My first propper (finished) trance track.

Bobby Summa · Sep 9, 2022

Great responses from you guys. Thank you 🫶

Hensmon. The O2 was ( I believe) a special event. I dont know what happens there much of the time as i live a few hours drive from there. I can quite honestly say it was one of the best nights of my life. And has set in motion quite a few positive inspirational ideas and plans. By the way they are having another there at the end of the year ( oct or nov) but i unfortunately can not go.

your picture. The lights or lazers are exactly the same. Just blinkin mind blowing.
when i walked into the main area the lovely pillars and shape of the building. And the sound was superb too i thought. Its really given me a taste for clubs. So at the grand age of 46 ive got into propper clubbing!

Bobby Summa · Sep 9, 2022

LostLegend said:
I like this. It has an older Robert Nickson vibe to the way the synths feel to me!
Melodically it sounds great, love the synth work and the breakdown sounds really cinematic.
I feel it needs a little something else in the percussion after the drop. Something a bit more driving layered under the hats to just give it that extra boost for the finale. Just my taste though!

The vocals, although I think they sound OK, they do crowd the track up a bit, like it feels like you need a bit more of a break from them throughout, but that's likely just due to the length of the track.

Making it into a club mix is the obvious starting point. Maybe find yourself a decent reference track in there to help with the structure.

I'd perhaps try to be a bit more creative with the vocal processing as well in terms of effects. Something to give them a bit more interest and 'ear candy' if you know what I mean?

I look forward to hearing where you take this!

As for the white noise thing, it's a bit of a pet hate of some on here. Nothing wrong with using a bit of white noise FX, but there's a lot of tracks (particular in the 138 uplifting side of the genre) that are overloaded with it. White noise FX, WN layers on top of their leads to give them that high end hiss.
I think the theory is with some, is that it works as some sort of dithering, I'm skeptical personally. What I do know is it makes some tracks sound unbearable harsh on the ears.

Thank you LostLegend. Once again like Aerium i feel i recognise your name. Are you a producer with releases ?

I actually had been told the kind of trance that the lady’s husband likes and tried to emulate that kind of thing. Plus i had heard sections of Armins ‘Whose afraid of 138’ shows a few years back so just thought. 138’s a good aim for bpm to write at. My favorite style is usually slower. Somewhere between 127 and 132 bpm but the husband likes stuff with a more faster pumping sound so so i had to spice things up to that tempo and feel. Unfortunate thing was that because ive done my first electronic music gigs recently ( which the preparation went disastrously and i had to write a new track 3 hours before i got to the gig because literally none of my files loaded once i put my laptop on that day. The previous weekend when i had tried to prepare I literally told my fiancé, im giving up electronic music again and buying an acoustic guitar, much more simple, luckily even tho she doesnt like much electronica she encouraged me not to) so, - i ploughed on did my track that took an hour to make and hated every minute of the 10 minutes open mic electronic
gig)

until people started telling me how good it was. So a few weeks later after a got a new laptop things went
better.

Sorry went off on a tangent there lol.

The track i posted tho because of all my other stuff going on i realised at one point i had 3 days to finish it as am going on holiday tomorrow. So the arrangement and end was a bit rushed. I did hardly any mixing also in trrms of eq. When im back i will do another version and include basstation 2 and ASM Hydrasynth sounds and re arrange the track. I cant wait!
Cheers 🫶

Bobby Summa · Sep 9, 2022

Recharge said:
Really solid track. It could use a bit of work on the mixing and mastering stage. Don't worry I have less than a dozen songs that are even close to properly mixed and mastered. That's something I am trying to iron out in the past few months myself.

Cheers man, yeah i hardly did any eq, plus had to madter at much lower frequencies ( clodbounce) because when I recorded it at high bit or hz or other digital measurements it sounded like there wss a muffly wind at the start, although id never recorded a master at that frequency before. It was time to go do my day job so i just had to go with 44.1 and 16 bit cd quality with no mastering compression or LF boost or HF boost as time was running out.
Im so grateful for all the comments and advice on here.
By the way, what do you do when due to how the vst preset was originally in its default setting, the sound even once edited just sounds better through the center panning wise. I find it scary to adjust individual oscillator pan as think it might eliminate some good aspects. Often presets seem to sound best in center but then if every sound goes central i think the song lacks overall width?

i think by the time im 80 il understand what i wish i knew now on sound lol

cheers

🫶

LostLegend · Sep 9, 2022

Bobby Summa said:
Thank you LostLegend. Once again like Aerium i feel i recognise your name. Are you a producer with releases ?

I'm not that well known to be honest, but Solarstone has played a couple of my bootleg remixes on his radio show, so if you are a regular listener, maybe you have heard my name there?

Oddly enough, today I've just had my first commercial release for a long time (see my signature)
I took a long hiatus from producing music and it's taken me a while to get back into the full swing of things haha.
Although, watch this space, as I have a fair bit coming up over in the next few months!

The track i posted tho because of all my other stuff going on i realised at one point i had 3 days to finish it as am going on holiday tomorrow. So the arrangement and end was a bit rushed. I did hardly any mixing also in trrms of eq. When im back i will do another version and include basstation 2 and ASM Hydrasynth sounds and re arrange the track. I cant wait!

If that is what you can do in 3 days, then I look forward to what you can do with your own time work on the track!

Bobby Summa · Sep 9, 2022

The only other Trance like track that im more or less happy with is a totally different style.

I think a few said they would like to hear a bit more stuff ive made, and offcourse im really learning from advice from you guys.

incase you guys feel like listening its this.

https://soundcloud.com/robert-george-969154201%2Fspeed-dreamer

LostLegend · Sep 9, 2022

Bobby Summa said:
The only other Trance like track that im more or less happy with is a totally different style.

I think a few said they would like to hear a bit more stuff ive made, and offcourse im really learning from advice from you guys.

incase you guys feel like listening its this.

https://soundcloud.com/robert-george-969154201%2Fspeed-dreamer

Love that, sounds great. Got that old school progressive vibe about it!

Recharge · Sep 9, 2022

Bobby Summa said:
Cheers man, yeah i hardly did any eq, plus had to madter at much lower frequencies ( clodbounce) because when I recorded it at high bit or hz or other digital measurements it sounded like there wss a muffly wind at the start, although id never recorded a master at that frequency before. It was time to go do my day job so i just had to go with 44.1 and 16 bit cd quality with no mastering compression or LF boost or HF boost as time was running out.
Im so grateful for all the comments and advice on here.
By the way, what do you do when due to how the vst preset was originally in its default setting, the sound even once edited just sounds better through the center panning wise. I find it scary to adjust individual oscillator pan as think it might eliminate some good aspects. Often presets seem to sound best in center but then if every sound goes central i think the song lacks overall width?

i think by the time im 80 il understand what i wish i knew now on sound lol

cheers

🫶

I rarely pan things apart from drums sometimes, sometimes lead/melodies, but since I mostly do progressive stuff I rarely have actual leads, mostly arpeggiated melodies. Most of my mixing is mostly cutting frequencies, and I started recently looking more into panning the drums.

For me its gradual process of learning. I try to be gradual on the whole learning process. Keep in mind there was a podcast here in London (forgot the name) and some of the most known 90's house producers in London were saying: 'Oh, we didn't care at all for things like mixing and mastering - that's why we have audio engineers'.

But that era is gone fortunately/unfortunately, depending which way you look at it. I myself will try to find a good audio engineer here and maybe next year work on a few songs with him learning a bit more from a professional. Because sometimes you know tutorials/opinions online contradict each other and you are left thinking well what the heck am I supposed to do.

I might try using this example to mix and master a song and see how it goes. I can post the results here. But atm I barely have time for my show and a song here and there. I've been burning the candle from both sides for a bit and I might take a step back from producing.

LostLegend · Sep 9, 2022

Recharge said:
I rarely pan things apart from drums sometimes, sometimes lead/melodies, but since I mostly do progressive stuff I rarely have actual leads, mostly arpeggiated melodies. Most of my mixing is mostly cutting frequencies, and I started recently looking more into panning the drums.

For me its gradual process of learning. I try to be gradual on the whole learning process. Keep in mind there was a podcast here in London (forgot the name) and some of the most known 90's house producers in London were saying: 'Oh, we didn't care at all for things like mixing and mastering - that's why we have audio engineers'.

But that era is gone fortunately/unfortunately, depending which way you look at it. I myself will try to find a good audio engineer here and maybe next year work on a few songs with him learning a bit more from a professional. Because sometimes you know tutorials/opinions online contradict each other and you are left thinking well what the heck am I supposed to do.

I might try using this example to mix and master a song and see how it goes. I can post the results here. But atm I barely have time for my show and a song here and there. I've been burning the candle from both sides for a bit and I might take a step back from producing.
View attachment 1080

Be VERY weary of of these types of cheat sheets tbh. Each track is it's own and should be treated as such.

Some of the examples in this graphic are out right ridiculous.

Recharge · Sep 9, 2022

LostLegend said:
Be VERY weary of of these types of cheat sheets tbh. Each track is it's own and should be treated as such.

Some of the examples in this graphic are out right ridiculous.

Oh I absolutely agree. I think most important things are the melody and/or vocal piercing through everything else. Many ways to get there, cutting frequencies will mostly get you there. Recently I've been thinking of using automation as solution too, because cutting too many frequencies will leave the song sounding hollow and with less energy.

Bobby Summa · Sep 10, 2022

Im gradually googling all you guys, but ive had a lot on tonight.

So far from the music ive found. Im blown away and so encouraged that there is music around that wasn’t written to conform. Some fans of Trance should so be aware that this stuff exists. But I seriously do not know the scene and names these days. Probably because since getting into writing music again 2 and a half years ago, after a 22 year break from it ( yes 22 ) where i thought id never write anything again.
All my spare (me) time has mostly been writing various styles of electronica.
I had a lot to push out of myself. Plus getting over the technology was like climbing Mt Kilamonjaro ( not that ive done that

)

Anyhow.
I found this and it blew me for dust.

Bobby Summa · Sep 10, 2022

Morning peep’s

Here is a video I made of the night at Classic Ibiza Trance Anthems (Back to the 90s) a few months ago at Bournmouth O2 Academy. It was a night I found my mojo!

A fun track spun by one of my favorite vocal trance producers. 4 Strings!

I made 15 videos but this is the only one where my microphone on the mobile phone actually worked!

Ah, sorry don’t seem to be able to upload a video.
Few pics instead. First one is the picture i got with Lange on the far right me in the middle and my pal on the left!

Bobby Summa · Sep 10, 2022

Recharge said:
I rarely pan things apart from drums sometimes, sometimes lead/melodies, but since I mostly do progressive stuff I rarely have actual leads, mostly arpeggiated melodies. Most of my mixing is mostly cutting frequencies, and I started recently looking more into panning the drums.

For me its gradual process of learning. I try to be gradual on the whole learning process. Keep in mind there was a podcast here in London (forgot the name) and some of the most known 90's house producers in London were saying: 'Oh, we didn't care at all for things like mixing and mastering - that's why we have audio engineers'.

But that era is gone fortunately/unfortunately, depending which way you look at it. I myself will try to find a good audio engineer here and maybe next year work on a few songs with him learning a bit more from a professional. Because sometimes you know tutorials/opinions online contradict each other and you are left thinking well what the heck am I supposed to do.

I might try using this example to mix and master a song and see how it goes. I can post the results here. But atm I barely have time for my show and a song here and there. I've been burning the candle from both sides for a bit and I might take a step back from producing.
View attachment 1080

Recharge, is this you? Really lovely selection of tunes! Can you link with some of your own productions if that’s cool? ( or is your real name Paul Van Dyk ! )

update: ah cool man so this is you. I love a bit of prog / deep melodic House. Do you like Ben Bohmer at all?

Recharge · Sep 10, 2022

Bobby Summa said:
Recharge, is this you? Really lovely selection of tunes! Can you link with some of your own productions if that’s cool? ( or is your real name Paul Van Dyk ! )

Ha I wish I was him. Apart from not liking him for attacking acts like Lasgo and Iahn Van Dadl he is great producer. I've become a very decent dj because I started djing almost 5 years ago, first two years were hard painful and very slow. I realized I wasn't putting enough of an effort and towards the second year I pushed more, but it wasn't until I started recording mixing and self analysing I started seeing a great improvement. I always compared myself to the biggest names who are in the industry longest. Act like Comic Gate and Kyau & Albert, my idol ATB who was djing and producing even early 90s. And later on tried getting into producing. It's been two years of constant grinding there too. I am still a bit of a disaster on the mic though, but that's ok because I am not that kind of a DJ.

I have a playlist with all my songs, because I upload any song, demo or almost finished songs. Some of them might sound very amateur-ish. I always have my 'cave' where I keep about 20 unfinished demos or stuff that sounds super weird and later on rework them or lean into the weirdness of it and add even more. Example

I absolutely love that one
https://soundcloud.com/lq5vxcb1rzbn%2Fdj-recharge-dont-worry-be-happy
I struggle a lot with putting energy into my songs, so I lean into having a chill downtempo vibe in most of my songs.

https://soundcloud.com/lq5vxcb1rzbn%2Fsets%2Fmy-songs
This is my little gem. Wrote it last month and have actual goosebumps when I hear it
https://soundcloud.com/lq5vxcb1rzbn%2Fdj-recharge-the-sun-will-rise-again
I try to read about djing and producing every day, but I would say I read mostly about djing so I am heavily indoctrinated into the dj side of things rather than the producer side. I respect the old-school dj culture of djing like beatmatching by ear and stuff. but I also embrace the technology and use the very controversial sync button for example.

And thank you for the compliments and reminding my of this episode, I just started recording again Pure Progressive Sessions two weeks ago and yesterday at work I revisited first two episodes and that show has magic over it from episode one. I had a little monologue on the 100 ep of my other show how I felt in love with melodic progressive since I started djing and that show explores that side, well of me.

Bobby Summa · Sep 10, 2022

By the way guys. If i ever got a track released. Is my artist name Bobby Summa good?
ive never been that sure?

Recharge · Sep 10, 2022

Bobby Summa said:
By the way guys. If i ever got a track released. Is my artist name Bobby Summa good?
ive never been that sure?

When Ross From Friends started his career there were quite a lot of raised eyebrows his way. But he easily made it work. And now everyone knows him as one of the best unground producers in the UK. In two words unless you want to be e very big name branding is not that important and you can even make any name popular in time.

Bobby Summa · Sep 10, 2022

Recharge said:
Ha I wish I was him. Apart from not liking him for attacking acts like Lasgo and Iahn Van Dadl he is great producer. I've become a very decent dj because I started djing almost 5 years ago, first two years were hard painful and very slow. I realized I wasn't putting enough of an effort and towards the second year I pushed more, but it wasn't until I started recording mixing and self analysing I started seeing a great improvement. I always compared myself to the biggest names who are in the industry longest. Act like Comic Gate and Kyau & Albert, my idol ATB who was djing and producing even early 90s. And later on tried getting into producing. It's been two years of constant grinding there too. I am still a bit of a disaster on the mic though, but that's ok because I am not that kind of a DJ.

I have a playlist with all my songs, because I upload any song, demo or almost finished songs. Some of them might sound very amateur-ish. I always have my 'cave' where I keep about 20 unfinished demos or stuff that sounds super weird and later on rework them or lean into the weirdness of it and add even more. Example

I absolutely love that one
https://soundcloud.com/lq5vxcb1rzbn%2Fdj-recharge-dont-worry-be-happy
I struggle a lot with putting energy into my songs, so I lean into having a chill downtempo vibe in most of my songs.

https://soundcloud.com/lq5vxcb1rzbn%2Fsets%2Fmy-songs
This is my little gem. Wrote it last month and have actual goosebumps when I hear it
https://soundcloud.com/lq5vxcb1rzbn%2Fdj-recharge-the-sun-will-rise-again
I try to read about djing and producing every day, but I would say I read mostly about djing so I am heavily indoctrinated into the dj side of things rather than the producer side. I respect the old-school dj culture of djing like beatmatching by ear and stuff. but I also embrace the technology and use the very controversial sync button for example.

And thank you for the compliments and reminding my of this episode, I just started recording again Pure Progressive Sessions two weeks ago and yesterday at work I revisited first two episodes and that show has magic over it from episode one. I had a little monologue on the 100 ep of my other show how I felt in love with melodic progressive since I started djing and that show explores that side, well of me.

Hi recharge. Your soundcloud methodology doesn’t sound odd to me. Much of my page is works in progress. I didn’t know you can create a cave . Il look into that to put just my WIP’s in.
Im at the airport ( vaping in the toilets

) so cant listen to your tracks now, but my mate has, ( he’s at home following this post) and loves them. I look forward to listening tomorrow dude. Great info your putting on here 🫶

Bobby Summa · Sep 10, 2022

Recharge said:
Ha I wish I was him. Apart from not liking him for attacking acts like Lasgo and Iahn Van Dadl he is great producer. I've become a very decent dj because I started djing almost 5 years ago, first two years were hard painful and very slow. I realized I wasn't putting enough of an effort and towards the second year I pushed more, but it wasn't until I started recording mixing and self analysing I started seeing a great improvement. I always compared myself to the biggest names who are in the industry longest. Act like Comic Gate and Kyau & Albert, my idol ATB who was djing and producing even early 90s. And later on tried getting into producing. It's been two years of constant grinding there too. I am still a bit of a disaster on the mic though, but that's ok because I am not that kind of a DJ.
I have a playlist with all my songs, because I upload any song, demo or almost finished songs. Some of them might sound very amateur-ish. I always have my 'cave' where I keep about 20 unfinished demos or stuff that sounds super weird and later on rework them or lean into the weirdness of it and add even more. Example
I absolutely love that one
https://soundcloud.com/lq5vxcb1rzbn%2Fdj-recharge-dont-worry-be-happy I struggle a lot with putting energy into my songs, so I lean into having a chill downtempo vibe in most of my songs.
https://soundcloud.com/lq5vxcb1rzbn%2Fsets%2Fmy-songs This is my little gem. Wrote it last month and have actual goosebumps when I hear it
https://soundcloud.com/lq5vxcb1rzbn%2Fdj-recharge-the-sun-will-rise-again I try to read about djing and producing every day, but I would say I read mostly about djing so I am heavily indoctrinated into the dj side of things rather than the producer side. I respect the old-school dj culture of djing like beatmatching by ear and stuff. but I also embrace the technology and use the very controversial sync button for example.
And thank you for the compliments and reminding my of this episode, I just started recording again Pure Progressive Sessions two weeks ago and yesterday at work I revisited first two episodes and that show has magic over it from episode one. I had a little monologue on the 100 ep of my other show how I felt in love with melodic progressive since I started djing and that show explores that side, well of me.

Just got a moment, listening to first track now. Its real sweet man. Different. Nothing wrong with downtempo. Gotta do what you’re feeling. Sometimes i went to my studio with an aim to write a certain style but actually was more in a mood for a different style. It didn’t work. You ( or I) can’t force a vibe we ain’t feelin in that moment. I only got a chance to listen to a few minutes but that forst track sounds so interesting. I do a lot of ambient work

Bobby Summa · Sep 11, 2022

LostLegend said:
I'm not that well known to be honest, but Solarstone has played a couple of my bootleg remixes on his radio show, so if you are a regular listener, maybe you have heard my name there?

Oddly enough, today I've just had my first commercial release for a long time (see my signature)
I took a long hiatus from producing music and it's taken me a while to get back into the full swing of things haha.
Although, watch this space, as I have a fair bit coming up over in the next few months!

If that is what you can do in 3 days, then I look forward to what you can do with your own time work on the track!

Thank you man and tomorrow i will search out your tunes. Sounds like you have good things in the pipeline. I did have around half my track elements done a month before but in 3 days I hammered it before and after work.

well
Ive just got to Greece

night

cheers

Bobby Summa · Sep 11, 2022

LostLegend said:
Love that, sounds great. Got that old school progressive vibe about it!

LostLegend. Ive just been lying on a beach listening to your Depeche Mode Enjoy the Silence remix. It was a really great experience dude!

Bobby Summa · Sep 11, 2022

Recharge said:
Ha I wish I was him. Apart from not liking him for attacking acts like Lasgo and Iahn Van Dadl he is great producer. I've become a very decent dj because I started djing almost 5 years ago, first two years were hard painful and very slow. I realized I wasn't putting enough of an effort and towards the second year I pushed more, but it wasn't until I started recording mixing and self analysing I started seeing a great improvement. I always compared myself to the biggest names who are in the industry longest. Act like Comic Gate and Kyau & Albert, my idol ATB who was djing and producing even early 90s. And later on tried getting into producing. It's been two years of constant grinding there too. I am still a bit of a disaster on the mic though, but that's ok because I am not that kind of a DJ.

I have a playlist with all my songs, because I upload any song, demo or almost finished songs. Some of them might sound very amateur-ish. I always have my 'cave' where I keep about 20 unfinished demos or stuff that sounds super weird and later on rework them or lean into the weirdness of it and add even more. Example

I absolutely love that one
https://soundcloud.com/lq5vxcb1rzbn%2Fdj-recharge-dont-worry-be-happy
I struggle a lot with putting energy into my songs, so I lean into having a chill downtempo vibe in most of my songs.

https://soundcloud.com/lq5vxcb1rzbn%2Fsets%2Fmy-songs
This is my little gem. Wrote it last month and have actual goosebumps when I hear it
https://soundcloud.com/lq5vxcb1rzbn%2Fdj-recharge-the-sun-will-rise-again
I try to read about djing and producing every day, but I would say I read mostly about djing so I am heavily indoctrinated into the dj side of things rather than the producer side. I respect the old-school dj culture of djing like beatmatching by ear and stuff. but I also embrace the technology and use the very controversial sync button for example.

And thank you for the compliments and reminding my of this episode, I just started recording again Pure Progressive Sessions two weeks ago and yesterday at work I revisited first two episodes and that show has magic over it from episode one. I had a little monologue on the 100 ep of my other show how I felt in love with melodic progressive since I started djing and that show explores that side, well of me.

Your music is fantastic Recharge. Absolutely awe inspiring.

im listening now to The Sun will rise Again, i just heard The Future.
Im actually on holiday lyeing on a beach with the sound of waves in the background. Together with your music. Its an amazing experience.
I also heard Lost Legends remix of a Depeche mode Enjoy the silence.

The talent of people on this forum
And the passion for music of those here that dont produce is really refreshing.
Its changing my ethos to music.

I ve been working as an NHS cummunity health care professional since the first day of the first covid lockdown. Although the job i do now with patients is mostly physio based and really lovely to see patients make progress. I at first did emergency HCA work in the community. It was so stressful as i started day one of lockdown and had never done this kind of thing before. Luckily after a 22 year break from writing music( last time id written it was 1997) I got back into it a few months before covid became a thing.
Thank Christ i did!

Mainly because of work being so tough I kind of developed an idea that if ( big If) i could ever generate any income from music I would love to not work full time. I was just worn out all the time.

Thankfully my new position within the same department is different and much easier. But I really would like to work less. Ive heard of figures people get for top 10 positions on beatport and its like lots sometimes. Like 1000’s of £

so I listened to some of the house charts. Although there was ‘some’ stuff on there i liked a bit. More than a few tracks seemed so simple and empty.
Is it possible im missing something or are my ears not picking something up.

i just thought if i could write stuff like that, which im pretty certain cant be too hard i could give myself a rest and work the day job less if anything i made charted from time to time.

part of me thinks its abit bad to think this way tho and perhaps im missing something about the music but some of it sounds soulless to me.

sorry if this sounds arrogant guys but life was real hard when I thought that idea up.

My first propper (finished) trance track.

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