Veracohr

I'm not a "pro", but I'll answer for myself. I start with a (usually short) idea and build from there. Maybe a couple measures of a bassline or harmony or something, loop that, stick a kick on it so I have something to work with, and let it grow as it will. Sometimes whatever idea I have turns out to be a couple minutes long but simple. As soon as I get that initial idea out, it usually inspires the next addition, and so on. But sometimes I get that initial idea out and sit in front of my computer saying "what the hell am I going to do with this now?" I make new sounds almost all the time for every new song. Every once in a while I'll go back to some sound I have previously programmed. I often end up recreating the same sounds almost exactly, but I enjoy programming synths so I just take that as part of the writing process. Oh gawd no. I put "psychedelic" little sounds in if it seems right, usually in the middle the process somewhere, but not as a matter of routine. I tend to use a lot less of those "lasery" and other "psychedelic" sounds. A song I'm working on at the moment I'm kind of going at slightly different. I generally build from the ground up: I will construct the bare bones of the entire track, then add layers from there, usually working on the whole track at once. On this new one I'm building part of it in its entirety before working on the rest of the track. It's a new way for me but I thought I'd see if it helped or hindered the writing process.

Into Deep is an amazing album.

Yeah, like never in the history of European countries did they ever use slaves.

I second that motion.

I think blues is far enough removed from its African roots to be considered American-born, and rock & roll grew out of blues.

I'm pretty sure we invented the modern psychedelic sub-culture.

I've only been to a couple of shows here in the Portland, OR area, but it seems all really fast darkpsy and fullon.

Hey...another psytrancer in Portland? :posford: I just saw that the booking for that Shpongle show in Portland yesterday. I think I'll go, since I've never seen them, but I'm only sort of interested. I'm disappointed that there's no Hallucinogen show in Portland. It looks like there's a Hallucinogen live/Shpongle DJ set in Colorado a week later, but only a Shpongle DJ set in Portland.

I love it, especially some of the things displayed on the screens when they are "hacking".

I've got that one and I like it. I don't like much in that style, but I like Psyring Test. It's the only music I've heard from him; are you comparing it to other music of his, or is is that just a general comment?

Anyone heard this guy before? I think of it as dirty techno/industrial. I don't really listen to them much, I discovered them through a friend's Myspace page, but it seems like their most popular song is "Music to Piss You Off", which I like. They've got the whole silly uber-goth industrial look going on, but I like the music. http://www.myspace.com/cat

I didn't mean to sound too critical. You should definitely do it Jikkenteki!

I'd go with the master fader if you just want to bring the level up a bit. If the song is going to be mastered, a gain-maximizing limiter will accomplish that, but go easy on the limiting.

The one he's referring to is "Anamnesis".

Ah. I wasn't sure if you'd heard the new one or not, so I wasn't sure which one you were referring to. I totally agree with you.

Which one? I know my first one is pretty dark. It's not the mastering, it's my production. I have a bad tendency to make dark synth sounds.

This is one of the most improbable ideas I've heard in a long time.

I applaud your altruistic intent in general, but... It seems to me like making videos explaining "this is how you make a psytrance bass line", "this is how you make a psytrance melody", "this is how you write psytrance" would only add to the number of uninteresting generic psy tracks out there. I would suggest less focus on writing, which is best left up to the individual in my opinion, and more on how to create unique sounds. You said you would spend a small amount of time on ADSR, but I think it's important for people who want to make music with synthesizers to understand the basics of synthesis. You could probably fit a brief introduction to oscillators, filters and envelopes (just sticking to subtractive synthesis) into one 15-minute video and provide a useful foundation for beginners to make their own sounds. Even touch on some classics ("this sound you know is called a 'supersaw', this sound you know is called a 'hoover', and this is how you create them"). Use your knowledge to steer people AWAY from presets! And not just how to make new sounds, but when to make them. You could explain, and demonstrate, how a fast decay on a bass filter envelope might sound good in a fast-tempo song but not necessarily in a slower-tempo song. I guess I just have an old-fashioned opinion of music writing - just because you like a kind of music doesn't mean you can write it. If a person wants to write music that more or less conforms to the psytrance genre, I would expect them to be familiar enough with the style that they can pick out the 'defining' elements of psytrance without needing them to be explained, but also to have some natural talent at writing music. And in their own writing, incorporate those elements while also expanding upon them to create unique and interesting music. I have a real problem with the commonality in electronic music of saying "producing tracks" instead of "writing songs". To me, the phrase "producing tracks" just underlines a tendency of people who like a certain type of music and can recognize the defining elements of that style to think they should create it, regardless of their actual creative ability. I also think that referring to 'tracks' instead of 'songs' promotes the opinion of music as a disposable commodity rather than a creative endeavor that someone put a lot of work and emotion into, and that referring to the creator of a piece of music as a 'producer' rather than a 'musician' underlines the probability that they have little to no musical talent. Sorry, that's kind of off-topic, it's just my personal rant. But then again, perhaps my opinion on the subject is why I don't make very good music...

I think I've effectively proved that to be untrue.

Sure, I'll do it for free. Doesn't mean it will be good...

And let us not forget the good start already: And maybe we can just count this one as a great preview of 2009:

Holy crap that is mastered loud. I was listening to Viking metal, then stopped it to listen to these samples, and had to turn the volume DOWN. Also, I can't agree with the appreciation of the cover. It's not ugly, but so many albums in this genre have such similar covers which to me resemble nothing so much as a bunch of paint randomly splashed on a canvas. I know it's supposed to look 'psychedelic', but it just doesn't to me. It looks haphazard. But the ultimate test is the music: and I like it. As Go-Goa Trancer said, he does have a tendency to sound the same from song to song, and the samples don't prove otherwise, but at least it's all good!

Why do you keep importing and exporting it?

A Mortal Engines live show. Check this guy out. I saw him open at a "psy" club night here locally once, where he was the only good music. I'd call it generally "industrial ambient with breaks". Very good stuff.

Not one, but I'd say "Interdimension" and "Harmonic Convergence" more or less equally.