Track Snippets/Previews (Give feedback before posting yours)

[Asklepios]

EMi I don't like that intro/outro sound design, doesn't fit the whole atmosphere of the track. Melody is interesting but lead doesn't fit, maybe try to get smthg like "keltek - down to earth" for the first part, and smthg like "cats, jets & breaks" for 2nd parts.

NRx Hardstyle Intro is a bit long, but minor fixes on sound design and you will have smthg nice. Lead is too soft, maybe playing a bit with pitch lfos should do the job. Melody has really an horror game feeling, so good title

[dhamiri_k]

@NRx Hardstyle - I like the screech. The melody has some nice haunting feeling, could be nicer with the big lead underneath it. Good track!


After a loooooong time haven't posted anything on this forum, I wanted to show what I've done. In this track i've just experimenting the BPM but wanted keeping the hard. What is something I can improve? is it the composition or my sound design overall?

[xelnadu]

@NRx Hardstyle - I like the screech. The melody has some nice haunting feeling, could be nicer with the big lead underneath it. Good track!


After a loooooong time haven't posted anything on this forum, I wanted to show what I've done. In this track i've just experimenting the BPM but wanted keeping the hard. What is something I can improve? is it the composition or my sound design overall?

Wow, that is quite a nostalgia trip. That first kick (0:40) reminds me of Julian DJ & Davide Sonar Present Andromeda ‎– Sweet Lullaby (Bruno Power Rmx) ( ). Overall a really solid track, i love the vibe, and the 2nd kick kinda brings it up to nowadays hardstyle. You must have a lot of experience with hardstyle from what I can hear in the sound you designed in your track. Great job and keep making good music!

Now on topic, I am currently experimenting with hardstyle (been producing house for some time but now I'm switching to my true love for hardstyle).

Some time ago i made a melody (it's really raw as i was struggling to find a good kick rather than shape the sound of the melody):

(this is the original sound I was going for but since then, i discovered new stuff and remade the track using harder kicks)

Ver 2:


I still am new to this genre, all sorts of feedback is nice, thank you!

[Neko]

@Dhamiri_K
The reverse bass bassline lacks a bit power, maybe Eq it a bit. Also i miss variations in the kick pattern, there could be more happening you know?
That hardsound seems to be very present in the lower mids, maybe eq that one aswell as it takes up quite much room. (Although it could sound weak after that, so youll have to see)
That pluck is beautiful. Sounds a lot like the pluck in Stana - Amnesia which i absolutely love. Percussions are put in really nicely.
Just stylewise I'd stick to the oldschool feeling, the "normal" hardstyle kick doesnt seem to fit that project, atleast it sounds like that to me. Kick is nice though.
Beautiful work mate. You really worked out that early style well.

@Xelnadu
So I'd adress a few things I've noticed in the version 2 and first up I wanna adress the synth which is playing the melody. I mean we're talking about freedom of art and such, but I don't think that sound fits hardstyle. Maybe in a break or something, but not during a drop. My opinion ofc. It hasnt got much power to it and no drive, which you can easily archieve with that infamous hardstyle supersaw. I'd go that direction.
The melody itself is really something different here and I think it can work out, but it has got complicated key switches and such to it so you'll have to see. Rather do something easily correct than overload yourself with complicated melodies.
The first kick needs some work cause you only hear the punch really well, all the character which should come inbetween punches is kinda gone. Basically the kick is not really finished. Punch is great though, that can turn out pretty well.
The second kick just pitches really unclean. You can hear the character being distorted in that kind of sense by the pitch algorithm. There are a few different pitch algorithms out there with different kind of plugins or programms, be sure to try some out. That one just doesnt do the trick. Kick itself sounds better than the first one though, nice character and quite a long, but nicely distorted punch.
Also the track lacks percussions. In hardstyle you can use all kinds of stuff, but snares, crashes and rides will do it for now I think, just to fill up the space in the track and build up the drop for example.
Welcome on board mate! Nice that youve found your way into producing hardstyle! Keep it up and coming! Hope I could give you a basic idea of what things are worth working towards.

_____________________________________________________________
After a long time I finally got something new. With new kicks aswell.

embedding doesnt work for me right now here the direct link:
https://soundcloud.com/maneki_neko/holl ... -testmix-3

[NRx Hardstyle]

@Dhamiri; Really interesting concept, mixdown is a bit not quite there, the hardkick is way in the background imo, but the overall oldschool vibe is really awesome. Keep up the good work!

@Xelnadu; I do love the melo, remids me of actual classical music really awesome stuff! The kick needs a lot of work, the structure and stuff like that as well, but yea, you got a great start!

@Neko; As always awesome and still loving that break!

Next up something "euphoric"(?)

[Sashone]

@Neko That first kick is brilliant, only thing I dont like is the second anticlimax i feel that it loses its drive.
would have preferred a climax.

@NRx Hardstyle
Feel that kicks a bit dongy lacks power, leads and fx sound powerful and interesting. like the melody also.

Been working on this for over a year took inspiration from embryonic

[xelnadu]

@Neko thank you for all those helpful tips! I worked alot on that project, and remade the whole song but still it needs alot of work. I get that the melody sounds complicated, and I must admit that I didn't study chords progression, but I like to compose a melody by ear. In other words, if it sounds good and in key, i'll add more octaves to it. Sometimes I overcomplicate things for no reason.
As for the kicks, they are just not mixed in the song. I quickly just used some personal kicks i used in other songs, without really eq-ing them. I am still trying to figure out the best way to pitch kicks up and down so i split the tok and the tail, but i left the volume too low for the tail on the first kick, and it sounds unfinished.
I followed your advice and started adding percussion to my songs, but still I have alot to work on mixing them over the kicks.
Thank you again for the very long and in-depth analysis of my sample track. Your feedback really helps me, because I know on what to focus from now on. I may have to keep it simple at first and move to more complex stuff after I've acknowledged every little detail on mixing hardstyle sounds together.

Your Remix/Edit of Spell, well i have nothing to add. It sounds clear, all the sounds inside it are eq-ed nicely, the melody fits in perfect and the kick just blows stuff away (in the best way). Screeches are good (i have no idea how to make that sound, been trying for months now but to no avail), and the vocal is clear and fits perfectly into the mix.
One thing i would add, the second kick is very different from the first one. I may have bad speakers, but I feel like the punch lingers too much, making it overall muddier (compared to the first kick).

@NRx Hardstyle thank you for the feedback! I'm glad that you find the melody interesting. Still a lot of work to be done on it, sadly I will drop the "odd" time signature and convert it to regular 4/4.
LE: couldn't play your song from the embedded soundcloud but i heard it on your soundcloud page. I like the melody, although i'm more of a mid to high octave listener. Don't get me wrong, it sounds great, just not my personal taste (guess i don't like euphoric too much). The kick is nice, and i like the tok alot, the tail pitches nicely up and down, kudos to the sound design.

@Sashone very agressive Kick, i love it! Overall the song lacks elements, i feel like it needs more stuff, because at the moment it sounds empty. Maybe that was the whole idea, I don't know, but the kick sounds great.

Meanwhile, I am making all sorts of trial an error samples to try and get a clear sound. I managed to create a basic hardstyle lead and I layered 3 personal kicks and 1 tok from a 4th kick, eq-ed them and compressed everything together. Here is the result:



Note: The kick pitching is driving me nuts, i tried 3 or 4 different timing settings, and I chose the best sounding one, but still, as you can hear in the sample, the pitching sounds great on first key and like horseshit on second key. I used a technique i found on this forum, using note sliding in FL Studio and multiplying the tail a bit after pitching it up on the piano roll.

Hope you guys give it a shot! anything related to kick pitching is really apreciated, this thing is starting to drive me crazy lately.

[EMi]

@xelnadu have you tried pitching it with Edison? Its really simple and give a good result! also try to change a bit the melody, it becomes repetitive after all that time
@neko the first kick is even better than the master and build up of the track! you did an awersome job! but i also think that you should add a climax after that, would be such a great track!

[The RaveN]

Those vocals are out of tune.

[paahhh]

@xelnadu Loving the melody on that one man! I'm still pitching in Cool Edit Pro (Old School, I know..) But keep messing around with different methods of pitching. You'll find one that you like, but in my opinion i think it sounds fine.

I haven't produced hardstyle in a looooong time. Here's a rawstyle track I'm working on right now. Mix is a pretty terrible, ears still getting used to this. But please tell me what you think. Vocals, kick, lead all made by me.