Interesting article for producers

[auryn]

A guy at stylus wrote a really insightful and heartfelt piece about the influence of over-compression on music - something that in my view is also quite damaging to psytrance as a genre. Hopefully posting it here will help turn the tide in this volume war the guy is describing.

 

stylus article

[Otto Matta]

I like how the article starts off talking about a later Talk Talk album. Spirit of Eden and Laughing Stock are both truly great albums, and when he talks about all the extra, "natural" noises in them I know exactly what he's talking about. And yes, our music, especially electronic stuff, tends to lack that natural aesthetic. Psytrance especially, at least in my own collection, is a major culprit of overly compressed and overly sterile music. Which is why, in part, I really enjoy the Schlabbaduerst sound, as they don't seem to over-produce their work. There's still some rawness there that I appreciate a lot.

 

In my own work, which is not trance but more IDM/electronica, it has become a goal to make it as organic as possible. Not an easy feat. Especially since there are lots of ways to make music organic, but hard to actually achieve a good balance with it. For instance, I would call the majority of Autechre's work organic, even though it's highly synthetic. It's like an old pinball machine where the score is so high it eventually goes back to 0. But do I like their later work? No. I appreciate it, but I don't like to listen to it, and that's a problem. I want to make listenable music. They peaked in the middle somewhere, I believe.

 

So I'm working on it, and I very much appreciate that article. Thanks.

[auryn]

I think I know what you mean by organic; the sonourous and harmonic sounds of old electronica records have it, and most old goa/psy classics have it too. I always thought it came from the use of analogue equipment, because I have a hell of a time recreating some of those organic sounds in cubase and reason, and I tweak and fidget endlessly with sounds sometimes. So I guess I also know what you mean when you say finding the right balance is hard.

 

Right now to get some warmth/organic sounds I tend to use a lot of small reverbs and soft clipping (like the t-racks clipper tuned to -12 on the master) but any tips would be more than welcome...

 

I don't know schlabbaduerst that well, but I know I like the BOTFB demonoizer LP I have here. Because I'm a bit of a vinyl freak I'm out of touch with most of the current Psy releases. When I download MP3's of new releases I find 95% just seems to relentless and unforgiving to listen to, but after reading this article I wonder whether it's the music or the mastering that's causing that.

[Otto Matta]

I think I know what you mean by organic; the sonourous and harmonic sounds of old electronica records have it, and most old goa/psy classics have it too. I always thought it came from the use of analogue equipment, because I have a hell of a time recreating some of those organic sounds in cubase and reason, and I tweak and fidget endlessly with sounds sometimes. So I guess I also know what you mean when you say finding the right balance is hard.

 

Right now to get some warmth/organic sounds I tend to use a lot of small reverbs and soft clipping (like the t-racks clipper tuned to -12 on the master) but any tips would be more than welcome...

 

I don't know schlabbaduerst that well, but I know I like the BOTFB demonoizer LP I have here. Because I'm a bit of a vinyl freak I'm out of touch with most of the current Psy releases. When I download MP3's of new releases I find 95% just seems to relentless and unforgiving to listen to, but after reading this article I wonder whether it's the music or the mastering that's causing that.

520532[/snapback]

Yeah, I think that's why lots of people still enjoy the analog and vinyl sounds, because they have the capacity for warmth while still being synthetic. It speaks to the human as well as the robot in us.

 

The first software track I made a couple months ago shortly after purchasing Reason I feel is the most successful simply because I was "winging it" with the production. The more I learned about production the more sterile my work got. I wish there was a process of unlearning a lot of that stuff. Or perhaps if I can get to the point where I know the art of production so well that I can at least emulate the organic aesthetic then I would be happy. I'm currently at a very awkward middle state. Which means I don't really have any good advice.

 

I watched Logan's Run last weekend which was made in 1975 and has an analog synth soundtrack. I paid very close attention to it to see what it was about that sound that was so organic. My assumption was that it was maybe a lot of reverb, but when I listened closely there really wasn't much reverb on the sounds. I wouldn't know how to emulate it, that deep, warm, wobbly sound.

 

I think one of the reasons Boards of Canada is so popular is because they have been able to create a warm, analog, yet very synthetic and still accessible sound in their music. They were able to find the balance. Isan does the same thing. If you listen closely to the first track on Meet Next Life, for instance, you can hear that magical balance. Another great example is Casino Versus Japan.

 

One trick I use to give a sound warmth is to turn up the noise a little, add some portamento, detune poly sounds, and maybe a little vibrato. It could be the the difference lies in small effects that the ear notices, but not the brain.

[auryn]

Yeah, I think that's why lots of people still enjoy the analog and vinyl sounds, because they have the capacity for warmth while still being synthetic. It speaks to the human as well as the robot in us.

 

The first software track I made a couple months ago shortly after purchasing Reason I feel is the most successful simply because I was "winging it" with the production. The more I learned about production the more sterile my work got. I wish there was a process of unlearning a lot of that stuff. Or perhaps if I can get to the point where I know the art of production so well that I can at least emulate the organic aesthetic then I would be happy. I'm currently at a very awkward middle state. Which means I don't really have any good advice.

 

 

I really know what you mean by the winging it on the first production, I have the same feeling about some of my earliest tracks!

 

I gather your still using reason stand-alone. In that case I might be a little further ahead in my experimentations... and I might have some advice for you - try wiring your sounds through the malstrom synth (there's an audio input on the back) and adding a little saturation from the shaper section. Before the malstrom insert an M-class EQ and low-cut the sound slightly, try to find the frequency where it starts resonating niceley. A bit of high-end reverb before saturation might also help.

 

Maybe you figured this out already though, took me some time.

 

Also you might consider rewiring into Cubase in the future as the reason mixing engine isn't that good/clear. Another interesting investment might be a good analogue mixing desk (which is what I'm getting pretty soon) and a soundcard with multiple outputs.

[Otto Matta]

I really know what you mean by the winging it on the first production, I have the same feeling about some of my earliest tracks!

 

I gather your still using reason stand-alone. In that case I might be a little further ahead in my experimentations... and I might have some advice for you - try wiring your sounds through the malstrom synth (there's an audio input on the back) and adding a little saturation from the shaper section. Before the malstrom insert an M-class EQ and low-cut the sound slightly, try to find the frequency where it starts resonating niceley. A bit of high-end reverb before saturation might also help.

 

Maybe you figured this out already though, took me some time.

 

Also you might consider rewiring into Cubase in the future as the reason mixing engine isn't that good/clear. Another interesting investment might be a good analogue mixing desk (which is what I'm getting pretty soon) and a soundcard with multiple outputs.

520583[/snapback]

Great advice! I never thought about, for instance, routing some of the Redrum drums through the Malstrom. Can you route them through the Subtractor, too?

 

Also, do you find many advantages - related to the discussion - in using CV/Gate routing?

 

And yeah, Cubase is next on my purchase list.

 

What would you say the advantages are to an external analog mixing desk?

[Jikkenteki]

This over compressed issue has been around for awhile and I don't really see it going away anytime soon, especially in the trance scene were a lot of DJs don't seem to understand what the gain knob on the mixer if for. That said on our first PAR-2 comp we made a very deliberate decision not to compress the hell out of in the mastering stage and only one person has ever commented on it being a bit quieter than the norm these days and that person was actually one of the artists.

[auryn]

Great advice! I never thought about, for instance, routing some of the Redrum drums through the Malstrom. Can you route them through the Subtractor, too?

 

Also, do you find many advantages - related to the discussion - in using CV/Gate routing?

 

And yeah, Cubase is next on my purchase list.

 

What would you say the advantages are to an external analog mixing desk?

520593[/snapback]

no unfortunately the subtractor doesn't have a line-in.

 

about the cv routing: I haven't used that a lot yet, I should try some more, but these days I use a lot of cubase, there's some great free FX plugins out there.

 

There's also a lot more stuff you can do; you can also pimp your malstrom patches by running them out of the malstrom pre-shaper/filter, putting them through some effect of choice and wiring them back in again via the audio input. Soft Clipping from the M-class Maximizer is also a Good Thing for analogue vibes by the way.

 

I'm not sure about the analog mixing desk, no first hand experience yet, but a friend of mine studies at the School of Audio Engineering here in Amsterdam and he swears that quality analogue mixing desks really pull the audio you generate digitally to a new plane. They use some very expenise TL-audio tube mixer over there though, no Behringer or something like that. But that's some wisdom straight from the source I guess.

 

Might be fun to do some collaboration in Reason, though, if you're interested PM me.

 

Jikkenteki: I still have some hope that if more people are aware of the way their sound is being affected by this compression, that it will be greatly reduced. You already made a first step, and no complaints!

[Otto Matta]

no unfortunately the subtractor doesn't have a line-in.

 

about the cv routing: I haven't used that a lot yet, I should try some more, but these days I use a lot of cubase, there's some great free FX plugins out there.

 

There's also a lot more stuff you can do; you can also pimp your malstrom patches by running them out of the malstrom pre-shaper/filter, putting them through some effect of choice and wiring them back in again via the audio input. Soft Clipping from the M-class Maximizer is also a Good Thing for analogue vibes by the way.

 

I'm not sure about the analog mixing desk, no first hand experience yet, but a friend of mine studies at the School of Audio Engineering here in Amsterdam and he swears that quality analogue mixing desks really pull the audio you generate digitally to a new plane. They use some very expenise TL-audio tube mixer over there though, no Behringer or something like that. But that's some wisdom straight from the source I guess.

 

Might be fun to do some collaboration in Reason, though, if you're interested PM me.

 

Jikkenteki: I still have some hope that if more people are aware of the way their sound is being affected by this compression, that it will be greatly reduced. You already made a first step, and no complaints!

521385[/snapback]

Good stuff, man. Thanks. A PM is on its way.