A good friend from my high school days has a sound cloud page that gets plenty of "likes". In thinking about why, I decided it is because he uses hip hop beats. So, my thinking was, put a beat to anything and people will like it. I was wrong ; )
My questions to you, the critic, are:
1. Should I add bass guitar?
2. Should I add some awesome rapping over top?
3. Should I hang my head and cry?
Answers to these questions, and any comments whatsoever will be generously rewarded.
Replies
Is there a beat here?
You can add some bass guitar but I suppose it shouldn't act as bass at all, just combine it with the psychodelic feel. Rapping is out of question, imo.
1) Bass guitar - yes, it is an interesting option, but leave some fragments without it (as is now; this sounds very fun and attractive);
2) Rapping - no, the piece already has enough unpredictability/playfulness/joking/disorderliness/quivering;
3) Smile rather than cry!
The absence of bass is evident, but there is a danger of aggravating the humorist feeling by it, so it should be inserted carefully. Another option for bass is the same instrument 2-3 octaves below, with slower modulations.
For a more substantial development, the piece may become a hit if you will succeed to gradually and seamlessly transform the disordered run of this quivering instrument into some organized quick polyphony of instruments with similar sounds (or maybe hoboes or flutes or both), where the listener can discern melodies. Somewhere in the middle of the piece. Even quoting some known melodies would be interesting here, e.g. a known military march in presto form. Interesting work!
What do you want the piece to be? Do you want it to groove? If so adding bass and a more consistent beat would be cool. There are some interesting sounds in there, but I think there needs to be something to break up the monotony of the "robots". Maybe a moment of a sustained pitch, or just drums, or something.
This is something I struggle with all the time, how to carrying an idea or sound throughout a piece and still make it interesting.
But cool sounds and cool ideas! Don't get discouraged, I can speak for myself and say I get discouraged all the time, but just keep working. Don't worry so much about it being liked, write and create what is true for you and what you want to hear.
What are you using for your sounds?
Thanks for the critique Becca. I answer your queries below:
What do you want the piece to be?
I simply want it to be the most amazing piece of music ever. What else? Seriously though, as is my goal most times, I wanted to create an interesting form with interesting sounds. A friend told me he felt like he was being treated for brain cancer while listening to it. I like that reaction! I definitely agree with you though, it is a bit dull in spots, adding greater variety in some way may more successfully eliminate the tumors. As far as grooving, that wasn't so much my goal. My original post was a bit sarcastic, as is the piece itself. I'm not sure it deserves me going back and fixing it, but I may, and I will definitely take your suggestions into consideration if I do.
What are you using for your sounds?
I used utter garbage for the sounds, lol. The "robots" were made by taking a cheap tape of my old band jamming and using noise reduction (an effect in the program Audacity) on it, then putting the resulting noise into counterpoint with itself. The drums are midi, smart synth sounds, the drum set written in Finale, the bongos and other percussion programmed about 15 years ago using the program Ballade.
Thanks again for your comments, much appreciated.
No 3 ( I suspect you are having a little joke with us regarding bass guitar and rapping)
Seriously though, there is an audience for this sort of thing but I'm not part of it. Do you know Robert Ashley?
The last minute or so of your piece was, for me, the most enjoyable. Probably because it was quieter.
Now, how about the generous reward you mentioned?
I love such random cocaphony
I like the robots =)
bravo