Specifics of the "Goa Sound"

[Guest bugbread]

First, let me say that I know the arguments against what I'm about to ask, but I would like some answers/help anyway.

 

The question is: what are the key elements (**specifically**) used in general in psy music?

 

Some obvious ones:

Kick drum on every beat

No high hat during some sections, high hat on every upbeat in other sections

Single bass note repeated every upbeat (It took me a while to realise that the bass note is not on the downbeat, but on the upbeat)

Use of gating on melodic instruments to make choppiness

Use of phaser on melodic instruments

Use of arpeggios (in minor scales)

Use of reverb on kick drum to make progressive "Boom-bugga-boom-bugga-boom" sound

 

What other basic specifics are there? Anything I should know about snare drum placement, sound types on main drums, effects on main drums, etc.?

 

I know that there should be no rules, that one should go with ones heart, that psy is freedom, etc. etc., but as many a famous noise composer or jazz musician has said, "You have to learn the rules in order to break them", and even though I try to listen hard to the music, somehow I get swept away by the sound and can't notice the specifics.

[Hels]

Hmm those are hardly defining elements of the goa sound

EVERY type of house/dance music uses 4/4 beat and hats on the upbeats and bass on the upbeats...not to mention the exceptions of those in goa...

I think the most important elements are the harmonic ones.

The most basic I think is a the root and its flat second...the whole phyrigian sound.

[Guest bugbread]

True. My question was phrased a bit poorly. I'm not just asking for the unique elements of psy, but all the elements which, when combined, make psy. So I've gotta read up and ask my musical friends about flat seconds.

[Guest Pswede]

The thing is GOA is NOTHING like that... Goa can by ANYTHING that is psychedelic.... that was goa is all about... thats why good "minimal" is still "goa" for lots of people..

[Guest hypertensile]

No textbook for that mate

[Guest bugbread]

Pswede: Like I said, I know the arguments against the kind of question I'm asking. And goa is NOT anything that is psychedelic. Psychedelic rock is not goa. Goa has no "rules", but there ARE about three or four typical goa formats, and most of them use the elements listed above. Sure, there are exceptions (Simon Posford and his triplets, etc.), but the majority of goa tracks, like it or not, follow a certain core format. I'm not asking about the exceptions or the philosophy of goa, but the underlying reality of 80 or more percent of the goa tracks out there.

[ouroboros]

hhmm.... the most basic one i can think of is this: (it might be what hels was talking about)

 

and pardon my goofball way of describing it,

 

diga diga doo doo

diga diga doo doo

 

(1/2 step down)

 

diga diga doo doo

diga diga doo doo

 

(back up)

 

diga diga doo doo

diga diga doo doo

 

(back down)

 

diga diga doo doo

diga diga doo doo

 

 

 

that element is in just about every single goa track you hear. this was just the example so obviously its more subtle and complex... but its always there.

 

havent you ever left a party after hours of crazy music and dancing and had that stuck in your head? or am i truly mad? hehe hapens to me every time.

[Guest coriolis]

you said in your first post "even though I try to listen hard to the music, somehow I get swept away by the sound and can't notice the specifics"

 

you gotta learn how to distance yourself from the trance when listening to be able to dissect the music. this is a difficult thing that comes with practice. take some track you really like and spend a couple hours dissecting it, like you were trying to recover the sequencer file from the track itself. this hat comes in here, here theres a little swoosh, here the kick drum drops out for one beat, here this comes back in, here this is a varied repetition. maybe you can do this in your head but i would suggest drawing it out on a piece of paper. once you get the sequence laid out then you see the larger movements and how the smaller ones add up to them.

 

you can get into the hypnotic trance experience later - right now you want to WRITE trance so you need to know how its built. don't try to figure out some "general guidelines" for writing trance - instead, *listen to the trance you like and use your intelligence to figure out what that producer did in creating it*, then go with what you've learned. i know (beleive me) that lots of trance seems magical or impossible when you try to think about how it was made - but rest assured - anyone can do if they are dedicated.

 

this skill will not only aid you compositionally but eventually will do wonders for your production - you will begin to be able to dissect the production (reverbs, EQs, mix levels, FX, where does each sound lie in the frequency range, and so on), in fact you find that they are really one in the same!

 

good luck. hope this helps.

[Guest PiNG]

Oh, 3/4 beats do work, if its a speedy BPM it'll give a whole new dimension to the music, specially if you make a passage to 4/4! Songs like Halluciongen - deranger, Inf Mush - disco mushroom and others have this kind of change. At the end of the day, music (psy) is what U want of it!!!! But getting really psycho samples does help...