Mubali

I realize this is years too late, but I'd be happy to answer these questions.... When I create a song, it's usually in response to a feeling or emotion or idea that had been rattling around in my head. Sometimes it's simply just wanting to make a song different from the previous one. I'd like to think that my sound continues to naturally evolve based upon the influences around, but over the past few years I've been finding myself becoming nostalgic of how night-time trance was between 2001-2005. I feel that a lot of music has become out of my tempo range, and while I could just conform and make 160+ music, I enjoy that 145-152 range and think that it should still be represented by sounds other than full-on. I've been very fortunate over the years to have worked with some amazing artists and I can safely say that each one I worked with taught me something that I incorporate into my solo tunes. Nowadays, I still enjoy making tunes with other artists, but find myself starting projects with people I have not worked with previously less frequently. On a related note, I finally am working on a tune with Ghreg on Earth, and that's been years in the making. As far as undies go, brown just like my ass What to do on a hot summer day? Drink beer of course! As Colin mentions, what key would I like my music to be in... hehehe. I do admit that I was not really using music theory well if at all at the onset of my production, going mainly on feel and C major. (or modes thereof) Currently, I still am a fan of the lower notes C-F#. I do have some tunes in a higher key, but some might notice that a majority of those ones are a bit faster than a lot of tunes that are in C or D major. Rah had asked about me incorporating more D&B structures into my stuff as I was intending back in 2006, I guess I feel victim to the general consensus of keeping the structure based more on psychedelic trance, and less on the traditional structure that occurs not just in Drum and Bass, but also in many mainstream forms of dance music. I do like to use drum and bass oriented rhythms, and even have some big bass sounds like the sounds used in my song "Contraption", but with how pervasive dubstep has become, I feared being labeled a sell-out. As far as the "death prog" goes, if I actually had gotten off my ass and done it I might have been on the ground floor of something. However each time I try to go down that road, I end up losing interest in the track and starting a 148 tune shortly thereafter. Blaze asked me how I qualify my music, and I've always called it the same since I started. Nighttime Psychedelic Trance. For me any other labels beyond that only limit my sound. I've always liked riding that line between groovy/dancy and hard as nails. Currently, many people place me in the forest music category, but that has a lot to do with the fact that I had always had an affinity for Parvati Records, and now I am part of their family. I do admit that my music generally isn't the best for the morning hours unless it's in context to a crazy night, however labeling it as just "dark" is not accurate for the emotions I attempt to convey. While the satanic image thing was definitely a hot button item in 2006, I can compare it to the Horror Film genre. There are some individuals who use macabre imagery to tell a deep story, however there are many that just want that cheezy 80's slasher flick feel in the attempt to shock individuals. Personally, I like a deep story over cheap gimmicks any day of the week. But that brings another thing to mind about the image of the psychedelic trance scene. I don't see the use in hyperspirituality being emphasized in the music. I think that air of pseudo spirituality only creates this elitist image associated with the metaphysical culture. Now most of my viewpoint is exaggerated by the overwhelming presence of pseudo-hippies in America and especially the San Francisco area. I find it funny that one of the things that made me gravitate toward the scene is also one of the things that I now don't seem to find relevant. I fled from the SF drum and bass scene because I did not like the overall attitude of a lot of party goers, and found that those events could be quite cliquish and excluding. Psychedelic trance parties and attendants seemed to be "more mature" than the crowd that I was used to and it seemed that everyone was very welcoming. Over the years I find that elitism is prominent anywhere you go, and I even became a bit elitist over the years too. As far as religion goes, I really have none. Just a code of ethics that I do my best to follow. Dajek's cheeky comment is kind of funny, so I'll answer it as best I can. In 2006, I had about 8 hours of music that I had done and even did a private performance in NYC for 2 people playing all the tunes I wrote and explaining the history behind each song. As listening to it and living.... I primarily write the music I do because I enjoy it. I tend to enjoy my songs more than other individuals, hence why I would create it. As far as what I am up to now, not really that much musicwise. I became a father 6 weeks ago, so I'm devoting myself to my son, and working on sampling him for sound ideas

One of the things that gets overlooked about Xenomorph is when Cassandra's Nightmare came out... 1998 . At the time he was going in a direction that nobody else was going in, completely pushing the envelope when it came to fusing his industrial and metal background with trance. It's completely fine to not like his style, but at least respect that what he started in 98 influence a whole bunch of producers still to this day, and he is still in it doing what he loves. He hasn't gone the bouncy melodic way, hasn't stopped making psytrance, and his music style is still what he has wanted it to be since the get go. When I first got turned onto psytrance, I was introduced to Hallucinogen and Xenomorph at the same time. And while I love what Simon did, I have personally outgrown his sound. To be honest, the last time I saw Xenomorph, his set didn't do too much for me, but I still was able to appreciate his soundscapes and the atmospheres he builds. There aren't very many producers that can create such atmospheres. Of course, you could say I am biased because I make darker stuff, but at the same time, I can appreciate more melodic stuff to an extent. A good track is a good track regardless of what substyle it is. All I am trying to say is that Xenomorph helped create a sound that to an extent is still being done by artists, and not just the ones that write the dark stuff either...

http://www.brainmachines.com/interviews.html

I soo agree about the vanguard... You can really make some crazy sounds with it... The Albino is one of my bread and butter synths too... I swear by the Atmosphere, but I don't use it as much for atmospherics. There's this crazy lead patch on it that if tweaked properly makes some incredible sounds in it... I used that for the main lead synth in M.o.E. I have recently discovered how to make some good pitched leads with the Trilogy as well.... The key to any synth is trying to do something out of the ordinary with it...

I know he uses the Pro 53 a lot as well.....

Me... Vanguard, Albino, Pro 53, Discovery, Atmosphere, Trilogy, Synth 1... Those are pretty much the main ones I use for my synthlines... Occasionally I will bust out the wasp and the z3ta.

I totally agree that full-on is used more as a description of a subgenre rather than a general description of psytrance. The artists that were mentioned are definitely of the full on variety. Generally Speaking... Full on tends to be of a more melodic based music in comparison to some of the darker artists like Cosmo, Dejan, Jellyheadz, etc.. Full on is a bit more uplifting and beautiful in comparison to some of the night trance artists I listed. There is such a thing as dark full on and many of those artists do include some of the South African artists (Shift, Damage, Phyx maybe) they also include the 3d Vision front runners like CPU and Absolum. The real thing that makes the full on melodic stuff apparent more that the melodies is indeed the style of bassline that is typically used. Full on tends to use more of a groovy arpeggiated bassline that is higher in tone than some of the darker nighttime stuff. For producers that are reading this one, make an arpeggiated bassline that is rooted around C0 or C1 and then take that same bassline and move to C2 to understand the comparison I am making. For the non producers, Listen to Astrix's bassline or Nomad's bassline and then listen to a Kindzadza bassline. Also the focus of the track can really assist in being able to tell the difference. Many of the melodic full on tracks and some of the dark full on tracks have more of a focus toward the melodic structure that was found in older goa trance. The darker stuff that tends to be a little more abstract has more of a focus on those really trippy sounds and creating more driving leads and tend to make something that doesn't sound obviously melodic act like it is the melodic element in the track. Bear in mind that there are many exceptions to these generalizations and many other peoples definition of full on will be different. For me these are the most obvious separations between the two.

40 Acres and a Mule is previously referrenced in the movie "Gone With The Wind". This dates back to just prior to the civil war here in the mid 19th Century. There was some propaganda from the Northern faction of the United States that urged the black slaves in the South to assist in the uprising and the ensuing war, stating that if the blacks assisted , that they would be each rewarded with 40 acres and a Mule so that they may start their own farms and homesteads. Needless to say such things did not actually come to pass, even though the slaves did assist with toppling the factioned southern government. Public Enemy also reminded the ethnic community about this situation while they were in their highly "militant" phase. Just in case nobody could tell from my photo, I am of African-American decent and whereas I am not a militant individual, I never forget my cultural history and occasionally like to have it surface in my art.

More tips for you guys... Most producers take predominantly vocal samples from movies. I like to take the atmospherics from the movies instead. For one thing it can't be as easily recognized as being from certain movies. It also can really add a psychedelic surreal layer to whatever you have going on, which doesn't have to be much... Some people really frown on this next tip but.... A good start for writing leads is taking the midi file that you have written for your baseline and using it as a start for your lead. It doesn't really work as well if your baseline is monotone, but it'll always be in key!!! This tip will really save you a lot of time in the future... Once you make a good sound on a synth, save the patch as a preset!!!!! That way if you tweak it and don't like it, you can always go back to what you had before. There are some producers that write in midi only and never record their synthlines to audio untill the do the final mixdown on the song. Personally I like to do both... There are sometimes where I will bounce the synthline and it doesn't sound quite as good as the original non-bounced file... Try experimenting with both... Bussing is your friend!!!! Rig up a few different busses with "universal effects" Like have one or two busses that have different delays on it, one or two with reverb on it, etc.... This way you don't have to apply it directly onto the channel that has the instrument or audiochannel... I also tend to route all my instrument and audio channels to certain busses. My drums have their own bus complete with compression for the channel, and my synths always go to a bus with a low cut on it to keep the low frequencies from affecting the baseline. Here you go... Have fun with those....

Thanks!!! I will have a couple more coming out soon... 1 on Trishula and a collaboration track with Ocelot coming out on Manic Dragon sometime soon.... I am supposed to have a track out Insomnia coming out sometime this year too... (I hope)

Also you can go to www.resonantearth.com and there are 3 of my tracks up there...

Here's another tip for you all... Modulate anything you can. I am a big fan of having lfo's handle most of my modulation for stuff. The synths that have a modulation matrix are some of the ones you can have the most fun with. Noise ocillators are your friends... White noise tends to occupy a large frequency range and when routed through a filter, can make some really nasty leads...

I would have to second the comment about Michael Liu, he is definitely very technically skilled. Him and I might not agree on what he plays but he definitely plays it well. And he is a vinyl only dj to boot. Dimitry Nakov totally blew my mind the couple of times I saw him play. He was completely flawless every time I saw him play. Joti Sidhu though blows Dimitry out of the water. I have seen him play a few times as well and not even once did it even sound like his mix was going awry. He is one of those producers that I don't mind not doing a live set, his dj sets are better than many live sets I have heard. It is very possible to mix psy tunes like any other genre of dance music and it's possible to even use turntable and crossfader tricks as well. I personally do it frequently and can really add to a track, especially if you are tactful with what you do and how you do it. I can understand that many producers feel that their songs should be played from beginning to end, but that's not my thing. I make my tracks to be mixable and I feel that any dj worth half his salt should know how to beatmix and accurately transfer the energy of one song to another. D&B is definitely very difficult to mix, due to the polyrhytmic aspects of it, but what makes psy difficult is knowing when to mix the track. There are a lot of tracks out there that don't always leave the dj enough leadin/out time or the phrase of the track shifts and throws your whole mix off. (I.E. many G.o.W. tracks) The key to being technically sound is really knowing your music inside and out and being prepared for any particular shifts that happen.

I don't think it is as good as people say it is for bass. It however is kick ass for other sounds. The key is to experiment with the instrument and make some crazy sounds. Try it out first and see what you can do with it. I use the trilogy, but it's never my bassline.

I also voted BoFB, but to be honest none of them are really that chaotic... I think some of the most chaotic stuff is coming out of Denmark and Russia...