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Unstable Horizon

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Author Comments

Tempo: 140bpm
Genre: Chillstep


My first chillstep song, can't talk much about it.
Maybe I over compressed this, I'm new to mastering but will learn it soon.
Constructive feedback is always welcomed.


Edit: Removed compression from drums and added some more reverb.


Note: The covers/wallpapers used in any of my tracks are not owned by me unless and until stated. If you're the owner of these covers and want those to be removed can contact me directly on email/pm.

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Overall the tunes pretty good there's a lot I like but also a bit I personally don't like.

What I like:
- chord progression is good
- great variety of sounds and synths used, the pads sound great!
- like the way you play the melody in unison with other leads to give them more impact
- the rolling pluck synth sounds great when the filter opens up for the drop
- interesting bass sounds and I love the way you stop the high hats to emphasise one of them.
- I really like the attack rhythm of one of the paddy bass synths. Sounds like you used sidechain compression though I may be wrong.
- Great placement of FX and crashes etc

What I think needs improvement:
- Drums are very bland! They sound way too squashed as a result of over compression. For the type of genre you're going for you need the drums to stand out in the mix. They need to be punchy and more thought needs to be put into EQing each sample you use. Try shape the samples around the instruments in your tune and vice versa. The kick needs tuning, EQing and dynamic control to make it stand out and hit in the right spot. I would also suggest layering it with a kick that has more mid range frenquecies (cutting the low frequecies to ensure theres no conflict in frequencies. The snare is okay, could be EQd better but it hits in the right frequency however again, needs to be punchy. The high hats could do with some EQing and a touch of reverb.

- I didn't like the arrangement. I thought sections ended too quickly and expected more to build from it.
- the melodies were good if not a bit overdone. sometime it felt a bit forced but others may disagree on that point
-I felt the basses lacked sub frequencies which could've been solved by using a simple sine wave

Overall I enjoyed the tune. it was a good chilled track with a lot of interesting stuff going on that I felt mainly lost points due to sloppy mixing and arrangement decisions. You clearly have a good knowledge of synth design based on the techniques used to create some of the textures in the synths. And for your first chilstep tune I can't really complain. good job!

Demonic-Overmind responds:

Thanks a lot for the review,

About the things you like:
- I didn't like its chord progression to be honest, I still think that I forced my ears to accept it.
- thanks for the appreciation on instruments.
- nope, I just copied the piano melody to a paddy synth and played with its cutoff frequency(no sidechaining).

About things that needs improvement:
- yup, I was expecting this, I did over compress some parts of the kick and also snare during the buildup as I thought the sound was getting louder but I guess you need it in a track. For the choice of the samples, I didn't actually knew how the drums should be in chillstep. I thought these samples did sound somewhat similar so used them. EQing the drums is where I lack most, I literally just increased some lower freq for kick, mid-range freq in snare and higher freq for hi-hats. I'll try layering samples with different frequencies in my later tracks.
- I actually didn't wanted to make the melodies and arrangement repetitive, so maybe I overdid it.
- About the sub frequencies, I didn't gave it a thought, I'll try adding a sine wave.

Thanks once again.

Credits & Info

Listens
1,126
Downloads
38
Votes
6
Score
4.11 / 5.00

Uploaded
Feb 21, 2016
2:15 AM EST
Genre
Dubstep
File Info
Song
6.3 MB
2 min 46 sec

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