| We take a look at building up a basic Psytrance | | | | spacey feel. Next a standard TR-909 style Hi-Hat |
| groove using Ableton Live, then show you how this | | | | finishes our basic groove. |
| powerful program can help you work you psytrance | | | | Moving on we need a melodic part to finish our |
| loops into basic track ideas. We've used Nuborn's | | | | psytrance loop so we skip through some of the MIDI's |
| Psytrance Samples Vol 2 pack as a fast way to build | | | | in the pack. Choosing a suitable sequence we tune it |
| our groove, since it contains all the samples and MIDI | | | | to the key of our track then flick through the Synth |
| we'll need in one place. If you have problems loading | | | | Stab section and choose one we like the sound of. |
| the video player below try refreshing your page and | | | | Adding the stab to simpler we tune it to the key of our |
| hitting the play button again, you can also view this in | | | | track. |
| full screen mode. | | | | Next its time for some Psy filter fun. We add Live's |
| We've started off by setting our tempo to a suitable | | | | Auto Filter to the synth stab track and choose a |
| 145 BPM then chosen the psytrance drum loop that | | | | preset at random. We then sync the filter's LFO to |
| Nuborn use in their demo track. As you can see one | | | | Live's tempo, tweak our settings and there you have it |
| of the beauties of Live is it's instant and accurate time | | | | - a twisting psychedelic synth groove. |
| stretching abilities - simply drag and drop your audio | | | | Now its time for a little arrangement fun! We're using |
| loop into the clip view window, it'll even create a new | | | | lives 'Scenes' (the lines that run horizontally along the |
| track for you if there isn't a spare track handy. | | | | clip view) to create different scenes that we can flick |
| Next we add in a kick drum, using a Simpler, Live's | | | | through at will. This is a great way to build up |
| basic sampler, recording in a 4/4 kick pattern using our | | | | sequences to play live in clubs since you can flick |
| MIDI keyboard. Live will automatically quantize our | | | | between any of these easily, one over-riding the next. |
| playing to the setting in the record quantization menu. | | | | You can see how we build up each 'scene' with the |
| You can change this easily by choosing Edit Menu | | | | elements that we'd like it to contain then use the scene |
| -> Record Quantize. | | | | play buttons on the far right of the screen to flick |
| We continue to build up our groove using one of the | | | | through each to create a 'live' psytrance track. As with |
| psytrance basslines from the Nuborn pack, however | | | | all controls in Live it's possible to assign pretty much |
| you could easily edit in your own pattern using the MIDI | | | | any control that you can see on the screen to a MIDI |
| note editor. As with audio to import a MIDI file all you | | | | keyboard, knob, slider or keyboard press, so triggering |
| need to do is drag and drop from Live's browser | | | | samples and sequences is a doddle. |
| window, then assign an instrument to the MIDI track. | | | | This is just the tip of the iceberg of what you can do |
| You could choose any VSTi you have, but we've | | | | with Ableton Live, and if all this sounds like alien |
| opted for a bass preset from Simpler 'Monobass'. | | | | gibberish we suggest that you download the demo |
| Notice we tweak the envelope of the sampler to get | | | | version and take a leaf through the excellent built in |
| that tight 'Psy' bass sound. | | | | tutorials that come with Live, they take a few minutes |
| We then add a crash cymbal to our groove and | | | | each and will really show you how powerful this |
| continue to add in an acid stab, again using Simpler and | | | | software can be, especially for performance |
| recording in our pattern using our MIDI keyboard. We | | | | orientated musicians. |
| then add some delay FX to the acid stab to give that | | | | |