THE Psytrance thread

[Synthman2000]

Well nice to see some love on here for this most technical of genres. Trillian works for me here, I settled on this for now, forensic amp/filter envelopes. Almost too much tweak-ability, you can get lost !

A lot of love for Sylenth but I never got where I wanted to go with it myself on the B line, glad others are. I may have to load it up on the bass channel again soon.

Psy is a sonic world unto itself, one I am enjoying being involved with. A journey into sound with seemingly few limits. It gives a lot, but takes a lot in time and effort.

I am hoping to be into it for the long haul, both as a dancer and learning the ropes. So much to learn and discover, slow but sure is my game plan, each track new discoveries and challenges !

[Zexila]

Yeah that sounds about right, Spectrasonics usually have all the options plus more, and I never delved too deeply into it.... as 500$ is a lot to spend on a bass machine! I only played around with it at a friends place a few times. I think I'm glad I didn't go further with it!

Yeah, think it's cheaper these days, there's download version for 299, just checked, still little pricey considering what we got today, especially things like Spire which can cover lot of grounds, not just basslines, but as i said, for anyone still on the hunt, Trilian should be one of the first investments than, really think that extended view + many different saw's is the key aspect here, heard some pro guys still use it today like there's no tomorrow, but would take that with grain of salt.

[Terrafractyl]

Those envelopes should definitely do the job going by looks alone!

I think the other reason I didn't go down the Trillian path was because pf a general production rule I made for myself years ago... which was 'give samples and samplers a miss' when the same thing could be achieved with a Synth. I often feel it is the easy way out, plus I always wanted maximum control over things.
Calling Trillian a sampler is a BIT of a stretch but yeah I always wondered about the engine in Spectrasonics plugs...For example if I modulate the pitch of the 'soundsource' in Trillian, surely that is quite different mathematically from changing the pitch of a digital Oscillator?
If not, then I wonder how close the sound is to the actual hardware.

[Synthman2000]

What I am finding is each synth has its clear strengths and weakness, one may have fat oscillators when raw but not so great filters or great envelopes and not so good filters. So you need to match the speed of sounds to different synths and the respective capabilities.

In psy it pays to be able to listen, dissect and reverse engineer.

There is a peculiarity with psy that on the one hand you do not want to copy what has gone before but at the same time the somewhat strict parameters of the genre or sub genres as we have now, determine the hypnotic effect that must be present. At least in my opinion coming from a dancers perspective.

A strange thing really, on the one hand there seems to be restrictions on what one can do for the music to be psy trance but on the other hand the needs for a certain level of energy to be present which seems to be at its maximum when locked down to certain specifics.

There will undoubtedly be responses born of taste in this thread as one persons psy masterpiece is another mans meh. Hugely subjective genre/sub genres even for those who feel they are connoisseur.

An open mind is useful as sometimes one can write off a synth or technique due to inexperience/production frustration and I speak for myself as well.

I read somewhere Psy Trance is not for the lazy person, it's true. But challenges often make things worthwhile.

[Touch The Universe]

but I definitely remember the envelopes being an issue.

Sorry for asking this, but you did try to hit that extended envelopes view?

wow, will have to try that again, like i said its really been a while since i dug trillian up, since before i started making my own sounds, this could be fun

[Zexila]

but I definitely remember the envelopes being an issue.

Sorry for asking this, but you did try to hit that extended envelopes view?

wow, will have to try that again, like i said its really been a while since i dug trillian up, since before i started making my own sounds, this could be fun

Awesome, imagine you feel really excited now, like new world just opened, well, I would.

[Touch The Universe]

VB1 certainly takes me back, I remember when Vb1 with Quadrafuzz was THE way to make psy basslines.... Thanks Isratrance!

Haha, yes indeed. That brings back lots of good memories. I still think the multiband saturation is still a good way to go still but I've replaced the good old quadrafuzz with either saturn or Mmulti-band saturation (really killer one)

Also I have been using Bazzism for years as well, Kick 2 has gotten a bit of a look in lately, but still gets bumped out by Bazzism a lot as I can just make that thing do what I want REally quickly. I don't miss using sampled Kick drums at all!

If you liked Kick 2 at all, I'd definitely have a look at the new punchbox by d16, it blows it out of the water, imo. It has way more options than kick 2 so its more complex to get going with it from scratch, luckily though there are tons of really great presets for it.

[emtear]

Well nice to see some love on here for this most technical of genres.

I have to agree with this. I been around here for quite a while and there has not been much in terms of psytrance production being talked about here.

The one thing I realized being around this scene for so long is that there is a divide between party people and producers. And honestly it does not matter what any other producer thinks, once 4 am hits at a 2 day festival the crowd will dictate the party. Most successful producers understand this and put in the work and effort that go into blowing people's minds and promoters make sure to put the right people up there. The ones that I had the chance to work with always just keep working hard at making people dance. All the others are always worried about not sounding good or how someone else made this sound and with what plugin...

I remember seeing GMS perform live back in the day. I walked up on stage and saw a table full of keyboards and synths and was instantaneously blown away. No laptops or plugins.

One of the craziest sets I can remember was from a producer who lived in New Jersey. After his set I caught him sitting at the bar and he was like yeah my wife just had a baby and it's nice to get out of the house and hear some good music. No doubt he had the best set of the night.

I think most you guys need to realize you need to put yourself out there and keep pushing forward. Find like minds to share with and create music.

Anyway let's keep this up I am sure there are a lot of eyes reading this that are thinking the same thing.

mtr

[chaosWyrM]

im a huge psytrance fan... i started listening a little later than most... i guess it was '99...but quickly became an avid listener.

i have for the past 7-8 years been listening pretty exclusively to darkpsy (as far as psytrance goes) and even then im pretty particular...i dont like that frenetic almost random sounding darkpsy. i prefer a more driving sound...my fav. artists are psykovsky (and similar: kindzadza, cpc, osom...ect) and baphomet engine.

i tried my hand at making it...was very unsuccessful. seems no matter how i try...im just not cut out to make psytrance. its cool...i do manage to incorporate a lot of the sounds and techniques into what i do make. im an old school industrial guy at heart...i find the styles blend quite well and its a mostly untapped area.

heres my best attempt:

http://soundcloud.com/chaoswyrm/a-praye ... -omnissiah


the best "tip" i ever got i think was this tutorial on making highko style leads. i like some of those squelchy fm leads...but i dont like how they all sound like squelchy fm leads. heres a good and pretty simple way to get those kinds of sounds but still have a bit of uniqueness to them. you can hear the results of this method in that track up there.

[Touch The Universe]

Well nice to see some love on here for this most technical of genres.

I think most you guys need to realize you need to put yourself out there and keep pushing forward. Find like minds to share with and create music.

mtr

This kind of reminds me also of a good discussion I've had with synthman, maybe it could be worthwhile to post my thoughts on the same subject here.

In short, I likewise think it is important to actually get your music out there and heard, instead of spending years and years waiting until you think your music is good enough (especially if you are already pretty decent and have good solid years under your belt). We each have our own journeys through music and it can really take off when those journeys collide with others. Play your music, be heard, hear others, and hopefully influence each other. Most importantly grow through the reactions from the people listening to you and adjust accordingly, while you are also perfecting the craft so to speak. This way you can get to the source of where your music should progress and lead you

[Zexila]

n/m

[recursive one]

All the others are always worried about not sounding good or how someone else made this sound and with what plugin...

This perfectly describes me, I'm obsessed with plugins, synths, how to make this sound and how to make that sound. Since I'm still not very fluent in psy language, this really gets in my way. Like I've learned how to make this squelch or that FM fart but now I have to ogranize them into a track and this is where I'm lost. Somehow I managed to make better tracks when I had less techncial knowledge.

But I'm producing psy for about two years and started making any electronic music whatsoever at the beginning of 2013 so I hope that's just common babysteps problems and not my substantial inability to compose psytrance

heres my best attempt:

http://soundcloud.com/chaoswyrm/a-praye ... -omnissiah

I'm not much into this kind of psy, but this is really well produced and it does to my brain exactly what darkpsy should do

[Terrafractyl]

All the others are always worried about not sounding good or how someone else made this sound and with what plugin...

This perfectly describes me, I'm obsessed with plugins, synths, how to make this sound and how to make that sound. Since I'm still not very fluent in psy language, this really gets in my way. Like I've learned how to make this squelch or that FM fart but now I have to ogranize them into a track and this is where I'm lost. Somehow I managed to make better tracks when I had less techncial knowledge.

But I'm producing psy for about two years and started making any electronic music whatsoever at the beginning of 2013 so I hope that's just common babysteps problems and not my substantial inability to compose psytrance

Don't worry! there is so much to get right in making a good psytrance track I think it is perfectly reasonable to expect quite a few years work to get close to making good psy. Unless you have a pro sitting next to you going 'do this.... now do this' for a few months (phat chance), then it is going to take a long time to learn all the things.
As you say just learning the plugs required and getting fluent with the sounds of the genre, EQs comps, FX and a DAW is Years of work, and that doesn't even get to Music Theory, Structure, finding your own voice etc etc
Personally I don't even like to talk about how long it took me to get my electronic music out there because it makes me feel old haha, but I started trying to write Goa trance in around 1996 and although I got very fluent with tracker programs I dare say I wrote music for no-one other than myself for 5 plus years. Gave up and focused on other kinds of music for a while THen I found Reason and Cubase in around 2003-4 and I think 4 years later I got my first track played at a party and got my first set at a party.
So yeah..don't give up!

[recursive one]

Thanks! I know your music well and love it and especially admire it's technical complexity and musical qualities (I especially love melodic psy), hearing this from none other than you is utterly inspiring

Luckily I have some musical theory background, I has playing guitar for few years - mostly blues and metal but also dabbled with some jazz-rock, fusion and classical, so at least this is sorted.

[Lejurai]

I dare say I wrote music for no-one other than myself for 5 plus years. Gave up and focused on other kinds of music for a while THen I found Reason and Cubase in around 2003-4 and I think 4 years later I got my first track played at a party and got my first set at a party.
So yeah..don't give up!

You can't imagine how much it means that you said this

Sometimes I feel pretty desperate.. Especially when more and more projects starts start to build up, but not a single finished one