OUT Enlusion — Reminiscence EP [JOOF Recordings]
- Thread starter Enlusion
- Start date
Progrez
Elite Member
- Jun 17, 2022
- 1,753 Posts
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Have you thought about adding more percussions like hi hats and crash cymbals into your track? All I am hearing is a synths and kicks in most modern day progressive tracks and it gets drowned where I can't hear a catchy melody anymore. I miss the days when producers would add a lot of simple and catchy percussions into their tracks. I am not having a go but it's something I have observed. Congrats on the release by the way. It must have been tough to convince JOOF to release your track on his label.
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There are a lot of various percussive elements in these tracks, it may be a matter of headphones/monitors which limit what you can hear.
Here's a snapshot of Inferno project for you. There are open hat, closed hats, rides, toms, shakers, crash cymbals (every 8/16 bars), additional percussions, loads of different sweeps (recorded from the VSTs) and FX, spaceship sample. Most part of those sounds are automated by filters and volume. More percussions? Where? The space in the mix is not indefinite. This one is stem mastered by a professional, full-time sound engineer, just to remind you.
These days music is not mastered like in 00's where all you can hear is percussions and supersaw leads (and really bad mixing in the tracks you love and post here tbh, people just used to add tons of reverb in the past to smooth the lack of their mixing abilities and make their music sound «atmospheric»).
From the sound engineer point of view a good part of the classic progressive is simply Ambient with the kick.
Everything moves forward and it's not a good idea to stick to something from the past, like classic Progressive Trance music in our case. It's like going forward with your head turned backwards, one day you'll come to a tree, at best.
The car manufacturers don't make their new cars with the same technologies as in 70's just 'cause the engine sounded better back then and a few thousand snobs still prefer those cars.
I don't have any reference when I produce music, I just open the DAW and start making music. I listen to all my tracks on repeat hundreds of times until I'm 150% sure about every second of them. I'm an enthusiast who puts endless hours of work every month into this area and I don't want to please anyone, it's absolutely OK to not like something. There's Pure Trance Vol. 10 compilation where I don't like a single track, and it's absolutely OK because it's just not what resonates with me musically.
Music production is not about pleasing a few snobs on Trancefix.nl, it's about showcasing your musical vision to the entire world, which's slightly larger.
Progrez
Elite Member
- Jun 17, 2022
- 1,753 Posts
- 825 Thanked
Just because I prefer older way of making music doesn't make me a 'snob'. I much prefer how percusssion sounded back in the golden era and it feels somewhat drowned and some of the sounds are too 'loud' for my ears to enjoy even having it on low volume on headphones. I don't care if it's mastered by a full time engineer they can still get it wrong or not fully breathe life to the track just like a lot of tracks from past as well for example Moon in Hand (Original Ambient Mix) by Alex Stealthy poorly mixed track and even Airwave's new tracks have been trash too just boring lifeless tracks, I hear more of the modern percussion sounds in more techno tracks compared to most prog or trance tracks released these days. I do miss the old crash cymbals sounds though and I am glad some sub genres still have them like some goa trance and some techno tracks but they seem to be non-existent in these kinds of. prog and trance tracks played by the ASOT crowd. I am not a producer so I don't know the exact theory behind it to give you a more definitive and thorough answer. I really wish I could give you but my knowledge in music is lacking just most of the fans here to give producers like yourself a constructive feedback. They also lack groove, melody, soul, no journey, and nothing memorable that I want to look back on 10 years from now.
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There are much higher expectations from me, Narel and Facade than from the other forum members (except Magdelayna, his music is on the brighter side of things and grabs more attention obviously). When an amateur produces a good record he receives loads of great feedback 'cause it was completely unexpected. When me or Narel do that, it's sort of OK and well expected, nothing special
Am I a snob? I just speak my mind about my taste. I have literally zero control over what I like and do not like, same as everyone else. It’s no social choice to be edgy I promise you. I only bring this up for sake of discussion because this is a place for doing that.
Anyway I often like your music Enlusion, and your label a lot too. But there’s no doubt in my mind that old productions had nicer sounding tracks, and consistently. JOOF label is so so far away from this, not even close. I don’t care how technical and thorough the producers are, it’s just what I hear and I think many agree. Are we in the majority or minority I have no idea.
Anyway I often like your music Enlusion, and your label a lot too. But there’s no doubt in my mind that old productions had nicer sounding tracks, and consistently. JOOF label is so so far away from this, not even close. I don’t care how technical and thorough the producers are, it’s just what I hear and I think many agree. Are we in the majority or minority I have no idea.
Enlusion, I think it’s too sensitive to label people snobs just because they are always being critical. I am sure you deny track submissions from your label because they don’t meet a standard you hold. It’s no different with members here, they just have their own standards too, but they might be different from your own. I guarantee there is 70% of the scene who would find your take on Trance to be snobbish. Being silent or vocal on the matter is irrelevant, and forums are not a place for silence on voicing opinions.
The type of person to be in a place like this a subset of trance listeners that is always going to have standards much different from the rest, and strong opinions too, because passionate people end up in places like this. Producers should take the critical voices from places like this as temperature check from one end of the scale in my opinion. Also the disillusioned amongst us need a place to vent, I am one of them. I don’t like what happened to Trance and the echo chamber in here is aligning with my standards too, mostly anyway.