OfficeSteppers '13 (aka the offtopic but still prod. thread)

[OfficialDAPT]

Slowly losing confidence in myself. Cant finish a single WIP because I realize it sounds like shit after a while.



Fuck.

Well look at the track in your sig, apparently loads of people like your music. If you've done it once you can do it again.

[mthrfnk]

My new job (well I'm now 4 months in) and the Christmas break has been stalling a lot of my production lately, kind of scuppered my plans to make a nice little EP for before Christmas.

Haven't made anything new in nearly a month, the only time I've opened my DAW is to either sort new random samples I've picked up or to help people on here with "how to's" on sound design.

Definitely going to try and knuckle down the end of the week and push out a new track

Been listening to burial for the last two days without opening reason. The most impressive part for me has to be how the lofi crackle interact with the drums.. It's not just layered over the entire beat it sounds...

Random idea...Reverse ducking. Like instead of having how you would with sidechaining where something 'drops' whenever the kick hits, have it do the opposite and only play when the kick hits, give a nice long release on the sidechaining device and you have this bed of lo-fi snap crackle & goodness that only plays when triggered by a drum.

Could even automate the release on the sidechain to vary the response times over the course of a track.

Man I'm so going to try this, I read this post at work earlier and spend a good 20 mins just thinking about a nice ways to do this and other similar things. - going to try with Peak Controller, and use inverse mapping to bring up the volume of a vinyl/dust crackle/air mix

[ehbes]

Or process two sets of ambient "things" crackle and rain differently and sidechain one and do this to the other

[OfficialDAPT]

Man I'm so going to try this, I read this post at work earlier and spend a good 20 mins just thinking about a nice ways to do this and other similar things. - going to try with Peak Controller, and use inverse mapping to bring up the volume of a vinyl/dust crackle/air mix

If you have two pads/atmospheres you could do could put a slight auto pan on both and then make them the exact opposite of eachother so while one is in the left ear the other is in the right and then they switch every so often. Might sound cool.

[Aufnahmewindwuschel]

i am too dump for this how do you do reverse sidechain?

[wub]

i am too dump for this how do you do reverse sidechain?

The sidechaining itself isn't reversed...it just increases the signal of the affected parameter instead of decreasing it when the trigger hits.

Man I'm so going to try this, I read this post at work earlier and spend a good 20 mins just thinking about a nice ways to do this and other similar things. - going to try with Peak Controller, and use inverse mapping to bring up the volume of a vinyl/dust crackle/air mix

The position of the peak controller in the effects chain also affects the sound...for example if you had a delay before the peak controller, then the delayed signal would also act as a trigger.

[Aufnahmewindwuschel]

haah shit i tried to get my head around it but yeah i get it now low volume and volume raise when sth hits

[mthrfnk]

i am too dump for this how do you do reverse sidechain?

The sidechaining itself isn't reversed...it just increases the signal of the affected parameter instead of decreasing it when the trigger hits.

Man I'm so going to try this, I read this post at work earlier and spend a good 20 mins just thinking about a nice ways to do this and other similar things. - going to try with Peak Controller, and use inverse mapping to bring up the volume of a vinyl/dust crackle/air mix

The position of the peak controller in the effects chain also affects the sound...for example if you had a delay before the peak controller, then the delayed signal would also act as a trigger.

Interesting, never thought of that.

[Hircine]

making deep ass minimal tunes again. also recycling my infamous gargantuan bass. That's the closest I will ever get to having a signature mid range.

[wub]

@wub: why the psychedelic rock rant? I'm all for such a rant personally as that's what I grew up on...will try to remind you.

Not so much a rant as an observation that came to me the other day. Why don't you get Psy Dubstep? You get Psy Trance and there is a Psy House group on Soundcloud but TBH that's not really what I'd call 'psy' in how I imagine the word.

But psy dubstep? Google throws up a couple of mixes tagged as 'psy dubstep' but they sounded a little like early-00s breaks to me.

So it got me thinking, how would characteristics of psychedelic rock translate into Dubstep, if we take them as the following;

• electric guitars, often used with feedback, wah wah and fuzzboxes;
• elaborate studio effects, such as backwards tapes, panning, phasing, long delay loops, and extreme reverb;
• exotic instrumentation, with a particular fondness for the sitar and tabla;
• a strong keyboard presence, especially organs, harpsichords, or the Mellotron (an early tape-driven 'sampler');
• extended instrumental solos or jams;
• complex song structures, key and time signature changes, modal melodies and drones;
• primitive electronic instruments such as synthesizers and the theremin;
• lyrics that made direct or indirect reference to drugs, as in Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit" or Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze";
• surreal, whimsical, esoterically or literary-inspired, lyrics.

No reason I couldn't adapt the following principals to Dubstep and make something that I considered Psychedelic as a result.


This all came after a long day of spreadsheets and live Grateful Dead recordings, FWIW

[chekov]

dubstep's already pretty psychedelic imo

would be nice to hear a development on that kind of idea though

[wub]

I've been considering getting cheap guitar pedals for a while to do some sound colouring, but TBH I have no clue how work or would fit into a setup.

[chekov]

I've been considering getting cheap guitar pedals for a while to do some sound colouring, but TBH I have no clue how work or would fit into a setup.

you could export individual tracks onto a cd then record them back onto your computer through an effects chain of pedals maybe? wouldn't allow for much flexibilty though i guess

could also use them while resampling if you've got a hardware sampler

[wub]

Found a guitar pedal thread as well - http://www.dubstepforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=171451

[chekov]

Found a guitar pedal thread as well - http://www.dubstepforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=171451

bangin

[wub]

Well worth a listen

[fragments]

@Wub and Psy Dubstep convo:

Too much to quote, so I'll just begin with some thoughts of mine...(cause I know ya'll have been waiting impatiently)...

Interesting idea...I never really thought of that before. The idea that there are "Psy" sub genres in other dance music genres. But, really, what makes them psychedelic? They don't actually employ anything you listed, do they?

Regardless, this comes at an interesting time as I just bought a rock/pop ROMpler on a whim...I know it has guitars. As far as integrating guitar pedals into your setup goes, I've got an Electro Harmonix Memory Man delay pedal I absolutely love. If you have enough I/O you can just set it up as a simple send return like so:

Mixer Channel 1 is set to: not send signal to the master, set output to a pair or single OUT on your interface. Route cables from the OUT(s) to the IN(s) guitar pedal.

----route cables from OUT(s) of pedal to a set or single IN on interface--

Mixer Channel 2 is set to: sen signal to the master, set input as the pair or single INPUT on your interface.

As for adapting all that to Dubstep...

Guitars are typically in the mid-range...so one could start with designing a new kind of mid-range sound, probably one that is more musical, by employs FX as you describe, so that you can do the solos and key changes and such. Psychedelic guitar (Hendrix for example) kinda already sounds like some of the crazy midrange we hear in dubstep, but I'd say dubstep is far more a-melodic.

...actually...now that I think about it dubstep kinda does a lot stuff psychedelic rock does already in some ways. Talks about drugs, uses elaborate studio FX (just easier for us to do them now), uses ethnic instruments and exotic instrumentation ...

I think the big thing is that there isn't a strong focus on "real" song writing melody/harmony and the vocals aren't really lyrics.

[wub]

Maybe I'm getting psy confused with experimental

[drake89]

Wub if you're serious about getting guitar pedals I'd think about guitar rig first. For the price of the software and hardware pedal board you could get maybe 2 or 3 hardware pedals. You can get some seriously massive sounds out of it especially multitracking. But maybe you've already played with it or prefer hardware. I'd do hardware all day if I could but itb is faster and cheaper for me.

[fragments]

^Also cheap pedals can be noisy. I paid almost 200 USD for that delay pedal...but it's the real deal and nothing better for live tweaking...there's not as much knobby rack mount gear these days is one reason I like that pedal so well. Couldn't find anything for the same price.

@wub, I don't think you are barking up the wrong tree...or a bad one for that matter. I think there is enough Dubstep isn't doing musically/melodically. A lot of both the deep, sub stuff and the tear out stuff isn't terribly musical in the way psychedelic rock is.