Hyperwarp Countdown - Feedback

I quite like it, very nice work! Template sounds pretty good too to my ears. I only have one thing to comment on that jumped out at me: I feel like the transients of the different sections/instruments aren't synced up as tightly as I would like them to. Especially in the beginning I felt like you could tighten that up a bit.
Does anyone else hear this too? I'm never quite confident on whether I'm hearing such things right.

 

Quick comment.

I think you give away too much too soon. I took your title to mean we are building to some big moment.

Look at what happens when I draw a line on your soundcloud.

If you begin at 8......you don't have much room to grow. (assuming 10 is max)

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transient_(acoustics)

With transient I mean the loud part at the beginning of a sample. E.g. a drum usually has the loudest part of its sample right at the start and other sections like e.g. choir or strings would have the loudest part a bit later than the start of the sample because that's just the way they work. Ideally you'll want the transients of the different sections to hit at the same time, because that's how a real orchestra would perform it automatically (I think). The technical solution for that is either to manually shift the midi samples around as needed and go by ear, or figure out for each section and track how much delay there is in the samples till the transient hits and use a negative delay (called track delay in many DAWs as far as I know) to compensate. In Reaper 5 it's the "time adjustment delay" that lets you go negative, and Reaper 6 afaik has it as a native feature.

To sync the different tracks up I like to start with using the default metronome and syncing the drums up, then sync every other section so that they sound in sync with the drums and with each other. I have a template with 1 track per section and 1 midi channel per articulation and do the articulation switching by midi channel selection per note, and use different midi delays on different channels to "sync up" different articulations within one track. The midi delays only go in the normal delay direction, so I have to "overcompensate" with a track delay at the end. Would suck for live playing, but I don't do that anyway. My goal with that template is to have all the notes quantized to the grid and for a more "natural" timing feel I can automate the tempo map.

This might interest you as well:

 

Damn that was cool , definitely has that nostalgic adventure vibe. Good job man

 

Just to be clear: I think you need to take some things OUT. You are already close to the maximum intensity at 13 or:14 seconds.

It's a formal issue. I am also assuming you want a big build towards the end. If NOT..... then please disregard my comments.

I know it's a different aesthetic, and I am not suggesting you change the material of your piece. My point is more you underestimate the
power of single timbres and their ability to old attention. As a result, my feeling, you over-reply on tutti type texture for creating power and intenisty.


You don't need to go this extreme, and certainly not suggesting you write in this style. Your style is great! It's about intensity. When you listen, there will be no doubt that the 3-minute mark is much more intense than the 15-second mark.

Please do let me know if anything I am saying is coming across unclear.

By the way: Bravo for your continued progress with your music. It is really sounding great!