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Classifying sounds and track sections
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Aedge
Started Topics :
1
Posts :
8
Posted : Sep 6, 2012 17:39:28
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Hello everyone,
I'm new to the forum and new to psy production (mainly learning forest and dark psy), although I have been producing for almost 3 years (and it has been my one and only hobby).
This is a two-part question, the first being, how do you classify your sounds?
By classify I mean, trying to separate your track in different sound functions, such as, atmosphere, kitchen (kick+bass), leads...
I thought of classifying everything as:
1) Atmosphere - "Space" creation, sounds with lots of reverb.
2) Ambience - Mainly melodies and sounds that will give the atmosphere a theme, so to speak.
3) Kitchen - Drums + bassline
4) FX - Short fx hits, uplifts, downlifts...
5) Leads
I also thought of classifying sounds by frequency range: low, low-mid, mid, mid-hi, hi, treble... But that idea I ignored, it gets too complicated for obvious reasons.
You may ask, "why do you want to classify sounds?"
Basically so I can organize my thoughts in sequence; first, bassline, then atmosphere and ambience, then leads, etc...
My second question is similar to the first, how do you classify track sections?
In dubstep (which is what I used to produce), for example, we can divide in intro, drop, break, 2nd drop, outro; How do you separate tracks in psy? When do you tend to cut-out leads? When do you have more atmosphere?
I know that there isn't a set of rules for this, it depends on each persons technique, and that's why I come to ask, what is your technique?
Cheers! |
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knocz
Moderator
Started Topics :
40
Posts :
1151
Posted : Sep 6, 2012 18:18
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Hi!
First, I usually consider the Kick apart from the drums.. so I'll have a Kick and bass router to a single channel called the Beat, and every other percussion element so a track called Perc. For the rest, I usually go with Leads, Rhythms and Other, where the most prominent stuff and melody goes to leads, background and harmony stuff goes to rhythm, and anything else (buildups, voices, etc) goes to Other.
Using your own standard schematic and sticking to it helps in a number of ways, but I like it in the live situation: you'll know what a loop is supposed to do just by looking where it is and which channel it's on, but also helps in using main effects and keeping things under control. The main disadvantage for me is to make more controlled automations over multiple elements on different channels.. and to overcome without having to have a section with the routings all mixed up is to use a send channel and record whatever goes out from there.
Second, I don't know if you've heard a lot of psy tracks, and been able to examine tunes from it's subgenres, but you really can't go wrong! In psy, after the rule of having the beat trancing you out, there no more rules left - or all the rules are meant to be bent.
If you go to progressive trance, its very loop based, 16 bar loops building up on each other, where a track can have two or three of these builups. It takes some time in this genre for the song to progress structurally to something else
Complete opposite, dark psy, I like it when there is no structure whatsoever, when it sounds like a maniac lunatic full of gadgets controlling an orchestra made out of wild monkeys. In other words, when the ideals of commercial structure are broken, and stuff just about lands whenever it wants. People usually use a structure on this style and than do everything to break it, while sounding good, thus making it sound more than of a random tune.
Full on psy, in any of it's sub sub genres, usually sticks and relies on musical structure. Many tracks stand on the common one of a commercial track (intro, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, outro, chorus, end) but many people have gone in completely different directions. There is room to experiment here, and to come up with even crazier ideas (I started a track in 3/4, so every three beats it repeats instead of four, and it's coming great!)!
suomisaundi psy, it's freestyle: anything goes. Do whatever sounds good 
I really don't think much about structure, but more on tension and release, and make a track flow out. I think of a track as something evolving somewhere else, and try to do accordingly, making a single flow.
People need to have some predictability, and stuff like full on becomes extremely predictable. That's why my bro only likes dark, and why I try to explore other concepts, and make it less predictable (failing miserably in some cases). Just try to make it sound good, while also trying to do something different, something new.
 Super Banana Sauce http://www.soundcloud.com/knocz |
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aciduss
IsraTrance Full Member
Started Topics :
112
Posts :
1490
Posted : Sep 6, 2012 18:32
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Ahaha... kitchen? I've never listened to that before.
I usually do:
Bassline
Snare / Clap
Cymbal Percussion
Extra percussion
One shots and synth combos
Pads n Ambiences
Sfx (reverses, pitchers, hits, etc.)
Synthlines (leads)
Melodies
IMHO Ambiences and Atmospheres is the same...
There are many structures on psytrance tracks... but the most common is like:
INTRO - PART1 - BRDIGE / BUILD - PART2 - BRIDGE / BUILD - PART3 - OUTRO
Duration of this parts is normally from 32 to 128 bars depending on the context of the track.
NO RULES! Xd |
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Equilizyme
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
19
Posts :
593
Posted : Sep 7, 2012 06:48
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Good question. ya no rules for sure, but I have found it useful to make:
"Low End" = Kick and Bass and reversed kicks, etc
"High End" = crashes, reverse crashes, wooshes, etc
"Snare"
"Perc"
"Instruments"
these are the groups I make. seems to help with organization and with mixing. basically the same as aciduss.
I have collabd with guys who use no organization and have stuff all over the place, its a mess and much less efficient, at least for me.
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http://soundcloud.com/equilizyme
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faxinadu
Faxi Nadu / Elmooht
Started Topics :
282
Posts :
3394
Posted : Sep 7, 2012 07:56
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i usually have my kick channel 15. bass (or basses) at 16-18 or so, and then with rhythmic sounds i work up (channels 14-1) and with other stuff i work down (19 and on).
just as an organizational thing.
The Way Back
https://faxinadu.bandcamp.com/album/the-way-back |
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Aedge
Started Topics :
1
Posts :
8
Posted : Sep 7, 2012 08:58
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Awesome answers everyone!
aciduss, I use the term "kitchen" because all the hats, snares and claps kinda remind me of pans in a kitchen clanking hahaha |
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Alien Bug
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
27
Posts :
682
Posted : Sep 7, 2012 16:31
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