I´ve been sticking to samples all my life but now that I want to make dance music, I have realized that synths are the way to go. Much easier to make a dance-able sound. I´m amazed by the change of sound, it feels like Renoise just got a sick expansion, it´s the same game but I now have a lot more to learn.
Nice tune! The best part is from 1:48 to 2:48, especially as soon as the pad appears, which is a really nice addition to the bass and the short synths. Sounds pretty good. I’m not sure about the part from 2:56 to 3:26, which sounds a bit wild altogether. Anyway, good work! It seems that you’ve listened to some Amiga stuff in your life, the track sounds like a polished cracktune or something like that.
Congrats!
Thanks man, and thanks for your feedback I will work on the songs for some months before I release the album I<m working on, so I hope the arrangements will grow on me so I can solve all problems with the pace, notes and other stuff. It´s very nice to hear what you think.
Ah, you’re planning to sell your music, ok. Good luck and much success!
If you’re looking for great VSTs for dance music, check Serum and Sylenth1.
Talking about notes, I would be “careful” if you’re creating sequences like mentioned above or like in your song “Corrupted City” (from 1:28 to 2:03). If there are too many notes, whether because of your editing or echo or else, it can easily end up in crooked notes. At around 1:48 this is happening in Corrupted City. I can imagine what you’re after, but sometimes less is more. Btw, the bass you’re using in this tune is pretty nice! That’s also my favorite part, from 0:22 to 0:50. It has Elektro and Synthwave vibes as well, but it’s neither Elektro nor Synthwave. The tune gets kinda experimental after 0:50 because of the uneven beat. I assume that you did it on purpose. Hm, yes, of course you did it on purpose!
As you might already noticed I just had a quick look at your soundcloud, too.
Electro Funk / 8-bit / Synthwave, 2022.
That sounds promising. I create mainly Elektro and Synthwave myself and I love 8 bit sound, specificly SID.
Let those tunes rain! I couldn’t find any Elektro tune on your SC. Did I miss something?
Cool that you liked Corrupted City, that is from my last album made mostly with samples. Because it lacks the information of synths, I tend to give the melodies more notes, just a habit from the past when I played prog-metal. I can hear that it doesn´t suit dance music so well so I´m happy that working with synths also makes me simplify the melodies a little.
The project is very fresh, I´m still figuring out the sound that I want, I had to do it because about a year ago I became addicted to dancing. I played at a rave festival recently, that´s when I understood that I must work with synths. The first album was kinda 8-bit synthwave, while the next one I´m not sure. The sound changed so much.
The song I posted OP is among the more traditional on the album.
You know a lot about electro production, I will listen to your stuff for sure.
EDIT: Listening now, sounds great, I really like it, and good sound.
I also like Galactic Drive. In my opinion this is the most mature track of the entire album.
Ok, I see. But now you can variate things by using effects like filter cutoff and else or constant sound changes by using LFO combined with several effects within your VST. My two cents for melodies in terms of electronic dance music is to keep it simple, simplicity is king. Coincidentally I watched this video about melodies yesterday:
What can I say? I clearly prefer the “noob” sound (but it surely can be done better). The other stuff is ok, too, but it’s not suitable for most music styles, especially not for electronic dance music. I would recommend to not overdo melody creation. But of course it depends on what you would like to achieve with your sound and your taste. Nevertheless it’s an interesting video.
I’m just a simple tracker user for 30 years with a lot of breaks in between.
But since 3-4 years I try to push the sound quality by using several mixing and mastering techniques. All those years before I didn’t pay that much attention to it, I composed just for fun and mainly for myself. It was very surprising for me that several record labels wanted me to release songs on their label.
I don’t know what you’re listening to, but thanks! If you’re listening directly on SC it can happen that the first second of each song is missing. Don’t ask why, only Soundcloud knows. My songs with the most plays are probably Cybernetics (Synthwave), Surveillance (Elektro) and Ikari Intro (C64 Remix in Synthwave style).
All right then, I will look for your new stuff in future. It’s interesting to see how you’ll get along with all those synths, but I assume you will do great. Seemingly it’s exactly what you need. If you think I could help you out with anything just ask.
I listened to many of the first tracks on the soundcloud page, including those you posted there. I especially liked the song Time, that is the kind of music I want to hear when I go to clubs because the rhythm works easily through my body. Nice atmosphere too. Think I have something to learn from your use of acid sounds, very funky.
And the Ikari remix is very cool too, I played that game a lot in the 80´s, but I remember a different intro tune, a more military-ish one that I also liked. Couldn´t find it on youtube though, but I have it in my personal collection.
My aim is partly to make dance-able music that is more melody driven and has melody progression, because when I began dancing it was hard to find that kind of music, so I owe it to myself to push the limit a little. But coming from the kind of fast paced music like I do, it can quickly become too much, I know that. But I feel over time that the way I make the melodies will change with the sound, it has already changed a little.
But that you say what you are from your heart, and knowing that you have long experience within this kind of music, is worth a lot to me. I can show you the album when the songs become more finished if you want to hear it. You might not be able to approve it all in terms of production, but your reaction and honesty is enough.
That video is interesting. Not sure where I am though, maybe a little bit in all of them? xD My relation to music is very abstract.
There’s nearly no acid in my tunes, only in some single tracks, but very slightly. I guess what you mean is the use of synth basses. Especially in my Elektro tunes I use up to 3 different synth basses simultaneously, just like in “Time”. That’s where the “funkiness” is coming from. But right now I’m creating an Elektro tune with some real acid inside. If you’re interested in creating acid or at least using some acid in your tracks, check Phoscyon, which is probably the best 303 emulation you can get.
That’s for sure. Usually a plan is nice to have but in the end the execution is pretty different.
But you will make your way
Yes, since my early days (Kindergarten) I’m listening to this kind of music and I know a lot about this, but I started producing Elektro only 12 years ago and Synthwave only 3 years ago. In the 90s it was mainly Techno (that’s what I’m dancing to). But if you started creating music in 1999 you also have a lot of experience, right? I’m always interested in checking new sounds, so yeah, let me know when your album is finished. I will listen to it and give feedback. Btw. honesty is my second name.
Scientifically proven that we always get noob melody if we use piano roll.
Aha I see, so it was the bass sounds. I will try to experiment with that, it fills out the rhythm really nice. I don´t know the distinction between much of that stuff, since I have been a musician for so long I have heard about it but few things ever concerned me as I had found a style that was kinda technical in it´s execution, but no so much in hardware. Thanks for the plugin recommendation, I will definitely check it out, but after I play around with that triple bass-trick
So were in the german techno scene in the 90´s, must have been great. It´s always best to experience a culture at the time it´s taking form. I was a musician since 93, but only a little in the Amiga demoscene, I was more occupied with punkrock.
That´s great I will send it to you when all the parts sits together and songs are somewhat understandable. But it won´t be completely finished, that way I can take your advices and opinions into consideration.
Hehe
Pretty simple.
303 = Acid
everything else = not Acid, at most Acid like
An acid bass is a synth bass made on the 303 with an intensive use of the filter cutoff and resonance.
It was awesome! I was used to dance in a club called “Omen” in Frankfurt, which was the Techno temple of Europe, if not of the whole world. It was hard, underground and it was louder than elsewhere. It was that famous that even tons of visitors from outside Germany were brought there in busses. I can remember that one day I was there many people from Denmark and Sweden were brought there. Especially in the early 90s it was like this. Back then clubs for electronic dance music only were the exception and obviously Germany was one of the pioneers for Techno clubs. But most importantly the people were great! There was absolutely no intolerance, no posing, no show off, no trouble, nothing but fun! It was all about the music, the fun and about dancing hard all night long until dawn. Try to find that nowadays…
Ok, but Amiga demoscene sounds like electronic music.
So you started 2 years after me creating music. My start was in 1991 on Amiga with SoundTracker.
Ok, I’m looking forward to it. Let those tunes rain.
That’s good to know, all this is new to me.
That sounds epic! Yeah I have the impression that german techno scene was leading, I haven’t seen much of it but i played in some nice clubs in Germany back in the day. Two times at Fusion Festival, never seen anything like that. Thousands of people, loud as f.uck, and no police or security. Was amazing.
We didn’t have a strong techno scene in Norway in the 90’s but we had a somewhat strong demoscene, but it died out with the internet pretty much. There are still remnants of it but only old people.
Here is an Amiga 1200 demo where I did the music, released about a month ago:
Okay cool, it will
Yes. Imagine the Loveparade and up to 1.8 millions of people celebrating peacefully on the streets of Berlin. Tell me where else this is possible outside of Germany. But time has changed, everything is worse now mainly because of our really bad government and of course there is no more Loveparade for more than a decade.
Yeah, most of my favorite SID composers are skandinavian, let’s name Thomas Egeskov Petersen, Thomas Mogensen and Geir Tjelta. And I remember many of the demoscene meetings took place in Skandinavia. Those were the days. But there’s still so much talent in Skandinavia. Nice that you’re still creating stuff for A1200, I also still own one. What’s the program you used to compose the track? Like the demoscene in Norway the Techno scene in Germany is pretty much a shadow of its former “glory”. Literally every Techno club I knew doesn’t exist anymore and there is no replacement. There are still clubs existing, but in every respect no comparison to back then.
Here are 2 videos in case you’re intersted in the scene back then, but you’ll probably need to turn on the subtitles. The first one is about the Omen in the year 1994 and the second one is a small documentation about Frankfurt and its massive influence in the history of Techno, the clubs back then and nowadays.
Shiiit, Love Parade sounds awesome, too bad it’s discontinued Stuff like that disappears with the amount of control we have in society now. At least the pandemic brought back the underground club scene here in Norway a little, I can guess in Germany too(?).
The song in the demo was made in Renoise and guitar, then the coder used an mp3 routine that he had. The bitrate is low, but I was impressed by it anyway. The Amiga coders are usually very efficient.
Btw. I always wanted to go to Mekka Symposium copyparty in Germany but never got there because it was the same time as The Gathering in Norway. Mekka had a reputation of being among the greatest demoscene parties in Europe.
Thanks for the videos, you are doing well educating me in this stuff Good, I hunger for it.
Come on, don’t tell me you never heard of the Loveparade before.
Only if the ones who are in charge and control are degenerated, moronic, incompetent, criminal, hypocritical, bureaucratic extremists, and unfortunately this is the case in every aspect, at least in Germany. It’s a disgrace.
That’s what I suspected, because it doesn’t sound like Amiga. But I’m 100% sure a similar technique also was used back then in several demos in terms of its music. Nevertheless good work!
It’s coming together now, I knew that the rave scene in the 90’s was compared to the hippie movement, I just didn’t know to what extent, now I can see that it’s pretty much. And a rave festival where I played earlier this summer was called “Peace & Love 22´”, clearly inspired by rave pioneers.
Unfortunately it’s like that many places now, Norway too, the authorities we have slowly convinced people to accept the control society to a degree that will make it hard to go back. Their knowledge of psychology, and persistence is just too vast for common people to be able stand against it. More and more clubs and venues, not even that underground, is being shut down now. Only the controlled venues with music that doesn’t challenge anything can survive. Underground cultures like rave are generally mocked and laughed at in news papers and considered low culture.
It’s sad, but it also is reminder of how important it is that we try contribute ourselves to the cultures we want to see. Take the power back
Oh, just wait a little while. If the so-called representatives will continue their moronic way of politics, there will be and there needs to be be a revolution and anarchy will follow. You’re lucky to be norwegian, your country is at least not part of the club called EU, which is a criminal organisation to make the people of so-called “rich” countries like Germany become impoverished and the european politicians rich without any compensation. All I got left for my country is a really deep, deep scorn. It’s fucking insane what’s going on and it really makes me aggressive. That’s why creating music or being creative another way is really important. There’s a need for taking the mind off things. I think the worst western countries right now in terms of politics are clearly Germany and the USA. Germany is by far the most ridiculous country and the USA is about to get back to the Middle Ages. Norway is still cool in my view, but I’ve never been there, so what do I know?
It’s wrong to say that Norway is like Germany or USA, there are degrees to everything, but the tendency is as it is going the same way. Even though we are not members of EU, we might as well have been, deeply rooted in the same mentality and we contribute a lot to it.
It makes me happy to see that you worry about these things, that is the biggest problem, that it becomes so much that most people choose to ignore it. I think you are right in that a sudden change now would require some kind of breakdown, a revolution. The problem with that is that, as long as most people believe in the legitimacy of authority and capitalism, it won’t take long before reality will shift back. We have been raised to forget about essential responsibilities, leaving moral up to the state, for many reclaiming that amount of responsibility in their life is a great pain in the ass.
You know the expression “the formative years”. Let’s just say that I believe at the moment that the hard drive must be formatted with a different filesystem, and an OS based on longer lasting principles must be installed.
These are difficult and important questions with no easy answer, still it is something that must be fixed before the world ends up like China or worse. Underground cultures are the first to suffer when that happens.
There’s no question about it, it’s a fact. The question is not “Will the system crash?”, the question is “When will the system crash?”. There are 10 stages in total, and we in Germany already reached stage 8, which means the point of no return has already been passed. It can be assumed that the system will crash in about 50-70 years. There’s still some financial potential to compensate the grievances at the moment, but this won’t last for long. And for decades now there are incompetent clowns in charge who accelerate the decline. The more you know, the worse it gets. And believe me, it’s abysmaly bad. Bureaucracy has reached such dimensions that nothing can be done properly anymore, and it costs an unbelievable amount of money. That much money, that there isn’t enough left for the problems which need to be solved, And the EU is just another BIG construct of bureaucracy. The EU is like communism, great idea but fucking lousy execution, furthermore inconsistent. The only way to fix all of this is a total reset, and that means revolution. A new beginning. Every capitalistic system will crash sooner or later. But surely it can be accelerated by incompetent, criminal, hypocritical politicians. So you’re absolutely right when you believe that “the hard drive must be formatted with a different filesystem”.
Ok then, my next post is about music again.
Mostly eu law is driven by lobbyists for global companies, and the bad influence of these is the main reason why German and Eu politics is so disastrously bad. It might just look like communism in the media, but this is just the neoliberal propaganda, in fact it is the pure neoliberalism, which was proven to not work decades ago. Most politicians are mainly influenced by lobbyists and the democracy is just a pseudo theatre for the masses. If you look at statistics about governments spendings, you can proof this for yourself, but then you need to dig deeper into a mountain of shit and false information. You need to do research for yourself, and it will not match the public discussions at all. Sadly people usually do not base their opinion on facts which they researched for themselves, but instead they let the people with the influence think for themselves. The dying of nature is real, and the politics will change nothing about the system which is causing it. They only are capable of letting the poorest pay even more for the riches, because the poor have no lobby at all. In the end, this society deserves the end, because most people are blind for the Limitations of a human being, also in a rational way. Let’s face it, what is the best this type of human society is known for? It’s the destruction of the planet and living at the expense of others. It is a systematic failure and its brainwashing already starts in the school.
In other words, people benefiting and controlling this system will prevent a crash as long as they can, so they can benefit even more. And then it is too late. Maybe in half a billion of years, a smarter life form without these drastic psychological limitations will appear…