Hello everyone.

I'm relatively new to music production. Until now I've had a bash at a couple of techy house tunes but I'm now having an attempt at a proper trance tune (my prefered genre!). Anyway I'm in the very early stages as you'll hear from the small sample but I've already hit a stumbling block. When the drum loop kicks in, to me it lacks any drive or energy. I've got it pitched at 145bpm aswell so it should sound fast but it sounds much slower.

Is it my kick that's the problem, or percussion, or bass line. I'm really hoping one of you can point me in the right direction.

Any ideas, tips, criticism is welcome.

Thanks for reading.

The link for download is below

[[ LINK REMOVED ]]

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Listen to and download all my tracks at www.gregnicot.bandcamp.com

Last edited by G-Con on Aug-24-2006 at 22:44

theres like...no bassline?

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Found Atlantis - Mixography [mix archive/mokumentary/my soul]?
i writed a song.

There is a off beat bass line with delay on it. But I've now done bit of tweaking with eq's and compression to make it more prominent without drowning other sounds. It's a little bit louder and this may have helped a bit but the whole thing still sounds weak. I'm updating the top link as i go

(Ignore the hi hats panned hard right. They are meant to alternate left and right but sample hasn't rendered properly)

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Listen to and download all my tracks at www.gregnicot.bandcamp.com

Last edited by G-Con on Aug-24-2006 at 22:46

i think it's a combination of things...


1. the bassline is both very generic sounding and generically programmed...it needs work.

2. basically the same with the percussion elements and hihats...they are generic...if you want it to have a driving groove to them...you need to spend a little more time with them and layer them better.


not trying to be harsh, but just honest. it sounds like you programmed your bassline and percussion this way because that's what was easy...

Thanks for the feedback. You're right about percussion. I've probably been a bit lazy in that respect. I'm working on adding more percussive elements and trying (with difficulty) to give them more variety as we speak.

In terms of the bass line. I admit it is programmed a bit generic but surely an off beat sub bass would give the track more drive and feel faster. This is mainly why I went for this type of bass. Is this what you're referring to or are you talking about the more trancey bass lead with less low end?

Would anyone else like to pass comment or share their knowledge. I really want to be able to solve this problem of my tracks lacking energy. This is mainly why I've stayed away from doing trance before but now I want to take it to the next level.

Any feedback welcome

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Listen to and download all my tracks at www.gregnicot.bandcamp.com

16th notes can do wonders for drive. I would also recommend that you not do a polka beat. Contrary to popular belief, it doesn't create drive, on the contrary, it makes the soung bounce. It is actually used in some psy to lower the energy in some sections. I would go with something like this:

K---K---K---K---
---b--b--b-b--b-

Or anything else where the even sixteenths take up a bass note every so often.

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www.jexmusic.com - My website

Make your bassline play on two octaves. The higher octave should be 16th notes. The lower octave should be 32nd notes placed at 16th note intervals. By alternating the length and octave of the notes you can get a really energetic bassline. But it also depends on the pattern it self.

Cheers for the tips. This is exactly the type of advice I was after. Gonna work on that bass line over the next few days and hope it brings my track to life.

Thanks again

___________________
Listen to and download all my tracks at www.gregnicot.bandcamp.com