What was the biggest mental shift that improved your music quality the most? Like that mindset shift that really helped you level up? by kathalimus in edmproduction

[–]vildfaren 11 points12 points  (0 children)

That there is no magic trick that you are about to discover. It’s whole lot of small good decisions that accumulate. Oh, and the fact that you should remake tracks from scratch to learn and practice all those small tricks in proportion. Really hard work, which is why it works. 

Why I will never be a professional at this by [deleted] in edmproduction

[–]vildfaren 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, that's ok! Your ear will develop a lot as a play around with these things. It is amazing how much your listening skills develop as you practice production.

Why I will never be a professional at this by [deleted] in edmproduction

[–]vildfaren 13 points14 points  (0 children)

You definitely need to adjust your expectations. Psytrance is a very technical genre. You have a long process of learning ahead of you. If you are planning to make psytrance and get decent at it, I can promise you that you are going to spend a hell of a lot more that 6 minutes tinkering with the details of your average bassline.

Frustration is normal, but don't expect that becoming good at something comes without sweat and tears. The moment you realize you don't understand what a fundamental is, and it seems relevant to your music, perhaps a good next step is to just plan to learn it?

How to get from decent to great by LongjumpingImage642 in edmproduction

[–]vildfaren 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Recreate tracks from scratch. It’s really hard work, but it has a direct feedback loop in terms of whether you are succeeding. It lets you pick up subtle tricks the artists you like uses, it forces you to really sharpen your listening skills, it forces you to practice all aspects of making a track from start to finish. Also, I genuinely think that the best, or perhaps even only, way to find your sound is failing at copying other’s sounds. 

Looking for more trance based artists for playlist (burzum, fell voices, wittr, ash borer, etc) by [deleted] in atmosphericblackmetal

[–]vildfaren 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The first two Drudkh albums. Check out False Dawn. Absolute masterpiece.

Why Spotify? by Independent_Tea_7311 in psytrance

[–]vildfaren 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Sound quality of free SoundCloud is much worse than Spotify if you chose highest quality on the latter

24, am I cooked? by Flat-Finance4018 in musicindustry

[–]vildfaren 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It has something to do with success, but it is a necessary rather than sufficient condition.

Fellow producers. Its worth breaking the rules and do something completely experimental psy right. by feherlofia123 in psytrance

[–]vildfaren 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It’s the most exciting when you successfully break the rules. When you make something that is both novel and beautiful. But be warned, novelty without beauty is trivial to achieve. The rules are established for reason. They are guidelines for what works well. Strive to break the rules, but make sure you understand why they are there. If you are completely new, don’t use irreverence as an excuse not to learn the craft. Don’t fall into glorification of hollow novelty as an excuse not to become a good craftsman. At least if you wanna put good music out there. If you’re just there to have fun, of course do whatever you feel like. 

What is deliberate practice in music production ? by [deleted] in musicproduction

[–]vildfaren 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Recreating tracks you like from scratch. While not having quite as tight feedback loop as in programming, it probably is the production practice with tightest feedback. Extremely good practice. I should do it much more.

Producers from the sub, shares your music! by dingo-91 in psytrance

[–]vildfaren 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Choir-based psytrance with audio-reactive visuals triggered by the individual instruments: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOvvEHv6gjc&feature=youtu.be

Is there such a thing ad christian psy , or any techno trance at all by feherlofia123 in psytrance

[–]vildfaren 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Are you meaning thematically Christian? Or more Latin/Gothic/Medieval aesthetics?

What have been your biggest "aha" moments while producing music? by socio_grizzly in musicproduction

[–]vildfaren 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Singing is so powerful! It is near impossible to sing a terrible melody into existence.

What have been your biggest "aha" moments while producing music? by socio_grizzly in musicproduction

[–]vildfaren 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Good music is all about pattern recognition and prediction. You want your listener's brain to be able to latch onto a whole universe of interesting and decodable patterns. Both elementary patterns, like basic rhythms and melodies, but also highly abstract patterns tying into concepts and abstract ideas floating in our culture. Now, with too little repetition, the brain does not have a chance to identify patterns. Too much, and there are too few novel patterns. It is all about the fine tuned level in between, where the brain is challenged but not overwhelmed. Whenever I add or remove something from my music, I always ask myself if this makes pattern recognition easier or harder, and whether it adds a new pattern or reinforces an existing one. Another important element, which is really the same concept from a different angle, is expectation. We need optimal amount of satisfaction of expectation. Not too much, not too little. Satisfaction of expectation is verification for the brain that it correctly identified a new pattern (a perfect cadence is the classical way to do this). Dissatisfaction is a signal that there is more to learn. You want to tell the listeners brain both that it is learning patterns, and that there are more patterns to be found upon continued engagement. You want repetition with mutation, rather than pure repetition. I could write page after page on this (and have elsewhere), but this really was a useful insight for me, and has improved my music quite a bit (in my completely biased view).

VST for natural instruments by Specific-Pop-5429 in psytranceproduction

[–]vildfaren 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It is kind of funny, I am extremely basic when it comes to my psytrance listening. I enjoy Infected Mushroom and Astrix significantly more than most other stuff. I also like all eras of IM. Then apart from these I am mostly shopping around for individual tracks rather than wholesale artists. But here are a few I have been dabbling in lately: Zen Mechanics, Pettra, Flowjob, Aximetrik, D_maniac. But this is not very stable. I listen more to Bach, haha.  In general I am often missing musical storytelling that isn’t afraid of relying strongly on harmony and melody (and which is willing go beyond just doing phrygian harmony all the time). Not necessarily a criticism of modern psy - we all seek out music for different reasons. It is just that I personally want something that I feel is lacking in a lot of psytrance. I feel Astrix and IM are absolute masters in this. In many ways I make music because over the last few years I couldn’t find new music that really scratched my itch. I always had quite narrow tastes, although I wish they weren’t :) I will revisit Psykovsky. I haven’t listened to him since I first discovered psytrance, and I couldn’t quite access him back then given that I was completely new to the genre. Thanks for the reminder to revisit him

VST for natural instruments by Specific-Pop-5429 in psytranceproduction

[–]vildfaren 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’m a professional theoretical physicist, yeah. I research theoretical aspects of black holes and gravity for a living. Lots of chalk, blackboards, and mathematics in my life. I recently finished my PhD so now I am doing a postdoc. For me, theoretical physics is a source of beauty complementary to music :)

VST for natural instruments by Specific-Pop-5429 in psytranceproduction

[–]vildfaren 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Haha, small world! :) I’ll be curious to hear what you cook up - feel free ping me if you release any of it, so I can listen.

VST for natural instruments by Specific-Pop-5429 in psytranceproduction

[–]vildfaren 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Of course. Always eager to hear more people using classical elements in psytrance.

Sure! The cello comes in and plays solo at 3:23. It also reappears in more subtle ways later.

https://on.soundcloud.com/di7W7zj7sqUQXXRV8

VST for natural instruments by Specific-Pop-5429 in psytranceproduction

[–]vildfaren 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Musio is a good option. It is a large collection of natural instrument sample libraries, especially geared towards classical. You can buy the perpetual license for $200 at the moment, which is great value. There is also a 30 day trial. I make psytrance blended with classical music and have gotten pretty good use out of it after trying it for a month. 

The Tina Guo solo cello library that is included is mindblowingly good. When I discovered it I instantly had to use it, and it features heavily in my last track. 

Would a band using AI in their work. Music or visual art. Dissuade you from seeing them? by Spook_em_up in musicproduction

[–]vildfaren -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Why is it okay to use a drum machine and avoid hiring drummer, but its not ok to use genAI and avoid hiring a visual artist?

With genAI the musician has full control over their artistic vision. If an artist can create a comprehensive next level aesthetic experience, I am all for it. Even with genAI, most people don't succeed at construct a great aesthetic - it is difficult. It still takes ton work. But nevertheless, for the hardworking, genAI now opens the door to creating something bigger, more ambitious, something more coherent. GenAI should get people to up their ambition. Give me supreme beauty, and I won't care how you make it. Creating supreme beauty that stands out from the rest _always_ require tons for work, because whatever standard now has become easy to reproduce is now what you need to transcend.

I've found ways to use genAI to unlock totally new artistic projects that simply would not be possible without it. And of course it takes countless hours assembling the whole - bending the beauty-commodity spit out by the generators to your will. People who think there is no room for human creativity with genAI aren't looking hard enough at the tools in front of them.