Spring Mix 2024 Classic Edition

There are only two kinds of music – good music and bad music. And you won’t find the latter here.

Every year since 2006 I try to prepare a sepcial set for the first day of Spring. After a break in 2023, I come back with this extra-long set full of classics, that have a common theme: chilled, progressive tunes and gentle melodies easy for an ear.

Tracklist:

1. Telepopmusik – Breathe
2. Chicane – Offshore (Original)
3. Underworld – Two Months Off (King Unique Sunspots Vocal Mix)
4. Pharmacy Of Sound – Searching For Substance
5. Sascha Funke – Mango
6. Hybrid- Finished Symphony
7. Synergy – Hello Strings
8. Sasha – Xpander
9. Cerf, Mitiska And Jaren – Light The Skies (Original Mix)
10. Benz & MD – Turning the Curve (Original Mix)
11. Seyton – Vikingfjord (Micah’s Alaisiagae Battle Chant Remix)
12. Blue Room Project – Pure (Original Mix)
13. Milan Lieskovsky – Elenya (Original Mix)
14. Ridgewalkers feat. El – Find (Andy Moor Remix)
15. ATB – 9PM (Till I Come) (9PM Mix)
16. Andy Moor vs. Orkidea – Year Zero (Orkidea’s Metaverse Remix)
17. Headstrong feat. Tiff Lacey- Symphony Of Soul (Original Mix)
18. Salt Tank – Eugina (Marcel Woods Remix)
19. Way Out West – Killa (Orkidea Remix)
20. Humate – Love Stimulation (Paul Van Dyk Love-Club-Mix)
21. Albion – Air (Original Mix)
22. Cape Town – Proglifter (Original Mix)
23. Perpetuous Dreamer – Dust Wave (Armin Van Buuren Rising Star Remix)
24. Sarah McLachlan – Fallen (Gabriel & Dresden Anti-Gravity Mix)
25. Lost Witness feat. Tiff Lacey – Home (Mike Shiver Catching Sun Remix)
26. Aven – All I Want (Ferry Corsten Remix)
27. Above & Beyond – No One on Earth (San Francisco remix)
28. Arksun – Arisen
29. Madonna – What It Feels Like For A Girl (Above & Beyond Remix)
30. Super 8 & DJ Tab – Suru
31. Airbase – Tangerine (Original Mix)

Today’s classic turned quite eclectic, blending many styles and eras of music. It includes hits knows to everybody from a radio, universally acclaimed trance bombs and some niche recommendations found here and there. Surely you will be suprised more than once 🙂 It was great fun to amass a ton of various tracks and just let it flow, then discover where key progression gets me.

Also, check the other one: Spring Mix 2015 Classic Edition

All I want for Christmas is music

Times change, and so does the way we listen to the music. Streaming services are nothing new at this point, but for a long time I’ve been reluctant to them, as I’m rather used to hoarding uncountable numbers of mp3 hand-picked and catalogued on a hard drive. Such habit developed a long time ago when I ran the radioshow on weekly basis and needed to have all the tunes accessible at my disposal.

Recently I dicovered – or rather re-discovered after 15 years – DI.FM radio. It evolved quite a lot since I listened to it the last time somewhere in the high school. Tons of different channels and playlists, carefully selected by curatorst with seemingly good taste – all available on demand. Shortly speaking, the best place to listen to the trance music right now. Despite the large number of channels and diverse content, just a few are enough: I sit at Epic Trance, Progressive, Progressive Psy or Melodic Progressive from time to time and don’t have enough for hours.

Flying Colors is out now!

This one is a proper oldschool uplifter, nothing else. It could be named “uplifting trance tutorial” and you wouldn’t suspect anything. Simple and catchy arpeggiated melody inspired by my all-time favourite duo Nu NRG.

Enjoy!

• Spotify
• Beatport
• Juno
• Apple Music
• Deezer

The project actually originated from testing new plugins available on Black Friday – just dropped my favourite presets and very generic melody from Orb Producer... and the Dune 3 default preset arpeggio. Agressive, glitchy bassline comes from iZotope BreakTweaker.

Wu Wei / Be Yourself EP is out!

Didn’t release any EP since 2019, so it’s time for a new one! Two psy-ish tracks of different flavours coming on Aftertime Records. Wu Wei is somewhat melodic trancer with subtle goa feel, while Be Yourself is more of a mainstage banger with a big yet simple lead. I’m very proud of these.

Beatport

Juno

Apple Music

Spotify

On the message of song names: Wu Wei here means “do not force”, don’t try too hard and let the things unfold on their own. Ironically I tried hard to wrap up this track, including completely redoing the final melody once it was almost finished. Now, Be Yourself means… you know what it means. This mainstage banger leading somewhere between tech trance and hard trance is nothing like myself.

Spring Mix 2022

Long overdue, but nevertheless it’s here just like every year. This episode contains more uplitfing that progressive, unlike others. Either way, I am very satisfied with this mix and hopefully so will you 🙂

Transient Shaper and how to use it

(tip: use it constantly)

How to make acid basslines

In this video I demonstrate how to create an acid bassline with as many as 8 different synths:

This includes basic patch, full track mix tips as well as a variety of sound design variations for all subtractive synths that I own.

Yep, hard acid basslines are a commonplace in trance music and also a part of my signature sound. You can hear some in a number of releases like Valor, The Beauty of Darkness, Scythe and grab some freebies like recent 42, Jihad or Inhuman.

Hope you find this video helpful.

Freebie: Warmonger – 42

Hello, it’s another freebie I share with you as an overdue X-mas present 🙂 Free for download from Soundcloud.

Yep, it’s an unsuccessful attempt at creating melodic and orchestral uplifting trance. Quite a misadventure in terms of composition as I relied too much upon Orb Composer.

Still, it’s a solid production, so maybe sometone with an ear for unusual tunes will find it interesting.

Also, it’s the first and only production where I tried to use Tone2 Rayblaster 2 – an unique synth based on impulse modeling engine, with a very distinct and pleasant sound.

The Realm Never Dreamed out now!

This release in a fine melodic / uplifting trance tune with epic breakdown. Powerful yet smooth, as I wanted.

Beatport
Juno
Apple Music

Also, certainly my best yet. Having done that, I need to tthink about producing some tunes more in line with commercial standards. It’s not a matter of technical skills anymore, it’s a matter of style.

What to compress and what not

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