Vocals on Trance Tracks; Now Playing: 4 Strings "Safe From Harm"

Hey what's up everyone. Sorry for the delay in the blogging. There was this little thing that's been happening in San Francisco for the past 2 weeks. You miiiight have heard of it... a little thing called the WORLD SERIES! And guess what? THE GIANTS WON IT! Needless to say, my week has been completely encapsulated by the San Francisco Giants reigning supreme and me soaking in the festivities and madness that has been happening all around SF and the bay area. But now it has all settled in, the booze has been drank, and the streamers have fallen...so let's get back down to business...

Vocals on trance tracks...this debate could go on FOREVER! Should we like them? Should we not like them? Do they enhance the song? The way I feel about it, is that vocals can enhance the song if the song calls for it. If the beat is simple enough and has a feeling of emotion to it that could be enhanced by a soothing vocal track, I'm all for it. Sometimes however, vocals can clutter the mixdown of a song and sound out of place. Aside from a studio aspect, while vocals can make a song sound more radio friendly, many times the beat could be intricate enough to where a vocal track is not needed and/or even entirely uncalled for. Paying attention to the lyrics of a song could make you miss entire parts of studio effort in creating the instrumental track...hence: making you miss all the real important stuff.

I decided this would be a great time to talk about this because the very talented 4 Strings has released a vocal version of their track titled "Safe From Harm", a re-work of their instrumental "Sundown". Do the vocals work? You be the judge:

Non-vocal mix: "Sundown"



Vocal mix: "Safe From Harm"



It is just me, or does that track have some definite Ashley Wallbridge-esque flavor to it? Might not be a coincidence that I discovered this track through his podcast eh? Anyway, my final verdict is that the vocals actually work for this particular track. While I was accustomed to this track originally as an instrumental, I don't necessarily think that the vocals drown any drastically important aspects. The breakdowns in the vocals happen with good enough time to supplement the important instrumental melodies. But honestly, it works both ways. What do you guys think? I think this debate first entered my head when I heard the vocal version of Deadmau5's "Ghosts N Stuff" and thinking that the non-vocal version worked way better. In this case, it works legit. Keep it up 4 Strings!

~Mark