Very Weird Synth Question

[tiz]

Hey guys don't know how active this message board is but I have a question that has been bugging me for quite a while and I haven't been able to figure this out. Please bear with me as I try to not butcher this question/explanation as I am not that up to speed with sound design terminology.

I wanted to know what exactly is that "thing" that Ozric do in their tracks mixes, where essentially it sounds like all the effects are being made from one source and there is never anything being added to the mix. It is particularly audible when on psychedelics. As an example for my question I would use either Feng Shui or Jurassic Shift. In Feng Shui, what is going on in that transition to when it goes full metal? It gets all weird, then there is some "chatter" going on and then the heavy drum fill etc comes in (the vocal part sort of sounds like "woahhh ... Haaa"). But there is something about how the transition is made that it almost sounds like everything in the non metal section of the song is "made out of" a sample of people (I assume ed and friends) talking or saying something. 

Another example is in the middle part of Jurassic Shift (very ethnic, crickets chirping, mystical sounding) leading up into the explosive guitar solo. There is this constant "swishing" or "charging up" sound going on in the background, and then during the build up the mix sounds very "closed up" until it bursts open.

Apart from these examples, it sounds like the entire mix is running through some kind of filter or something, and all the sound effects revolve around the organic instruments and surround the instruments

I understand this is might be ridiculously vague but I am hoping someone has some insight as I am really really trying to figure out what this phenomena is.

[etherealise]

May 10, 2018 1:53:39 GMT -8 tiz said:

Hey guys don't know how active this message board is but I have a question that has been bugging me for quite a while and I haven't been able to figure this out. Please bear with me as I try to not butcher this question/explanation as I am not that up to speed with sound design terminology.

I wanted to know what exactly is that "thing" that Ozric do in their tracks mixes, where essentially it sounds like all the effects are being made from one source and there is never anything being added to the mix. It is particularly audible when on psychedelics. As an example for my question I would use either Feng Shui or Jurassic Shift. In Feng Shui, what is going on in that transition to when it goes full metal? It gets all weird, then there is some "chatter" going on and then the heavy drum fill etc comes in (the vocal part sort of sounds like "woahhh ... Haaa"). But there is something about how the transition is made that it almost sounds like everything in the non metal section of the song is "made out of" a sample of people (I assume ed and friends) talking or saying something. 

Another example is in the middle part of Jurassic Shift (very ethnic, crickets chirping, mystical sounding) leading up into the explosive guitar solo. There is this constant "swishing" or "charging up" sound going on in the background, and then during the build up the mix sounds very "closed up" until it bursts open.

Apart from these examples, it sounds like the entire mix is running through some kind of filter or something, and all the sound effects revolve around the organic instruments and surround the instruments

I understand this is might be ridiculously vague but I am hoping someone has some insight as I am really really trying to figure out what this phenomena is.

Not very active is the answer to your first question.

I'd say your main question is not that vague as you've given time references for what you're talking about.

I think the problem is that there's lots of things going on in those sections. I just listened to the Feng Shui transition and it sounds to me like sampled voices (no doubt processed, likely filtered as you say). I don't think this is a "synth" question so much as a production or sound design question. The guitar is doing a lot too, with whammy bar and sliding around & wah (and maybe more).

In the Jurassic Shift section there's 3 things that I hear: whispered voice through delay/verb & arpeggiated synth. But the main thing that creates the rush of excitement is guitar. I'm not 100% sure how that's done but it sounds like it's a rapid fade in. Because the guitar is fairly high gain it dominates the mix all of a sudden.

I'd say the main ingredient in both cases is guitar, but there's other layers that together create a deliberate 'noise' effect. A lot of it is down to artful mixing and knowing how to create excitement through contrasts. I do not think the entire mix is going through a filter in those sections as that would have a different kind of sound.

[smitrixs]

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[m7c]

Keep in mind that multi-track recordings often splice things together that were recorded at different times. So, with either example, they may have built up the mellow part of the song track by track, letting it take shape organically. Then for the high energy part, they could have have completely switched up the mindset, perhaps jamming those out in a more together fashion (i.e. all the guys in the room, live style). Then when the two sections are mixed together, it adds to the dramatic effect when the gears suddenly shift. The band is very good at doing this kind of thing, and will add extra tracks to heighten the effect, synth bubbles, whoosh sounds, etc. It's all in the way they build the song. Just about every band does things like this but no one quite does it like Ozric.


Now it's true that when one is in a heightened sense of awareness, they can pick up on strange things that they don't normally notice. Some of that may indeed be special filters, EQ settings, phasey things or various bits of post processing but some of that could be your own enhanced filters. Or all of the above It can be hard to tell. Been there done that.

I suspect they were big fans of the BBE Sonic Maximizer, which was a fairly popular EQ type effect in the 90s. It can have a really subtle quality, usually making things seem to sound better, like MSG for audio. It can also wear on you over time. And too much can definitely be a bad thing. In any case, I suspect they used it a lot, at least up until the early 2000s.

[yiannis]

I've probably said this before but I can't understand how musicians can play on psychedelics. When I did them - and I didn't even overdo it - I could just about dance in complete abandonment and maybe chat for a bit while soaring, but I soon lost focus and couldn't keep up a discussion for long. I guess you must be a natural and let it happen without caring about the result - just keep playing.

[etherealise]

Jul 8, 2018 11:02:54 GMT -8 yiannis said:

I've probably said this before but I can't understand how musicians can play on psychedelics. When I did them - and I didn't even overdo it - I could just about dance in complete abandonment and maybe chat for a bit while soaring, but I soon lost focus and couldn't keep up a discussion for long. I guess you must be a natural and let it happen without caring about the result - just keep playing.

I agree, but I'd say musicians have probably done it with mixed success.

Bill Ward talks in a recent interview about how risky it was: "I found no real solutions or real enjoyment in playing that way onstage. I was realizing I could have really f--ked everything up. In hindsight, and I've had plenty of time to look at that, I was taking huge risks with not only my performance but with the entire performance and I recognize how foolish that was."

Dave Brock's recollections from an interview this year:  "I can remember one gig: we’d all dropped acid about two hours before we were due to go on and it was bloody strong acid. One of our roadies came in and said, ‘Right, you’re on now’ and we said, ‘Oh, we can’t possibly go on now. That would be absolutely impossible.' So he went away and came back half an hour later and said, ‘Now you really do have to go on.’ So off we went and it was a weird old thing when we started playing when we got on stage. The audience all turned into skeletons! [LAUGHS] We had this amazing light show but you’d look down at yourself and find that you’d somehow turned into a massive green and purple blob. It was quite disconcerting."

[yiannis]

The sheer weight of the responsibility of having to play while not being sure I can pull it off would have crushed me. I'd have been an emotional wreck for a very long time after that.

[etherealise]

I think I'd be an emotional wreck just from taking any of that stuff full stop, let alone trying to perform on it! It's not for me...

[tiz]

I personally find it very enjoyable to jam on low doses of lucy. Can play for 4-5 hours straight with my band and find myself being much more creative when it comes to guitar improvisation or live synthesis. Different story playing live in front of a crowd and something pre-composed of course, not sure I would do that