Iacchus

I use the Virus TI as my main workhorse, use FM VST plugins a bit for growl and stuff but for warm squelchy psychedelic noises, can't beat the Virus.  

Generally always try do things with the DAW.  Including modulation of parameters (I'd rather use the Bitwig LFO than any built in LFO)
 
It's more consistent, you dont have to learn so many different tools and know exactly how you expect them to behave in every circumstance.  You can also switch out the synth or whatever for something else with minimal effort

how do you do those synths Silken Twine 01:18 ?
like them
 
shaolin swords is so nice and stylee

Nice work, sound realy amazing, "Etirnity in an Hour" is my favorite, nice bass!

congrats with new release many many glitches in your head )))
i wouldn't listen to honeymoon in bed

I dont really use vocal samples anymore.. especially the whole terrance mckenna style hippy gubbins samples started to sound really cliche and tiresome to me

The problem with vocals is that consonants are effectively white noise.  If you de-noise it using de-essers etc, you remove the definitoin of the talking and left with something more 'vowelly'
 
There are expensive forensic cleanup suites that do a reasonable job of reducing noise and leaving the vocals as unaffected as possible but to be honest, why not leave the noise in?  nothing wrong with a bit of noise in a track
 
If you don't like how the noise starts and stops suddenly with the vocal track, take a bit of the noise when the voice isn't there, loop it, and fade it in and out before/after the sample.

Depends what you are trying to mix it with, and what the sound of the voice is like!  But generally I would probably compress it if there is dynamic range i dont want, and roll off the bottom to keep it away from the bass and kick.
 
I certainly wouldnt try to tune it, it is spoken word, not singing, by its very nature it is not supposed to be in a tune. 

I will EQ every channel.  You could talk forever about EQing different kinds of sounds, but for me the most important thing is keeping the low end as clear as possible for the bass and kick drum.
 
Every track will have a high pass filter applied. I move the frequency up until the sound starts to lose some of the quality of sound i like it in.  Usually you can take a fair bit off the bottom without it sounding any different at all.  Usually you can position the cuttoff point just below the 'root frequency' if it is a sound with a clear note.  I will do this solod and again perhaps with the whole mix, as often you can take even more off when it is part of an ensemble.  This kind of treatment of everything can free up a few db of DB of headroom, bring up your overall volume, and make everything sound more crisp and less muddy in the low end.
This is 90% of the mixdown process and the most important thing to do as far as I'm concerned.
 
Try to save this work for the mixdown.. if you apply EQs etc as you go along composing the track for temporary/live versions, take them all off for the mixdown and start again. It may feel like you are redoing work but you will get a better result.  Also EQ things in the right order.  Get your drums and bass working together nicely first, then do your lead instruments and vocals, then pads and FX last - these need the least amount of 'space'.
 
If a sound has a 'solo' bit or sits in a breakdown where it  needs to be EQd less heavily, then you can automate your settings so it can take up more of the spectrum in these bits
 
If you want something to cut through the mix like a snare, you can make a dip in EQ on the other sounds at a suitable frequency.  Channel grouping can be handy for this kind of thing.   You can even get the EQ to dip only when the sound is happening, if you use an 'audio follower' mod.  Bitwig and Reaper have them. 
 
One other thing I like to do is EQ my reverb quite heavily, cutting off the bottom and top, the bass is largely useless and adds a lot of mud, and the top end stops your reverb sounding too sparkly and artificial.. give it a go you might find a darker reverb with this kind of treatment can be brought up in volume and have a stronger effect without sounding too 'reverby'. Most reverbs have a HP filter setting but I find it best to ignore this, have the 100% wet reverb on its own channel and own EQ, which gives more control and easy tweaking down the line in the mixdown.   Same treatment can be applied to delays.
 
Never put an EQ on the master, leave that to the mastering engineer.  If you need to EQ your master, you have down your mixdown wrong. 

I am editing this post with "where I got my information" (instead of just trying to explain it   This is from Iacchus he is full of great tips Thanks Iacchus!   I got the info from this blog post which I found very useful http://psy-amb.blogspot.jp/2013/03/psychill-tutorial-tips-and-tricks-part-2.html   How to make a psy squeak:   1. Set your oscillators to saw wave

2. Attach an LFO to both oscillators pitch. You will hear it sounds a bit like a siren.

3. Set the filter to a band pass filter. Turn up the resonance.

4. Experiment moving the cutoff frequency of the filter around. It should start to sound like a psy squeak. You can either get the effect you want my manually automating the cuttoff, another option is to send the cutoff to another LFO that goes at the same speed as the pitch LFO, but in the opposite direction so the pitch goes up as the cutoff goes down. From here you can experiment loads with LFO offsets and slight differences in speed to get cool effects. Consider using two band pass filters in parallel to get 'talking synth' effects, vowel sounds etc

Extra hints:

A low note with a large LFO pitch range tends to work best.

On my synth (Access Virus TI) it sounds better if you turn the ring modulation to maximum, and the unison to 2.

Automate the pitch LFO speed for cool 'engine speeding up effects'.

Experiment with delay, reverb, and all manners of other effects to taste.  

Well the flashy ones tend to be for mixdowns is what i meant! Ie saturation plugs / analogue modelling / tube kinda stuff (eg Magnetic 2, Twin Tube), precise and versatile eqs (eg FabFilter ProQ), transient shapers (SPL Transient Designer), width processors (Izotope Imager)... this is all mixdown stuff, I wouldn't use them in sound design, just in sculpting the track to fit together nicely and have a bit of shine
 
In terms of writing the actual track, I'm mostly working with a synth, layering drum samples with some simple filtering, chopping up audio, timestretching, automating simple delay effects, and so on... I can do all this without a flashy VSTs, except perhaps a really good synth if im not using hardware
 
And thanks glad someone out there likes my stuff

Leave it to the mastering engineer

I wouldnt advise mixing on headphones, if you want your bass to behave itself, no matter how good they are.
 
In terms of general production advice, look at formant filtering, using that when making your squelch noises has some great results.. thats something that hasnt been mentioned here
 
I wouldnt say any particular technique is especially important though, just lay down some beats and some synths etc, then repeat for several years until you start to get good at making the noises you like.  Get a really good synth and learn it inside out, dont be fooled into thinking the next toy will make all the difference, it is better to know 1 tool really well than to have tons lying around and not know any of them that well.

So in bitwig you can modulate any knob.  So, you could create an LFO, and attach it to a parameter on any VST.  you could then create an audio follower using your kick drum as the source, and attach that to the LFO speed, so that every time the kick drum happens, the LFO speed increases on the VST knob you assigned the LFO to.
 
It had a note mode too, so you can get it to follow some MIDI data, like a melody, then use the note trigger as another signal to attach to anything else you like, this has an envelope so you can change the ADSR of the modulation.  I made a MIDI gater with this which surpasses any VST MIDI gater I have ever used
 
Bitwig encourages you to make your own instruments.  It doesn't even come with a phaser, it gives you a  comb filter, and you can attach that to a LFO to turn it into a phaser.  This kind of control and customisation on everything is very powerful, you will finding yourself building your own effects and presets, I've made a complex filter that splits the audio into left and right and subtly modulates the cuttoff on both chanells differently so it gently undulates also as you sweep up and down, you can then attach the LFO amount and speed to macro controls, which could then be linked to another LFO or audio follower etc, the possibilities are endless.
 
Another great feature is how you can easily copy and paste stuff between different projects, that you can both have open at the same time
Say I have built a massive drum kit that uses 10 instances of kontact and loads of effects and uses as lot of memory and CPU, I can just bounce the audio, then cut and paste the channels intoa  separate track and save it.  I can then, if I want to change it further down the line you can just copy and paste it back into your original track..  this whole thing allows you to cannibalise stuff from failed tracks or easily grab things you want to resuse.

I will EQ every channel.  You could talk forever about EQing different kinds of sounds, but for me the most important thing is keeping the low end as clear as possible for the bass and kick drum.
 
Every track will have a high pass filter applied. I move the frequency up until the sound starts to lose some of the quality of sound i like it in.  Usually you can take a fair bit off the bottom without it sounding any different at all.  Usually you can position the cuttoff point just below the 'root frequency' if it is a sound with a clear note.  I will do this solod and again perhaps with the whole mix, as often you can take even more off when it is part of an ensemble.  This kind of treatment of everything can free up a few db of DB of headroom, bring up your overall volume, and make everything sound more crisp and less muddy in the low end.
This is 90% of the mixdown process and the most important thing to do as far as I'm concerned.
 
Try to save this work for the mixdown.. if you apply EQs etc as you go along composing the track for temporary/live versions, take them all off for the mixdown and start again. It may feel like you are redoing work but you will get a better result.  Also EQ things in the right order.  Get your drums and bass working together nicely first, then do your lead instruments and vocals, then pads and FX last - these need the least amount of 'space'.
 
If a sound has a 'solo' bit or sits in a breakdown where it  needs to be EQd less heavily, then you can automate your settings so it can take up more of the spectrum in these bits
 
If you want something to cut through the mix like a snare, you can make a dip in EQ on the other sounds at a suitable frequency.  Channel grouping can be handy for this kind of thing.   You can even get the EQ to dip only when the sound is happening, if you use an 'audio follower' mod.  Bitwig and Reaper have them. 
 
One other thing I like to do is EQ my reverb quite heavily, cutting off the bottom and top, the bass is largely useless and adds a lot of mud, and the top end stops your reverb sounding too sparkly and artificial.. give it a go you might find a darker reverb with this kind of treatment can be brought up in volume and have a stronger effect without sounding too 'reverby'. Most reverbs have a HP filter setting but I find it best to ignore this, have the 100% wet reverb on its own channel and own EQ, which gives more control and easy tweaking down the line in the mixdown.   Same treatment can be applied to delays.
 
Never put an EQ on the master, leave that to the mastering engineer.  If you need to EQ your master, you have down your mixdown wrong. 

I will EQ every channel.  You could talk forever about EQing different kinds of sounds, but for me the most important thing is keeping the low end as clear as possible for the bass and kick drum.
 
Every track will have a high pass filter applied. I move the frequency up until the sound starts to lose some of the quality of sound i like it in.  Usually you can take a fair bit off the bottom without it sounding any different at all.  Usually you can position the cuttoff point just below the 'root frequency' if it is a sound with a clear note.  I will do this solod and again perhaps with the whole mix, as often you can take even more off when it is part of an ensemble.  This kind of treatment of everything can free up a few db of DB of headroom, bring up your overall volume, and make everything sound more crisp and less muddy in the low end.
This is 90% of the mixdown process and the most important thing to do as far as I'm concerned.
 
Try to save this work for the mixdown.. if you apply EQs etc as you go along composing the track for temporary/live versions, take them all off for the mixdown and start again. It may feel like you are redoing work but you will get a better result.  Also EQ things in the right order.  Get your drums and bass working together nicely first, then do your lead instruments and vocals, then pads and FX last - these need the least amount of 'space'.
 
If a sound has a 'solo' bit or sits in a breakdown where it  needs to be EQd less heavily, then you can automate your settings so it can take up more of the spectrum in these bits
 
If you want something to cut through the mix like a snare, you can make a dip in EQ on the other sounds at a suitable frequency.  Channel grouping can be handy for this kind of thing.   You can even get the EQ to dip only when the sound is happening, if you use an 'audio follower' mod.  Bitwig and Reaper have them. 
 
One other thing I like to do is EQ my reverb quite heavily, cutting off the bottom and top, the bass is largely useless and adds a lot of mud, and the top end stops your reverb sounding too sparkly and artificial.. give it a go you might find a darker reverb with this kind of treatment can be brought up in volume and have a stronger effect without sounding too 'reverby'. Most reverbs have a HP filter setting but I find it best to ignore this, have the 100% wet reverb on its own channel and own EQ, which gives more control and easy tweaking down the line in the mixdown.   Same treatment can be applied to delays.
 
Never put an EQ on the master, leave that to the mastering engineer.  If you need to EQ your master, you have down your mixdown wrong. 

Virus TI Polar has been my main workhorse for about 7 years now <3

Virus TI Polar has been my main workhorse for about 7 years now <3

I started off with things like this, electribes and stuff, worked my way up through various levels of hardware, generally i found it a waste of money and feel i should have just saved up and got a top of the range item
 
VST plugins can match or outperform these small grooveboxes and synths, you are having all the added faff of working with hardware, but not getting a great deal out of it, IMO you'd be better off just getting a really good MIDI controller for ableton/bitwig and wiring it up to anything you want.
 
If you are a gear junkie and just want to jump around on stage with lots of knobs, wires, and flashing lights, grab them and fill your boots   But i think you will out grow them quickly if you are serious about production.

I dont use a great deal of big complex pads, I prefer to create small FX and use lots of delay etc to make them last and morph.. but when i do a 'classic' pad its one of the few times I might be inclined to start with a preset and build on it
 
To get complex movement you generally want lots of automation.. find out which parameters on your synth sound great when they are moving and automate them.. and then you can add lots of effects with lots of automation..
Things like the audio effect rack in ableton or fx layer it bitwig are handy, as you can create lots of layers without duplicating the whole track, then you can have eg a high pass filter that doesnt destroy the sound too much.. although obviously a plugin with a dry/wet has the same effect.
 
Phasers tend to work great on pads.. metasynth image filter is great for stereo movement.. fab filter volcano two is a great plugin for making things morph too
 
Tere is nothing to stop you combining multiple pads; a high, a mid range, and a bass for example if you want it super thick and complex.. and whack on a field recording of an eastern market whynot... psychill staple

I often start with inspiration from a track i've really enjoyed recently, and I set about trying to recreate a thing I like from that, be it the groove, a particular type of sound design, style of drumming or whatever..  the process of getting that down usually leads to more experimentation and ideas and it flows from there, usually sounding nothing like the track I set about imitating.  
Generally I'll try get a 16 bar loop of drums, bass, and synth befoer I move on.  Then I'll try changing the synths or bass. get a few different versions down and pick the best one.  Usually scrap a lot of things that weren't good enough.  
 
So generally its heavily based around experimentation! Ocassionally I have an idea and plan a track from start to finish before i start, but thats pretty rare
 
I tend to work on lots of tracks for several years rather than starting and finishing one and then moving on to another.  This gives time for new inspiration for directions to take these tracks, and allows improvements in my skills to be reflected in all tracks rather than just the most recent.  

My favourite has to be ableton live ping pong delay.. if you switch it to 'repitch mode' you get a really good dub delay; the feedback, automation control, and consistent behaviour of it lends itself brilliantly to making really cool effects.  Other delays I find might behave differently if you start at the beginning of the bar or start from the beginning of the track, making fine tuning a pain.. others have feedback that just quickly tends towards distortion or buzzing.  Ive switched to bitwig recently and just cant get the same result out of the built in delays and really miss the ableton ping pong
 
I also use Bloom if I want a lush sounding delay, it models tape delay really nicely, so Ill use this when Im not trying to abuse the effect to get cool noises, like on a lead synth or vocal
https://www.fxpansion.com/products/bloom/

One really good hardware workhorse is all you really need.. its diminishing returns after that

My favourite has to be ableton live ping pong delay.. if you switch it to 'repitch mode' you get a really good dub delay; the feedback, automation control, and consistent behaviour of it lends itself brilliantly to making really cool effects.  Other delays I find might behave differently if you start at the beginning of the bar or start from the beginning of the track, making fine tuning a pain.. others have feedback that just quickly tends towards distortion or buzzing.  Ive switched to bitwig recently and just cant get the same result out of the built in delays and really miss the ableton ping pong
 
I also use Bloom if I want a lush sounding delay, it models tape delay really nicely, so Ill use this when Im not trying to abuse the effect to get cool noises, like on a lead synth or vocal
https://www.fxpansion.com/products/bloom/

There's a lot of sounds going on it that so not sure if you are referring to one in particular, they're mostly a standard set of psychedelic 'squelches'
 
These sounds are generally made with saw waves, and band pass filtering with lots of resonance. 
 
What synth(s) do you have?  Here's a tutorial to make the basic psytrance squeak on sylenth, a good place to start. 
 

 
You can push different synth in different ways to get better or more varied squelches.. ring modulation, formant filtering..  I could give you a few tricks for a Virus and could give you a patch using the Bitwig polysynth.