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-- The Digital Blonde - Synthology [Album]
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I have the feeling a lot of trance producers nowadays are trying hard to get a clean, 'professional' sound because they know they can't innovate anymore in terms of creativity, originality.
It's actually the only way for them to prove they were sitting more than an hour behind Reason and that their sound is different than the 16 years old prototype.

The mastering on Synthology is really strange indeed. However, at the end of the day, when you play one of that tracks in your set, it doesn't sound rubbish compared to the rest of the set. (Some tracks need a bit of EQ tho).

Originally I never thought Rikis tracks had odd mastering, but once it was pointed out to me I did notice it. But then I realised that I prefer the tracks like this. Raw. And if you ever hear one of Rikis tracks in a liveset, you know full well its Rikis within 30 seconds of hearing it.

Tis Rikis style, a breath of fresh air, and I wouldnt ask him to change it or neaten/polish it as some are suggesting. I like it just like this

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Originally posted by zDmn i bought this from audiojelly and its a 320bit rate. anyone know how i can reduce it down to 192bit rate??? do you guys think it would sound better??? the music is good so far, but the base lines dont seem to hit hard enough for me. im guessing the bitrate is too high.

haha 320 is the best, why on earth would you want to reduce it down to 192?

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Originally posted by PEZ68 I have the feeling a lot of trance producers nowadays are trying hard to get a clean, 'professional' sound because they know they can't innovate anymore in terms of creativity, originality.

well... they try hard for that sound because 99% of DJs only play tightly produced stuff nowadays... whether the track is creative or not

for me, it's an acceptable substitute. a track is never going to make it into my alltime favourites without any substance to it, but i can still normally appreciate artistically plain stuff if it's uber-tightly produced. sean tyas' recent stuff comes to mind... i could listen to his basslines on loop all day

but at the same time, if the music behind it is quality then it isn't so important, especially if it has a kind of arcane 'warehouse' feel (nice description btw) like alot of the tracks on here

still, it would be nicer if stuff had awesome substance AND tight as fuck production... *imagines a DB vs sean tyas collaboration*

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Originally posted by isoterra olver liebing i can completely see where your coming from and can respect your view. i was actually expecting to write similar comments after i first flicked through the album and even contemplated starting a whole new thread discussion the importance of production standards. when i'm browsing through recordstores looking for stuff to buy, crisp & powerful sounding stuff is paramount, i can usually rule out dodgy sounding stuff in about a second of listening to the respective samples. the thing with this though, is that i saw it as less of a collection of club tracks, more as an artistic product, and with the amazing work that's gone into the atmosphere in the tracks, i was able to forget about the dodgy production standards. long story short if these were all individual tracks i'd probably skip by most of them, with the possible exception of only you & concerto. just in the context of the album i think it works, in some cases like ritual it even benefits it chicane's first album is similar in that respect, even tho it's older. but still the production sounds incredibly dated now, but it still works cos of the atmospheric journey the album takes you on

Dated, sure, but properly mixed and mastered! My nitpick is not about Ricky's ideas, because he's always had a unique sound and approach to his work. My nitpick was nearly on the acoustic end result of those ideas.

What it basically comes down to it, Ricky invest some money into buying good monitoring equipment and have someone with a golden pair of ears help you with the mixing. It's up to J00F to fork out money for the mastering

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Originally posted by isoterra well... they try hard for that sound because 99% of DJs only play tightly produced stuff nowadays... whether the track is creative or not for me, it's an acceptable substitute. a track is never going to make it into my alltime favourites without any substance to it, but i can still normally appreciate artistically plain stuff if it's uber-tightly produced. sean tyas' recent stuff comes to mind... i could listen to his basslines on loop all day but at the same time, if the music behind it is quality then it isn't so important, especially if it has a kind of arcane 'warehouse' feel (nice description btw) like alot of the tracks on here still, it would be nicer if stuff had awesome substance AND tight as fuck production... *imagines a DB vs sean tyas collaboration*

Ideally, one would want a good track that is also well produced. In the end, a good track with horrible mastering has about just as much chance as being picked up as a boring track with amazing production. I'll probably go as far as to say, it has slightly less chance. In this day and age, when high quality tools are available it is almost inexcusable to have a shitty sounding production.

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Originally posted by 8Wonders Dated, sure, but properly mixed and mastered! My nitpick is not about Ricky's ideas, because he's always had a unique sound and approach to his work. My nitpick was nearly on the acoustic end result of those ideas.

yeh i knew how you meant

If you think this album sounds dirty I recommend some of Ricky older productions. Such as Sutra or why not Antheum. Total dirty madness

I even prefer that kind of rawness more than the little more "polished" sound some of the tracks on Synthology got.
It reminds me a bit of Deepsky's older sound. Similiar rawness.

I agree that the majority of todays tracks are so polished and clean that they totally lack depth.
Sure Above & Beyonds album sounds very crisp and clear. But how generic aren't their tune? It's not an album which will be sold for $100 in 10 years.

a&b's album wasn't too bad actually. i'm normally an avid hater of them but you can tell they put some effort into it, some of the tracks are generic but others decent.

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Originally posted by RebeL9 If you think this album sounds dirty I recommend some of Ricky older productions. Such as Sutra or why not Antheum. Total dirty madness I even prefer that kind of rawness more than the little more "polished" sound some of the tracks on Synthology got. It reminds me a bit of Deepsky's older sound. Similiar rawness. I agree that the majority of todays tracks are so polished and clean that they totally lack depth. Sure Above & Beyonds album sounds very crisp and clear. But how generic aren't their tune? It's not an album which will be sold for $100 in 10 years.

No one was talking about the musical appeal of A&B's album tho. On a production level, from a mastering and mixing point of view, it's flawless. Depth as you put it is not something that's obtained by improperly mixing material, it's something you do with proper mixing and mastering.

What you call raw, others may call 'amateur' or 'unprofessional'. You may argue that maybe Ricky doesn't care, but maybe he does. You could also argue that maybe the fans don't care either, but is it possible he'd get more respect and even more fans if his work was better mixed/mastered? I believe so.

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Originally posted by 8Wonders Depth as you put it is not something that's obtained by improperly mixing material, it's something you do with proper mixing and mastering.

I don't agree. Depth can be something which is within the music not bound to the mixing and mastering. As I said, there are heaps of old trance, "badly" mastered from a modern point of view but which got more depth than most of the generic stuff released today.

I dunno what modern day producers care most about. It sometimes seems rather better to produce an unoriginal and bland tune but with crystal clear audio.

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Originally posted by 8Wonders No one was talking about the musical appeal of A&B's album tho. On a production level, from a mastering and mixing point of view, it's flawless. Depth as you put it is not something that's obtained by improperly mixing material, it's something you do with proper mixing and mastering. What you call raw, others may call 'amateur' or 'unprofessional'. You may argue that maybe Ricky doesn't care, but maybe he does. You could also argue that maybe the fans don't care either, but is it possible he'd get more respect and even more fans if his work was better mixed/mastered? I believe so.

theres a difference between intentional rawness and plain carelesness. A good example of this is Depeche Modes "Songs Of Faith and Devotion" album. the album has a really raw and stadium like quality to it. almost as if the mastering was overlooked. yet the mastering on their previous record, Violator (which was done by the same producer and co producer), was flawless and its considered one of the best albums of all time.

I guess there are times when it works and times when it doesent. With Depeche it worked because it was incredible songwriting the production called for a more raw vibe. I cant comment on this album as I havent heard it yet but judging by the overwhelming positve response Im sure if the music itself was up to par that the mastering was intentional.

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Originally posted by 8Wonders You may argue that maybe Ricky doesn't care, but maybe he does.

come again? lol. if you read his posts he said he specifically wanted it to sound like this

can you imagine ritual sounding anything like as effective with tight crystal clear production? imho it would take everything away from it, pretty much

and you're forgetting mixing & mastering standards are all subjective... there's no such thing as mixing improperly. something clear, crisp & balanced to one person can be regarded as bare, cold & lifeless to another


i'll re-iterate; i can see where you're coming from... completely. i'm a producer myself and strive for the standards you speak of (although i'm still a fair way off achieving them). but it's clear here that ricky knows how he likes his tracks to sound and pretty much all of his fans agree with him. he may have limited his potential fanbase as a result but i think it's pretty clear he isn't after mass appeal

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Originally posted by isoterra he may have limited his potential fanbase as a result but i think it's pretty clear he isn't after mass appeal

Yeah you can say that again. If he should've wanted mass exposure he would have signed with a armada-like label with major promoting and all, I suppose.
Just look at the previous album release on JooF, Steve Birch's wasn't it? I've the idea not much DJs have picked that one up, the fans will find it though.
The love for music is more important than making the hard cash

id give this album a 7/10...there are really good tracks in there - love the FX and samples in there and ive always loved the strings & synths he uses...i cant help thinking some of the tracks sound a bit samey tho..need more variation in there..

I do agree that the overall sound quality is quite poor - they all sound like 128 kbps versions - the kicks & basslines need to be more punchier & beefed up but i know Ricky has explained this,so fair play

..i still prefer the 'optica/electra' era tho...

cheers dooooooods dont loose faith in the blonde theres some monsters on the way this year

So I was very hesitant to buy a digital release because I like the actual CD, case, and booklet but I decided that I like J00F Recordings and I might as well support them and Digital Blonde. I go to Beatport and the price is $18 and I felt that was too much for a Digital Download since cds aren't even that much and they usually have more tracks. I then go to Audiojelly and of course it is all in pounds and I didnt want the exchange rate to kill me to much(10.77 is great looking back at it). I then go to Karmadownload.com which I got after searching J00F Recordings because I was comparing prices. I find it on there for $9.90 and went ahead and took the plunge. Come to find out I got scammed because I didnt notice that tracks 2-8 were only partial parts of the songs. All of those songs are cut off at the 3:15 mark or so. I got Tronika and Karma as full songs for some reason though. Im quite upset and probably wont be buying digital downloads like this for quite some time. Sure it was my own fault for not looking at the amount of time the track plays but the other sites didnt list that information, plus there should have been some type of warning. I feel I bought the album so do you all think downloading them off a p2p network would be shady or not?

it's probably just a mistake on the website's part. email them about it; they should either refund you or upload the full correct versions & credit them to your account

Email them and let me know what happens. I'll pass the info on to Joof Records if the download company act like asses over this.

They fixed it, was a problem with their distributer I guess. I must of been the first person to buy the album on that site.

Edit:

My review is that it is a good artist album and this is coming from a guy that usually hates artist albums. All the tracks are pretty ace but I was expecting even more from it after the awesome PR job by guys like Chris and Rebel but that is my fault for reading every thread dealing with Synthology. Tronika is indeed freaking massive. However the biggest compliment that I can give this cd is that it is something I would play 5 years from now and that is rather rare in releases today.

I heard someone might be doing a mix of this album, which would be really interesting to hear. If you are that person, message me when you do that.

8/10

is Only You a remix of
Atlantis Vs Avatar - Fiji?

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Originally posted by RebeL9 I don't agree. Depth can be something which is within the music not bound to the mixing and mastering. As I said, there are heaps of old trance, "badly" mastered from a modern point of view but which got more depth than most of the generic stuff released today.

I've noticed that and it's true, but I think if those badly mastered tunes had the mastering of today productions it would sound better.

There's nothing wrong with crisp and clean mastering productions.

I think what's happening is that you asociate bad mastering with the past, and most of the songs that you like are from the past.

of course a dull song with great mastering will still be shit.

Anyway you don't need to know much about mastering, just send it to these guys
http://www.online-mastering.com/

they are professional engineers and will make your tunes sound great.

A Musician doesn't need to be an engineer, of course he oculd be into mastering, but I think the engineer would do a better job.
well that's if you have money to pay them.

the arquitech creates, the civil engenieer makes the dream real.

they both need each other

the musician creates, the sound engineer makes it sound the best.

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Originally posted by Pinokio is Only You a remix of Atlantis Vs Avatar - Fiji?

Nope, they both just use the same vocal sample, which is taken from Praise - Only You (from around '91 or something I think).

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Originally posted by DJ_Massive Nope, they both just use the same vocal sample, which is taken from Praise - Only You (from around '91 or something I think).

Thanks, I was wondering something like that... =)

I'll check the original track, I'm cruious about it jeje

Guess what bitches finally

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