subatomic vision
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Posts posted by subatomic vision
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Unmelodic? what the...?
Before I go on, I should probably say that I'm friends with Jannis (the guy behind Filteria) and I did the sleeve design, so I'm not entirely unbiased. However, I'm not the marketing department of Suntrip Records either. These are my honest opinions.
Calling this unmelodic is like nominating George W Bush for the Nobel Peace Prize.
But you do make hints at some valid point perhaps. The thing about this CD, the whole concept in fact, is to be one huge explosion of howling, analog synth melodic trancedance inferno. These melodies aren't trying to be "floating" in some morning-trance sense - judging this record from that perspective is like going to a Woody Allen movie and then complain about the complete lack of actions scenes and explosions. If you don't like it then thats fine and dandy (as is said above, this happens to every record released), but please judge it from what it's trying to be.
And blasphemy? I think not. Thats a very strong word. This comes closer to the essence of the most intense Pleiadians tracks than anyone else that I've heard. That doesn't mean he copied them or even made something equally good, but this isn't that far away. Take another listen. I think Etnica / Pleiadians had a little better arrangements sometimes, and, as you hinted towards, made the most of each melody in a way that Filteria doesn't, but I absolutely LOVE "Galactic Rays" on the Filteria CD for example. It wouldn't have been out of place on I.F.O, in my opinion. The thing is, he has such a great sense of melody that he doesn't have to hold back and squeeze the most out of each one - he just throws you into the next one.
And yeah, this is very goa-esque, yet not "proper" old goa in every sense. But then again, we're in 2004 and not 1994. There were a bazillion releases back in 94-97 so there's really not much point in making more of the exact same. However, and this is something quite unique; to me, Filteria is the first to successfully lift the good things from goa trance and take it to the 21st century. Others have tried, but none have been very successful. This is not out of place in a goa DJ set, and would do very well as a was to top off a melodic "modern" set as well.
One thing happens with almost anyone that tries to make "oldschool" psytrance these days; they place all the focus on the amount and style of melodies, and miss vital elements like song progression, buildup and mood. The Filteria CD isn't perfect in this respect; he too could perhaps benefit from being a bit more patient with the buildups, focus more on the journey-like aspects of the tracks and work harder to fine-tune the mood. But this is supposed to be a hyperblast of a record, and it is. Mood doesn't go very well with this type of maximalistic music. You don't start a DJ set with this stuff, you finish with it (and trust me, this CD will be a common ingredience in my sets from now on). Some of the tracks here are AMAZING.
Also, something worth pointing out - this is made with REAL SYNTHESIZERS. No plastic-sounding software mumbo jumbo. You can really tell from listening - the overtones, the filter sweeps, the mutating sounds - here it is, at last! I've been longing for this for so long now, I was almost thinking it was dead forever.
If you want I.F.O, listen to I.F.O. If you want music that takes those ideas even further and pushes into even more layers, melodies and howling, shimmering, ripping psychedelic mayhem, then listen to Sky Input. It's not perfect, but it has some of the best melodic psytrance tracks released in the past 5 years in my opinion.
First of all, I have a big respect for people trying to pull off brilliant melodies. I fear though that a lot of people will feel let down by those melodies. Melodies build on riffs and harmonies and to me (and some other people as well) the harmonies and progression on this one aren't exactly brilliant as those of Pleiadians were. It's definitely not bad though, it's just a good melodic try but it does not hold the melodic content pleiadians had.
I am a BIG fan of oldschool goa and I am by no means putting these melodies against melodies of morning trance producers. That is a completely different ballgame! I'm comparing it with top-notch stuff like the Pleiadians and melody and harmonywise it ain't cutting it. But it's not a bad thing as it goes some way in achieving what the pleiadians do. Such melodic talent is a very rare breed, so don't push my criticism too far. I do feel some melodic progressions on the Sky Input-snippets sound very off, but most of em sound just good.
I do think I have to say Filteria might have given the songs more of a story instead of trying to put as much in it as he could. Drawing up a storyboard before he commences a track might not be the wrong idea. Maybe it is not so much about the quantity as it is about quality which I feels it sometimes lacks. The quantity of layers is excellent but through putting so much in it, it might lack on focus.
Just my two cents.
P.S. Please don't get me wrong, it is not a bad album and for a debut its pretty good. It's just not so good people here should herald it as the next big thing, but Filteria sure has potential...
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Am I the only one who finds that it is a bit unmelodic? Most melodies clash or at least don't progress in a good or normal way and the way he made use of those melodies is really full-on. They aren't evolving floating melodies. I think it's a blasphemy to even compare it to Pleiadians. It's a good try and capturing old goa-spirit without actually having the musical input to really bring me back to the goa mood again.
Just my two cents
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Pleiadians - I.F.O. (Dragonfly records) - never to be found again
I got the Double Dragon-album if you care, but I'll need something nice in return tho
I have problems finding Ott-Blumenkraft as well
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Damage-Disco
Legohead- Snoozebutton
Wonderfull trax
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The best full-on compilation this year and a real suprise from Spun who in general have the GSM-formula ready for any release.This sounds fresh and I consider the GMS title track one their best in years along with Juice by GMS.
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Next is Absolum again, this time with GMS! Typical Absolum style. Agressive full-on,super fast basslines,killer synths. It's dificult to find a ''GMS ingredient'' in it except some melodies(?) which are less bad! But if you like Absolum like myself you gonna love it! 9.5/10
Theoreme=New name from Japan
Wagama=An unbelievable track! This is surely 100% 3D Vision style and it reminds me the first Absolum tracks, before Christof get that CPU influence. Wagama is insane with psychotic melodies-a 6 minutes madness ready to explode your mind! Can't wait for new stuff from this guy. 10/10!!!!!
Surprise second.The Safi Connection track. Forget the ultra-cheesy full on.(like the 70% I said before). This time they make a real melodic track, full on to the bone and really psychedelic.The oriental melody is reminds a lot some old-school tracks! Very gooood! 9.5/10
Funny, I don't hear much Absolom in the track, it's all GMS from the high pitched percussion to the beatdropping... it oozes GMS and has little Absolom going for it.
I find the theoreme-track severely lacking in originality and variation.
I must agree with the Safi track,these guys take us back to the old days with a perfect melody with a nice acid line...
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weird.
i find the subtractor to be one of the best softsynths to do basses, except the virus poco plugin which is truly amazing. 
just init patch, pull down the freq cutoff a bit (around 40-50), low res and lp filter and turn the keyb track knob all the way up. osc1 on full vol and down one octave. might need to adjust the velocity flt. env too and filter env too. then add a comp (some nice settings for bass.. ratio to 4:1 treshold on medium, a very fast attack and medium release. these are only guidelines though, and depends on the character of the sound you are compressing. now turn up the volume and listen to how fat this sounds! 
important things to remember as mentioned above ..eq, eq, eq, eq, eq, eq, eq!!! short attack, medium decay, no sustain and short release. good luck... 
I can do nice sounding basslines with Reason's subtractor, but it's nothing like the patches I'm able to pull on my Virus B....
If you know how to work the Subtractor you need little eq...
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well i used to use reason 1.0 so i don't really know about 2.5 but from experience it is hard to get a good bass sound out of reason...
i would say get some plug-ins in cubase or logic...
otherwise try using square waves as mentionned earlier, and Eq is really important. Low pass filter, low resonance, short attack, medium decay, small sustain and short release...
but the Eq is what really counts imo, with the source of the sound...
try cutting frequencies between 250 and 800-1000, i mean these are just guidelines, experiment, different bass sounds require different settings...
ben
I don't want to sound cocky, but psybasslines should be made with saws and not with squares in general. You can use both oscillators, but I have never heard a bassline with just two squares....
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Ratio Shmatio, Stretched and Bombat are the best songs, the rest is pretty cheesy and not memorable. I was hoping IM would combine their other side of CV with some build-ups like The Gathering or Classical Mushroom had. Some of the tracks aren't really heading anywhere...
They have a very big talent, but this album is just so very dissapointing.
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I hope my local dealer has it, cuz I'm dying to get this one... beautiful music...
Best & worst Simon Posford projects
in General Psytrance
Posted
Ah I finally found the worst stuff by Hallucinogen, Walter Ego and Gargoyles but the worst is Purple Om ...