Pretty interesting track you've got here! There's lots and lots of detail, it's nice and busy but there's still a lot of space which is very hard to do. There's a good deal of attention paid to stereo imaging and the parts really compliment each other well.
You have cool melodies, good bass, good drum grooves that change around a fair bit. I like the Ridge Racer jazz chords that come in on 0:33 seconds. I also like the strings, they remind me of 'Push The Button' by the Chemical Brothers. I think you guys would enjoy One Watt Sun.
You seem to have a similar ethos to them; mid tempo, intricate stereo imaging, lots of little details, a fair bit of dirt.... Give 'em a listen!
Some of the cymbals are a little bit cheesy but in general the sounds are really good. Mastering wise, maybe you need to bring out the bass a bit more. The kick and the snare particularly don't appear to have a lot of punch to them. I'm not sure exactly what it is but for some reason the overall sound is a little bit weedy.
I really like the track overall though. There's lots of stuff to pick out and it warranted repeated listens. I love the cheeky cowbell on 2:46! Good stuff.
Wow thank you for the awesome review.
You right i was thinking about redoing the sounds of the drums i really just got lazy on it. Zstriefel composed all the drum but i redid them with different drum sounds..have no idea why i did that.
but yeah im glad you liked the stereo imaging. i actually spent a good amount of time on the train to work trying to get the sound in the headphones to match the sound in my head.
there actually is a whole storyline for this song, i have been looking for a lyricist/MC to compose the lyrics to no avail.. im not a very poetic or lyrical person.. i just have ideas.. yeah so i wrote a storyline for the song...... AAAAAANNNNDDDD here it is!
Beginning half intro :00 - :15
Builder is complaining about living in his mothers basement and mentioning his collection of music and audio equipment. As well and talking about how he has no friends.
End half of beginning intro :15 - :31
He has a eureka moment with the idea to build a robot from all the audio equipment he owns.
First Verse :31 - 1:20
He starts listing off equipment he has as well as preposterous notions as to what the robot will be made with. EX- Killing T-pain and putting his soul in a jar for the robots heart. Shoving a flux capacitor up the robots ass so the robot can travel through time. Chest is a subwoofer- head is a midi processor, legs are modified keytars, a therimin for a tail...etc.etc. At end of verse he says "And i named him Mr. Funkhousen"
Organ lead to bridge 1:21 - 1:45
He turns on the power to bring Mr. F to life, It doesnt work at first and he gets frustrated. power turns off at 1:35. his mother screams from upstairs about the noise at one point.
Organ bridge 1:45 - 1:52
Mr. F auto-tune groans and comes to life.
Organ Melody - 1:52 - 2:23
After coming to life mr.f sings about his capabilities and statuses. such as count bpm, rip a wicked keytar solo, flying, moonwalking and traveling through time, At one point he sings like barry white when he sings "And i can sound like Barry White for the ladies"... MR.F tells him to hop on to go to a party at a club in the year 2510~~or whatever rhymes with what is said.
At this point the builder is just a hype man agreeing and WOWing.
Hip Hop Club Bridge 2:23 - 2:55
Builder narrates that they arrive to a club floating thousands of feet up in the sky. They open the door and walk into the club in slow motion. Builder raps about Mr, F's ability to dance, blast music from his chest, How good he is with the ladies 'Shortay" Mr. F is singing along in the background and singing little things as builder raps.
1st half outro 2:55 - 3:11
Builder raps about how mr F grabbed a bottle of hennesy, chugs it and suggests they go hit an after party on new years eve 2999.
Outro 3:11 - END
Builder and Mr. F sing and rap about how this was the beginning of a great friendship between a man and a funky singing dancing robot. They go on about how they plan to keep hitting parties and travel through time together for the rest of eternity.
please let me know if you know anyone that can help out with this..
BTW_ i checked out the one watt sun link.. and you were right .. i INDEED liked it..one problem.. i cant seem to find out where i can get more of thier music.. i checked itunes and couldnt find em... i definitly digged their song aliens.
well anyway thank you for the sweet review.. it had showed me that ues ineed i need to get back on those cymbal hits and some of the drum sounds.
i give your a review a ten lolololol
peace love happiness and crunchy tunes lol
symbol:cymbol
This is pretty good, not bad for a first attempt. You have a melody which instantly gives you more than half. I don't think there's enough in the melody however. The part where the synth kicks in at 1:45 is a welcome change from the staccato line on the piano but I think it needs to be more complex.
I'm not a huge fan of the repeated sections either. There needs to be more variation in there. You've missed a massive opportunity to get some really fast, rhythmic gated pads on the second repeat. This track could really do with something like the pads in 'My Love' by Justin Timberlake.
I like your bass line to be honest. It reminds me of Kylie Minogue's recent stuff. Take that as a compliment or not but you can't fault the guys working on her production. You could try adding in the lower octave pulse on the beat to compliment the higher octave on the offbeat and fill out the low without changing the character... disco it up!
Your fade-out at the end is a little long but the loop is really good. This is a great first effort and I reckon there's better to come. Work on your melodies and variation. I wanted to give you 6.5 sooo 6/10 and 4/5.
Nicely done man, I really like it! I've listened to it a fair few times now and I'm still enjoying it. Your 8 bit sonata section sounds like something from a Genghis Tron break. If you're not afraid of heavy music, I'd give them a listen! They're a little bit mind blowing. And shouty...
I love your nice laid back drum beat and the noise elements mixed with the real cymbal sounds. If anything, I think there is a lack of real instrumentation. I'm not saying hire a string section or anything but it would be really nice to hear some string-like pads swoop in under the repeat of the theme for example. I think the lead line could be a little more expressive, adding in some vibrato on the long notes would make the part more interesting. Have a listen to some stuff made in Famitracker, I find it really easy to get expressive synth parts in that program. I use Famitracker in nearly all of my tracks somewhere along the line!
This piece has an excellent feel and you are brave for attempting a track of this length but I thoroughly enjoyed it. You're on my favourite artists!
And I thought that no one from the RRC would respond =P
I agree with the instrumentation. Now that I've heard it so much, some variance in the repeats of the theme would be good.
I'm using FL and Studio One so I don't think I'll look into Famitracker (8-bit isn't my primary style anyway) since learning a new program isn't high on the agenda.
Thanks for the add! I'm hoping to produce more organic tracks like rock (like my previous tracks "Coming Home" and "Beautiful Sound"), synth-pop, and acoustic pieces once this semester of college is over.
Hopefully this summer I'll put some quality tracks up!
I'm not going to list all the elements I like here because you know what you've done. I'm only giving it 7 because it's not finished and I need somewhere to go if you were to submit it for review when you are done!
I don't like the glitchy snare sound at 1:36, that's a bit random and then it keeps repeating sporadically and gets annoying because it ruins the flow. I reckon you should go for a latin feel instead of the snare. Add in some big deep drums maybe like the ones in the back row here;
That's my only criticism really, I can't fault it other than that. I love your reverse sounds at the start, it builds really nicely and then sorta fades into nothing...
You know what you need for the next bit... A nice groove with hats on the off beat, a big dirty bassline, a nice expressive lead sound with plenty of gliss. and vibrato, a few harmonies.... Some strings maybe? Or you could throw a curve ball and turn it into a spooky sounding glitch track. It's coming along though I'd like to hear the full version.
Thanks for the review, as for the snare. If you listen to Hard Dance and Hard Trance will you encounter that type of snare roll alot. Haha. Only sticking to the roots of the genre.
Lots of funk influence, a female vocal, slower disco tempo etc.
You have paid a lot of attention to the dynamics in your track and all the various builds keep the song sounding fresh. I like the way you gradually bring up the detail in the frequency spectrum of the piano and that little lead into the bassline is cool. It's good to hear the piano with a fair stereo image, so that the bass is more on the left and the treble is more on the right, I would maybe widen it to accentuate that effect. There's not much melody going on in the left ear, an upper register counter-point in the left channel would fit quite nicely I reckon.
I think you need to go easy on the filters though, there are a few too many for me. The effect gets stale after repeated listens and your song ends up sounding like one big filter sweep! I'd also like to hear the main groove go on for a bit longer. You have a lot of snare hits and fills breaking the flow of the song when I would like to really lock into the rhythm for a little while.
There is lots of dynamic movement in this song, it's definitely enjoyable to listen to but I'm not sure how it cope in a club.
Brilliant! You are the exception to the rule sir! I now have certifiable proof that not all FL users try to make dance music. You've made me happy!
This track is great, it kept me guessing the whole way through and made me want to listen to it again. I love the 7/8 intro going into the 4/4 with the snare on every beat, that gives it a rolling, train-like sound and carries the build to the piano crescendo. The kick coming in out of the piano crescendo is timed perfectly, I was just starting to miss it at and that very moment, in with the kick! Nice touch. The lead line at 2:14 could be a bit more expressive I feel. It's a bit of a whirlwind of notes where a few choicely chosen legatto passages, some glides and vibrato would have really helped bring the solo alive.
I reckon you can improve the sounds you've used in places also. I don't think the track is balanced particularly well across the frequency range. Some more low end would really help the track. Your bass sound isn't chunky enough and the drums are a little low-fi. That's great in the intro but it would have been really nice to hear a thick, punchy snare come in at the same time as the kick. The piano crescendo's quite cool but you can hear where the velocities stay the same for the passage between :46 and 1:04. It gets a little annoying towards the end of that phrase but then it goes into a cool bass drop, so I can deal with it.
I love the chord progression right at the end around the 2:40 mark. Very Jeffro Tull! Keep at it though, I'm looking forward to your next track.
I'm getting similar comments with my mastering, it's something that I've yet to really learn about. As for velocity, my current project is a guitar driven one (after finding a good library of samples), and will vary a lot in that field.
You've given yourself a really tough task here. There is sooooo much going on in the original piece and I wasn't sure that it would handle a D'n'B beat underneath it all. I think you've done pretty well though, you've boiled down all the characteristic elements of the piece and left enough space for complex rhythms so well done on that.
I think there are improvements to be made however. There is a major clash in the region of 5-7 seconds, also heard in the outro. I know the original is quite dissonant in places but because of the number of instruments playing, it is buried and the listener gets a feeling of unease. In your song there are only two elements when this occurs so it sounds like a bum note.
Also you need to vary the velocity of the violin lead before the synth kicks in. It sounds like you have it at 127 through the whole passage and it makes the violins sound unrealistic. The original is very interesting to listen to because there are so many parts floating in and out. It would be easy to incorporate some of these things into this song.
Your bass sound comes across as a little weedy in places. I think the track could do with a very warm, round sound to fill out the lower frequencies along with the growly line you have there already. Whilst I like your drum beats in general I think there are too many glitches. You have a pattern that you've stuck to throughout and the whole point of glitches is that they're meant to sound a bit random. Throw them around the stereo field a bit, add some filters, chuck in a few one-off breaks and drum shots. All this stuff adds to the movement in the track and would really help in retaining the listeners interest. The melody isn't brilliant (sounds a bit like the chorus of 'Crack A Bottle') so you have to add these elements to make up for that.
It shows promise but it only works as an intro as it is. It doesn't loop but I think you're just testing the water here aren't you?
From here, I'd loop the wobble a few times adding in some more elements of the drums section by section. You need a chunkier kick, that gets lost but you can bring that in as an added element. I wouldn't hold off bringing a bass line for too long either! That would fill some of the gaps... Then you need a melody and a few different sections. I'd bring that riff back in after a chorus of some description too, It wouldn't work throughout the whole song because it's so disgusting and it would lose it's impact.
You have a sort of minimalist, Major Lazer kind of thing going on at the moment. I'd check him out for some ideas if that's the direction you'd like to take it but I'd bring in some elements of 'Black and Gold' by Sam Sparrow. Not hardcore dub, I know but I think some swingy rhythms could work really well here.
Good luck with it man, I've given you a fairly low score here because this is just an idea that needs a lot of work. I like the start though, it shows promise.I look forward to hearing the whole thing!
![[S:C] Mr. Funkhausen](https://aicon.ngfiles.com/326/326120_small.png?f1364635235){kind=small}
[S:C] Mr. Funkhausen 
Sweet Release