Voidloss 2.0 live PA: My new sound

[Lost to the Void]

Just featured today on Darkfloor, the sound I have spent a year and half developing. My Voidloss 2.0 live PA.
It's where I am at with the Voidloss project and where I feel like taking my Techno.

[Val Endrada]

That's a solid and well sounding mix! What exactly am I listening to? ..a live recording?

[Lost to the Void]

That's a solid and well sounding mix! What exactly am I listening to? ..a live recording?

Live PA on the live rig.

[KulturIndustry]

tits.

[Lost to the Void]

Cheers?

[FvH]

Not a fan of this sound till 49:00 but form technical side it's fucking A. The polymeters, drones, percs every element is giving nice contrast and answer to another. For the sound I think there is nothing much to say; tight, clean, dimensional!

The break at 4900 and drop are something out of this dimension. I got goosebumps every time when that drop hits.

Is there a chance to list your setup you've played this on?

[Lost to the Void]

I'm working at the very edge of a niche of electronic music, in an emergent scene, so I really don't expect this to be popular. But I think the freedom of this music is worth breaking away from traditional techno for.

Kit used.

Synthstrom Deluge 3
Tastychips GR-1
Behringer Deepmind 12D
Korg Monologue
Sismo Lito Ice
Contact Mics and Matrix Mixer (does a lot of the feedback noises), Hang Drum
Lots of FX

[Evert]

Great stuff man, I love the new direction you've taken. Very inspiring.

The Body Loom has fast become my favourite track of yours.

[bioniceye]

great live perfomance, love the drum n bass vibes

[FvH]

I'm working at the very edge of a niche of electronic music, in an emergent scene, so I really don't expect this to be popular. But I think the freedom of this music is worth breaking away from traditional techno for.

Kit used.

Synthstrom Deluge 3
Tastychips GR-1
Behringer Deepmind 12D
Korg Monologue
Sismo Lito Ice
Contact Mics and Matrix Mixer (does a lot of the feedback noises), Hang Drum
Lots of FX

Nice stuff! What is your master clock? Ableton Live or ?

[Lost to the Void]

I'm working at the very edge of a niche of electronic music, in an emergent scene, so I really don't expect this to be popular. But I think the freedom of this music is worth breaking away from traditional techno for.

Kit used.

Synthstrom Deluge 3
Tastychips GR-1
Behringer Deepmind 12D
Korg Monologue
Sismo Lito Ice
Contact Mics and Matrix Mixer (does a lot of the feedback noises), Hang Drum
Lots of FX

Nice stuff! What is your master clock? Ableton Live or ?

The Deluge is the main control hub. It sends midi and clock to the 4 synths, though I do also run the GR—1 free on its own in some tracks, and just do the granular scans with the crossfader or internal lfo

[FvH]

Nice! Superb job then if there's no software.

Any chance to record a video set so we can see your workflow?

[Lost to the Void]

Nice! Superb job then if there's no software.

Any chance to record a video set so we can see your workflow?

The Deluge is effectively a DAW in the box so I wouldn`t say no software is involved.
Most of the drums were created in ableton and ported over to the Deluge.

The music is all composed in Ableton and then I convert over to the kit for live performance.

I`ll probably record a live video for a virtual gig, when I do one. Currently my focus is on establishing myself in a different genre so I imagine it will be some time before I get any gigs. I`ve only recently signed some of this music to labels so this is like starting from the beginning again for me.

[buffered]

nice heavy sound. at it's core, the drum programming reminds me alot of Photek, esp his Two Swords Technique. Dunno if that is a valid thing to say.

[Lost to the Void]

nice heavy sound. at it's core, the drum programming reminds me alot of Photek, esp his Two Swords Technique. Dunno if that is a valid thing to say.

There is absolutely a late stage jungle influence in this stuff. More Source Direct than Photek, but he influenced them so.....

[Val Endrada]

Went to the Darkfloor website and found it's available as a free download (in fact they offer loads of free mixes):

https://darkfloor.co.uk/mixes/

I realise you probably knew this, of course, - but thought I'd post the link for the sake of others.

So, I downloaded the mix and burnt a CDr so I could play it in the kitchen. We have a setup with a big subwoofer down there, and I wanted to try playing it out loud on a bigger system (while cooking)..

The whole thing is pretty tightly compressed, and the overall impression I got, is that the mix sounds a bit like some modern festival outdoor sound-systems, giving it an almost rock-concert like vibe. It's a pleasing effect, but after a while of blasting it loudly, I noticed some listening fatigue kicking in. The download was an MP3, though, so it might have had wider dynamics (and less fatiguing compression) on the original master. Why the Darkfloor dudes choose not to offer a lossless format for download is beyond me. It seems to me that better sounding mixes would be in everyone's' interest. Perhaps you could ask them?

But anyway..

My friend came by as I was blasting it, dancing for a bit in the kitchen. At one point she shouted (translated from Danish): "I like this music! ..it's energetic and .. funky!":) ha ha! I like it too. Especially the more intricate bits of drum programming. The combination of intricate beats and gloomy weirdness is somehow very British. Thanks!

[Lost to the Void]

I think the dynamic range averages out to around 8db, maybe a little more. Techno these days tends to be around 6-8 DR so its not particularly loud or compressed, especially for Drum and Bass, as I wanted plenty of room for the subs, of which there are a lot.
The mixes are dense though, minimalism is yesterday's old baggage.
It's actually quite Conservative in compression terms. There is however, distortion on pretty much everything in some form. There are a lot of feedback loops too, so there is a fair bit of dynamically acting distortion. All this music has been made with an actual purpose of doing stuff you arent supposed to do mix-wise.
This whole style for me, has been about completely dissassembling sounds and then using studio trickery to put it back together. Grabbing transients out of stuff that has none left and other stupidness.
A high rate mp3 should make no real world difference to the final level of dynamic.

Final mixes that are getting released of some of these tunes are a little cleaner, as they have had the benefit of not being live. However most of the drum and bass labels actually want me to master this stuff louder. Which I really don't want to do.

However no one has ever said it was sonically fatiguing.
It doesn't sound fatiguing in the mastering room.

I'm not one for nailing the dynamics to the wall.

[Val Endrada]

It's possible I was just playing it too loud - making my brain try to switch off.

The loudness wars in digital mastering passed the point of crazy a while ago. The kind of modern pop drum and bas N-Type plays on Rinse makes me feel like I ate a kilo of sugar after a few minutes. I can't imagine a dance with that kind of music on for hours being very nice. Your mix is still some way from inducing that kind of listening fatigue, but I guess it's all subjective.

In any case, with the intensity and complex noise designs you're sporting, completely avoiding fatigue in the listener seems close to impossible. Well, unless you play it out at background-music levels, I suppose. Sonically you're getting close to extreme metal genres, - and with that, the same kinds of "necessary compromise problems" mixing wise. It never ends, but that also makes it interesting. Did you ever listen to Napalm Death?

[Lost to the Void]

I never really liked Napalm Death to be honest. I love metal in general. Mostly into Stoner doom, industrial doom, and doom..
Neurosis, Sunn, Author and Punisher, Monolord etc I prefer metal when it is slower, there`s more room for the sound.
One of the influences of this music I am making is industrial and noise.
Noise, industrial, jungle, techno.
I`m absolutely about sensorial overload immersion in this music though, sonically not necessarily fatiguing but emotionally hopefully.
It`s very anti-minimal. I find minimal too ambiguous, it gives people too much room to insert their own thoughts and stuff.
I want to punish people with emotions and sounds.
Big slabs of sub juxtaposed against piercing nastiness, specifically designed to exploit large soundsystems.

One of the main issues I have with this live is that it ends up a little muddy. I`m thinking I need a multiband compressor to mix into live, but that means at least a grand for a bit of kit to take out live.
As I run a mastering studio I`ve started designing the mastering in to the creative process, which is problematic for live performance.
I`m not sure what the solution is other than spending a wad of cash.

[Lost to the Void]

I think I have a solution. TC Electronic Finalizer.