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Old 12-01-2007, 06:21 AM
King of Snake
smoking on the airplane
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: The Netherlands
Posts: 1,882
Re: Dirty producers: Song/remix compilation
ok here's my track by track review, I've tried giving some constructive criticism as well

A Gator Got Her - Involuntary Dub
great title and this track has some nice dubby and atmospheric sounds. The production still needs work though, cause some sounds seem to be a bit hard to make out. Still, I know from experience that learning that kind of stuff takes years of practice and afaik you haven't been doing music that long. You're definitely on the right track with the ingredients, and I'm confident that if you stick to it, the technical side will follow.

Avid - Sidewalk Drama's
this opens with a cool, New Order-like groove with guitars, synths and drummachine.
I like the movement to a more intense and dark groove halfway trough the song and then back again. The instrumental outtro is well done as well. I had a hard time listening past the bad recording quality of the vocals though. Not sure what happened there. Your voice itself sounds good enough, but it sounds like it was recorded with a dictaphone or something. The whole track seems to have been recorded too loud as well, looks like it's clipping all over the place and it really messes up the sound. What's you recording setup? Are you checking your input levels when recording?

Cranks - A Whisper, A Glance
a slightly weird old-school and slowed down house beat leads the way into some beautiful melancholic melodies. Starting the hypnosis by repetition thing on me. This is pretty good stuff. Personally I'd try and update the drumsamples next time unless you really want to make it sound like 1991

Dr Processor - The Dumbest Thing I Heard a Smart Girl Say
you could say I'm a fan of Marshall Watso... *ahum* Dr Processor's work for some time now. Continuing his trademark drugged out ambient IDM-ish sound this track doesn't dissapoint.

Grandbrother - Midnight Dub feat. Janie H
this is my favourite track so far. I commented on it already earlier in the thread, saying that imo Sean had really nailed the Kruder & Dorfmeister sound on this one, and I can only repeat that sentiment here. A lovely chugging triphop beat, trademark electric piano, janie's minimalist vocal echoing in the background and the attention to detail in the production make for a nice journey into trippyness.

LX Nen - D G L
moving into Plaid-like territory here. There's fairytale synths combined with rigid drums. I really really like the synth ambience on this track, and good use of reverb and delays creating that floaty vibe. I personally thought the main drum was a bit too rigid and hammering for it's own good esp since the rest of the track sounds so organic, but there's plenty of cool sounds to make this track stand out anyway.

Maus - Island Hopping
the first thing that pops into your head when the first synth melody starts is "ORBITAL". Yes it definitely does sound very much like them, although the breakbeat is probably more heavy and pronounced than on actual Orbital tracks. I like it though Another winner!

Sputnikk - Firefly
well obviously I won't comment on my own track, other than to say I'm pretty happy with it myself.

tHe niGHt oWl - Weekend Cute
yeah this is very short but also very sweet. Not sure why you made it so short, for me you could have easily kept looping the whole thing for a while without me noticing

The Tin Foil Hats - Dreamgirl, I'm Desperate For You
The range of styles on this compilation is great. Here we have a classic electro sound, with robot beats, robot basslines and a robot voice. Dust off your 808's and vocoders! I guess it's a sound that doesn't really get old and it's good to actually have someone use the theme for the comp and make a vocal out of it. Indeed a good way to end to compilation.
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Last edited by King of Snake; 12-01-2007 at 06:25 AM.