Neuropa - Once Upon A Time (Impulse Tracker goa trance collection) to be released on May 18, 2024

[Paul Eye]

We're getting close to the end now, this is track 10 and it was finished in mid-February 1999. Here is where I started experimenting with adding in a bit more complexity, at least from a technical point of view. I can't really pinpoint any specific artist influence here, but that synth solo that comes in at around 5:45 is definitely a nod to the Hallucinogen track "Demention". Of course I took it quite a bit further, and I clearly remember I managed to crash Impulse Tracker when writing the solo, so something about it got lost in the crash.

 

[Paul Eye]

On 4/24/2024 at 5:13 PM, astralprojection said:

can you give a bit more information about the samples you used? and from what synths they were sourced?

for such things as kick, bassline, hihats, leads etc. would be interesting to learn where you found all the samples at that time (98).

Hmm, you're asking difficult questions here. That friend of mine who introduced me to both goa trance and Impulse Tracker gave me his entire sample library (most of which was quite useless tbh) and I couldn't in any way tell where all those samples were from. I do remember we found some websites with useful sample packs, so there's the source of most of the sounds in my tracks. Of course I couldn't tell which synths and drum machines the sounds are from; I did rename all of my samples for the sake of organisation, so the original file names are lost to time. There are some hints in some of the file names, but of course you have to remember that back in 98/99, I had absolutely no idea what words and numbers like "acid", "juno", "303", "909", and so on even meant. They were all just useful sounds to me

[astralprojection]

On 4/27/2024 at 12:46 PM, Paul Eye said:

Hmm, you're asking difficult questions here. That friend of mine who introduced me to both goa trance and Impulse Tracker gave me his entire sample library (most of which was quite useless tbh) and I couldn't in any way tell where all those samples were from. I do remember we found some websites with useful sample packs, so there's the source of most of the sounds in my tracks. Of course I couldn't tell which synths and drum machines the sounds are from; I did rename all of my samples for the sake of organisation, so the original file names are lost to time. There are some hints in some of the file names, but of course you have to remember that back in 98/99, I had absolutely no idea what words and numbers like "acid", "juno", "303", "909", and so on even meant. They were all just useful sounds to me

thanks for the reply makes perfect sense 

[Prana4ever]

Upload day my good brother.

[Paul Eye]

Next up, track 11. This was finished in early April 1999, almost 2 months after the previous one, and this is where things are getting a bit weird. I'd been spending much of the preceding months completely fascinated by The Lone Deranger, and the Twisted Records Dementertainment compilation. Listening to those on an almost daily basis, here is where my sound took a turn towards more gritty and should I say "dark". This is definitely the most complex track I managed to write in Impulse Tracker, both technically and as a composition. I remember a situation where I described the track as "organised chaos", and that's quite an accurate expression here. The only things that bother me a bit about this one is the rather murky and nondescript bassline (I really wish I could have come up with something better), and the track title feels oddly disjointed.