Psychedelic Trance

[100_PERCENT ROEMER]

Well, after many many years of playing classical piano, I decided to grab a copy of FL Studio and take it for a spin. Needless to say, what I started creating was not your average classical music by any means, since it fits primarily into the Psychedelic/Goa Trance genre (which is one of my favorite genres of music). However, it does have some classical influences, so it's a bit of both worlds. Anyways, here's my work so far:

http://www.myspace.com/circlerifficmusic

I'm just looking for some input and some tips on how to better use Fruityloops Studio. Thanks guys

[Arcsynth]

Listened to "The 6th House". The intro is very good; nice rough saw progression. But when the primary synth string comes in, it's extremely bland... The attack is poor... could be EQ'd a bit more. Try using Fruity Reeverb and/or Fruity Parametric EQ (to get rid of the muddiness). After a while, the intro sounds get a little old and repetitive, but this is after all, psychadelic trance. Interesting vocoder robot voice. The crashes after that get a little annoying. But I like the pad playing in the background. Oh wait, there's that synth string again... it sounds like an old Final Fantasy game. Maybe that was what you aimed for? If so, that would work perfectly. Those chords help that statement as well. The moog synth in the background is really annoying at this point. The percussion in general is very good, though, I've noticed. That last note is very low; distorts some of the sounds. But it's a fairly nice ending alltogether. Good going, just use the mixer a lot more.

[100_PERCENT ROEMER]

Thanks for your input! The 6th House was the first song I composed in FL Studio, and I overlooked an entire set of high quality sounds. I replaced the strings with a synth organ instead, so it sounds better now.

Try listening to my other song, it's more polished and refined than The 6th House

[Xaleph]

Psy and goa trance have a very specific set of rules that make it what it is. For the longest time, I thought some of my earlier stuff was psy or goa - in reality it was industrial trance or industrial techno. I would certainly call this industrial trance/techno. With that said, I think your stuff is pretty cool - certainly mastering will come with time of practice, I would say first focus on composition and ideas. Keep coming up with what Prophecy and GLL call "doodles" - basically just songs that aren't particularly anything in particular, but just a bunch of neat ideas. That's how you really get better. Take an idea and go with it. I think it's really neat to see someone start off with the same genres that I did (your stuff sounds uncannily like my first pieces =X).

As far as goa and psy, check out Infected Mushroom's earlier stuff as well as Astral Projection. If you want to hear some of the more modern psytrance, Misted Muppets is definitely pure psytrance (they don't really deviate from the norm) if you want to hear the actual genre in it's pure form. Astral Projection is considered "Dawn" psytrance (or morning psytrance) and Infected Mushroom would be considered "Dusk" psytrance (or night psytrance). Misted Muppets would definitely fall under night psytrance as an fyi. The reason DJs call them with this genre, is that in psytrance clubs - it's when they play the music. Anyways check out the artists I've mentioned - they really give a great foundation for psytrance.

Generally you'll find psytrance is around 140-150 bpm, there is psy chillout which is incredibly slow ambient style psychedelic music (same synths and pads - just very slow) and psychedelic which is pretty slow (100-135 bpm, sometimes slower).

As far as critiquing the music you've proposed, Suspended could use more percussive work - if you take all musical components out of the song except the percussion, is it something that you could still produce as a song? If not, try adding more variations to really produce that song. It'll make it much more dynamic and exciting. The bassline really needs some action - try listening to other psytrance songs to understand how the bass is a part of the song. Generally psytrance (or goa) uses something called sidechain compression. Check that phrase out on google sometime - there are some nice tutorials out there.

Anyways - concept is there, you need to refine what you've created, especially with the percussion and bass. These items will really drive your song and your melodic/harmonic devices will fall into place.

[Tricklozen]

Well, from what I know as psytrance, these songs of yours are not even close. My early psytrance influences were Man With No Name, Astral Projection, Doof, Hallucinogen, and Total Eclipse, among others. Here are some of my thoughts from analyzing several songs recognized as psychedelic trance/psytrance/goa:

Distinct sounds and repetitive melodic patterns play a central role.

The music is heavily pattern-based.

The melodic patterns are usually pitched smoothly up and down.

The bass pattern usually remains around the same pitch range.

There is usually more than one layered bass pattern.

Non-pitch bending melodies lie somewhere around *four different notes*, or very close to that. If it does use more notes, the context where this is done is clearly separate from the rest of the song.

Key changes are rare and usually don't fit very well.

Almost always has some swirly background elements.

Some sound effects are used for transitions.

Beats are usually constant.

Hats have a rhythmic pattern.

Drumrolls that fade in are very common.

Hard beats. Hihats. Tambourines. Mostly high-pitched sounds.

Most songs start off with some soundscape.

Some also start "directly" (Pleiadians - "Electra").

Has layers of repeating background elements.

At the end it usually dissipates; gradually with various parts being stripped off one by one, sometimes slowly (over many bars/measures).

Check these ones out:

Astral Projection - "Kabalah"

Man With No Name - "Teleport"

Man With No Name - "Sly-ed"

MFG - "Why?"

Juno Reactor - "High energy protons"

Infected Mushroom was a later addition which tends to blend characteristics or soundscapes from other more acoustic genres, but not always. With more statistics, there would be a clearer picture of what characteristics define psytrance. Anyway, that's my input, use it or lose it. Nothing comes easy, to quote an Infected Mushroom song title.

I'm not sure where to place your songs, though. Felt almost new age, or maybe that's characterized as psytrance today, though I doubt it.

[Arcsynth]

I tried my hand at Psytrance once. It was more of a fusion of Experimental w/ Psytrance though.

http://www.acidplanet.com/artist.asp?PID=983625&t=6193 (no download necessary)

Note that it's fairly old and incomplete.

[Global-Trance]

Some of you guys labeling your stuff psytrance really shouldn't. Just gotta say it right now.