"A Soaring Trip In Shadowy Forests" - downtempo electronica with piano & guitar

[NowoTone]

Hi guys, just finished my latest downtempo electronica song, "A Soaring Trip In Shadowy Forests" (Soundcloud). This song started its life as "Trips in a Dark Forest" as part of the "Dark Matter" release. The way the piano part is integrated and the vocal samples are used, are the most obvious reminders of this ancestry. However, the song was never brought to a satisfying conclusion. I didn't like the drum track, the synths didn't sound right ...

Fast forward half a year and work started again on this track. The old drum, synth and bass parts were scrapped completely. Having recently upgraded the software of my Maschine Mikro to Machine2, this was the first song where I decided to utilize it, after my first attempts to create a song with it had proven unsuccessful due to the not very intuitive interface. In fact I had the feeling that I much preferred the 1.8 version of the software. I ran into the same issues again, but persevered and recorded all of the drum, synth and bass tracks on Maschine.

Once the song was done (loads of tracks in Maschine, 1 piano track & several vocal and reverb tracks in Reaper), it was still missing something to make it special, so I decided to add a bit of guitar. I might have gone overboard a little, though. On the final track there are now 8 acoustic and 12 electric guitar tracks, some of them so heavily processed they are not immediately recognizable as guitar.

Tracking & mixing of all the non-synth parts were done in Reaper, with the Maschine as a VSTi.

I hope you like the song and I would appreciate any feedback!

[Sambo Rouge]

Andreas,

"A Soaring Trip -----", Nice mix and arrangement. I can hear all of the work you have put into this.

Good stuff.

[NowoTone]

Thanks, Sambo Rouge! Any thoughts on the piano part in the middle? My brother and I had a heated discussion about it yesterday.

[Sambo Rouge]

Without you telling me what your discussion entailed, its a bit difficult to react.

My personal take on the piano is that it could be a bit longer, I was just beginning to enjoy it and it ended.

This is a highly personal reaction though and shouldn't really influence you.

[NowoTone]

Glad you like the piano part, Sambo Rouge.

My brother really liked the song, but found the piano part jarring. Well, that is probably putting it too strongly, he just thought it disrupted the flow of the song. Which I agree with, it is intended to disrupt it, but in a positive sense. The more organic sound of the piano and acoustic drums is used as a counterpoint to the very "artifical" electronic sound of the first part of the song. The second then is a blend with the guitar parts and the vocals complementing the electronic sounds.

At least that's my theory and I'm sticking with it. I didn't actually think about any of this when I recorded the song

[msore]

I just now listened and thoroughly enjoyed it. A lot of things happen in the piece, but they all have their own organic sequence and their own clear space. thnks

[Sambo Rouge]

Originally Posted by NowoTone

The more organic sound of the piano and acoustic drums is used as a counterpoint to the very "artifical" electronic sound of the first part of the song. The second then is a blend with the guitar parts and the vocals complementing the electronic sounds.

Could not agree more. The contrast makes for a very interesting musical mixture.

Really nice work -- you have nailed it.

Oh by the way, what mastering plugs did you use? The mix is beautifully loud without being distorted.

[NowoTone]

I've just heard I won 1st place in the bi-weekly Distinctive Electronica competition! It's not the biggest competition in the world, but I found a lot of interesting artists and songs through this competition since I started to take part about a year ago. So big competition or not, I'm pretty chuffed :
http://soundcloud.com/groups/distinc...ica/discussion

Originally Posted by Sambo Rouge

Could not agree more. The contrast makes for a very interesting musical mixture.

Really nice work -- you have nailed it.

Oh by the way, what mastering plugs did you use? The mix is beautifully loud without being distorted.

Thanks Samo Rouge, it seems several people thought so as well

Regarding mastering I have to admit I quite like Ozone5, especially since I learned to use it and don't have to rely on the (already pretty good but sometimes quite brutal) presets. The only thing I never use is the reverb, especially for mastering I much prefer the NI RC48.
In my electronic songs I normally use Ozone5 on my piano as well, mostly the equalizers and the dynamics module (as in this case here). In my rock / pop songs I don't. I find it helps to make the piano stand out more in the electronic songs, also the equalizers are pretty good. In the other songs I normally just use a little EQ from Reaper's own ReaEQ to thin out the bottom bit so it doesn't clash with the bass too much.

[Dimaension X]

Listening and liking.

I'm a big fan of combining the artificial and the organic, kind of like Robert Miles' TH1RT3EN album.