Today I bring you sounds fresh from 2009. This was a project I've been working on since December. I restarted the song a couple times, but I find that this song shows what happens when I'm able to devote my time to producing and less to life's other demands (such as school... ) :/

But I largely consider this my best work, by far, to date. It's a product of many lessons I've learned over the past few months and my will to keep true to producing the sounds I love. The song is fully made, but I'm going to be doing some tweaking (and God knows it needs a lot of that.) For instance, I have two layers for my arpeggiated lead, and I wanted to alter the volume on one midway during the build-up. So there are things like that that I'm planning on fixing.

I spent probably the most time getting the percussion to sound really clean, then probably followed by my bass. I especially struggled with getting a really nice bassline, and I'm not fully satisfied with it now, but it's definitely an improvement to anything you might have heard a couple weeks ago. I spent maybe another three or four days total on the melody.

So this is the first full version, and it really shouldn't be the last one.

Artist: Green Octopus
Song: Latitude
Genre: Trance (Uplifting, Melodic)
Scale: F minor
Time: 8 minutes, 30 seconds
Tempo: 138 bpm

The song: #url-removed
Youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiQUTfrtXRE

Feedback would be really great.

It's a little late but I just gave your track a listen and I like it a lot! Here's my feedback (for what it's worth):

1. Sweet bass and lead sounds. I especially liked the dropping bass sound for the parts when the drums cut out. Also, the lead really captures that "trance" sound.

2. Good flow. The track has good tension-release-build-payoff that progresses over time (what trance should be.) It's not super obvious and the builds aren't cheesy.

3. Some of the sounds are kind of dated. The drums come to mind, and also the intro-chord thing that happens. It kind of makes the song sound like mid-90's trance, which is sweet, but old. Try to update your sounds.

4. Your lead melody is definitely unique, but not super-memorable. Work hard at developing great melodic lines.

Overall great job! If you get a chance check out some of my tracks on my MySpace and let me know what you think. I also finished a new track called "Archangel" recently which I will  try and post soon.

Keep up the good work!

That's great feedback, thanks a ton for all the comments mate. It's not "too late", though I haven't done anything on it in months. I still look to older songs I've done to see what I could have done better and see what I think I did right. I see what you mean about the 90s sound there. I'm not much into the 2007-2009 sound, I guess, since a lot of uplifting trance now sounds very generic and uninspired. I constantly look to the 2000 to 2004 era for inspiration, since that's when I believe the innovative spirit really kicked into high-gear for trance, so I can see where that 90s influence may come in as well. Creating leads and pads are definitely the most difficult part of the process to me. I think I'm at a point where I can work a good beat, but introducing leads and pads has been especially challenging I've found.

I also checked out your song a few weeks ago (I'm not very prompt at responding sometimes though.) I really liked it actually! I'll give it a few more listens and give you a more substantive commentary. Stay tuned though, I've got more songs in the works with a wide range of sounds!

Originally posted by Pollicer

It's a little late but I just gave your track a listen and I like it a lot! Here's my feedback (for what it's worth):

1. Sweet bass and lead sounds. I especially liked the dropping bass sound for the parts when the drums cut out. Also, the lead really captures that "trance" sound.

2. Good flow. The track has good tension-release-build-payoff that progresses over time (what trance should be.) It's not super obvious and the builds aren't cheesy.

3. Some of the sounds are kind of dated. The drums come to mind, and also the intro-chord thing that happens. It kind of makes the song sound like mid-90's trance, which is sweet, but old. Try to update your sounds.

4. Your lead melody is definitely unique, but not super-memorable. Work hard at developing great melodic lines.

Overall great job! If you get a chance check out some of my tracks on my MySpace and let me know what you think. I also finished a new track called "Archangel" recently which I will  try and post soon.

Keep up the good work!

Thanks for so much dedication! And thanks as well for the compliment. I've got quite a few new projects in the pipeline, but none of them are really ready for presentation yet. At some point, I may do a remake of this track as well, adding more of what I now know to the mix.