EricMilligan

Merci, XDOUSP!

Eric

Yes, thanks very much VN. I thought the vocals really did work well. Was a bit tricky getting the levels of the Vocal vs orchestral backing properly balanced in the last section of the track. Took me several revisions of the mix to get it sounding right.

Eric

Thanks, Leo

I agree. Is a unique structure. I seem to be doing that more with recent tracks. Not sure why. I think it may be because I still haven't mastered how to do a complete trance track. :)

Eric

Thanks, Dimestop. Yes,I really liked the spoke word vox. I had much of the track done instrumentally, knew I wanted some sort of vocal, but couldn't find anything that really seemed right. Stumbled on the acapellas by Steelyvibe. Just seemed to fit right in. :)

Eric

Thanks, Morash. Never been to a club, so if I got even anywhere close to that feel it would be pretty astounding to me! :)

Eric

Hi, Oli! Yes, isn't exactly 70's. I tried, but didn't quite hit the mark. The vocal actually isn't really AI. Synth V is just a very sophisticated sampler VST. Needs midi input or drawing in the notes to establish the melody line. Lyrics are inputted by the user, not AI generated, It is quite different from all those AI voice things that are out there now. The lyrics for this track would probably have been lot better if done by AI. Ha!

I just checked your "influences" listed in your profile. We share many of the same ones, including Enigma. But, there are some I don't know and will check them out.

Eric

Thanks, Ruslan. This time I caught that it had auto-corrected your name! :). Could not edit my reply, unfortunately, or would have fixed it.

Eric

Thanks, Russian!

Yes, definitely check Salve out, Ed. Very unique I think. Has a pretty sophisticated sense of melody and obviously can compose decent lyrics.

Thanks, Wayne. And Bailey thanks you as well! :)

I'm pretty sure I never had moon shoes (don't actually know what they are), but I think I might still have my mood ring salted away someplace in the bottom of my sock drawer! :)

Eric

Hi, Dean. I'm very gratified that you liked the cat vocal! And yes, Cat petty much got all the reverb and quite a bit of delay as well! :)

Thanks, Kirkoid. Was actually fun to make. I don't usually come up with great bass lines, but this one did seem to fit.

Eric

Thanks, VicaMOOR. I think the lyrics are actually kind of funny. Singing about a cat, but for some reason they did come together pretty easily (very unusual) and allowed me to finish the track. :)

Steve: thanks so much for connecting me with the music of Chicane. You are right, I really do like Trance a lot, but I really only have a superficial knowledge about it, frankly. Had never heard of Chicane or the track, Saltwater. Just spend a couple of hours learning about him and listening to his music. Definitely my kind of music for sure. Is (almost) inspiring me to try once again to make a Trance track worth listening to.

Thanks, Dean. Had to check out Murder on the Dancefloor on Apple Music. I definitely can see connection you noted - with the original version. The vibes in the versions by Royel Otis and the remix by Guetta and quite different. Less disco.

Worked a lot on automation generally with the track, including automating several of the variables controlling the reverbs on the vocals. Also did multiple layers of some of the vocals, with panning and very short time delay offsets. Reverb mix and delay settings on the L and R panned tracks was a bit more than the ones for the C panned tracks. Initially had issues getting the lyrics to be intelligible in the mix, but that method seemed to work mostly OK. I generally try to restrain myself using reverb so things don't get all mushed up.

Thanks for encouragement, Dimestop. I was too busy trying to be a lawyer to do much dancing back then, but never let go of the music. I'm getting better at doing vocals with the Synthesizer V software, but there people on their forum who have done really amazing stuff, with videos, posted on Youtube. I really don't know how they get the vocals so nuanced. Yet, still not even close to what a real human vocalist can do, which is frankly, comforting in a way. :)

Eric

Thanks Steve. You are right. Need more strings, and French horns, and flutes and wah wah chunky-chunk rhythm guitar. Going to give that some thought. Thanks for the links. I am enjoying where you took me with them.

Eric

Thanks for the encouragement, Ripzore. Glad you liked it.

Eric

Thanks, BeatMkaer4real. Getting the mix fixed by Wytse made a real difference.

Eric

Thanks, SC.

Eric

Yes, I guess I ran out of patience. Actually, the problems with the track were rooted in the mix itself. I didn't even get to the mastering stage with it. Sounded harsh and vocals were competing with the synths and strings. Wytse fixed the problems somehow. I actually don't know exactly what he did, but he does have a lot of real analog gear in his studio. And yes, of course he's a pro and quite in demand. Was worth the investment. Not something I'll probably ever do again, but was necessary for this track.

Thanks, Hobewan. I'm pretty pleased with how this one turned out. I can take some of the credit, but really it's Salve's vocals that made the track.

Eric

Yes. Quite right. Only in some respects. Basically, the first section (after the cathedral choir thing).

Deep rich sounds were, in varying degrees and in different parts of the track, a combination of synth bass, acoustic bass, brass, and vocals.

But, the challenge was getting a rich sound throughout because so much middle high and high frequency material was competing for space in the mix. That was the challenge that Wytse finally solved, when I could not.

Thanks for the positive comment on the track. Very nice to hear that you liked it.

Regards, from Ottawa where it was -18 celsius this morning. I'm sure it was much, much better in Hawaii! :)

Eric

Hi, Paul.

Thanks for the encouraging comments on the track.

I did think that Salve's vocal really made this track something special. I guess that's why I took so long trying to get the "sound" to live up to Salve's vocal.

Many years ago, long before LM, I was in a kind of chat group with musicians from across the world. I admitted to another participant, an accomplished professional French composer named, Philipe Chatillez ("le chat") that I had composed lots of fragments of tracks, but never really completed a full track. He said I should not be afraid of just combining different pieces to create a whole.

I guess that's what Salve and I did with this track except that we actually planned it this way - as a musical progression.

So, probably 30 years after getting the advice, I finally put it into action! Slow learner! :)

Regards,

Eric

Hi, Xstokes! Thank you for the kind words on this track. You get the prize for recognizing the inspiration for that first section of the track. It was definitely Kate Bush. Actually “Cloudbusting”. I found a patch in one of my VSTs that really reminded me of that track, and just started from that to build the instrumental backing. And, to my credit, this was well before the world rediscovered Kate Bush because “Stranger Things” had used one of her tracks. She has always been one of my favourite artists, and remains so.

Regards from very cold Ottawa,

Eric