The WIP thread - work In progress

This I did for a Techno battle, but I have another track that I might use in case I don’t make another (better) track.

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Is that mono? I hardly hear any difference when switching to mono. But somehow mono sounds pretty wide to me. I like that in “your face sound”!

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No it’s not mono,its stereo.But i usually make sure the track sounds the same in mono.

I’m not a fan of wide mixes or mixes that are relatively clear and un-coloured generally
speaking. I like a bit of texture and grit.The relatively small stereo image goes along nicely
with that sort of thing,at least for aggressive type stuff imo

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Thanks, glad you like it. It’s still no finished yet, I didn’t make music the recent weeks. :slightly_smiling_face:

No, there’s no tape emulator and no saturator. What I did for the first time is to use a FET compressor on the drums. The one by Softube to be exact, but v1 and not v2. I bet there’s a slight colorization because of this. Not like day and night in comparison, but there’s a difference, I had to tweak a little more than usual.

You mean another layer on the bass? Gotta try this. I always got a kind of “layer” on my kick and on my basses, but that “layer” is nothing else than a BP filter at 200 Hz, compressed with a high ratio and with individual intensities on each track. Possibly you might get a similar (not the same) result by EQing those frequencies, but I prefer this method.

Nope. Should I? And why? What I usually do is to use some effects that constantly change the sound slightly, but not in terms of notes.

I like the sound, it’s clean but not too clean. Drums only, so no need to be that wide. :slightly_smiling_face:
I remember that you’ve once created a track with some “melodious” elements (something like a bass, synth or even a pad), too. Imho that was a huge improvement of the overall impression. It was a great complementation to the always hard hitting drums. Do you intend to do that again, or was this a rare exception?

Where’s the hat between the kick? There has to be a hat, it’s Techno. I like the bass, it transports some groove. Now it needs some more impact, too. Some “ups and downs” in terms of energy exchange. Some breaks, some transitions, something that lets the dancers go wild. Imagine being on a dancefloor. What kind of sound makes you go wild? That’s what you need to do with this one. :wink:

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Thanks for the hints! Sounds much better and groovy with the hat. Still some breaks are missing here and there as you suggested, but it’s growing.

I also increased the tempo from 125 to 128.

No just another track with a short sub on it,like gently saturated sine wave or something like that.

Yeah why not! If you are into melody it is most definitely something you should experiment with.

Something i like to play with when i’m writing melodies is to write a riff that contains a lot of notes,then i will loop this and tune each individual note as it plays back so it sounds better to my ears.Once that is done i note all the tunings and make this a new scale.It takes a while to do but you can get some really interesting stuff by doing that.

That was probably some throw away loop,i make tons of different stuff all the time,all kinds of genres.
Mostly as a break from my normal stuff and to just learn new things as i go.Heres some really cheesy trance thing i made today for some fun.The total opposite of what i normally do!

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All right, I realized that I already got a sub on the bass, but it’s a square and no sine. I tried several things (changed the sub into a sine etc.), but in the end the “growl” at the beginning sounds best with a square as a sub. Nevertheless I added a short sine sub that’s slightly saturated (focus on the low ends), just as suggested. Now there are 4 layers in total, and I would say that’s more than enough. What do you think? Here’s the current (and probably the final) version:

I also decided not to add another new instrument in the last section, instead I dropped some stuff and made a kind of longer outro. I think that’s more appropriate. It keeps the mood.

What I like is to constantly change the pitch of some short synth elements in the back, you can hear it in many tracks that I create. Usually I automate it by LFO. But that’s not microtonal stuff, even though there are many steps between two neighboring notes. Your method sounds like work that fits to experimental stuff. Gotta try this as soon as I’m in the right mood for experiments with the goal to create some crazy sounds like Planet Jazz in the past.

I’m pretty sure it was an official track of yours. Afaik you’ve posted it in the music thread. But it wasn’t Trance or whatever. There were the usual hard hitting drums, but with just another element that wasn’t a drum. Anyway, it’s nice to hear something from you that’s not drums all the way. As I said, some elements that aren’t drums would take your stuff to another level imho. It doesn’t need to be the opposite of what you’re usually doing. But it’s cool that you’re doing some cheesy stuff for fun now and then. :slightly_smiling_face:

Absolutely, and you chose an appropriate hat. I like it. The tempo change to 128 BPM was also a good decision. Now the snare needs to be exchanged. I would suggest a “snappy” (like a snap) snare with a little less reverb. Try this one (will automatically be deleted in 24 hours), maybe it fits:

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Thanks… Downloaded.
I have Verbity2 on the snare. That’s a great plugin for drum reverbs. What I also want to change is the reverb on that stab synth that comes in first. Somehow it sounds very different (metallic) when switching to mono.

Very nice. I especially like the vox pad. Great atmosphere and a lot of clarity in the mix. Good one!

Thank you, @slujr ! I posted the final version right here in the music thread.
While we’re at new tracks, what about your Entities project? I know 2027 is the goal, but… :wink:

Is there a difference between “drum reverbs” and “other” reverbs?

I have to say that I’m not sure about that stab sound in general, but overall it seems to fit. Personally I would prefer a “softer” sound, but hey, something “unusual” is also ok. I’m not into today’s Techno anymore. :slightly_smiling_face:

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@TNT

Song was really good, drums sound awesome, even has room left for vocoder! Cool, niceone!

Haha, yes, optimistically. Been swamped with a million things. Some renoise related :wink:

Another Technoish track in the pipe that I enjoy more and more when listening to it more often.

Mix and arrangement are not final, but I think there are some great elements in there. I avoided to use too many standard synth sounds and most is sample based. Like the hypnotic feel to it.

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Changed quite a bit: :rofl:

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Ok, that’s a different vibe. I don’t know which version I would prefer, but I know that I don’t like the snare in the new version. It sounds almost like the snare of Fine Young Cannibals in She Drives Me Crazy, which doesn’t fit to Techno in general. I like the high synth starting at 1:42, which is a very good addition to the “housy chord bass”. And the way how you treated the vocals with that delay and stuff is just exactly how you should do it. Nicely done. So now which one is the one that you’ll contribute to that competition in the end?

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Thanks, meanwhile I have thrown the vocals out again, but maybe I leave them as it obviously sounds good. Regarding the snare I really think it fits and I like the snare. Nevertheless I´ll check if a different snare fits better. As I postet that track already I can´t use it anymore, so it´s still the one I sent you by PM. Maybe I get something done quickly before the deadline. Finally I´ll have 4 tracks which will go on an EP @ Spotify.

Holiday! So I used the recent two afternoons to compose some (uplifting) Synthwave. The motto is simplicity and fun. It’s been a while. That’s what I’ve got so far:

What I still don’t like for sure is the last transition. And I think the part after that transition needs some more variety. Of course as you most likely can imagine the mix is 100% unfinished yet. I didn’t even check the current mix through speakers yet. Anyway, do you have some great suggestions and/or remarks?

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Nice; that said, this style seems to be begging for vocals.

I half-agree with Jek, my mind was wanting a higher lead synth line over that, otherwise it’s a good foundation to polish and finish for sure.

Vocals require a message and content, and I think that at least 99% of everything there is completely suck at that point. Those words are irrelevant, that’s why I don’t care about vocals in general. I see a human voice in a song primarily just as another instrument and I think music is about atmosphere. Personally I only create vocal stuff if there’s a personal reference, just like for example a Rap song about and dedicated to my sister that was played at her wedding. But if someone would like to provide (relevant) vocals for a Synthwave song as part of a collaboration, I’m up for it. I wouldn’t want to use AI. You don’t sing, do you? :slightly_smiling_face:

Even higher than the one that’s already there? And where exactly would you like to hear it?

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