Preparation for the new psytrance class is coming to an end and soon enough I will start recording it. This class will be 100% about psytrance sound design and in this class, I will go through all of my processes and techniques, as well as the sources for getting interesting results for my music.
This blog will also be about sound design, and this time I will concentrate on a percussive sequence that is super useful when it comes to switching the scene of a track unexpectedly. There are traditional arrangement patterns, which I cannot use anymore after 20 years of making music and in my search for surprising moments, when I do not want to repeat myself and end up using the same arrangement decisions as I did so many times, I came up to this solution that is a bit different than ones before.
The situation in this example is that the track has reached the main break, which is a bit longer and the break goes all the way down and brings the track energy to a low level. The decision here is to bring the track all the way down so it can rise again if it doesn't go down, their wont is any contrast, and without contrast, there is no hype moment. We must bring it down so we make space for the rising moment. If you keep track all the time on a high energy level, listeners will get used to it and this level will become a flat line. Now, I don't say this must be done, and there are amazing tracks which are constructed differently. The tracks do not contain those high contrast but they keep a similar energy level and use other structures to keep it going. This video is about the tracks that do have contrast!
Let's get back on track! So reaching the main break, there is the main there starting in the break, which is rising, after reaching the high level there's an uplifting technique as well that is capturing 1/4th of a whole track and then making that loop shorter and shorter which is making it to sound as it is pitching up, + using several uplifters and filer to bring this rising moment even higher.
Now, instead of continuing with the dry kick and bass, the decision that we all have heard so many times, or changing the groove of kick and bass as well, or going with the full power drums together with that main there, I decided to make something completely different and switch the scene of a track into another direction by creating the percussive psychedelic stab sequence. Check the video for detailed instructions for creating this psytrance sequence.