Woes of an amateur (Techno/Trance)

First off I am using Elements, and only the included virtual-instruments, which should tell you something. I have only owned Cubase for less than a year, and am nowhere near professional. As of now music is just a hobby.

I am still lost when it comes to mastering, but the only downside that I can see is a lower volume. You-Tube and Soundcloud both trashed my quality, but I can assure you the normal mp3 is much better (in other words just pay attention to the music).

I need all the help I can get, comments and suggestions welcome. Thanks!

Actually made me think more of some of the music from Sonic Colours or something with the type of lead instrument. The particular track (which I think has a very catchy melodic hook) that I was thinking of was Aquarium Park Act 1.

Sounds like you’re enjoying the learning process. I don’t know much about electronic sounds and processes since I work with orchestra writing, so I can’t really comment much on that technically. The melodic and rhythmic ideas sound like they’re being developed nicely and teaching someone to have a good sense of melody isn’t something you can do. I actually quite like the melody in your track, although I’m imagining it on a Sonic level and not as a techno/trance track.

The main thing I notice, is that things sound pretty bare overall. Perhaps layer things up with some various sounds left and right. Things sounded too central for me and just…empty. I don’t know if you’re using speakers to write/mix but you should be using headphones for those stages.

The drums sound like they’re missing hi-hats and stuff in places and are too quiet in others. As I said, it’s more like a videogame Sonic track to me. For the main section having a faster drum and bass beat on the drums similar to the Sonic track mentioned above would so maybe listen to the one I suggested and others and see how they fill the sound out with other instruments and stuff.

As for mastering, it’s such a huge subject and an entire profession/craft on its own that learning it in-depth for me, and many other composers/musicians, would take up too much time that could be spent scoring or performing. I use Izotope Ozone 5 for my mastering because it comes with presets for different genres and purposes and from there you can read the manual and tweak things until it sounds better. There’s so much more to the sound than just pumping the volume up.

You can read the manual for free here; Ozone 10—Audio Mastering Software | iZotope I suggest you do that even if you don’t buy the program as it’s invaluable information that can be applied to mastering in general and will give you an idea of what else is involved instead of just pumping the volume up. Also, if you do decide to buy it, I found it for way cheaper from an American store via Ebay called Scitscat.

Well done so far, keep practicing and enjoying it. :slight_smile:

I reckon you’ve done really well…nice sounding track really…Kevin