MacJams.com - Song: Trans Appalachia Express by VicDiesel

Trans Appalachia Express
by VicDiesel

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Submitted on: Jul 25, 2008 - 10:35:38 PM
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Description Tackling yet another genre, I bring you my first trance tune. Sort of.

Lots of ES2, Plugsounds string instruments, Ultrabeat, and Trilogy.

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	12parsecs said 128 days ago
	vic does trance? i saw this and had to check it out. haha, i'm a sucker for banjo - so this is alright in my books. ;) nice en-trance into trance. (get it? en-trance? n/m. i'll stop taking up valuable comment real estate.) nice work. no nits, as i know very little about the genre. fun listen!

	said 128 days ago
	Yeah, the banjo sound It was quite a relief in sound when it came in :) Don't know what the genre, maybe a new one - 'progressive-disco-country-folk', but trance? A neat departure from anything of yours I can remember listening to, I always expect original-American with whistle or medieval dance. Interesting listen. The chick with the bass fits. . - Harold

	VicDiesel said 128 days ago
	Trance ...is hard to pull off convincingly. You're right this is more disco.

	Char said 128 days ago
	Ooh, that's fun! Trance, huh? More like a romp! Thanks! Good banjo picking!

	peacepiano said 128 days ago
	Odd I thought for a moment that you were doing a trance version of "Thus Spake Zaruthustra"!! Some catchy little melodies and rhythms here. A definite genre bender :) Thanks Bill

	guygrooves said 128 days ago
	I know... absolutely nothing about this genre but this falls under one of my two classifications.... good. I admire your courage and your ability Vic. this is very well done, and the banjo was the boulder in the middle of the river it needed.

	Diviner said 127 days ago
	Interesting Good try at trance. Love the synth at the start, very powerful (and so close to TranEuropeExpress, very good). Good vst for the banjo, very authentic. Love the bass in the track, however not all the sounds are that good but the idea is very good and well produced.

	magnatone said 127 days ago
	TAE Vic, you are a genre bender! This goes everywhere and does everything - really really well. I'm on my second listen and I fear I'll be sucked into this all day. When the banjo comes in, I'm surprised, delighted, and rather amazed! Really cool ideas all put together in a most interesting way. Maybe you need to establish a new genre? (Diesel?)

ziti said 127 days ago

interesting music
i am curious...are there any real instruments in here?...i am not really familiar with this process of making music.

but in my opinion, the drum track is really distracting. it sounds very brittle, and really diminishes my enjoyment of the track...with all that's going on, dynamically, it is all one level. there is no tension and release and no feeling of a forward motion. The whole composition is at one level.

Sound quality, other than the drums is fantastic. The mix is way cool, and all those sounds stay very separated and distinct. It is clear as a bell and bounces out of the speakers in a good way.

nice work, all in all

z

VicDiesel said 127 days ago

Drums
Thanks for you comments.

First of all, this is all software. The synths come with Logic (with the exception of the bass and the banjo/guitar, which are all sampled), and likewise the drums are a sampler/synthesizer that comes with Logic.

I'm not sure what you mean by "brittle", but this particular set of drum samples is obviously geared towards electronic music, so it combines samples with synthesis. For instance the hi-hat uses FM synthesis, and is obviously far from a "real" hi-hat in sound.

In my attempt to get a "trance" sound, I've nudged the sound in various stages towards the bright and aggressive. I'm sure that little by little that adds up.

One level: yeah. Guilty as charged. Those synths sound very full and I had the hardest time getting the guitar and banjo to stay intelligible, so those are compressed pretty far too. In far, I exaggerated their attack (the Enveloper plug in Logic), and in retrospect sometimes just a bit too much. But this also kinda goes with the genre: trance, like much electronic music, does not vary a whole lot in intensity, so partly this is conscious. I assure you that in general I'm aware of narrative arcs of tension/release.

Your comments much appreciated.

ziti said 126 days ago

thanks for the gear info
that you can conjure up music of this complexity, without a "real" instrument is just a mind blower to me.

I am def going to check out more of your music. Your approach is soo different than mine, I bet I can learn a lot from your stuff.

I am enjoying the give and take here, vic, and I am grateful for the attention you are paying to my stuff. It is why I came here....and why I stay!

best

f

	pablatone said 127 days ago
	this is silly I have to say that I haven't the slightest idea what trance is as opposed to other electronic dance music but this is a fun, light hearted tune. I can almost see Ben Stiller as Zoolander doin a little interpretive dance to it.

	dirigent said 126 days ago
	Trans Appalachia Express Wonderful choice of synth sounds over an amazing beat. Everything goes very well together and makes a great uplifting piece of music. Surely the first trance-piece with banjo I've ever heard :-) But I like this blend a lot: Excellent musicianship and creativity - an unique treat, bravo!!!

	said 125 days ago
	Yeeeee-HAW! Trance-Disco-Bluegrass rules! Ha ha... Very creative concept here Vic. Full of interesting sounds winding their way around that driving beat! The banjo is awesome! Be well friend!

	Skean said 123 days ago
	Logic mix Cool track w/nice mix as always when u Vic is on stage. I hear more and more mixing songs w/logic and I be very curies of the apps.... Is it hard to learn and what logic do you have? Kinda like the rhythm (tempo) u have in this it's an happy song

	Ibstrat said 122 days ago
	I'm not really sure what trance is- Like Ziti I don't know how you layer something like this.You are a really musical guy, I always enjoy your posts.

VicDiesel said 122 days ago

Trance
is an electronic genre, around 130 bpm, with a bit more melody than house or techno. For the rest it's the usual sinuous basslines, pumping synths, arpeggios, et cetera.

And an occasional banjo....

How do you layer that? Same way that Lynyrd Skynyrd can have 3 lead guitars: have some diversity in sound (a Paul and Strat) and make sure they're not in each other's way (one picking, one playing lines, another playing low), et cetera. Oh, better example: listen to something like half a dozen guitar parts layered in Hotel California. It's all a matter of each instrument finding some hole in the arrangement that it fits in.

Thanks for the compliments.

	dajama said 122 days ago
	Cool I liked it, and then the banjo came in and I loved it. Feel good music, perfect for moving and grooving. Nice sound, good production, and the arrangement is nicely done. The genre is not something I'm familiar with so I can't really say if it fits or not. Irrespective, it's good. Quite the musical range you've got going on there! Peace.

	Vic Holman said 120 days ago
	now that was fun i think the banjo took the gendre to a different level, i wasn't expecting that. the whole tune and mix sounds great and some really nice playing as well. Ultrabeat is pretty cool. So far I've only dabbled with it, but it seems you have it down.

	Reinholt56 said 83 days ago
	Hi Vic..... I'm certainly glad that I stopped by. It's a catchy piece of music and one that I enjoyed listening too. The banjo gives the whole mix an exciting 'edge'. The genre is not quite Trance but very 'sort of'. This sort of music is very good, IMHO, for the soul. It's happy music and therefore should be heard by everyone. Take care. Paul

	VicDiesel said 128 days ago
	2001 Yeah, you can't play those first 3 notes without evoking good old Richard. Thanks for the comments.

	VicDiesel said 127 days ago
	Thanks On some forums there people proclaiming that "Trance is the most complex kind of music". It doesn't sound that way to me, but I will admit being at least half a mile off the mark in making my own take on it.

	VicDiesel said 127 days ago
	PS congrats on spotting the small quote from Kraftwerk.

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