Guest Abhi Posted September 4, 2001 Share Posted September 4, 2001 I wanna start makin' some psy trance...need all the help i can get...where to i start...what do i need...like from a-z...plz help. thanx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ethos Posted September 4, 2001 Share Posted September 4, 2001 Tricky question-depends alot on your budget, and how you want to work. I started with an old atari, logic and a crap GM sound module! Nowadays there is alot of software around to get started on, and PC's can do most things-Reason, Fruity loops, acid and all the common ones, but you're never going to get the same quality, or sounds out of them as with hardware. VST synths are getting good, but you need a very powerfull PC to run alot of them well, with little latency I suggest getting a cheap midi keyboard(ultimately you want a good master keyboard, workstation, like CS6X, Triton etc), and logic(if you can afford it or try download it untill you can!)-I love it. Wicked effects+plugins. Then some decent sound modules-I've just bought an MS2000 and it fucking kicks ass, but any analogue modeling synth can produce much the same sounds as youre going to find on psy trance tunes. Its good to vary your equipment, as using the same stuff makes all the music sound simmilar. Anyway, It all dpends on budget, really-and how far you want to go. Also try and get a decent compressor to finish off your tracks, it makes them sound professional-I Need One! Finally, hard work and dedication, late nights and pissing your girlfriend off are all part of the deal! Happy composing . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest noctilucent Posted September 4, 2001 Share Posted September 4, 2001 Ethos forgot to add: music theory. And don't expect to finish a song in 2 days. I've been making music for almost three years now... and it's still not easy. Good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Eryon Posted September 4, 2001 Share Posted September 4, 2001 Hiya, 7 years for me and I still find it rather hard. But don't worry as you'll have a lot of fun with it. Music composing rulez !!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ethos Posted September 5, 2001 Share Posted September 5, 2001 Music Theory is an important thing-but nowadays computers do alot of it for you-I started when I was 12-at 15 I got a track on 'The Mix' magazine-went on to get GSCE and A-level music, 3 Grade 8's (including music theory) and am studying music technology at City university in London. And yes, alot of music nowadays has little theory in it, most people cant read music-and 'Sampling takes the performing and compositional skill out of music'states a viola teacher. However, for now it deosn't seem to be so great a need to explore the timbres of a huge romantic orchestra, we don't need to delve into the tonal characteristics of each individual instrument, nor learn how to combine them to create spine tingling moments, as in 'The Rite Of Spring' -Musics gone beyond that. It does seem though if you know how to produce, and programme well, then you can make exceptionally good music with out any/much training. Go for it! We are following a progression, from Beethovan, Debussy, Ravel, Stravinsky, Xenakis, Stockhausen to the progressive music of the 70's-Hawkwind, Ozric Tentacles etc Much of it blowing away tonality, to get into the rhythm and internal energy of music-yes drugs has alot to do with it! Full respect to Dub Project X who really know how to compose melodies-along the lines of Celtic Cross, beautiful! After 7 years of music production in this genre, I'm still @!#$ at this game-tell me about it! It takes money and time-I'm still waiting!, alot of it, but whats more important than theory is your ear. Listen to what you have created, and if you like it, its good, then let it through, if not, its @!#$. Lots of trial and error, thinking, imagining and experimenting-that's what I love about modern music! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest wordsworth Posted September 5, 2001 Share Posted September 5, 2001 just about music theory bit... Somebody told me tnhat psy trance has something like a dominant 9th in whatever key you're recording in and that this was something a composer should try and exploit to use the full melodic ranges allowed in the tunes. Whatever it means, I disagree - techno and its offspring is more like jazz than anything else, and jazz was all about a bunch of people with no music theory training getting together and playing what sounds good.... i.e. completely ignoring all the musical schooling that was considered essential for all musicians before jazz came along. Then the music theorists had to re-jig all their talk about modals, dynamics and syncopation to describe what the jazz musos were doing! So if the question is, what comes first - the music or the music theory - then I'd say the music, which sort of means that as long as the tune rocks, who cares whether it complies to rules superimposed on the music itself...? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Naiman Posted September 5, 2001 Share Posted September 5, 2001 I read one book about that once.. it explained very well how eveeryt sound is beautiful and melodic, there are no "real" melodies or @!#$ , we have just created our own illusion of how everything should sound. every sound would be beautiful music if we hadn't made some rules etc.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Naiman Posted September 5, 2001 Share Posted September 5, 2001 What the @!#$ !? where did all those ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest hogus Posted September 5, 2001 Share Posted September 5, 2001 There are various systems that describe music, not just the classic western system. I think a lot of people suffer with it because it doesn't describe the music in the way that they listen to it. Even in classic pieces you'll find the way that a finnish piece is played by an orchestra in Finland is very different to how it is played in America or Japan, because the sheet music can never describe the accents or nuances perfectly. But much like spoken language it is important to understand as many ways of speaking as possible. Because the language you speak changes the way you think if you can speak a few languages you're more likely to be able to view things out of different perspectives, or come up with lateral sollutions to problems. I do suggest that you wrestle through at least one music-theory book or course since even catching a glimpse of what its all about will do you the world of good as a producer. Personally i have my own way of thinking about music that is a mix of the classic western system and my own way of notating rhythms and sounds. I use the western scale as a base simply because you're more likely to find software, synths, etc. that accomodates it. And it has been successful for a long time now. You can start anywhere with music, from playing a drum to sampling sound sources to generating it with a hardware synth. A real easy and cheap sollution, just to start out is one that's been mentioned on this forum before. Download Buzz-tracker. It's free, can produce ok sounds and is quite flexible. I've been playing with music since 1993 when I got into tracking for the demoscene, and every time I think, now I'm getting the hang of it, I speak to someone new or hear a new, awesome track or something to that effect and feel that I've just got way too much catching up and learning to do. I've finally commited myself to music now and am preparing to lay out some serious cash to start building a studio. So I've got a big mountain to climb again, but that's what makes me happy anyway Climbing cliff faces is one of my favourite hobbies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Slidingtrancer Posted September 5, 2001 Share Posted September 5, 2001 "I've been playing with music since 1993 when I got into tracking for the demoscene, and every time I think, now I'm getting the hang of it, I speak to someone new or hear a new, awesome track or something to that effect and feel that I've just got way too much catching up and learning to do. : Whats your artistname, hogus? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Eryon Posted September 5, 2001 Share Posted September 5, 2001 Hogus; I'm at modscene (under another name, another thinkings, to sum up; another Projectand) and know some about MOD story... so, what was your tracker ancient nick ? Thanks... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest hogus Posted September 6, 2001 Share Posted September 6, 2001 From 93-95 my nick was Solace. Afterwards I released a few tracks as Hogus and early last year a few MP3's I don't know if you'll find much online since I never did that much effort to distribute. Mainly through the South-African BBS network. I find most of the earlier stuff I did very embarrasing, and the mod/s3m/it format isn't really well known for its production quality (That's not what it was about anyway). Also I wasn't that involved in the music scene specifically. I was more a demo coder to start with and later moved to pixel-art. I'm still happy with a lot of the artwork I did. But I always seemed to come back to music after taking long breaks from it (Especially when I got frustrated with the tools ;-) ) and now I'm moving mainly towards music. I've been DJ'ing for a while now at private parties and starting to get booked for open parties under the name Guy Incognito but that's not something I'm pushing either, I'm just seeing where it leads to. I'll also be starting up a project in a month or two. If I don't find a local partner to collaborate with before then I'll probably go solo under the name Guy Incognito. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest hogus Posted September 6, 2001 Share Posted September 6, 2001 From 93-95 my nick was Solace. Afterwards I released a few tracks as Hogus and early last year a few MP3's I don't know if you'll find much online since I never did that much effort to distribute. Mainly through the South-African BBS network. I find most of the earlier stuff I did very embarrasing, and the mod/s3m/it format isn't really well known for its production quality (That's not what it was about anyway). Also I wasn't that involved in the music scene specifically. I was more a demo coder to start with and later moved to pixel-art. I'm still happy with a lot of the artwork I did. But I always seemed to come back to music after taking long breaks from it (Especially when I got frustrated with the tools ;-) ) and now I'm moving mainly towards music. I've been DJ'ing for a while now at private parties and starting to get booked for open parties under the name Guy Incognito but that's not something I'm pushing either, I'm just seeing where it leads to. I'll also be starting up a project in a month or two. If I don't find a local partner to collaborate with before then I'll probably go solo under the name Guy Incognito. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest akira Posted September 16, 2001 Share Posted September 16, 2001 So if nobody had attempted to make sense of jazz is there any less chance it wouldn't have grown/survived? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest DjBlondiE Posted September 19, 2001 Share Posted September 19, 2001 "and jazz was all about a bunch of people with no music theory training getting together and playing what sounds good.... i.e. completely ignoring all the musical schooling that was considered essential for all musicians before jazz came along." I'm going to have to disagree......in some aspects of improv, you are right...as far as "playing by ear" goes...however, if you look at a sheet of music and a solo comes up and it shows things like "A-7" "Gb" and so forth, you are going to need to do your homework! Jazz revolves incredibly around theory...chord structures, scales, etc. are all crucial! You can go so much farther with your skills if you study theory...i personally feel that it plays a big part in jazz.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest DjBlondiE Posted September 19, 2001 Share Posted September 19, 2001 "and jazz was all about a bunch of people with no music theory training getting together and playing what sounds good.... i.e. completely ignoring all the musical schooling that was considered essential for all musicians before jazz came along." I'm going to have to disagree......in some aspects of improv, you are right...as far as "playing by ear" goes...however, if you look at a sheet of music and a solo comes up and it shows things like "A-7" "Gb" and so forth, you are going to need to do your homework! Jazz revolves incredibly around theory...chord structures, scales, etc. are all crucial! You can go so much farther with your skills if you study theory...i personally feel that it plays a big part in jazz.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest etherdesign Posted September 20, 2001 Share Posted September 20, 2001 If you are looking at sheet music, yeah.. but when is the last time you saw any really good jazz musicians looking at sheet music? From the founding musicians (very poor black artists) to this day (many not so poor people), I don't think any certain musical theory comes into play.. timing maybe, but that comes naturally most of the time.. but as far as true jazz goes, it's all improv and alot of jazz musicians can't even read music.. what's the point if you are playing improv all the time? imo, jazz is improv music and that is it's pure element.. which is why alot is lost in modern jazz, kenny g being one extreme example.. I also believe this crosses into psy.. it's not really improv most of the time.. though I would *LOVE* to do a live set with a guy or two at a set(s) of e-drums, tabla and bongo players, and just have the rest be live synth players and maybe a flute, sitar, and didgeridoo.. that would be awesome (PS.. If you are interested in this contact me).. the only groups I can think of that use a definate music theory are Shpongle (especially the second album) and Infected Mushroom.. which is why I think there is alot of disagreement as to these groups.. most psy is pretty free of traditional musical boundries; besides staying in key, but that is sometimes broken as well.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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