asian_bud_nation

We are happy to announce the release of "DARK SKIES," the debut album from the swiss psy trance duo Vibracoustic. In the past year Vibracoustic has stormed the swiss dancefloors with their unique and innovative signature sound. The album also marks the first psy trance release for Shaman Electro, a Bali-based label primarily known for its cutting edge fashion and high-tech psy accessories. Many endless, grey and rainy days that could only be escaped in the studio led to the creation 'Dark Skies.' Through the two young producers slightly different approach to psy trance a unique sound was created that can only be described as Vibracoustic. Inspired by the various faces of psy trance, the music reflects influences ranging from relaxing progressive grooves to full-on dark madness. The result, an album that is at home on dancefloors just as it is for on the way or at home. With tempos ranging from 143 bpm to 148 bpm the album takes the listener on a journey through light and darkness on a rollercoaster for the mind and soul. Album :: Dark Skies Artist :: Vibracoustic Label :: Shaman Electro Year :: 2007 Members:: Manjit Jus & Lukas Hasler Mastered by Tim Schuldt @ 4CN Studios, Germany Track List Dream Machine (143 BPM)The Stigma (143 BPM)Dirty Dancing (143 BPM)My Own Nightmare (148 BPM)Stardust (148 BPM)Paranormal Vibrations (148 BPM)Destroy (143 BPM)Dark Skies (145 BPM)The Placebo Effect (145 BPM) For audio previews please visit: Psyshop.com :: Vibracoustic - Dark Skies For more info check out: Shaman Electro :: Music & Fashion Vibracoustic @ Myspace.com Contact us under: vibracoustic@hotmail.com

1) What programs you use, and any hardware instruments, midi controllers, etc (PC Specs too)? Powerbook G4 1.33 GHz with 1 GB Ram. Reason 3.0, Cubase Sx, Evolution MK-249C2 MIDI Keyboard, Korg KP2 Kaoss Pad, Korg Electribe MX, Access Virus Indigo, Novation K-Station 2) On average, how long does it take you to build and finish a Song? Since about 6 months I have been producing together with a friend, which has considerably sped up the time it takes to convert ideas into sound..usually it takes about 1 week or so of constant work to finish a track, but it is then usually remixed and tweaked and rebounced countless times before its played live. 3) Which parts do you find tedious when building your track (if any), if it pattern sequencing, automation, etc? The hardest part about producing is keeping myself from getting too carried away. I have a habit of working extremely non-linearly, which means i keep making small individual parts throughout the song without ever really thinking of how to piece them together...so in the end its always a challenge trying to mold everything i've made into one song...and usually due to this our tracks end up being over 8 minutes, sometimes even over 10 :-S 4) Where did the inspiration come from to start producing music? It was actually right when I first started listening to psy trance...i was experimenting with all kinds of substances and I just wanted to be able to project the way psy trance was effecting me onto some sort of medium..id played drums for 9 or 10 years and at the time (due to space limitations) couldnt play anymore..i needed to be involved in some sort of music so i started producing on my own. 5) AND Your favourite style to produce alone i tend to produce more darker, atmospheric sound...big basslines and drums with minimal melodies, pads and sfx...our current project is however much more full on oriented and definitelyy has a "clubby" touch to it...we like a lot of progressive psy so we try and mix some its elements with full on psy.

thanks for the feedback.. yeah, i played drums for 9 years so i automatically put most of my focus on drum programming...yeah i know what u mean about the synths sounding dry...i noticed that on a couple tracks.. one thing is that the synths sound dry..the other thing is..the tracks were made completely in reason..ive been pushing the most i possibly can out of reason the last 2 years and the mixes tend to sound dry.. will try to do something about it.. again, thanks a lot vibracoustic

this is how i make basslines in reason.. 1. create a malstrom synth 2. the first oscillator should be a saw 3. the second oscillator should be a square, with the shift nob turned about 90 degrees back (so about 9 o clock)---> this eliminates the "square" sound and gives the bass a bit more body.. 4. play with the filter cutoff and filter envelope to add that "click" so common in full on basses.. 5. Add a scream!!!!! use the "tape" mode on the scream and play with parameter 1 and 2. 6. Use the scream's body section if need be...i almost always have it on setting "D"..with the "resonance" up (fattens up the bass noticably), and the "scale" and "auto" knobs turned down. if u're still stuck let me know and i can email u one of the patches ive made...another suggestion, get the upgrade to reason 3.0...the new mastering effects (e.g. eq and compressor) make a world of difference...

Hey ppl.. doesnt seem like anyone really cares anyways judging from the lack of response to the last post...but anyways, we've posted another track from our new psy project "vibracoustic"..its our favorite, so hope u enjoy it and it would be nice to get some feedback.. p.s...all the tracks are unusually long because they're live act versions...basically we created the sound with our live act in mind, so in case u're wondering why each track doesnt have a long intro and outro..there's a reason. love & light, vibracoustic u can download vibracoustic tracks here: Vibracoustic MP3 Streams and Downloads

hey all u psyheads... swiss psy producers ABN and Hashiva have teamed up to create a brand new psy project: Vibracoustic. Vibracoustic's music is energetic and covers a variety of psy styles..in other words, the music doesn't go in any one particular direction..although we've been producing music for years, we just recently launched the live act..it was a huge success and so we thought we'd share some of the music with you guys..the music is the result of one and a half months of work (day and night).. we hope u enjoy it:-) love and light, vibracoustic Vibracoustic MP3 Streams and Downloads

hey ppl.. first off i wouldnt worry about whether your music is software based or hardware based...its how u use the things u have..take an artist like rinkadink...he only works with software (from a lot of his sounds im even guessing he works a lot with reason) but the quality of his music definately stands out...i dont mean to correct anyone, but as far as i know yahel used to work with a lot of hardware and how now turned to software..u can hear it on his cds..something like waves of sound just is full of huge, massive synths while his new stuff is a lot "thinner".. as far as record labels go...im under the impression its a pretty big mafia out there in the psy world...if u know someone who knows someone who knows someone uve got a chance..but as a complete outsider i dont know..im convinced its all about connections..atleast it is in a country like switzerland, where i live...make sure that you've got live credibility..i think thats another main factor..if ure going to be released on a label the label needs to know u have made a strong name for yourself in your local scene or even on a small international scale..they're not going to put out a cd of someone completely unknown, no matter how high quality the music is.. another thing..start small...look for smaller labels in your area..try and get released on compilations..as far as i know from talking to artists such as Thujon and Orgon Flow, they started pretty small..i mean they're practically my neighbors...and there isnt much happening in this part of switzerland..they released a few tracks here and there on some swiss compilations, and now Thujon (a.ka Freakulizer) is signed to alchemy records.. i think its important to critically analyze one's own music and not ever try and get ahead of ourselves..if u believe in yourself though and think ure ready for a record deal, go for it, and keep trying all labels, there's bound to be someone who finds your music interesting..problem is most psy labels dont have the cash to take risks... anyways wish you the best of luck, abn

for some reason this whole thing seems to have been blown out of proportion...most of us on this site who make music are quite unknown except for maybe in our local psy scenes...so i dont think its fair for any of us to expect too much.. if ppl like lemmi and nemo are willing to put up cash to put out a cd..well then all revenues should go to them..sorry..but if this is a contest, and ppl will be creating songs specifically for the contest, or whatever one wants to call it..then they should submit the tracks being thankful for the free advertisement the compilation will bring, and not with financial benefits in mind.. i know we have all invested time and money into our music, and it feels good to be able to earn a little bit of money off it...but i dont think this contest is the right way to do it...although the compilation will bring shed light on a lot of new, upcoming artists, we all have to go on our own long, hard paths to get released...its often unmotivating to think about, but believe me, unless u are some sort of musical wunderkind...u have to put up your own fight to get released in the way u want...no one will do it for u.. anyways sorry i dont mean to put any one down..trying to be as realistic as possible. my suggestion, we decide on two or three people to finance it, and give all financial returns to them..seems only fair..as ppl have pointed out, this will not be THE compilation of the year, and so theres no point in dividing up profits with all the artists for their individual tracks...come on ppl..u can all do without earning an extra couple euros..(and im not even talking triple digits here..) alright...maybe the way ive just expressed myself may sound condescending, but i just feel that if we pull through with this contest/compilation, lets do it in the name of fun, music, and the great underground :-) also feel that this is an excellent opportunity to develop an international community of young psy producers.. wish everyone the best of luck and ive got my fingers crossed

hey people.. ive been making music long enough so feel free to reply with any technical terms possible..dont want to make u guys write extremely long posts.. anyways, here goes..although ive achieved satisfactory layering of two basslines on top of eachother...basically a fast bass and an off bass together...i know im missing the one trick to really make it work.. ive been confused as to whether the two basslines found in most tracks are playing on the same octave, with different eq settings...basically my goal here is to make two basslines that sound like one bassline..rather than being able to pick out the two basslines separately.. the method i found works best for me so far..(far from ideal though) is having two basslines playing the same bass patch, with one perhaps an octave higher..(i mostly use reason's malstrom for basslines), so i often leave all the octave settings the same for both basslines with the exception of making one oscillator on one of the bass synths an octave higher, then messing around with the filter cutoff.. ive also tried taking exactly the same sound and making high pass and low pass filters on the two bass synths, basically separating the synths by means of EQ..this doesnt seem to work to well as both basslines end up sounding extremely flat.. i know deep down inside that there is one little trick, and once uve got that formula down making basslines becomes the least of one's worries.. anyways, hopefully this made sense and any responses would be greatly appreciated.. thanks in advance!

Hey everybody.. im assuming that this post will only be useful to those living in germany, but i think theres a few of you, so yeah, here goes: Fairytopia Location: Die Grube (Indoor), Winterberg-Siedlinghausen When: Saturday, 04 Jun 2005 22:00h - Sunday, 05 Jun 2005 13:00h Who: Live: Asian Bud Nation, Hux Flux, Sonus, Herbal Essence I represent one half of the Asian Bud Nation live act...we're a new live act from switzerland, and we need as much support as we can get, so it would be wicked if some of you guys came, I realize germany is a big country so you might not live close by, but hell, im from switzerland and dont have a car...have to make an 8 hour trip on the train to get there, with all my equipment... anyways, just thought id post this, really looking forward to playing with such great acts like hux flux and sonus! peace!

of course theres a few basically formulas that should be followed but i think they should be more along the lines of eq, compression and mastering...as for the track itself...do whatever is in your head...it takes time, but i would familiarize myself or focus on certain VST instruments or other sequencer programs that u feel comfortable working with, and eventually u will able to sculpt whatever sound u think the track needs... personally, im a fan of individualism, and i think psy trance is headed in a direction that harbors much too much conformity...anyways, as a fan of "alternative" psy if u want to call it that, i really suggest u find your own style, and your own structure within songs... if u think the track doesnt need a bass line, then u dont need it...look, ive realized this...your track could always sound better to someone else...when i show my friends a track they all say different things..some say "oh but u need more fx an little noises" while others say "u need a stronger bassline"...in my opinion, as long as the outcome of the track satisfies the original purpose of the track, then your work is done...if u want the track to sound raw and dirty and not over produced like much of the current isra sound, then so be it.... i think u get my point, there will always be guidlines for using certain effects or plugins or whatever, but i think the fun and interesting about psy is that u can really choose to ignore everything thats been done and take a completely different approach..and thats the way it is done (ok if u compare big isra acts, their sound always sounds consistent and similar because a small group of ppl are responsible for mastering, etc.) but otherwise psy is so different all around... keep that in mind, and dont let yourself or your style be discouraged by anyone. peace!

south africa

hey although the prices are probably a bit higher here, id say switzerland has got some wicked psy parties...they're on a smaller scale than in germany, but personally i prefer the smaller parties...really big acts come here as well, but its more spread out over many different festivals..a big party is the zoom party after the streetparade, and that happens in mid august i think.. i guess the most important thing that switzerland has that germany doesnt is mountains...i dont know if ure a fan of mountains or not, but for me nothing beats dancing 2500m up on a mountain as the sun is coming up....yeah, they always manage to find picture book locations here, so if ure gonna be in europe its something i wouldnt miss! laters!

yo man i know exactly what u mean.. i live in switzerland and we get our fair share of big acts...so anyways, 2 weekends ago psysex played, and even though id never listen to their music at home in a normal state of mind, i've seen them before and it blew mind so it was necessary that i saw them again.. anyways my friends warned me against it, dont go...its going to be packed..and i figured fuck it, everyone has a right to be there.. first of all, i waited in line for half a fucking hour...in the fucking snow (both on the ground and falling heavily from the heavens)...then i get inside expecting to see familiar tripped out looking faces...and i ran into a wall of buff coke heads, 16 yr old skater kids, and punks???? excuse me...little punks that walk around saying that every type of music that isnt punk is shit...and then they end up at a psysex show tripping their balls off... when i thought it couldnt get anyworse...these ppl took up the entire dancefloor...and they werent dancing!!! damnit they were standing their nodding their heads or tapping their feet.. luckily i had more than enough drugs and psysex's sound was mind blowing, and i was somehow able to find a little unoccupied corner where i could dance...and so the party ended up being alright, but shit... next time i go see a big act it has to be outdoor...its the only way.. peace!

Alright guys, thanks a lot, think everything should run smoothly now... peace!

in an interview from Sound on Sound with one of the founders of reason, he explained that reason is the way it is, without audio track support, to improve over all stability...and i think it was a wise choice...i mean how many of you have had big crashes with reason? i dont think i've ever had reason freeze up or crash on me..ive never lost any of my tracks..whereas a program like cubase is much more prone to freeze or crash and give u a headache...the simpler the program, the smoother it runs.. plus, rewire was developed for a reason...it drain your computer a bit more, but it gives reason the extra features that it fundamentally lacks without compromising reasons stability.. i for one look forward to reason 3.0, lets just hope the mastering effects are of quality like the scream and rv7000 units. peace!

alright..thanks a lot...the effects that u can add to vst instruments are therefore only midi plugins right, and not the normal compressors,etc. u would use on other tracks? mmm...also, would by any chance know how to assign a vst instrument to a specific output on your audio interface within cubase? thanks anyways thanks again!! peace!

i may just be a complete moron, but im having problems (not really problems, just a general lack of knowledge i think) with VST instruments in cubase.. i know all my software pretty well, and i know that midi tracks are used to trigger VST instruments...my question is how do you route a VST instrument to an audio track so that u can add compressors, delay, reverb, etc??? I use cubase, and the only way i've figured out, is to bounce that VST instrument track down into a wave file and then add compression, etc. This works, but it doesnt seem all to logical to me..seems like its kind of besides the point of having VST in the first place.. alright, so im counting on someone to enlighten me and make me feel like a complete idiot :-)..i read the cubase help files and didnt find the answer i needed...im sure its a simple little step but i cant seem to figure it out.. thanks! also...mmm, on a side note, if any of you use the MOTU 828MKII, how do u route audio coming in from the 828's inputs into cubase without monitoring directly from the soundcard...mm, let me try to clarify...without creating an audio track in cubase and turning the "monitor" switch on, i can still listen to all audio coming out of my synths which are plugged into the 828. if i do create an audio track so that i can add FX directly onto the incoming audio, and switch on "montior" in cubase, the signal suddenly becomes twice as loud as the audio is now being monitored directly from the cueMix DSP system in the soundcard and through cubase's software monitoring...is there a way to turn direct monitoring through the 828 off, so that i can monitor in cubase instead?? wow...dont know if any of you are able to follow, but any help would be appreciated.. peace!

basically, from my own experience, monitors are just easier to work with...u can make a mix on a good set of monitors and the chances that it will sound good on a big system, in your car, and at home are pretty good...however, i think u can mix jsut as well on any other speakers if you know them well enough and if u have the time to constantly check your mixes on other speakers for comparison... i learned in school that a very good way to check the frequency balance on your mix is to play your track in a normal car stereo...if it sounds alright there then it usually will sound alright at home, on your discman, etc....i currently do all my mixing in this lenghthy way because im in the process of moving and dont want to buy monitors until i know where im permanently going to be...so basically i mix on a nice set of sennheiser headphones, reference listen to my track against a track from another artist on the heaphones, mini hi fi, car stereo, and any other speakers i can get my hands on....until now, its worked fine, sounds awsome on a big set up at a party, and ive saved lots of cash..unfortunately id rather save time and so monitors are definately the next thing im going to buy.. if u dont have monitors, stress less..just get to know whatever type of speaker you have around to work with...the most important things imo to focus on is how much compensation u have to do with the low and high frequency balance in your mix... dont know if this helps at all peace!

oi oi seriously if artist bashing on this site doesnt stop im just going to stop coming here...not that it would make any difference...but come on people, isnt it enough to just say u dont like yahel's new style..end of story.. i think ive written this a couple times before, but look, all artists progressive or evolve in some way or another, whether its to your taste or not...if yahel made 5 albums just like waves of sound, then that one particular album would become just another another album in a big collection of yahel cds..every yahel cd is different..and he's proven that he can make melodic, progressive, psy, basically anything he wants...all with quality.. seriously, theres thousands of artists out there, if u dont like yahel's new style, then fine, im sure u can get plenty of recommendations for other artists and albums that fit your style....but this artist bashing has to stop.. there are some of us that truly respect every artist in some way because they make the music we all listen to... or we could just say every artist is "shit" and every album is "shit" and artists can just stop making music in general and we'll all be left with what?? nothing... respect people, that what its about peace!

whats up ppl? i dont know, id say all the equipment us music makers use these days definately make it easier to start from nothing, with no particular vision, etc, but in the end it is up to our minds to create the layout of the track, the builds, everything.. when i first sit down to make a track the only thing i know is in which emotional direction the track will go..from the start i decide whether the overall mood of the track is going to be dark, happy, ...whatever my emotional state is at the time.. knowing this, or having decided this, creating a bassline and beat that fits the mood comes almost naturally....once i've got that my line of sight keeps growing wider and wider, and see more and more of where the track is going..4 bars turn into 8 bars, then into 32, etc.. creating a song is a long process, and to think that any artist could visualize an 8 minute long track from start to finish before even touching any gear seems a bit far fetched...because in the end, electronic music is created from a constant balance of human input and equal electronic output....we control the machines, the machines make sounds, the sounds alter our minds and ideas, those ideas change more parameters... another joy of making psy is that a song can change in matter of seconds...u create one more sound or a new bassline, and bam! the song shifts direction.. anyways i dont know where exactly im going with all this, but anyways, i guess some tracks are made from already existing visions, meant to touch our souls in one way or another, and some tracks are the product of constructive randomness, made to trick our minds and play with our emotions.. and in the end...isnt that the nature of psy?? peace!

Hey whats up? anyways, i know uve kinda scratched motu from your options...but i highly recommend u reconsider...ive had the motu 828mkII for about one and a half months, and i must say, my mixes and live performances have been greatly aided by the addition of such an amazing soundcard. ok, the price is a couple hundred bucks more than an m-audio or the edirol, but the sound quality is well worth the price. and really, for around 700$ US, i think its a steal, really...i worked extensively with the much more costly Digidesign 888 (no longer in existance), Digi 001 (also not sold anymore) and the Digi 002, and i must say the Motu outclasses them both feature wise and sound quality wise. The fact that u can use the motu as a standalone mixer (preprogram all your mixes into the unit) and then take it on stage with you for live performances without dragging a long another mixer is also a great feature that i've taken advantage of.. as far as the alesis ION goes, i'd try it before u buy it..for sure...i played around with it once and it definately produced some nice fat sounds, but to me the sounds were overall not that impressive, nothing you couldnt duplicate with some nice plugins if u took the time....a virus on the other hand is a completely different story....pure bliss... anyways good luck! p.s. does anyone know where in europe i can order a new Virus TI for a decent price. i realize the prices havent gone down yet as its just been released, but i live in switzerland and prices here are just insane...much much much more than anyone else.. thanks, peace!

im sure the headphones already mentioned are probably among the best that u can get for that money, but i'm gonna suggest one more model that personally i think does the trick..i have a pair of sennheiser eh2200 and personally i think there's just not enough bass to comfortably mix psy trance (im talking about in the studio and not djing, although i think the lack of bass would also be an issue)..so anyways ive had these headphones for years and i was never happy with them and then i won a pair of Behringer HPS3000 headphones and ive been using them ever since..ok i know most of us here the name Behringer and automatically this doubtful look appears on our face..but i dont know...they're only worth maybe 35 or 40 euros but i must say, im pretty impressed. i dont feel obligated to use them because i got them for free..if i was unhappy with the sound i would have thrown them away a long time ago...but they seem to provide a pretty balanced frequency range... i dont know, i think they're definately worth a listen..in the end its all about comparison and what sounds right to you..but yeah, give them a try. im sure they cant compete with beyer or AKG headphones, but behringer is putting out some surprisingly good quality products these days (not everything, but a few individual products) as far as djing goes, i use the new Numark PHX headphones, which i think compare to a lot of technics and sony dj headphones... anyways my suggestion, find a nice pair of studio headphones that will remain in good shape in your studio, and for djing, another separate pair of headphones that can take some what of a beating...also, dj and studio headphones have different frequency response characteristics, so its best to find a pair of headphones suitable for a specific application.. peace!

hey whats up? i cant tell u how exactly the "pros" do it cuz im always way to mashed to pay any attention, but anyways, i can try to help a bit.. i play live as well, and basically what i do is use a software sequencer (eg. cubase, reason, Live!, etc.) to sequence the main elements of each song. i load each song into the sequencer and then insert transitions between each song, so that as one song finishes another song begins to start up..or that u have a breakdown between the end of the song and the beginning of the next song. as far as using drum machine and synthesizers, when i play live i remove some elements from each song, and then use midi notes to trigger my hardware devices, so that i can recreate the synth lines in perfect time with the original track but u can then tweak the synth or drum line and make it sound more live...i dont know i might be confusing you, but its kinda hard to explain in just words..the best is just to mess around until u find something that fits your style...remember, there's no right or wrong way to play live...you just do whatever fits u best...i've seen a lot of live acts that keep it simple and rather than bringing along a computer, soundcard, etc, they redo their tracks and remove or add specific things and then just play the tracks off a cd and then add synth lines and drum lines from their hardware gear ontop of the song playing from the cd. this method isn't as "live" as it could be, but it saves time and space if u dont have it. i do my live sets this way mainly when i have to tackle djing and playing live in one night (which is the case a lot of times)..so basically this is how i do it: i have my dj mixer and two cd decks connected to the mixer...basic dj set up...i then hook up my drum machine to a free channel on the dj mixer. i then burn a cd with all my tracks that i plan to play that night, and then play it off the cd player..because my drummachine/groovebox is plugged into the dj mixer, i can use it as i would a cd player and manually blend sounds and loops from it together with the song playing off the cd. this way i can add whole new drum loops and synth sounds ontop of the song, which makes the whole thing a bit more "live" when one track finishes on the cd player i can start up a short "transitional song" which i preprogram on my groove box, then i have time to bring in the next track off the cd...anyways basically im playing back and forth between a cd player and a drum machine.. anyways i think i probably lost u at the beginning of the post...but anyways, maybe u can filter through all the confusion and find something useful.. peace!

sorry my bad... if u're interested u can download one of my tracks...u might like it if u like the yahel type sound...the beginning of the track kind of drags on but at about 2 minutes or so in...i dont even know..the track changes mood and it gets real melodic and layered.. anyways, just click the link below that says ABN experience, and download the track called "Into the Deep" just a suggestion if u're looking for new music.. peace!