The digital age just changed a lot of things. Downloading illegal software takes no expertise and neither does making music with pirated software. In the early days only the ones willing to invest could produce music and they had proper schooled professionals involved in almost each stage of the production process. That is probably what makes all the difference in the world. Better production, composition, mixing, mastering.

The music has been taking a turn for the better the last few years though, in my opinion.

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Storyteller Website | Storyteller @ Facebook | Storyteller @ Beatport | Storyteller @ Soundcloud | Stephen J. Kroos - Europa (Storyteller Remix)
Anthony Mea - Get It On (Storyteller Remix)

quote:

If less is more think about how much more more would be. -Frasier

^Basically

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commercial and underground electronic music (house/techno/trance/other) will surpass today's hip hop/pop/rock/country in worldwide interest...if it has'nt already.

I thought the sound at DEMF this year was pretty darn good.

Granted, though... it wasn't trance.

mac+software only for me

Perhaps this is a question of taste but i think EDM now sounds alot better than it did in 2000. Of course there are exceptions on both sides but I think there is just more bad music now so it appears that things sound bad but when looking at what I consider good EDM , i think it sounds great.

quote:

Originally posted by RichieV Perhaps this is a question of taste but i think EDM now sounds alot better than it did in 2000.

It is a matter of taste. IMO a lot of newer stuff sounds terrible because compression has squeezed all the life out of it. Early '00s was when it really started going downhill for me.

What are people trying to achive by putting compressors on every channel? Loudness?

The only time in history Ive ever needed a compressor is to keep my subbass-volume level, I'm working on a track now using ABL2, and when you change the reso the sub almost vanishes. Its ambient acid, so it will have plenty of reso changes. Because its a subbass, there are very little transients, so you don't really hear "comrpessed sound".. imho. The bass is split into sub and high. Obviously i'm only compressing the bottom 20hz-200hz.

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E = mc²/2

E = mc² is the optical illusion of E = mc²/2

Click me to find out why.

quote:

Originally posted by sixofour.604 What are people trying to achive by putting compressors on every channel? Loudness?

Yes. Or sidechaining.

Personally I think so much of the compression used now sounds ridiculous. So many tracks with ugly "pumping" and "crunches" as the compressor squeezes everything when the kick hits. Ugh.

It reminds me awhile back when I had been putting a limiter on my master. I kept hearing a pumping reverb sound. My reverb would come in and out and I was like "wtf?". I just put limiters on the specific channels that need them now. Before the reverb of course. :P

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E = mc²/2

E = mc² is the optical illusion of E = mc²/2

Click me to find out why.

You compress for one of two reasons: You want the sound to be more punchy, or you want the sound to be less punchy.

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https://soundcloud.com/ghostea stuff

imo the average track today sounds better than before but its longer between the peaks (really good ones), most of todays track just have a good groove and a embarrassing theme, makes u wanna dj before the middle part.

That's mostly pissing against the wind, compression itself is a powerful sound level control tool, which normalizes the dynamics against a set level, which is actually needed in EDM to bang properly in clubs.

Of course it sounds retarded with classical, jazz, or most other real instrument oriented genres, but in EDM, where huge dynamic ranges would leave people wandering "wtf" on the dancefloors when they'd hear massive differences in volume on each sound, that's the only option.

You're confusing compression with hard-ducking (or sidechaining, though it's not the proper expression for this case) of everything against the kick, and poor limiting jobs, which are two totally different worlds.
Without compression different bass notes would sound differently loud, there'd be huge differences in notes on various synths depending on how many notes are pressed, add one note to the chord and you get added volume to it, etc... All in all it's needed to keep stuff in its place, and in EDM it has to be, else it's worth crap on the dancefloor.

Trend of hard-ducking and mastering overcompression is a totally different thing than compression in tracking/mixdown stage.

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