KVR Audio

The Chase · Post by **The Chase** » Sun Oct 24, 2004 6:21 am

tee boy wrote:Chase,
I just noticed, you dont have much taste for the boy Zombie Nation . You know, that tune was stupid, but he has an awesome sound mate. He did a load of these wacky techno tunes, as John Starlight. You should check out 'Blood Angels', its a quality tune.

I didn't say i disliked him, i just said that kernkraft was a pile of chedder. I really haven't heard anything else he has made, but ill try to give him a listen.

tee boy · Post by **tee boy** » Sun Oct 24, 2004 6:21 am

Haha, maybe we should put own heads together!

Seriously though, Iv just finished creating a 3000+ sample library of construct loops, grooves and drum hits all taylored for techno, trance and prog house. I also have a 1000+ library of ambience sounds, fx etc. So right now beats and breakdowns are my thing. I also have loads of favorite bass patches programmed, sampled etc, and I dont have to much trouble gettin them working with a kick. I just find all my main synth lines to sound errr... well shit! I have this kicking beat going, with a splendid ambient breakdown, and then these weak piss poor lines over the top! I know that the key to nailing it is to have individual lines filling the different portions of the mid to upper mid ranges, but doing it is proving a bitch. Dont get me wrong, i can get a tune together! Im just not getting it quite like the pro mixes i reference to, and its pissing me off! I know half these guys arent anything special (their mix guys and sound designers might be

), and its starting to bother me that i cant get a convincing trance mix together.

For instance i was listen to 'Push - Tranzy State of Mind' - this tune is as 'tarnce' as you could get, but its well mixed and is general a good example of the music. It builds progressively and all the elements are clearly audiable. There is nothing at all in there that blows me away, yet it sounds goods and all fits! The drums are very uninspiring, the synths are standard JP sounds, the bass is nothing to shout about... yet it all works in the mix!!! Maybe i should get my Virus and shout over to Holland...

The Chase · Post by **The Chase** » Sun Oct 24, 2004 6:28 am

tee boy wrote:For instance i was listen to 'Push -Tranzy State of Mind' - this tune is as 'tarnce' as you could get, but its well mixed and is general a good example of the music. It builds progressively and all the elements are clearly audiable. There is nothing at all in there that blows me away, yet it sounds goods and all fits! The drums are very uninspiring, the synths are standard JP sounds, the bass is nothing to shout about... yet it all works in the mix!!! Maybe i should get my Virus and shout over to Holland...

I always thought that song lacks reverb (like most push tracks). But youre right on the good mix. I think the secret is complex compression work. It sound like he has a single compressor on all of his synths as well as a seperate compressor on percussion. I could be wrong though.

tee boy · Post by **tee boy** » Sun Oct 24, 2004 6:37 am

Yeh, i think he compensates with an obscene amount of delay. Somehow it works though, cuz his mixes are always squeaky clean. Also, that huge flabby kick is just silly. I cant imagine how he got that to work!

tee boy · Post by **tee boy** » Sun Oct 24, 2004 6:39 am

btw, Sorry about all the typos, think i'v had enough for tonight

The Chase · Post by **The Chase** » Sun Oct 24, 2004 6:40 am

tee boy wrote:btw, Sorry about all the typos, think i'v had enough for tonight

been there

intel · Post by **intel** » Sun Oct 24, 2004 6:53 am

getting there meself.

ouroboros · Post by **ouroboros** » Sun Oct 24, 2004 7:01 am

hey, before you go,

,
I am recently acquainted with "trance" and electronica in general, so I apologize for my genre fumblings.

I really like some things a great deal, especially learning a bit from the tracker scene ~97 untill 2000. I notice this is the era a few have mentioned. Since then, I have d/l's stuff from Monotonik regularly, but it is not trance, really.

So, I would like to buy a good album or two, but don't know where to start. Any suggestions?

BTW, when I can only commisserate at how difficult it is for me to master my electronica(?)/trance(?) attempts. A guitar, bass and drums were so clearly defined, but a thick, evolving pad or lead....oy veh.

tee boy · Post by **tee boy** » Sun Oct 24, 2004 7:11 am

I think that the Godskitchen compilations pretty much demonstrate what modern trance is all about, and they are easier on the cheese side of things too! The first one was good, probably worth you having a listen to that. Its all James Holden, Hemstock and Jennings, Marco V etc.

griels · Post by **griels** » Sun Oct 24, 2004 8:38 am

Chase wrote:The only thing i find harder about trance is making the smoother transitions and also programming a synth just right.

Also, I have an extremely picky taste in trance: most of the trance songs i like were made 1998 - 2000.
I simply don't like the sound of trance in the past 3 or 4 years.

I'm picky with my trance too. The trance songs I like are of era 1990-1997, before the supersaw craze and the obsession with four to the floor beats and digital VA sounds ruined it for me. I was massively into it until about then, but it suddenly seemed to become very sterile sounding (probably about the time of Faithless - Insomnia and the subsequent pizzicato copyists). No doubt there is a huge amount of effort that goes into mixing this stuff... Everything is usually very neatly separated and carefully reverbed, compressed and EQed. But effort does not always equate to achievement. It's possibly the very perfection of these mixes that I dislike. Maybe I just lost track of the good trance, I don't know, but all I seem to hear these days is sterile supersaw stuff

I'll have to check out the Godskitchen stuff to get myself up to date

tee boy · Post by **tee boy** » Sun Oct 24, 2004 10:33 am

griels wrote:
Chase wrote:
I'll have to check out the Godskitchen stuff to get myself up to date

Its think it highly unlikely that any of those compilations will appeal to you much then! There are some decent tracks on the first one mind, but very much in that prog house / trance style.

Orbitutle · Post by **Orbitutle** » Sun Oct 24, 2004 11:25 am

Nice post... Anyone of you guys who got some trance music realesed?

SecondSkin · Post by **SecondSkin** » Sun Oct 24, 2004 12:30 pm

I agree with alot of the posts here -- I've found trance to be harder to mix than the other genres I've worked in (rock and trip-hop, mostly), and writing a good transition is no piece of cake either.

I also prefer the "pre supersaw era" trance, like Bedrock's "Heaven Sent" (or is that considered prog house???).

The Chase · Post by **The Chase** » Sun Oct 24, 2004 3:58 pm

ouroboros wrote:hey, before you go, ,
I am recently acquainted with "trance" and electronica in general, so I apologize for my genre fumblings.

I really like some things a great deal, especially learning a bit from the tracker scene ~97 untill 2000. I notice this is the era a few have mentioned. Since then, I have d/l's stuff from Monotonik regularly, but it is not trance, really.

So, I would like to buy a good album or two, but don't know where to start. Any suggestions?

BTW, when I can only commisserate at how difficult it is for me to master my electronica(?)/trance(?) attempts. A guitar, bass and drums were so clearly defined, but a thick, evolving pad or lead....oy veh.

Paul Oakenfold - Tranceport

Kimball Collins - ICU Generation Trance 2000

Most people i know who have heard those albums say they are their favorites.

The Chase · Post by **The Chase** » Sun Oct 24, 2004 3:59 pm

Oh ya, theyre my favorites, too

A word on trance