Actually this isn't sampled. Its completely resynthesized with my Virus Powercore and it took a hell of a long time to get it right.
This track is what I call a 'proof of concept' track. I wanted create a track that sounded exactly like something from 2001 - 2005 back when hardstyle and hard trance (and even hard house!) could be blended into each other. I didn't want to do a 'back in the days' generic track with a vocal talking about the genre's history - I wanted to make something that could be mistakened for a record from that era. And personally I love that era - I have Scot Project's A1 album on heavy rotation in my music selection.
I started listening to a lot of very early hardstyle and what I call the 'pre-cusor' to hardstyle, particularly lots of material from Mauro Picotto. During this time I found the source of the original 'sampled' reverse bass in his tune 'Mauro Picotto - Pulsar' (released in 1999 on BXR) which was then used an reused countless times by early hardstyle and hard trance producers like Zenith, Scot Project, Blutonium Boy and well... just about everyone else. The goal was to remake the reverse bass from scratch and then manipulate it to sound like it did back in 2001.
So if it sounds weak and old and slow, thats because.... well actually thats what the music sounded like back then. I'm serious - compare this reverse bass to Zenith & Avex - Scream and you'll see they match up pretty well except for the fact that Scream is at 137bpm and thus much much slower :O
Yes, I did sample the breaks from the Second trip, but thats because they are iconic and instantly create an old school feeling - everything you hear has been designed with the sole purpose of making this track sound like its from 2001.
Nevertheless, I'm really surprised by the feedback on this track because there's a lot of pressure as a DJ and producer to constantly create new and fresh music. This is an experiment for me and I expected a lot more hate. You have to understand that most of the time when I (and other producers) sit in the studio trying to write something, we want to make something that works on the dancefloor and get the people moving and singing along etc.... There isn't a giant conspiracy to make hardstyle mainstream, everyone is just trying to make music that works on the dance floor. At the moment, the trancy and uplifting stuff and even some of the weirder stuff just works, and as the saying goes 'if ain't broke don't fix it.' Whether this is in the spirit of what people consider is 'true hardstyle' is a different matter completely. I'm just trying to say that producers are writing music to get the dancefloor moving, and the dancefloor's tastes change with the seasons.
I've witnessed early hardstyle clear rooms and kill floors (at least here in NL) and I think thats one of the reasons why a lot people have stopped making this style of hardstyle. The crowd, most of the time, doesn't react unless there's a giant kick banging away. Love it or hate it, thats just something I've witnessed. I can absolutely guarantee that if this older style of hardstyle started killing it on the floors, it would make a comeback. I really enjoyed working on this and I'm sure other bigger producers are just looking for an excuse to give it a go. Lets face it, a DJ is there to entertain just as much as he or she is there to educate a crowd, so if what he's playing doesn't work and the floor doesn't, the promoters won't book them again, the dj becomes less popular, gets paid less and well, you can use your imagination. Its a difficult line to walk!
Also remember that I am a musician and person who writes and appreciates many styles. My ultimate goal is simply to make music that I find interesting to listen to and that will get me dancing. Whether other people like it or not is something else entirely. This is one of the reasons why I try to make each track different from the ones before it, because I like that variety and I'm just having fun in the studio. I don't try to label it too much, or want to be stuck too much with one approach or sound so I experiment continuously. If a track works on the floor and if people like it, then lucky me! If not, thats totally fine, I still had fun making it and I believe thats what truly matters - that a person can enjoy what they do and it makes them happy.
I will test this out at the Qontinent and get back to you guys with a definitive answer - the dancefloor will be the true judge whether this works or not.
Thanks for all the feedback - it was seriously unexpected and if it works on the floor, you can expect more stuff like this in the future!
Geplaatst op 07 aug 2012 04:14 
Vette mainstream tracks produceren en daarnaast ook gewoon dit soort tracks produceren. Kan nu al niet wachten op brainfunk.
Die reverse.
