Four Chords at the sunset

[tavasti]

Me & my son, we both are quite novices on music making. Under our winter holiday we got deadmau5 'Electronic music production' course (
https://www.masterclass.com/classes/dea ... production ). Yesterday while driving home from mornings sports competition, we set ourselves target: make one track. Try to keep things relatively simple, avoid too much self criticism. We haven't studied anything on 'mixing/mastering' side yet, and for our schedule, there was no time left for that. It is possible that we spend still bit more time with this, to get it sounding better, but let's see. My son is already working on next track

Everything is made with lmms, video with kdenlive. Video is yesterdays sunset as timelapse, next release (if any) might get bit more interesting video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOqTVQDQpf0

Now ideas are welcome:
- Is there anything on structure of track that might be worth changing? 'Riffs' are used only once, with normal intro-verse-chorus-verse-chorus-... type of structure would make it much longer, but we had feeling this is not such masterpiece that making it longer in this point would be beneficial.
- For sounds, 'mastering', what would you do?

[tavasti]

What i also mis, and that's mostly my personal preference, that on this songs i think it would be complementing if some real instrument was added.

Personally, I would like to play some electric guitar to it, maybe replacing some of the melodies, or adding some new part. However, my son prefered this without. Our musical taste is different, he is more EDM, and I'm 'melodic / symphonic metal' man. It is possible that I create something with distorted guitar as instrument, but let's see.

Overal, it sounds very very nice. Great to listen too. Compliments.

Thanks!

[tavasti]

However, my son prefered this without. Our musical taste is different, he is more EDM, and I'm 'melodic / symphonic metal' man. It is possible that I create something with distorted guitar as instrument, but let's see.

I thought you said it was a partnership project. So there could be a compromise. (just kiddin')

Indeed, this is, but it is possible to create different versions. Modern artists have (specially in electronic music) have various edits, remixes and whatnot of the same track.

Piano. Guitar. Whatever. I like to compliment such a song with some 'live' instrument. Just a bit is enough, like a short muted chord at the 4th count or so which is played with a loose hand. Were more is quick to much. IMHO this makes such song's more alive.

That sounds fine idea, implementation may be harder. 'Moderate' and 'little' are not so properly understood words in my vocabulary

[mclstr]

I really liked it. I could listen to it multiple times, which is more than what I can do with 99% of music out there.

My advice is to not take criticism too seriously. You can only go by your own instincts.

Be original, there is a reason why your music sounds the way it does and not the way your critics want it to sound:-)

[folderol]

Quite enjoyable, although it comes over as a backing for something else. Agree with the other poster the bass needs trimming back a bit, or maybe filtering to reduce the 'boominess'.

[tavasti]

I really liked it. I could listen to it multiple times, which is more than what I can do with 99% of music out there.

Oh, that is really a big statement! Thanks!

My advice is to not take criticism too seriously. You can only go by your own instincts.

Be original, there is a reason why your music sounds the way it does and not the way your critics want it to sound:-)

I haven't felt anything here as critics, but as advice or suggestion, and I asked to have the them, since I'm such a novice.
And because this track was created really fast, and had (self set) deadline, so result was not 100% what instincts & opinions might be, but more 'what came out fast'. Personally I'm really happy with this result, I would not have believed we could create even that good track, even with more time. Still, it is not perfect, but it is much better we expected to create. Somehow this result, just like viewtopic.php?f=9&t=15757 guides me towards method "don't try to compose, just do what you think is easy and simple".

You never ever learn something, or get other/new idea's if everyone say's no more than 'wow super'.

@ tavasti. I only try to help. Nothing more. No negative criticism from me ever. Only meant good.

I could not see anything bad of your writings, I took them as suggestions I asked for. And even if someone say something harsh, I would not take it personally. Taste varies, there is lot of music which is cr*p for me, and masterpiece for somebody else.