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Psytrance lead and stuff
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frisbeehead
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
10
Posts :
1352
Posted : Aug 2, 2014 13:31
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You know that menu above the arrangement window where you can introduce fade in and out values to samples? You can also change the pitch in there - at least it was like that on version 5 (last one I used). You should first detect the note it's at. Then you have the more evolved version of this, non destructive, which is variaudio, sort like the examples bellow:
> if you want more control and the two things in one, something like Auto Tune or Melodyne would be it. <
What headphones are you using? Chances are the bass is over tight (it's envelopes), doesn't cut through enough - where it sounded like it did with the cans on; not nearly enough stereo information, 'cause the headphones exaggerate the feeling of width? Headphones are good for some outside the house production, or late night sessions, not as a main mixing tool. Best advise is: use it only to produce and leave mixing decisions for day hours with your monitors. Then check if it sounds god with the cans on afterwards, just as another listening medium. cheers |
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routingwithin
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
46
Posts :
204
Posted : Aug 4, 2014 16:56
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Quote:
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On 2014-08-02 06:52, sachin22 wrote:
Thanks for your time Routingwithin. You sound quite experienced man. Its really good to have people like you and Neutrino around. I can tell that you guys have struggled a lot to make music and with a bit of determination, you guys have succeeded. Good inspirations guys and thanks a lot for being there for me. May be a quick one before i finish with my topic. I find out that when i do my production on the headphone at night. It sounds quite good but in the morning when i play it through the monitors, it dont sound the same. Any idea why?
And secondly, what do you use to change sample key? I use cubase. Thanks guys and have a good day... 
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Knowledge about music production never really ends. There are so many aspects that you need to take into account, which will play with your mind and confuse you. The conclusions you reach borders close to a scientific viewpoint, however we should never forget that even though digital music is based on patterns and formulas, music has an endless and complicated nature. Trying to figure out the perfect formula for good music is a fool’s errand. To me- music is like a memory/feeling that you recreate using sound. Where sound is the medium and the story within the music is the memory. If you don’t have a storyline integrated within the music – then the next thing you will start to judge is the quality of the samples, because your track sounds like crap, but the actual fact would be that there is nothing intriguing going on in the journey the music takes you on.
Let me give you an example- One of my tracks starts with a mono melody which echoes every 8 bars. As it echoes, the stereo image opens and closes. It changes 4 times every 32 bars; the changes are minor to keep your concentration on- that the sound describes only one entity, which is a glowing globe in dormant, sticking out of the ground- its sound/inner voice resonating through the air. Then you hear an alien ship coming from the side (left speaker), it stops near the globe and hovers above it. A metal latch opens up and you can hear a completely different trance tune coming from the ship(left speaker). The ship emits a scanning sound which has a huge stereo image- going from left(the ship) to the right side. I remember how it felt like the sound was scanning the whole room I was in. hehe – Then unfortunately they awake the globe,,, bad timing. The globes melody changes, becoming more intense/dark- at this moment I also introduced another layer to give it more voices and fatness- as if its growing. The ship starts to flee- but it is too late. I open up the stereo on the melody so it fills the speakers slowly and add a rushing sound.(morphed sound of a car driving passed) it gives an image of this large hand coming out of the globe, leaning back a bit and smashing into the ship which at that time was at 40L trying to escape, lol. As it reaches 40L an explosion is heard in that location of the speakers, followed by the ship falling and crashing down at 100L. After that the melody becomes even bigger (added layers) and is joined by the kick&bass- becoming the main lead.
Let me tell you, while listening to that – the quality of the sound was the last thing on my mind, because I was intrigued by the picture it gave me.
Knowledge is necessary to know in which direction to move, but can also trap you in a loop of never-ending struggle. The question to yourself should be, “What is music to you” – what does it mean to you and why do you want to create/produce music. If it’s for fame and money you’re on the wrong track.
Sound is one of the oldest entities that exist. If everything around us are cells/molecules vibrating together- then sound is the movement of those molecules. The same as walking down the road you are creating sound, because you’re moving air as you walk, creating sub tones, which is inaudible cause it moves too slow. If you pick up a stick and swat it through the air you hear that whoosh sound. Now the faster/harder you swat, the higher the pitch would be, because the movement of the air is faster, thus creating faster vibrations which gives us higher, audible frequencies.
Anyway…….. Enough about that.
Know that headphones is a tool, that is used for specific jobs. It’s like zooming in on the sound- to hear noise/distortion in the sample, off key notes (be careful when judging bass notes), where sounds reside in the stereo image and also clashing frequencies. It will always be difficult to judge how music will sound through speakers when using headphones, mostly because of the lack in bass frequencies and the limited space the sound can travel in. Also depending on the quality of headphones you’re using.
Many amateurs would fatten up the bass so it sounds nice on headphones – then when you switch over to the monitors the Sub booms the whole track to death. IMO – producing on headphones does have its perks especially when working on the Mid and High range, but leave the Low range for the Sub/Monitors.
It’s easier to understand this when you reference a commercial Psytrance track using headphones. First you would hear that the kick and bass sounds like it does not have enough bass. Secondly you will hear, in some tracks, how minimal the stuff really is. (talking about the old school NANO records stuff)
Then switch over to the monitors and everything changes. The bass is there, and the minimal is actually filling out the track nicely. Here,, the “less is more” concept comes in once again.
My advice-
Produce the track on headphones if you want to. It will let you zoom into the finer detail of the frequencies and also help to give space to each element. Leave the EQ well alone when on the phones, only balance using volume and add your effects (reverb, chorus, phaser, delay, panning ).. perk here is you will be able to hear the size of the added reverb and also delays going on too long.
Then change over to the monitors when you reach the mixing phase to shape the sound(EQ), give it stereo width, etc, etc, etc
Don’t worry about it, always here to help. Could collaborate about music production for hours-
Enjoy yourself and good luck
 " We are together in this matter you and I, closer to death, yes, closer than i'd like. How do you feel? - There can be no division in our actions, or everything is lost. What affects you affects me. " |
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sachin22
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
12
Posts :
31
Posted : Aug 5, 2014 19:41
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Thanks again Routingwithin. Do you have a link to the track you was talking about mate. I would love to have a listen to it. Specially the way you have described it makes it sound very interesting...
I'll listen to your advice regarding using the headphone and monitor. I think it do make sense what you been saying. Am aiming to buy a stuio headphone as my senheiser is more for djing. Do you have any recommendations please.
Cheers bro and enjoy the rest of your day...
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sachin22
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
12
Posts :
31
Posted : Aug 5, 2014 19:45
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Thanks Frisbeehead for your reply mate. Its been very helpful. I have actually find Gtune which is very practical to find the key of a sample and i'll try to use variaudio to transpose. Does melodyne work on Cubase as well? |
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Soundmagus
IsraTrance Full Member
Started Topics :
67
Posts :
633
Posted : Aug 6, 2014 19:01
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sachin22
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
12
Posts :
31
Posted : Aug 6, 2014 21:32
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Thanks buddy. I will check them out...
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wirakocha
IsraTrance Full Member
Started Topics :
112
Posts :
288
Posted : Aug 7, 2014 07:19
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sachin22
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
12
Posts :
31
Posted : Aug 7, 2014 12:43
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Thanks Wirakocha for the link. I just checked it out and its definitely quite helpful. I just checked your music as well. Your quite a good producer buddy. Well done and keep it up. Do you have any idea of how to make my music sound faster and thicker please? When i make my music, they don't sound that fast even if am making them at 142 bpm!!! And i can see that its a bit too plain. As in there's something missing in it. Any idea of how can i make it sound faster and thicker please? |
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routingwithin
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
46
Posts :
204
Posted : Aug 7, 2014 12:52
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On 2014-08-05 19:41, sachin22 wrote:
Thanks again Routingwithin. Do you have a link to the track you was talking about mate. I would love to have a listen to it. Specially the way you have described it makes it sound very interesting...
I'll listen to your advice regarding using the headphone and monitor. I think it do make sense what you been saying. Am aiming to buy a stuio headphone as my senheiser is more for djing. Do you have any recommendations please.
Cheers bro and enjoy the rest of your day...
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When it comes to psytrance for me, I cannot help having a scientific way of looking at it. Digital music will always be a generic version of real music. (well,, sometimes an amazing generic version)
I grew up listening to rock and metal music, Metallica, Pantera, Sepultura, Nirvana, Pixies, etc. So when composing music I tend to have an advantage with rock music. Psytrance took over after I went to my first outdoor festival. It was epic
I have composed about 60-70 trance tunes back in the day, but I could never reach the level those guys at the festivals reached. Sadly- this caused me to give up on a tune before it was done. However the learning experience with sound I got out of it was priceless. Maybe if I got some of those tracks mastered in a big studio there could be a chance, but until that day I won’t be satisfied with the quality.
You need to be a genius to really compose an amazing track using a mouse and keyboard. Having a Midi controller does move u up a level – but then you also need to know your scales to really understand how music comes together, like Mozart did. Check out Music Theory video courses to help you with that. I got to the part where they explained Triads, also learned about 5 scales on the piano,, after that my brain needed a vacation. Then when he came back from the Caribbean islands, the information was gone.. Think he had too many late nights. Hehe
You will need to really study the stuff and make summaries of the info to remember it. Continuously practicing it is also a must, except if you have photographic memory or have not used any drugs in your life.(well, that is debatable) Just watching the videos a few times, hoping all the info will stick ain’t gonna help you. Laziness is a bitch. However the upside is that if you practice it enough times it will start to stick and later on you would know your scales like the back of your hand,, hard work pays off.
** I will finalize the intro of that track and upload it, just to give you an example how it sounds.
For Headphones – check out the following.
Yamaha RH5Ma, Shure SRH440, AKG K 271 MK II, Audio-Technica ATH-M50
It all depends on your price range.
Cheers
" We are together in this matter you and I, closer to death, yes, closer than i'd like. How do you feel? - There can be no division in our actions, or everything is lost. What affects you affects me. " |
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sachin22
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
12
Posts :
31
Posted : Aug 7, 2014 14:02
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Nice one bro. THanks for the info about the headphones mate. Its quite sad to learn that you stopped making music though. However if yuo fancy, we can make a collaboration together. You seems to have the knowledge and i have quite good ideas. Let me know what you think of it bro...
May be you can help me out regarding another issue that am having. My music don't sound fast even if i make them at 145bpm. Any idea why its so?
Do you go out partying in London squat scene mate? |
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routingwithin
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
46
Posts :
204
Posted : Aug 7, 2014 14:43
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Another thing I forgot to add; is playing around with a Vocoder can also give nice and interesting results.
So far its the only thing that can morph digital to a closely related organic analog sound. using sound fx samples to morph a lead sound. tweaking the timbre, etc - just be careful of adding too much distortion.
Thinking of going back to that idea ..
*Sachin22 - check your mail
" We are together in this matter you and I, closer to death, yes, closer than i'd like. How do you feel? - There can be no division in our actions, or everything is lost. What affects you affects me. " |
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