Here we continue the psychill ambient music tutorial with another awesome collection of tips from 14 artists about how to make ambient, psybient, psydub and general downtempo music. As in part 1 of the series the artists involved were asked to provide any kind of tip they like so you will see ideas ranging from indepth studio technical wizardry to more 'out of the box' thinking. Oh, if you click on the artist names you will be taken to their respective websites where you can hear samples of their music and get more involved. 

Argaman

Itai Argaman first came to my notice with his playfully twisted psychedelic music in 2009 with the release of his debut album Mt Little Forrest. His music has a very melodic feel that combines classical piano, jazz, electronica, ambient psychedelia and more. A truly gifted musician he has recently released his follow up album Living In A Bubble.

Itai's Tip :

Ok, The musician is the director, the pads, FX and atmosphere are the decoration, leads and melodies are the actors and your stereo image is the size and place you want to put all of this together, our mission is to connect our art with the special dimension, the only dimension that give soul to our creation, keep it real.

Kilowatts

KiloWatts' Tip :

I don't think coffee is the best chemical for producing ambient music. Instead, I would recommend the element of subtraction. Remove something from your everyday life, and fill the gap with sound.

I recently asked a number of psychill, psybient and ambient music producers for some tips and ideas about making music that they would like to share here on the blog. I didn't specify any particular format for the tutorial and simply asked artists to provide any ideas, as short or long as they like, that they feel are worth sharing in terms of production or inspiration.


I received a lot more feedback than I expected so I'll post these ideas over a number of different articles in order to keep things readable and at a manageable size.  If you are a psychill producer or ambient musician and would like to share some ideas about how to make psybient music then please feel free to email me or contact me on Facebook and I'll be more than happy to add your input to this ambient tutorial. 

Okay, Lets begin ....

Kalpataru Tree

Kalpataru's tip :

Disassociate yourself from all practicalities of living, find a remote cabin in the woods somewhere, dive into your soul and believe that you are channeling the magic of the universe, and begin to dream sound for days and nights on end.

Mahaon

Russian producer Mahaon draws inspiration from his experiences as a monk and produces a vibrant pallet of ambient and psychill sounds from his studio culminating in 2012 with the release of his critically acclaimed album "The Awakening".

Mahaon's Tip :

I make clear crystal sound. The secret of this sound in equalization. Every instrument must sound in his spectrum, frequencies of different instruments should not intersect. When I make a kick, snare and hihats, I remove decay and release to a minimal point where it can sound with no tail. When the kick is short enough, I put plugin Waves RBass 80 hertz on it. On snare and hihats I put some reverb. Bass must be very deep ! I cut a lot of high frequencies from it. After that I put also RBass on 65 hertz. Also you can add some chorus.

This is the base of crystal sound - no "porridge" in drums and bass. In all leads and pads I cut low frequencies, until it will sound good. This instruments should not mix with kick and bass at low frequency. But this is only a recommendation. To make good crystal sound and music - you must have good taste and beautiful soul ! It's very important.

Xerxes

Xerxes has been creating awesome psychedelic ambient music for a number of years and has appeared on many successful compilations. His success is built largely on his fundamental understanding of his sequencer, hardware and software. 

Xerxes Tip:

I think my tip would be to learn your sequencer, whatever it is, by heart. Take a few months to really learn the tools you want to use. There are tons of tutorials on the internet for both DAWs and various synths etc. Learn them ! And then, once you have practiced and are ready to rock, you don't have to spend time thinking about anything else other than music composition. I guess pretty obvious advice, but I have seen many people lose interest in composing because they gave up on the tools themselves.

Gabriel Le Mar

Gabriel Le Mar is one of the most recognized names in ambient psychedelic music over the past two decades. He has a huge fanbase from his solo work and as a member of acts like Saafi Brothers and collaborate work with Pete Namlook.

Gabriel's Tip:

A nice method to produce bits and pieces and interesting parts out of already existing material on your sequencer or from your mixer is to use the Effects Return track. I use Ableton Live but you can produce this also on any other DAW or even analog through your mixing desk as well. 

For example: you put a ping-pong delay on your send-effect track (or Aux send) and mix it into the Bass Drum - you adjust the timing of the delay, filter the EQ of the delay send, cut out the bass frequencies.

Stop all clips and play back only the bass drum with the send return on it and mix both signals. Then press solo on the Effect Send Track where the ping pong delay is on so that you only hear the effect. Copy the bassdrum part into the arrangement and loop it for some bars for example 8 bars. Adjust the loop-marker and then export (or bounce) audio.

The result is a new rhythmic sample that you can use a new musical piece in your tune.

This is the fifth mix of the Nokorimono chill out music series ( for more select "Nokorimono Mixes" in the tags on the right menu ). These mixes are a collection of chill out mixes / ambient mixes comprising of tracks that don't quite fit into the regular PsyAmb mix genres of dub,ambient or psybient music. 

This time around I have a bit of an eclectic mix of tracks that span a diverse range of chillout genres. A shout out to a few of the blog readers including Sebastian from "Meet The Ambient" and Kevin/Ian of "Cymophane" who were generous enough to provide two of their own tracks for this episode. Check them out sometime - great talents ! Thanks a million guys. 

There are number of classic Australian oldies on offer today from the likes of Grey Area, Antideluvian Rocking Horse and Melbient as a well as some fresh meat from Shpongle, Argaman and an awesome new track from the Resonant Heart compilation released by Merkaba Music.

Direct Download. Right click then select 'Save link as ... '

Patents, love them or hate them, are all about providing encouragement for innovation. We hear about patents everyday in our lives from the media through never ending old patent infringement claims to advertising extolling the benefits of  "our patented product X". As dull as all that may be don't despair because here I present to you some truly cool and weirdly psychedelic patents from the past and present that will cheer you up.

1. Globular Phonograph Light Show Cabinet

From the mind of prolific inventor Donald Booty comes this idea for a turntable with built in light performance apparatus that flashes lights from beneath the turntable through a series of rotating discs. Issued in 1987 I suspect Donald may have been about about 10 years too late with this one as it has 70s kitsch written all over it. With CDs just around the corner, this psychedelic light show was never really going to make it to production I suspect.

http://www.google.com/patents/US3885797

2. Psychedelic Clock

Here is a cool little idea for a psychedelic themed clock. As stated in the patent's description "... the face is comprised of a plurality of geometrical configured spangles ... comprising small metallic plates that are burnished or chased so to in part break up light rays into their spectrum colors ... producing a shining effect of psychedelic interest" . Even if it doesn't tell the time correctly I want one now !

http://www.google.com/patents?id=WkR1AAAAEBAJ

In 1970 inventor Paul Turnrose came up with this idea for a psychedelic TV cover which when placed over the front of a regular TV set, colored lights from the the TV tube are transmitted through a series of colored molded plastic filters to create a homegrown stoner light show in the comfort of your living room. So 70s it would probably be worth a fortune to collectors now if it was ever produced.

 

http://www.google.com/patents?id=w7U7AAAAEBAJ