Axis Part 2 (ElectroProg - Seismic Continuation)

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Over 3 years late, Part 2 of Axis has finally touched down. Apart from 1 theme, not much has made the crossover to the new piece, except for the general mood. No timestretching on here, Shimmer has been replaced by B2. The synths are all different too, and not a 'tron in sight.

EDIT:20221231 mp3 link removed

on SoundCloud:-

https://soundcloud.com/whatsisname/axis-part-2

Recorded/Mixed in EnergyXT2.7
Mastered in T-Racks 3

Tools and treatments

Rapture
Miroslav Philharmonik
CM SR-202
Phonec 2
CM ADM
Dune
Microtonic
Tremor
B2
Gain 3
Replicant
CSR
EQ PG
Satin
T-Racks Linear Phase EQ
T-Racks Opto Compressor
T-Racks Vintage Equalizer
T-Racks Brickwall Limiter

DR - 11

EDIT:20230430 - I thought the reverb on the original track was too much, particularly in the lower frequencies, and so replaced some of the B2 instances with CSR Room, which had the additional benefit of freeing up memory usage in my 32-bit project. I updated the EQ settings and re-levelled the track. I mastered using T-Racks 5.

https://soundcloud.com/whatsisname/axis ... ks5-master

Recorded and mixed in EnergyXT 2.7
Mastered in T-Racks 5

Rapture
Miroslav Philharmonik
CM SR-202
Phonec 2
CM ADM
Dune
Microtonic
Tremor
B2
Replicant
Gain 3 Mono
EQuivocate
CSR Room
Satin
T-Racks Linear Phase EQ
T-Racks Opto Compressor
T-Racks Vintage Equalizer
T-Racks Brickwall Limiter

DR - 12
Last edited by seismic1 on Sun Apr 30, 2023 1:18 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Hi Tim,
Glad to hear from you again. Love the start to this, great sounds...
Great use of space and awesome restraint in the next section.
The choir sections are very grand and have some fabulous sounds.
I love the quality of the sounds you use and the 'just right' amount of reverb.
I think this is one of your best, if not your best. Downloaded it so I can listen to it in other spaces... Great work!
:)
Bandcamp
Music with progressive intent.

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Glad to see you back with some music. Great atmosphere, i like the choirs.
The bass keys coming at 5:30 are lovely.
Lots of variations, well done.

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Allomerus wrote:Hi Tim,
Glad to hear from you again. Love the start to this, great sounds...
Great use of space and awesome restraint in the next section.
The choir sections are very grand and have some fabulous sounds.
I love the quality of the sounds you use and the 'just right' amount of reverb.
I think this is one of your best, if not your best. Downloaded it so I can listen to it in other spaces... Great work!
:)
Hey John, (Genesis quote) :wink:

I've just been through one of those barren patches (about 3 months) where I either had no time, inclination or aptitude for making any music. This piece crept up on me (15 minutes here, half-an-hour there, etc.), and suddenly it was done.

I liked the results of Axis Part 1, where I used a lot of "ambient" features to make a piece of techno, and Part 2 was long overdue. Most of the synths and FX have changed, but the basic idea is the same. I routed most of the synths through two instances of B2 which created the spacey atmosphere. The choir and brass is from Miroslav Philharmonik. It has a cleaner quality than Red_Tron SE, but after reverb, the lines begin to blur.

Now I'm back in the saddle and working on another couple of tracks. Hopefully I can maintain the momentum for a few months.

Thanks very much for the great comments, and for taking the time to listen. Glad you enjoyed it :)

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Really excellent work! There are lots of interesting sounds in here, and you develop this track slowly and patiently, letting sounds diminish almost to silence before coming back in with something else. The effect is really cool and atmospheric. Thanks for sharing!

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I liked this. I enjoyed the variety, but I'm more partial to the busier parts. I have no constructive feedback or critiques for you :-)
- dysamoria.com
my music @ SoundCloud

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nice dark, eerie atmosphere on this. especially when the choirs come in. listening here late night and it
gives me a bit of the chills! the varied percussion moves it right along. The bass has a cool tone to it with
the slight delay and verb. nothing to critique on the mix... all sounds great! :tu:
HW SYNTHS [KORG T2EX - AKAI AX80 - YAMAHA SY77 - ENSONIQ VFX]
HW MODULES [OBi M1000 - ROLAND MKS-50 - ROLAND JV880 - KURZ 1000PX]
SW [CHARLATAN - OBXD - OXE - ELEKTRO - MICROTERA - M1 - SURGE - RMiV]
DAW [ENERGY XT2/1U RACK WINXP / MAUDIO 1010LT PCI]

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Alias9593 wrote:Glad to see you back with some music. Great atmosphere, i like the choirs.
The bass keys coming at 5:30 are lovely.
Lots of variations, well done.
Thanks very much for taking the time to listen and comment, Christian. Glad you liked it :)

I used Philharmonik for the choir on here, as I felt it had a little more clarity than RedTron, which I normally use, and I wanted it to feed B2 with something a little cleaner. That bass is coming from Dune.

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davidstiles wrote:Really excellent work! There are lots of interesting sounds in here, and you develop this track slowly and patiently, letting sounds diminish almost to silence before coming back in with something else. The effect is really cool and atmospheric. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks very much for the comments, and for listening, David. B2 is responsible for encroaching upon those regions of near silence. I love the quality of its sound. I really ought to make more of an effort to move to a 64-bit host, so I can use more instances, but I still can't tear myself away from EnergyXT's workflow.

Glad you liked it :)

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The Good News:

Gorgeous soundscaping. Masterful use of space with swells of sound seeming to rise from the depths of the ocean. Love that massive bass. The choir is fantastic. I normally don't enjoy reverb but that B2 is really working for you.

The mix is perfect (except for those clicky hats).

Did I say gorgeous?

The Bad News:

Somewhat uneventful buildup. Sometimes it sounds like the band is taking a coffee break. :ud: I think this would be a masterpiece if you could somehow tighten it up and lose 2-3 minutes. Of course, I am showing my pop bias. Ambient fans might prefer it as is.

Those loud clicking hi hats are very mechanical sounding. I would find them less irritating if they were quieter or had less HF content.

The Verdict:

One of your best. The sound design and mix are amazing. :love:

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This is very good! Nice to hear a piece which takes its time to say what it has to say.
Great choice of sounds - love the choirs :)

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Nice composition and soundscape.. restful trip and floating mood in the space. Good mix and sounds

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Jace-BeOS wrote:I liked this. I enjoyed the variety, but I'm more partial to the busier parts. I have no constructive feedback or critiques for you :-)
Thanks for listening and commenting, Jace. The busier parts were quite interesting from a mixing perspective, but seemed to work themselves out reasonably well.

Glad you liked it :)

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layzer wrote:nice dark, eerie atmosphere on this. especially when the choirs come in. listening here late night and it
gives me a bit of the chills! the varied percussion moves it right along. The bass has a cool tone to it with
the slight delay and verb. nothing to critique on the mix... all sounds great! :tu:
Thanks for checking this one out, layzer :) I hope it didn't keep you awake for too long :shock:

I seem to have gone over to the dark side over the last couple of years. Every time I start work on a new track, I tell myself that it's going to be cheerful and joyous, and then my resolve crumbles. "Bring back the prancing piglet", I say.

The bass on here is a very lightly modded Dune preset. It just slotted straight in here. I love it when that happens.

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Frantz wrote:The Good News:

Gorgeous soundscaping. Masterful use of space with swells of sound seeming to rise from the depths of the ocean. Love that massive bass. The choir is fantastic. I normally don't enjoy reverb but that B2 is really working for you.

The mix is perfect (except for those clicky hats).

Did I say gorgeous?
Thanks for the great comments, Frantz. This one differs from Axis Part 1 in that the swells here were generated usng a combination of synths and reverb, whereas the swells on Part 1 were generated mainly via timestretching. I've been using quite a lot of reverb on some of my recent tracks, and have tried various reverbs for these deeper, more ambient pieces. I think B2 is my favourite, followed by Shimmer. I'll be using Eventide's Blackhole on the next one, which has quite a different character.
The big bass is Dune.
Frantz wrote: The Bad News:

Somewhat uneventful buildup. Sometimes it sounds like the band is taking a coffee break. :ud: I think this would be a masterpiece if you could somehow tighten it up and lose 2-3 minutes. Of course, I am showing my pop bias. Ambient fans might prefer it as is.

Those loud clicking hi hats are very mechanical sounding. I would find them less irritating if they were quieter or had less HF content.
The slow buildup was intentional. The band weren't taking a break, they had missed the bus. I'll have a think about that later.

I'll probably revisit the hats (ADM/Microtonic/Tremor) too. I was thinking of adding some processing to them, but like all of these projects, don't hold your breath. I just got around to remixing "Absent" last month (30 months on). I have lowered the bass on there in response to comments in the KVR thread. I haven't uploaded it to SoundCloud yet. I'll probably do that towards the end of the year.

The Verdict:
Frantz wrote: One of your best. The sound design and mix are amazing. :love:
Thanks again for listening and commenting, Frantz. Glad you liked it :tu:

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