30min piece composed predominantly with MOOG gear

[namahshaman]

I spent months composing, recording, editing, and mixing this piece, and I'm still not sure how I feel about it, haha.

Probably 90% of the sounds were created with Moog gear, between: Voyager, Phatty, Minitaur, MF105, MF107, MF104, and Animoog. All e-drum samples were made with the Voyager (including bells and thunderous crashes). Outside of that I only used the Mellotron choir sample and a few taiko and gong samples.

This is by-far my largest music project to date. Please share any feedback you have…particularly in the mixing/mastering department since I am a total amateur, haha.

Thanks for making this forum one of the best, everyone, and have a prosperous Moogy New Year.

https://soundcloud.com/namahshaman/machinelves

[Wesley]

I listened to several parts, but not the whole composition. There is a similarity here to some of my work. I like it. I have some works that took two years to complete, and also wondered if it was worth it. Answer: yes, because of the experience gained.

I have some stuff on Soundcloud too, under user wes1800. I would appreciate if you were to check that out.

Happy New Year!

Wes

[namahshaman]

Thanks, Wesley.

I certainly learned a lot in the process.

I'll be sure to check out your soundcloud page.

[till]

I like it.
Well done!

[Vsyevolod]

Well I just finished listening to the entire piece straight through.

Firstly, this is a very nice sonic journey. The recording and mixing sounds very well done indeed. Two years is a very long time to work on one single piece and it can be frustrating to hear honest feedback because of the amount of investment you have put into it so far. I know I've pissed off at least one other person on this list who asked for feedback and actually received it from me...

That being said, my main criticism is about how sections are tied together, how sections are developed, and why the piece is 30 minutes as opposed to several shorter pieces. Let me break that down for you...

When one section is ending and another one starting up, I don't hear a strong thread tying them together. It tends to sound just like one section ending and another one starting up. These moments are extremely critical (and are the proof in the pudding for all composers from time immemorial). If you listen to a Brahms symphony and pay careful attention to transitions from one theme to another, you'll hear what I'm talking about.

I hear various sections comprised of underlying rhythms, background sounds, and melodies floating over the top. These melodies seem to be simple 'jams' over the background, yet don't seem to make any definitive statements. Perhaps if you put more thought into what exactly you are trying to say with a 'section' or a melodic phrase, this would make each section stronger.

Perhaps you could outline your thoughts on why this piece is the length that it is. What exactly are you trying to communicate with each section? Why not just have several shorter pieces? What does 'the whole' want to tell us that shorter pieces couldn't? Answer these questions and we can give you further advice.

My electronic composition teacher in college used to tell us that there are three main areas that will make or break a composition, the beginning, the end, and all transitions. Make these strong and definite and the rest of the piece will make more sense to the listener.

Stephen




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[EricK]

Sometimes I listen to pieces like this in a dark room and I let the music guide the visuals. For this piece I turned the music off on Half-life 2 and I just played using it as a soundtrack and it fit perfectly. In this context, the transitions were unnoticeable.

The audio quality was great and the music was tasteful.

Very good work!

Eric

[namahshaman]

Thank you both for the constructive criticism and positive feedback.

First off, Stephen, this did NOT take me two years, haha, only three long months. (I think you may have confused info from Wesley's comment with my post). I agree with you that most of the parts could be separated as individual tracks, and in the first few edits it was actually broken up as 7 separate tracks, even though I wrote it all together in one Ableton project. I eventually decided to go back to one long track because I didn't like how different formats placed varying gaps between tracks. The intention was for the parts to flow into each other, even when they end abruptly. The piece itself was inspired by a mystical experience I had on psilocybin, in which the symbol of the Ouroboros (snake eating its tail) played a heavy role. In fact, if the track is put on repeat, it reveals its circular nature, without beginning or end…like Finnegan's Wake, haha. I totally agree with you about beginnings, endings, and transitions. I enjoy experimenting, but the truth is, I'm no "musician." My education is in Creative Writing, so I sorta view all mediums as varied vehicles for story telling. I've written quite a bit more structured material, but this particular project just took me somewhere else, and I allowed it, haha.

Eric, I often take the same approach when listening to music, haha. I'm glad you enjoyed it. Try putting the track on repeat (without a gap) and you may notice that you get lost in the endless circularity.