LET’S CRITIQUE THIS PRODUCTION | Intros, Low Mids, Chords!! | Episode One
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- Опубліковано 25 тра 2021
- Is your intro hooking us in? Are your chords artfully creating and releasing tension? Is every frequency range moving and grooving as much as possible?
Join Gregory Scott, Kush Audio’s plugin and gear designer, as he puts a viewer’s production in the hotseat and dares you to get beyond drum buss compression and vocal eq, and get to what actually matters. All this, plus some random falsetto humming, if you dare!
Want to support the channel? Check out all things Kush at thehouseofkush.com
Thank you very much for this great feedback on my track! The information about the lows is invaluable and I really appreciate it. I'll also definitely take the information about the 1 into consideration because you're correct, I did assume that everyone would be following the bass progression rather than the melody..
Regarding the mood, this particular track was somewhat inspired by the vaporwave aesthetic which is sort of nostalgic and happy/sad, with a lethargic feel almost like music that would've been playing over the intercom in an 80s mall. That's probably not many people's cup of tea but that was the feel I was kind of aiming for in this particular tune. Regardless, I think your input here was still very useful for me.
Thank you again for the feedback, I actually work in music production (I'm kind of a newbie to the scene), and I feel honored that you decided to critique it. I will definitely be employing your advice in the future!
(also, I noticed several people commenting about loops - for what it's worth the guitar and bass were not loops, those were played live)
Brandon!! Thanks for the gracious reply, i was a bit worried that my main message - that this production is extremely well done - got lost in the noise of my notes.
Knowing that your musical intention was to go for what I think of as a Muzak vibe definitely clarifies things, in which case just think of my thoughts on the harmonic structure as ‘possibly interesting food for thought’. 🍔🤔
And for what it’s worth, the guitars were probably my favorite part of the production, I think they really brought an organic and sparkling quality to the looped feel. Keep at it man, you’re doing awesome work!
Cool track! For the record, I had no problem feeling the 1
I like it. Good stuff. Keep it up!
no issues feeling the one and where the beat would come in ☺️ I actually found it super predictable. Remember "Beautiful" by Pharrell and Snoop? not a single moment where the bass actually sits on the 1... brilliant masterpiece
This felt natural and "predictable". I heard all the music (all the elements) and they gave me the pulse. Basic. We can all get confused from time to time though ;) ... caught of guard and all that. But don't dumb down your music by "holding the listeners hand" and give them a count off or "where one is" before the music starts.... geez..! If somebody gets caught by surprise then that person should consider her self to be in luck if anything ;)
Man.. I will never be able to articulate how much I appreciate this channel.
You just did, and I appreciate your appreciation every bit as much!!
Same here man ❤
This is high-quality feedback.
You can say that again.
YES!!!!!!
Definitely!
@@tomasoyarzunarenas This is high-quality feedback.
@@michaeldunn5695 Well played my friend, well played.
Me before watching this: PICKMEPICKMEPICKME
me after watching this: Holy shit this is flawless and he's finding problems DONT PICK ME
😂
That's what I love. While I thought the song was good, the lack of tension and release made it feel like background music. That's okay if that's what you're looking for, but I feel it's important to know how to make attention grabbing music.
@@TheHouseofKushTV This is Nice. Thanks!!
@@nakazul1 If you want to learn I hope you don't think you have to wait until your song gets picked. You should be able to find stuff that applies to your music from any of these videos. :)
I would much rather have this kind of feedback than feedback like "sounds really good, great job!" While that can help stroke your ego and get your mind in a good spot, I would much rather have a critique about how to change/fix something. Even if it's a production type tip that I don't agree with at all, it still gets me thinking more about the next time that I get into a similar situation.
this guy is a mix god, a pedagogical master and a really handsome man
I like the fact that when the drums come in you learn that what you thought was the one isn't the one. I love those kinds of intros. They make it so much more satisfying when the beat comes in.
exactly
the way you articulated and provided an example of how the lower mids were not moving; this was extremely helpful. thank you sir
The process of watching this, allows for you to live virually in the hot seat. I found myself thinking about my mixes in a different light.
I respectfully disagree about the "the listener must know where the one is" comment... its what makes intros fun! Sting is a master of this (listen to Ghost Story, you won't know where the one is for 2 minutes). Catching the listener off guard rhythmically is a great trick.
It can work, as anything can in music... to taste. It can also not work. I’ve had my share of mixes get off track due to a tune having a tricky Intro to line up... not fun.
your abstracting. ghost story is a very slow ballad while this is a disco/80's style dance track and defining the one is far far more important if your intention is to keep people moving on the dance floor!
@@mollyoko good point!
@@mollyoko I see what you are saying and I completely agree it that was the artists intention. Certainly the track has the rhythmic element and production that would work for dancing, but 80’s disco typically has far more dramatic chord progressions and I think the track could also be “vibey” sort of mood. I don’t think it’s necessarily bad to blend 80’s dance with vibey (or static chord progressions) but i do think the track needs more life somewhere, whether it be chords, production, melodic ideas, timbre, rhythm, etc. the problem with being too specific with genre is sometimes we can limit artists, and I’m not sure what their intention was here honestly. I think they could commit more in one direction or the other.
I’m just over here confused because I called the drums coming in perfectly and was jamming then I was confused by his confusion.
I think people who are commenting "I didn't miss the one!" may have not missed the one, but sure missed the point. :D Just because you heard the one doesn't make the tips related to that any less valid. These are general tips that you should apply broadly, the example tune is just a vehicle for them.
“The magic is in the One”- James Brown, Bootsy Collins etc
Prince was a master of it, too.
Big fan of Kush and this channel. I disagree with the confusion with the intro being a problem. Always enjoyed the surprise and did it on purpose a few times. I call it the "You Really Got Me" effect.
This video kicks a serious weight of arse. There's a load of folks who do sound engineering stuff and another load of folks that do music stuff but not that many that do both at the same time, not as well as this anyway. Any number of these will suit me just fine. And props to Brandon for having the bottle to put his tune up for this, the song is good, man, rock on :)
So what exactly you mean by your comment?
@@DrSamE they loved the vid because its hard to find someone whos really good at the musical and technical part of production and hopes for more of these videos
Among all the production and composing channels I follow, you are the first one to bring up emotional clarity as the most important thing to think about while creating music.
Really? That's... surprising, and very disconcerting!
@@TheHouseofKushTV It is very disconcerting. Everybody talk about melody, harmony, mixing, mastering... And while these thing are important, obviously, they come second to, or at least share the spot with emotional content. Please give us (me) more of that talk about emotions. I will appreciate it. Thank you for great work.
The best 18 seconds of my life were the first 18 seconds of this video. edit to add: holy crap your Rhodes sounded beautiful.
Thanks 😊 I'm a sucker for the real thing, mostly because I have yet to hear a single sampled or VI rhodes that evokes the same level of grit-with-sparkle vibe. Scarbee comes close, everything else falls away quickly for me, and I'm fairly certain I've heard every single option out there.
@@TheHouseofKushTV You're not wrong man, seriously love the sound of the real thing, one of the only instruments i will never try to replicate via software.
I personally really enjoy when a song makes me incorrectly hear the 1 in a "beatless" intro. It feels more satisfying when it clicks, as opposed to the obvious approach I've heard a million times.
That's just my personal preference though.
Totally agree on that Sergio
yeah agree
Me too!
I used to produce trancy house music in the early nineties and i tried to find new ways to trick the listener into falsely believing where the one dropped. I loved that moment of confusion.
I agree with this take but I think what kush was implying was that it wasn’t executed in the most effective way as it felt unnatural attempting to keep time based on the initial melody so while the beat change made sense and works retroactively upon first listening the melody might gives one the wrong impression
Really can't be overstated enough that Gregory is sharing knowledge most people have to work in a studio making coffee runs for years to obtain before they even sit at a board (read any TapeOp interview haha). This is top shelf, my fave audio channel by far!
"Sometimes stuff matters." 😂😂😂👌
I almost edited that out, I was clearly stammering, but... it cracked me up, so it stayed! 😛
@@TheHouseofKushTV It was great 😂 and the video was fantastic, as always!
You very effectively cover a subject that sooo many new song writers and performers miss as a VERY important part of a song. Producers and engineers are constantly looking for an answer to: what is the emotion the artist is trying to elicit.
I've dealt with several production folks over the years and the one repeating point of interest is...are they able to understand the emotion of the song. It guides pretty much every aspect of production from the time a scratch track of the song idea is sent in, to the final mastered product. If someone is doing everything themselves, they need to ask the same questions.
I think the rhythmic confusion was of purpose and the whole point of the intro. It was my favorite composition choice!
You can think that, but according to the composer's own reply to this episode, you'd be incorrect. But that doesn't mean you're wrong for enjoying the music exactly the way it is! 🕺🏻
@@TheHouseofKushTV I see. Thanks so much for all you do!
Brandon's song: I totally felt ONE where it was supposed to be. But I also like songs that don't clarify the ONE in an intro so I sometimes feel taken off-guard when it turns (though it's usually an intentional artistic statement and not an accident) - though this one didn't do that to me. The rest of this, I agree with completely.
I like that, as well, but I did not feel where the one was. The funny thing to me was that I just recently watched a vid on another channel that showcased songs that use this exact technique to give the song more interest.
I felt the one as well. It was pretty obvious to me, actually. The pad as the first chord gives the listener the cue. Sometimes even with an element on the one, we are just tuned into something else. It happens to me over and over again with the most obvious songs so I don’t think it’s about an element being on the one of not.
@@Avant5 I also feel the One where it is. But Gregory right, maybe when you listen on Systems that not clarify the Bass enough it could help. What you say Gregory?
Same here. I wonder if those of us (like me) who have spent time with four-on-floor dance music are more at ease finding the one beat like this one. This vibe is super common in certain electronic genres.
I like being surprised by music. Is that so wrong?
I’d gladly pay for feedback like this
I don't think Gregory is saying that things he is pointing out are right or wrong. They are merely for consideration. Just be thankful that you are dealing with an incredibly talented person with a great deal of experience who does not beat around the bush and is not afraid to call it like he sees it. It is not necessarily right or wrong, but merely one perspective. The EQ part made perfect sense and would be something that would not be too difficult to adapt to this song for very positive change. I would give what you submitted a 95% rating. If you gave this song to 10 different producers, you would get 10 different responses for your consideration. With exception of the EQ tip, I found your work exceptional...
I had a professor critique a piece of mine. He said that it was rich, colorful, and vibrant like an oriental rug but, like an oriental rug, it just laid there.
A nice tip for electronic music is instead of the same old “just mute the beat” intro a decent alternative is copy pasta the bridge as the intro and change it up a bit. Then the next time you’ll write an intro with the bridge in mind instead of 8 bars of waiting till the beat comes in. That always works because when the bridge comes in the listener is like “hey I heard this before” and when the final part of the song kicks in it feels as if something is coming to a conclusion.
Hell yes, that's a classic structural device from songs as far back as the 40's and the jazz standards. Clever people figured most of this shit out decades ago, I love harnessing the genius of all the styles out there!
I literally just did this on a song I'm writing... except it's kind of a folk/country song.
@@half-arsedmusic Yeah I don’t know why I said “electronic music” because it works in almost every style.
To be honest, if you want your song to be even more memorable, the intro shouldn’t reference the bridge, but the chorus instead. So when the chorus kicks in the person will be like “I’ve heard this before”. The chorus is what sells a song, not the bridge, so I do that a lot. Even if it’s a simple element or melody from the chorus
@@iamdannywyatt sure, but you don't want to do the same thing every time. Unless you do want to.
Great vid, great advice. At 7:56 The fact that you recognize it's a finished production and you give advice on future productions is a pro move. Nothing worse than showing someone a finished product and they start suggesting you go back and change everything...
It hurts to be a silent lover of this channel but words won’t do justice.
That intro....SOLID GOLD.....The info? PLATINUM!
I love when songs leave me guessing about the rhythm. My Girl is my favourite example, where Jamerson's bassline is joined by the guitar, throwing out where you thought the one was, and it sounds like he changes rhythm and emphasis in his bassline but he actually doesn't change at all.
I don't know, dude. I think a good game of _guess the one_ can really make an intro more engaging on first listen. Think Baba O'Riley. That intro gets me every time.
Oh, yeah, it absolutely can! You're talking to a guy who learned to drum by playing along with songs like Spirit of Radio and Black Dog, I totally dig metric madness of all sorts! I just didn't get any sense that this was in any way the artist's intended effect, because the one *was* introduced as expected, but the arrangement and mix made confusion distinctly possible. Given that, my gut told me to clear that up so as to not lose anyone in what would not be 'surprise' so much as 'unpleasant disorientation'. Judging by the comments I could've done a much better job at clarifying that, but... I vamp these at 3am, so we get what we get 😛
Cock The Hammer by Cypress Hill is the ultimate for this. I always hear the first bass note as the 'one' even though it's a pick up, then get competely weirded out when the drums come in (also on an off). Though _sometimes_ I manage to stick with the completely weird groove that is the result.....
I LOVE this effect. It's really surprising and makes you pay attention, and then you get used to the groove, and if it happens again later in the track (e.g. after a breakdown), you can expect it, and it feel great.
This was my first thought upon hearing Greg's critique "uhh, some of my favorite music makes me cock my head and ask 'whoa, what's that?'" However, if that's not an *intended* effect supported by what comes later in the song, then maybe it's worth taking a second look at
every damn time!
0:19
"Oooooooooooh
Baby baby I tried
Baby baby I died
Making loooooooooooove
To yooooou."
Mr Scott, its the kindness that keeps me coming back , I write the greatest music known to man thus far , and your channel has opened the door to actually making it " sound" better!
This feedback really helped me understand some aspects I wouldn't have been able to put my finger on, on my own. Another example of why *House of Kush* is an essential UA-cam channel for recording musicians. When Gregory first stopped playback, I was baffled, thinking to myself "here's a great sounding track - what could he possibly be ragging on?"
Oh, I can *always* find stuff to gripe about! 🙀
And we can disagree too. I actually love when a track fucks with my perception of the 1, but I do agree that sometimes, I like a musical Easter egg (like said chime) to establish the 1 without making it too obvious.
LET'S GO! I look forward to After Hours all the time.
All the channels just go on tweaking the knobs... But we often forget that music has also a philosophical point of view.. that I get to learn here.. kudos to Mr Scott.
11:35 advice was gold!
I love the disagreements in the comments. Just shows you there is no right or wrong way to make music, just kinda suggestions.
Holy shit Kush, that kicked ass and I'm glad I didn't send my sh%t to you. I reinterpreted your closing statement at no charge. 'I really really enjoyed this, thanks for the 1,500 submissions... right now I'm good, but I might need more because I'm really skilled at this and actually I was born for this, true story, no joke.'
For real, I submitted mine via link, email, wav, etc and now I'm like GOOD LORD DONT LISTEN TO IT
@@MrSkylightOffical Why not? The point is to get feedback and learn from it. Everyone that sent a song in should be hoping like crazy to get their song picked. This is a great chance of getting very valuable and honest feedback :)
@@MikeRendar84 yeah, I agree. My comment is mostly comical tongue-in-cheek and I'm sure if he did pick mine he would find a good balance of positive and negative things to say about it.
@@MrSkylightOffical Aah i see :) Best of luck to you, mate! Keep it up!
House of Kush does it again. This is priceless advice.
Thank you Jesus 🙏, very helpful for all of us....👏👏🙌
Yet again, another great video reminding me how much all these flashy visual plugin gizmo's have killed my perspective on what actually makes my tracks sound great. Just went back to a track I "overproduced" , shortened all the Bass MIDI and magically Made My Track Great Again. Thank's Mix Jesus
David Attenborough of Audio Engineering 👁👄👁
I LOVE being caught off guard. ♥️ Super clever.
Excellent, to the point, and no extra fuzz. Also
Respect to the artist for putting himself out there.
Yup, dipping the EQ right there made it move better, even on my crap desktop speakers.
Yep. Even on my laptop speakers it was night and day better. Crazy how these things work sometimes.
if you ever wanna hear the most intense "i can't feel the downbeat even if i tried" track, check out "Yoshimitsu vs SANODG" from the tekken tag tournament soundtrack. the entire foundation of the track is built around these super beefy synth chords happening on the *last* offbeat of the bar. it has a crazy swagger about it and imo the accented offbeats is groovy as hell but i'll never hear it the way i'm supposed to. the dude is a seriously accomplished musician and producer so i'm sure he was entirely aware of what he was doing.
Mr Scott, methinks you’ve created a monster. 🤟😁👍
10:38 absolutely amazed me
this information has already changed how I would approach even the song I submitted myself! the concept of soloing frequency ranges in a multiband and making sure they're moving on their own is HUGE. thanks again for the great content, looking forward to the future episodes of this series! this channel's gonna explode
Dude is blessed to get this feedback. Best new series
YOU ARE A LEGEND. I LOVE YOU AND I THANKKKKKK YOU FOR WHAT YOU DO!!!!
I am personally not a great lover of these deep cut dance tracks - but 100% correct as usual - imagine that track playing on the dance floor with huge subwoofers - it would accentuate those small imperfections in the mix - and that is why , although it's not my genre of taste - I fully appreciate and respect the guys that know how to compose this stuff - it ain't as easy as people think.
That's great feedback. Digging the channel! Brandon is a lucky man, nothing more valuable than high quality feedback.
I could watch Gregory's videos like this for literally hours.... keep 'em coming chief!
kush after hours notifications are always great!
Hey Greg, you should do more of these critiques. You could do 1 hr episodes where you analyze 5 tunes or so. They're really helpful, even if not everyone agrees with ALL of your opinions. The things you bring up in this will always be worthy of paying attention to and taking into consideration, as there are things that even the best of us overlook with the vast amount of variables involved in writing/producing/editing/mixing our own music.
Hope your back is on the mend. All the best.
With band pass filtering and quieter drums, there are contemporary spaces for this track. Nostalgiacore, dreamcore, weirdcore- these kids come up with all kinds of niche “aesthetics”. Hell, I bet vaporwave’s still got fans. Might be worth considering what your peers are doing come mix time
Shit, that's AWESOME feedback, if I could append it to this episode I would!
Oh man is every style literally a 'genre' nowadays
I think that's been true since around 1997 😛
@@TheHouseofKushTV true true although before my time, when "alternative" or "dance" was about as far as you had to go., its worse in 'dance' especially now i think probably to do with spotify playlisting and subreddits. We used to have techno, house,trance, ambient and that but not too many and 'EDM' makes no sense because of all the other genres that are 'electronic' and 'dance' and 'music'
i like the tension in the song set up by the ambiguity ... rather than ‘tension and release’
i felt that too. infinite tension adds a lot of hype to a piece of music. but it can also reduce its longlivety imo
The movement-per-frequency-band tip is gold.
DUDE YES NEW VIDEO
You’re my teacher, please accept my greetings ❤️ love you loads Gregory ⚡️
This was outstanding. We need more videos like this it’s dope
Movement in the low mids...Brilliant
I think Gregory is right to raise the question of the One, the answer is of course subjective. There are some classic records that trick you on the One....I really like it when that happens....maddening if you are DJing and don't know your records properly! but it definitely wakes you up as a listener, so it's a good thing, as long as you are in control; and you want that to happen. Great work though man, good luck with your projects
Very helpful and educational.
Finally 🔥🔥🔥
I've been watching your vids for months and never commented (sorry) but I had to say this video is SUCH TOP QUALITY CONTENT!! ive seen TONS of feedback/tutorial videos on youtube, and yours are always the best, but this might be the best feedback video ive ever seen. Literally cant wait for episode 2 already!!!
The fact you are willing to listen to these submissions and give your professional advise is so awesome! We truly can’t thank you enough for doing all you do!
we don't get this kind of advice very often. i'm really enjoying this.
Gregory Wan Kenobi heavily appreciates your musicality and mixing knowledge.
With all the love and respect, I knew immediately where "one" was, and I gotta tell you... I love it when I don't! Like the first time I heard Korn's twisted transistor - I was listening very quietly and did not HEAR the "one" in the opening riff, so the first note I heard was "2-and" (and I thought it was the "one"), and the drums then killed me :-D when I was not expecting :-)
jaw dropped the 11:13 strategy
Great breakdown/feedback. I love your videos bro!
The only thing that I didn't expect was your "problem" with the one. It was perfectly clear to me where the one was though.
Same
I didn't get the comment on the "one" either. And I don't understand that even if the one would be disguised, why that is a problem. It's a concept called "rhythmic illusion". Typical stuff in rock and jazz.
I also agree - the one was obvious to me from the first time you played the track. But hey, we all hear music differently - thank buddha :-) Keep on keeping on, y'all . Pax.
Me too. I can definitely see making it MORE obvious where the 1 is supposed to be though.
I don't know. The first time I heard this I wasn't sure where one was either. Wasn't sure what the pulse was.
Great video, this is the kind of music production knowledge I need and want to learn, thanks for this
Glad you enjoyed it!
The goat speaks
People dont understand how legend this guy is... I been mix and produce for 12 years i discover kush plugins 3 years ago. Every plugin i got blown my head coz those plugins are just making what u tryna do in seconds. Even sometimes fuckin putting ar-1 on mixbus default preset changes everything. U r such a legend thank you for bringing incredible professionality to our mixes
Hope this becomes a regular series. Great video and advice.
That's the plan!
As James Brown said, "You gotta give me the one!"
"But Mr. Brown, what about metric ambiguity!?"
"Get this asshole out of my sight."
🕺🏻
Yet another gem (or 10m dropped. This. Channel. Is. Just. Insanely. Good.
Man is so chill and informative. Love watching your videos. Blessings from Nigeria
I actually like this a lot - to be sure, I agree that the pads are a bit static, and don't do anything to drive the harmonic motion forward at all, but it reminds me a bit of Stardust's "Music Sounds Better With You", and it has a certain feel to it. I also like the kinda drone returning to the F bass all the time, it leaves a sense of unresolvedness. I do like what Gregory does with the EQing, it does clean it up a lot. And it's always great to hear a critique that differs from your own view - I always love some food for thought. Great track, Brandon!
Though there is a point in a "static composition" that doesn't necessarily go anywhere, Music Sounds Better With You has a memorable melody that is full of emotion with the way the vocals are delivered and what the lyrics are saying.
So yes, you can do it, but unless you want to create pure background music (which can be fine), you still need _some_ motion or some hook to latch on to.
About the first issue you had with the beginning of the song, this is probably the first time I disagree with you. To me it was totally clear where the 1 sat and the arpeggios didn’t confuse me it all, it all made perfect sense to me even when I played it back and payed attention to what confused you. I had simular confusion to what you have with other songs, I know the idea of being thrown off but in this song it all flowed well in my opinion and the drumloop started exactly where I expected it would. So I think the perception of it ‘making sense’ really differs from person to person. Other than that, Kushy kudos for all the great videos you make! 🙌
Absolutely, no arguments with any of that! When I call something out, it isn't to say "this absolutely doesn't work" or "no one will like this", I just notice things where I can sense some percentage of new listeners will 'peel away' because something broke the spell. And even that isn't necessarily a reason to change it, everyone's got their own priorities and sacred cows! 🐄
@@TheHouseofKushTV And I totally agree with what you are saying here too! 💚 What might helped for me was that it sounded super familiar, not like simular to a specific song but am very familiar with this type of music so maybe that helped subconsiously. But I’m definitely familiar with being thrown off about where the 1 sits in some songs. And that’s why feedback really helps, if more people experience the bit of confusion then it’s probably a good idea to at least consider it.
Just to add on this, sometimes I like the subversive down beat. Thinking I know what's happening then having things getting turned on their head is neat
@@PainFullyUNcool14 Yup I love a song that can bring me somewhere unexpected. And this wasn't the case for me either haha
@@TheHouseofKushTV This is an example of something that always confused me, and although I’ve heard it a million times it still manages to throw me off lol. ua-cam.com/video/i9ZykEJuFrI/v-deo.html But in this one I feel iit’s probably done on purpose and therefore doesn’t break to spell imo. Always wondered if it’s just me or something others experience as well. So I totally get what you were saying. And it’s funny how much people’s opinions differ in the comments, it’s very interesting to see. So although the song you’re reviewing did not throw me off I totally get what you’re saying. And just maybe having a simple fx sound with for instance a delay on it- only at the very beginning of the intro just playing once would already give you more of a clear sense of where the 1 sits. I love your videos/seen a lot of them...always inspirational and super interesting angles!
ANOTHER THING TO POINT OUT!!!! apart from not defining the ONE, some songs start with a different chord other than the root which builds a different perspective and then when the main melody kicks in, it becomes a different story then. i feel that thing little wiered. sometimes though the root note becomes evident after a measure depending on the instrumentation but the other times its when the theme kicks in thats when as a listener the audio story becomes clear
Yes we have been waiting for this! Looking forward to more of this !
I don’t mind the downbeat being revealed after the intro.
Me neither! That said, I do mind getting confused _before_ the big reveal, and in this case it didn't seem like a deliberate artistic choice to make things ambiguous, hence my suggestion to define the 1. But you're right, surprise is a lovely device, and I do wish I'd offered the alternative suggestion to make the ambiguity stronger so we get a true 'wow!' moment. 💪🏼
@@TheHouseofKushTV This intentional uncertainty about "where's the thesis/downbeat?" happens in a characteristic variety of Brazilian music, "Sina" by Djavan being an example that rendered a paper by a professor of mine about the topic. But you're right, not sounding intentional leads to sound confusing, and this is always a good point to review =)
@@TheHouseofKushTV Agreed for sure. If anything I felt like they should have gone stronger into the ambiguity
I actually like songs with an ambiguous 1 in the intro, such as Radiohead's Let Down
If someone submitted a song like Let Down for feedback, the episode would simply be me saying "Please teach me how you did this?" followed by the end credits 😛
@@TheHouseofKushTV haha!
"The longer the note, the more dread"
- Mix Jesus, 2021
This song is actually growing on me now lol it's a cool summer vibe
One of my heroes in the business of the elusive downbeat is Trent Reznor, but for this track, I think I'd agree with Mr. Scott. Since trickery or abstraction doesn't seem to be the overall goal with the track, the idea feels a little abandoned or out of place.
Definitely agreed. It's all about context.
Well that's awkward. One of the few times I've dabbled in electronic music, I specifically aimed to mislead the listener on where the 1 was until the beat dropped.
Nothing wrong with that! There are times when it works for me and times when it doesn't, this one felt strongly like the latter to me. But as with all things, YMMV and grain of salt yada yada! ☮️
Not the best move on a dance track to mislead where the 1 is. Establish that asap to get the butts moving on the dance floor.
@@hazelelcamino7453 Very true for dance tracks. I should specified it wasn't one.
I love this channel. I think the tricky beat creates a calculated uneasiness. But the tentative rhythm can establish ..a lack of resolution, lack of satisfaction.
Never stop, please
The track sounds like something you hear when the operator puts you on hold lol
Lol
It's not dark here, yet it's time for after hours...
This was dropped at 11am Thursday morning my time.
That's because this channel is illuminating.
Very helpful video! I would appreciate more of that
Amazing 👏👍
Quality of the feedback is nearly outshined by the quality of the hair
NEARLY???
Let's not get carried away
The intro wasn't confusing, the riff was obviously starting on the offbeat
I was thinking the same, but we have to remember that we are music people. Non-music people get confused with stuff like this. I have heard from a non-music person that it's distracting if vocals start after the one. While I think it's good to do unexpected things, the consumer probably just gets confused and switches to another song.
@@djentlover Yes, I agree, but it depends how much one wants to conform to please / make money. Making it simple and predictable is a mixed blessing - can become mundane and too common - just conforming to the masses doesn't always equate with income either. Depends on the situation. But clever simplicity can be a gem.
@@spiral-m Of course you can make music for musicians, we need music too! 😄
@@djentlover defo!
I agree, but even if it had been I wouldn't see it as a problem. I've actually always loved song beginnings where you don't know where the one is until the beat kicks in. I think they make the song more interesting by presenting that twist. So, in that way I didn't understand the critique about that eventhough I liked all the other great advices. Let down by Radiohead is one of my all time favorite songs and it's not clear from the intro at all where the kick will come until it comes and then you learn it quickly. Actually when I've listened to some live versions of the song they tend to start the kick live whenever which is a bit irritating because I've learned to appreaciate so much the album version of how the guitar pattern goes together with all the other elements.
Re-watching this, I realized that his DAW is color-coded to match his hardware and plugins. He definitely has an aesthetic going.
Thanks for a great video. Be safe and skilful. Pinge