Jotie
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This is my first post so I figured to make it an introduction topic.
Messing around with the LSDJ demo for about two weeks now, paypal is failing on me, so I can't save yet.

I'm way too enthusiastic about it and share my utmost crap with all my friends.
Here it won't be any different I guess. For the moment it's all on soundcloud.
Most of it is just crazy stuff I made while testing new stuff (black keys has it's own track, tempo command has, etc)

http://soundcloud.com/jotie

I'd like as much tips, tricks, and feedback as humanly possible.
Thanks.

Maxd
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From what I can tell on your track "Raw Core," you definitely have some interesting ideas. Biggest thing to do is establish a beat that follows your pattern, and accent the most important beat. Whether it was in your drums, kick, or anything else, it was very hard to find the strong beats. Try varying your kick (C7 for beat one, C5-6 for the others), or changing up the snare downbeats.

The Ecstacy cover proves that you have a very strong working idea of how to find great sounds in LSDJ. I would love to see a full version.

"Melodrums" seems a little too meandering, it doesn't feel like it is going anywhere important.

"Speed Power Up" is very charming and reminds me a lot of the Sonic games for the Mastersystem. It's quirky and a bit interesting.

"Tjingletjangle" is a sleeping giant, as far as I have heard in your works. There is lots of potential to make a very catchy tune if you bother to restructure the form of the song a bit. The introduction stops suddenly, and the drums and bass feel muddy after about 0:50. With a bit more work it will be much better.

"Dum dum dudum" has some very interesting polyrhythmic sequences that could be sorted into something very neat. The melody coming in around 1:50 does not match the bass line at all, but this could be fixed with mere transposition of one part (melody) or the other (bass). Overall, this song is difficult to listen to because of rhythmic inconsistencies, clashing keys, and lack of structure. But like other songs with these problems, a little effort for structure will go a long way.

"Black Keys and Chinese Melodies" makes very good use of the pentatonic scale. It really clicks around 0:30. The bottom really falls out without warning around 0:50, which is a little jarring for some listeners like myself. The following drum break could use a little more envelope. I suggest having a more complex drum rhythm than what is already in the song, and using the E (envelope) command to make a crescendo in the snare to welcome back the melody.

You could do very well if you looked online a little bit about song form and general music theory. You have some very interesting pieces, and they are much better than my first ones in LSDJ. Good luck, and keep on pumping out the ideas. smile

Jotie
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Haha, thanks man, that was really helpfull.
Sadly, I made those tracks on the demoversion so I don't have any save files.

Raw Core  is me trying out several kickdrums, so it's just a c5-c6 for pulsekicks/wavekicks, and c-3 for noisekicks every four lines the whole track trough. I'm definitely going to try your idea. C7-C5-C5-C5-C7-C5-C5-C5- is it?

Melodrums is me who just found soundmatrix's trick for easy "breakslicing" and trying it out (https://8bc.org/forums/viewtopic.php?id=2276). I just gave up after I couldn't sync the melody. So yeah, no potential whatsoever.

Strange that the bass line doesn't match in Dum dum dudum, I just accidentally put the same chain in the wave screen in the beginning. I liked it. It was really silent and sounded strange because it's a pulse instrument in the wave chain. It came out as a sort of a static echo or something. That's very clear at 3:35, that's just a pulse chain in the wave screen. I must have mismatched and put in the wrong pulsechain hmm
Polyryhtmic sequences? You cut me too much slack, it's 4/4 the whole way, and it goes from 140 something to 190 something and back and forth. Polyryhtmic sequences sounds like I knew what I was doing tongue. I just love how speedcore and industrial hardcore have strong drum lines, interrupted for a sample - kick - kick - kick - kick - sample - kick - kick - kick. So I put in the kick-kick-kick-dum dum dudum-kick-kick-kick.
The clashing keys part I don't get, I made a special effort to keep all my notes in a Major chord. so it went from the notes in a C Major to the notes in a F Major, to the notes in a G Major. I don't recall and don't have the safe file, so I can't look it up; It could be full of flaws considering my 'method'. But do you suggest to sticking in one octave? Or sticking to fewer chords? Or more transitional chords and not only Majors? I don't really get what you mean by clashing keys, sorry.

Tjingeltjangel is a Dutch expression which means something like monkey with a typewriter. All the melodies are created by just hitting random keys. I plan on remaking this one, because of all the positive feedback. I really don't understand why people favourite this one it's just as much random key hitting as the other. But I have documented a little bit of what I did, so it might be possible to remake and edit the song. The lead sets out at 0:50 for a break, but it happens way too abrupt, just like in Black Keys, I really need to figure out how to make the lead 'announce' a break, or fade out. Any pointers on this are welcome.

I'm really happy that Speed Power Up reminded you of Sonic, I found a way of getting a sound that resembles Sonic breaking after a sprint. The lead is that sound in different octaves, and seldom the real sound. At 1:30-1:45 for example.

I'm really catching on with music theory (I didn't have any knowledge one month ago), I'm not stopping with learning it either. Thanks for all the feedback, my environment is too silent and can't provide me any pointers.

Jotie
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Bumping my constructive critisism thread.
A bunch of new stuff is up.

Darker stuff, more dungeon like feel, tried to push it to hardcore. Dexter / core mash, stuff like that.
Tell me what you think!

Vex
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Louisiana

My god man! You're doing this with just a demo? You Dexter Theme cover/remix is very nice. Freaking wicked. And I'm listening to your Mario had a bad shroom as I'm typing this and DAMN that's some dirty ass raw sounds you through in this mix. I LOVE IT! It's nice to see you have skills that range from dirty as hell to actually some pretty clean sounds. And I love how you mixed the two in your Dexter mix. You come across some wicked clean melody and some dirty ass kicks man very very nice. I love the part in the Dexter one that sounds like a dirty wav sweep. I picture it being the scene when he's shaving his face it fits perfect. I can't stop listening to the Dexter one...went back to it just now lol. It's a sick mix. Okay enough about Dexter. The Party's An is pretty sick too again with the nice clean melody and then kicking in with the dirty kicks around 1:09 just awesome man and then it eventually speeds up. Confused about the name personally because, for some reason, it makes me think of a group punks or something getting ready to go take down the establishment. Like a massive mob of people on a mission for freedom or something. And then theres a melody in it that kind of makes it seem like they are about to fail then it picks up again and then just cuts off. Leaves the mind to wonder what happens like a brilliant movie or book or something like Stephen Kings book The Mist, not the movie version. In the book it just ends with them driving off into the mist not knowing what's going to happen. Very creepy ending. Any way yea, you're a genius keep it up man. Be honest it's bee a really long time since I've typed up a review this long and it's usually because most music doesnt make me think and wonder lol. I usually just enjoy it for what it is obviously suppose to be. But you have a way of composing that keeps the mind wondering..atleast my mind anyway. great job man. Definitely looking forward to hearing more from you.

Jotie
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Thanks man!

Everything from Mario had a bad shroom up untill now is with the full version. I had a few Paypal problems, but I have it up and running now.

The party's an is a Russian folk song (that's so déja vu, like, Tetris ? Duh) and it's called Partisan Vom Amur. So it's just a lame joke about Partisan/ the party's on. The speeding thing is a just a fun cliché, like in the Russian history Tetris (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWTFG3J1CP8). Repeat the verse sped up, again, again, again, and again, to whisper it slowly, to sing it sped up again for a "finale" kind of thing.

I have a better version waiting to be uploaded, with just one tiny change. The wave channel alternates between 2 & 3 ENV. Sounds so much better.

Thanks for the compliments, but I have to ask your dealer's phone number. The mist? I'm a genius?

Jotie
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Bumping this, show you my progress.
In short, I could now release an album with a few dozen remixes, just like real noobies on guitar learn to play Smoke on the Water first.
Wanted to go all Scotch Egg breakcore on them but mostly I've stayed by the original vibes. Mostly 90's and Dutch happy hardcore.

http://soundcloud.com/jotie/jotie-greece-ligthning

My hardcore/breakcore vibe is on hold ATM, learning chords, build-ups, melo writing, popular drum patterns, tackling the wave channel etc etc.

Hate my old stuff, dam that's crap.
Quite possibly the way I'd think about this stuf in august big_smile