Otto Matta

Hm, I kinda like the idea. There's always gotta be this sort of thing in any genre. Not that I like that sort of music, but I've always been somewhat intrigued by it. Cannibal Corpse is a metal band isn't it? Anyway, good for them.

I thought Krumelur's album was totally underrated/unappreciated. I think I was the only one who voted for it in the Best of 2006. Funky-phat tech style trance.

So, the question just occurred to me, and I thought I'd throw it out there: Let's say I have a regular snare pattern going, and I only wanted a delay to effect one snare hit, how would I do this? Would I have to create a new snare track just for that hit, or...?

My early psy discoveries were huge for me, because I'd been seeking a sound like that but didn't know exactly how to find it. The first hint that I was close was Empirion's Advanced Technology. I remember totally falling in love with that stuff, and at the time I had a girlfriend who let me drive her cherry red sports car, so I would go all over, cranking Empirion with the windows open just enough so people could hear. I felt cool, you know. The next one was Solar Plexus' album, Images from the Fifth Dimension (or something like that), with the big "Goa Trance" sticker (which, if I recall, was actually printed on the cover). I felt like I'd finally arrived. I remember one very cold, dark, snowy night on the El train in downtown Chicago with one particular Solar Plexus track in my headphones, and I played it over and over - totally romantic memory. I remember listening to this, Goa Head 7 and Juno Reactor's Bible of Dreams on my Discman in public and how the music made me feel somehow tougher and more confident.* I also remember listening at home really loud in headphones and seeing closed-eye visuals, which I thought was wicked cool. Then came Colorbox's Train to Chroma City and Pleiadians' IFO, and I was completely hooked. *I've said it before, but I believe in the idea that people's music is their "soldier", their way of confronting the society around them, a primitive way of saying, "Hey, this is me, check me out." It's really no wonder why people almost always have the windows in their cars down when they crank their tunes. This winter I've seen it a million times. Only the people jammin' their tunes have their windows open.

When I make my own compilations I treat them like songs. An example would be something like: Intro, build, peak, break, build, peak, release.

I'd like to hear it.

Shaft! Welcome.

I'm still baffled how someone can write a tune in a day. I might be able to get some major elements sketched in a day, but fartin' around with all the other stuff like arrangement and production takes a lot more time.

Robotfart? Hehe.

Yeah, good advice from Veracohr. I recommend listening very closely to your favorite tracks and see how they're constructed. I find there's a very big difference between listening to music for enjoyment and listening for technique. I find I often listen to technical stuff when I hear music, but never nearly as much as when I concentrate fully on the technical details. With skill and practice you can make pretty much any two segments of music fit with one another. But it's not easy! Remember that. It can be very time consuming and very frustrating, and you'll know you're a songwriter when you do what you have to do to work through a tough problem. That's what writing music comes down to: Problem Solving. So practice, practice, practice. Every time you sit down to write you'll teach yourself another new trick or two (if you're doing it right), and then over months and years you'll have accumulated an enormous arsenal of tricks - while still learning new ones, of course. Reading about songwriting is a very good idea, especially about the engineering/production aspects of writing because they can make or break the best or worst songs. Meanwhile, continue to write with your brain and your hands. You'll get there. Oh, and posting your work - even if it's not finished - at music forums like this is a pretty good way to get feedback from people who know what they're doing, and from general listeners, too.

Thanks. Yeah, man, would like to see your stuff. Thanks!

What?

Fucking crazy. What in god's name is wrong with some people? I mean, I guess if you analyze it a little you can only sort of feel sorry for the guy for having to resort to that sort of shit. Then again, the freaks come out when someone gains a bit of esteem in any community. Stalkers, etc. Do you have a stalker yet?

Hehe. I haven't even heard the OOOD album yet. Didn't listen to many releases this year. It was a bad psy year for me all around, but a few things excited me, and I voted for them. Did some dude actually threaten to more or less get physical with you for posting on forums?

Interesting!

What's this "Goa" thing everyone's been talig? Is it the sound that farm animals make? If so, I'd rather listen to something else, thank you very much. I was raised in and near cities, not in a barn.

I was taught to play the first five notes with the five fingers starting with the thumb, then cross under the pinkie with the thumb to play the sixth note, then forefinger and middle-finger to complete the ascending scale. Descending, the same in reverse.

Any hippie who becomes a yuppie wasn't a full-fledged hippie to begin with. Real hippies are rare, and I don't think many exist in our scene. Maybe more in the Grateful Dead/Phish scene. Our scene is about technology, and you can't have technology without money. And you can't have money without a job. Hence...yuppie.

If it is indeed a scale it's C Major. Edit: No, I'm wrong. You're right, Colin, there really is no scale where the thumb and forefinger go like that. It would be the thumb and the pinkie finger, wouldn't it?

I also notice a point being made by emmanuhell, but it is ultimately idealistic, on the verge of being cynical. Realistically, the music scene, just like any other scene, is inherently competetive. An artist has to compete to get noticed. That's why marketing and promotion are such a big part of the business. An artist who has good promotion skills will ultimately be on top, even if his music isn't that good. Combine good music with good promotion and you've got a hit on your hands, but good music without good promotion will stay buried in a mountain of releases. It's survival of the fittest, really, and any artist worth his salt learns very early that the creative part of being an artist is only a small part of what is required for success. So whether or not it was Jikkenteki's or Colin's intention, their presence here has been a great promotion strategy, the results of which are obvious in the voting. Sure, there might be much better releases out there - in fact, I guarantee there are - but if so, those artists, for one reason or another, have not been promoting themselves - or being promoted by their respective labels - in a competetive and aggressive manner.

Sounds from the Ground

Thanks, man. Nah, just freehand (but copied from a picture). And yes, "work" can get very boring. I prefer too little to too much, but that way the hours creeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep by. If I was always busy here I'd hardly ever be at Psynews, that's for sure.

Hehe. Burn.

Thanks, moni. Is that that same friend you had way back when? I recall you had an artist friend some years ago.