Reggae Music Crits

[n3tgraph]

Hey Fellas,

I posted this tune in the AGS GAMES IN PROD. part....

but I might as well put it here too:
Click me

The quality is pretty poor, and the Piano is too loud imo. It happend after the mixdown 

Anyhoo,
what do you think? It's supposed to be looped from the point where the trombone jumps in.

[Steel Drummer]

Personally, I love reggae music (most of it). This song is pretty good, but the drums at the beginning are a bit too much. The horn thingy is a bit unreggae-ish. Maybe try using a different instrument.

[Gregjazz]

Pretty good. You have a good feel of the whole reggae bubbling thing, and the triplets.

Few comments:

- Samba whistle in the beginning? Not sure if it fits... I usually stay away from using the samba whistle just because I never can find any good samples of it.

- Add reggae guitar "skank" on 2 & 4. You already got the piano and organ--the guitar finishes that reggae sound.

- Trombone line is low, that's more of an early Reggae/Ska (the old kind of Ska) thing. Maybe turn it into a brass line with a section rather than a solo trombone. Or at least the trombone could have more "sizzle" to it (yes, again, reliant on better samples).

- Drum pattern is more of a pop reggae thing. Not sure if that's what you want, you could always go after a more traditional reggae beat (one drop). At the very basic level, hihat on beats 2 & 4, kick on 3. Every once and a while you'd have cross-stick play triplet fills. The hihat can also play on the 'and' of 2 and the 'and' of 4 (mirroring the piano/organ rhythm.

EDIT:

Ah, okay, I quickly came up with an example for you. MIDI format so you can see the notes. Play it in your sequencer, it'll probably sound terrible in Winamp, since Winamp doesn't seem to capture velocity changes and mixing correctly.

http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/reggae_trad.mid

[n3tgraph]

Hey thanks for the comments.

About the drums,
You both are right I think! The intro is quite lame indeed. I'll try Geoffkhans idea of drums. These are indeed a bit more classic drums.

The guitar 'skank' is already in there, but I think it turned out a bit to soft. I'll put it a little louder.

I'll fiddle around with the trombone a bit.


I made this song in Cubase SX and I made a Combi on my Korg Triton with the samples pre-programmed. The final version will have all the best samples I can find in that machine. I might even use my Hammond organ too.

Thanks alot!
I'll post a new one sooner or later!

[Gregjazz]

Looking forward to your new version!

[n3tgraph]

Well here it is:

Click here

Let me know what you think!  8)

[Steel Drummer]

Hmm.. the beginning of the new version is too much like the actual song itself. Maybe add a different bass tune at the beginning or something. Also, I think it was a bit better with the horn. Maybe not the same horn you were using, just a different one or something.EDIT: No, it sounded better in the first version how it had the horn. Gave it more harmony. Maybe add a steel drum in the second version.

[n3tgraph]

heh, there is no horn in the second version

thanks for the crit though

[m0ds]

Sounds good Jan! I like it

I like the drums in it, & the agogo sounding thing Keep it up!
& maybe post some more soon!!

[n3tgraph]

Hey m00ds

Thanks!
I'm helping out storyteller with teh MI project, so I'll post more soon 

[voh]

Amazingly Monkey Islandy

I like it, and I'm not good enough to crit it, but positive feedback counts too, right?

[Gregjazz]

Well here it is:

Click here

Let me know what you think!  8)

A lot better!!

Improvements would include:

- Cross-stick triplets as a fill (I think you used these in your first version)
- Timbale flam in beginning?

You should mix the tune, too. It sounds pretty much all in the center right now, so if you spread stuff out (this takes a lot of fine-tuning) you can make it sound wider and more dynamic. Also consider putting some reverb to make the background strumming guitar sound distant. On the bass guitar, cut all the mids and treble down to make it mainly just low bass. On the piano cut the lows and pull up the highs and add some bright reverb. Any sort of timbale fill or agogo fill, cut the lows and boost the highs and add some long decay bright reverb.

If you send me the individual tracks I'd be glad to make a mix for you.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

After listening to both versions I think the second one is great.  I'm not musically-inclined by any means, but the only issue I see with it is the format.  Did you choose mpg for a specific reason, or are you planning to convert it to an mp3,etc later?  Great stuff.

[n3tgraph]

Hey thanks all!

Geoffkhan:

- what do you mean by cross-stick triplets? I don't quite get it
- I'll think of the timbale flam

About the mixing, I made a mistake during the recording session because I panned some instruments for more dynamics. The right channel is recorded correctly but the left was still set on centered, so that went wrong a litte!

As for mixing down, I didn't spend time on it yet, what you hear now is basicly a very rought 'combi' on my synthesizer. I didn't record track-by-track, just everything at once.
When I'm satisfied with the whole song, I'm going to record it track by track, after that mixing it down.
I'll be glad to send you the tracks by that time so you can give a go at it as well, cause I'm not very experienced in mixing down.


@ ProgZ:
I just changed the extension to mpg for a simple reason: The server I uploaded it didn't allow mp3

I'ts actually a mp3 file.


Thanks again for all the inspiration!
You'll hear more of this!