Taika-Kim

Perfourmer, yes, that´s a synth that I very much would like to try out, the architecture makes a lot of sense, and it´s full analog signal path unlike many new analog synths that have digital controls for modulation etc. Anyway, this is kind of pointless, any synth with a touch of the right effects can make useful stuff. I´m kind of against the equipment fetish most electronic musicians tend to have. The music is what counts, really... It´s a bit too easy to compensate that with expensive hardware, software or whatever. I remember one discussion I had after a set back in 2006 or so, when somebody got angry at me when he heard that all the music was made with a tracker, a cheap home hifi setup and headphones And this was just before the typical: "wow your music is like the best thing to come out in years"-talk. He insisted that I can´t make good music without Genelecs and Logic. Specifically those. Because real musicians have Genelecs and Logic. Period. I had a pretty hard time keeping my face straight... Also a lot of the people abroad at that time just didn´t believe that most Finnish artists at that time used Fruity Loops for everything... Then again. After all this... I´m super intrigued about the new Arturia Matrixbrute, to me the demos at least sound super good, and a patch memory in a 100% analog signal synth is like a dream come true. Like, alost all the sounds on Hengen aurinko are lost since I made them with equipment without memory :/ Also the MFB Dominion X looks and sounds according to the demos one of the most interesting pieces of gear out, even though it´s old, and doesn´t get the design and marketing hype of bigger companies.

Yup.

Just testing, for some reason I am unable to post in the labels announcement forum? "There appears to be an error with the database. If you are seeing this page, it means there was a problem communicating with our database. Sometimes this error is temporary and will go away when you refresh the page. Sometimes the error will need to be fixed by an administrator before the site will become accessible again. You can try to refresh the page by clicking here"

Something from a few years back that didn´t make the last album. I expanded it for a few parties I was playing recently at to have some new material... Dirty in-your-face analog electronics, so don´t except a 2016 psytrance sound here https://soundcloud.com/aavepyora/work-in-progress-trance-2016

I´d suggest any synth with knobs for EVERYTHING, and the ability to do FM or cross modulation of oscillators, oscillator sync, ring modulation and filter FM. Analog sounds very very very different, the people who tell otherwise are plain wrong. I don´t want to start an argument again over this same issue, but just try it, get a bit deeper besides some clean sounds, and quickly it´s apparent. The Studio Electronics Boomstars have a great specs for a not too expensive, high quality construction synth. Eurorack is crazy cool, but you will be spending 1000-3000€ for an average system where you can do even the basic things. Also the workflow will be veeeery different from an in-the-box solution. Things I didn´t try out, that should be legit: Korg Ms20m, MFB Dominion-X, and of course a lot of the new hybrid modular modules. But, basically anything with a "good" sound, and the specs mentioned in the beginning of the post will do. Just try a few demos, the programming is the same in any synth anyway. But mostly you will want the knobs. Not menus, not any kind of matrix, just a knob or button for every single parameter. That will make a big positive difference regarding the workflow, and also it´s easier to create tweaks on the fly.

I really hope to do more experimental things and music in the future, I think almost 20 years of music that all sounds almost the same is enough for me

Article I just wrote with pics & sound: https://aavepyora.net/2016/05/02/aavepyora-audio-crafting-3-physical-filters/ To make it short: run synths through real objects with transducers, and record the sound! This is fast becoming my favourite trick, it can radically transform the timbre of any sound, without breaking it in anyway like many effects do.

Oh, and while we are it, since we can see a certain pattern forming here: Let´s find artists that released their first album, say after 2005?

Heh, about Process collaborations: so right about those one Goaconstrictor mentioned, never should write these three in the night after reading scientific papers for 12 hours, I didn´t think of individual tracks at all Spawn was that track that was basically really good, but was played in practically EVERY set for like 6 months when it was released, I got soooo tired of it... Process/Nervasystem collab sounds like a million tons of fun! I checked it, it´s indiegogo and they have quite a lot already, I hope they can scrape the rest together, since over there you get to keep the money even if the goal is not met. Funny, I was kind of thinking about the first Son Kite albums too... The first Kino Yoko album was pretty incredible, nothing to compare against really, and still very musical and coherent. Closest maybe Sandman all old Amiga music I should check one day what he´s up to now. BIOT was great, too bad he kind of disappeared I think. Shaolin Wooden Men, Rip Van Hipy etc for sure But about the Psy-Harmonics stuff standing on their own, without associations to the psy scene, I´m not sure. Like, if trance and the wholy party scene didn´t exist, and Shaolin Wooden men released an album, what would be people's reaction?

Nice discussion, I was also thinking of 1st Sandman album, nice soft goth industrial style. James Reipas for sure! I myself was thinking of artists that make music that is psytrance, but not only strictly in the confines of psytrance, having created kind of a genre of their own. Since 99% of trance is genre music, where artists already beforehand have a pretty rigid idea about what they are going to do, and they then stay inside that spot only. Maybe a good distinction is, that a style is so original that it takes balls to imitate it?-) Like general psytrance, it doesn´t really sound like anything particular. But, if somebody created a 90% copy of Twisted for example, that would seem pretty crass, no matter how good the job was. Process had ace sound design, I think he was maybe the first one who used modulars heavily? But the songs are not that great mostly in my opinion... And he admitted as much recently when I asked about some stuff, that he always was more into the sound design aspect than finetuning the songs. So it´s too bad he never collaborated in some dream team with a more dedicated songwriter...

Which artists created their own path, ultimately independent of the psy/goa genre limitations, while still managing to sound like trance? Artists that have really their own sound, enjoy at least some popularity, and did a career of more than one or few albums? Who sound like nobody else? Regardless of what I think of each of these (like Juno Reactor I was never very fond of), these step to mind first: Shpongle/ Younger Brother Juno Reactor Infected Mushroom Also in the more underground, there must be something. Maybe... Ubar Tmar? Texas Faggott? (actually a lot of Finnish 2000s artists...) Hmm, there's a lot of stuff like Nervasystem that´s kind of original, but remind really closely other things, like he does the 90s "Phantasm sound" generally... Oh, and also: "has appeal outside of hardcore trance fans.". Since those are in my opinion interesting artists, showing some universal appeal to people who don't give extra psy-points for the music

Nice project, I like the proper CD presentation. High quality tracks.

Many tracks by me Altough I'm not sure if I would call my music psy... But I've made some goa so I think it applies. 7:22 longish mutating lead: http://aavepyora.bandcamp.com/track/a-goa-trance-for-lately-bass 5:50 folk/chip-style looong lead sequence: http://aavepyora.bandcamp.com/track/hengen-aurinko 3:03 70s style analog lead: http://aavepyora.bandcamp.com/track/every-mountain-can-dream 5:57 woodwinds kick in: http://aavepyora.bandcamp.com/track/beyond-the-veil-of-sleep-2 At 5:25 flute solo starts: http://aavepyora.bandcamp.com/track/crusaders-of-the-crystal-matrix-mayan-dreamtime-mix This is basically one proggy space lead, after 6:06 especially: http://aavepyora.bandcamp.com/track/the-seven-lamps-of-trance-analog-craft-mix And so on This is something I miss in trance, I think people a bit scared of doing long leads because it's like writing, it shows your true nature and the artist must be prepared to be exposed along with them... Or maybe it´s just the general taste, dunno... But I love the stuff that sounds more like old synth & space music. Dimension5 had a few old tracks I think, as well as hmm. Power of Celtic by Shidapu These days I think there's less than ever, it´s more fx and quick gated, arped stuff etc. And actually many IM tracks... As much as I don't like them

Every now and then I check a few things and hope that somebody created something original, but I come back disappointed every time Psytrance has artistically been sinking in tar for the last 10-15 years at least, people love the conventions too much to dare try to find some interesting places between genres and their own ideas.

Shiit, missed this completely, too bad, it might have been fun to make a new Summamutikka style over the top goa track or something

http://www.aavepyora.net

And yeah I so want the new version of Alchemy, it's one of the three VSTs apart from my hardware that the last album was based on... I want it almost enough to change to an Intel motherboard and CPU and install OSX...

Highpass of course I like Omnisphere, it´s expensive but the sound files it draws the waveforms are 100% quality, I used it a lot on my latest album. And now with version 2 and the ability to import your own waveforms, it seems super interesting. But yes, very expensive, I´m not sure if I´m upgrading :/ And sorry if that sounded upfront earlier, not meant at all

Well obviously I didn´t test everything. Originally I was just auditing a few synths for a tune I was making, mentioned that in some discussion and somebody asked me to post the results. And of course I had to add a few ones Trilian, I don´t think there's a demo? OTOH Omnisphere´s filters are quite bad IMO, I would expect Trilian to have the same ones? In the mixed ones there is a lowpass filter at around 30hz IIRC, and that actually has a huge effect on the synths, depending on the rolloff. But still some synths sound better than others, even with the same settings

There is no way ever that you can avoid physical phase cancellation as soon as the sound waves come out of the speakers, no matter how accurately your mix is set, because it´s caused by vibrations in the air, moving in a three dimensional space. The only way really would be to mix in an anechoic chamber, that sucks in all of the sound.

I like Eurorack stuff, but expensiveee, after I quit my job, I didn´t get the chance to upgrade so much. The new Reaktor stuff seems great, the standardised block interface thing makes a lot of sense. Also the Eurorack stuff takes looooots of space

I think the comparison was quite interesting, because even though you can of course create this basic patch with any synth, the differences are huge between different synths. Alchemy is not dead, version 2.0 just came out with 3000 new sounds. It´s only for Mac though sadly, but then again it´s a free update for LogicX users. It´s my favourite synth, the architecture is just brilliant. It can play samples, true, but most patches actually apply some form of resynthesis, where the sound is rebuilt from sinewave partials from example, allowing all kinds of interesting things to be made. What do you mean "so small" about Sylenth1? It does not need a lot of sample data, and code does not take much space? The limit between sample based/ not sample based is not simple like that. Many VA synths actually use precalculated waveform lookup tables anyway, so they could be said to be wavetable synths in fact. About the very latest "circuit modelling" based ones I don´t know though, if they really have a mathematical realtime circuit model of the oscillator running realtime the whole time. I also don´t quite understand your comment about Sylenth sounds? It has exactly the same artchitecture like any other analogfu modelling synth, so the sound programming is the same than any other synth? Read the manuals, they help to understand how the different sounds are produced. A kick sound usually for example is just one wave (or filter with high resonance, creating a sinewave) modulated with a steep pitch envelope, and the sequences come from an arpeggiator running. An arpeggiator is a part inside the synth that creates note sequences without the need to send notes in the synth from the sequencer. Omnisphere is a sampler, but it has also oscillators you can use in addition with the samples. And these too are sample based for almost sure.

These ones on the line of fire: Camel Audio Alchemy Studio Electronics 4075 U-He Diva Synapse Audio Dune Image Line Harmor D16 Group Lush 101 Stillwell Audio Olga Roland SH2 VST SammichSID with mono output of one 8580SID Lennar Digital Sylenth1 Togu Audioline Noisemaker Togu Audioline Bassline 101 U-He Ace U-He Bazille beta U-He Zebra 2 U-He Hive U-He Tyrrell N6 Steinberg VB1 Funny, actually in the mix I like the sound of the SID chip almost the best As expected, Sylenth1 was very good... A free option that's very close in sound is Synapse Audio Dune. The free TAL Noisemaker is very close to my analog hardware, I would say even more than U-He Diva. Harmor has super good envelopes, very nice for high BPMs.

Are we talking about sounds or style here? Shpongle hasn't used any library sounds in the latest productions, Simon claimed. I have built a lot of acoustic instruments, true, but use them way less than I would like. I once wanted to go that way: Build my own modular synth from scratch, build my acoustic istruments, code my own plugins, code what special features I wanted into Psycle that I was using like 10 years ago or so. I also wanted to become a craftsman, travel, grow my own food... You get the picture. So I built a ton of instruments, a few pedals and modules, started looking into plugin programming, etc,m but eventually hit the wall of realities and limitations pretty hard There´s only so much one person can do with time. So I for example try to sample as much as possible myself, and build the synth sound with my modular setup (the possibilities of which I have barely scratched). Still, even though now I've been unemployed for 1,5 years, and even lived one year in the countryside in total isolation, I realized it took all the time I had just to finish the last album as it stands. Especially the moment you go out of the box, and start building stuff with analog stuff, do layering, multiple recordings, etc. It´s really a huge difference. I might have to spend the whole day just to get one bass sound right, whereas with software I might have done the same thing in fifteen minutes. So, with people usually having a life too to take care of, you see why music does sound kind of the same, and people using what they easily can get their hands on. You really need to choose what to focus on. You can choose to spend hundreds of hours perfecting original sounds in complex software like Alchemy etc, or you can write music. About style: everybody is copying everybody else anyway. I might be alone with my thought, but I think there´s nothing wrong even in copying the trademark sound of somebody else. I strongly believe that ideas should be free... That might be a bit boring usually, but I don´t see anything wrong with that. Actually I´ve beenb thinking that it might be fun to do a few tracks in the style of some other artists, just for excercise's sake

Nice.