[Techno] Titanian Orbit(mp3)

[Harbinger]

Titanian Orbit (UPDATED)

Typical house music. Envisioned as the theme music to the opening of a new discotheque by the same name. That's all; nothing new or interesting. Escape music.

You'll hear my usual Techno style: lots of synth KBs, an arpeggiation throughout. Yjana did drums (and fixed up her track with MPT). She usually likes things more challenging, but she did make it a little interesting at about 3:50, when it sounds like she's introducing a non-standard rhythm. Then she comes back to me.

I also used a great VSTi i recently downloaded called String Theory for the arpeggiation. I highly recommend it, plenty of variation, low- to medium-CPU usage, and an excellent interface. One of the features it has is that it can pass your notes thru a tremolo modulator that can go from low to high volume over up to 4 beats. However, it doesn't seem to vary the pan the same way. So i had to use a low-CPU panbrello VST (dB Tremelo) to get the arpeggiation to sound like it's going in an orbit. (NOW does the title make sense?). I would have loved to make it sound like it was orbiting around the listener's head, but that requires some knowledge of acoustics i don't have. Anyway, the CPU load of the VSTi, the VST effect, and another VST i use to create stereo effects is too much for my Windows machine, so i can't even listen to this music under MPT!

In any case, mind the license (no commercial distribution or using any of the music in your own) and feel free to put it into your "Background music" folder. Thanks for any praise or criticism you have for it.

2nd UPDATE: I am officially transferring the license of this song to Tassel of Blue as of 4/25/9. She holds and can administer all rights and privileges to this song.

[Sam_Zen]

Enjoyed. Very nice arrangement. Indeed clever drumming.

[uncloned]

I don't normally care for house - but this is actually an interesting piece.

Its been looping for a quarter hour now - always a good sign.

[mrvegas]

This is good quality music.  I liked it a lot -- the synths seemed to swim around your head, which was pretty cool.

I thought that the bass and snare drum were both balanced a little off to the left -- it didn't bother me, but the standard production recommendation has always been to put the kick square in the middle.  (It could be my hearing, who knows.)

Very, very good quality sound.

[Nahkranoth]

Is it just me or there is some audible clipping throughout the track?
Nevertheless I had a good time listening to it, though for the background music the drums are too punchy.
BTW did you guys enjoyed those sinister chords ~3:30?

[Harbinger]

I thank you all for the attention you paid and the reviews you gave it. I am humbled by the response here... :oops:

I thought that the bass and snare drum were both balanced a little off to the left -- it didn't bother me, but the standard production recommendation has always been to put the kick square in the middle.  (It could be my hearing, who knows.)

Maybe but my hearing in my left ear is not very good either  I thought i compensated for it. Fortunately it's not too far to one side. I'll check the potpans again.... :wink:

...for the background music the drums are too punchy.
BTW did you guys enjoyed those sinister chords ~3:30?

Techno music has alot of classical tendencies when it comes to chord progression. If a Techno piece deviates from the 2 or 3 chords that usually make up pop music, it will generally follow the "circle of fifths" in (or out of) the key. However, i wanted to depart from this for a nice refrain, so i jumped to what-would-usually-be a bad chord for pop Techno (i believe i used a D7 in the first inversion: F#-A-C-D), which lended itself beautifully to the ending cadence that fades out at the end. When i told Yjana about the unusual bridge, she wanted to break up the monotony of the 4/4 beat too. I let her go at it, and she did a wonderful job; that's her first take in the track. But she didn't want to spend alot of time on the piece either, so her usual precision is slightly lacking every now and then. Come to think of it, i didn't spend alot of time either going for perfection. I justed wanted it to go smoothly from one section to the next...

But i'm glad you guys liked it. As we speak, i'm working on 3 different pieces, that are Techno in style, but they're nothing like this. (Only one you might call "danceable"!) Keep your eyes open in this forum :shock:

[Sam_Zen]

A bit OT tech, sorry.
2 Nahkranoth
I didn't hear any clipping, but I can imagine that you could. This file is strongly compressed with a 100% normalize.



2 mrvegas
If in standard production it's a self-evident rule to place the kick, the bass guitar, and the voice in the center of the pan,
I almost always like it if someone does it differently.

[Harbinger]

WOW! Is that the soundwave for the song?? Usually i look at it and fix it before encoding it to .mp3. But that's abnormally loud for my MPT pieces. If there is clipping distortion that distracts, lemme know; i'll re-engineer it.

And to be fair, Sammy, in this particular piece the kick was to be centered. I just can't hear straight

[Sam_Zen]

Well, who can ? I guess every person has another graph of the sensitivity of both ears.
Or speaker positions or different properties of the headphones.
An author only can strive to some common denominator in the listening experience.

[Harbinger]

Nope, i checked the sound data, played it, and the song stays around the lowest red bar in the VU. It never reaches max output, so there's no distortion from clipping. The song is in perfect shape!

[Sam_Zen]

I didn't hear any clipping either, let me state that.
But if a track is normalized to 100%, and someone uses an eq in playback to boost some freqs, maybe it could happen.

[älskling]

Nope, i checked the sound data, played it, and the song stays around the lowest red bar in the VU. It never reaches max output, so there's no distortion from clipping. The song is in perfect shape!

It seems you're using a very hard limiter, which can be fine depending on which side you're on in the Loudness War

A screenshot of Audacity with the option "Show Clipping" enabled:

(red parts=max output)

[Harbinger]

Don't know, don't care.

Here are what i do to .wavs including this one:

1. Bring volume up to reach red area AS LONG AS there's no clip distortion (with a lot of leniency given to percussive sounds);

2. Use 10-band Eq to bring up Bass, so that no Bass Loudness is required from the listener; and

3. Smooth fades (in and out) so that fades do not suddenly appear, even at low volumes.

I very rarely use Limiters and Compressors because as a listener i don't like artificial changes to a sound's or song's audial dynamics.  (Plus i don't know how to use them effectively.)

I believe that if a listener wants to change the audio ouput (as opposed to the song dynamics) he'll use Equalization, Limiters, or whatever. Since tastes vary, i present the meal without salt and pepper.

[bvanoudtshoorn]

I quite enjoyed this, Harbinger. I won't mention the kick being to the left, 'cos that's already been covered.

I quite enjoy the way you've played with panning, and the fact that you resolve some of your chords into more interesting ones is interesting, too. I think that your D7/F# actually sounds more like an F#dim, which kinda makes sense if the D itself isn't emphasised.


In terms of post-processing to make it loud, I've always believed in the adage that the last thing you should do is bring the volume up (be it by normalising, compressing, or whatever). If you bring the volume up, and then push up the bass, you're necessarily pushing the bass up past the threshold.

I also don't use compressors/limiters in post-processing, only as effects. Because I'm not very good at using them properly when they're not an effect on a single instrument, and because I'm on the "save the transients!" side of the loudness war.


Anyway, I enjoyed this track. Good stuff, Harbinger.

[Harbinger]

Click the title below to go to the license page of the download:

Titanian Orbit v2

The whole song underwent compression surgery so it's not too obese on the VU. This is for those who enjoy the song but hated having to turn down the volume every time it came up in their rotation.

Also traded a synth sample for the M1 VSTi, but the difference in portamento is strong. I got it as close to the original as possible. Enjoy!

(BTW i also updated the first post; the original release is no longer available.)