KVR Audio

DJ Warmonger · Post by **DJ Warmonger** » Mon Sep 24, 2018 7:26 am

Hello.

I've got problems with creating simple melodies / arpeggios that are usually used in psy tracks. The thing is, I'm now used to chord progressions and elaborate composition overall. I don't quite know how to keep things simple yet interesting. Maybe just got wrong mindset

Any tips or advice on this subject?

recursive one · Post by **recursive one** » Mon Sep 24, 2018 7:33 am

Phrygian mode. Lots of repetition. Syncopated and/or polyrhythmic figures. Accents created by velocity. Call and response structures.

Actually, as you noted, most psy/goa melodies are very simple patterns, the complexity you hear in modern psy and goa tracks is created by automation and layers

In psytrance the "melodies" often don't contain any note changes, they are just rhythmical patterns based on the root note with different velocities. The velocity controls something in the synth (cutoff/resonance, FM amount, whatever) so you have a sort of "melody without a melody". The sounds may not even have a discernible pitch

Delta Sign · Post by **Delta Sign** » Mon Sep 24, 2018 8:38 am

Yes, what recursive one says. Funnily enough, for this kind of stuff and also for acid lines, a lot of metal riff "rules" apply. The patterns just tend to be less busy than a usual metal riff.

Phrygian mode and the "metal scale" (Minor scale with a flat second and flat fifth thrown in) are your best friends.

Touch The Universe · Post by **Touch The Universe** » Mon Sep 24, 2018 8:48 am

You could probably get some mileage as well with double harmonic minor scales.

DJ Warmonger · Post by **DJ Warmonger** » Mon Sep 24, 2018 8:57 am

Scales are one thing, but how do you even start making a goa melody? What's your process, guys?

Delta Sign · Post by **Delta Sign** » Mon Sep 24, 2018 9:08 am

Well, taking the phrygian mode and jumping a lot between the first and second scale degree is a good start. However, the modulation to the timbre is often far more important here.

sjm · Post by **sjm** » Mon Sep 24, 2018 9:23 am

It's all about the filter movement, the patterns themselves are nothing special. Just start off hopping around the notes of the root chord with the second degree as Delta suggests (or use an arp). That's what establiches Phyrgian and makes it sound the way it does. The bass will also sometimes add in notes either side of the root too.

With this sort of music, using a non-Western drone paradigm, the important thing is to hammer home that root and have everything else circle it indefinitely.

Distorted Horizon · Post by **Distorted Horizon** » Mon Sep 24, 2018 9:31 am

Pick any synth with 16 step sequencer and make it run -> filter (find a suitable.. lp or bp are safe bets) to point 1 o'clock, crank that resonance up but not that it screams -> random lfo to cutoff 1/16 synced and if you want something more random, just adjust the speed to taste -> Congrats you have a bubbly filler goa background.
Now you can start to build that sequence. Make silence here and there, or don't. Make slides here and there or.... Don't. Variations in pitch? Yeah you can do it if you feel the urge to make it. Then I'd suggest to lower the resonance that the changes in pitch are audible at some level at least.

recursive one · Post by **recursive one** » Mon Sep 24, 2018 9:31 am

DJ Warmonger wrote:What's your process, guys?

Idk, I play something with a keyboard, record and quantize, or just make a rhythmic pattern with a mouse and start moving the notes across the grid and the scale until I like what I hear. Some DAWs have various scale assistant tools which would highlight the notes belonging to a scale or forbid entering the wrong notes. I don't use this as I don't need it but it may be handy.

Try programming a 5 or 6 note pattern of steady 16ths in Phryginan mode, make some velocity accents, then copy this across so that the next iteration of your pattern would start immediately where the previous ends, this way you get a nice polyrthytmic riff

E.g., make a pattern like eEeFd (E and F are velocity accents) and fill a bar with it

You will be getting smth like: eEeF/deEe/FdeE/eFde

Then make some note overlaps (e.g. between F and d) and add glide.

I'm not at my DAW, so this example may sound like crap but you get the idea