How to make squeaky psytrance sounds

psyviz

New member
Hi everyone i am wondering how to make squeaky psytrance sounds i included a sample. I would truly appreciate some advice and techniques as to how these sounds are made.I can here that the demo has a little delay. It would also be nice to know what synths you have used to make psytrance sounds.

Thanks
Kind regards PsyViz
 
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Well after some experimenting i have got a few cool sounds. It all comes down to how you tweak the synths and make your patterns..

If you have any other ideas that can help make these sounds please post a reply.

Kind regards
PsyViz
 
Depends on what VST you are using. When I was making psytrance, I would always use the Wasp plugin that came with FL and tweak the **** out of the resonance and filter cutoff.
 
Thanks cjmcleod for your reply. have you uploaded any of your psytrance tunes? i would love to have a listen. and have you stopped producing psytrance? what do you produce now?

Kind regards
PsyViz
 
Hi there,

I have some limited experience in building psychedelic sounds such as the one you posted. It is definitely one of the most interesting genres where you can sculpt amamzing sounds!

I think the most important thing is to play with the synth's release and delay creating an ever varying time sequence that follows the beat at the same time. Panning is also effective as in the clip you posted. Also, i can definitely hear some 1/16-gating in the clip, which accentuates the trancey feel of the synth. Filter automation can transform sounds tremendously as well..
Check my psy tune @
https://www.futureproducers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=295631
and leave some feedback
it includes some "moving synths" with some nice effectes imho but of the more organic kind (not so trancy)

peace!
 
Hey j303 Thanks for your reply. I had a listen to your Track "Location" it sounds good man good work. I would say its chill out though.
 
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I really like the sounds in the 1st post. Good ol' fasion psy squelches :D

A good way to get squeaky sounds is to use a couple of saw waves, hi pass filters on them, some delay, and depending how harsh you want it, some distortion and mess around with all of the settings. Filter cut off is always a good one, you will stumble across little things that sound cool through experimentation. Really quick delays can help get the squeaky sounds. For the squelchy and squeaky leads, a lot of the time it's all about tones and patterns not so much notes, using the glide function is really good too. Renegade is really good psy sounds, I think it's made by the same people that made Alien 303.

As j303 said, panning is a great thing to do, it gives everything it's own space, and can sound very trippy too.

Camel Audio stuff is also really good for making weird sounds.
http://www.camelaudio.com/camelspace.php
http://www.camelaudio.com/camelphat.php
http://www.camelaudio.com/camelcrusher.php

They have demos on the website (other than Crusher which is free), if you like them then buy them, although I'm sure they could be found on torrent or download if needed. I'm not going to supply links for that though :P

There are some Vanguard and Albino sound banks made for psytrance, goa and DnB.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=K7V57BPR <--- I think this is the Vanguard one.

http://thepatchlab.com/patch.php?id=136 <--- This is another cool Vanguard patch bank.

Cosmosis has a few Albino patches on his site

http://www.cosmosis.co.uk/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=27&Itemid=48

This is a really good thread with loads of information on all sorts. In fact it really is worth joining that forum. There are a lot of very experienced psy producers on there who are more then happy to answer questions and give advice.

http://www.psymusic.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=73433

I think this is a handy tutorial too, but the site isn't working for me.

http://www.dancemidisamples.com/Search/newest-first/Page-6-25.html?searchphrase=any&searchword=soun

If it is the one I think it tells you how to get awesome sounds with bionic delay and camel crunch, using Novation - V-Station.

http://www.hitsquad.com/smm/programs/BionicDelay/ <--- Bionic delay is a really good little delay, which when used creativly can make some brilliant effects.

There are some free psy VSTs here for all different things on abnormal audio.
http://www.abnormalaudio.net/
They are made by one of the members on the Psyforum, there is another on there who made the "squelch" vst

AEON said:
squelchskinmj6.jpg


Squelch is a monophonic squelch generator featuring

: two tuned oscillators with retrigger, sync and detune
: pre-filter 'drive' and post-filter 'teeth'
: a multimode limited limiter
: bitcrushy goodness
: two LFOs (pitch and cutoff, what more do you need? ;-)
: primitive stereo mangling
: analog mode for phatness
: harmonic additives for the kids
: a seriously amateur GUI

version 2 changelog:

- LFO rate now switchable (slow / fast / medium)
- preset changing still messy
- filter resonance limited to prevent monitor murder

not a terribly long list of features, granted. and i haven't done any coding of
individual modules myself; they're all available from third-party developers or
native to SE. i did design and implement some sections (stereo imagery, analog mode and
the limiter) from scratch.

what is hopefully unique, however, is the way they're stitched together. squelch
is designed to easily and quickly implement those all-too-popular acidic psytrance
squiggles. since the standard pitch-bent-saw-with-detune-and-HP-cutoff-modulation is
a little tired, there are lots of options for livening things up. i recommend
exploring the fixed harmonics, using the limiter for soundshaping, and ****ing with
the stereo image.

here's the most recent link:

http://hosted.filefront.com/aeonsound/

But I am not sure what happened with that. I will try and upload it if it hasn't been taken down for a reason.

And finally, some really helpful advice I was given. I mentioned the basics of this in the psy bass line thread, but this is much more in depth, and where I got my info from.

Lots of very cool sounds come from using a delay which affects the pitch of the sample - so that when you make the delay time shorter, the delayed signal gets higher in pitch, and vice versa. modulating delay times like this can give you that lovely stretchy twisty scratchiness. using a flanger at the same time can also really make this kind of sound interesting.



"No matter what I do, I can't seem to get any power in my tracks, they always seem really weak and thin/empty and when I pack extra sounds into them, or eq/compress/pan/distort etc it ends up just sounding a squishy mess. I know its bit of a bastard with nothing to go on, but does anyone have any handy production tips? "

find the section of your track which is the most crowded or muddy. mute everything then bring the channels in one-by-one. listen as you introduce each new channel and try to identify what is causing the problem. are some sounds too loud? are they all panned in the centre? do some sounds occupy the same space in the mix (i.e. similar frequency, position and level)? there are strategies available to fix most of these problems... but overcomplexity is its own issue :D by stripping everything out and building it back up you not only get a sense of how the parts can fit together but you can also identify what doesn't need to be there!

my writing process involves throwing loads of ideas down and then working to meld them into some kind of shape. the process of cutting and shaping and muting and reworking all the sounds is the most difficult part, and sometimes it won't happen for a few sessions... but eventually there is just a moment when everything gels and it feels right.

solving conflicts between sounds can be achieved a number of ways... but the most important thing to remember is that you only have a limited space to fill. there is a great analogy about audio which i'll mangle here...

think of digital audio like a box; it has width (stereo L/R), depth (dry sounds = 'front', reverbs / delays = 'back), it has height (frequency or pitch) and capacity or volume (level). the lid of the box is 0dB. you have to fit all your information into that box...

because the box is limited (i.e. it can only represent signals in a certain frequency range and up to a definite point, 0dB) and because there are interactions between the different dimensions of the box, you can often solve issues by adjusting the balance between different aspects of sound. have you ever turned the bass knob up loads on a hifi, then noticed how much louder the song gets when you turn it down?

"When it comes to kick and bass levels, what is the best way to have them (levels/eq)? I can't seem to get that flowing sound that we all love; the bass is either to low, or to dominating... I can't seem to get that happy medium"

reference, reference and reference! find someone's track you really love where you can only hear kick and bass. try to get yours sounding fairly similar (don't try and match it exactly, because the other track will probably be mastered - and you don't want to copy it!) in terms of the relationship between kick and bass levels. then listen to the rest of the tune, when everything else kicks in!
http://www.psymusic.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=69341&highlight=box


http://www.myspace.com/aeonaeon <- His very good music.

They are all questions I asked, as I said, get direct and sound advice from very good and experienced artists on psyforum.
 
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Thanks Supreme-Abstract for your time and effort + advice.. I stumbled along Squelch a little while back its a handy little vst. I joined psymusic forum but i can not post threads.

Any way Thanks again
Kind regards
PsyViz
 
No problem at all. I really do recomend getting Albino, Vanguard and Renegade, again you can most likley torrent or download them if you don't have money to spend on them, but I don't like to encourage it so wont post any download links.

On Psymusic, you can most likley use the search function to find all the info you need in the media production section, or it might be that your account needs to be approved by an admin. The same goes for Isratrance too. Both have a lot of experienced psy producers, a lot more psy producers than this site (so it seems)
 
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