willsanquil
IsraTrance Full Member
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Posted : Dec 20, 2009 12:50:36
hi folks,
just got done fleshing out my first ever psy-track (well, first piece of music ever)...I had a lot of fun making it and it taught me a lot...
stuff used:
ableton,
bazzism + alien303 + quadrafuzz for kick + bass combo
~13 different z3ta instances for the variations on the 2-3ish leads
I sampled the voice bits and the percussion and didn't alter them much,
the bubbles/pads/strange noises are mostly fucked-around-with samples of drums and whatnot....reversing and stretching and bouncing is good fun ^_^
thanks so much to isra for providing me with a knowledge base...a month ago I didn't even know what bar/phrase was!
it definitely still needs a bunch of work but I'm getting to the point where I need a break or i'll get sick of hearing it...
Any criticism is appreciated
dj chichke
Chichke
Started Topics :
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Posts :
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Posted : Dec 20, 2009 16:03
for one month it's good. you learned a lot in this month. but there are a lot of things to work on here:
1. i don't hear the kick almost...
2. the bassline too distorted. you killed it with the quadrafuzz. i don't know if alien303 is so good for bassline (si might be wrong, i didn't even tried it for bassline). learn first to make good bassline without quadrfuzz, and after that if you realy think you have too add a bit quadrafuzz just if you sure its helps to your bassline.
3. add more percutions.
4. some of your leads are have too much volume.
5.your track from 1 minute till the end sounds almost the same. you have 2-3 phrases that all the track playing. if you like melodies so add more and don't play it all the track.don't show all your cards from the beginning. even in the most melodic psytrance there are not melodies all the time. learn to do psytrance without any melody or phrase, just groove and effects. after in some parts play your phrases, not all the time.
6. change the notes of the bassline from time time but do it with harmony to the other things.
7. i warmly recomand you to learn to play some instrument even if it's not interests you. it will make you understand music better.
after all you are just 1 month producing so it's very nice. i don't think i learned so much after so little time. so keep it up bro!
willsanquil
IsraTrance Full Member
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Posted : Dec 20, 2009 20:10
thanks for the comments!
looking at my project file now my kick is at -10 db but the bass is at -2.5...
Didn't put any effects onto the bassline until after I wrote it, but I will drop the fuzz a bit and see if I like it
ah, percussion...definitely something on the radar to work on, the two loops I have in that track are pretty basic
lol I spent like an hour last night going through all the lead sounds trying to figure out that damnable volume issue...still not how I want it
I guess I did kind of go crazy with the lead sounds...my flow was to write an initial lead, then duplicate it, change it a bit, duplicate, change, duplicate, change so that I had 8x 2 bar loops
then I messed around in z3ta until I had a lead sound I liked, then I duplicated that channel, changed it a bit, duplicated it, changed....until I had ~12-13 channels that sound similar but slightly different
then I broke up the MIDI pattern for the bassline and tried to do a call/response type thing where part 1 of lead plays in synth 1, part 2 in synth 2, part 3 in synth 3+4, a bunch of variations on that....
also added a bit of automation to the filter of the leads to get them to move a bit
In some of my favorite (mostly older) tracks I really like how something is introduced early on and then successively gets altered or more psychadelic so thats what I was trying to emulate with the synth layering, though obviously its a bit juvenile yet
thank you so much again!
dj chichke
Chichke
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Posted : Dec 20, 2009 23:09
it's all matter of practice.
your ear will get better and better with time.
if the bassline is -2.5 so replace it. the bassline should sounds good at lower volume -7-(-10) for my opinion. -10 for kick it's not a rule. you can make it louder. but i get youe kick is not so good if i almost don't hear it at -10. anyway the kick and the bassline should be almost at the same volume. defently not 7.5db far from each other.
kick and bassline it's something that people work on for months till they get it. about your leads. i don't see a point at open 12 vst's for very similar sounds. make automations for changing the lead with time.
i think it will also will help you to understand vst's better to do automations instead of duplicate.
choose 2-3 different leads on different octaves and then you will be able to play them together also.
willsanquil
IsraTrance Full Member
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Posted : Dec 21, 2009 00:44
yeah first thing I did after seeing your first post was to put the kick back up a bit...
I have absolutely no problem working on k/b for months, I intend to be in this for the long haul so to speak its addictive!
You can't tell it as much from the track itself but the 12 or so vsts are significantly different enough...and when I said duplicate i didn't mean just a clone...each iteration is ideally 'further down the rabit hole' so that I can vary it...spent a couple hours today re-working the lead arrangements to make it more varied
good point about the different octaves, I'm still wrapping my head around how assemble patterns that fill up more of the frequency spectrum yet dont clash
