Uoool
Can’t remember exactly what I use here… but usually I’m around 25% swing.
Nate, I’m just now taking this course and am ever grateful to learn your process. Have been a fan of your music since the early 2010s and I’ve enjoyed hearing your music evolve over the years!
I have a couple questions about your process that I hope you can provide insight on. I know many producers like me struggle with making progress on tracks due to too much time spent on composition and also sample diving.
When it comes to sketching out melodies, do you have a general criteria for avoiding over-complicating melodies? Is simpler melody almost always better with progressive tunes? I’m classically trained with a decent music theory background, but I feel that might actually be working against me when it comes to composing for trance. In this course you sketched out the melodic elements in 30min, whereas in my current production I’ve totally pivoted on melodic elements several times!
As for sample diving, especially for things like transition FX or drum loops, what makes one sample really better than another? With enough time and processing, can’t you get just about any drum sample to sound decent in a mix? I personally spend a lot of time potentially putting lipstick on a pig, so I’d love to hear how you approach this after all your years of experience.
Thanks again for the course and I appreciate any more helpful tips you’d have to spare!
Another brilliant course from Protoculture, learnt so much.
Thanks for recording this.
Thank you, wonderful course!
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nice work thank you !
“When it comes to sketching out melodies, do you have a general criteria for avoiding over-complicating melodies? Is simpler melody almost always better with progressive tunes?”
Honestly… I don’t really think about it all that much. More of an intuition thing really. I usually just play stuff by ear and thats about as complicated as the process gets for me.
“As for sample diving, especially for things like transition FX or drum loops, what makes one sample really better than another?”
Nothing really… again just taste and intuition. Something I try not to over analyze.
“With enough time and processing, can’t you get just about any drum sample to sound decent in a mix?”
Sure… to a point, but you’d be wasting your time when you could just find the right sample to begin with.
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Great work man 
I have learned a lot from your videos.
Great tune and tutorial. Thanks so much. I’m learning the Trance genre and this is excellent to get me oriented. I’m using Ableton but able to make the conversion with no problems. Can you point me to where you got the Sylenth patch “Flower Power?” Thanks again!
Think its from the Vengeance Trance pack for Sylenth1
Very cool course! Loved to see your process and workflow
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this stuff is gold im a fan of nates alias protoculture these videos have really been very informative so just wanted to say thank you to all involved in the production of the courses.
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in mixdown part 1 (20:54) you are changing setting on mixer delay are you only delaying the signal in the left speaker and not the right is this so all your sounds dont hit at the same time and prevent frequency clashing
Micro delays on a single channel like that are called a ‘Haas’ effect. It’s a psycho acoustic effect… the delay is small enough to not hear it actually delay, but since the right signal techincally hits your ears slightly earlier, it gives you the perception of something being much wider than it is. Anytime the left and right channel in a stereo set up have different signals, you’ll get a strereo widening effect.
Dear Protoculture, thank you for this another great video! I have a question regarding the sample you used from the Radioactive Soundtrack, or a more general question about that: I am always unsure about using samples which are owned by other third partys. Can you give me some tipps on this to get not into law issues?
Thank you very much!
Best, Christian
Hi there @Christian4
Sorry for the delayed reply 
You can refer to the End User License agreement that you’re presented and need to agree with when you download the course’s resources 
Hope this helps !
Cheers
Hi, i have another question regarding the sound FX from “VPS Avenger”, the patch named “AR Toxic”. in the Tutorial 08 - Transition FX Part 1 at 12:46 time. Can you tell me which Xpansion pack of Avenger this is from? Or maybe can you tell me how to make such a sound (not the arpeggio but the riser). This is a typically common sound used in trance and i just can’t figure out how to get it.
Any help is appreciated!
Thank you so much !
I don’t own VPS Avenger myself, so I can’t tell about the expansion pack for this VPS Avenger “AR Toxic” preset.
For creating FX and Risers, suggest you check this other course and videos 880 and 881
Great course. Learned a lot as usual with SA and especially Nate. Thanks a lot.
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