Some of my own music work...

sparkz

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Joined
Dec 27, 2007
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Now I doubt many will actually like this stuff.... Been working in music production for about 10 years... Bit unsusual to the norm posts of music people like (As this is what I made myself)

If you like rave... you may like this...

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Main page for my work:

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Feel free to comment etc :p
 
Wow this takes me back to my Happy Hardcore days mid-nineties when the Dutch were responsible for messing with our heads at 180bpm :D

The production is ace Sparkz. I take it you watch Clubland TV then? I got back into it a bit a few years back when I ran a Hard Dance label for a short time and one of the bands I dealt with - "Paradise" from Manchester - were also involved in the hardcore scene.

Nice work :thumbsup:


PS... Oh and Happy Birthday :D
 
Not my kind of thing, but my daughter came running across to listen when I played it, and gave it A+...:eek2:

This music must be listened to with a mobile phone really; with the hands free speaker enabled, the lack of bass and harmonic distortion from the phone playing beyond its volume specification is where it melodises and one that the little ones pick up on and appreciate.
 
This music must be listened to with a mobile phone really; with the hands free speaker enabled, the lack of bass and harmonic distortion from the phone playing beyond its volume specification is where it melodises and one that the little ones pick up on and appreciate.

Well that's the way it sounded on my laptop so that could explain it - little bass and more definition than a hi-fi.
 
TY guys, maybea bit fast for some and simmo:

Yea mate, thats what I aim my work to sound like, Haha the dutch were crazy.

I do, I have been known to be associated with some of the bigger guns of clubland....

That bang! track I did a version of is the same artist behind "shooting star". Had a good bit of support off him.

"Paradise" as in people who did "see the light" ?


And hahah for the speakers... Try pumping this in a 1000+ Watt sound system. It even makes my soundproof studio room shake... :D... but yea, phone sound if you just want the cheese without heavy bass
 
I do, I have been known to be associated with some of the bigger guns of clubland

Scooter?

"Paradise" as in people who did "see the light" ?

That's them :thumbsup: I released a couple of their trancier tracks, Rising Sun and I'm Alive. Cracking tracks but trying to make money from being a record label at a time whene the whole music world was struggling to come to terms with MP3 proved too difficult. Cost me a small fortune in the end.

I went plugging at Radio 1 one day and that was an eye-opener. The 2 people I saw liked the tune and said it was suitable* but then said they couldn't give it airplay until it was on the video channels, irrespective of how good the song was and you couldn't get a video on TV unless you had a big distributor and you couldn't get a big distributor without radio airplay. D'oh! Even to this day, most of the current dance stations just loop the biggest 20 videos and new acts are rarely given a chance.

I started to lose interest at that point.

The thing that really sealed it was when you'd send out all these white labels to so-called DJ's who'd not only not send in the feedback sheets, they just flogged them on eBay. Some were great but you just end up thinking they were taking he piss so I packed it all in. Eventually had to fold the label with a loss of about £25k which was a shame but it just wasn't viable. Was fun though.

Att that time the Orchard and IODA were jst starting up and now I think it's fantastic that artists can do a lot of the leg-work themselves although (I am no longer involved obviously) I suspect many of the same hurdles exist on promotion. Bottom line is, getting established in the music industry is way more about who you know than any other industry I've come across.

* That was the other thing: everyone you meet is nice face-to-face but being such a money-strapped & competitive industry, you never take anyone at face value. One thing I learned in the music industry was that if you didn't seal a deal at the first opportunity, it was rarely going to happen.
 
Well, not quite Scooter, I dont think they exist much anymore? (Were epic back in the day). I say "bigger" names, but I forget in this scene, it's all gone to dubstep so more like former bigger names. Theres been artists like Mark Slammer (Did vocals on some track Darren Styles remixed, featured on a few clubland xtreme albums), who I had some vocals off. "Hoodzie" was another name too, He had clubland artists like UFO signed to his label and I won their remix comp.

Ahh wkd, their stuff was always good. I know what you mean, the change to everything being digital has bashed the industry. For most labels it pretty much means signing a track from an established name will cost them a fair bit and there wont be any return from it really due to sales going down the pan and the scene being so small. In general, it's not like the past days where if someone had talent, they would get somewhere.

Ouch, that sounds like a painful loss with that. Yea, at least you gave it a go and I expect learnt some things.


The thing I find nowadays is Digital downloads have truly crushed things in the scene. The top labels only really release internal tracks, they have their few artist's signed who are "big names". Basically they have no real fee's and the track's will sell because if people see an established name on the track, they will assume it must be good and having that name on it alone brings in the cash.

Since theres countless smaller label's out there, the market is flooded. People releasing on the small labels are barely recognised and sales are at a complete low for them (A lot of people are lucky to sell even 5 digital downloads of their track @ £1.50 a download). They can boost publicity by getting a bigname to remix 1 of their artist's tracks, but that could well cost £500+ and even with the name thats on the track, I cant see it selling 333 copies in a small scene to break even.

The main bignames I was in contact with and had even done bit's of work with basically don't even exist anymore because all styles of dance music have been hit with dubstep syndrome. It seems to be the style that sell's nowadays and they hated it. People like Jorg Schmid... He was always on clubland albums, but doesnt make dubstep as he hates it and as a result doesnt really feature on clubland albums anymore.

For me, I guess I manage to get recognition and a fanbase because I refuse to put anything dubstep sounding into my tracks. Quite a few people have loved hardcore for many years also hate the new dubstep style, so I think theres myself and maybe only a handful of other artist's who make the euphoric 2004 style of hardcore to cater for them.

Even so, I don't really release on label's nowadays because people are more likely to download something thats FREE than pay a few quid.

Pretty much any track I finish is eventually given out for free download, but then I do things like create construction packs. They are downloadable packages that have tutorial's I make and are filled with melody/piano/bass/pads files, samples and it teaches new, up and coming artist's how to produce. A lot of the fan's who have downloaded my full tracks for free are interested in them and so on quite a few big sites they are sold on, they have hit number #1 spot quite a few times.
 
I think you're right about Scooter but I think still involved in the production scene. Wasn't really my cup of tea anyway but as All Around The World basically own(ed?) Clubland TV, you can't get away from him :D

My point being really that if you know anyone who's someone, don't let them walk out of the studio without helping you in some way. Like I say, it's all about who you know, not what you know...that comes after LOL.

Dubstep, like alll fads will disappear again. Everything goes in cycles...dnb has had a couple of cycles, house is about the only constant, hardcore will have it's time again. But everything evolves by way of influences from other genres which keeps it interesting IMO.

You're right on downloads. People freeloading kills any new artists before they start. That's why it really annoys me when I see people recommending these p2p places and stuff because they don't think of it as theft. A lot of people now think it's their right to have music and films for free.

But the music industry only has itself to blame for not stamping that out earlier - they were very slow to react and before they knew it, free downloading became normalised and now they can't find a way back. Making a career out of music now must be near impossible unless you go on a talent competition and become someone else's puppet. So most artists do what you're doing, just do it for fun. Which is fine to be honest and that is what music should be ... fun and enjoyable :)
 
Not my style of music, but i've been producing for some time as well and I can tell the production value is high :thumbsup:. What did you make the supersaw synth with? Sylenth1?

Here's something i'm working on ATM:

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Oops, forgot to reply again in the thread.

The only thing I didnt like about him was the mc-ing in the tracks. Some melodys were ok but when some guys shouting nonsense it can be headache provoking. Yea, AATW and Clubland are effectively the same company. I think I recall it being "Clubland" branded for all the commercial CD's, TV channel etc. Then they had "AATW" as the record label that published full track vinyl for people that wanted the full tracks to mix with. Since the demise of vinyl though, AATW is more commercially mentioned. That company was 1 of the prime culprits in buying out the hardcore scene. Such as when "Ultrabeat" first came about they were signed to AATW, did dance versions of older hardcore tracks (pretty green eyes, paradise and dreams etc) which effectively took off in the charts and before you knew it, the big underground hardcore names were remixing tracks made by cascada (even that baywatch theme was planned to have a breeze and styles hardcore remix but they dropped the idea last minute).

Lol, that is just so true. You see the states of raves nowadays for example. People who have never made a track and are talentless dj's manage to get bookings, because they know the club owner whilst others who are hugely talented don't get given the time of day.

I guess your right with things having cycles. What's become apparent though is say 10 years ago. "Underground" music would of stuck to it's roots (So we had the electro/synth 80's, evolved into "old skool" in early 90's, then into "Happy Hardcore") but it just seems now since the big sellout of the scene that it focuses on what sound is in the charts and can make the most cash for the big players.

Yea people just seem to have that logic. They just think its there for free dload, they pay internet bill so they have rights to download it. Around £1 for a track is nothing and it is a better deal than vinyl days. I think a single 12 inch vinyl costs around £1 to press, but they were sold for usually £5.99 when released, so basically people were paying £5 just for the tracks and the rest for a piece of plastic.

Agree with that too. What makes me laugh is websites like MegaUpload and ThePirateBay. It took years for them to close MegaUpload.... But thats only 1 of maybe 100+ download websites. Then with ThePirateBay the law forced some ISP's to block access to the website, but theres countless mirror's people can use. Too little too late. The people who could of done something about it seem to be full of empty threats.


FiveWildsDan -

Thanks mate. Appreciated :D

It was Nexus. Default preset bank (I think it was "trance saw wide" lead). I do like sylenth (and "Massive") but don't tend to use them as much as I should. Thing with Nexus is you cant really tweak the preset sounds much as they are banks, but adding in eq and tweaking the few things you can tweak does help change the sound a bit. That specific riff had multiple notes playing on each note (pfft hard to explain as I would say "layering" but it's not layered).... But it would look like the following (per bar):

sparkznotes1.jpg


As for yours:


Not too familiar with that style of music. Sounds nice and clear level wise. The plucks are cool. Quite a short clip but that sounds like a nice attempt so far :D. Followed you :D
 
Oops, forgot to reply again in the thread.

The only thing I didnt like about him was the mc-ing in the tracks. Some melodys were ok but when some guys shouting nonsense it can be headache provoking. Yea, AATW and Clubland are effectively the same company. I think I recall it being "Clubland" branded for all the commercial CD's, TV channel etc. Then they had "AATW" as the record label that published full track vinyl for people that wanted the full tracks to mix with. Since the demise of vinyl though, AATW is more commercially mentioned. That company was 1 of the prime culprits in buying out the hardcore scene. Such as when "Ultrabeat" first came about they were signed to AATW, did dance versions of older hardcore tracks (pretty green eyes, paradise and dreams etc) which effectively took off in the charts and before you knew it, the big underground hardcore names were remixing tracks made by cascada (even that baywatch theme was planned to have a breeze and styles hardcore remix but they dropped the idea last minute).

Lol, that is just so true. You see the states of raves nowadays for example. People who have never made a track and are talentless dj's manage to get bookings, because they know the club owner whilst others who are hugely talented don't get given the time of day.

I guess your right with things having cycles. What's become apparent though is say 10 years ago. "Underground" music would of stuck to it's roots (So we had the electro/synth 80's, evolved into "old skool" in early 90's, then into "Happy Hardcore") but it just seems now since the big sellout of the scene that it focuses on what sound is in the charts and can make the most cash for the big players.

Yea people just seem to have that logic. They just think its there for free dload, they pay internet bill so they have rights to download it. Around £1 for a track is nothing and it is a better deal than vinyl days. I think a single 12 inch vinyl costs around £1 to press, but they were sold for usually £5.99 when released, so basically people were paying £5 just for the tracks and the rest for a piece of plastic.

Agree with that too. What makes me laugh is websites like MegaUpload and ThePirateBay. It took years for them to close MegaUpload.... But thats only 1 of maybe 100+ download websites. Then with ThePirateBay the law forced some ISP's to block access to the website, but theres countless mirror's people can use. Too little too late. The people who could of done something about it seem to be full of empty threats.


FiveWildsDan -

Thanks mate. Appreciated :D

It was Nexus. Default preset bank (I think it was "trance saw wide" lead). I do like sylenth (and "Massive") but don't tend to use them as much as I should. Thing with Nexus is you cant really tweak the preset sounds much as they are banks, but adding in eq and tweaking the few things you can tweak does help change the sound a bit. That specific riff had multiple notes playing on each note (pfft hard to explain as I would say "layering" but it's not layered).... But it would look like the following (per bar):

View attachment 41637


As for yours:


Not too familiar with that style of music. Sounds nice and clear level wise. The plucks are cool. Quite a short clip but that sounds like a nice attempt so far :D. Followed you :D
Thnx :D Seems like you were playing a minor chord with the bass layer an octave down. I have found nexus to be faaar more useful when you get a couple of extra banks (dont think i need to tell you where to find those for free ;)) Obiously synthesis is the best option but I find it really hard to get cool sounds out of it, other than the standard cutoff envelope plucks and detuned supersaws
 

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