Acid sound

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dirty_harry

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Hey everyone. Hope you can give me a good advice, because I can't find any information on this topic in the net. Our band is playing psychedelic rock and we are going to record our first album soon. We really want to get this juicy, acid sound which makes the music pour like water, makes it a sound painting. I wish I could post some youtube links here as examples, but I can't. This songs have this sound: Hendrix - 1983... (A Merman I Should Turn to Be) (from 4:15), Amon DüüL II - Kanaan, Circle Havuportti (from 1:50)

What is the main idea behind this typical sound, how can we get it, recording live ?
 
First you have to drop a couple hits of acid...Just kidding. Acid or psychedelic rock was not always a hard/heavy metal type of sound, it had more to do with the dreamlike sound pictures it painted. Songs like 'Incense and Peppermints' by Strawberry Alarm Clock and Iron Butterfly's 'In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida' are examples of this. It really is a state of mind type of music that you need to capture.
That type of music is what I listened to in my teenage years.
 
Yer man (Neil from the young ones styles)
Puts me in mind of wah wahs, reverse delays, Hammond B's, sitars, ethereal reverb etc
Yer like wow man it's a real vibes. Tangerine Dream . :)
Hope you find what you're looking for.
Rich
 
kip4 said:
Yer man (Neil from the young ones styles)
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I loved those guys and Neil was my favorite. In recent years I have enjoyed watching Nigel Planer in the Terry Pratchett, Disk World BBC movies.
 
Thanks for the answers! I want to add, that I'm speaking about a very specific sound in this records, not the psych sound in general. You can also hear it in electronic music, goa trance for example. I am talking about this squelchy sound you can hear in all this records. You see what I mean?
 
dirty_harry said:
Thanks for the answers! I want to add, that I'm speaking about a very specific sound in this records, not the psych sound in general. You can also hear it in electronic music, goa trance for example. I am talking about this squelchy sound you can hear in all this records. You see what I mean?
Click to expand...
I listened to the example you sited in your original post and I can honestly say, I don't know. I hear some elements that I sort of recognize but not with enough certainty to comment on.
Good luck in your search. :confused:
 
If you want true Acid Rock (music that LSD users listen to), layering multiple parts that don't conflict or bury each other is crucial. Everyone's trip is different, you need something for everyone.
Listen to Pink Floyd's Echoes with headphones and pick out all the different parts and how they stand alone while also blending together for the overall sound. In simpler music, like Hendrix stuff, there are still a couple of guitars, the bass and drum parts.
 
Most of the real mix effects in the Hendrix song comes from realtime modulation of delay times. I don't have any specific information on this recording, but I would be willing to bet they actually made a loop of tape on one or more machines and played the things in real time. Like, a fader in one hand and either a varispeed control or the flange of the tape reel itself in the other.

TBH, this kind of thing is not as easy as it should be in the digital world. With some older digital delay units, you could Wang the delay time around and it would do that. Many of the newer ones and way too many plugins just glitch out if you change it while its repeating something. So basically you have to choose your weapon carefully.

I cant ever promise to perform while on psychedelics. Kinda the opposite of the point, really. A joint or two before you start wiggling the knobs might help, though.
 
dirty_harry said:
Thanks for the answers! I want to add, that I'm speaking about a very specific sound in this records, not the psych sound in general. You can also hear it in electronic music, goa trance for example. I am talking about this squelchy sound you can hear in all this records. You see what I mean?
Click to expand...

Sounds like you might be referring to a modulated filter like a wahwah pedal, envelope filter (a.k.a. auto wah), LFO modulated filter.
 
dirty_harry said:
Hey everyone. Hope you can give me a good advice, because I can't find any information on this topic in the net. Our band is playing psychedelic rock and we are going to record our first album soon. We really want to get this juicy, acid sound which makes the music pour like water, makes it a sound painting. I wish I could post some youtube links here as examples, but I can't. This songs have this sound: Hendrix - 1983... (A Merman I Should Turn to Be) (from 4:15), Amon DüüL II - Kanaan, Circle Havuportti (from 1:50)

What is the main idea behind this typical sound, how can we get it, recording live ?
Click to expand...

Wow, hey man. Don't see many around here who are into that stuff. Love both the Amon Duul II and Circle albums you mentioned, but your question's a little vague to me. I don't think of either of those bands as using any real specific studio trickery, and most of the sound is in the communal and improvised nature of the performances....Not sure what you mean by "squelchy stuff" either. What's your instrumentation like? Got any links?
 
If you're looking for the traditional acid squelch the best thing to use is a moog. Either a square or saw wav and crank up the pitch envelope. Then put a low pass very low with an envelope (fastest attack, medium-low sustain, low release and play with the decay to your liking) then boost up the resonance on the filter to taste. Low notes only for the sound to squelch. Also some chorus, reverb, etc
 
I stopped doing acid because the last few times I did it, I kept seeing beams of light. I also heard sounds that sounded an awful lot like car horns. :eek:
 
RAMI said:
I stopped doing acid because the last few times I did it, I kept seeing beams of light. I also heard sounds that sounded an awful lot like car horns. :eek:
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I just got really really paranoid. Oh, and I got lost wandering around Boston, too. :facepalm:
 
RAMI said:
I stopped doing acid because the last few times I did it, I kept seeing beams of light. I also heard sounds that sounded an awful lot like car horns. :eek:
Click to expand...

mjbphotos said:
I just got really really paranoid. Oh, and I got lost wandering around Boston, too. :facepalm:
Click to expand...

I stopped because it made me brilliant, so I became ostracized by the rest of society. Not worth it.
 
RAMI said:
I was able to tell the difference between butter and margarine. I saw through the bullshit.
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I saw the true face of the alien occupation. The CIA tapped my phone and went through my garbage.
 
And where was Captain Crunch when they turned on the lights???????????????!!!!
 
Everything I'm saying right now is a complete and total lie.
 
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