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WeeklyBeats.com / Music / neon liminal's music / the island (labyrinth two?)

the island (labyrinth two?)

By neon liminal on May 10, 2026 9:21 pm

Trance music is a lot of work.

This turned out well but I feel there's a great deal of "affect" and much less "intention". I learned a lot though.

This is also a rare completely-ableton production from scratch, no gear, no M8. Main trance-pad was made in Pigments, the weirdo acid line is Acid V, and the bass is SublabXL which I don't use often enough. All the sound design by yours truly. I consider it a privilege that I can design a sound I want faster than I can find it browsing presets.

It's very big. The vocals are not where I wanted them to be, but that's another sound design challenge which is a little complex but we are getting there.

There's an interesting dialogue in EDM production, varying on genre, on "where do you start?". With the mood? the groove? the kick? the lead? what's more important, the character of the song, or the part that makes you move to it? There isn't an answer, but I'm always fascinated to see where it seems to "demand" attention when I'm diving into a new genre. Sub genre. Whatever. I grew up on trance, but this is fairly different than the trance of my youth.

Also this inevitably dips into cinema. How cinematic is too cinematic for dance music?

Also, repeating, this is a fuck ton of work for one week holy shit.

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Sweet! Very clean. I like the re-build in your breakdown. I can hear some 70s disco influence in that bass line progression after the breakdown starting @ 2:58. There's a very lovely drone sweep featured at 2:34 and 4:33 that gives me a nice reaction. 

Let me tell you, I'm here for Cinematic Dance Music.

I'm streaming WB on the stereo tonight, and when this track HIT for the first time at one minute I just turned and stared. As Josh would say, holy carps, love the surge in energy. There is SO MUCH going on in this track. The fuck ton of work is apparent, it is very obvious that this is lot "loop it and call it done." So much texture and detail. heart. Amazing sound design.

This may be more "affect", but it works to great "effect". smile

Paisleyfrog wrote:

As Josh would say, holy carps, love the surge in energy.

and i did! in that specific part too  big_smile

fantastic work, neon. perfect dancing while making dinner soundtrack over here. when it really gets rolling.... hoo!
always impressed with the low end in your mixes, this is no outlier in that regard.

The hard work paid off.  The drums sound great with the pulsing arps.  Love the quiet build up that leads to the excellent acid line.  Just the right amount of cinematic imho.  Aweome energy throughout!  The vocal stutters are especially cool and remind me of Juno Reactor. Well done! \m/

Great rythm and beat, kick fits really well.
The energy build is smooth and never feels dull, and the vocals seem to be placed nicely for me.
It also sounds like a lot of restraint, something I feel I have poor control over; your track never feels like it's too much or overstimulating.
The small details in the background, like the "galaxy star sound bleeps" and tiny hats, add a lot of soul.
Great stuffs!

Wow, this is a truly spectacular production.

Kudos on the sound design skills. I love Sublab such an underrated synth.

Kind of reminds me of BT or something like that.

Real vibes of the late 90's, some great changes as well.

This is great bro ! Really is and the voices are in place dont you worry ! And the story unfolds amazing

And you are totally right psy trance is really a lot of work and detail and space control … till 2020 I had a psy progressive act called MIND&MATTER in one of the big labels from the trance scene IONO RECORDS from Germany … what you did is really great , I would go a bit more psy Tó create punch and deepness on the track but this is just me !


Well done it’s a killer track 🤘

What a journey! Love this. The vocals are subtle and so crisp and you've put together so many interesting sounds. The layering of 303 on top of the bass is really nice. This is super inspiring heart

neon liminal wrote:

I can design a sound I want faster than I can find it browsing presets.

If anyone would ask me "where do you see yourself in five years", that would be the answer smile

neon liminal wrote:

Also, repeating, this is a fuck ton of work for one week holy shit.

Great track, there are so many things worth mentioning. A nice sub bass woob in there, that not-too-aggressive acidline, the development of the track itself and so many sparkles. It all fits together perfectly.

What I was going to say: One can feel the work.

Oh this is a lovely bop for me to come home too. Big energy surge!

Sounds really polished, commensurate with the effort

Yeah this sounds awesome man! Great work heart

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