What to compress and what not

My approach to applying compression across the different parts of the mix.

Gullfoss review in practical tests

Loudness War channel is back! This time I made a walkthrough for a Gullfoss automatic EQ against a number of common sound types.

More will be coming. With decent recording setup and state of art video editing software – DaVinci Resolve Free – I can quite easily create a plenty of videos in resonable time.

Warmonger – Native Aliens out now!

Finally a proper full-on psy from me, this time at popular label Aftertime Records. Commercial style, so it hits hard and would rock all the club parties… if they were not already cancelled :v Either way…

The tune combines classic psybass, African drums and chants as well as classic psy patterns and my signature supersaw lead. What’s there not to like?

Listen and buy – now in all stores!

Spotify
Deezer

Beatport
Juno
Apple Music

Loudness War 004: FM bells and drums

This concludes the mini series about FM synthesis:

I’m on fire, so much content coming out recently.

Also got ideas for some hotter topics, which will get closer to mixing electronic music.

Alhena – Overload (Warmonger Remix)

Another remix has been out for some days – once again on Tecnomind Music, this time for popular Russian producer Alhena. I went all into oldschool hard trance. No extraordinary quirks, just hard drive!

And drums, never enough drums.

Get in now at:

Beatport
Juno
Apple Store
Google Store

Spotify
Deezer

I’ve now got so many projects at various stages of production that it’s difficult to grasp. Either way, the music won’t stop!

The Making of: Meteor Ride

Well, my boot drive just died, so I can’t make any music this weekend. But I can post another blog about past productions 😉

The goal was simple: Create groovy, buzzy, driving and hot tune that could hit festivals. No elaborate arrangements or sound design extravaganza – jut distort everything until it burns.  I intentionally picked simple synths, Sylenth1 and Vacuum Pro, to make simple and oldschool yet effective sounds.

The making of: Ancient Dreams Remix

Back with “The making of” series. Let’s start with Ancient Dreams by James Lass, since this one was actually made back in November 2017.

The story begins just a few hours after Introscope EP got released. Delaforce Recordings made a public request for remixers on their Facebook page, and I answered quickly – at that moment with proven track record 😛 I got like 25 days for a remix, but it actually got signed 2 month later and finally released more than a year from then – this February.

Unfortunatelly Delaforce Recordings seems to be barely alive nowdays, so the only place you can hear full version are streaming serives, such as Spotify. Go check it now:

New freebie: My Little Room

“My Little Room” was originally made some years ago as a counterpart to Bliss. It’s the odd one, though, and I can’t even think of many labels that could be potentially interested in it. So I give it away for free. Luckily it already gathered great opinions from listeners, now you can enjoy it too! 🙂

The making of Starvation

Since now extended versions of tracks are on Youtube, there’s a good point to discuss how “Starvation” was made.

I had a simple idea in mind – a straightforward trance tune with african theme. This involves, obvioulsy, polyrthytmic djembe drums, but also harmonies. Some grooves were played by hand using different instruments, such as Ableton stock rack and Big Bang Cinematic Percussion, other loops were found on the Internet. As to harmonies, I googled some “african music”, understood correctly or not, and tried various chord progressions until it worked.

New progressive track – Resistance

I promised two things. First, to make a progressive track. Second, to create a track using (mostly) Ableton Push. And here it is! Complete production done under a week. Hope you enjoy it 🙂

It is very simple. Prog / deep house bass were based on online tutorials, lead chords were just a random sequence. Then comes 4/4 percussion with 808 samples. If something worked, I didn’t think twice but just keep it.

I also added ethnic drums to keep some interest. There were all played live, but unfortunatelly I’m not so good to play anything immediately usable. I spent two hours quanitizing them by hand.

There are also some random effects and distractions, all drowned in dub delay. All the “depth” of a track comes from evolving delay chain in the background. Pretty much generative music, apart from it not much happens in the arrangement.

Last but not least, the arrangement was played in Session mode – which is launching clips live. It gives very different approach to even prepare this clips for live play and probably helps me feel the progressive nature of track better. Playing live gives direct connection with track, unlike setting up arbitrary arrangement in Arrangement view.

All in all, it’s the music that matters – not only if it’s good, but also if it comes fast. Since it’s finished and complete production, I may turn to next projects. In spare time, that is, don’t have much of it in last months.