Dune 3 vs Sylenth 1 vs Seum for techno/trance

[LeVzi]

I think Sylenth1 was released in 2007.

It was released in 2006, but it doesn't matter. The demise started in 1999, when Napster was released.

IMHO, China is to blame.

You be vindicated blaming then for a lot these days tbh

[machine_spirit]

I escaped into psytrance to witness more or less the same things few years later (except that melodies went trough the phase of extreme cheesiness and ignorant optimism and later were just thrown out).

For me it ended with the emergence of Electro-House, the last really good year for Trance music in my opinion was 2003. In the mid 2000s I oriented myself more towards Progressive House and also Dub Techno.

My musical taste somehow changes every 7 or 8 years... after listening to a good portion of Trance a few years ago, I now slowly moved to Chillout (always listened to that though), Breaks, Dub Techno, sometimes a bit of Ambient (always listened to that as well), or even Drum & Bass.

Whenever I listen to Progressive Trance, I prefer stuff that was made before 2008-2010 or so.

Yeah i ended up moving on to (or rather expanding towards) various kinds of DnB, house, metal and a bunch of other stuff like Louis Cole/KNOWER, it's a complete mess really. It's probably an age thing too and not just the decay and change of genres. There's even some smooth jazz that's pretty good, and i'm "only" in my early thirties! Still gravitate towards trance and electronic sounds whenever i make music though, that's like the default state.

TATW I had been listening to for a while, as I quite like Above & Beyond. But the stuff there was always more EDM to me and sounded like they were all using the same templates/ideas (many people already call it "Anjunabeats" style). The most interesting thing was to see how people who are played there produce their stuff e.g. 7Skies.

It seemed to me that a lot of people were saying goodbye to Trance and trying to be successful in other genres. The typical "Trance Synth" would then no longer be so interesting and important (Virus, Nexus, Sylenth...).

Watched some compilations of the most popular music from the 70s and forward recently, and it was pretty interesting that pop seemed to move towards a more groove oriented style with less focus on melodic elements about the same time the exact same thing happened with trance like we've been talking about here. The overall sonic diversity also dropped like a rock after the 90s.

The uplifting/melodic stuff is still produced by many but for me so much of it is just forgettable these days… as if there’s a lot of YouTube “how to write a trance chord progression / melody” videos being watched and not enough personal touch being put in by the producers.

I can only speak about the music I was involved with at the time but the UK Hardcore sound emerged around when Nexus was born, everything seemed to change

I don't mind people using similar sounds and genre being defined somehow, but copying someone's whole arrangement, no, that's why stuff went downhill, people stopped experimenting

The Nexus, low effort youtube tutorials, loops and chord stamp approach or whatever you wanna call it, is for sure responsible for some of the decline. It's been possible for a while now to produce music that actually isn't a complete incoherent mess even though one has little or no talent for it, because of modern tools and how accessible they are. Surely alot of good stuff comes out of this accessibility but clearly it's a double edged sword.

[recursive one]

At least Psy hasn't fallen foul of what mainstream Trance did.

Psy has its own problems, if you listen fresh to some of the latest stuff chances are you'll be amazed by the sound-design and the raw energy, but when you listen to 10-20-30 tracks and hear the same sounds, same grooves and complete lack of any meaningful melodic content and realize that quite a bit of that amazing sound design comes from the same preset/sample packs it becomes somewhat less exciting.

I still have a soft spot for that older trancey and melodious morning sound. It had its own cliches and could be accused of sounding samey as well but somehow it was more exciting as a whole.

The Nexus, low effort youtube tutorials, loops and chord stamp approach or whatever you wanna call it, is for sure responsible for some of the decline. It's been possible for a while now to produce music that actually isn't a complete incoherent mess even though one has little or no talent for it, because of modern tools and how accessible they are. Surely alot of good stuff comes out of this accessibility but clearly it's a double edged sword.

I knew some guys who got their tracks played by Armin, the tracks fully consisting of premade beats and melody loops from samplepacks.

But! Armin played them so who cares how it was made

[Norqa]

Psy has its own problems, if you listen fresh to some of the latest stuff chances are you'll be amazed by the sound-design and the raw energy, but when you listen to 10-20-30 tracks and hear the same sounds, same grooves and complete lack of any meaningful melodic content and realize that quite a bit of that amazing sound design comes from the same preset/sample packs it becomes somewhat less exciting.

Yeah you are right.
Sample packs have a lot to answer for, I must admit to hearing a lot of Zenhiser in current Psy. Their packs are of course top notch but are surely never meant to placed into a track 'as is' and released with a few minor tweaks here and there.

Thanks for posting some youtube ideas, will check them out later when my tinnitus calms down a bit

[Passing Bye]

Yeah, just wish people would stop copying, if you have same preset pack, don't use it to make exactly the same things, chances you will make exactly the same thing if you aren't really interested in copying someone else is really slim. There's so many synths and preset packs these days, one can be remotely original even if he doesn't make single original sound, just by not using exactly the same synths as everyone and not getting dedicated genre presets, of course without copying someone else's arrangement.

[e-crooner]

I think Sylenth1 was released in 2007.

It was released in 2006, but it doesn't matter. The demise started in 1999, when Napster was released.

IMHO, China is to blame.

You be vindicated blaming then for a lot these days tbh

I don't agree at all. Then again, I have never been racist, nor ideologically blinded...

[chk071]

It was a joke. Let's keep the political shit where it belongs, in the HPC trash bin of the internet.

Apart from that it's not "racist" to criticize a country for its politics. Nor is it the correct term to describe something like that.

[MegaPixel]

https://aftc.io/share/CEOT3K_02.mp3

For zee young...
https://aftc.io/share/erm-1.mp3

For zee old...
https://aftc.io/share/erm-2.mp3

[LeVzi]

I think Sylenth1 was released in 2007.

It was released in 2006, but it doesn't matter. The demise started in 1999, when Napster was released.

IMHO, China is to blame.

You be vindicated blaming then for a lot these days tbh

I don't agree at all. Then again, I have never been racist, nor ideologically blinded...

Always one

[e-crooner]

It was a joke. Let's keep the political shit where it belongs, in the HPC trash bin of the internet.

Apart from that it's not "racist" to criticize a country for its politics. Nor is it the correct term to describe something like that.

I was not replying to you, I had already figured it must have been an ill-fated attempt at humor...

And it was not me that brought that "political shit" into this thread, it was you.

China's politics are just fine. And yes, anti-Chinese propaganda has always been racist, started centuries ago, check the cartoons in Aussie newspapers from the 19th century.
I am a staunch supporter and friend of modern China

[pdxindy]

Apart from that it's not "racist" to criticize a country for its politics. Nor is it the correct term to describe something like that.

Xenophobia

[LeVzi]

It was a joke. Let's keep the political shit where it belongs, in the HPC trash bin of the internet.

Apart from that it's not "racist" to criticize a country for its politics. Nor is it the correct term to describe something like that.

I was not replying to you, I had already figured it must have been an ill-fated attempt at humor...

And it was not me that brought that "political shit" into this thread, it was you.

China's politics are just fine. And yes, anti-Chinese propaganda has always been racist, started centuries ago, check the cartoons in Aussie newspapers from the 19th century.
I am a staunch supporter and friend of modern China

Edited and deleted. I'm not getting into this here but not everyone shares your views.

[Rastkovic]

Yes, no politics please!

There are many reports on YouTube that document China's economic and investment policies, so everyone can form their own opinion.

[e-crooner]

Yes, no politics please!

There are many reports on YouTube that document China's economic and investment policies, so everyone can form their own opinion.

There are a lot of videos from both sides, it all depends on who you want to believe. People usually believe what confirms their existing views...

[e-crooner]

It still says Seum in the title, can't they edit that...