Prepare awesome song list and go play it live and make people like your stuff.

Firstly, thank you for all the responses everyone. I really appreciate it

As for the noise channel being weak as some of you pointed out, in earlier versions of this song the noise channel was stronger. Somewhere along the way I changed this for whatever reason and I see I made a huge mistake. I will fix this before it appears on any sort of album and speaking of which I have decided to (as Brother Android said) throw on some finishing touches on the old tunes and work on new stuff without trying to think of it from the perspective of making an album. Right now I'm just writing remixes and working on soundtrack stuff though.

Also the comparison to Fighter X is very welcome as he is the artist that got me into chiptune so thanks Feryl.

Not all my tunes are 4/4 dance tracks like this and I'm beginning to move further away from it this track just happened to be that way, but I may change up the mid section to break this trend.

Again, thanks everyone for helping me out, I'm open to collabs if anyone wants to.

I know 4x4 kick is a well established tradition, but changing it up a little during b sections or when repeating a familiar theme over again can be fun.

I think this is well done. To me it sounds like a very good video game tune.

Over all a pretty solid tune. It IS repetitive, but that's not always a bad thing. Most people actually like music that a bit more repetitive. And it's more appropriate for a dance track like this. But I think your song has a definite intense quality that could be improved with better timbre with the snare drums as others have already stated.

I would say to acheive this, just lower the pitch a little bit to get more of a lower "pop" sound, and split your envelope decay to get a fake echo-reverb effect for it. There's a sweet spot, so just play around with it a little.

ALSO...

Lower the volume a few points for everything except for the noise channel. Then your snares and hi hats will stand out more, and you can have some parts of the melody be notably louder than other parts. Adds a more human touch to everything.

I'm assuming this is done in LSDJ, or some Gameboy tracker, right? Yeah, sounds like it. You know, with the noise sweep effects, you could transition from a higher pitch to a lower pitch gradually and vice versa on different areas. I think that would increase the thickness and intensity of those sections.

But yeah, just having the same pitch for noise is a little dull. Mix is up with some of that 96 bit shortwave noise as well.

Other than that, I don't have anything else I can think of.

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This is a really great track.  I wish I was as musically talented as you.  Honestly, I loved everything about the track except the percussion.  If I were you, I'd redo the entire percussion and go for a less-is-more approach.  I thought the hi-hat was overdone and I also didn't like the timbre of the kick drum at all.  I didn't like the snare either; maybe it was the envelopes used which didn't have a sharp enough attack.  I really like to hear that harsh chiptune sound of a noise-based snare.  I think that harsh noise-based snare sound requires a very short attack.  Thanks for sharing and keep up the good work!

Make some remixes with savs or make a collab with somebody, it will refresh your mind

I find that it's easy to get stuck trying to polish and rework tracks and that can get really unmotivating after a while. It can also be easy to get stuck in a rut trying to make songs that mesh with other songs I've already written. It's important to me that I start new things without the strong expectation that they'll turn out a certain way. Often new stuff turns out better than I expect it to, and it's a lot more fun than circling around the same old ideas. It may help you just to put on some finishing touches, release what you have, and make a clean start. YMMV of course.

Your track seems well-done, but I don't really like dance music generally so I'm not qualified to give you much input. I hope things get better for you!

Thanks Imaginary. This is exactly what I've been dealing with and exactly what I needed to hear. I really appreciate it and would be happy to work with you on a song

Also thanks Sam, you're the best man.

I actually really needed this too

I've had to deal with anxiety and depression for the past year now and it really sucks, and having hardware and software failures has really added to that. But stepping back, trying something new, or going onto something else for a while has really helped.

As a person who's had some major ups and downs with mental health at points in my life, I feel you on anxiety issues. It's an ugly feeling when the tool that you've been using to cope becomes another source of the problem. That's when it's healthy to take a step back and just look for a while. Then it seems silly when you get the whole thing in perspective again, but when you're down in that hole it seems pretty hopeless. There have been times in my life when I've had to put people and things that I really loved out of my reach to focus on getting my shit together, and it can be painful. For me, music is a powerful cathartic outlet. When I was younger I channeled it a lot differently, because I was a different person, but I think the music I make now is the most honest art I've managed to create yet. It took me a lot of stumbling around in the dark to get here, but I think in a lot of ways you're finding your way to that truth right now. It takes a lot of guts to face up and say "Damn I really feel like my music needs to be better." and it's even harder to ask for help, but most of the time it's the way we have to do things if we actually want to grow. I had been considering posting a thread somewhat like this myself lately, not about hating my music, just a general CC request/where do I go next thread. Your post gave me a lot to think about. Thanks man. Let me know if you ever want to do a song together. Sometimes a collaboration can be just what the doctor ordered to freshen things up.

Imaginary hit all the points of what I would've said.

Your music is fucking awesome, don't give up, and keep rocking at it!

Thanks Imaginary. I appreciate the honest criticism and agree with everything you said. I'll work toward fixing these issues. As for what you said about being critical of your own work and getting burnt out. I seem to deal with this problem a lot due to my problems with anxiety and such. I was definitely in a musical rut and desperately needed to try new things. I think I'm in a better place now though and am ready to fix my issues and begin creating again.

Well, it's pretty awesome, but it seems like it doesn't really change up all that much till after the 2min mark. The noi channel generally lacks expressiveness, but that could partially be a mix thing. Maybe just a different snare/hit thing going on would do the trick. (I'm trying to step up my noi game right now too.) It's not exactly repetitive, but the passages lack definition from one another. A solid "B melody" or bridge passage would be very welcome. Your sound design is solid and the song feels whole, but maybe more instruments with more diverse table usage would bring out parts you want to highlight. For a long time in LSDJ I struggled with dynamics, and I don't have total fluency with them yet by any stretch of the imagination, but selective use of volume changes can really make a chain come alive. Play around with some odd envelopes and see what happens. (Roboctopus is the daddy of this trick imho, Jelly is available around in .sav format, check it out if you haven't yet.)

I really like your high energy/dancy style. Every time I hear it, it reminds me of the early Unicorn Kid jams. (I love that shit.) It's easy to get too critical of your own stuff and get super burnt out on music in general, so taking some time off can be the best thing sometimes. I'm totally in a rut right now as far as songwriting goes, and I really want to branch out, because I'm on a roll with tracking itself, but I just can't write a melody or catchy bass pattern to save my life. I think a lot of it is looking at previous material and seeing what you've already done, and trying not to get stuck in a rut, but not having the writing ability to express what you're looking to get across. It's a double edged sword sometimes. A fun idea would maybe be to cover a song. That's what I've been doing lately, and it's not super satisfying for scratching the "artistic need" itch, but it'll keep you busy and advancing your skills for when that genius song idea does finally hit.

Anyway, it's obvious that you've put in the time so far and you don't actually hate your music, you're just feeling unsure and anxious about where you're at. Don't be. Just keep working. You're getting there.

I recently started hating the music I was creating. I was stressing over releasing an album and got buried under unfinished save files. I set all the songs on my soundcloud private and basically just took time away from doing the chip thing.

However recently I had a good talk with some close friends and was re-motivated to start working on it again. This is one of the tracks from the album that I think is close enough to complete to show off and ask for CC on.

I'm really just looking for tips on making my music sound stronger and more appealing. What are some things that I'm doing wrong. Any criticism is welcome.

link: https://soundcloud.com/ninten-kwon-do/a … mo/s-VC82S