Kuyashii's Krap (834 views)

[kuyashii]

Hey fellas!

I've been known in TRP circles for way more embarassing stuff, so I think sharing some bad FL Studio demos isn't really that bad of a thing lol. I'd like some feedback when it comes to production (mixing, mastering, EQing, etc.) for those.



This isn't an album. It's a collection of little FL Studio demos I've been doing since November 2022, when I got my guitar back from repair and started trying to do music with real instruments, as opposed to the VSTi stuff I've been doing since 2018. I feel like I've been stuck both technically and creatively and I haven't been progressing as a musician and a producer (I feel like it's borderline offensive to use those terms to describe what I do). I like a lot of different styles of music ranging from folk to progressive metal and shoegaze so this selection is all over the place.

I decided to post those because I've been trying to move past the bullshit unfunny "musical tourettes" stuff I've been doing since 2018 and want to try starting a music career before I get too old (which is something I feel like I'm already too late to even try). As you can hear, I haven't settled on any specific production style because I'm not really found of anything I do tbh.

What I ask for you is not to focus on the compositions themselves because a lot of those are very short sketches consisting only of a verse, a chorus or other small parts and they were made more or less as a "sonic snapshot" of what the compositions were like at a given time (a lot of times those sketches end up evolving to a longer, more fleshed out idea).

I absolutely suck at producing, mixing, EQing, mastering, and as much as I watch lots of tutorials on the subject I feel like I don't really know how to implement those into my own music. This is where I hope your feedback can help me. Do you understand about EQing and feel like the guitars at a certain point could use a high pass during some part? Don't hesitate to tell me. I'm really dumb and if people don't pry open my eyes I usually miss really important stuff.

All criticism, both constructive and destructive, is valid. I'm extremely grateful if you take your time to help me.

TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 Daughters of the Moon
0:49 Petrichor
3:29 Náusea
5:51 Trilhos
6:42 Asfixia
9:49 Velas
12:23 Sem Lua
17:38 A Cidade da Lua
20:23 O Homem-Nada
21:27 Tirania/ Soberania
27:26 Terapia
28:28 Cliffgazer
29:32 Súplica
32:28 Ants Crawling on a Mobius Strip
33:29 Riffzão

[Baronessa]

Hey, first of all congratulations on actually putting that out. I did notice you saying that it's not an album or anything, but any song is difficult to put together as is.

I'm a bit of a dumbass when it comes to critiquing anyone's music on any level. Either I like it or I don't, and I do like the sound of this project. I'm not too sure how much EQing the guitars actually need, but they do sound pretty cramped. Usually what I do to achieve a much wider guitar sound is I use two channels, one for the dry signal and the other for any effects, and pan them in different directions. You can EQ both of those separately, which is quite handy in eliminating any frequency buildup. I don't know if you've actually done that for any of these songs, but that might be something to experiment with for all your instruments.

One other tip I would give is make more use of the volume knobs as opposed to compression, reverb, delay, what have you. I notice that the mix is very 'sharp' -- there's a lot of air time given to the guitars -- and it gives little room for the drums. That is a very patently shoegaze thing to do, which is all well and good, but if you feel like you want to give any instruments more time to shine lowering the volume on instruments that live in the middle of the mix EQ will make other instruments pop out much more readily than any EQing actually will. Just give your instruments a very, very basic EQ, compression and reverb job and then start messing with the volume as to bring out other parts of the mix that will be obscured. The human ear is very prone to picking up more information around 2000Hz - 5000Hz and particularly lowering the instruments which live around that area will even out your mix pretty massively. Our instruments are also tuned in a way where basically every single one of them will emit something around 400Hz - 500Hz, and paying attention to any buildup in that area will give you more control over how 'boxed-in' your mix sounds.

There's a fun little piece of advice that I heard from my media school teacher like a year back. When you lower the volume in your headphones to the point where you can barely hear the song, the instruments which should be most audible are the drums and the vocals. None of that applies to all music, obviously. It's just what you want to hear in your mix and the effect you personally get out of it. Part of the trick is to unapologetically love your own music, which I think is actually the biggest point of criticism for me here. These songs aren't offensive, they aren't even bad -- I think they're good. And a huge part of the reason to be making music in the first place is to appreciate what you have accomplished and basically allow the listeners to have the 'last word', so to speak, on whatever you release. It's a scary-ass thing to put yourself out there like that, but you have to take that risk at some point.

I hope that wasn't too preachy lol. I'm just a huge proponent of people making their own art, because all art is inherently valuable. Whether anyone thinks it's good or not. I really, really, really, really, really understand that urge to ruminate over how old you are to be making music, but it's important to not take it as a crisis situation. It has to be something you would be doing anyway, whether anyone even ever hears it. So yeah, thanks again for putting yourself out there and I hope you keep doing it.

[kuyashii]

Thanks so much for taking your time to listen and to give such insightful feedback! I'm actually quite exhausted at the moment and I'll take the time to study meticulous your punctual critiques but here's another track I've been working since the begining of january (some ideas have been floating since April 22 actually). Also, it's not because you replied, I was going to post this anyways lol. I do think the .mp3 format and online compression might mess around with my mix a bit but I think this is mastered a bit too quiet and some tracks ended up being rendered without the effects they were supposed to.

vocaroo.com/1ojgixX3oMBj.

[Baronessa]

I realised I wrote that explainer in a way that would be easily confusing, so if you ever want to get more specific with the suggestions (like solutions for specific tracks etc.) I'm open to try and help lol.

[kuyashii]

Don't worry, I was really tired so I was aware some of the specifics you pointed would fly by my head if I tried reading (plus, I'm not a native english speaker and as much as I'd consider myself familiar with the language, sometimes you miss things and exhaustion isn't a good help_.

Nov 14, 2023 22:49:46 GMT Baronessa said:

Hey, first of all congratulations on actually putting that out. I did notice you saying that it's not an album or anything, but any song is difficult to put together as is.

Here's a bit of a backstory: I've been composing since I was a child, but for many years I didn't have instruments or ways to record my ideas. I started messing around with midi around the time I was 13 and at 14 I first pirated FL Studio, which was my go-to for registering my ideas (first with just the awful native VSTis like FPC and FL Slayer, then with fancier VSTis and sample libraries). I only got both real instruments and an audio interface at the same time last year, when I started recording some dumb ideas to tape. I can say without a doubt that my compositions that only use VSTis and Samples are leagues beyond my real instruments demos (Some here), but that comes from years of messing around with midi, VSTis and sample libraries. The thing is that stuff is quite intuitive, while producing itself is insanely confusing and difficult. I gathered all the things I recorded with real bass and guitars, and then compiled in this video. The "album" thing is a bit of clickbait tbh because I'm truly desperate for people to hear them and say something about it.

Nov 14, 2023 22:49:46 GMT Baronessa said:

I'm a bit of a dumbass when it comes to critiquing anyone's music on any level. Either I like it or I don't, and I do like the sound of this project. I'm not too sure how much EQing the guitars actually need, but they do sound pretty cramped. Usually what I do to achieve a much wider guitar sound is I use two channels, one for the dry signal and the other for any effects, and pan them in different directions. You can EQ both of those separately, which is quite handy in eliminating any frequency buildup. I don't know if you've actually done that for any of these songs, but that might be something to experiment with for all your instruments.

Since those are most of the time spur of the moment things (which always sound much better than my deliberate attempts at trying to do anything), usually there's only one rhythm guitar, unless on the more shoegazey cuts (yeah I love and it's a heavy influence on my music, even the more metal-leaning cuts). I'll try that out though. I recently bought a guitar with humbucker pick-ups so that is definitely a step up for the heavily distorted guitars I think..

Nov 14, 2023 22:49:46 GMT Baronessa said:

One other tip I would give is make more use of the volume knobs as opposed to compression, reverb, delay, what have you. I notice that the mix is very 'sharp' -- there's a lot of air time given to the guitars -- and it gives little room for the drums. That is a very patently shoegaze thing to do, which is all well and good, but if you feel like you want to give any instruments more time to shine lowering the volume on instruments that live in the middle of the mix EQ will make other instruments pop out much more readily than any EQing actually will. Just give your instruments a very, very basic EQ, compression and reverb job and then start messing with the volume as to bring out other parts of the mix that will be obscured. The human ear is very prone to picking up more information around 2000Hz - 5000Hz and particularly lowering the instruments which live around that area will even out your mix pretty massively. Our instruments are also tuned in a way where basically every single one of them will emit something around 400Hz - 500Hz, and paying attention to any buildup in that area will give you more control over how 'boxed-in' your mix sounds.

Yeah, I've been experimenting lately with an idea I was introduced to by watching some interviews with Devin Townsend - he believes leveling is much more important than anything else when it come sto music. Thanks for reinforcing the idea though, It's something I'll definitely watch out for.

Nov 14, 2023 22:49:46 GMT Baronessa said:

There's a fun little piece of advice that I heard from my media school teacher like a year back. When you lower the volume in your headphones to the point where you can barely hear the song, the instruments which should be most audible are the drums and the vocals. None of that applies to all music, obviously. It's just what you want to hear in your mix and the effect you personally get out of it. Part of the trick is to unapologetically love your own music, which I think is actually the biggest point of criticism for me here. These songs aren't offensive, they aren't even bad -- I think they're good. And a huge part of the reason to be making music in the first place is to appreciate what you have accomplished and basically allow the listeners to have the 'last word', so to speak, on whatever you release. It's a scary-ass thing to put yourself out there like that, but you have to take that risk at some point.

I really appreciate what you said here. But TBH most of the demos I compiled are just that: little demos. I have a few more fully developed compositions that I'm quite proud of, but before I try to put them on tape (metaphorically speaking lol, analogue recording is way off my budget lol), I want to be sure my skills as producer is up to the standards I want to achieve in order to make my music what I want it to be. I still thank you for everything!

Nov 14, 2023 22:49:46 GMT Baronessa said:

I hope that wasn't too preachy lol. I'm just a huge proponent of people making their own art, because all art is inherently valuable. Whether anyone thinks it's good or not. I really, really, really, really, really understand that urge to ruminate over how old you are to be making music, but it's important to not take it as a crisis situation. It has to be something you would be doing anyway, whether anyone even ever hears it. So yeah, thanks again for putting yourself out there and I hope you keep doing it.

Once more, thanks for every word and the time you took for listening and writing all this out. At the moment I've been working on this particular composition called Borboletinhas (the one I posted before) which is the one I'd like the most help tbh lol

Here's another attempt at mixing it. I was able to overcome some issues but ended up creating others in the process lol

vocaroo.com/151Mw99IdPVK

[kuyashii]

This is my first single! I hope you guys enjoy it.

[kuyashii]

This is my second single! I hope you guys enjoy it.

[kuyashii]

Decided to post some of my covers here! I've been starting to sing again (something I stopped doing around the time the pandemic started) and I'm trying to regain the ground I lost. These aren't some of the best singing I've done, and also I still haven't figured how to get a decent sound from my microphone, also the last three have me playing and singing at the same time so they are kind of shoddy, but here they are:

Rosa de Saron - Última Lágrima

Jonathan Rhys Meyers - Something Inside

Leonard Cohen/ Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah





Any sort of feedback, positive or negative, constructive or destructive is welcomed!

[kuyashii]

Lol