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A Psytrance tutorial


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I have been searching for a psytrance tutorial and I am at a loss. I have been doing TONS of reading for weeks now and practicing as much as I possibly can outside of work. I am still very frustrated as I haven't even come close to finishing my first track.

 

To benefit myself and other people new to the scene, I was thinking maybe we could all collaborate and throw together a SIMPLE trance song from scratch that could be used as the basis of a tutorial from start to finish. I would be willing to create or make a web page and such for it if anyone could be willing to donate some musical input.

 

I am pretty comfortable with my DAW of choice (cubase SX), and think this tutorial should be geared more towards the actual composition.

 

So, to start, would anyone be willing to throw down a simple Drum beat and Bass Line preferably in Cubase format?

 

Any thoughts or ideas on this subject?

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I think you're being hard on yourself for your very first project. It's not an instant thing. Your first stuff is probably going to sound crappy, but that's how everyone starts. I challenge you to create a quick, two-minute piece of music. No intro, no outro, just some good ol' four-on-the-floor with a simple transition or two. Then we can listen to it and give you advice.

 

Start with this:

 

Set your BPM between 135 and 140.

 

Standard kick, four beats per measure.

 

Hi-hats at 16th notes (16 to a measure).

 

Open hi-hats exactly between the kicks.

 

Snare at beat two and four of every bar.

 

Simple (but often effective) bassline that matches the open hi-hats between the kicks.

 

The rest is all how to make this simple formula sound interesting, and that's where you come in. In fact, if you do the above, you're bound to come up with the next little step, and the next after that, and so on. A track is made up of thousands of little decisions that you make intuitively as you go along.

 

Two minutes, man. Call it an exercise. ;)

 

When you've achieved this, you'll be able to listen to how others have used this same formula in their own ways. I swear in a few months of hard work you'll look back and laugh at how you thought it was so difficult.

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I think you're being hard on yourself for your very first project. It's not an instant thing. Your first stuff is probably going to sound crappy, but that's how everyone starts. I challenge you to create a quick, two-minute piece of music. No intro, no outro, just some good ol' four-on-the-floor with a simple transition or two. Then we can listen to it and give you advice.

 

Start with this:

 

Set your BPM between 135 and 140.

 

Standard kick, four beats per measure.

 

Hi-hats at 16th notes (16 to a measure).

 

Open hi-hats exactly between the kicks.

 

Snare at beat two and four of every bar.

 

Simple (but often effective) bassline that matches the open hi-hats between the kicks.

 

The rest is all how to make this simple formula sound interesting, and that's where you come in. In fact, if you do the above, you're bound to come up with the next little step, and the next after that, and so on. A track is made up of thousands of little decisions that you make intuitively as you go along.

 

Two minutes, man. Call it an exercise. ;)

 

When you've achieved this, you'll be able to listen to how others have used this same formula in their own ways. I swear in a few months of hard work you'll look back and laugh at how you thought it was so difficult.

 

Will do just that, expect a track soon. Thank you for the advice!

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i´d say, take one of your favourite tracks, that is not too complex, and try to rebuild it.

this way you´ll learn a lot. dont worry about beeing a copy cat, you wont even come close to that track :P

its good imo, cause this way you´ll have to force your ears to really listen to every single part of the track, and even recognize the different parts there...

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check the 'MOTHER OF ALL' kinda threads on isratrance.com forum/ producer section. It has alot of info there..

 

Apart from that its alot of hardwork before you produce a good sounding track. Dont expect to be good in 2 weeks.. more like 2 years or longer.. One thing that can help alot is to find producers in the area where you live and cooperate with them on tracks. it doesnt matter if its someone that makes another style of music. you can still learn alot from eachother.

 

And follow rezniks advice.. rebuild a track you like.

 

 

Good luck =)

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Here it is... I think I could do better but I suppose its not bad for 2 hours of unexperienced work heh. Please make suggestions. Certainly not release quality, most release it because im getting tired now.

 

http://www.ctel.net/~mcdfam/critiqueme.mp3

Hell yeah, man. That's all there is to it. You created a very interesting vibe there in the second half. Now you just have to extend that to full length, and the trick is keeping it interesting all the way through.

 

Way to go! ;)

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Hell yeah, man. That's all there is to it. You created a very interesting vibe there in the second half. Now you just have to extend that to full length, and the trick is keeping it interesting all the way through.

 

Way to go! ;)

 

Thanks, I liked the second half more as well. I think all along I have been half assing the drums and just putting in a kick just to see how it would sound with the bass line. That doesn't tell much until you add in the rest of the drums which is what im going to do from now on.

 

Will release the completed track once its finished, although I expect it will take while but thats music!

 

Ride the Vibe.

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you know what i am not a really good psytrance produce but i think your tempo must increase a bit about 145-155 to make it sound blowing i like tracks with quick bassline's and lots of intrestin(not boring breaks) to build intension but you know this is just my opinion [ i am not a good produce but i hear psytrance 4 years now] as the syntesizer i found it preety nice and good :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :blink:

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you know what i am not a really good psytrance produce but i think your tempo must increase a bit about 145-155 to make it sound blowing i like tracks with quick bassline's and lots of intrestin(not boring breaks) to build intension but you know this is just my opinion [ i am not a good produce but i hear psytrance 4 years now] as the syntesizer i found it preety nice and good :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :blink:

 

Yes I noticed that this morning when I listened to my track again. Check the project and it was indeed set at 120bpm. I could have sworn I changed it to 145 at the very beginning when I started the project. I guess thats what I get for working at 2am in the morning and trying to spit out a track hehe.

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