Originally posted by R33

I think the one dimensional sound you are going for is the fact that todays tracks are lost in the loudness wars. Tracks are heavily compressed and limited to smash into the limiter to make it as loud as possible. If you were to look at waveforms from two tracks, one from now and one from the late 90s you would see how in the early track, you can see every peak and valley and it looks organic. The track has space to breathe and deliver parts of the instruments used that you normally don't hear. Add this to the delivery of the time, an un compressed vinyl recording and you had a really great sound. Compressed tracks of today are just one mashed waveform hitting the limiters the whole entire time. There is not any space left in the tracks form to breathe. Tracks now days are almost exclusively distributed into an compressed 320 MP3 file which looses a lot of the instruments nuances. This leads to that loss of "air" you are talking about and makes each track feel very identical. Be thankful you can hear this, most people can not and its a shame really.

I guess this is a big part of the problem for me and you explained it better than I could.

I'm surprised that there aren't more people that recognize this as a big problem really.

In the methods of delivery now, digital music mainly, everything is compressed.

People are so used to hearing digital compressed tracks that it is the norm. Also, most people don't spend a decent amount of money anymore on real good audio equipment that actually would let people hear this.

Fortunately (or possibly unfortunately? haha) I am an audiophile and love to hear everything in my music. Growing up with analog formats was a big help as I did not hear compressed digital until I was in my teens. I also have been an live sound engineer since I was very young and hate how modern day tracks are mixed. The whole EQ range in the middle is scooped out a lot so that the low end and high end is greatly made more apparent.

Hopefully soon, the loudness wars will come to an end, people will start buying decent audio equipment and either WAV / Aiff or FLAC recordings, or even better audiophile recordings at higher bit rates like 24/96. (a CD is in 16/44) This would make a big change in how we listen to our music.

I think the main reason 'loudness' has taken over productions on the market is because it is more prevalent in the commercialisation of music on the radio, media outlet to make it stand out from the rest.

We're all used to it now. The commercial listener (the average person who doesn't take the time to sit down and appreciate the music for what it is) just wants something in the background, something to take their mind off things. When searching for a track, you'll naturally listen to a louder track (in volume) than a quieter one. If you had any expectation of an artist/producer, you would then turn the quiet song up instead of passing it by to find the next big track.

I think another problem with the music we listen to nowadays is unless we hear the track on radio (which I still think is the best place to listen to music as you have no control over what you are going to hear and when you can hear it), we will trawl through tracklisting after playlist after mix to find a snippet of a track, not heard in its entirety, judging it imperfectly and making assumptions that will jade the experience of enjoying music.

On another note, as soon as you start saying, 'Modern Trance is one dimensional', that's the moment you become somebody who doesn't appreciate music anymore and devalues and diminishes a genre based on narrow arguments. Not all music was meant to be liked by every person on the planet. Yes, the production styles have changed with the changes in hardware to software and artists have matured their sounds, sometimes into a new style that you now may not like. Yes, the sounds can be overly compressed and the melody can be too big-room to give you any inspiration as other tracks might, but if you're complaining so much, either make music you will enjoy or continue to sift through the wall of noise until you find the hidden gems. The only reason you can't find 'good music' as easily as you used to is because more people are making it. There will never be a limit on artists throughout the world and with access to technology, the Generation Y are using their salaries, not to fund stay in dead-end jobs and barely support their family but instead funding artistic and influential projects that make them happy and also make a difference in the world.

You have to look at the bigger picture. As you said:

Originally posted by isrealtrancecomingback

The magic, the soul, the special feel that makes trance trance.

This is the way every listener of music everywhere in the world to every genre of music feels at one point in their life. Make something happen, be that one fan that makes an artist remember their old productions, be the person who sets up a project in which all of your favourite artists create a single track and you make it into a compilation to sell worldwide...think of more than just talk.

its marketing... make it loud, make it short... the more shit we filter through their ears the more money we can make.

There is one thing I do like though. sifting through so much terrible music, just to find that one jem that gives me feels

Originally posted by calgarc

its marketing... make it loud, make it short... the more shit we filter through their ears the more money we can make.

There is one thing I do like though. sifting through so much terrible music, just to find that one jem that gives me feels

This.


So simple and to the point.

Yep… i love sifting through track as well. makes those really good ones you find even more specially.

i was thinking the same thing, then i remembered this track existed



One of the tracks at the moment that i listen from start to finish, the breakdown is so relaxing and it gets better from there.

^ Personally to me these kinds of tracks aren't really trance.
This is more like it, some of the stuff that Airwave and JOOF play in their set. Now I am not saying all of the stuff that JOOF plays is great but Bluestone's track sound more like track with noisy electro bassline with a boring breakdown.

http://www.trancepodium.com/forums/general-trance-discussions/topics/airwave-at-luminosity-trance-gathering-feb-14th-2014-rebuild-off-playlist

practically everything Solarstone recommends is dead on Trance. love that mans taste in music.

While "Spheres" is a nice track, I would not consider it Trance either. Its more Electro and that genre has bled over into Trance so much people are now referring them to the same genre (or Trouse).

Labels that are great for trance right now are:
JOOF
Subculture
Solaris
Enhanced
Future Sound Of Egypt
Kearnage
In Trance We Trust
Always Alive

I am sure (I know really )there are others, but these spring to mind immediately.

Originally posted by R33

While "Spheres" is a nice track, I would not consider it Trance either. Its more Electro and that genre has bled over into Trance so much people are now referring them to the same genre (or Trouse).

Labels that are great for trance right now are:
JOOF
Subculture
Solaris
Enhanced
Future Sound Of Egypt
Kearnage
In Trance We Trust
Always Alive

I am sure (I know really )there are others, but these spring to mind immediately.

Josh Ferrin and Alan Morris from the Transistic label are constantly shitting gold.

The point of music is to convey emotion. Its up to you, the listener, to decide what that means to you. Do you listen to the melody? Do you feel the groove? Do you admire sound design and production quality ? Or are you trying to personalize a meaning for the song or Artist? All the above? Good

If it makes you feel good to think "trance music" today is one dimensional more power to you. Enjoy those classics.

But your missing out

As a producer I suck at listening to music. At least from a standpoint of personal enjoyment Its hard to get to that euphoric state I found listening to music with you guys here. But when I do its all the more sweet.