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AIM - Apocalyptic

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Author Comments

Originally released under the “MU53” Project


This is my final song of April, and concurrently, my first year ever entering into something such as this. Hopefully it ends up good, and I wish to do more of these in the future, as this was pretty fun.


Inspired by @Pohmme-d-adham's artpiece called "Apocalypse." Their art piece is also the jacket art of this song



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140 bpm high-ish energy industrial-centered song (with some orchestral & electronic / video-game elements incorporated) written in C minor. The song itself is heavily based on other older industrial songs that are on NG.


This is my first go at something like this. I know I could've chosen a genre I'm more familiar with, but I chose this one because I felt it fit the nature of the art piece.


I tried to mix everything in the most optimal way possible, but I don't know if that worked out quite as well as I wanted. But as the saying goes: "Don't expect something perfect if I make it."


I advise you to look at the picture for the entirety of the song's run. Let me know of anything that could be changed in the comments. Happy listening.

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Apocalyptic, MU53
Composition/Structure:9 Production:6 Emotion/Atmosphere:10 Art Relevance:6

Hell yeah, fun melodies and ideas! Had a lot of respect for what you had to say about your work, people forget judges are their peers and we love to know what's up sometimes. Providing data shows a technical knowledge that signals authenticity to the community. I'm always saddened when people have nothing to say about their creations.

I feel compelled to disagree with your statement "this is my first go at something like this." At 16 years old every new song must feel like it's something totally novel but I'm going through your catalogue hearing dance kits, dance rhythms, familiar EDM genres, triplets, clap snares... your building a music language as you go but you're still in the forest of youth. The more you learn about music the more it all ties together. In music there is constant evolution, there's always another instrument to learn, another genre to try out, another rhythm to arrange; eventually the very idea of music means something completely different than when you started. It's an honor to get to hear promising new talent, your arrangement is fun and exciting. The track reminds me of a lot of the stuff that my friends made here a long time ago.

The orchestral elements are well woven, the industrial noises were inspired. The mix kept getting me down but I'm looking at your age and looking at the mix like "it makes sense." With a perfect mix a lot of the weirdest ideas will get a hall pass. That kick drum is the focus in this mix, would have loved to hear some dynamics from it. Creating a difference in velocity between the notes on the pulse and the ghost notes, velocity diversity on your drums can really help out a groove. I've been playing the drums for 20 years, dynamics is one of the few ways a percussion instrument can be emotive. A 32nd note drum crescendo or a decrescendo is a drummers way of saying "I have feelings." The kit samples are good but I want to introduce you to some drum modeling techniques...

I love hearing goofy new snare sounds, contemporary EDM producers will make the strangest tones work. Pitching the snare sample all the way up usually gets a snappy trap/nuero sound. I layer snares and play with their levels/pitch/resonance until they mesh together. I'll usually have three or four snares working together in any song. Eventually I merge all the snare signals to EQ and compress, then the new sound gets sent to a digital mixer (my DAW is Reason). I do the same with my kick drums, two or three work together to make a new sound. From the sequencer you can layer the sounds or use the samples individually to create fake dynamics. (You can also layer synths to get cool new tones.)

Learning how to master automation lanes lets you make interesting changes to everything as the song evolves. Panning data, pitch, volume, BPM, envelopes, almost anything you can automate you should try at least once. Opening up the release on an instrument with an automation lane sustains the sound in a way reverb just can't.

I haven't touched on why relevance got a short score but it may have been because there were visual cues leading to obvious foley choices, why not sample some nuclear bomb stuff? It's literally a cliche beyond a cliche, every one has sampled those old timey duck-and-cover videos but I wouldn't have cared. Gotta be careful nabbing samples but at your age and your situation I don't expect you to buy thousands of stock sounds. I nab video game sound folders from google searches and pitch bend them to feel better about myself and my naughty sampling habit. I'd have dropped some bomb sound samples, tanks rolling around, swords clanging, guys stabbing each other, babies crying, dogs barking... the word I used earlier was "foley," you can build a soundscape with these ideas and transport the listener into the image.

Since the artist used classic paint techniques I'd have orchestrated the fuck out of some sections and tied the ideas together claiming it to be some kind of 19th century romanticism. In truth I just like hearing orchestral sounds in my EDM genres. That intro could have had an entire section of bass drum swells, cymbal swells, French horn brams, chimes, gongs, timpani, waterphones... the art invited so many excuses to use classical techniques but you might not have those ideas available to you yet, AGE STRIKES AGAIN! FOILED BY THE THINGS WE HAVE YET TO EXPERIENCE.

I wish I could sit here all day and share ideas with you because your age is interesting. I do hope you spend some time checking out the other contestants! The winners always have some pretty inspiring stuff, I'm in love with this years batch of virtuosos. Good luck MU53!

MU53 responds:

Holy long review. Sorry it took me so long to respond to this, but better late than never. I'll respond paragraph by paragraph.

By first go, I think I meant genre-wise. But yeah. After going back through all of my older uploads, I see what you mean by me making a common "language" of sorts that I've sort of penned. A unique style if you will. In terms of genre-wise, the Industrial part was new for me, but I think I did alright. I will definitely improve this, and even fully overhaul it.

Yeah looking back at this now, my mixing was pretty horrendous. But credit to me, I wove in the industrial/electronic and orchestral elements in really well. I can probably do better in my remake, but it's a solid start. Also at the time, my inexperienced self had no idea about the nitty-gritty of mixing, like sidechain. I only knew soundgoodizer LOL. But seeing your input on this, maybe it's worth practicing. Definitely will take that into account.

Oh boy. It's just clicking for me how bad I done goofed by not including any sort of nuclear stuff. In my defense, I did NOT know how to sample stuff at all (still don't, but I'd like to think I have gotten a bit better). Since I'll be remaking this, I'll definitely go full on in the sampling department.

You bet I'm going to orchestrate the fuck out of the intro on my redo of this piece. I will also make it a bit faster in terms of pacing. Also, might be more melancholic.

I checked out some other entries, and I might take notes from those and implement it into my piece in someway.

Thanks for the feedback, and thanks for having me this year. Looking forward to the next!

Dude this is so unique, I really like this. It also fits well with the vibe from the artpiece. I like the arpeggiator a lot. This whole song sounds very inspired by "Vain Star" by Cycerin btw. It is quite repetitive though, the song. It probably would have been better if it sat somewhere at 3 minutes, except if you add more variation.

MU53 responds:

Hit the nail right on the head. I just decided to try and make my own changes here and there. Yeah I agree that it is a bit repetitive, but honestly, my ideas bin was running on empty. I might revamp this eventually, but I’ll wait until I get a free moment, since I am pretty busy right now.

Thanks for the review.

Awesome! I'm amazed at how clean especially those drums and bass sound, the mixing in this track is great and the sound design is great as well. Great work man! :)

MU53 responds:

Thank you for the review. :D

Honestly they whole thing was incredible, thought some of the notes at the end seemed a little random. I really liked it though.

MU53 responds:

Thanks for your review m8. Also, I do get what you mean by the random notes at the end. I did try my best with those, but I guess that's how it came out in the end.

This is unrelated, but I noticed that I was your first audio review in 11-12 years. Just wanna say it's an honor to be reviewed by someone who's been on this platform longer than I've been alive. :)

I love this!!

MU53 responds:

Much appreciated. :)

Credits & Info

Production

Listens
4,444
Faves:
16
Downloads
110
Votes
31
Score
4.61 / 5.00

Uploaded
Apr 25, 2024
9:11 PM EDT
Genre
Industrial
File Info
Song
5.3 MB
3 min 54 sec
Software
  • FL Studio
  • Sytrus
  • Flex
  • 3x Osc
  • Groove Machine Synth
  • Autogun

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