Please Help Me Improve My Music 

@@robbiekoffin yes I agree. When I listened in the car definitely the low end seemed too much. One thing I haven’t figured out with the Push yet is how to get all the tracks to record separately into my mixer. I think it’s a pretty big limitation for me right now that all the tracks I make on there I have to try to find one compression that works pretty well for it all and I can’t pan

Thanks so much for your time to give some input! I tried to put it into practice in my 2nd draft. I still think I could do better with panning. Should I have put the drums to one side and the bass to the other?? ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Na2fFlIp4Pk.html

@@Redh0und makes sense. Yes I feel like the ukulele gets a bit lost in the end because of all the other layers being there. I will look for info on polyphonic lead. Do you have any good examples?

@@MattyTSounds depending on how far you wanna take it, you could always look into the classics like Bach, who based some entire piano works around it. However where i actually understood it for the first time, was the original Pokemon Soundtracks, which heavily rely on three voice polyphony. But i think thats just because i know all the Tracks in and out :D For a more pronounced approach on strings, you could even look into Jimi Hendrix a bit, who tends to play extra melodies and licks in between vocal lines and what not. I think you just need to figure what works best for you in this particular setting. But always keep the fun playing. Cheers!

@@Redh0und Ha! I love this. Pokémon is a huge part of my childhood. I still use making up ways to have poké battles with kids I teach tennis to :D

I really appreciate your feedback and willingness to come back and clarify! The Pokémon/Hendrix combination had me rolling. I listened back to the Pokémon theme song and was kinda blown away how complex it is. I tried to do a bit of the Hendrix lead guitar between vocals in my 2nd draft: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Na2fFlIp4Pk.html

Thanks for the tips! I kept the arpeggio for an intro and then just played chords when I used the sound later in the track to try to not have too many moving parts. I liked your Pink Floyd inspiration - I tried to channel it! I still think I could have done a better job of cutting out some of the sounds when I am singing in my 2nd draft. What do you think? ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Na2fFlIp4Pk.html

Thanks for listening James! I agree with you about the robotic thing. It was my hesitation with using quantization at all. On the Push it is cool that you can change the percentage of how much you quantize so that it does not necessarily have to be all the way. I noticed when quantizing drums on this one that one of my notes ended up really far off which means it was actually closer to the wrong beat than the right one. Ha! I know what you mean about the emotionality. I agree that I usually do not end up listening to Andrews tracks after learning about them in the video for this reason although I always learn a lot from the topics he brings up! I think he has found a niche that really works with his talents and it serves him quite well!

Bro you hit the nail on the head. I actually came to the comments to mention that but you beat me to it lolz

Thanks so much for giving me feedback! I tried doing 75% quantization and adding 15% swing to the drums on my 2nd draft. Better? ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Na2fFlIp4Pk.html

btw, I am not familiar with your musical style, you showed up on my suggestions so if none of my advice works for you then please continue crafting your art in your own sense. Cheers.

@@igotworms Thanks so much for listening! I agree that when I listen back I almost always have feelings about the tempo. This one should be faster! It is funny you bring up Gorillaz. Now that I listen back the vocals totally sound kinda like him :D And yes you are totally right about sticking to kick, hat, and drums. First time I listened back to this I was like oh wow, cowbell stands out so much! Ha. I am curious what you mean about drums with more character without changing which parts of the kit I am using?

@@MattyTSounds For starters the kick is only slightly punchy but flat. its almost like a basketball dribble with no tail. would recommend a wider and fatter kick. something to beef up the track. something almost electronic. The hats are very stale and have no soul. Choosing drum sounds can be one of the most difficult task of a track. I would keep this piece simple in regard to structure and instrumentation. As I mentioned before the bass melody should drive this piece. Use the synth accent notes you had at 03:20 for verse. They are gold. Guide this with Great drums and groove. The flat organ style synth at the beginning of the track is nice. Will really add to the darkness of the melody while contrasting with the brightness of an upbeat groove if you decide to take the faster tempo route. The guitar and uke riffage was great but would exclude that if you could string together a nice vocal melody instead. At this pace you'd be writing a alt-pop song and I'm not sure where your influence lays and what direction you would like to run to.

also the overdriven/distorted bass could be a nice touch to really solidify the track late in the score.

Thanks for your thoughtful response and for coming back to add more info! I came up with a pretty heavy kick sound for part of the song and used a pitched down tom for the other part. Not sure if it is traditional enough or if the sounds I chose became a bit too out there. Speeding it up definitely was huge! Let me know what you think: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Na2fFlIp4Pk.html