Mixing down "psychedlic" music

[Bresson]

Hey so I've recently forayed into the world of psychedlic dub, in the vein of Bluetech, Shulman, Shpongle etc. Its incredibly fun to make but its not so easy to mixdown because theres so much in the way of reverb and weird FX and field recording tracks, and the fact that this tune im working on has upwards 40 tracks (and rising) doesnt help. I've been just pushing through the mixdown, but its obviously not something I relish doing, so is there anyone else producing this sort of music that could give me some pointers on how to streamline the mix so I can just go back to focusing on the music? Thanks!

Here's a track for an example of what I'm doing in case you're lost. Its also free so if you dig it, might as well take it: http://soundcloud.com/bresson/through-t ... -and-three

[leeany]

I'm currently doing tracks with a lot of field recording an atmospheric sounds (got a lot of tracks with about 40 tracks too) and what I do is just some global eq'ing and filtering and drowning things in a lot of reverb. You can also use busses to apply the same effect chains to multiple instruments at once.

btw I'm loving that tune !! what software are you using ?

[Bresson]

Yeah filtering out excess frequencies help a lot! I don't normally do it with more minimal tunes but when you already have a million and one frequencies coming at you it makes it more manageable. Enveloping helps there too
Glad you like the tune! I'm using logic and a lot of crazy samples and software and recordings and all sorts of shit. Just fucking around really

[narcissus]

ah, cool. the time in my life that I was introduced to dubstep happened to coincide with the time in my life when I was introduced in a big way to psychadelics..
what I learned in this period of making intensely bizarre sounding beats, is that the overall emotional/mental effect of the track is really not supposed to be the same effect as other kinds of tracks.. so a different kind of mixing is called for.. you really have to think about what the "main" idea is at every point, and accent that in the mix.. or perhaps you want to have that main idea very far off and be swamped in swirling atmosphere, and gradually be faded in and out to simulate the effects of certain substances on perception..
there really is no way that psychadelic music is supposed to sound, but it IS supposed to sound good and coherent, so you can't do just ANYthing, but I think you have to listen to your heart/mind a lot more for what is "right," rather than relying on any rules.

[Bresson]

Thats all im going for in a "mixdown" here, just sounding dubby and solid and clear. I love this music because after 5 years of busting my ass to make perfect dancefloor beats in drum n bass with that perfect structure and set in stone mixdown style, its nice to be able to have the freedom to do whatever i like. It also sounds FANTASTIC when i'm high. The thing that makes mixdowns difficult here is reverb and delays hahaha
But its nice to find other people into this style of production

[lyons238]

your mixdown sounds pretty good to me

loving that tune man, excellent job. downloaded.

[leeany]

are you in for a collab ? :p

[narcissus]

Thats all im going for in a "mixdown" here, just sounding dubby and solid and clear. I love this music because after 5 years of busting my ass to make perfect dancefloor beats in drum n bass with that perfect structure and set in stone mixdown style, its nice to be able to have the freedom to do whatever i like. It also sounds FANTASTIC when i'm high. The thing that makes mixdowns difficult here is reverb and delays hahaha
But its nice to find other people into this style of production

i can't eat psychadelics anymore really, i go outta my head, but yeah i remember halloween '09, on the way up to a forest renegade, bumping this tune i made called "Trip or Treat," perfect.

to tame all the verb and delay, i might suggest sidechaining it.. either to kick, kick/snare, bassline, or a muted channel that is triggered at will.. or even maybe, sidechained using the REST of the mix as input, with pretty quick release. that would definitely make it all "fit" a little bitter, but might also duck the echo too much.

[Jacob15728]

Great to see people talking about psydub/chill here. One of my favorite genres ever. Check out Ott, Entheogenic, Younger Brother, and if you want a psychill/dubstep fusion, Phutureprimitive

[wormcode]

I do similar stuff too, more along the lines of dub techno though. One thing that is important is EQing the reverb and delay tails. Use a lot of sends too, so it keeps the sounds sounding "as one" or related. That helps too since they won't be fighting for the same reverb space unless maybe they are triggered together, but then wet/dry helps. Lots of automation. Sometimes I have more automation tracks than audio tracks. Don't forget dub either. Removing elements from the mix.
With dub music, less is definitely more. That old cliche, but it's especially true with spacey dubby music.
Dub is all about riding the faders and feeling it out.


Really cool tune btw.

[Electric_Head]

I create pretty busy, full, psychedelic bass.
From OTT to Solar Fields to Killawatts and over to Stress Assassins.

It`s a fair amount of work to make everything sit.
The key is to always provide enough space for things to move.
Don`t over produce the track.
Limit the arpeggiator.
Control the reverb.
EQ EQ EQ

[Bresson]

Thats a really good point and something I didn't even realise because of the direction I was going with the music, but those minimal pieces are some of the best. Sometimes all I need is a bassline and a beat, and something floating around between it all. With the psychedelic aspect of the genre, its super easy to get caught up making a million glitched out fucked up noises when you really should just sit back and enjoy the beat

are you in for a collab ? :p

I sure am, PM me