Hi all,

Recently I discovered this forum and the wonderful opportunities and information is has.

So some months ago I created these two tracks and since I want to get started again some tips or feedback would really be appreciated.

The tracks are not meant for anything specifically.

Thanks a lot.

Echo - https://soundcloud.com/robertblaauboer/echo

and

Birth of a Supernova - https://soundcloud.com/robertblaauboer/birth-of-a-supernova

I liked the ideas in Echo but the synth pulse drastically overpower everything else in the mix. You have some nice movement in the strings but they sound so thin and hollow. I'd go back and rework the production side because the composition itself is certainly evocative.

Thanks, yeah it might have to look into my strings again and have them work together a bit better.

Yes the composition itself is cool and had it been played by actual musicians it would be sweet. A problem for me is that the synths or plugins you are using sound very MIDI, like in shitty old PC games or so. Perhaps you could some more organic sounding plugins using physical modelling instead of sampling? For example "Sculpture" in Logic, or Some of the synths in Reaktor if you're using cubase (though Reaktor was quite buggy for me).

I don't know, those are the two I have used and like. I'm sure there are other options. Then you can automate these to give the piece some more dynamics so it doesn't sound so stiff.

In the second track I also thought maybe a really low D note could be added at some points as a drone bass note kind of thing, giving everything else a kind of dark context on top of it? Well up to you.

Thanks, I'm happy that the composition itself is on the right track. But I think I will read up on some tutorials on how to make VSTs sound more lively and realistic. Do you have any tips? I might play around with the general dynamics and reverb a bit more.

Well I think that depends mostly on which VSTs you use. Some VSTs use samples to create their sound, meaning they use actual recorded sounds, for strings this is usually the case. When I make music I tend to use synthesizers with oscillators which tend to have more possibilities for shaping the sound. Some VSTs actually simulate some kind of physical vibration of a real instrument though and these tend to sound more organic and lively, for example some of the synths in the VST "Reaktor" and in Logic the synth called "Sculpture".

In your case I think editing the velocity of the MIDI track would be a good idea. Then you can create some sense of crescendo and decrescendo, so that the music grows and swells on the way to those target notes you are trying to hit. I haven't really made any music sounding like the tracks you provided so I am not an expert on that. :)

On top of what Gustafpihl already said, if you're making music that's supposed to emulate humans playing then don't make it perfect. Even the best orchestras don't play 100% in time or even in tune all the time! So slight nuances in timing, pitch and style can really make things sound more organic. I'm talking about really small changes because the goal isn't to sound amateurish either!

Edit - see if your libraries have round robin samples which can vary things up a bit more!