I all but abandoned this kind of uplfiting and melodic trance music in favor of the deeper stuff, but your'e the first producer in the modern period who makes me pay attention again and find something to like about it.
But I can't pretend I am completely satisfied. I see differences with what you do and the past music, including the sound design, which I know you are praised for here a lot, and I understand that, as you are miles above the rest, but my ears don't lie it is still not hitting the sound design heights of other classics of a similar style. I switched between your tracks and some older ones it is noticeable, mostly with the synths and how more pinched and 'high' everything sounds. The whole track dyamics sound one step below, there's no warmth. When you change between tracks from the different eras you hear it. To me this is one more sign that technology at some point in the pipeline of modern music creation and exporting is at fault. They did not have this problem in the past.
I also think you could choose better, less obvious synths and melody patterns. It all feels very 'done to death' kind of stuff, like out of the 1000 synth choices you have, were still getting the same obvious ones again. That's fine here and there, but given how talented you are, I hope to see more inventive patterns and synth choices. Mijmering is good example. I also think the kick strays too close into the "steroid" territory in some tracks.
All thismight be interpretted as negative nitpicking, but this small stuff makes a difference I believe.
But I can't pretend I am completely satisfied. I see differences with what you do and the past music, including the sound design, which I know you are praised for here a lot, and I understand that, as you are miles above the rest, but my ears don't lie it is still not hitting the sound design heights of other classics of a similar style. I switched between your tracks and some older ones it is noticeable, mostly with the synths and how more pinched and 'high' everything sounds. The whole track dyamics sound one step below, there's no warmth. When you change between tracks from the different eras you hear it. To me this is one more sign that technology at some point in the pipeline of modern music creation and exporting is at fault. They did not have this problem in the past.
I also think you could choose better, less obvious synths and melody patterns. It all feels very 'done to death' kind of stuff, like out of the 1000 synth choices you have, were still getting the same obvious ones again. That's fine here and there, but given how talented you are, I hope to see more inventive patterns and synth choices. Mijmering is good example. I also think the kick strays too close into the "steroid" territory in some tracks.
All thismight be interpretted as negative nitpicking, but this small stuff makes a difference I believe.