@MindCtrlDel
I almost forgot to write that I really enjoyed your track especially since this isn't the kind of music I am familiar with.

If you don't mind me asking, what soft / hard synth did you use?

 

You listen for 5 seconds and turn it off then you make a comment saying nothing has changed I posted 2 versions so you listened to them both for 2 and a half seconds each? And then you come up with such a vague statement what are you doing in this thread in the first place if you don't even bother to listen to the track but you take the time to post a reply really some people I thought I was vague at times but this takes the cake

 

I used spire, vital, serum 2 and the usuals suspects nordlead 2 emulation for the leads
I forgot sylenth1.

 

Last edited: Feb 28, 2026

@MindCtrlDel Sorry friend Maybe I shouldn't have commented in the first place but I guess I'm tired of those intros even if a lot of my tracks start like that. I could have been more constructive that is sure . I just tried to listen to the second version. 2 seconds. I'm not ready for it yet. I think I'm not relaxed enough.

 

I haven't listened to it yet, but I remember when we were still all buying vinyl, how fast we'd check out techno, house, etc.tracks. You'd go to the record store on Friday or Saturday, grab a stack of stuff to check out and there'd only be like 3 or 4 listening stations with a turntable each; so you had to keep it moving. There was one store in Boston where the owner had crazy access to promos, and no website. He'd play stuff over the phone he'd already picked for you, and so you would have to bag it or skip it in about 30 seconds. The only difference was it didn't turn into a forum post with commentary when you said skip it.

 

I don't know what you like, but I have a feeling you're used to radio edits. I grew up in the 90s, I'm used to long tracks, I like some old trance tracks where you really get into a certain state of trance, I'm not really into fake drops and that shit that takes you out of your flow, and this is not a style for fake drops anyway. I used to DJ, so I can appreciate a longer version because then you have space to mix the track, but everyone has their own taste, but what kind of music do you listen to? What is your preference?

 

I used to go to the record store regularly, I picked up a few records, listened to them, skipped some parts, but you can't tell me you can judge a track in 5 seconds.

 

If it is the wrong style track? 5 seconds is that guys statement of time. Can I tell a track is not disco house when you put on a RTC track? Instantly. Can I tell you I do not want to buy a Olav Basoski house track if I wanted something for a hard techno set? How about a liquid dnb track if you only play neuro? 4 bars or less. My point was it would just be another track you didn't like. Why leave a comment saying it...

Here is an example of something you might immediately flip over. This first tune is Peshay - On the Nile. Nice atmospheric roller. Sounds like a lot of the other stuff he did with LTJ Bukem:

Here's the flip side called Predator. See how long it takes you to notice that one of these is very different from what you were trying to find:

 

Last edited: Feb 28, 2026

This isn't really my genre of music but I listened to it anyway and I have to be honest I didn't finish both songs but I didn't turn it off after 5 seconds it was a few minutes so i get what you mean.

 

We'd go through piles of new 45's most never arrived at 20 seconds of listening. I still think that this is the harsh reality of music business.

 

Music shouldn't be a business, but a cultural asset and an enrichment in the artistic sense.

Really, nobody needs the music industry or music gurus anymore these days. It's all about the big money, looking for talent they can cash in on. If they're discovered by trend scouts, they'll tell them what haircut they need and what to wear, and then they'll be built up into a brand.

Next, they'll advertise with them; music magazines live off paid ads, so they'll write glowing reviews about them. Now all they need is the paying audience, as many idiots as possible willing to pay 100 or 200 dollars for a concert ticket to mediocre music.

 

You're right, the music industry is fake.
A few months ago, I was watching Jon Sine's YouTube channel. He said he'd made a track and offered it to a label, and he got a response.
It wouldn't fit our label, they said. After that, he sold the track as a ghost production to an artist with a lot of followers on social media, that other artist then offered the track to the same label, and he got signed.
The music industry is so fucking fake.
Many artists don't even produce themselves; they buy a ghost production, and some don't even give credit.

 

There are also positive stories, though, like the band Dead Can Dance, who moved from Australia to England, worked in a restaurant, and then performed. By chance, someone from the label 4AD was there, signed them, and since then, their career has skyrocketed. Now almost everyone knows them!

4AD is a British independent record label, founded by Ivo Watts-Russell and Peter Kent in 1980.
It was originally funded by, and an imprint of, Beggars Banquet. https://shop.4ad.com

In Power We Entrust the Love Advocated (Remastered)

Mesmerism (Remastered)

 

There's a big difference between listening to a track on the internet and giving some feedback, and buying a record you probably will never play. You can tell immediately at the drop if it's not something you want to play. The main exception to that are progressive styles of mostly trance, but some techno, where there are no big breakdowns and drops. They never cut the kick out unless it is for a good reason. 5 seconds is probably an exaggeration, but in 30 seconds? That's long enough for people on a dancefloor who aren't musicians or djs to decide they do not like a track. If even 30 seconds.

That 30 second mark is a good window of time. I remember reading an interview a long time ago with a famous A+R guy in Keyboard magazine, or Future music, and he was talking about listening to all the demos he got. He had a DAT player in his car, because that was how much stuff he had to check out from potential new artists for the label he worked for. The guy said, if something doesn't happen to retain interest in the first 30 seconds your DAT was getting ejected. That isn't about critical listening to a mix or a track for feedback. that is the musical attention span of someone deciding if they like a finished track or not. Today, it's probably half of that. That wasn't just some guess, the labels would do actual studies of exactly that kind of thing; like they do with movies using focus groups.

 

probably sounds great if you're off your tits on e's.

unfortunately I'm not ... sorry

 

Here's something completely different, I think the kick bass ratio is good but the rest isn't quite right in the mix yet

 

I made this track this weekend but I felt like something was missing. I wrote the track in G# and by pure chance I found out that Timbaland - Give It To Me was also on G# so I thought 1&1 is 2. I put the acapella in and it fit perfectly without pitching.
Timbaland - Give it To Me (MiNDCTRLDEL Rmx)

I still haven't figured out how to get the balance of the whole mix right. The kick and bass are well in the mix, at least on my system, but I still don't know the ins and outs of mixing and mastering.

 

Last edited: Mar 2, 2026