Fragile Gods - "Vanishing Point" (remastered by Seismic & layzer)

[chaosWyrM]

i love this track...reminds me of controlled bleeding or clock dva. more of this please.

[himalaya]

"To the vanishing point, to the vanishing point lines converge..." really liked that chorus, which has a nice dark-droid yet playfull mood. Some cool synth sounds. Simple but effective, as I like it. Not to keen on the drum pattern at the start with that open hat disco pattern, but it changes during the song and the toms are extra cool.

It's always nice to read the synth lined up (synth geeks like it ). A compact yet powerful set up.

[Frantz]

Definitely feeling the John Foxx influence. Great sounding track! Vocal-wise, I particularly liked the more distorted sections.

Thanks for the feedback. Yes, my lyrics can get pretty Foxx-y at times. I will work on another mix this weekend with distorted vocals.

[Frantz]

i love this track...reminds me of controlled bleeding or clock dva. more of this please.

You certainly know your industrial bands! Glad you like it.

Clock DVA is an excellent comparison especially the vocals which Adi Newton often speaks. It's similar to what I'm going for. Here's a clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqWj-EpGjiI

Trivia: Adi Newton and Martin Ware were in The Future together but Martin couldn't stand Adi's vocals. So Martin left Adi, found Phil Oakey, and formed The Human League.

[Frantz]

"To the vanishing point, to the vanishing point lines converge..." really liked that chorus, which has a nice dark-droid yet playfull mood. Some cool synth sounds. Simple but effective, as I like it.

Thanks Himalaya.

Not to keen on the drum pattern at the start with that open hat disco pattern, but it changes during the song and the toms are extra cool.

I confess that I usually tune out hi hats when I'm listening to music so when it comes time to write drum parts, I usually don't know what to do with the hi hats. Care to recommend any tracks with cool hi hat patterns?

It's always nice to read the synth lined up (synth geeks like it ). A compact yet powerful set up.

I could probably do an entire album with just the PolySix and Tattoo since they fit my minimal, analog, low CPU aesthetic perfectly but sometimes it's nice to throw in other synth colors.

[experimental.crow]

Now is the time on Sprockets when we dance!


Sorry, if you dont get the reference, a fave skit of mine on early 90s SNL

but please understand despite the humor it is meant in a good way as i like this kind of old school-ish electronic, this had some interesting vocal effects and the spoken-type delivery gave the song a cool flow. nice mix too, i was boppin' along in my chair.

'twas my first thought , as well ...

[chaosWyrM]

i love this track...reminds me of controlled bleeding or clock dva. more of this please.

You certainly know your industrial bands! Glad you like it.

Clock DVA is an excellent comparison especially the vocals which Adi Newton often speaks. It's similar to what I'm going for. Here's a clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqWj-EpGjiI

Trivia: Adi Newton and Martin Ware were in The Future together but Martin couldn't stand Adi's vocals. So Martin left Adi, found Phil Oakey, and formed The Human League.

thats a great track. if the residents did old school industrial, this is what it would have sounded like =)

[Frantz]

thats a great track. if the residents did old school industrial, this is what it would have sounded like =)

You would probably love the entire Clock DVA "Man Amplified" album which is very similar to that. The only trouble is their music has been out of print for ages. Someone uploaded half of the album here with Adi's original homemade videos that he did on the Amiga: http://www.youtube.com/user/neckro23?feature=watch

[chaosWyrM]

thats a great track. if the residents did old school industrial, this is what it would have sounded like =)

You would probably love the entire Clock DVA "Man Amplified" album which is very similar to that. The only trouble is their music has been out of print for ages. Someone uploaded half of the album here with Adi's original homemade videos that he did on the Amiga: http://www.youtube.com/user/neckro23?feature=watch

thanks for the heads up, ill def check that out. the only clock dva i have is the hacker/the act and transitional voices.

[seismic1]

Great track.

1) I don't think the intro is too long
2) I agree with polyslax somewhat. I prefer the more processed vox. I think you could perhaps add more processing variations. Maybe buy a megaphone and try an Aqualung-type vocal or record some vox on a mobile phone and then record from the built in phone speaker and process that, maybe bit-crush them, use some wild reverb. Just thinking out loud really.
3) Great synth sounds all through here. The bassline is great. I love the arp-like delayed synth that comes in at 0:37 with the vocal. Nice pad-like sound entering at 3:01. And the lead synth at 3:28 is gorgeous.
4) I would prefer the hats up a little. Not too much though. You would not want to disrupt the dark vibes on here. Up 2dB max in the mixer, maybe less. Too much could break up the effect of the delay/reverb on the arp.

Good work

[bluedad]

Great track! I recognize a lot of the influences, but i won't embarrass myself trying to name them. Great production and synth sounds; the vocal stuff is great. enjoyed it!

[Frantz]

Great track! I recognize a lot of the influences, but i won't embarrass myself trying to name them. Great production and synth sounds; the vocal stuff is great. enjoyed it!

Thanks bluedad. You're too kind. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

[Frantz]

Thanks for the detailed and very useful feedback. I assumed you heard the vocals and gave up but somehow you soldiered through it and did this great write up.

1) I don't think the intro is too long

I was on the fence but was starting to think I should keep it. I'm glad you said that, I think I will keep it.

2) I agree with polyslax somewhat. I prefer the more processed vox. I think you could perhaps add more processing variations.

I realize by all conventional standards the vocals are terrible. However, this kind of weird vocal approach really appeals to me. Believe it or not, I am fascinated by the guy from Clock DVA (referenced above) and I can't change the channel fast enough when a great singer like Sting or Seal comes on the radio.

Having said that, I will try to process the vocals further this weekend. Your suggestions are good. Variations in the sound can only help make the vox more interesting. The only limitation is that this was conceived as a song with lyrics, as opposed to an instrumental, so I want to keep the lyrics somewhat intelligible if possible.

The bassline is great.

Thanks, I'm glad someone picked up on all of the details. The bassline starts off simple but has a number of variations as it goes. It was programmed in RaX'n'TraX which is a modular sequencing environment.

I love the arp-like delayed synth that comes in at 0:37 with the vocal.

Half played, half programmed in RaX'n'TraX. The sound is my own Korg PolySix patch tortured through TubeStation.

Nice pad-like sound entering at 3:01.

A pad patch I created in RayBlaster. You will be hearing more of this in future tracks.

And the lead synth at 3:28 is gorgeous.

This was my sound design problem mentioned in another thread. The issue was that, while I was writing this, I kept "hearing" the same cheesy melody in this section. I didn't like the melody but didn't have any better ideas, so I played the part that I heard. To make the part more interesting, I created an original patch in Helix with sounds that morphed from note to note, ran the patch through FilterStation which chopped the melody into dotted eigths, sent it through TubeStation under extreme compression and distortion settings, and finally added echo.

Of course, Omnisphere has 10,000 sounds better than this but what can you do.

4) I would prefer the hats up a little. Not too much though.

Yes, I will try this.

Thanks again for the excellent comments.

[seismic1]

Thanks for the detailed and very useful feedback. I assumed you heard the vocals and gave up but somehow you soldiered through it and did this great write up.

Nope. I liked 'em. I just thought you could give them some pizzazz.

I realize by all conventional standards the vocals are terrible.

Not true. I just think they are too "exposed" in places. Adding some processing may help to integrate them better.

And the lead synth at 3:28 is gorgeous.

This was my sound design problem mentioned in another thread. The issue was that, while I was writing this, I kept "hearing" the same cheesy melody in this section. I didn't like the melody but didn't have any better ideas, so I played the part that I heard. To make the part more interesting, I created an original patch in Helix with sounds that morphed from note to note, ran the patch through FilterStation which chopped the melody into dotted eigths, sent it through TubeStation under extreme compression and distortion settings, and finally added echo.

The more I hear of that sound, the better it gets. Oh, the JMJ-style pads just before that are cool too.


The whole track is integrated very well sonically. It's almost there.

[Frantz]

Not true. I just think they are too "exposed" in places. Adding some processing may help to integrate them better.

Thanks again for the valuable feedback. It is hard for me to gauge how listenable or unlistenable the vocals are to others. I will work on processing them more this weekend.

And the lead synth at 3:28 is gorgeous.

The more I hear of that sound, the better it gets.

Once I got that sound, I literally spent hours listening to just that section fiddling with the filter and compressor settings just for the enjoyment of it. What I found is that by getting the compressor to pump in different ways and adding lots of tube distortion, the sound would subtly shift from being more vocal-like to bell-like with occasional hints of a string sound. Since that section is only a few seconds long, it doesn't have the full range of sonic possibilities. I will probably feature a similar sound running throughout another song.