Qualium

One of the most useful and meaningful threads I have seen for a while in this subforum - imprtant tips on how to cultivate and care for your creativity. In an expansion of this point, you can just draw shapes and patterns (possibly using various colours) that somehow seem like a visual representation of the sounds you hear in your head. A lot of musical patterns used in psy are difficult to tabulate in any form, so if, like me, you get visual imagery along with the music in your mind, you can just draw something that has the same kinds of aesthetic qualities.

Huh? Shouldn't this actually be in "Listen To My Tracks"? It's a link to a bunch of tunes on Soundclick.

Heh, OK, now I get it. Yeah, looks like that festival in Turkey could be a good one for Georgians with the means to make there, considering it's just next door. Unfortunately the expense is likely to rule it out for most Georgians.

Hey yeah that's a great idea! See if you can arrange a solar eclipse in Georgia - those things always pull big crowds in for psy parties.

Even go for a smaller party. With psytrance, 20 people in a room or outside in the middle of nowwhere can make a fine one. A couple of trippy lights, a couple of UV lights, a couple of bashed-together decorations and some trippy visual stuff, some fluro string (strung around), a basic speaker, amp, and mixer setup, and a basic dj-setup and CDs or even just dj-ing software on a computer with a half-decent soundcard. Get a generator if you're outdoors. Then get a night's worth of music you like (100-150 tracks), make sure it has a bit of variety, and then make sure you will always have someone there who will keep it all going. Invite a bunch of people you know who might like to experience it, and tell them to invite anyone else who they know who would feel so inclined as well. It's a bare minimum little psy party - and make it know that that's what it is. Try and put it on for free - this could be seen as a bit of basic market research if you want to put on larger parties with an entry fee. And then hit go! See how it goes, and if people like it, you can start planning for something a little bigger ... PS There's probably a couple of things I left out, but you get the idea. PPS And yes, outdoors is highly recommended.

Hey, Caveman, how was Earthcore? A friend and I were going to go but decided we were too busy and that we'd hold out for Rainbow Serpent in January.

Ooh, very nice. As far as the level of detail of the pictures, what I'd like to see is pictures sized to desktop wallpaper level, as I'd love to have them in the background while I'm producing music - great source of inspiration.

Here's mine: music.download.com/qualium Just the one track so far, but more on the way soon.

Well, a Micro sounds exactly the same as the full size Classic Nord Modular, but it's limited to the one patch on its one DSP instead of the full size machine's four patches on four DSP's. Some in the Nord Modular Community don't like the sound of A/D converters on the G2 range in comparison to the old - I think they say they find the sound a bit too 'bright'. Others say that it's really a matter of preference, and some suggest that the sound of the old range can be more or less replicated within a G2 patch anyway. If you're not intimidated by Reaktor and like the whole concept, but just dislike its sound, then the NM series could well be for you. The NM's don't do everything that Reaktor can do, but they do the classic Modular Synthesis thing, complete with the Editor software 'spaghetti wall', really well; and it's easier and more intuitive to use(well, as easy as modular synthesis can be). But to get it working really well it requires a fair bit of the visual programming involved in constructing patches, so you need to be technically minded. I highly recommend the Electro-Music.com Nord Modular Forums, (the biggest NM forums on the net) for a lot of quality discussion on the NM series. There are a lot of members there that use the synths for experimental electronic music, and there isn't a lot of talk aout psytrance, but it's a great place to learn about Nord Modulars.

Pay no heed to these simple peasants ( ), Kalki - mysticize away to your heart's content. I can see how it relates to the topic in question, even as it flies over their heads.

Pardon me (and, ahem, I'm speaking to you too, Journey Man ), but I do believe Goasia said Nord Modular - that's a whole different kettle of fish. I've had a Nord Micro Modular since '99 and a NM G2 Engine for just over a year now - and I love them to death. The NM synths are non-fixed architecture - a bit like Reaktor, but more reliable and far more user friendly (although a little more limited in scope in some respects). The ability to build your own synth (sequencers included) offers endless possibilities of soundscapes to explore. As a tool for psytrance creation, I couldn't recommend them highly enough - provided you have the kind of brain required to comprehend modular synthesis.

Well, people talk about a 'Scottish accent', even though a native of Edinburgh will sound quite distinct from someone from Glasgow to the trained ear. An accent is naturally made up of many regional varieties held together by certain common features. And believe me, to any non-American English speaker least, the collection of accent varieties found in the USA have much more in common with each other than they have differences. In fact they have far more in common than the various accents found in Britain - or even just England - for reasons obvious to anyone who knows anything about history. So it is perfectly OK to talk about an 'American accent' - we all know what it means.

Thanks for the suggestion,TJM - yeah that's kinda what I'm feeling too. I think the weaving of the overall structure of tracks is where I'm still a bit weak. I find that I can come up with a few dozen bars that work the way I like and then things start to get a bit tangled up. I'm trying to develop a method of working a bit more top-down - that is, giving the track some shape first before focussing on the finer details. It requires a bit of discipline though - it's all too easy to bash out a few nice-sounding sequences and then get lost in fiddling around with them, forgetting the bigger picture. Another thing I noticed since posting this track is that a bit of the mix is way out - there's a few sounds in there that are difficult to hear properly, making it sound even more minimal than it is supposed to be. It sounded OK on my speakers (a pair of Alesis M1 Actives I've had for a few years) but not so good on my headphones. I should stop relying on my speakers for mastering, as I think the acoustics of my room is really messing with the mix.

Yeah, Airyck, that's me mucking around with Absynth 2 and Logic 7's 'Sculpture' instrument (which I've only recently started using since upgrading my system a couple of months ago). It was a bit of an experiment to see what I could come up with without using traditional-style virtual analogue synthesis (apart from a few of the rhythm sounds). It wasn't meant to be any kind of 'Killaaauuuwwrgh!!!' track for a massive crowd - I had in mind the wee hours on a small, dusty, secondary dancefloor at an outdoor party here in Australia with a couple of dozen people gently grooving. So something quite understated but atmospheric. I'm working on a few tricks to be able to draw greater power and flexibility out of these softsynths, and I should be able to serve up something using them which is a bit more musically acrobatic sometime soon. And thanks heaps for your comments BTW Q.

I know some people had trouble with FileFactory, so here's a new link: Click here.

Heh, Qualicum - is that a Native Canadian name?

I've got a new track called 'Rusty' available for download. [Edited for new link]: Click here. It's a bit off the beaten track as far as psytrance goes, kind of darkish but kooky, with some off-the-wall sounds and atonality, and a bit of a groove feel. It was the result of some experimentation with a couple of softsynths that can manage some really unique and bizarre sounds. So if you're curious about psytrance with a twist of the unconventional, see what you think of this effort, and I hope you enjoy it. PS I only just noticed today, but I got registered as member no. 2000! (About 8 months ago mind you - I've been a bit of a lurker.) I don't know if that means anything, but I thought that was kinda cool.

Can you explain (in any terms you like) any particular directions you would like psytrance to head and what musical regions you would like it to explore? Feel free to use poetic, metaphorical, subjective language to describe it if you like, as this can be the best way to describe the nebulous aesthetic qualities of music. And if you possess theoretical and/or production knowledge you're most welcome to offer your your views in that kind of jargon too. Now for stream of consciousness of a few of my views: Personally, I'd like psytrance that's a little funkier - I like music where I can loosen up and groove a bit. Rigid rhythmic structures can feel too mechanical to me. I want to be enjoying myself on the dancefloor rather than feeling like I'm performing a chore. Mind you, there's a certain level of rhythmic regularity, a kind of musical gridwork, that grounds psytrance, and I don't think it should be lost in a chaotic mess of breakbeats. I also like hearing sounds that aren't familiar, or at least hint at a certain element of unfamiliarity. I find that there's too much of the same kinds of synths and effects used in more or less the same kinds of ways. There's a lot of new synths, softsynths and production tools around that have the ability to yield realms ripe for psytrance exploration. And just because the sounds are unfamiliar, it doesn't mean that they have to be made to sound self-consciously so. Actually self-consciousness seems to be an easy trap to fall in. Producers can resrict themselves by defining the kind of music they make or want to make and thereby wall themselves into a certain kind of sound that has already been done to death. Perhaps the self-consciousness manifests itself most obviously in attempts to be 'extreme' or superlative in one respect or another - dark, hard, melodic, full-on, deep, psy, minimalist, progressive, warm-and fuzzy, whatever. By trying to create the be-all and end-all of a certain kind of music the result can all too easily come across sounding try-hard and/or uninspired. Some of the best results can emerge from taking it to the brink and then pulling back and adding a splash of the opposite, or something else entirely. I think that there are so many places on the planet of sound where lakes of yin can be found in mountain ranges of yang and islands of yang can be found in seas of yin. I say these things not to point an ungrateful finger at all 'those producers out there', but to speak as a producer myself who is on his own search and who wants to point out the many technical and creative blockages he has encountered in bringing the fullness of the soundscapes in his mind into consensual reality. I am someone who loves psytrance, and in particular, the potential of psytrance, and has spent many years and dollars learning about and experimenting with psytrance production. I wish to voice how I feel about the sparks of inspiration, oceans of bliss, forests of wonder, and caverns of the bizzare I have visited, and all those grooving, partying beings I have encountered there in this most life-affirming of journeys. I'm attempting to clarify where I feel rigidity could give way to more fluidity in the world of psytrance. I know that this is electronic music, but the machines are just the instruments - they might make the [/i]sounds but they don't make the music. I want to hear the ghost in the machine. For music to be genuinely psychedelic (meaning literally 'mind-manifesting') it has to take us to places of revelation, where our consciousness expands, our preconceptions dissolve and the very core of our being is revealed. Anyway, that's a bit of my humble opinion for you. Cheers, Q

Seems like someone's been relying too much on Babelfish.

A couple of years ago here in Australia I was at an outdoor psytrance doof on Aboriginal Yorta Yorta tribe land where we partied with a bunch of the tribe members, who were black of course, but not in the sense of being of African descent. Mind you, Afro-Australians are a very small minority, though they are now a rapidly growing one - recently there have been many migrants from East Africa in particular.

Guitars are for poofters - get a synth to do it.

Well, not quite my kind of music either (but that's my problem - not yours), but I know what you're getting at and I know it would be accepted on any floor full of those who like this kind of stuff. Basically I'd say that this track proves that you know how this type of trance works, and that you can make it. You've pretty much got the craftsmanship down pat (and that's nothing to be sneezed at - it's essential) , but what I feel it could use is a bit more of is originality - something to add to the genre; something that makes people go, "Hmm, OK, I hadn't thought of that before". In other words, a little more artistry. Please don't take this as a harsh criticism - it's not. You're doing very nicely - beyond most others. It's just that there's a well known principle that can be applied to basically any art form, which goes along the lines that you learn the 'rules' first, and then you learn how to bend and break them. I'd say you've learned the rules ... All IMHO of course Cheers, and keep it up, Q.