Dude, seriously, the "feel" of a track is ALL about the engineering. It is completely subjective depending on how you do things. Since no two tracks are the same, it boils down to making the right choices based on the material you have to work with. Knowing what to choose is what separates the pro's from the amateurs. Choosing the right sound, making them fit perfectly together, giving each sound it's own space, spending time tweaking the EQ & Compression on a bass drum or a hi-hat, or making tiny little adjustments to this synth line or that synth line. There are so many elements, you can't nail it down to just one.

Something that has helped me a lot, especially during mixdown, is painstakingly analyzing tracks I like the sound of using a spectrum analyzer. Take something like Ozone, which allows you to snapshot the spectrum analysis of an audio file, and play a track you like the sound of through it to capture a snapshot of the spectrum. Then overlay your tracks spectrum on that and see where you may be lacking. Is the bass too loud? Are the highs too bright or too dull? Do you see massive peaks or valleys in particular areas of the spectrum of your track compared to the professional track?

Once you determine this, then you can learn how to make adjustments using EQ, volume, compression, etc and LISTEN to how your track changes. Things like: What happens when I cut the Bass drum at 100Hz with a thin Q by 2 db? I should back off the threshold on that compressor because it is distorting too much. I need to cut at 1200Hz on synth line A because it is overlapping with synth line B and creating some muddiness in that range and I want synth line B to stick out in that range.

It is usually desirable to let the fundamental on a particular sound dominate that frequency range and cut anything else that may be overlapping (although there are artistic exceptions to this).

You'd be surprised how much those little changes can make a big difference in the sound of a particular part or how one part fits along with the rest. Once you get the hang of this, then you can literally change the "feel" of a track just by knowing what you want to stick out and what you want to push into the background. You can turn a full on trance anthem into a chilled out progressive track simply by engineering things in a particular way.

Listen, learn, study and don't give up.

quote:

Originally posted by Eric J Listen, learn, study and don't give up.

Nice words Eric. At the end of the day i think that people will do what they want to do. People who work for the man all their life do so because they want to, not because they have to. I know too many people who might be retired if they knew of something better to do with their spare time. By the same token, why doesn't that fat guy who is always talking about getting fit actually do it? Because he would prefer to do other things.

Those who craft golden tracks have a very defined sense of what they want their track to be, and they want to hear it as such, very, very badly. So badly that they'll keep on going until it sounds 'right'. The devil is in the detail. Ive been at it for just over a year and i love it, but i know that there is a long way to go until i can tweak to my standards relatively quickly. The bottom line is: if you want it bad enough, you will keep trying until you either die, or get there.

Also, some people just need to create. While the outcomes of their creations vary greatly: from light bulbs, to symphonies to space shuttles, they all have one thing in common: they enjoy the process of creation its self. Warble, as to the initial question, why not start by asking yourself the question; how does trance make me feel?

I think you'll soon find that its not 'trance', but rather a selection of trance songs that evoke such emotions. You might also find that other genres of music make you feel the same way. So what are the similarities? If you continue to ask yourself questions you will not only learn a lot about what YOU LIKE(information which IMVHO is great to know ), but also learn more quickly. It may sound silly but sound is literally all around you every day. You can learn a lot with a little attention.

And finally, you are 1 of 6 billion people. If you make something which satisfies your standards of what is brilliant then the chances are that others will like it too.


and life goes on...