Hi Everyone, Hope your all doing well! Just finished this piece and was wondering if anyone would mind giving it a whirl its an uplifting piece, that’s definitely club based trance. If anyone (trance fan or not) would like to give it spy and let me know if you liked it or even if you didn’t I don’t mind, I would be most grateful! 
Here is the link (Nearly forgot to add this, nearly had you all feeding back on a black screen here lol)
Hi again @Rowan_Carter
Made some cleanup with the posts since the SndCld link appears correctly in the first one now, no need to have double entry 
Overall it’s a powerful track matching the genre, mixing wise you did great IMO, all parts are correctly leveled and the tonal balance is good. Now when it comes to the final levels & mastering stage I find the track a bit too loud and a bit overcooked, it’s peaking in the red many times and we start to hear distortion. But that might still work for club playback, it’s a different experience than listening to it in a small room or via headphones.
Now I found the arrangement somehow complicated, a bit difficult to follow between intro, main parts & the different drops. On one end it’s creating interest but a more classic progression with less drops & release moments would work too. That said, it’s just based on my personal listening experience. Would be nice to read other’s comments about the progression too.
Nice work overall
Hey Tekalight!
Ahh I see, that makes sense thank you dude!
Awww thank you man, I really appreciate that! I felt I stepped a grade on the mixdown. Yeah I thought that might be the case, I kinda just wacked a limiter on and mixed into that and then I haven’t changed that its still the limiter that I mixed into. so ill get on that and back it off a bit! or do two a little softer to stop red lighting and another that’s fully -14dB lufs’d.
Yes I do know what you mean here on the arrangement I kinda went for a little of the beaten track kinda feel, I wanted to go a bit more organic and took some influence from tracks like “Home” (The Wippenberg Remix) for that kind of not traditional arrangement style. Some of the release bits could be a bit more explosive so the rise could take over a little more and it could explode a little more at these points, maybe some filtering a bespoke delay to give them a more rising to hanging cadence feel. Which may work to make these feel a little less complex and smooth out the transitions here. I do feel that it deserves a vocal in the first drop, something reminiscent of “Brave” by Sarah Howells some thing more percussive than dreamy, could help to maybe tie the whole piece together. Maybe…? still need to try these out lol
Thank you for taking the time to have a listen and provide valuable feed back I can take away, I really do appreciate it! if I can ever return the favour I will! hope you’re having a nice day wherever you are in world!
I agree that the production sounds good for the genre and on point.
the arrangment is defo where you should be working on. you have essentially got 4 sections that are somewhat unrelated and bring in new ideas each time. I would highly suggest brining a track of the genre in to your project and marking up the different sections (use blank midi tracks if you dont want to use markers)
This will give you a better idea of how your arrangement compares to other tacks.
Most tracks follow similar structure… Intro - driving bit - break down - drop - driving bit - outro (sometimes repeated) of course there are variations but most of the time you are building up to a big breakdown release then in to a powerful drop section. it doesn’t need to be too complicated.
sounds really good. but similar to what the others said: it feels more like a mix or dj set of several songs and not one consistent song.
Hi Tekalight, Phil_johnston and Kuchenchef!
So sorry for the late reply, I have been working late so have been able to read your comments but not able to reply. I hope you’re all well!
I have also been in the studio the last two days making some tweaks to the arrangement based on your feedback, thank you again btw I do appreciate it. I spent some time, moving stuff about and cutting sections so its a little shorter now but not by much. I don’t know if this is what you guys had in mind but here is the other version, if you guys have a sec id really appreciate if you would have a listen and see if the changes are an improvement and make for a more cohesive piece?
the other version I still there also if you need it for reference
Thanks again and kind regards!
https://soundcloud.com/rowan_carter/synapse-alt-mix-3/s-U0du6
The arrangement is getting better in terms of progression & distinguishable parts but still could be simpler. This track is very busy in terms of synths, drums, Fx and IMHO it would be good to really bring less elements at the same time during certain parts. That’s the way to create both tension & release, playing less elements. Longer parts repeating could also help IMO. Again, think tension & release, if you want a big drop and very busy peak time to work in a track you have to prepare the listener for it, if it’s too much busy & euphoric almost during the all track, then it won’t work the same.
Now regarding the mixing, the previous one was reaching the limits volume wise, this one is really overcooked and too loud, there’s a lost of audio quality in this one because of this.
Are you working with reference tracks ? This could be useful, both for song structure & arrangement as well as for mixing levels.
Hey Tekalight,
How are you? I hope you’re well!
Sorry for the late reply, I have been working but also it took me a little while to figure out how you meant, I didn’t understand. In my head I was like "how can I make it simpler? its just intro/1st drop/breakdown/main/outro ? but your talking about the rises and falls and stuff. and then I spent some time in the studio over the past few days working on the tweaks and stuff.
So I cut some of the rises and drop bits out, took out some stuff from 1st Drop and tried to take away from the euphoria kind of feeling, I also realised what I did with the last one in terms of overcooking, I went the limiter don but like literally down, my head must have thought “ahh of course -6 is less than -5” which obviously it isn’t, so I’ve backed this off a bit more in the right direction this time
I don’t really use reference tracks anymore to be honest, not in the project any way I tended to feel like I’m writing too close to the tune(s) I’m using, so stopped doing it and never really picked I back up again.
If you wouldn’t mind giving it a go this is the new version, I know you’ve already given advice on the previous two versions so ill not bug you again as this must be getting annoying now I do appreciate it
https://soundcloud.com/rowan_carter/synaspe-alt-mix-2/s-NwFVK
Hi again @Rowan_Carter
Yep, doing fine thanks
Just to clarify what I meant by “simpler” was about playing less elements at the same time during certain parts of the all Mix. Let’s see it that way : you are done with all your sound for the all Mix → you create a part where those elements are playing all together ( let’s call that the “Full Time” moment of the track ) → from there it’s then a matter of taking out certain elements to create other parts that would come before & after this “Full Time” moment in the arrangement. Less elements carrying less energy helps the listener to feel & follow those tension & release moments.
You did that for example with the part starting after 1:00, we can feel different elements getting in the Mix & raising the tension, but in the intro before that, the drums are rapidly getting quite busy & at 00:15 we already have a powerful beat going on and you’re bringing in some sub, bass and quite a lot of glitch synths & fx very quickly, so it might make it more difficult for the listener to follow along when next part is starting especially for fast tempo Mixes.
That said, I recon that in genres like Euphoric Trance / Psy-Trance or Goa it might be less easy to follow the “progressive” pattern, but sometimes it’s just about taking out some Fx, percs or ear candy sounds and keeping a high level of energy with the main elements.
This last arrangement is working better for me, it sounds more like a all track than the first version which was more difficult to follow and get the feel for
Yep, limiters can be tricky sometime 
I still find the Mix a bit hot but again like I did write on my very first comment it will work for Club / Live Set playback, watch out for some high frequency range percussion elements, they also hit the limiter and some of them really cut through a bit too much IMO, in this case it’s a good habit to filter some unwanted high frequency per track to avoid those to go through the limiter.
That’s it for me, would be nice to have other’s comments too
Ahh Excellent!! Glad to hear it!
Ahh yes I see what you mean! so get the Full Time moment and then have an Idea for a arrangement and then use deconstructed bits of the Full Time moment to create you’re other phrasing rather than having an idea and then working from start to finish kind of or in my case a mini DJ session in live session view. lol
Yeah I totally agree, I’ve just taken out some stuff from the intro after reading this comment and it makes for much more impactful 1st drop, especially without the sub. I definitely had it in too early for the type of intro it was trying to be, and less hats means your ears aren’t as tired from the first 1:00
Yeah it can be, the arrangement can seem a lot more elusive. I think that’s the bit I struggle with at the moment keeping energy high and musically…how do you say…trancey enough which I over compensate for by adding FX and ear candy and just stuff in general to try and keep some sense of phrasing. I am taking piano/music lesson to try to combat this though so hopefully less stuff in the section but more quality stuff in the section as well
Good! im glad, thank you for all your input! really! I learned a lot about how much I can actually move around even though the creation part in my head was near done, I always find it hard going back and like trying to re-do sections once their “written” my head has a hard time deconstructing but your advice helped me with that and just that even thought I know “less is more” I was still putting in more, so thank you!
haha yeah, I just had dumb moment where I was like down = less, up = more. Yeah it definitely is but I don’t think the mix side is fully done to be honest, think I’m still going to do a tad more mixing and then master properly. Ahh I hadn’t noticed, and didn’t know that, I will listen out and taper that in the final mixdown and make sure its not getting blasted by any sharp frequencies before it goes through. Thank you for that nugget of advice! 
Ahh well, Thank you again @Tekalight ! for taking the time to have a listen and offer some really constructive, useful advice! as always a true help! Thank you kind sir! and have a good day/evening!
Kind Regards
Rowan
No worries, glad to read this was useful to you
As a subscriber & if you haven’t done yet, you should check @Protoculture tutorials on S.A, they are full of excellent technical & practical insights and his Progressive & Psy-Trance courses are definitely good ones to watch if not done yet.
'Till next then,
Cheers !