I think this is pretty decent mate. You've got a good melody going and its got a real laid back chilled vibe going on. Certainly not a club track. In some ways not really a trance tune (in the traditional sense anyway)

The percussion could probably be worked on a little bit to add a bit more variation but careful not to lose that chilled vibe in the process.

Personally i think the problem with that build you talk about is that the drum/snare roll is more suited to a club track which I dont think this is. I would buid this up with better use of opening filters, noise sweeps etc rather than drums.

I cant comment too much on the mixing as I've listened to this through the work laptop. The sounds themselves sounded very nice though from what I could tell.

I say work a bit more on that build (listen to some trance chill out remixes from chilled euphoria or something to perhaps get an idea), add a few more elements here and there and a bit more variation on the drums and you've got a good tune.

Reading all this back, I sound like I think I'm some sort of expert or something which i'm not by any means but these are the areas I would work on

Keep it up

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Sounds somewhat ambient oriented to me. This tune is nice and relaxing when listened 2. Trance tunes usually has more drive and energy and work ur pulse up. With some additional mixing it would serve perfect as an ambient/chill out track!

Thanks for the replies! The track certainly does have a more chilled feel than most trance tracks (if it is a trance track... I probably should have said "the first electronic track I'm happy with) I think the reason for this is mostly the chord progression more than the actual mixing or sounds? When I listened to it on my laptop speakers the kick pretty much dissapeared leaving it sounding a lot more ambient/chilled out, but if you listen to it on bigger speakers the kick comes through quite strong which makes it more clubby sounding...

Anyway, I think that changing the buildup to a noise sweep would be a good idea, will have to fix that up.

I agree with G-Con - there definitely could be some noise sweeps added especially in that first 40 seconds building to the strings / main melody just to up the energy. To me, this was more of a chilled out electronica song than trance. It mimicked trance that it built up in the beginning, but there really wasn't any shift to another melody after stripping down what you orginally built up.

Not to act like there's a set formula, definitely do what's you. I found the track pretty relaxing.

I also felt like the drum rolls fit in, but the general beat wasn't switched up enough, seemed standard flat four until the 3rd section where it began to vary - but just repeated again. Very ambient feel - not sure if that's what you were going for. Other than that, solid first track, I'm still workin on mine, so it's not like you have to take my comment that seriously.


Edit:

Track definitely ended abruptly...

i def. dig this

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The melody is great. Kick drum sucks. Other sounds work great. Most trance tracks have the kick drum with more bottom than the bass has. But the way you have it hear makes it more mellow and have more focus on the melody. Very nice track, but I hope you let someone do a real trance remix of it

Thanks for all the positive feedback! I have a whole list of stuff to do to this track now, I'll also have a think about changing the percussion a little perhaps...

Well, I've gone through and done some of the stuff people have recomended, and I updated the song on soundclick as well.
I fixed the kick a little, you still can't hear it on laptop speakers, but it sounds good elsewhere, I fixed the ending a little too, its still a bit abrupt, but not so bad. I also added more variation in the drums (esp. the hats)

I've also posted in the promotion forum, because I figured this wasn't the place for a finished track, and I'm not planning on fiddling too much more...
So thanks for all your advice, it was much appreciated!

Promotion thread: http://www.tranceaddict.com/forums/...491#post7565491