Yay! I finally upgraded my mixing program (thanks, J'). Now I can, like, volume-fade! To test the program out, I decided to get around to doing that Music Research tribute mix I've always hinted at, and whipped this up in an evening.

For those not in the know, Music Research was a label started up by Talla 2XLC way back in the late 80s, initially as the parent label for industrial label Zoth Ommog. Later, it went on to include Suck Me Plasma, Influence, Technoclub, and several others. Along with MFS and Harthouse, it was at the forefront of the original German trance movement.

It was also primarily the material coming from Music Research that got me into trance. As such, it's always had a special little place in my heart, so it's only fitting that my first tribute mix would be to this label. After all, had I not stumbled upon tracks like Komakino's Outface or Shorty Bone's Trancemission, I may not even be here at TranceAddict today.

So, if you've ever wanted a nice little set of classic trance from one of the more overlooked labels from the early 90s, here's one for your ears to feast on. Additionally, any comments regarding my mixing would be appreciated, since I finally have a program I can work with.


Electronic Purity (Music Research Tribute)
[[ LINK REMOVED ]]


Track List:
1. Beam - X'Udation Trance
2. Audio Science - Blitz!
3. Komakino - Frogs In Space
4. Sunbeam - La Musique (C'est Notre Drogue)
5. Lesamis - Eternal Sleep
6. Argon-X - Little Gamma's Adventure
7. Final Fantasy - Controlling Transmission
8. Phoenixx - The Mongolian Rider (Wild At Heart)
9. Aqualite - Wavemaker
10. Cenobyte - Destination (Energy Mix)
11. Q-Bass - Fake
12. Vene - Pain
13. Shorty Bone - Trancemission
14. Influid - We're Always Behind You

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Everyone has an opinion. Mine just happens to be a little more informed than most.
Electronic Music Critic: Near-Daily Ruminations Of Music I Own, In Alphabetical Order!

Last edited by Sykonee on Sep-30-2009 at 19:49

In.

i saw the word classic. having this one.

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

Your track selection is absolutely impeccable. As I said with Hamid's mix, all the tracks have great unique qualities, unlike the cookie cutter crap being put out today. There are some real gems in here with some very fresh (ironic, I know) sounding melodies and effects. I really enjoyed this a lot.

Admittedly, I found the mixing a bit distracting at times, but the track selection and flow were good enough that I didn't care too much.

What did you use to mix this? Ableton is incredibly easy and gives near-perfect results.

I forgot to mention the best bit about this mix: the hi-hats.

I'm a sucker for them, and these were especially good. I love that close-close-open-close pattern that so many tracks used around this time. Excellent example at the 45 minute mark.

quote:

Originally posted by Domesticated Your track selection is absolutely impeccable. As I said with Hamid's mix, all the tracks have great unique qualities, unlike the cookie cutter crap being put out today. There are some real gems in here with some very fresh (ironic, I know) sounding melodies and effects. I really enjoyed this a lot. Admittedly, I found the mixing a bit distracting at times, but the track selection and flow were good enough that I didn't care too much. What did you use to mix this? Ableton is incredibly easy and gives near-perfect results.

I used Acoustica MP3 Audio Mixer, V.2.something'er'other. Yeah, I knew the mixing was going to be a bit rough at some points, what with a few radical jumps in tempo, but then I've always liked doing that -slapping you in the face with the unexpected. This was my first proper run with the program though, so I'm sure future sets will be more polished as I get familiar with what Acoustica offers.

The other thing too, is it's very hard to find tracks that can nicely blend together on that label. Everyone pretty much did their own thing, and there wasn't some kind of label studio engineer at the time to make all the tracks perfectly mastered with one another. Then again, that's one of the charms of that era: musical diversity stood out much more, even if it was a bit of a pain to DJ with.

___________________
Everyone has an opinion. Mine just happens to be a little more informed than most.
Electronic Music Critic: Near-Daily Ruminations Of Music I Own, In Alphabetical Order!

quote:

Originally posted by Sykonee 8. Phoenixx - The Mongolian Rider (Wild At Heart)

Sweet, I thought I was the only one who really liked this. You're gonna need a lot more mixes to cover serious ground in regards to MR when it has so many sublabels, though.

In any case, on ze dl.

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"Wenn du dich zum Untergrund zählst, reicht es nicht, es nur zu sagen. Du musst auch viel graben, um es zu werden."

quote:

Originally posted by Sand Leaper Sweet, I thought I was the only one who really liked this. You're gonna need a lot more mixes to cover serious ground in regards to MR when it has so many sublabels, though.

Heh, yeah. Poor Zoth Ommog gets overlooked here, doesn't it. Mind, it's quite a... contrast to the Suck Me Plasma material.

___________________
Everyone has an opinion. Mine just happens to be a little more informed than most.
Electronic Music Critic: Near-Daily Ruminations Of Music I Own, In Alphabetical Order!

quote:

Originally posted by Sykonee The other thing too, is it's very hard to find tracks that can nicely blend together on that label. Everyone pretty much did their own thing, and there wasn't some kind of label studio engineer at the time to make all the tracks perfectly mastered with one another. Then again, that's one of the charms of that era: musical diversity stood out much more, even if it was a bit of a pain to DJ with.

I can definitely appreciate that.

Post-2000 music is a hell of a lot easier to mix. The 'rough and ready' feel was also part of the charm of early '90s music though.

quote:

Originally posted by Sykonee Heh, yeah. Poor Zoth Ommog gets overlooked here, doesn't it. Mind, it's quite a... contrast to the Suck Me Plasma material.

Indeed, I have a feeling that a mix covering that material won't go down quite as well here...

So, I gave this a listen at work today. This reminds me a lot of the Snap! EMs in terms of mixing, both in terms of track selection and in that it doesn't really have any mixing, but utilizes strategic intro/outro fading instead. For the most part, this method worked really well, especially in the beginning. Trance from this era is quite compatible with it. As mentioned, however, there are points where it does not work too well either. The transition to Mongolian Rider does not harmonize very well, and there were a few other occasions where the beats clearly didn't match.

At the end of the day though, this is about the tunes, period. And there are loads of good ones here. Eternal Sleep has a gorgeous melody that really made me sit up and take notice. Time to go crate digging again after this, me thinks.

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"Wenn du dich zum Untergrund zählst, reicht es nicht, es nur zu sagen. Du musst auch viel graben, um es zu werden."

I'll probably take a taste!

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Set Archive | TA DJ Challenge

Grabbing this!