acid being
-
Posts
54 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
4
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Posts posted by acid being
-
-
I'm just starting to learn about mastering and in the past it seemed just a little daunting, being so far outside anything I had experience of combined with all the talk of it being a field best left to highly skilled specialists with lots of experience. Since then I've read tutorials and have the basic ideas and techniques now.
What surprised me is when I started to watch the spectrum plots of some of my favorite Goa tracks (some of RA's beautifully mastered sounds for example), they were pretty much just totally flat across the whole spectrum, at least at the important parts of peak activity in the tracks with the most instruments playing at once.
Now, adjusting EQ to give a flat response for the key parts of a track seems really straightforward to me. There's so much talk about making sure the music sounds good across a range of different sound systems, but surely if the spectrum is flat, it's flat, and it leaves room for the listener to adjust the EQ to fit their listening environment.
I guess if I were trying to master some rock music recorded live and needing to correct for anomalies in the recording environment, it could get more complicated. When 99% of the sounds are coming from software synths, surely you're most of the way there to begin with once you get the mix where you want it?
I know about compression to increase loudness and I do use it on some of my sounds as well as filters to stop frequencies clashing but I do most of that as I go and not really as part of a separate mastering step. On some tracks I will look at just a little compression on the master channel to make them a bit louder.
Is there more to mastering than I am seeing, or is it really this easy for Goa trance?
-
1
-
-
Only 11 votes?
Come on lurkers, show your support for our shrine to the best, most mind expanding music this side of the multiverse!
-
1
-
-
5 hours ago, Paul Eye said:
Next up, track 4. This one was finished in early October 1998, and I have to say that personally, I don't like this one at all and I almost left it off the collection. Definitely influenced by Transwave's album Helium (the first goa trance album I bought, apparently around the end of September 1998), I guess this was meant to be nothing more than a quick experiment. It didn't even have a title until I had to think of something for this collection (and naming it "untitled" would have been just meh). It does feature a little gimmick in that the kick (and by extension, the entire rhythm section) is on the offbeat, if it seems to you that there's something a bit off about this one. File this under "growing pains", there's much better material coming up
It still manages to be groovier than anything I've come up with so far! I enjoyed the sounds around 5:30 on as well.
-
1
-
-
3 hours ago, Parasphere said:
@acid being try listening to the Sheyba type lead now, it's the first one at 0.26, the rest are more Mystica/Nitzhogoa type leads
Nice work
That sounds really close to the Sheyba lead - do you mind sharing what shape waveforms you used?
It's a nice mystical feeling track.
-
1
-
-
22 hours ago, Parasphere said:
@acid beingPlaying around some with NitzhoGoa, not final just headphones mix, tried to make a "Sheybaish" type acid lead in the beginning. I used Dune3 for the leads and Spire + AudioRealism Bassline.
Nice arrangement. I think you're some of the way there with the Sheybaish sound. It sounded a little sort of thinner but that's probably just my terrible laptop speakers - I need to repair my headphones!
EDIT: My comment was about an earlier video you put up. If there were two, I only heard the first.
What waveforms are you using for the lead is it a saw?
-
On 3/7/2024 at 10:36 PM, Parasphere said:
Still I can't help thinking sometimes, what if he had taken another path? And would've continued with the twisted uptempo Psy and developed it even further, in some other weird direction.
On 3/7/2024 at 10:36 PM, Parasphere said:I'm still waiting for some of the classics to be surpassed, or atleast to be mindblown like that again. Hopefully one day!
In my opinion, Artha already has that nicely covered. If someone had told me Influencing Dreams was the new Hallucinogen album, I'd have believed them! I hope Artha's still active though. It's been eight years since his last album.
https://www.discogs.com/artist/342098-Artha
I agree though, it would have been fascinating to see where Simon would have taken that sound next all those years ago. Still, he made that new track recently, so there's still time for more uptempo if he wants to.
-
14 hours ago, Parasphere said:
I love this track! Yeah it can be difficult to get a good isolated piece of a track. Also can be very difficult for example with Jupiter-8 since it has X-Mod which can shape the waveform quite a lot. And also the OSC waveform mixer on the SH-101 etc. Anyways I sometimes when I play around, I'm often getting a "oh that sounds a lot like Sheyba leads" when playing with simple oriental melodies on those abovementioned plugin emulations.
And also when just using an oriental midi melody to audiorealism bassline, instead of using its internal sequencer. The simplicity of that and other Roland filters nails the sound IMO. With some lush reverb.
Yeah it would definitely make my top 20 Goa trance tracks at the moment. Sheyba / Elysium have the best rhythms and I love the way it builds up.
Thanks for the tips. I'll keep playing with plugins - you've given me some good ideas. I was some of the way there before but then I got diverted into making music.
I wouldn't want an exact duplicate of the lead anyway, just to recapture some of that lovely warm, bright, squishiness. If I had to describe it, I would say it sounds like a thousand glowing chocolate oranges caught some rays of sunshine and partially melted, sent tumbling, rolling, curling up on themselves and gurgling into a puddle of pure bliss! Yes, it's a great lead!
-
1
-
-
1 hour ago, Parasphere said:
Can you link which track you're referring to? If I remember correctly from some interview Sheyba used Jupiter-8, SH-101 and TB-303 a lot for leads and stuff. Probably Juno-106 too, not sure. But I wouldn't exclude the Alpha Juno from the equation either. Do you mean like the lead in Ganesh for example?
I think it is in Ganesh as well but my main reference was Ancient Lands. It's the synth that first appears about 3:30 and is playing solo (well, almost) at 5:28:
When I first started writing my earlier comment, I think I was looking at the waveform at a point where there were other sounds playing and getting confused.
-
I've always slightly preferred The Lone Deranger to Twisted though the albums are similar and it's hard to tell exactly why. I can't rule out if it's just the fact that I heard the Lone Deranger first. But I feel like Simon was already evolving as an artist in that second album. His sound in the Younger Brother albums has more of a Hallucinogen flavor than in Shpongle to me as well. Learning and evolving as an artist is a separate thing to choosing to explore a different style of music, although they are related.
-
On 3/1/2024 at 11:33 AM, Kriestof said:
i never liked flux and i've tried a lot to like that album
not because its ambient, but because the material is flat and boring, the songs are just not that good or interesting
I can see where you're coming from. Most of his other work has more depth to it. I enjoy it for what it is, though, as I say, I haven't listened to it very many times.
On 3/1/2024 at 5:12 AM, DoktorG said:All good; I will listen to Flux again. As you say it is a departure and I wouldn't really compare it to Shpongle in that it is mostly a fully ambient album - I just thought it was quite limp compared to Klaus Schulze, or Tangerine Dream, or Brian Eno, or Lustmord, or O Yuki Conjugate, or other ambient greats.
I don't disagree with that assessment. Flux is not his strongest work.
I will give Codex VI another listen as well. I was personally a bit underwhelmed by it because with every new album I'm always hoping for something more like Nothing Lasts or honestly even something closer to Hallucinogen but I'm starting to accept that Simon has moved on. I found some of the talky bits a bit distracting on Codex as well but I'll give it another go and I'm glad others are enjoying it.
Hearing Klaus Schulze when very young must be one of the main things that set me on a path to loving Goa trance and psytrance. I've not heard much Brian Eno; could you recommend me an album to start with? The more electronic, the better.
-
3 hours ago, DoktorG said:
Ironically, however, for me "Flux and Contemplation" is by far his weakest work yet. I couldn't even bring myself to buy it, and I was really keen to do so until I heard it.
Interesting how much opinions differ because I think I prefer it to most of the tracks on Codex VI (I saw your discogs review of that), with the possible exception of Empty Branes. Nothing Lasts is currently my favorite Shpongle album though and I haven't listened to Flux that many times. It's quite a departure from his other music. I see it as a bit of an experiment.
-
Not sure how many of you already read this, but he says some interesting things.
Probably the most unsettling bit for us is that he said his album Twisted now sounds "a bit irritating" to him!
QuoteIf you had to recommend one album for someone looking to get into dance music, what would you give them?
Tricky, there are so many genres of dance music … and I’ve never particularly liked any of them! I had many people tell me that my first Hallucinogen album, Twisted, “got me into dance music” or “got me into trance,” but I’m not sure I would recommend that, as it might be a bit weird for some people and it now sounds a bit irritating to me. I’m a big fan of the early Trentemøller stuff, so maybe Early Worx or something. Possibly Underworld or Leftfield.
And Leftfield are great, but Underwold? I was starting to wonder if he was winding them up a bit. I mean, it's not the best interview question for a psytrance pioneer, is it?
He also said he hadn't listened to much psytrance since the early 2000s. Most of the best stuff was before then so I think I get it.
Worth a read anyway.
-
I love tracker tunes. You've got some good rhythm there.
-
1
-
-
Please keep it going. As we get older other things take up our time but sometimes we also end up with more time. I'd been reading the site occasionally for many years but only signed up two years ago and am visiting much more often now and writing posts.
I much prefer old style forums and if you ended this site the members would disperse onto multiple sites making a small community even smaller.
I also love the feeling of timelessness this site invokes. People happily continue discussions inside threads that had been dormant for many years. It's trippy. Your average web surfer would get confused by that! The threads remain timeless because the great music is timeless.
Thanks for all your hard work keeping the site running.
-
This track's actually not bad psytrance. I wouldn't call it groundbreaking but it builds up nicely with some slightly spooky sounds. It sounds more coherent to me than a lot of the modern psy, there's variety to the percussion, quieter bits and little bits of melody. Love the artwork as well.
-
1
-
-
On 2/11/2024 at 10:00 PM, CosmicEquilibrium said:
What about this version, I changed the bass the delay and reverb, now the bass is less full on and more Goa Trance in my opinion, I prefer this version, I have to add more atmosphere sounds and an 303 and some music theory, I'm trying to figure out which logic delays and reverbs sound better and more Goa like and now I used the stepfx ones they are simple and do the job. I use the delay and reverb trying to create a space ambience, but yes the bass in version 4 have more quality, but I'm trying to achieve some olschool sounding doing everything with the same synth ES2, to make it sound more consistent.
Yes I like this one even better than version 4. It definitely feels like it's got more sort of space and depth to it. The quality is really nice and everything sounds well defined.
-
Any good?
I know the sound quality needs some work. It's really hard to get it to sound clean when I turn up the distortion.
-
No worries. I figured you knew some of it but decided to share the links as they help me. I use the list of chords to help write my arpeggios.
-
On 2/5/2024 at 12:28 AM, CosmicEquilibrium said:
and I don't have any music theory,
About the music theory, I've just been learning what I can as I go. I'm no expert, very far from it, but just following some tutorials to understand scales (and modes), the chords of your chosen scale, and importantly how different intervals between the notes sound, give you most of the tools you need to start writing melodies and harmonies.
This https://feelyoursound.com/scale-chords/a-harmonic-minor/ lists all the chords in the A Harmonic Minor scale which is basically the same as E Phrygian Dominant (just with the notes in a different order), commonly used in Goa and psytrance. It's an easy scale to remember because it's all white notes apart from the G# and you can always transpose your music to other keys later.
After the above topics, this https://music.tutsplus.com/the-contemporary-musicians-guide-to-counterpoint--audio-4630t is a good tutorial for learning counterpoint which is useful to keep in mind if you want layers of melodies.
Sorry if I'm teaching you to suck eggs with this, but it might be useful for others reading this as well.
-
There's a new version of the track now in the original post above.
On 2/6/2024 at 9:52 AM, CosmicEquilibrium said:do you any compressor in bass with sidechain in the kick and at the master channel any compressor to glue the tracks? you should too add some delay and reverb in the synths, if you want your sound good you need every single sound to have sound quality, the tom toms, hihats and the crash seems good, maybe some reverb in the drums except the kick leave it without any delay and reverb
Yep I learned all about sidechain compression and I'm using it on the bass and tom toms now to slightly lower them when the kick plays. I've done the same thing to very slightly lower the lead synth when the flute is playing as well. There's a tiny bit of reverb now and loads of delay. Does the delay on the lead synth sound OK or is it overdone? I still can't get a true ping pong delay but it has different delays for left and right and I had to manually calculate the timing to match the bpm!
-
10 hours ago, CosmicEquilibrium said:
We both are pretty amateur at least you got some melody, what DAW you use? What synths?, do you any compressor in bass with sidechain in the kick and at the master channel any compressor to glue the tracks? you should too add some delay and reverb in the synths, if you want your sound good you need every single sound to have sound quality, the tom toms, hihats and the crash seems good, maybe some reverb in the drums except the kick leave it without any delay and reverb, I think you need a more standard kick and bass sound, there are no rules but a more standard kick and bass is what defines a Goa track, I think you need to work in the kick and bass. The way I make my bass is sawtooth in one oscillator a sine wave half the intensity, the filter low pass at 250 hertz max the a little resonance or none, the I experiment with one envelope at cutoff filter and other at the amplitude/Volume leave this one with a small attack and release.
I use Ardour. The lead is an Alpha Juno emulator. You're right about the kick and bass not sounding very Goa yet. Those were just presets I found in the Xhip synthesizer plugin until I can replace them with something better. No I've not used sidechain compression before - I'll have a play with that.
I've not done any mastering yet, only basic adjustments to the levels and stereo positions in the mixer. It's a topic I have a lot to learn about. At this stage I am a lot more focused on getting better at writing melodies and harmonies, and experimenting with synths and effects.
There is delay on the lead synth at the moment but I definitely want to make the delay more noticeable as I think it will help a lot. You only really notice it when you stop the track playing at the moment, because there aren't very long gaps between the synth notes, so I think I need a stereo or ping pong delay. None of the delay plugins I have at the moment offer stereo but maybe I can route each stereo channel through a different delay plugin to do it, more stuff I need to learn.
I played with reverb on another track but all the reverb plugins I had seemed to just make the sounds go kind of metallic and a bit messed up, so where I use it at the moment I would only put a tiny bit on, unless I'm after a very particular sound. I want things to sound like they are playing floating in outer space but I think better delay is the key to that.
Anyway, I really appreciate the comments, thanks!
-
On 2/5/2024 at 12:28 AM, CosmicEquilibrium said:
Yep I still try to make psytrance and I have fun, I'm here to learn too, this version has better sound quality in my opinion,
Yeah I'm not sure what you did but it already sounds a lot better, to me at least. The synth phrases stand out more and sound more interesting. I especially like the synth that goes into the breakdown from about 2:59 - it sounds a bit more melodic. I'm sure you already know by the later stages of the track it still sounds a bit repetitive, but that's easily solved as you develop it more. Good luck!
-
On 2/5/2024 at 12:28 AM, CosmicEquilibrium said:
Do you have some track of yours to share I would like to hear it
OK then.... Have a look here: https://www.psynews.org/forums/topic/77953-slightly-tribal-goa-track/
I'll have a listen to your updated one tomorrow.
-
I've been learning to use my DAW.
Here's my very incomplete early attempt at a Goa Trance track, aiming for a slightly tribal feel and lowish tempo (143 bpm at the moment).
I'd love any comments and suggestions, even to tell me it's dreadful.
The drums need some work I think. The ones at the start are supposed to be 808 style tom toms, but I think the kick maybe interferes with them a bit and they get sort of clicky so I may change them. I like my melody but I'm not totally sure if it matches up that well with the percussion and bass in terms of the timing.
If I don't end up abandoning the whole thing I'll probably make some acid lines next and maybe another layer or two, pads and other samples.
Xerxes and Phoenix (Marthe Borge-Lunde Pfirrmann)
in Other Electronica
Posted
This is a collaboration between Norweigan musicians Xerxes and Phoenix who is Marthe Borge-Lunde Pfirrmann, sister of Christer Borge-Lunde. She did some of the vocal work for RA.
Some of Xerxes' earlier solo work is well worth a listen as well: