Media!

Welcome, please listen to my music and browse around. It would be great if you follow me if you like what you hear :-)

News!

YouTube

I've finally found a nice background to apply to my new YouTube music video's (more to follow asap).

New Webdesign

Welcome to my new website. I'm really happy with the design I've made. I still have plans on making it even better but am looking at which technologies to use. So keep checking this space for updates :-)

Promo set live mix!

Last weekend I had to DJ at the Beachfest in Alphen aan den Rijn, The Netherlands. As this was my first appearance as DJ since departing my old scene I have also recorded it for publication on MixCloud.

If you want to hear me DJ a 1 hour set please check it out at the site or press play here on the picture.

Stefan de Jong - Promo Set @ Beachfest/Stadsstrand Alphen aan den Rijn Netherlands by Stefan De Jong on Mixcloud

The Road Ahead

I've finished working on my new track. I decided to call the track "The Road Ahead" but am unsure on what style it has taken, if you have an idea on what it really is, tell me please :).
I'm very happy with the vibe.
Enjoy: Notion of Self - The Road Ahead (Extended Mix)

Labels

Today I got the answers from the various labels, it wasn't all bad news, most did like it but didn't think it could make it with the wide audience they (Sony, BMG, Warner, etc.) serve. So not all is lost, most liked my production and melody, guess I will have to think a little smaller :P.

Chart win!

We've done it! Together we got Colossus to Nr.1 in the Chartburst dance chart. The track has been forwarded to Sony and now I'll have to wait and see if they like what they hear. Let's hope they do :).

Would you want to help me get a record deal?

If so could you please vote for me in the chart as linked below.

Please vote for my track: Notion of Self - Colossus

And if you like me that much, please share this post to your friends :)

With kind regards. Stefan / Notion of Self

You can vote at: Chartburst

Colossus

I've just uploaded my latest track "Colossus". It is my most accessible song to date which is not a bad thing as long as I'm not compromising on the composition (which I am not ^^).

All songs remastered

Over the last year I've been producing six songs, but between the first song (Forlorn) and the last (Powerplay) was a huge difference in production...

I've been playing at them trying to make them sound the same mastering wise...

I feel I've succeeded at this and uploaded the versions to SoundCloud. Share & Enjoy!

Powerplay

Recently I've been working at a new song that I've called "Powerplay". The song is the first one that I can honestly say I feel belongs in a Club. It doesn't have a big story behind it or anything... I just loved the sound and heard its potential and worked to making that come out!

The Sirens Call

I've finished work on "The Sirens Call". The song has become a powerful bassline driven song that I'd say tells a story about a starting war, the casualties and the rejoice after winning. But thats just my interpretation of what I heard.

You can listen to it in the playlist. Enjoy and tell me your thoughts through my social media channels :-).

Roger Shah Remix!

So when I was browsing I came across a remix contest for Roger Shah's "Dance with Me". The song set something in me in motion and soon I found myself working on my very first official remix. So I've now uploaded the mp3 to the players on this website and my other websites.

Please vote for my remix!

This Feeling is Music!

I've uploaded the latest versions for my demo "This Feeling is Music!" to my website. This demo includes "Forlorn", "A Breath of fresh air" and "The Will to live".

"Air"

Currently going under the name "Air" is my new song which is featured in the mp3 player (nr. 10). The title will most likely change and the drums are still under construction, some inspiration is needed for this. Any ideas on the title or the music are most welcome. You can contact me through my Facebook page .

"Forlorn"

Somehow in between my job, graduating from University and moving into my own house I made this song as part of the transformation from TuraTempla into Notion of Self.

I named the song "Forlorn".

Whilst composing this song I felt that the lead melody stands out amongst the crowd. Engulved in a wall of sound it still separates itself from the rest in a timid way and with a (hence the name) lonely air to it. I might still put some work into it, but for now it is a prelude of more to come.

Biography!

Hi,

My name is Stefan de Jong and I'm an Electronic Dance Music artist and have been making music for most of my life. My musical journey has taken me from classical piano and electronic music by artists such as Vangelis and Jean-Michel Jarre to where I am now.

Thanks to my parents I have been blessed with a broad musical spectrum and have been in various bands and had a couple of solo-projects.

My first musical interest was at a very young age huddled together with my brother listening to my dad's music collection.

In this time I listened to Vangelis and Jean-Michel Jarre mostly and had the privilege to join my parents when they were invited Vangelis' Eureka concert in Rotterdam (1991) where the big orchestral music and electronic sounds captured my imagination.

Shortly after this fate stepped in and got me my first keyboard after I was in a car accident (given by my grandma). I started playing Vangelis by ear and slowly developed my own improvising skills.

After working and saving up my weekly allowance I purchased my first big Yamaha keyboard. The options that this instrument presented created a whole new level of musical freedom and I started improvising/composing tracks more seriously. During this period some other instruments as well as an old Korg drum computer found their way to me.

After some years classical music started to attract me and I decided to buy the Korg Triton ProX workstation which allowed me to study classical music on a weighted keyboard as you'd have on a Piano or Grand-Piano.

In the mean time I started appreciating another old influence more and more... it was Jean-Michel Jarre that triggered a search for Electronic Dance Music that could capture my feelings.

This journey led me through the old-school House and later the Electronic Gothic Scene (also known as the "Cybergoth" scene) which features many great artists that sound a lot like Trance but have a much deeper melancholic and melodramatic feel to them as well as darker production techniques.

Due to the connection with this scene I started writing music, organizing concerts/parties and writing as a editor. This all went rather well until the scene started to shift to a much more aggressive and less melodic type of music. Not that all of those artists went along with this, but in general the Noise and Industrial scene feature little to no melody and harmony, two aspects of music that led me to this scene (musically) in the first place.

When realization finally dawned I wasn't connected with the scene (of which I was a proud member and even a quite well known DJ & Organizer for) anymore, the soul-searching started (around the same time as my final dissertation).

As I had changed as a person my musical taste had as well. This finally crystalized into my love for the Trance scene, which of course leads me to today.

I am still making EDM but more uplifting in tone, melodic and harmonic in nature and with a distinctly recognizable sound (or so I am told and am very happy to hear).

I hope together with you we can make this journey a long one!

Sideshow!

These are some of my prior projects before deciding to start making the music I am.

Nosferius

Nosferius is the guise I used for most of my Cybergoth exploits such as DJ'ing and organizing parties.

TuraTempla

My former solo project that got a little attention in the Cybergothic audience. After a lot of deliberation this project was let go in order to start doing what I am now.

A collection of the best songs from this project will be adapted to fit to the new style and get the attention they deserve.

Fertile Reality

A New wave band that has had quite a lot of success in the Dutch Gothic scene, due to personal reasons I also had to let this project go.

Other music

I've also made some ambient electro tracks under the name "Vortex Music", I never really did anything serious with this but there is this one track that I might redo at some point.

Discography!

TuraTempla (Discontinued project)

TuraTempla - The Temple of the Spider

• CD: The Temple of the Spider
• (2004) (Various remixes made in 2006)
  
• All tracks composed, performed and produced by Nosferius

You can use the m3u file or listen to the songs separately. Playlist

Side Projects

Fertile Reality

• CD: Wax and Wane
• (2010)
• All tracks composed and performed by Fertile Reality

• CD: No Moon At All
• (2006/2007, released in march 2008)
• All tracks composed and performed by Fertile Reality

Lyrics!

Remixes

• TuraTempla - Illusions (Vocal Club Edit)

TuraTempla - The Temple Of The Spider

• 04 - Fever
• 05 - Paths
• 06 - Like An Angel Fallen
• 07 - From The Shadows
• 09 - Take Away My Tears
• 10 - Thoughts, Feelings, Lust
• 12 - The Temple Of The Spider

Various

• "We" Pleading in Vain.

Studio!

Over the years I've developed a sound which is quite open, phat and punchy at the same time. A result that was only possible after years of research.

When it comes to usability it can be universally implemented on any musical style and can be used for that tight studio recording or a nearly live sounding/feeling record that makes you wanna lose it.

My studio is based on Apple Logic Studio software with a 16 track 24bit 96khz audio interface for recording live music (full bands), live instruments, vocals and whatnot.

My experience in mixing music ranges from live bands in a small pub to out and indoor festivals and often gets compliments on the sound being nearly as good as CD quality.

Want to hire me? You can reach me through (e-mail):

If you want me to mix/master/produce your record I do require to like the music you make in order for me to put the hours in to make your track the best I can using my methods and will also need your stems.

Mastering!

When I get my final mix for mastering it is already laden with mass and basically just needs to be mixed down in volume so that it doesn't clip.

With the first step being a EQ you can best rid your spectrum of any unwanted frequencies instead of boosting the nice ones, this way your mix is getting a bit less volume in the right spots.

You still might need to reduce the overall volume of the mixdown, but only when you've looked at the EQ first (usually the EQ offers an overal gain change internally).

After this you can play around with Multi channel compressors, (Side-Chain) Compression and Expansion to give the recording a little edge and a bit more mass. Add a limiter and your done with this one song.

Obviously when you're mastering an album you first get the songs to sound pretty and then make them all the same volume and (as much as possible) EQ range.

One much debated issue in production and mastering is "Loudness". My opinion is that a little loudness in Dance productions can't hurt but you know how to apply it, through my techniques I've developed a method that makes the track punchy but still has a open quality, if you want to have me master your tracks the way I do mine, contact me :-)

Want to hire me? You can reach me through (e-mail):

If you want me to mix/master/produce your record I do require to like the music you make in order for me to put the hours in to make your track the best I can using my methods and will also need your stems.

Gear!

A little Description of what gear I use in my studio whilst producing my tracks.

One of my last additions to the studio is the wonderful and famous Access Virus TI keyboard. This machine has had me awestruck, the stuff you can do with it is amazing, and it is all so easy and intuitive. Just the way an instrument should be.

My main synthesizer and workstation for playing parts on is the Korg Triton Pro X, it features 88 weighted key's for all my pianist needs. It has great full organic sounds for making all kinds of stuff but especially the big orchestra's and choirs.

My Yamaha AN1x, it's on of the best synthesizers for leads and arpeggiators, its has been my main midi synthesizer for entering my loops and arpeggio's. It is the one synth that still keeps amazing me whilst making music and new sounds after such a long time of owning it.

My General Music WX2 Plus, its an golden oldie but it still wields big basses and has great options for accompanying my solo's and getting those big loops there...a great dubbing machine.

The Korg Electribe M, its the hub for all the bits and beats in my music, it is easy to use and truly features some stumping basses. I also use it for making arpeggio's which is down right easy on this instrument. I have used some of the presets because they are just great... but most I completely metamorphosed into something quite new. So much power in such a small machine perhaps one of my best buys yet.

My current mixer is a Mackie Onyx1640 with firewire interface for recording my music in 24 bits 96khz which is very good.

This is my grand piano, the Irmler P160, it is a great piano for all the classical pieces I play, nothing beats a grand :-).

For those of you who know their vintage synths, this is the Arp Omni mk2, It is still up for repairs, I got it from one of my close friends. I hope to get this working soon because it is a hot one.

I've also got a old Korg Poly 800, it is also not working. I got it from another friend of mine who didn't know what to do with it, so I'm hoping to get it repaired some time soon also.

This is the Yamaha DSR-2000, it is a semi synthesizer, it has the basic ADSR stuff going. I got this keyboard from a friend also... it is nice to have those friends.

My Nord Micro Modular, I use it mainly to create vocoders and synth arpeggio's, I like this machine, if you know how to use it you can make almost anything with it.

This nice synth is the Korg PE-1000, it is not actually mine but I can burrow it for as long as I wish. It is a really old analog machine and very rare. It has a quite unique sound, very warm... My first true edition of Vintage Machinery. Ok the AN1x is already a classic and vintage synth, but for my feeling it has to wait a few years before it is one.

My Tascam USB-428, The former heart of my recording needs but now in use as my recording control whilst I am working on new music.

Street team!

You can be part of a street team that will be formed to help spread the word about my music.

If you want to take part by doing whatever you can and (most importantly) want you can apply for the street team by clicking here to reveal my mail adres

Amongst the things you can do to spread the word are:

• Add this website to your links pages
• Add our social media websites to yours
• Ask your local (radio) DJ to play our songs
• Write about us in your favorite social media
  (Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Hyves and all those many others)
• Inform us on any social media (or similar) websites we aren't using yet
• Post a banner or digi-flyer wherever you can (not available yet)
• Many more options to come, and any input on more is always more than welcome

Contact!

Want to contact me or follow me on social media? In this page you can find the info to do just that :-)

Social Media

Mail!

Click here to reveal my mail adres