Variar - Shockwaves (Debut Album)

[Jabberwalky]

New album is out now! It's name your price, so put in $0.00 if you want.
Check it out on Soundcloud here: https://soundcloud.com/variar/sets/shockwaves-lp

Bandcamp: https://30thfloorvault.bandcamp.com/album/shockwaves

[monolith]

Very nice indeed.

[Jabberwalky]

Thanks for checking it out Mono!

[monolith]

You should be proud man!

[seamonkey]

I agree, very nice work.
I hear some TD textures weaving in and out, which is always sweet to my ears.

It's always a great sense of relief and accomplishment to finish a project like this. And as mono wrote, you can be proud of a job well done.

May I ask how long it took to complete?

[monomo]

Sounds great.
I like all the breakdowns, and funky bass parts.
Lots of variety in sounds.
Great work, I'm buying this.

[Jabberwalky]

Awesome thank you! I've always liked TD alot, and try to bring in elements of that stuff. I think in total everything took about 6 months. It could've gone faster, but I kept wanting to redo certain tracks!

The track Toxic Roulette was a borderline industrial track if you can believe it. I ended up reworking it entirely into what it is now. A couple others ended up being a ton more work than I would've liked. The track Magnified, in particular, was really hard to work with, and mixing was tough with everything going on in it.

I'm definitely relieved to have it finished, but it's straight on to the next track for me. The label is putting out a Street Fighter cover compilation I'm on. Doing Zangief haha.

Thanks again for the comments guys :}

[clubbedtodeath]

I do like this. Eighties -- and yet not Eighties.

Couple of bad points:

1) Production-wise, it's overcompressed (I can hear it distort). Also, it sounds like you've lost some of the high-end. Did you feed the whole thing through a single-band compressor? That'd do it. Furthermore, it sounds like the stereo image is very narrow. I'd advise on panning a bit more left/right as appropriate, and perhaps use a bit of tight stereo delay to widen the image of each track.

2) About half the tracks sound like they're missing an element, a singer/instrument with a theme to carry the rest along. I was expecting to hear a female lead vocal to come in half the time.

Aside from that, this is really good stuff, I hope you're proud of it. Retro is hip at the moment, but this is still unique. I can't think of another band that sounds quite like this.

PS. Toxic Roulette's my favourite. You just can't beat synth arpeggios over a sampled slap bass.

[Jabberwalky]

Hey Clubbed! Thanks for the comments and suggestions. I'm glad you pointed that out about the compression. I'm still running into issues with this, and often struggle to get the song to the right levels without it. I was using multi-band compression on each track. This may or may not be against the rules. I'm definitely still learning production, and proper gain staging.

I generally follow my ears as much as possible, and did hear the slight distortion, but just decided "f**k it!" I couldn't get it any better, and it wasn't making or breaking the tracks.

I appreciate the tips about stereo imaging. I felt like I was losing things in the mix when I had them hard panned. I think I have issues with the acoustics of my room (which are s**t).

I do agree that a couple tracks like "Wrath" or "Telepath" were missing a certain element. They are good grooves, but could certainly use a joining lead. I agree there. I think I pretty much exhausted myself on them, and couldn't do more with it.

Retro or Synthwave is a huge and growing music scene. I fit in there somewhere, but I will never be one to try to fit in. I'm just glad that some sort of scene appreciates and helps to support what I'm doing! Glad you like it Clubbed, and thanks again for the suggestions. Cheers! Karl

P.S. the slap bass is actually made on the Roland D50

[bhrama]

Nice work Jabb, I always enjoy your vibe. Keep up the good work.

[tongclub62]

Nice. it good sound all. thank for sharing.

[Jabberwalky]

Thanks for checking it out! I really appreiciate the kind words. Cheers, Karl

[Infinity Curve]

Great stuff!!

[Jabberwalky]

Thanks Cody!

[Weirdofromouterspace]

I like it as well and just bought your album - gonna listen to it in its entirety in the car tomorrow .