Song incomplete need suggestions please!!

J

Jeffrop6691

New member
I made a piano progression I really like and put a beat to it but it needs something else and is very plain. I think the track needs vocals and I think a female vocal track would be best. I have tried over and over mixing this song with different sounds and tracks but nothing sounds like it fits. Any suggestions would be appreciated and if there is a female vocalist around I would love to collaborate. I love this progression so much and I would hate for it to go to waste.

 
If you are going for a track with vocals, I would say not to add much more, it will only get in the way of the singer. Even without vocals, there's enough here to make a nice sounding track after mixing and mastering. Maybe add a little more to the piano? As in a little rhythm in the bass part, or maybe roll out the chords or something simple like that. Other than that, I think it sounds great as it is!
 
Structurer,
yea maybe it didn't sound right with anything else I was trying to mix it with because there is enough substance to stand alone. I think I'm going to find a vocalist and see if that will bring consonance to the track.
Thanks for the advice!!!
 
What I would have done:
- Replace the digital piano with a live piano performance - makes it all much more warm and engaging imo.
- Add something more than only the stabbing piano chords, play some dark notes between those stabbing chords to keep a steady line of depth in the piano melody.
- Slow down the tempo a little bit, like 4-6 BPM.
- Add a very soft and very dull and quiet pad, just to give a slight spacial lift, nothing dramatic, just letting it be far away in the background doing its job. It might not work, but then at least you tried it.
- Some kind of bass sound. Even if you don't want that much bass, it's always good to have some kind of fundamental element that pulls the beat forward.
- Add more transitions.
- Change the rythm of the pluck from the static 8-notes to <this kind of rythm that I don't know the name of> but it's like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-l5BoaT6_Q (sorry for the awkward video pic but I just grabbed the first video I could find).
- Let the pluck fade in and open up earlier so it's more expected, right now it comes out of nowhere.
- Add some slight spacial FX to the drums.

Again, this is just what I would have done, but hope it helps.
 
Hey steffeeh, I don't have the ability to use a live piano. I was using nexus grand piano preset in this but do you think Grand Giant in Kontakt would be more realistic?
Thanks for all the suggestions and now that I see them I'm thinking duhh why didn't I think of that. lol
 
piannissimo
pianoteq
any kontakt piano/garritan piano period.
cvpiano[entirely free but sounds good, was shocked]

Layering/experimenting with stuff in general can give you some unexpected results too.
ever tried bouncing your piano multiples and layering the bounces, each with slightly different effects at different volumes?
 
K, well for me it's the fact that every piano note feels like it's hitting at the same time with the same velocity. Are you quantizing piano notes directly on the beat? For me that totally kills a piano.
 
I fixed the velocity today already I was getting really lazy with the piano track I guess. Such a rookie mistake and I should known better to at least had that done before posting so everyone could hear it with that done. I was going to fix it eventually but I like to do the tedious stuff (velocities, panning, stereo imaging, eq etc.) at the end because I'm constantly changing things throughought the track while I'm working on it. I can't tell you how many hours I've spent changing velocities and note length taking off the snap in ableton to give it a more acoustic feel and then in the midst deleted half the chords and had to start over. But I agree it sounded very stiff and now sounds alot better since I've done that.
 
I like it the way it is. @steffah is right on adding more of a live piano inst. All its really missing is some sudden drops. Like after :53 secs when you had that sweep come in, i would have the kick come back in after 4 bars then let the kick hit once every bar . Have a nice growling bass rising. Using a sidechain compression on that bass. Let the beat drop on 1:18 , loop the part @ :45 secs and make sure that sidechain is still on that bass. Then the sky is the limit after that drop. you can add a lead were the drop is at and add your hook there. Just my suggestion but it does sound really good so far
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top