articulating, crisp 1/16 bass

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You're right Josmocker.. Rinkadink is great.. I especially like Syntax and Whiskey (rmx)..

I tried to make a simple psy bassline+kick here.. please give some feedbakc :)

http://www.sitecenter.dk/reefer/nss-fol ... 20Demo.mp3

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Hey Orbitutle,
Just listened on my headset at work, first impression is it's a perfectly usable and nice sounding bassline. Possibly the bassdrum could have an a little bit longer decay and a little more low end - I'm not 100% sure about this, though, the bassdrum did grow on me after a few cycles, maybe it will grow more. :D
Btw "reefer" in your URL reminds me of Reefer Decree, those guys are from Denmark, right? Just associating freely :wink:

Cheers, Jo
You have no right to remain silent!
www.soundcloud/phunkberater

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Yeah.. Reefer Decree is from Denmark too.. But It is not I.. Just what some of my friends call me.. Can't figure out why they gave me that nickname though :party:?

Anyone not knowing Reefer Decree should listen to their track called: Reefer Decree - Nightvision (Rk Extended Vesion).. It's GREAT!

Thanks for the feedback.. Only thing im a bit concerned about is if the low notes are too muddy?.. But it isn't a big progblem as it sounds great transposed a few notes up too... :love:

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Nicethread, I'm learning a lot.
While subtractive isn't as a rule as crisp, Bone's new one GOdKiller can make some pretty crisp 16th bases with the gates/lfo's.
-It will help make do until his next one (a PD synth) is finished, also with a gate.

Anyways, that's what I've been trying to use lately. :)
..what goes around comes around..

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Yes, I didn't think Reefer Decree would ask me whether I thought their bassline was cool :wink: - "It did" and "Mortal Wombat II" are my favorites from them, though - brilliant structure...
anyway, I listened to your bassline sample at home yesterday - imo the bassdrum is lacking in the low end (or too strong in the highs?) but the bassline could work.

Cheers, Jo
You have no right to remain silent!
www.soundcloud/phunkberater

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hehe... this is THE most entertaining thread i have ever read :)

I have been practicing psytrance for many years now and i am beginning to get it now... i think..

What did the trick about bassline has been alot of hard work and observations. At the moment i use ES-M but i agree that any synthbass can give me thrills if it fits the tune... i have also good experience with vb-1, reaktor and sytrus. My virus is great too but i have to calm it alot to make the right full on bass sound. My tx-81z is wicked but also a bit noisy compared to all the nice clean sounding dsp/vst stuff and its a little hard to program even with sounddiver.

Hallucinogen, Delta, GMS, Logicbomb all give solid impressions but they have different bassline sounds? - not only compared but also from tune to tune. What they all master is arranging and expressing their ideas, and that i think, is the hardest part because it takes years to fully understand how a great psy track is build. It is not enough to analyse it at home, do it on really big speakers at parties, in the car, headphones... anywhere you can. This will force you to know the fundamentals of each (bass) sound and finally make you realise what is most important to
your music and what you like. Then you will be better than enyone else because you have learned what makes you happy and not how you think it is supposed to sound.

I have often falled in the trap of letting my sounds be way too big... minimize them, make them fit in the arrangement as well as the mix. balance.

Make your sounds unique, layer instruments, re-record them through a speaker and a mic, use a guitar pedal... in other words be creative and remember your techniques - combine them to your expression, your sound.

Tune your bassdrums - a little trick i learned resently in some forum... maybe here?? put a cranking distortion on your bassdrum.. i mean lots of lots of distortion, so much you can hear the tone of the kick.. now tune the kick so that it sounds nice and natural when monitored with the bass alone.. cant say what kind of interval fits a bassline best, i just use my ears and try to feel the.... erhmmm .. feeling...
the relation and balance between kick and bass is REALLY important, especially when played on big systems. Actually i think simple not so full psy trance trax sound bigger and more precise than crowded ones when played loud!!!

One important thing is to have good monitors, if you dont have honest monitors then experimenting with all the worlds synths wont give you what you want because bad speakers makes you tired and gives a totally wrong picture of your mix resulting in frustration and way too much work in the wrong direction - dunno how many hours i have spent tweaking a sound that was already perfect bacause of bad speakers. I have been saving and bought a pair of genelec 8040A. Now i find myself tweaking in the right direction all the time and my mixes looks nice and full, on a spectrum analyzer!! and i dont really notice that im filling it, it comes natural :love:

AS YOUR FIRST PIECE OF EQUIPMENT BUY GOOD MONITORS!!!

Remember the spirit of good psytrance, innovation and mind blowing NEW sounds is what the scene needs to evolve. At the moment i think psytrance is heading in new directions away from the typical fullon sound, listen to russian psytrance... these gyus dare to be different and play around, and this is the true vibe of psytrance... dont be a cool stiff guy who wants to rule the world, play with your toys and friends. Hopefully it will lead to new combinations that we havent heard. This is what GMS started out with before they found their typical well known sound, take another listen to "the chaos laboraty"

Last but not least my learning has increased alot after i discovered forums like this, reading about other peoples experiences .... actually i think this is the best use of the internet i have found so far.
You should try psyforum uk (maintenance atm. up again soon), isratrance, and futureproducers.

Good luck finding your sound, i look forward to hear it, you have good ambitions - keep it up, but remember to have fun and do it for the feeling....


:wink: Nomis
bom bom

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nomis wrote:AS YOUR FIRST PIECE OF EQUIPMENT BUY GOOD MONITORS!!!
Aye. F*ckin' aye.

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I disagree. No matter how important, good monitors are expensive - you can get a lot more milage out of, say, a MIDI controller and a softsynth or 2. Monitors are extremely expensive (good ones) and are out of the price range of most people.

Although I do wonder if my mixing problems and frustration with getting a good sound to show up stem from my computers speakers...

But I challenge the assertion that using bad monitors/computer speakers cause all that many mixing problems. Case in point: I can listen to a track that has the kind of bass I want, and it will sound good. Having bad speakers will in no way hinder you from making your own sounds good if you can hear good sounds through them, since they don't hide what you want. I don't profess to know for sure, I'm very interested in hearing a counter-argument, actually :P but that's the way it seems to me.

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Rellik wrote:But I challenge the assertion that using bad monitors/computer speakers cause all that many mixing problems.
No, that's not the point we're making. Bad speakers hide and distort information, and MAY cause you to make bad mixing decisions.

Always being able to hear your music clearly and without misrepresentation is the most important thing, otherwise it's like painting in a dark room.

And there's also ear fatigue.

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you can get a lot more milage out of, say, a MIDI controller and a softsynth or 2. ....


Of course computer and software is required, otherwise you dont have need for monitors :wink:
What i ment is dont buy other hardware besides computer/software before monitors..

And yes good monitors cost a lot of money but it's worth every penny, so seeing it that way its not expensive.
bom bom

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Thanks for some cool advice nomis! I agree with you 100% on tuning your kick drum. Although if you make your own kicks using i.e. RythmsBD (thanks Odo!) you can get any tuning you like without going to all that trouble. Yeah a kick and bass sound that are harmonically dissonant can throw the whole track off. I'ts funny that it doesn't matter in other music?
Awkward Moments Coffee

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insaneacyde wrote:Yeah a kick and bass sound that are harmonically dissonant can throw the whole track off. I'ts funny that it doesn't matter in other music?
Have you tried it in anything other than pystrance?

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My experience is that tuning drums (all kinds) gives cleaner results both in studio and on stage no matter the style. It's logic cause you get rid of dissonance.
bom bom

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erm, yes I suppose I should have said it's not as noticeable if a rock drummers kick drum is a little off. I played drums for a band that had songs in E, F#,D# etc, etc you cant tune your kit for every song so there will be a time when things are not so waffles, its just not that noticeable. IMHO it makes more of a difference in the digital world and is very noticeable in psytrance where the relationship between the kick and bass plays such a vital role (oer I sound like a BBC doccy narrator!) and both are perhaps more prominent in trance than rock or pop or even standard trance where other things are more in the front.

I read Danny Carey of the band Tool tunes his drums specifically for their music and ModernDrummer mag saw this as unusual or not the norm. (then again ModernDrummer say some pretty silly things as soon as they are faced with outside the box stuff)

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insaneacyde i agree, and there is proabably no clear answer, it all comes down to taste in the end... :P
bom bom

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