I have just returned from one psytrance festival. I like to go there, not mainly for the music (which I like mostly), but for the atmosphere. Meeting all kind of different people and getting out from the usual "reality" and norms and rat race and jumping into crazines, relaxing the norms and trying new things. It is so refreshing, I always return home more happy and enthusiastic about life. And yes, people eat like tons of drugs at festivals, but I had never ever seen or experienced anything bad from people on trance festivals (which I can see everywhere where alcohol is the main drug). Sounds too hippy maybe, but that is my experience.
This is why I love techno festivals and parties. I also like the music (and I'm a hobbyist producer myself) but the sheer freedom you have for a whole festival or even evening/weekend is liberating, is a escape from reality. And the hypnotic sound also gets me to other places, even when sober.
P.S.: and by "techno" I mean the genre of EDM called techno, starting in Detroit in late 80s/early 90s and spreading through Europe by the UK, Belgium, Netherlands and Germany, not the "general techno" that is used in US to mean any kind of electronic dance music.
Sure! One thing that I love about the music producing/synth community is that we all love to share :)
I have dedicated myself to use only hardware for a while, working on a computer for 8+ hours a day really puts me off on being creative on it so I went to the only-hardware route.
With that said, my current setup is:
* Roland TR-8S for the drums, recreations of the classic drum machines (TR-606, 707, 808, 909, etc.) and it also plays samples, it's a really cool instrument to play live and perform instead of programming but with the A-H variations per pattern it also is much more powerful than the previous TR-8
* Elektron Analog Four Mk II as my main analog synth, it can do 4-voice polyphony if you aren't using all 4 tracks for different sounds or you get 4-in-1 synths with 2 oscillators per track, a lot of options for modulation (2 envelopes per track, 2 LFOs per track, etc.). I use it mainly for basslines and some leads but sometimes will use for pads, sample them and free up the tracks for playing other stuff.
* Elektron Octatrack Mk II is my brain for the setup, my sampler, my pickup machine, looper, and so it goes. It's a VERY deep machine with tons of possibilites, artists across many genres use it (from Radiohead to a lot of techno producers) and I'm even using it to help a friend who has a solo ballad rock project to add some cool ambiance to his tracks.
* Elektron Digitone, my FM and polysynth, 8 voices, 2 per track but as the A4 it can steal voices from other tracks to play up to 8 notes at a time from a single track. This machine is really cool and inspiring, it's FM-made-easy as apart from the FM engine you also get the world of subtractive synthesis with its filters. I also love that that it has 4 MIDI tracks that I can internally route back to it to use more than 2 LFOs per track to have even more modulation.
I'm very happy with this setup, it covers all the bases while keeping it more or less compact (for a 4 synths setup).
Feel free to ask any more questions if you've got them :)
Been wanting to get a digitone, how easy is it to sculpte basses (similar to dnb like artists similar to bredran)
Also what is the inputs left and right used for?
It looks amazing especially when you need to travel
It's really easy to get a good bass from the DN, with the filter and amp env you can totally get a bass similar to a more common subtractive synth.
I'd say that the A4 can give me a "deeper" bass when I need but the DN comes loaded with quite a few basses presets for you to start from while you are getting the hang of it. I'm not sure how close to bredran's basses you can get (as I don't produce DnB) but if you can try a DN from a local music store for a bit do it! It's quite fast to get inspired with it and much easier to design sounds than it first appears.
And yup, I've been carrying it around sometimes while traveling, I'm starting to consider getting an external battery capable of powering my Elektron gear as I'd love to bring the OT and the DN while off the grid.
Thank you very much, that looks impressive. I'm looking for professional drum sound, but honestly can't justify the price of the TR-8S, hoped that there's some sample set that I could use from software. Anyway it's useful to me as a reference.
For drum samples I recommend to check out the packs from Samples From Mars[0], they are very thorough in how they sample hardware equipment and real music lovers that use most of the revenue to buy more gear to create new packs.
I haven't published anything yet as I don't feel comfortable with my creations, haha, most of the fun I have now is playing live with a friend or jamming by myself and recording 30-90 minutes sessions, mostly to track my own improvement. I hope I can publish something in the next year or so.
P.S.: I'm linking their "All Products From Mars" combo pack so you can dig into each one individually to check them out.
I definitely have been! I live in Sweden also so it was very cool to find a local maker with such unique instruments.
A big selling point for me was the Elektron sequencer and workflow, I just "got it" from the start as I didn't have much experience with other synths before. I don't really mind the menu diving as, after you get familiar with it, it feels like the machine is a keyboard of shortcuts for you to get around easily.
Mind sharing what is your setup like? Sometimes I've even thought about selling the TR-8S to get an Analog Rytm but the TR-8S is so much fun to play live (and the AR is more than double the price) that I've put the idea to rest, haha, also trying to not fall too much into GAS.
> not mainly for the music (which I like mostly), but for the atmosphere
He for me it's actually the other way around. Well, sort of: I really go for the music or more specifically for dancing hours in row. It does get me in a trance and that is the main aspect which makes me return home more happy and enthusiastic as you call it (too bad that effect doesn't last long but that's something else). But this wouldn't be possible without the atmosphere: I can only dance like a maniac because it feels ok there, exactly because no one cares and/or does what I do. The feeling of unity is very strong at goa parties, possibly the strongest of all genres I've been to. Even if I barely talked to anyone for a whole night, I exchanged smiles with many strangers and felt like we all wanted the same thing. It's a pity this only exists for more underground parties; other genres have this as well (punk and all subgenres, acidcore and the likes, some techno but definitely not all/everywhere). Society would be a better place if people would behave like this always and everywhere including daily life. So it's a pity not everyone experiences this.
Note I wouldn't be too fast blaming alcohol for problems at other parties i.e. I'm not convinced there's a causal relationship. There's quite a lot of drinking at trance/... parties as well, and I yet have to see parties where apart from alcohol no other drugs get used. I think it's more of a correlation between the type of people and their general mindset and the use of alcohol and the abberant behavior and those people not going to trance parties.
also in my experience people will get drunk and quite physical at hardcore (punk) shows, but are also quite caring and considerate about it. I think the community around the music is much more causal than the inebriant of choice.
I'm glad you had a good experience. When I was younger I was producing psytrance (I played the guitar) and I would do liveacts with a dj + my guitar. I had some pretty cool gigs and nice songs too.
Unfortunately, what made me quit the scene was the transformation I saw on my friends and acquaintances due to drug abuse. I don't know if it is a cultural thing, but I have witnessed people losing some or all of their mental sanity due to drug abuse; one time I was at a party when someone died - in the end I called it quits because I didn't want to become involved with that in any way.
I also know a number of people in the scene who lost their sanity through drug abuse. It is sad, but when you are partying and abusing yourself every weekend for years on end something is going to give.
I'm not saying there isn't a correlation with partiers who do lots of drugs and mental illness, but I have watched a lot of people lose their minds across all my social circles.
It seems like a certain percentage of people lose their minds in their early 20s.
This resonates with my experience as well. For me, the goa/psy trance community will always remain the most open-minded, friendly music community I've been part of. I'm even kind of proud to have been part of that scene, doing my 2 ct. contribution to it (mainly, connecting artists with labels and vice versa, giving artists feedback on their tracks, buying legal copies, as well as sharing obscure material to goa trance lovers). And I have been part of many (music) subcultures in my youth.
I used to be part of the goa psytrance community, introduced to it by a dear friend ( who was a little too into it). At one point he was getting Djs and throwing parties and not even taking money for entrance tickets.
It was a great time.
I absolutely fucking love trance, though my current favourite is downtempo stuff. It is the most friendly large-scale group event genre. I think it's just that the way it all started keeps it going. Like how software just managed to coincidentally have the open-source movement early on and that shaped what it would look like. I think having PLUR get in so early really made it look like what it is today.
Also, I'm not wholly unconvinced that maybe more LSD-use would make us all so much better as people.
Very similar experience. TBH after a few festivals it has gotten stale to me and I haven't been in a few years, but the experience of the first one which got me into the rave scene in general is one of my most treasured memories.
The people are amazing and friendly, even tough their beliefs are mostly batshit insane. The vibe is so much better than any other festivals (and no trash! clean nature!).
Music wise I've always preferred other psychedelic genres to actual psytrance, but there always interesting stuff at festivals.
While I haven't been, this is something I find tricky to reconcile, but appreciate that I'm not the only one. My main interest would be the super large scale hardstyle festivals— which I feel might be easier to enjoy relatively sober and feels a bit less granola—but many friends I grew up with go to Shambhala. It seems like a fun time, beautiful scenery, art, music and so on. But it seems like as they've been abusing pot and shrooms etc—abusing pot mostly—they've gone deep down a rabbit hole of paranoid thinking, naturopathy, veganism, iridology, and other nonsense. I'm far from straight-laced—though maybe somewhat straight-edge—but it irks me when "practitioners" of these things claim to other vulnerable people that eating a fruit only diet will cure their colon cancer.
I can much more easily digest and have conversations with this kind of people at festivals, than the regular majority who think human brought climate change is not real, blowing countries up will bring democraty there, TV is the best fun, killing billions of animals in cruel conditions is somehow manly and cool, etc...
I loved that people on psytrance festivals seemed to eat more vegan food than average. Such a breath of fresh air to not see everyone stuffing their faces with meat 24/7
Psychedelics and amphetamines are in a very large majority (not taking into account weed which is very common with anyone who does any drug). But people do all kind of drugs in some percent. For example I had one friend who once per year took heroin, but only once. He has a very normal and responsible job and a career.
