Nice, I like the melody and sound of the main instrument, very unique.
for CnC
I think you should use different chord progressions at different sections of the song.
And base the melodies around that chord progression
I noticed you tried to put variation with the piano, then mixed it with the first instrument.
But those two melodies don't sound well together because they aren't on the same Chord progressions.
Using a couple of off chord notes will sound good, but using a whole off chord melody will not sound pleasing to the majority of people.
Once again very unique track, Keep it up!

Ayyee thanks for the CnC my friend. Yeah one of my bros just told me about making it a bit more unique, which is what I did with this one beat I just cooked up.
After listening to that beat for awhile I did notice that the Gross Beat on the Melody didn't correspond with the 2nd part of the song whenever I added it to it.
I'll make sure to see if it all sounds well now.
CnC preciated!

https://soundcloud.com/ricktick/heat

Programs Used : FLStudio 12

You're welcome.
About your new track i think it sounds interesting
I notice how you tried to give it a creepy vibe with many off key notes.
I have done a lot of that, i know what you're thinking. But it doesn't work if you're trying to make music which people like to hear

When you write an Off-key note, you might be thinking "I'm not playing by rules"
Which is what i thought, and i thought it's helping me make fresh and unique music.
But in-fact what you are doing is, the opposite of "Theory" and theory is based around what have got success and people like.

You can definitely use off-key notes just be careful about where you use it
And use it very rarely, just to give it that vibe you have in your head.
Too much off-key and it will sound unpleasant.

I could explain when and what off-key note sounds pleasing and when/what doesn't.
But it will be a big wall'o text. which you might be better off not using and just sticking to keys, since most people nowadays prefer music set by theory.

Besides that, Same things i said about your previous beat applies to this as well.
It needs song structure.
If you are serious about it, search Google and Youtube about it.
I can't give away everything i have learned in years, in minutes.
But if you want help in the future, PM me. It's my pleasure to help people who are serious about music production.

Well, the notes aren't really placed myself, that was an arpeggio and apparently some of the arpeg notes were just off. When ever I played it back I'd hear the correct notes play sometimes and then it'd miss a note whenever i'm trying to listen for something else. Not sure how to really fix, I figured that the missing notes and off key notes would add a little uniqueness to it but yeah I can see where you're coming from.

The only place where I place the notes is at :53 lol and that's for the 1/3 beat delay effect.

Never really intended to use little off key notes. But i'll make sure to not do it much in the future I guess lol.

I don't really know if i'm gonna get serious about it. But If it's something that I have potential in then I'll try to go with it.

I'll pm you some contact info just in case I need any help my guy. Thanks again for the CnC.

On the contrary, there is truly no such thing as an off or wrong note! Only when things are judged through the theoretical framework of ideas of "good sounding" music from over a hundred years ago are they wrong or off.

Theory is only useful for explaining things, if you're not trying to set up perfect counterpoint or a quintessentially boroque chord progression (lol) do you need to perfectly follow a scale. If you put down a note and decide it sounds good, there is absolutely 0 reason to remove it just because it doesn't fit with whatever scale you're writing in.

I think it actually sounds pretty cool. The arpeggio has a really interesting sound to it, but its not so dissonant that its jarring. To me, it seemed like more of the parts that were a little jarring were meant to be, and it captured my attention for each new part well. That gimmick would eventually get old though, so make sure to explore new ways to catch the listeners attention.

I'd also recommend you try out writing with more active voices, because it can sound a bit thin at times where I expected it to really sound heavy and mean, but that's, again, merely a recommendation.

Form might be an even bigger part of writing music than functional harmony, though, so another recommendation would be to introduce novel musical ideas throughout the piece and periodically alter them to keep things interesting. That's something I think a few of your voices could have benefited from. In general though, you did a decent job at this.

I think you have me on discord if you wanna hmu. I know a good bit of music theory as well and if you have any questions for stuff like that Id love to try to answer them

Before you start your song decide what key you want it to be in. Google 'notes in E minor' (or whatever key you want), then stick with those notes. When you're writing the song, if you feel that it sounds cool to incorporate an off-key note or two, go ahead.

On your track, I reckon there's gotta be a bit more melodic variation. It's just the one same melody through-out (granted you do some kind of staccato breakdown with it), towards the end I felt it getting a bit tedious.

Might be worth investigating how to create risers, as I feel this song would certainly benefit from their addition.

Also, add a bassline.

Ayyy my boy pouffy, thanks for the feedback g.

I don't have you on discord my g, but I can send you my skype in a PM if you ever want to talk about some shit. Thanks for the info, will take into consideration.

And Ele, I never usually pick a key I want it to be in, I literally open a piano and create a nice sounding melody with keys and try to flow with that idea. Then change the instrument to something else to give it a vibe.

And does it not have a bass line? There's an 808, kick, and snare lol.

Hello pouffy,
Some of what you said is right, some is wrong.
There are off notes, they are a thing, they exist, The only time you should use them is when you hear the note in your head, before you write it down and hear it with your ears. Unless (as yourself said) you want to make music which sounds like it has time traveled from over a hundered years ago.
I'm sorry but also theory is not only for explaining things. as Ele mentioned, he should follow a scale and if he hears a note in his head begging to be placed, and is off-key, then he should place that note.
If you had experience about how people react to melodies like his song (Heat) You wouldn't be saying the same thing.
It would work for classical style of music. but this mans genre is trap.
Probably half of this melody was sounding off-tune. Which i will guarantee you, it will not be appreciated by the majority of the crowd.
Artists grow a different taste for music after all the shit that goes through their head.
You and I might find this piece of music interesting because we find "Unique" things worthier than others. but people just want to hear good music, they don't care how rare your instruments or line of notes are.

Bands, if you don't use a key and stick to it for most part of your song, then please do so from your next project.
This is a mistake made by many new producers who are supported by the "Do what sounds good" brotherhood.
And the only thing these people are good at, is at holding you back from learning theory.
Our brains ain't computers, we forget things and we make mistakes
Which is why you should use theory because it's easier to remember "F minor", than to remember how the whole melody sounded. and try to make melody which doesn't sound like a whole new song.
You should play by theory till you know everything about it, then you can carefully go off road to differ yourself from the rest.



I didn't want to get too deep with the CnC but since you already talked about this, i will try to explain it as well
First of all, to clear things out a snare has nothing/little to do with bass. Most of the frequencies from a snare are near 1khz.
The 808 and kick already filled up the bass section.
I think by saying "Add a bass-line" ~Ele, He meant an instrument with a good "Hold" and to make a melody with it.
Even though it's not needed, but having a good bass line will sometimes make a song better.
It will make your song more energetic, but you will have to try it to see if it's making your better or worse.

If you wanted to improve the bass section, forgetting everything above.
My advice would be to clear out the bass from the other instruments
Add a high pass filter on EVERY instrument, other than your Kick , main bass instrument.
But do NOT add one same filter to all of the other instruments.
The high-pass filter on each instrument should be lower/higher depending on the instrument.
This way you will be cutting off all that muddy bass and there will be a nice clean 808 bass sound.

Yeah that's what I do whenever there's to many low frequencies and things start to clash. I usually add a high pass filter on the instrument. And when I said snare, I just assumed it went with a bassline because you know, boom-clap.