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Experimenting with psychoacoustics


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For quite some time now I have wanted to create a track that, throughout the first phrase, was completely muddled by effects and filters. Halfway through the first phrase the entire track starts to pan to the right.... Synths slowly start to pan to the right, then the snares and drum beat, then the bass line, then the kicks; everything just starts to swim. After the first phrase, during the ambient passage before the second phrase, the filters immediately cut out and everything abruptly shifts to the right of the dance floor and from the left speakers there’s a horribly deep subsonic boom sort of effect. For about 5-10 seconds this goes on with all sorts of crazy muddled sounds slowly weaving from the left speakers, to the right. Then, suddenly everything shifts from the right speakers to the left accompanied with one of those sub sonic whooshing vacuums which is followed by the track (from the right speakers) in full force without any filters. Everything should happen very subtly though (except for the end part).... I wish I could remember the name of the track that I was listening to.... Everything started to swim to the right and then it all just shot back into place when I wasn`t even expecting it, but it actually made me lose my balance and I fell over; was freaking amazing.

 

Has anyone ever experimented with, sort of.... Dissorienting people with white noise, inaudible noises.... Especially panning the subsonic bass/basslines slightly. I wish more people would delve into this.... Turning music into a physical experience.... You can only imagine the effects it could cause, especially if you were on acid or something.

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Hi there,

 

That sounds interesting! I hae wanted to do some similar stuff, but I feel like it's kind of dead-in-the-water, when I can't mix on a decent sound system. Else it will be like guessing how something will work out, and that never works out ;)

 

Do you know for sure, that it wasn't just the DJ who panned the mix and added some stuff in the other channel...? That would be the easiest way of doing it I think.

 

For a long time I have wanted to have a regular mix, and then add some stuff that can't really be heard, but felt as short rhythmic pulses - then let these play with the kick figure, so that it isn't just umph-umph-umph-umph, but something more. It is just so darn dificult, not to ruin the mix completely with such low frequencies...

 

-A

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...and then add some stuff that can't really be heard, but felt as short rhythmic pulses - then let these play with the kick figure, so that it isn't just umph-umph-umph-umph, but something more. It is just so darn dificult, not to ruin the mix completely with such low frequencies...

 

-A

Aaaaah, that would be amazing.

 

Also, I wasn't actually at a club. I was sitting at a friends place listening to whatever it was on some JBL JRX125's having a smoke (which was part of the reason I fell over). The whole track had a horribly euphoric feel to it, so I was kind of rocking back and forth just letting the music soak through me. Ever so slowly though I noticed all of the different layers started to separately swim back and forth. At the same time everything sort of became granular and muddled, then as everything dropped off a few layers were re-arranged and the second phrase started. Since it took about thirty seconds in total to get everything moving I didn't notice it right away. It just made me feel uneasy after a bit and then I noticed it. All of the layers panning wigged me out but I figured if a huge pressure change with subs was added that could really mess with peoples heads. Do you think it's even possible?

 

Also, I sort of found a track that vaguely does this....

 

Freud It Out by Panick.... It's just basic panning, but if you listen everything shifts noticeably to the right at 4:05 and whips back after the sample.... Just imagine an entire track boiling down to this one moment with all sorts of filters and bass slowly masking everything to hide the tracks main elements then after it's all crystal clear and pounding.

 

Freud It Out

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I once thought of using multiple drones being panned left and right to create two giant cogs grinding together(like imagine two circles with dots on them and the circles spin in opposite directions and the listener is between them)and binarual beats with the frequency of the cogs 'hitting'. I never made it tho mainly because I would have to use some very different drones in similar frequency bands and I would also have to find out how to make a sound sound behind you.

 

About other things, I like to add effects that can't be heard without concentrating a lot and very subtle changes.

 

I think my next project should use more panning and try to make my music more 'physical' in general. I'm still looking for some kind of concept tho(I never worked with a concept so it should be interesting).

 

But first, I have to learn how to use Cubase(I just love some of the functions there) and how to make better sounds with my DX7iid and VSTs

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...two giant cogs grinding together(like imagine two circles with dots on them and the circles spin in opposite directions and the listener is between them)and binarual beats with the frequency of the cogs 'hitting'.... sound sound behind you.

Ah dude, that would be so tight. Please don't ever drop that idea; has some serious potential.

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Acidkills thanks for those plugins, I'll look into them.

 

Now that I posted this, I have finally decided to make it. The first step will be making 10 drones in the same frequency range that will spin on the cogs.(I want it to be a number not devidable by 2 because the most silent and the loudest don't overlap this way.) I still haven't decided if I'll make the drone constant or make each one progress on its own. I will also add other drones in the background in the frequency ranges where the cog ones wont be and maybe a rythm when they 'hit'. By the way if anyone else thinks this is a good idea and that they could make it, give it a shot as well.

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Sure will, but it will take time. I have been thinking a about it yesterday and I decided that the parts on the wheels will change so that they will form some kind of melodies or whatever you call that. Also everything that isn't wheels will pulsate with the same rythm and I will make the song accelerate very slowly(I will make it accelerate from static to bassline speed, but here is a problem:

Posted Image

So if you accelerate the song like in figure A, you get figure B because the speed at which the tempo is accelerating accelerates, so I would have to use C to get linear acceleration, but does anyone know what kind of a graph should I use in order to get C?

 

Damn... I just hope this will sound as good as it looks :rolleyes:

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Sure will, but it will take time. I have been thinking a about it yesterday and I decided that the parts on the wheels will change so that they will form some kind of melodies or whatever you call that. Also everything that isn't wheels will pulsate with the same rythm and I will make the song accelerate very slowly(I will make it accelerate from static to bassline speed, but here is a problem:

Posted Image

So if you accelerate the song like in figure A, you get figure B because the speed at which the tempo is accelerating accelerates, so I would have to use C to get linear acceleration, but does anyone know what kind of a graph should I use in order to get C?

 

Damn... I just hope this will sound as good as it looks :rolleyes:

You're looking at calculus to figure that one out :D ...

 

good luck buddy ;)

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If you want to make it increase a constant speed, use a constant.

 

Instead of make it double speed over such a time, and then again...

When you do that you are using a formula like

 

x^2 -> x

(obviously not an accurate formula, considering it doesn't take time into effect...)

 

With x being original tempo and y

 

but if you use something like....

 

x+ 1 -> x

 

And have it do that every 5 seconds... You will end up having a linear change with 1 extra bpm per 5 seconds.

 

Personally, I think using the exponential thing would sound better, because it would get really intense, but that's just me.

 

Now, I don't know how you are doing this.

But if you're changing the temp by automation, or manually, just slowly bring it up, that's easy enough.

If you're using some weird plugin where you have to use a formula, model it after just a linear formula with just an addition sign :)

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Merh.. Ok, now I understand.

Because I guess whatever you use measures how long until the next tempo increase by the speed of the song...

That's dumb :(

Base it off something constant.]

 

 

Err wait, do you actually have to use a graph in whatever your using?

That's ridiculous..

 

This is quite confusing... i know that it would be pretty to do in reason if you wanted to just sit through the entire song and add 1 to the tempo every so often..

But...

To just draw the automation out,.. you're right, pretty complicated.

 

I'd just do it by hand,... it'd take less time.

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