Please please listen to my new tracks, I need teh feedback

[djtheblade Profile Website]

I've been working quite hard on these 3, some of you might have heard demo versions of one or two of them already, but these are near-complete mixes and are heavily modified. They are the top three tracks on my soundcloud: http://soundcloud.com/djtheblade

Here comes the pain, Mondas and My car. I'm looking for honest feedback, Ben be warned there is a bit of Amen break in one of the songs.

[SweetPeaPod]

I like all the tracks! Good job bro. what, no DL?

[divtech Profile Website]

good work, on the constructive side i can say this:

1. Here Comes the Pain -the intro is pretty solid, the dnb sounding breaks sound soft, im not sure if this was the intention or to contrast them with the harsh kicks, but i think they could use to be crispened up a tad, also as far as those breaks go i would work to add a bit more variability in them when they are in use (kind of how you did with the combo of them and the amen). if you notice there the amen sounds really crisp and it seems kind of weird hearing those two very differently mastered breaks being used interchangably without the dnb sounding one being worked with more. i like the variation at about 2:16 and i love the kicks at 3:14

2. My Car - intro seems a bit winded, i like the sampling and the distortion, the kicks are solid once they hit, basic solid 4x4 kicks are what define the track but my favorite part was the sampling with the kicks at the end

3. Mondas - I really like the double timed shorthand kicks or whatever they were that complemented the harsh snare, reminded me of current value, the droning synth in the background almost took away from the intensity of the track however, when the synth went away at like 3:40 or something is when i enjoyed the break work most, maybe if the synth was harsher/more chopped/had a faster melody i think it would made the track sound more upbeat

this is just my opinion of what i like in hardcore tracks, this is also about as harsh as my criticism comes, any more and i would just feel like a back seat driver, no one should impede the creative processes of another, thats how we lose musical diversity, once again great work, keep it coming!

[divtech Profile Website]

btw how did you get the kicks at the end of "here comes the pain"

[djtheblade Profile Website]

good work, on the constructive side i can say this:

1. Here Comes the Pain -the intro is pretty solid, the dnb sounding breaks sound soft, im not sure if this was the intention or to contrast them with the harsh kicks, but i think they could use to be crispened up a tad, also as far as those breaks go i would work to add a bit more variability in them when they are in use (kind of how you did with the combo of them and the amen). if you notice there the amen sounds really crisp and it seems kind of weird hearing those two very differently mastered breaks being used interchangably without the dnb sounding one being worked with more. i like the variation at about 2:16 and i love the kicks at 3:14

2. My Car - intro seems a bit winded, i like the sampling and the distortion, the kicks are solid once they hit, basic solid 4x4 kicks are what define the track but my favorite part was the sampling with the kicks at the end

3. Mondas - I really like the double timed shorthand kicks or whatever they were that complemented the harsh snare, reminded me of current value, the droning synth in the background almost took away from the intensity of the track however, when the synth went away at like 3:40 or something is when i enjoyed the break work most, maybe if the synth was harsher/more chopped/had a faster melody i think it would made the track sound more upbeat

this is just my opinion of what i like in hardcore tracks, this is also about as harsh as my criticism comes, any more and i would just feel like a back seat driver, no one should impede the creative processes of another, thats how we lose musical diversity, once again great work, keep it coming!

Aye the drum break on Here comes the pain is sampled (naughty me) from an Eye-D tune. It's already had a shed load of gain on it, i'm struggling to find a way of making it any louder whilst retaining a clean sound, it starts going all fuzzy cus of the hard bassline in the background. That's the price I pay for not being able to create a good d'n'b loop from scratch ha. On Mondas i've been thinking of adding some rapid stabs, Techstep/Skullstep style like. I spent most of the time working just on the kick, it's possibly the nicest Gabber kick i've ever produced, real warm like, but i've neglected the melody just by focussing on the kicks and the clangy snares. Current Value and Outside Agency is pretty much the main influence on that track.

[djtheblade Profile Website]

btw how did you get the kicks at the end of "here comes the pain"

Synthesising a good Frenchcore kick is pretty tricky. There are several ways of doing it:

1. Produce your own using v-station. Snafu's tutorial is handy but it's difficult to explore much variety with it, once you've got that bouncy mid fill there's only so much you can do with it; the fill always ends up sounding a bit flat, great for Deathchant hardcore but if you wanna create a clear note to complement a melody (as seen in Hardtek and Hardstyle) V-station just aint tuff enough.

2. Use a synth and created some sort of saw or hoover for the mid stab, using a simple punch kick for the drum. It's cheating cus you've got two seperate components that mimic the sound of that "Dum Urrm" Frenchcore kick, but if it's pulled off well nobody need know the difference.

3. You can faff around with the in and out settings on kick samples in Fruity loops, not sure what software you use but it's possible to take a sampled kick or to synthesise your own and get some fade effects so that the kick fades out and in to create those warm mid fills.

4. Steal a Radium kick, which is what you actually hear at the end of that track Obviously modify its pitch and fiddle with some filters to disguise it a bit.

[Infekkted Profile]

"my car'" was my favorite, I liked the way you progressed it and its atmosphere and breaks were awesome.

"here comes the pain" was adorable. A bit noiser than what I would like, but overall a fine tune.

"mondas" was a beautiful idea. However, I expected it to be more bashy,I mean some peak with the dnb-ish breaks which didn't arrive. Still a very good track though.

To summarize, these tracks are really good well done my boy!

[divtech Profile Website]

2. Use a synth and created some sort of saw or hoover for the mid stab, using a simple punch kick for the drum. It's cheating cus you've got two seperate components that mimic the sound of that "Dum Urrm" Frenchcore kick, but if it's pulled off well nobody need know the difference.


haha i do this all the time XD

the kicks in all the tracks sound full which is the main focus, i know how long it takes to make good ones, i could spend hours just fiddling around with sounds

the final product is ace

were you planning on using one/more of these for the hardcore comp?

[MrKoekje Profile Website]

Those really loud kicks on "here comes the pain" were overbearing. Was that intentional? Also, I got bored halfway through the song, because that was basically nothing but kickdrum.
I liked "my car" a lot more, especially the glitchy noises at the beginning, and how the whole track had this sort of half-time groove. That was nice.
I think "mondas" was my favourite. As divtech said, the drums were pretty Current Value-esque, but that sweeping synth near the beginning sounded cheesy, like some kind of 3xOsc preset.

[djtheblade Profile Website]

were you planning on using one/more of these for the hardcore comp?

Yes, not sure which one though

Those really loud kicks on "here comes the pain" were overbearing. Was that intentional?

Aye i've been going for that Tieum/Promo style overdrive so that it distorts everything else. Not everyone's cup of tea I know, a lot of folk like their ultra clean Frenchcore whereas I like to get my hands dirty sometimes. You don't like the synth at the start? I'll see about modifying it.

I expected it to be more bashy,I mean some peak with the dnb-ish breaks which didn't arrive.

Yeah maybe some mangled breaks would sound nice, there were some in there originally but I took them out cus I just couldn't get them to sound right

[producer_snafu Profile Website]

i have been warned.

the first one was fun.

[☂ Profile]

Great work. Much better than this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTaMr8uZgWk

[nethiros Profile]

first of all, hell yeah
really nice, i'm not that into hardcore but your tunes sound very inovative to me. it's just that... i think the first 2 tracks lack low-end, and especially in "here comes the pain" the whole thing sounds a bit crumbly, already read that you intended that but i guess some nice sub-action won't hurt.

apart from that there's not much to criticise, as i said i'm no hardcore expert but this would be the kind of stuff i'd listen to with my buddies on portable speakers while running through the city, totally drunk and loudly ranting about politics!

of course on portables the low-end isnt even audible but whatever

edit: hey by the way, couldnt you have made that mix like 4 times longer?