Originally posted by Domesticated
That said, this mix appears to be a collection of what you were listening to, rather than are listening to. And I know you seemed pretty taken with prog-psy when I posted that Twelve Hours set which finished with Black Arrow by Solar Fields.
I've been listening to quite a lot of psy-related stuff recently. A lot of psy-chill and also plenty of stuff like this. I've also been to a couple of good trance nights this year.
quote:
Originally posted by JonDC
Hi mate
I listened to this the other day with high hopes of another of ur stellar examples of 'best of genre EDM' (your breaks, dnb, and post-apocylipse ones i have so far are all yet to leave the mp3 player).
Unfortunately, and unlike the others where there are none, there are just way too many imperfections in the mixing for this to be regarded in the same ball park. I'm wondering if that's because trance relies on longer transitions than those other genres, or because of the bpm? Some of the transitions were fine of course; it's just that there are a few shockers too which i thought warrented a re-recordeing.
That's fair enough. I think it is mainly because I haven't mixed four on the floor beats (or trance) for quite a while. I'm more used to mixing proggier stuff, and the faster psy-trance stuff with heavier basslines was a first-time thing for me.
Personally, I made sure I listened through this before I uploaded it and I didn't have too many issues with the mixing (apart from the one out of Fire Signs) but I don't usually get any complaints and this time I've had several, so clearly I fucked up a bit.
Either way, thanks for listening. Always appreciate honest feedback.
Yes, the mixing here was disappointing, for more reasons than one. I think the problem probably lies in the headphones or speakers you're using. Due to its expansive basslines, psy-trance's kicks need to be higher than those found in other genres, and the spread of frequencies is a little bit different. If this was your first time mixing the genre, it may have been tricky.
Plus, different speakers and headphones show different things. I was very happy with the mixing in my own set Contact, for example, but when I took it to a friend's house a few months later, I noticed some awful phasing between two of the tracks - his crappy commercial speakers falsely emphasised the mid-range so much that it was audible, though my flat response speakers at home didn't reveal this as much.
So anyway - at times there was way too much bass and mid-range layering, and things got a bit crunchy for me. Curiously, I also noticed some of the beatmatching was slightly off on two or three or the mixes. Thirdly, though I understand it's hard with this kind of highly atmospheric heavy bass material, I felt the phrasing could have been better in a few transitions, too.
So, that's all the bad things. As JonDC said, the progression was very nice - I like this straight linear stuff that builds up massive momentum the longer the mix goes on. You did this very subtly. At one point, maybe three or four tracks in, I remember thinking "this isn't particularly psy-trance-ish", but then somehow you managed to sneak in a huge bassline in the next track and I couldn't even remember how things had got there. I was also pleasantly surprised with how hard this got - I didn't think you were too capable of anything like that.
While you might be annoyed with yourself regarding the mixing, know that for me, psy-trance has been totally played out. I've explored pretty much every kind of it and become bored to death by most of it. I very much expected the same from this, especially with tracks from Plusquam (who have gotten better of late, admittedly), Iono and Dacru, three labels I'm not overly fond of. However, I really liked your track selection and will continue to listen to this. I think you should take pride in being able to impress someone who's immersed themselves as deeply in this genre as I have.
Also, though I don't like Dacru a great deal, I recommend you buy this track. It has one of the best engineered basslines I've ever heard; the youtube really doesn't do it justice. The percussion and lead synths are also fantastic, making it a very strong track overall. Listening to this from a CD through my studio monitors and expensive soundcard have given me goosebumps many times.
The others have pretty much already said what I thought about this mix. Knew the majority of these tracks, but still nice to hear them put together by expert hands.
Regarding the mixing, one thing I would like to add is that I think John 00 Fleming makes big use of cue points, so that he can focus for the large part on the eq side of mixing during a transition.
Originally posted by Domesticated
Yes, the mixing here was disappointing, for more reasons than one. I think the problem probably lies in the headphones or speakers you're using. Due to its expansive basslines, psy-trance's kicks need to be higher than those found in other genres, and the spread of frequencies is a little bit different. If this was your first time mixing the genre, it may have been tricky.
Interesting theory. I definitely don't mix with top end gear, and I've often wondered if people with better listening equipment will pick up on things I've missed. This is the first time it seems to have been an issue, though.
quote:
I was also pleasantly surprised with how hard this got - I didn't think you were too capable of anything like that.
My whole avatar/custom status thing sort of reflects that recently I've been listening to a lot of harder, darker music when I thought I'd grown out of that kind of stuff as a teenager. I don't like the idea that we all slow down from trance through prog towards plodding dub techno ambience as our tastes become more "sophisticated". I can go a lot harder than this, but I don't think it'd be particularly enjoyable unless you were feeling extremely angry.
Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
I can go a lot harder than this, but I don't think it'd be particularly enjoyable unless you were feeling extremely angry.
Interesting. I'd love to hear just how hard. "OH, HARDER JACK, HARDER, YES JACK, THAT'S IT!"
I don't associate fast music with anger, myself; more so adrenaline and euphoria. Anger I associate with dark, industrial, distorted or gothic sounds, even if they're slower.
Well I don't associate fast with hard. Obviously I've played a lot faster than this set in the past. I also think that parts of Post Apocalyptic Transmissions were harder than this.
Around Christmas time when I was feeling particularly miserable about several things I was toying with making a set that was dark ambient, industrial, hard dubstep and neurofunk. However, most of that stuff doesn't really appeal to even me unless I'm feeling especially shitty.
i think i need to take a second listen to this because i was feeling it and i was with the mix but it was in the background (but not completely). i liked it and the tunes were good. i can't comment deeply about mixing yet but it flowed really well. well done effort jack.
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"I believe that's referred to as intelligent drum & bass, which obviously means there's a genre of stupid drum & bass out there" (John Peel)
May-10-2011 19:23
THE_Chris
needs a new CT
Registered: Apr 2002
Location: Ireland
I like it anyway
Good to see someone else has discovered Creatio Ex Nihilio. Thats a great track and so unlike Mr NASA.
Registered: Feb 2007
Location: Hugging Whales And Saving Trees
I deeply enjoyed the first two tracks, they were fantastic, but then the others just seemed "good" to me. I'm just not a huge fan of the psy stuff and a lot of the basslines in these songs kind of grated on me. I didn't notice any issues with the mixing myself, aside from that one transition you commented on, and I thought the flow was fantastic, I just would have preferred it to stay with the style of the first two tracks. Still, this was very enjoyable and I can't remember the last time I could say that about a whole set of modern trance. Definitely will give it more listens
I listened to about half of it so far... really liked the first 2 songs, and the 4th one. The other stuff was interesting and unique - I haven't really followed trance since "Anthem" killed my taste for the genre... so it was a relief to hear stuff that sat nicely between the Armin cheese and the all-out-there-ness of psytrance.
