Good advice
I find the song a bit too stretched myself as well, but the thing is. I don't really want to shorten it. I initially did want to bring more variation by adding more sound effects, but after struggling with them I just couldn't find any that mixed nicely into the song. I'm hardly happy with the way some of them current ones are sounding right now.
As for breakdowns, I was deliberately trying to avoid them. There is one in the middle that (it's right before the acid lead kicks in). Though I'm not sure, It sounds too short now, but sounds too long if I add another measure(It's a weak point in the song, I know), I could use some input on that.
Do you think adding more crashes and snare rolls during the highlight of the song will for more variation, or will it just distract from the sound too much?
Adding 'more stuff' won't necessarily help, which's likely a common misconception... I'm not sure, but from the acid trance I've listened to, I would imagine it is XD
Rather, it's not the adding instruments or sound effects that would aid it, as it is things like keying out certain instruments, building, and subtracting from whot is there.
I don't recognize whot most of these instruments are supposed to be (not a big deal, sounds good so that doesn't matter XD ) but it'll make describing this more difficult =3
Let's say...
3:53 is when the main part enters... no clue whot it's supposed to be but that's besides the point XD Whot may work, is to, later on about a minute and a half or so after that, say 5:30ish, fade out all the other instrument parts except for the main section that intro'd at 3:53, and dim the volume on that, quieting it down, then rebuild it back up by adding the instruments back in one at a time.
Yeu don't really need to add really special stuff, so much as just keep it from sounding repetitive for an extended time is all. Shifts in the instrument choices, such as described in the paragraph above here, shouldn't be too difficult to add in or edit with whotever program yeu were using to make it, and they'll add alot of extra depth.
Volume control and which instruments are playing at a time are one of the easiest to control, and can make one of the greatest differences.
For an example (this isn't a trance song, but it does a nice job of showing a similar progression style as yeurs).
[YOUTUBE="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJtWQ-P-8hU"]Example piece - Veigar Margeirsson - Revelations[/YOUTUBE]
Now this has the same gradual buildup as yeur own piece, though it does so at a much quicker pace; where yeurs took 4 minutes to reach the climax, this one manages to attain its' strongest performance at 1:42. The quicker buildup still is quite slow and gradual however. (of course in this one a good example of whot NOT to do is at 1:57, where a very sloppy transition occurs where a section of the standard rising notes is cut off and feels very forced and lacking. Forcing a transition TOO early, or with bad timing, can also make a huge difference, mostly for the worse.
For an example of one which transitions back and forth rather than building up then just sitting there endlessly:
[YOUTUBE="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6uX0MWetHA"]Further example - Globus - Europa[/YOUTUBE]
At 0:47 it's already managed to phaze gradually into its' peak, yet by 0:59 it's already cut back by removing the choir and vocals, which in a song like this, literally are treated as an instrument. 1:54 is an excellent transition back down to a lower beat by cutting back hard and could've built right back up again a layer of instruments at a time. Of course, in this example, they buggered it up right after at 1:58 with a rotten transition to whot sounds like another song entirely... DON'T do that XD The 2:09 transition fits well though, just a simple beat of the drums and it cues right back into the full peak once more. Whot I would've suggested for this particular example, would've been for the gap from 1:58-2:09 to be replaced with a much toned down section, similar to 0:05-0:19 was, and then do the 2:09 transition back into full force again. This would've felt alot more natural and fitting to the song's progression.
Now, to show something a little closer to whot yeu have, as the previous two examples are far shorter, and are more for demonstration purposes of specific concepts...
[YOUTUBE="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeBWlehATPk"]Syna - Face of God[/YOUTUBE]
This's a much longer piece of ambient trance, where the 1:13 transition flows very naturally, despite that the section before it with the buildup isn't even part of the main song until much later on.
The key thing to listen to in this one, however, is for the specific transitions and when they occur. If yeu watch closely, the song changes pace, or at least has a significant alteration in instrument choice every 30 seconds or so, which keeps it from feeling too repetitive, despite that it really is. On average, it'll do a major transition every 1:30 or so, completely changing the pace of the song, with every 30 seconds or so an incremental adjustment to the layers of instrument samples in use.
This's more of whot yeu're looking for right here... to be able to make minor adjustments on a regular basis, to keep things fresh and from falling stale, while still maintaining the main feel of the song as a whole. Furthermore, yeu want to be able to do some drastic changes every 1:30-2:00 roughly, as otherwise it'll seem to drag on, sort of similar to...
[YOUTUBE="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X46VKCX3Tg8"]Tangerine Dream - Catwalk[/YOUTUBE]
Nice song, but there's a problem. The full version I have runs FIFTEEN MINUTES. And during that entire time, there's only three major transitions; one at about a minute in, and another about halfway through, and the last transitions back from the midway one about a minute later.
This means that 13 out of the 15 minutes of the song sounds pretty much the same in the version I have XD
Sadly that one's not available on youtube due to the 10 minute restriction problem.
The one linked isn't nearly as bad due to being live, so some improvisation going on that's not available in the full version.
Of course, if yeu *REALLY* want to see a master at work for taking a single span of music, and then bloating it out to ridiculous proportions, and STILL maintaining it sounding good without going dry... check out some stuff by Mike Oldfield. Tubular bells 1, 2 and 3 all have the same main 'riff' I guess which they are each centered around. And each one of these is 45+ minutes long.
Yeu're on the right track and have a great set of basic music to work with now, but now comes the tough part of refining it into something truly epic =3
Which I think yeu have a good shot at being able to pull it off actually! Just keep in mind yeu don't need to severely alter the music itself (though it doesn't hurt at all, so long as it feels appropriate to the song, unlike the Globus - Europa example which shows how to screw up a good song by transitioning to something that doesn't fit at all), but mostly yeu just need to break up the monotony and the repetition. Hopefully these examples should give yeu a few ideas, though I'm not by any means saying copy them exactly (wouldn't really work right with yeur song =3 ), but I am saying try studying how they went about spicing up something that was essentially the same short note progression that loops nearly indefinitely, without letting it become stale in the process.
The song yeu've finished so far is good, but I think yeu can fine tune it to be far greater with a little more polish ^^
:moonwalk:
