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It's time to just say it


johnb820

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Darkpsy is actually written by a computer program isn't it.

 

I mean... shit. Where do all of these darkpsy artists come from?

 

I should make a game which is to determine which of the artist names is real. Can you spot the fake ones?

 

Coretexiphan

Fytogeist

Sadiscotech

Dugga Doug

Smokey The Bare

Cinder Vomit

Walpurgisnacht Projekt

Dr. Mambo

Swammy

Demoniac Insomniac

 

Human beings could not possibly have had the patience to write hours upon hours of the stuff. There is enough darkpsy to last a lifetime. It wouldn't even be all that hard to write computer software to make it.

 

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Same goes for prog.

 

Producers are more like big coffee machines, but instead of tasteless coffee, for two coins, you get tasteless psytrance.

 

There's the 130 bpm button. You press and get "bo-do-dom bo-do-dom bo-do-dom bo-do-dom".

And there's the 160+ buttons, (plus an extra bmp button if you will), that gives you "ka-ta-ta-klash ka-ta-ta-klash ka-ta-ta-klashka-ta-ta-klash ka-ta-ta-klash ka-ta-ta-klash ka-ta-ta-klash ka-ta-ta-klash ka-ta-ta-klash ka-ta-ta-klash".

 

They aren't producers anymore.

 

Anyway, there's always hope, right ?

 

 

RIGHT ?

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKK3PHV9ON0

 

EDIT : Gotta love this guy ! 180 bpm stuff that is decent at once :

 

https://soundcloud.com/dohm/valhalla-demo-180

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I'm talking there literally aren't darkpsy producers. Someone runs an actual computer program written in C or Java or something and out spits a new compilation album complete with artist names, titles, etc. I mean think about... really think about it. Randomly pick a base note, randomly pick a BPM, and then the program would go through and construct randomized patterns for each block of music. Have it randomize modulation of a few effects, reverb, delay, etc and occasionally work in key changes. There are no melodies so musically there is nothing worry about to have to get right. The key would be to continually develop the software, adding new samples, new production ideas, etc.

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So, you're being serious ?

 

Honnestly, I don't think it's the case. In fact, it seems that quite a few "high-voltage" darkpsy artists think a lot about their music. In the French scene, the producers are depicted as being melodic surgeons, who have to be very detailed and precise about their sound effects, and many praise the complexity of the music.

 

I don't think there's any robot involved. However, there may be tons of people discovering elementary functions of Fruity Loops and over-thinking their own musical abilities while producing something very similar.

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Well I admit, it certainly does seem like a stretch sometimes. I would love to know who all these "melodic surgeons" are. I just have a hard time imagining there are that many people out there producing darkpsy. If it really was so hard to make, and required the patience that I imagine, then there wouldn't be the sheer amount of darkpsy that there is today.

 

And if there is anything I have learned over the years, it is not to underestimate the power of computers. Depending on the complexity of the music, it is, from a computer science point of view, a perfectly computable problem. In other words, music is not so complex that a computer program is unable to make it.

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same could be said about many genres including so called new school goa

 

Too much of it indeed (refering to the classical pseudo-middle-eastern melodies sustained by a semi full-on bassline), but there's overall a lot more a variations within the Goa scene. The same goes for psybient and forest, that offers as well more variations, even if there are a lot of similar sounds. Prog and much of dark are pretty monolithic IMO since these past years.

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As said already, dark/nightime oriented stuff is way more focused on fx effects / synth sound design, then other "low-bpm" stuff.

On non-dark goa/prog/fullon there are usually lots of music elements in it like choords, melodies, arpeggios, ...

Dark psy producers usually prefer to not spend a lot of time on this, but use it to tune synths and fx.

It's much more experimental. While the goa producer might approach his track like a classic real-instrument musician (thinking about scales, progressions, melodies, ect), the dark producer might approach it more like a researcher. Goa-guy will rather load a nice-sounding preset into the synth and spend time to think about what to play on that synth. The dark-guy will never ever load a preset from factory bank and just play on it, he will spend the time to tune that preset so that it sounds special, but afterwards probably just play the same note on that synth over and over again.

 

The experimental approach makes it hard and easy at the same time, to create dark psy.

If you just wanna produce a track so that you can say "i'm a producer!!", but you give a shit about if it sounds like you want it to be... it is really easy. Because its experimental by definition, nobody will bother you if do a track which has a bassline, some drums and an ugly-noizzzze-shred lead that randomly modulates across the whole track. Doing such a track is a no-brainer and could indeed by done some darkpsy-production-robot.

It is getting hard tough if you have a clear idea of what you want to achieve.

Getting some random dark-ish sounds out of a synth is really really easy.

Getting exactly that dark-ish sound which you want to have, is quite hard.

 

 

And about this whole.. "mimimi computers killed the produder-star" story:

I don't see anything bad at all on the fact that today everyone with a PC and 2 speakers can produce electronic music.

Actually I think one of best things that ever happend to music. Up not now you had to spend years on learning how to play an instrument.

Hours and hours of practice, just learning handicraft, before you could even think about being creative.

This has been largely removed by PCs & DAWs, which is a great thing imho. It enables everyone which feels like he wants to try making music, to just do it, without the need of learning an instrument for years.

Ofc overall quality level will go down if have you tons hobbyist-procuders that have no clue about music, but only about PCs -- but nobody forces someone to listen to a specific track and/or artist.

If you don't like those homebrew hobbyist-procuder tracks, just don't listen to it, but stick with your well known list of high-polish professional-producers.

If you are a producer that feels like all those hobbyist have-no-clue-just-pushin-buttons guys are a threat to you and you need to shitstorm them at all cost... I can only say: get over it. If you produce quality music, those ppl will be no threat to you. If you produce crap music, stop producing, or stop taking it that serious.

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And about this whole.. "mimimi computers killed the produder-star" story:

I don't see anything bad at all on the fact that today everyone with a PC and 2 speakers can produce electronic music.

Actually I think one of best things that ever happend to music. Up not now you had to spend years on learning how to play an instrument.

Hours and hours of practice, just learning handicraft, before you could even think about being creative.

This has been largely removed by PCs & DAWs, which is a great thing imho. It enables everyone which feels like he wants to try making music, to just do it, without the need of learning an instrument for years.

Ofc overall quality level will go down if have you tons hobbyist-procuders that have no clue about music, but only about PCs -- but nobody forces someone to listen to a specific track and/or artist.

If you don't like those homebrew hobbyist-procuder tracks, just don't listen to it, but stick with your well known list of high-polish professional-producers.

If you are a producer that feels like all those hobbyist have-no-clue-just-pushin-buttons guys are a threat to you and you need to shitstorm them at all cost... I can only say: get over it. If you produce quality music, those ppl will be no threat to you. If you produce crap music, stop producing, or stop taking it that serious.

That's the way I see things as well, word for word :)

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As said already, dark/nightime oriented stuff is way more focused on fx effects / synth sound design, then other "low-bpm" stuff.

On non-dark goa/prog/fullon there are usually lots of music elements in it like choords, melodies, arpeggios, ...

Dark psy producers usually prefer to not spend a lot of time on this, but use it to tune synths and fx.

It's much more experimental. While the goa producer might approach his track like a classic real-instrument musician (thinking about scales, progressions, melodies, ect), the dark producer might approach it more like a researcher. Goa-guy will rather load a nice-sounding preset into the synth and spend time to think about what to play on that synth. The dark-guy will never ever load a preset from factory bank and just play on it, he will spend the time to tune that preset so that it sounds special, but afterwards probably just play the same note on that synth over and over again.

QFT.

 

It's really bizarre to me how many psytrance fans manage to completely miss the point of darkpsy. Dismissing it as just "random noises" or "random effects" is like dismissing Goa trance as just "random notes".

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Goa-guy will rather load a nice-sounding preset into the synth and spend time to think about what to play on that synth. The dark-guy will never ever load a preset from factory bank and just play on it, he will spend the time to tune that preset so that it sounds special, but afterwards probably just play the same note on that synth over and over again.

 

as a goa guy i strongly disagree. i will never just load a preset and play it. every patch i use will either be a variant of my own presets, a preset tweaked until it has absolutely nothing to do with the original, or (most often) a newly created sound started from scratch.

 

 

 

the closest to darkpsy i've ever made was putting effectrix on a sustained fm sound and pressing random a few times. to me it sounds indistinguishable from a standerd darkpsy lead (they really sound very much alike), but i'm sure that to a darkpsy connoisseur it won't sound like that at all. it's a matter of perspective. it's just that from my perspective these random piercing noises are just random piercing noises.

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as a goa guy i strongly disagree. i will never just load a preset and play it. every patch i use will either be a variant of my own presets, a preset tweaked until it has absolutely nothing to do with the original, or (most often) a newly created sound started from scratch.

 

So you'r a dark goa guy? :ph34r:

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You know I never understood the random argument.

Would you consider this track random?

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHUXxIxpA2c

 

Because Darkpsy is basically the same with much more effects.

That bassline's got some groove to it. If something, it has resemblance to recent Suomi. Sorry mate :P but I think it's nothing like modern day darkpsy.
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That bassline's got some groove to it. If something, it has resemblance to recent Suomi. Sorry mate :P but I think it's nothing like modern day darkpsy.

 

So what is modern day darkpsy to you?

If I hear darkpsy, Pravati rec is the first thing i think off.. and their recently released stuff is groovy as hell.

Like

lots of random fm synth shots, but groovy bass.

 

@Padmapani

Think you missed my point on darkpsy if you strongly disagree with my post.

Ofc goa produces will also tune their synth sounds, but the focus is different.

As you say it on your own, you don't care about those random piercing noises, but the darkpsy guy will do.

On the other hand the darkie will not care about those random note melodies (aka ARP), which are essential to goa.

As you say, it's a matter of perspective

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So what is modern day darkpsy to you?

If I hear darkpsy, Pravati rec is the first thing i think off.. and their recently released stuff is groovy as hell.

Yeah the bass is just more than one note - I'll give you that. Actually, it's not half bad a track. There's little old Koxbox feel to those trippy melodies going from 3 mins and on. Of course there's good darkpsy out there it's not what I'm saying, probably isn't the intention of OP either, but I'm missing a lot of time a bit of groove/mechanic/hypnotic vibe to it; it's a genre filled with ideas that don't evolve anywhere.

 

Here's an example of dark that I like myself, just to be fair.

 

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You know I never understood the random argument.

Would you consider this track random?

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHUXxIxpA2c

 

Because Darkpsy is basically the same with much more effects.

 

 

If darkpsy sounded like this, that would be awesome.

Definitely one of my most favorite Psychopod tracks

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Yeah the bass is just more than one note - I'll give you that. Actually, it's not half bad a track. There's little old Koxbox feel to those trippy melodies going from 3 mins and on. Of course there's good darkpsy out there it's not what I'm saying, probably isn't the intention of OP either, but I'm missing a lot of time a bit of groove/mechanic/hypnotic vibe to it; it's a genre filled with ideas that don't evolve anywhere.

 

Here's an example of dark that I like myself, just to be fair.

 

Ok, got what you are after ;)

Think the reason why you miss the old Koxbox feel is that 'modern darkpsy' is not about trippy melodies at all.

Kobox works a lot with arpeggios, acid lines, ect. If you compare that to the Arjuna track, he barely runs an ARP on that track at all, but he tries to create a groove/flow with synth modulation and fx effects. It's a different approach to build a track, and so it also sounds different ;)

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Ok, got what you are after ;)

Think the reason why you miss the old Koxbox feel is that 'modern darkpsy' is not about trippy melodies at all.

Kobox works a lot with arpeggios, acid lines, ect. If you compare that to the Arjuna track, he barely runs an ARP on that track at all, but he tries to create a groove/flow with synth modulation and fx effects. It's a different approach to build a track, and so it also sounds different ;)

You say it well, when you say your example guy has different motives (to, let's say, Koxbox that we mentioned) - and it's a taste thing at the end of the day. I'm just here thinking that when I visit a festival - even in Finland these times - I listen to the darkpsy played at night, and I couldn't tell when one track ends and another starts. A good thing? Maybe for some trippers. The festivals have just become so overrun by this mediocre, run-of-the-mill, lowest common denominator psytrance that I can't bare the direction of this genre sometimes.

 

Maybe I'm just too... OLD! :ph34r:

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