Hi everyone,

I know this is the kind of questions everybody keeps asking like "hOw DoEs [insert popular artist] dO ThAt?" kind of, but still, I have been working on it for 4 days, and I'm getting depressed right now. I may have done 30 test tracks, without convincing results.
It's kind of a challenge to me... I'll exlain what I tried, link an audio of what I did, and I hope some of you can point out what's wrong.
I listened to this part of the song almost 100 times, i'm going crazy !

First of all, here is the song -> The part I an struggling on is between 1:45 and 2:12.

I love this atmosphere.

First, here is my analysis : I thought there are 3 bass layers :

- one is a sub only (is it constant? breathing? or is it the kick's sub I hear?).
- one is a saw wave, classic 234 pattern, with a tight cutoff enveloppe (or, is it the actual only bass, wich also gives the subs we hear?).
- One is a clicking bass, EQed with a severe lowcut.
+ One kick, without much click.

What do you think ?

So here is what I did first : (I only have ANA2 and Kick2, wich I bought with the SonicAcademy discount, since I'm a student and I'm broke ^^ .). But I think It's doable with these.

Layering the bass with :
- A sin wave sub layer, using ANA2. Each sub note has a 1 bar duration.
- A Saw wave, using ANA2 still, only working on the cutoff's enveloppe
Boosting subs a little bit with EQ.
- Add a click.
+ A strong kick, using Kick2, without wuch click.

And guess what : it's absolutely horrible. I's a glowy mess.
Then, I removed the sub layer, and worked only on my bassline EQ. The result is quite better, but still really far from what I meant to achieve.
Here you go :

What I am looking for is this constant sub layer whe can hear in Astrix's work, without the song getting glowy...
-> Any advice on the song I posted ?
-> Is there a plugin I should use preferably ? I heard about Tritian for bass, but it's too expensive for now... Wich is unfortunate because I really want to get into psytrance production, Liquid soul/astrix style, atmospheric.
-> If you already produced a similar track, I would thank you a lot for any help/tips on how to layer this kind of tracks.

Thank you!

 

Last edited: Apr 29, 2019

I think you might be missing a key technique in your cooking: sidechaining.

The Astrix track is certainly using some form of it, and that is how the pulsing "present-yet-not-glowy" sound is accomplished. The sound of one mix layer is constantly affecting the sound of other layers.

Mastering compression in general is going to be key in this style. You're on the right track!
If you want to try an interesting learning experiment, once your mix has more or less all the elements, put all the faders to zero and then start building the mix using only compression. So without ever touching the faders, and without EQ. Don't cheat with the output gain on compressors either, the goal is for you to gain the skill of finding the musical sweet spot balance using only compression itself. Need something turned down, set up compression. Need it up, back off the compression or tweak the Attack surgically.

If you badly need to EQ something, use compressor sidechain to emphasize the frequency ranges you're trying to cut or modify, so the compressor reacts differently. It can accomplish something similar to equalization, but dynamic.

This seems unrelated to your question at first glance, but I think putting some effort there might open your eyes to the possibilities and you'll start building "living" mixes where elements interact dynamically to create a balance.

 

It is psytrance

 

It's just Trance. Very Astral Projection circa 1998.

 

Hi Lymphocyte, It is way simpler than you think, just keep in mind that Astrix its being making music since back in the days and he is a very good producer, regardless of his taste for music.

Kick 2 it is a great tool for kicks but he is more likely to use the old and trusted Bazzim http://www.ismism.de/BazzISM.htm

For your bassline just start with 1 synth to begin with, you could use any but make sure it has a function that retrigger the oscillator from the same place each time. Serum has it, Sylneth has it and Spire has it, even Massvie so it is very common on synths.

Modus Operandi
- Draw exactly 16 notes sequence in 1 Bar ( all on the same notes for now) maybe in the G note. At this point, if you press play will sound very repetitive.
-load the kick plugin - or a sample and add 4 kicks in a bar
-Add a compressor to your bassline and feed the sidechain with your kick drum up until you almost only hear only 2 notes before each kick drum.
-Add a simple 1 envelope to the filter of your synth and adjust the Cut Off filter, the ENV Mod - Filter Env Attack and Filter Envelope Decay until sounds like a nice pulsating sound.
- Go back to your basic midi pattern and start to move notes around within each kick drum almost like an arp sequence type.
- Apply different scales to your notes
- Apply different quantification grooves to your notes

Then you gonna have to take it from here and play with it until it sounds the best you can and then build a good song around it.

This is just the basic foundation to get you started

Hope it helps