The 4 minute curse!

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eggnchips
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Re: The 4 minute curse!

Post by eggnchips »

With a lot of techno tracks I notice two major differences: There are those tracks that have the same groove/melody/stab/whatever, etc etc. chugging along throughout the whole song, but with only minor and really effective changes/modulations happening that keep the listener tuned in and begging for more even though the track doesn't do much.
And there are those tracks that could be kind of separated into two tracks although they are put together as one. These tracks have some hook, melody, groove, drum pattern or whatever, but then slowly evolve into something else with another main hook, lead, groove or whatever taking over and making it sound like the track has completely changed and taken one on a sonic journey.
steevio
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Re: The 4 minute curse!

Post by steevio »

yeah its healthy to make both of these types of tunes.
when i do a release i usually have a simple groove tune or two and also a couple of tunes that morph from one thing to another or radically shift sideways into something else half way through.

this type of tune gives the DJ something that he can just let happen which will be very effective and suprising between mixes. as a DJ i love tunes like that.
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Pettro
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Re: The 4 minute curse!

Post by Pettro »

do you have examples of tracks that morph into something else?
steevio
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Re: The 4 minute curse!

Post by steevio »

Pettro wrote:do you have examples of tracks that morph into something else?
listen on something that can reproduce bass frequencies as low as 40 Hz, the sound quality is not amazing, but good enough for me to post it, its a youtube recording off vinyl that someone put up, ( to whom i'm very grateful )

Last edited by steevio on Sat Feb 16, 2013 10:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
oblioblioblio
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Re: The 4 minute curse!

Post by oblioblioblio »

fuckin ell that's a bit alright isn't it! I've only just listened to the full thing, was just enjoying the clips previously to this. nice work!
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blizt
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Re: The 4 minute curse!

Post by blizt »

The answer is in your question! Now concentrate on writing stuff that is not supposed to be in the first 4 minutes. At the end something will make you tick and will fit in the track. If not move on to another project. You can always recycle and mix things up between projects, etc. I ve done this many times and it works great. Like I need to start 4 different projects that will blend into one solid cohesive sound: kickdrum from here, vocals from another, etc.
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Re: The 4 minute curse!

Post by AK »

Like a lot of people, I have always adopted the subtractive sequencing approach, I find it the fastest for workflow once the idea has come about, so I will loop a certain amount of bars over and sequence and jam/program/whatever until I like the idea or I find something I can develop. It's my belief that most music has to have some form of repetition, constantly changing music doesn't give the listener chance to grasp the idea and concept but I also do not like copying/pasting, I will do it but I have to make changes in timbre, velocities, filters, envelopes etc, basically anything to maintain the repetitive aspect of the groove but also keep up 'ear-candy' interest too in the sounds that are playing that groove.

Like somebody else said, if it's good, you'll know it's good, if it's sh!t, move on. Nothing worse than pushing sh!t, get a grip and accept it's feckin dire and restart. That's not to say you should instantly give up, nothing instantly becomes awesome, work at things and develop the idea. For me, it helps to go in with some inspiration. Like I could be feeling really 'out there' and 'sci-fi' and want to create strange moving chords and non conventional harmonies or whatever and other times, I want to create something driving and aimed more at rhythm but I like to know beforehand where I'm going even if I don't have any musical idea in mind.

Never start at the beginning of a track, it's pointless, always start by building up sounds until you have your kick ass masterpeice, the rest is subtractive foreplay. That's my $0.2
eggnchips
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Re: The 4 minute curse!

Post by eggnchips »

Pettro wrote:do you have examples of tracks that morph into something else?
Here's a great example of a track with evolving stages throughout its 8 mins:

It's almost like three tracks in one that does a brilliant job of maintaining interest and throwing in some surprise elements.
Maybe some of you musical theorists could describe how it is structured.

Here's a good example of a track that doesn't really evolve too much but keeps one locked in with its small variations and hypnotic groove:
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