Jump to content

Chris {RA}

Members
  • Posts

    9
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Reputation

2 Neutral

About Chris {RA}

  • Birthday 07/06/1975

Profile Information

  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    Norway

Recent Profile Visitors

7032 profile views
  1. Seen this? http://www.myspace.com/earthfrequencys
  2. Chris {RA}

    RA - 9th

    Thank you for the last positive remark. When it comes to the "overcompressed" kick I can mentioned that yes, it is of course compressed in the original mix, overcompressed? no. Maybe the mastering took it slightly over the edge, but that's about it. Also how much compression you use is a matter of taste, and not as black&white as some would like to have it. Some music genres overcompress a lot as an added effect. I've seen some posts from you before about the "loudness" of music and how the compression today destroys the dynamics in music. I agree, in many ways it does. I suppose if we decided to go for STEM mastering instead we could have had an even cleaner sound, but as you may know using STEM is also risky as it may change the overall picture too much, not to mention the costs... "Same notes and rhythm that gets blurred"? Well, I see where you're coming from and again this is a matter of taste. I don't know if you produce yourself or not, but to get a sense of 3D dynamics (or a sense of space) some delays are usually effective in this genre. How much you decide to use is a matter of taste and a matter of composition technique. Sounds strange? Well, say that you compose a goa track and you want a feel of a C minor changing to a G# major (and maybe moving into the F minor and A# major before going back to C min). How to do this when you leave out the 3rd of every chord AND you want to keep the bass from changing (because YES, the bass often lose punch when it changes too much). One way of dealing with this is introducing the 3rds in the riffs where you play with the feel of the chords without actually changing the chord. By adding delays the picture becomes more complex and whole when the notes are overlapping. Of course the delays do NOT make the same effect as having 2-not stabs (in 5ths) going in the background like more commercial trance, but the notes are there. Much like a real violin for instance that has a natural overtone and hence composers tend to leave out certain notes in their violin arrangements because the feel of the left out note is already present. This is referred to as harmonics and is hard to distinguish as separate notes, but the feel is different if you were to remove these harmonics. By listening to the riffs solo with delays I go over them again and again to see where the essential harmonics happen and how they affect the feel. Many times by putting the FX up to max just to know exactly what is going on I edit away notes or change them because they add a slight disharmony and then I take the FX down again to the normal level. It takes time and effort but is worth it in the end. Shame you think it is too much, but it is definitely something I would not change :-P Chris [RA]
  3. Chris {RA}

    RA - 9th

    Hmmm, since I composed this with Lars I feel like I have to ask since you are saying some of the melodies are ripped from Hunab Ku. If any melodies are similar to Charlies riffs then I was unaware of that fact and I guess I should go back and listen to the old Hunab Ku CD again. Allthough I must admit that me and Charlie have often talked about how similar our composing styles are and it was one of the reasons we liked working together so much, so I would not be surprised if people can hear lots of similarities. Please list the RA tracks (and the time) and list the Hunab Ku tracks that we "took" these melodies from. Chris [RA]
  4. I totally agree unfortunately. The mastering on this is still a mystery for me as I hardly recognized my own track when I got the mastered wav file. It sounds like this "Jesus raves" person who did the mastering has a hearing deficiency and is raising mid-levels in the mastering to compensate for his own shortcomings. The original still sounds a lot better to me even unmastered. Be that as it may, I'm mainly writing here as to quickly say something about my experiences with Ultiva Records. Please note that I really hate to write things like this, but I feel it is necessary for other artists to know this. This CD was released a while ago, and the terms for the release was that each artist get copies of the CD (more than normal) and a % of sales. Each artist was to get a log in to some site to have an overview of the sales. The money aspect here was never really important as we all know sales today are nothing to rave about. Getting the copies however was more important. I have to this day not received a single CD, gotten any log in to any website or obviously seen any money. Ultiva is also not responding to any msgs/mails. I just want to mention this so that if you are an artist and wondering if you should release something on Ultiva, be careful. Other artists might have had good experiences with Ultiva and that's all good and well, but I'm not one of them. It could be since I'm posting this now, Ultiva might suddenly react, and yes I would like to have the CD's as stated in the contract (despite the strange mastering), but it would also be too little too late. To put it bluntly: don't expect to see RA on any Ultiva releases in the near future. It is hard enough to make any money out of producing goa, so to the new labels out there wanting to release this or that: At least have the decency to treat the producers sweating over their computers properly. I would hate to see artists disappearing simply because of unprofessional behavior. Thank God we have labels like Suntrip or Altar that treats their artists professionally and correctly. Chris [RA, Dimension 5, Electron Wave]
  5. Common problem. You could try turning off an oscillator or two if the sound is too fat. EQ'ing works well for me. Turning down detuning and phasing. Softsynths can have too much presence, I totally agree. Or you could go extreme and change your default LowPass to BP ... Besides you can give the illusion of a sound being more in the background anyhow with a good'ol' reverb drowning and lowering volume :-P :-P
  6. Careful careful with stereo expanders/wideners. The more you widen the more sound disappears in mono, meaning that a track being played on mono radios and the like will sound "a bit different than what you initially intended"
  7. I can't let this one lie hanging and unanswered. Yes, I would say a single melody line can have a key change, and it is especially easy to hear when we talk about trance since it usually uses arpeggiated melodies or melodies almost purely in 16th notes with no breaks or gaps (well, in a lot of tracks I hear, but I wont get into that topic here). Most of these melodies play around the 3 basic notes that create a chord (dominant, third and fifth - it is called dominant in English right?) and so when you change the key, the whole melody will change. The "base feel" of the track will change character completely. Often used as a cheap trick in commercial music when you want to lift the song at the end or maybe the composer just ran out of ideas... A bassline alone can change the key as well, but what I understood from earlier posts we're not really talking about a key change but a CHORD change. Meaning the key or the "base feel" of the song is the same but the bassline and/or melodies can change somewhat, but is always dragged back to the dominant chord of the track. An example if you have a piano handy... try pressing a C as the bass and at the same time rapidly (first) press C then D# then G and then repeat. You're now playing a C minor melody. Then continue playing those three notes on top but change the bassnote to for instance A#. You've now changed the bass, but the key is still Cminor. You can change the bass again to G# if you wish, the main key is the same. The chord is also the same in this example, but you get the feel of a changing chord because of the bass. Now if you changed the bassnote to G#...try changing the top G in the 3-note melody to G#...hear the difference?? The difference for me is at least some of what trance does that other commercial music does not. - the "illusion" of chord change rather than changing it totally Mostly in goa tracks the melodies are rapidly playing many different notes and if you consider the delays that overlap notes coming and going you will find different chords actually being "played" intentionally or unintentionally. Especially when you have multiple melodies on top of each other. I suppose the best way to get the feel of a chord change is to change the bassline in a goa track, but technically the chord is not really changing, simply the bassline. Sorry for the off topic post. Admins -- delete this if you find it necessary.
  8. This album has been my most anticipated album yet, I enjoy every beat of it!

    Glad you made it!

    Greetings from Denmark!

  9. Phenomenal CD you made norwegian neighbours :) greetings from Sweden

  10. Chris {RA}

    RA - 9th

    Hello everyone, after such wonderful reviews and great response all around, I felt it was time to write a few words. As an artist it is truly inspirational to read responses such as these. It surely gives inspiration for continuing to make tracks when we see that the music still has such an effect on people. I'm sure I speak for both me and Lars when I say that we feel grateful for all the kind words so far. On a personal note I must admit I was unsure of how the scene would welcome this new album considering that me and Lars had not worked together for some years, and that we were both coming from a more experienced and somewhat different standpoint musically than before. Fortunately we both agreed totally on what we wanted to do and did it with conviction, not thinking too much on what people might like or not, but rather making the next chapter and picking up where we left off with To Sirius. Still, no matter how many tracks you have released you are still at the mercy of the public wether you like it or not, and so we were both excited and nervous to see how this album would be perceived. Luckily for us we have seemed to please most new school goa heads (with a few exeptions: hello there pawelek ). As for future plans, I can mention that we are working on a 3rd album and an ambient release. Which one will be finished first I cannot say, but more tracks are in the pipeline, and we'll just have to see how long it takes to finish up. I can promise however you will not have to wait for another 7 or 8 years until the next release. Finally I wish to say that I hope to continue our good working relationship with Suntrip. They have been outstanding, and I must say I have yet to encounter a more honest, hard working and ethical record label. They are truly wonderful to work with. Thank you Jos&Mars :clapping: And a big thanks to all of you for listening and giving us more inspiration to continue. *bow* Chris[RA]
  11. Hey there, I can confirm that RA is once again a group, the way it was intended form the very beginning. Lars is back and we are working better than ever with RA. I should mention that it was me and Lars that founded RA many years ago, but before the first album release we had a falling out and I kept the project as solo for some time. We decided to work together again in late 2006, and very soon you'll hear some of the fruits of that labour. I hope you'll like it Chris[RA]
×
×
  • Create New...