Keep it simple...

Wednesday, 16 April 2008 01:25

...that's what they teach at every design course. Seems to apply to pretty much everything: music, visual design, films, you name it. That said, some of the best stuff in all of those is not simple at all, but usually the KISS principle does hold true.

In trance/house world simplicity and minimalism seems to be in right now, at least that's what I read on forums... got me thinking about whether I should try doing some minimalistic stuff myself. Probably isn't my thing though, as I seem to naturally go for a more "wall of sound"-like effect. Usually when finishing a track I have to dial down on effects and different synth layers to make it more listenable... too long delays, too much filter resonance and saturation on stuff, too many synth lines going on at the same time and so on. Maybe it's because I like old-school goa that has several synth layers on top of each other, so I kinda subconsciously emulate that.

Maybe I should try to make something like this, just for the fun of it:

A 4 on the floor 909 kick, clap, some hats & snares, 303 line, one vocal sample, a single note string, a kick & snare roll, basic lead synth playing a relatively simple arp, basic bassline and very little FX. Nothing else, and the track f*cking rocks, especially the longer version (which I couldn't find anywhere as a digital release, btw). Just give it a more modern kick, put some more delay & reverb on the lead and sidechain those under the kick a bit and you've got something that would give any current pop trance track a slap in the face. Hell, that track would be a slap in the face to most current stuff as it is, those 90's sounds and all :) They totally missed the point with 2002 remixes ...or maybe I'm just nostalgic. Anyway, it's still a great track in all its simplicity. I'm surprised that it doesn't seem to be very well remembered nowadays.

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