Djuna

In the words of Freddie Mercury after a hot night in a darkroom: thanks for all the love guys! I hope there'll be more of this in the future, if it's up to me it sure will.

That's pretty cool! What do you use as a sequencer, hardware or DAW? Can't really see what kind of stuff you got on your table. You mix with your laptop, is that correct? With what reason? I only know very few live-acts that play live with their gear. For the rest it's people playing waveforms on a laptop and EQ'ing on a dj mixer, having that "pro look" on their face each time a track is fading into the next one... ^^

That sounds decent enough to 'hear what you're playing'. There's no right answer that someone else can give to you I think, the main question that you'll have to ask yourself is: am I going to have fun with my new investment? Will it boost my creativity? For some it's better monitors, for others it's new synths. My personal opinion: what are good monitors for if you don't have good ears? That's an ongoing process you'll need to go through. I agree with Panoptes; first you need to find your own creative direction and workflow, after that there's time to finetune everything (something that's going to take a couple of lifetimes probbably, haha). Either way, you'll need good gear and good monitors, so if you're serious about your hobby then there's a future for whatever you can't afford right now!

Acid Rockers - Interform of course! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TVZcqbKka4

Those samples sound nice! I don't got why the individual outputs are on the front though, could be messy in a rack. But one knob = one function is my cup of tea. Now just to find a nice sequencer for it.

Yeah, the ending isn't that solid. In fact, for me the last hour of the movie could be cut, it seriously lacks some emotional depth. The way how they explained the situation in the beginning gets lost towards the end. Another thing:

Haha, I guess he means a Russian torrent site or something. I bought my copy on discogs actually, a couple of years ago, at a normal price. I like it, there are some nice acid tracks with some serious energy in it. The first album sounds more diverse though, I think that one would be more my cup of tea.

Thanks! They are on my wish list as well, but I think about getting the D5's instead, since I'm moving to a smal(ler) room. Since this year they're easily to get via Thomann, and cost 444€ for a pair. Which is probably still cheaper than buying them via the States and getting them through customs. Don't know anyone who has them though, I could be wrong but I have the feeling that their value isn't really known to "the public".

Yeah it's a typical Digicult track and if you like that that's fine! It's just that that style is miles away from earlier Hux Flux tracks... And I do think this example is as mainstream as can be.

He has had a release with Digicult on Dacru this year... Generic full on. I really can't understand that if you used to make such psychedelic music, you'd find satisfaction in music that was already boring and commercial 8 years ago.

The D5 or D8? Let us know how they are!

Belgian dub platform Reservoir Dub released a free MP3 compilation a couple of months ago, there are some nice tracks on it. --> http://reservoirdub.be/?cat=57 Panda Dub also has an album out you can buy freely: http://pandadub.fr/black-bamboo/. This is more electro/chiptune based. Other names to check out Alpha & Omega of course (they are producing since the 80's), Vibronics, Iration Steppas, Bush Chemists, ... If you're looking for more trancy dub but with some good steppas rhythm: Dreadlock Tales!

Well you certainly don't need any lessons regarding melodies and composition! The only thing I don't really like is the bass and kick, they sound a bit too typical and digital to my taste. Bass is also too present for me. I know it's part of that style, but it could sound a bit more daring to my taste though. Anyway, nice and clean mixes, all the best!

Not at all, it exists in drumcomputers 35 years now, this article is maybe an interesting thing to read. How I dissect that part of Fluoro Neuro Sponge: until 1'21" it's 3/4. After that you can hear the hihat going from a more swing mode pattern to a normal 4/4 pattern, starting 1'27". Also from 1'21" to 1'27", a bassline in 4/4 is slightly fading in, while the previous bassline is fading out. You can hear it around 1'23", where the basslines kind of collide together. The lead is another thing, sounds like it's going 1 bar sooner to a 4/4 rhythm... That's at least my guess, could be wrong of course.

What do you mean, that swing patterns weren't possible in the 90's? Swing is the most famous on the TR-909 and 808, and they're machines from the 80's! And tons of hardware sequencers can do that as well. I don't know how it's done in Hallucinogen tracks, but it can be done in various ways (hardware sequencer, sequencer of a drumcomputer/synth, midi, fading in/out of tracks with different rhythms, combinations, ...). Would like to know his trick too, since it's a pretty smooth transition.

Urgh that sucks. But it's of course a nice challenge to get to know your hardware better...

Thanks for the support guys!

We sound like a good match! I'm more of a "rhythm" man. But I don't live quite around Berlin I'm afraid.

One of the famous old 303 emulators, Psylenth Buddhi used it as well if I remember correctly.

Cool, I didn't know the BS2 could process external audio! Exactly, processing it through different filters, who are maybe routed to an LFO for example, can really alter your sounds enormously. What's also so fun about the Big Muff is that you have 2 outputs: 1 dry and 1 processed. But if you switch the pedal off you have 2 dry outputs, where you can process one signal and layer it on top of the dry acid sound, play with the 2 faders so one time the processed signal is more audible than the dry signal, and vice versa... Makes it really come alive! No, I use FL Studio as a sequencer. Basically I write midi for everything, except for the x0x: I only use midi sync for that, so patterns are written within the x0xb0x. I think it has a way better feel to it than just writing midi notes in your DAW and sending it out, it reacts slightly different. More as a whole. But that's maybe just me.

All sounds are hardware, you can read it at the track info (which with the latest update of Soundcloud isn't really visible, urgh...). For acid I use my x0xb0x. The first x0x pattern around 4 minutes 10 sec is just clean with some delay, the second one is distorted via a EHX pedal, the Bass Big Muff Pi. Great pedal for acid sounds, has some nice features on it. The acid pattern around 6m30s is a special one: I've patched it in such a way, that the left channel is the x0x running through the ESP of the MS20, and the right channel is the same pattern without any effects or distortion (hmm or maybe a liiiiitle bit distortion through the mackie mixer, can't remember it exactly). I used a hardware compressor to make the stereo mix of those 2 channels blend together a bit better. I remember I needed way more hands than just 2 recording that; I was fiddling with the knobs of the x0xb0x, as well as the MS20 LFO and filters, and an auxiliary for the flanger effect that is coming up towards the end. Didn't work that great the first few times recording it, but it was very fun to do. Thanks, will do!

Dragon Twins - Psychedelic Schism Worked a long time on this one, but I think it is part of my better ones. It's really 'full', and moving constantly, with some heavy distorted leads taking over from time to time. Used a couple of new tricks regarding routing and filtering. Something different, I'd like to continue in this style. "> " type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="100%"> ">

Thanks man! Yeah DjunaSaurus is on a low profile right now, but I'm sure I'll make some basic acid tracks in the future - the plan is to do that with hardware only, so no computer involved. It's easier to do that with acid than with goa imo. Anyway, there's a new, more dark track online on my Soundcloud page, feel free to listen!

I think the most important thing you have to look out for is that your instruments are in the same key. Right now, in both tracks, there are things that don't add up properly because they're not in the same key - there are exceptions where it works, but that's something you'll probably discover later on.

The Zaquencer firmware lets your BCR2000 transform in a great little 4 track hardware sequencer. Saw a couple of videos, and man it looks great and easy to use.