RE: SMA Feedback Contest - A DSound Community Initiative - Round 5 Is Live!
Ah cool, so I I should give my feedback here then, still not having dropped my comment on the track :(
I absolutely love how you take us in, the depth and width of space is hard to capture sometimes for me and you did amazing in doing so - it's so calming and epic. The pad is absolutely incredible, and even catchy without being cheesy, and the beat supports it really well - it takes me away from Earth existence for a while which is precisely what I expected it to do before first hearing it. Well done!
The only thing that keeps distracting me a bit is the "distorted'ish" sound of the pad that comes and goes in the upper ranges. While its foundation is solid, it does remind me heavily of some of the pads I build often times, where certain frequencies stack so much that they will make the pad peak or sound overly aggressive in some higher ranges.
Then again, listening to the fifth time or so now it might just have been an artistic choice and has its own charm in a way, maybe I am confusing my preference in psy-pads with what a spacy pad can ALSO sound like from another perspective.
The arrangement is really well thought out too and the bassline stuck with me and makes me kinda sad once it ends ;) I am steadily grooving away, feels like a ... star TREK actually. It has this hiking vibe to it due to the solid foundation of bass and the relaxed but steady (and satisfying) beat. It keeps me on point with my whole body rocking to the groove and I could just go forever with it.
The lead is just beautiful too, I should really do that more - nice reverb'y piano and only sprinkled in here and there. On certain states of mind I would cry my eyeballs out listening to this, it has so much heart. Once again, well done!
The synth toward the end complements the track really well, especially because it is not so much in the foreground, but definitely audible enough.
So other than that peaking-like sound of the pad it is a REALLY REALLY awesome track to me, and even to that I got somewhat used to now - would be weird if it were missing now ahahah. Let me know if this was intentional, it would greatly broaden my horizons for production.
Mad respect dude, and mad respect to Dr. Rinkel as well!
You will make soundtracks for high caliber movies one day, now the directors and producers just have to find ya ;)
Thanks for the detailed feedback @paradigmprospect! It's great to hear the track takes you away into outer space on a Trek(!)...and the fact that you keep on coming back to it definitely means we did something right! :) I'm quite humbled by your comments in general actually, it's always pretty special to hear when someone really quite connects with a track I (we) created!
We did decide to make the pad sound the way it does...I play around quite often with 'distorting' sounds and I like to include hints of it in tracks. I guess in a way I don't want it to sound too 'smooth'...I like tracks to have a bit of an edge, one way or another. I do see what you mean though, I guess it really comes down to artistic choice in this case. I might still go back to the track and change things around a bit though, just to see how differently that might sound.. ;) That bassline was mostly Dr. Rinkel's work in this case, so I'll make sure to pass on the props! He's a friend of mine. A few years back, we had quite a bit of time to create tracks together. Nowadays we live far apart, so things are a bit more tricky. But there may still be some more of Mindseye & Dr. Rinkel in the works!
It would be awesome to be part of a quality movie soundtrack one day! Still, gotta be realistic as well though...I bet there are truckloads of artists striving for the same thing...and they might work on their craft full-time. In the end, I'm 'only' a part-timer... :) (for now!)
Thanks again for the awesome comments!
Awesome! So an intentional choice. In that case it's perfect. Now that I listen yet again I can tell that a smooth pad MIGHT actually take away that edge too much. Wouldn't want a free-floating space journey to sound like a walk in the park I guess.
Which is ample permission for me to aim for more edge in my own tracks, vs. being overly sensitive whenever something sounds peak'y. It really does work in this track so why wouldn't it work in others.
In a way I feel I learned more about my feedback to your track and your reply than you might have ahahaha. Thank you for that!
dude whenever I hear of s ci-fi movie producer looking for music I shall point them directly to you and or this track. I love space music but tend to slide into psychedelic trance whenever I go for it. "fantasy" soundtracks seem to be the only ones where I can really go for that cinematic feel without dragging everyone to the dancefloor by accident hehe.
Well, we are all spread out - get him on Steemit! (you probably have tried already ;)) I can't wait til splice actually includes Bitwig compatibility - are you familiar with the project (www.splice.com)? If I were on Ableton still I would use it to make tracks with my friends from the US more.
I'm off, spacing some more with stellar, if dsound doesn't quit on me again. It's especially horrible when that happens floating around in space ahahaha. cheers! So extra props for offering soundcloud too. I wish dsound were as reliable as souncloud is for me.
Well said (that part about the walk in the park ;p)! Yeah in general this track is already pretty 'smooth' so a little edginess in my opinion works quite well to give it a little something different. I just prefer it that way, it might not always be easiest on the ears in a way, but there's already plenty of super (way too) smooth music out there!
Haha well I guess we both learned something from this, that's great to hear! I guess that's what the feedback challenge is for anyway ;) But yes do please spread the word, I guess in this 'business' it's all about having the right contacts! Hehe well I'm sure there's a market for 'space-trance' as well...everybody needs a bit of dancefloor every now and then.
Yeahh I may have to try harder to convince Dr. Rinkel about Steemit...I'll give it another shot ;)
I have heard about Splice yes, but I haven't tried it. I wonder if it's worth it...? I'll have to look into it more to see what is at the moment compatible...
Haha I agree, DSound can be quite unrealiable...so I guess SoundCloud is a good backup for now. Enjoy the spacing.. ;)