work in progress...dp 4.61, 5.00, 5.01

[kelldammit]

an old 4 track thing i'd done years ago...chosen for its simplicity, to get the hang of dp. not perfect by a longshot, not even what i'd call a good song, but i like the vibe. good for driving in the rain.
one of the toms needs some bottom cut, the delays need to be brought up, and probably the main pads as well (more treble).
the sounds are arranged in layers from back to front...but i don't think the effect is as pronounced as i'd like...that's a pretty new experiment though.
otherwise...if there's anything you guys can point out/suggest...i'm all ears!

they synths are blue 1.5x, ultimate analog, ravity(s), msi, dfhs, and a couple patches from my novation x-25.

test mix 3

kell

[Jim]

This sounds pretty good to me overall, for an ambient piece. The synth portamento glide that comes in around 1/4 of the way in (and then again towards the ending) could be potted down a bit... it's much louder than the pizzicato that follows it. I like the syncopation in the drumming, but I'd like it more if it was a real drummer. The problem (IMO) with most programmed drum parts is the lack of dynamics. For instance, the snare always sounds the same. This piece is fairly repetitious, and a more dynamic delivery in the percussion could bring it a lot more life... but OTOH, a more lively percussion part could destroy the laid-back feel of the piece. I guess it depends on what you're trying to accomplish. You could also add a melody or lead line on top, if you wanted to mess around with it. Or, you could leave it as is, and it'd be a suitable underscore cue for a film.

[kelldammit]

Jim, hey, thanks for the listen/advice!
the original piece was supposed to have vocals done...strangely, i never wrote lyrics or a melody...i wanted to see how it struck the vocalist, and then i was going to adjust the music to better suit the melody/lyrics they came up with...to make it more sympathetic, less repetitious. the singer in question never panned out, so the song just got dropped as better songs came along...mebbe i'll give this another shot.
i see what you mean about the portamento part...i'll try dropping it a bit. i'm currently rearranging the "depth" levels...putting delays behind the dry parts, etc. to improve the sense of space. there's some other stuff i'd like to fix, too. i really want to replace that piano...
i'm glad you mentioned the drums. i do like the feel of the piece, despite the syncopation, it seems to "glide" along very smoothly. the funny part about the drum part is that it's way better than the old programmed drum machine part (ugh)...especially the hats/quasi-fills. i don't think i'd listened closely enough to really notice what you pointed out (esp the snare) till now. the grand irony there is that during programming, i went out of my way to make sure that no two drum hits were exactly the same! dfhs will let you randomly cycle hits, and i played them in, so the velocities/hits were all different! of course then, to completely counteract the effort, i proceeded to compress the living hell out of them when mixing. just smack me! i also took out all of the mic bleeds etc...which could help some too.
my bro says that the tight snare sound would probably work okay for jazz, but didn't really tickle his fancy on this one...so i think easing off on the comp overall will help with both issues...

i can't thank you enough for the constructive feedback...this is how you really learn, by getting things pointed out that you may not have noticed due to being fixated on other things...as soon as the dust settles at work, i'll finish up the new mix in progress. got some new toonz started too...man, soo much to do! life is goooood.

kell