You're right. But I sometimes have no more ideas on how to improve a track or how to continue, so I try to finish it "for now". Maybe some other day I'm fooling around with the track in the daw and I got an idea so I re-arrange all the parts need changes to get a good overall structure and finish it off. That's the only real way I can work, because I know if I try to finish something and make it better but I'm not feeling creative in that moment, I end up with a mess of arrangements that don't work or even ruin the whole thing. Because it not only matters the arrangement itself, but the sound you're using as well, you know. And I like the way you explain it: "who's the boss in this part?". Never thought of it like that.

 

Thank you for your feedback!
I know the kickdrum could be better, but the truth is that after working on the track with that one I cannot imagine it with another one, although I'm not saying that the one I used is "the only one". There could be better ones but after some trials, I always came back to the one used in there. The problem is that if I get rid of the low end and lo-mids it gets weak. Maybe someday I'll get the right one to make it work. Same with the percussion high hats.

Regarding to the 90s Goa sound... being a teenager in the 90s, I had that wrong idea that the sound could only be achieved if you had expensive gear, or if you had surgically crafted patches, but after all these years, I think "the simpler, the better". Because it does not have to do with the gear or the patches, it is just what you do with a sound. When I'm composing, I usually don't go looking for patches or presets straightaway, I just think: what do I need? Monophonic/Polyphonic? Analog emulation? Something synthetic, plastic-like sounding? Then, I try to play with the sound to make it something good. I have the idea that if everybody uses the same presets, everything ends up sounding the same, so I try to avoid that, unless I find some patch already good enough. Maybe I'm wrong. But playing with a basic sound leads you to fields you could not imagine that were there. Keeping it simple could be the reason of getting THE sound.

 

Thank you for the feedback!
Yeah, I thought it is too short for the usual lenght of the genre, but as I said to user Satai, I don't want to keep on going just for the sake of making it longer when I have no more ideas. So I finish it for the moment, leaving the end done already in some way. And another day re-listening it in my daw I could get that spark that leads to a new element to be added or something different to make in the track to make it longer, but, at the same time, different, keeping the interest of the listener. Years ago I used to think "keep going, keep going" and there was a track which lenght was 15 minutes! Not kidding! It was so fucking long and repetitive but with different small details I never wanted to touch it to mend it and make it shorter, I didn't ruin that "a quarter of hour journey" I was so proud of and embarrased at the same time... Hehehe
So with that one I understood that shorter is better if you have no more ideas than light details to apply to it.

 

Thank you so much for your suggestions, as I see you could actually put into words what I had in my head thinking of the mistakes in the track.
First of all, it sounds to me nice in terms of melodies and chords and everything regarding the music itself (notes and scale and all that, though I'm not an expert, I just choose a scale and then, determine the intervals and there I go to jump into the pool of composing). But the overall result sounds too overloaded.
Pads are throughout the whole song because I didn't know it was not working after all the time invested in the track, so I was like overloaded as well of the same track not really listening to the errors. But I see your point, I'm not either a fan of using all the elements of the song all the time because then it sounds repetitive and it gets boring. I'll work on it.
The first leads you're meaning are those "fin guitar lead" track? (white clip under the pads). If so, well, I wasn't really sure they actually would work well more than a 8 bars so I used it as something different for a part before that pink "insect lead".
Thanks a lot for your in-depth breakdown!

 

Sure they are all masters! And I really agree with Stravinsky's quote, because, as we say in Spanish: "Las cosas no vienen por arte de birlibirloque". Which means: "Things don't just happen by magic". It's only after studying, practice and work when ideas come alive. Music is one of those quite frustrating arts to learn, because (unless you're one of those of the dream-team up above, without leaving Chopin behind) starting learning music is an ocean of doubts until you start to get the proper notions to do the best you can in order to learn more. I mean, for example, you learn a scale, then you have to practice with that scale to understand how it really works better in order to build chord progressions, or to make a melody out of its notes (it would have been weird if "happy birthday song" was written on a minor scale...). But in the end, every craft is a matter of relentless practice. When I decided to seriously start learning all this more than just for fun, in 2015, I used to spend whole days reading, studying and practicing. And it was like that until the pandemic in 2020 (personal circumstances made me not to have enough time for it). But seriously, I mean I woke up at 7 or 8 in the morning and I spent the whole day on it until I got to bed at midnight... day after day, week after week. And this is the same I did when I inscribed into the official school of languages to learn French: whole day studying, writing, reading, listening... Besides the 4 hours per week of going to the classroom, I worked it at home.
Finally, regarding the hallucinogens, I have to admit that spliffs used to help me on being creative, but at the same time, it led me to a point where I felt tired and lazy. I'm into 7 years now I quit them. But yeah, some substances help, but you have to be quite careful.

 

I like it A LOT! Definitely worth finishing.
You perfectly nailed the vibe from the early 90ies, plus some modern twists like those wide highhats.
Imho a writers block can be a good thing. It creates a lot of frustration and frustration creates art.
//edit// oh I'm late to the party... just listening to the finished track.
Good stuff!

 

I love to listen to psytrance and progressive psytrance now and again, but certainly not for it's creativity!

On the Mozart-Beethoven scale of creativity, it's children playing with a basic LEGO set.

 

Really cool story, and congratulations on your dedication, 'cos focusing on what truly matters makes all the difference.

One thing that has always helped me was systematizing the study of a specific point. For example, back in 2016, I dove into quartal chords as subsets of bebop scales. I mapped out all possible quartals on each degree of every bebop scale and explored the voice leading.

I started with harmonic function and traditional degrees, but soon I came across the magical fluidity of quartals: the notions of function start to "melt away", opening up progressions that are simply otherworldly. Later, I created improvisation patterns (bebop phrases) that naturally centered around this fluid harmony (I achieved fluidity via quartal harmony, while establishing tonal centricity through the bebop lines).

The result: free improv sessions using those quartal progressions plus bebop vocabulary. I remember being so excited by the discoveries that I had to pinch myself to get back to reality!

You can apply this kind of systematic approach to anything: a new style, a genre, a plugin… The secret is not to get stuck/discouraged: start small and adjust!

 

Last edited: Apr 2, 2026 at 3:57 PM

Hello @Plendix don't worry. I'm always late to the party as well, so I understand, hahhaha Thanks for your feedback!

Last night I was thinking about the whole track arrangement and I had an idea that might work. I'll re-structure it trying to make something better. I'll post it here as well when I got the result. Hopefully, if I don't ruin what's in the track already having to go back to my backup and start it all over again. But I think it'll work.

@Mynock Wow! What you achieved is way much more than I ever did. I cannot play any instrument in real life. Maybe when I learnt typewriting when I was 13 I should have chosen piano playing instead of typing... hehehe So I cannot consider myself as a real musician, as I see you are. So my warmest congratulations! All can be achieved with work, effort and dedication.

@Colin Hi! I agree and disagree with you, half and half...
We cannot compare Classical music with Psychedelic Trance. To me it is like comparing pears to prawns.
But if we have a look at what psytrance is nowadays...

We can find these things:
Looply - Om Masala

Which, I agree with you, it's pure shit (and I tell you: found some even worse than that).

But, on the other hand, we have had these ones (and I'm chosing tracks from the past because I'm not up to date anymore):
The Muses Rapt - Spiritual Healing

The Muses Rapt - Way In

Shakta & Moonweed - Micronesia

Electric Universe - Stardiver

Shakta - Lepton Head (Deedrah Remix)

Cosmosis - Gift Of The Gods

So, to me, saying that these tracks are child's play...

 

First, every evening, even if you're tired, you should make a mental effort to back up your data externally once.

This approach has proven effective: create version 1, version 2, and version 3 of your song, let it sit for a few days, listen to them again with fresh ears, and choose one version.

If you're stuck, either finish it, no matter how, or simply leave it for a few months or even a year.

 

After 3h working on it the way I thought of it last night, I got something nearly finished, but right now my ears are so tired I have to let it sit for today.
@PulseWave Thanks for the advices! Yeah, I got everything backed up and if I'm doing too many changes to a track, I save it as a second version.

Sure! I got lots of projects unfinished from years ago and from time to time I reopen them to see if I can finish them. And when I say "a lot" means hundreds... sometimes it's overwhelming...

 

Unrelated to the topic, but awesome profile photo lol