that's what I gave you. And maybe flat, boring, and predictable are painful adjectives to hear regarding your music. But maybe, JUST MAYBE, they fit quite well.

You want me to apply more effort into my review of your music, well I want you to apply more effort in to creating your music(see Il Mago's response). Give me something to that doesn't sound exactly like a million other generic tracks out there. Then we can talk.

Some advice from a fellow artist. When I create my art I shut myself off from other people completely. I work on my peice. I do it for myself, for my own expression. Then, if I so choose, when i've FINISHED it, when I deem my art to be finished, and only I can decide when it's finished, I display it to the public. If the public doesn't like it, and doesn't want to experience it, usually I scrap it or pack it away and start something new. And it's no big deal. Sometimes people will really connect with my art and then it becomes a gift to them, that people can enjoy.

You have displayed your art. And the people in this thread have not accepted it as it is. They want to change it and add to it or take away from it. I don't. I just don't connect with it. It's your art, you decide what you want to do with it.

To the others in this thread: For people who love to critique music, you folks sure are thin-skinned, especially some of the mods.

I'm not sure you get the concept of "constructive criticism", hudson.

I've got friends who are musicians and filmmakers, and anytime they ask for my opinion, I'm not afraid to tell them what I think is wrong with their work, but it's also important to tell them what they did right.

Flat out telling Baas his song sucks isn't going to help him make better music. You've got to tell him what he can do to improve it.

Maybe you're not interested in helping him improve his work, in which case I would've suggested you not bother commenting on it.

Your "critique" of his work now, like many of your other posts, is useless and immature.

quote:

Originally posted by EricG75:
I'm not sure you get the concept of "constructive criticism", hudson.

Eric, I knows this sounds harsh, but as an artist I know for a fact that sometimes the most constructive thing a critic can say is "scrap it and start fresh".

Do you disagree? And for the record, I never told Bass that his art sucked, so let's not start in with the false accusations.

[/QUOTE]I knows this sounds harsh, but as an artist I know for a fact that sometimes the most constructive thing a critic can say is "scrap it and start fresh".[/QUOTE]

"as an artist?" who the hell are you. seriously. wow.

we are still waiting for a link to your music (or whatever it is you do, artist is pretty vague) hudson, but somehow i think we will never see such a thing.

it isn't even the negative reviews that make apparent how much of a tool you are - its your idiotic responses.

keep the idiocy coming - i need a good laugh.

I say, if he wants to be an asshole, let him be an asshole. This is a message board...there's not really that much at stake here, folks.

He didn't really contribute much to the discussion, but neither did anyone who's been chastising him.

Oh, internets.

Although I agree Hudson's half-assed critique is pretty immature, that doesn't mean he's not an artist. What constitutes one as an artist by your definition? Money? Fame? The beauty of art is that you are an artist if you consider yourself to be. That doesn't deem your creation good or worthwhile, of course. To be deemed an artist has nothing to do with money or how people perceive you. I'm an artist. If I dance around naked in the tub. That's artistry.

You're right that anyone can be an artist. However, when said artist claims their art is mind-blowing yet won't prove it, they become suspect and or likely full of shit.

That'd be like me saying I have a 15 inch dong (trust me, I do).

People can say a lot of things, it's the backing it up that means something.