I want to make music that sounds something like psytrance...

NBee

NBee

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Hi everyone.

I've played around with Midi for years - I had an AtariSt and a few midi instruments, plus an old Akai sampler which I used to use and managed to create some nice things over the years.

Now I'm PC'd up with Cubase VST5, along with a decent midi soundcard, and the same Akai sampler, Kawai keyboard etc. I seem to be running out of ideas - more samples, more midi sounds - lacking inspiration a bit.

I want my music to start sounding a bit more psytrance - at least as far as the drums and basslines are concerned. I'm not going to try and do all the squelchy leads and synth stuff - I realise you need far too much equipment for that and I just don't have the setup (though I'd love to...). But how could I go about getting those rythm sounds?

Are there some samples available anywhere I could nick? Is there a plug-in for Cubase which can do that?

Is there a cheap way to get hold of all these sounds?

Would love to hear any advice!
 
I realise you need far too much equipment for that and I just don't have the setup (though I'd love to...). But how could I go about getting those rythm sounds?
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you can do 90% of those sounds with cheap software but it'll take you ages to learn all the ins and outs and get a feel for all the subtleties of each instrument.

check these out on www.kvr-vst.com:

reFX vanguard
rgc: audio Z3ta+
softplug adventus
audiorealism bassline
muon tau (free)

bassline and muon tau are both reproductions of roland's tb-303 and they sounds pretty damn good - for those squelchy acid lines.

i make nearly all leads/pads/ambience and squelchy rhythmic patterns on vanguard. its just sick.

drumwise you'll have to build your own percussion but a common trick is to do so out of existing free perc samples off the net. you will rarely find any kick sample (free or otherwise) that doesnt need some production to make it sound good. but check these out

http://www.dorumalaia.com/ (a legend. offers some really high quality percs in all shapes and sizes. reverses. analogue FX. the works. for free. also theres a number of sample packs for sale there which are pretty good too.

http://www.tranceaddict.com/forum/ (go to the production forum area and search for bren-f kick samples. you should find his sample pack which is free and decent.)

http://meanbeat.cjb.net/ (just incredible. amazing free high quality samples and theres alot of them too including sample packs of the famous tr 808 and tr 909. they sound better than most of the free 808 and 909 sample packs ive come across. both are used extensively in trance, psy and techno. amazing bongo, tabla and ethnic percussion samples as well as vintage drum machine sounds, synthetic and sampled snares, etc etc)

http://www.hammersound.net/ (all free soundfonts. quality is variable although there are alot of amazing sampled acoustic instruments here. get rgc:audio sfz (its free on kvr) and load up some of these.)

have fun.
 
I want to make music that sounds something like psytranc

NBee said:
I'm not going to try and do all the squelchy leads and synth stuff - I realise you need far too much equipment for that....
Click to expand...

common misconception - you would be surprised at how much of this music is written on nothing more than a pc / laptop running cubase/Logic and a whole bunch of softsynths n a creative use of pluggins.

NBee said:
Are there some samples available anywhere I could nick?
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hold on, im sure colin OOOD started a thread somewhere about sample sites, should imagine most of it is percussion too.

here you go >> http://psy-forum.co.uk/psyforum/viewtopic.php?t=12124

NBee said:
Is there a plug-in for Cubase which can do that?
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do what? :D
 
whooop there it is > WK beat me to it!! and a little more comprehensive too > nice 1.

also, have a good old trawl through the history of posts in this section > there is a shit load of good info here :D
 
You can sqelch your bloody head off with an akai. Just get a sample cd of basic waveforms and filter n modulate the pitch. Ac-id.
 
Thanks for all these great links guys.

I do already have some of the VST plugins/instruments and things - the problem for me is knowing how to use them. I kind of get frustrated and turn them off after a while of not getting anywhere. But certainly if I could create some decent drum and bass sounds I'd be more inclined to continue.

Also, I have a problem with my setup. (Open can of worms....!) When I play a one of these plug-in instruments using my midi keyboard through Cubase, there is a delay from when I hit the note to when I hear the sound. Only once the sound is recorded and played back can I really hear how it sounds. Don't suppose anyone knows what's going on there?!
 
That'll be latency.

Depends what sound card you're using - a soundcard that is designed for music production should have a set of drivers called ASIO drivers, specifically for use with sequencers etc.

If you just have a bog-standard PC soundcard, Cubase will use either 'ASIO Multimedia' or 'ASIO DirectSound' drivers. These are drivers that emulate ASIO behaviour using normal Windows methods - the latency will be higher than with specific ASIO drivers, but you will at least be able to use the sequencer.

First, if you have a standard soundcard, make sure that it's set to use ASIO DirectSound rather than Multimedia - the latency will be much lower, though it will still be slightly noticeable.

Check out a driver set called ASIO4All, (will post link in a bit), which will give you even lower latency than DirectSound - this was designed to work with SoundBlaster Live cards originally.

J.
 
JPsychodelicacy said:
That'll be latency.

Depends what sound card you're using - a soundcard that is designed for music production should have a set of drivers called ASIO drivers, specifically for use with sequencers etc.

If you just have a bog-standard PC soundcard, Cubase will use either 'ASIO Multimedia' or 'ASIO DirectSound' drivers. These are drivers that emulate ASIO behaviour using normal Windows methods - the latency will be higher than with specific ASIO drivers, but you will at least be able to use the sequencer.

First, if you have a standard soundcard, make sure that it's set to use ASIO DirectSound rather than Multimedia - the latency will be much lower, though it will still be slightly noticeable.

Check out a driver set called ASIO4All, (will post link in a bit), which will give you even lower latency than DirectSound - this was designed to work with SoundBlaster Live cards originally.

J.
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My soundcard isn't great but ok - don't know if you've head of it but it's called a Hercules GameTheatre XP - about 3 or 4 years old, I got it cos it looked nice and had proper Midi ports, and lots of audio ins and outs. But I have no idea about how to check this ASIO stuff... there's nothing mentioned in the software utility that comes with it.
 
JPsychodelicacy said:
Odds on it doesn't have native ASIO drivers then. Try the DirectSound drivers in Cubase (Options->Audio Setup->System), and if the latency is still to high, try downloading and installing this:

http://michael.tippach.bei.t-online.de/asio4all/

Then select ASIO4All from the same (Options->Audio Setup->System) box. :)

Hope that helps,

J.
Click to expand...

Mate, I love you, it works.

You've no idea what a difference that makes :D :D :D


WAIT - no it doesn't :mad:

Now I hear the right thing when I play the keyboard - but the delay now seems to be in the recording. ie, when I record some midi, and play it back, it's not anywhere near where I played it (if that makes sense...)/ There's still about a second delay going on.
 
i'm having a similar problem to NBee, midi plays fine but records *way* off the mark.. i'm sure cubase used to have a midi to audio delay setting, but i can't find it in nuendo.

(oh, and ASIO4All kills my computer big stylee)

if anyone has any ideas it would be much appreciated, composing with the mouse isn't really the best way of doing things
 
Just out of interest, are you playing along to a programmed beat, or the Cubase metronome?

I always found the audio metronome on VST5 (I used 5.1, 5.3 and 5.6) to be a little wobbly.

J.
 
Yeah it's well wobbly - I was worried that my PC was causing this, ie. something was using system RAM making the program unstable. But maybe it just is...

Yeah I use the metronome at first, but not once I've some beats down I turn it off.

I don't think that's relevant to our problem though :(
 
Ultimately, 3rd party drivers and whatnot are just hopeful hacks. They might work, but they might not. If your timing is really that bad , there is no substitute for having a properly decent card with properly decent drivers.

Not even expensive these days :)
 
Hey guys, I sorted the timing problem (at least as far as playback was concerned).

It was all caused by a crap metronome - I went to Options->Metronome, and it was set to use the Microsoft default crap. I set it to my midi card, and now I have beautiful flowing drums and basslines :D :D :D

I still have the latency issue but I can get around that I think.
 
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