Hell, if I really knew how to do this I wouldnt be writing about it, Id be churning out dance floor classics like they were going out of fashion!
I think I can give some helpful advice, having ripped up many a podium in my dancing days, and having studied music all my life, but if anyone tells you they know the secret to writing Ibizas big summer tune, then theyre lying. Unless you happen to be talking to Kid Crme, in which case listen to every word he says, write it down immediately and email it to me. Cheers.
This piece assumes you have a little musical knowledge.
(before I start I feel a disclaimer coming on! Over time I will refine and rewrite these lessons so that they work well together. Please forgive if this first one is a bit hotchpotch Ill come back to it in time and in light of future lessons)
Ok. Lets get stuck in. Lesson one is all about..
The Groove
Youre sitting there in a bar with your crew looking cool, but out of nowher e you just cant stop your hips moving, or if you get it really bad, (like I did all the time) then you give up looking cool all together, ditch your drink and your buddies and shake your undoubtedly sexy thing all over the place. . What is it that gets those shoulders rollin, feet tapping and finger clicking? What is it that makes you feel like John Travolta, What is it that makes you wanna crack on with every member of the opposite sex within sight?
Its the groove man! .and getting your groove right is key to writing a successful dance tune. Its a combination of many things, but mainly its the interplay between the bassline and the percussion, or drums or rhythm section, (whatever terminology you prefer).
Kick drum spend ages getting this right. Listen to loads of samples. Bowie reputedly listened to kick drums for four weeks before choosing the one that appears on heroes. (this is probably nonsense,.. and if its not, its probably due to copious ingestion of cl ass As) but the point is, The kick drum is the pump, the heartbeat and the engine. Use a weedy kick sound, and youll still be packing shelves one year from now.
All your sounds need space. They need to sit somewhere. Whilst a kick drum may sound buried in the mix, go listen to 5 of your favourite dance 12s. At the start of the tune you will get a good 30 seconds of kick drum that you can analyse. Listen carefully.. particularly to the tail ..(the part of the kick drum sound that is not the initial hit). I almost guarantee it is not dry. It will have some form of decay or reverb. Good reverbs for kick drums are gated which decay to a certain amplitude then cut immediately to silence. The length size and shape of this reverb or decay depend upon the tempo of the tune, your taste and whether or not you are creating a deliberate audible effect or ambience.
Bassline wow. The number of hours Ive spent trying to get the right bass sound! The type of bassline youve wri tten will dictate the type of sound you want. .also.. listen to whats in your head. This isnt as easy as it sounds, but it comes with practice. Is it like a real bass? Is it squidgy? (like you hear in acid techno), is it deep and resonant? ..you get the picture.
Listen to your bass sound with your kick. How do they work together?
Now they probably wont be perfect. Dont worry. There is a whole world of pain between here and trying to get it perfect, including compression, mixing, limiting bla bla bla (but all that is for another time). All were interested at this point is getting the kick and bass in roughly the right ball park. Is the bass too loud? Does that kick sound too fat? Just use faders and a little Eq. Get them roughly right.
Now that bass line is it doing exactly whats in your head or is it well, groovier in your brain? Listen very carefully to what your brain is playing. Have you definitely written all the notes, are you missing crafty little fin ger picks or grace notes, does one of your bass notes bend, is one of the notes slightly late giving it swing, or early giving it push? If youve definitely got all the notes down. EXACTLY as youre hearing them, then your brain version sounds groovier because of production elements and thats for another lesson. So, all notes written, lets move on.
Crafty tips:
- Try using two bass sounds. The most obvious example of this is any dance tune with a slap bass. Most of the bassline will be played by a nice round fatty, with the occasional slap. This slap will be on a higher note and using a different sound. Usually a less fat mid-frequency sound.
- Play with velocities. er, try this, just for an exercise. Write four bars of sixteenths accenting every third sixteenth. Get that rolling feel? Write another four bars of sixteenths and accent the 2nd, 5th, 8th, 11th 14th, 16th, totally different feel right..but the notes and their lengths are just the s ame. Play about with this, and then play about with the velocities on your bassline.
Try putting snare hits on the 2nd, 8th and 10th sixteenths of the bar, and taking their velocities right down. This will give you a feel for the massive potential in those hidden 16ths. With your snare sound play around with them.
Hats: So you have a nice fat hat on the off beats. Now take a much smaller, tighter closed hat sound and write one on the 5th, 6th,13th,14th and 16th sixteenths of the bar. Again, play around with the positioning of these.
Congas/Bongos. Careful here! Theyre beginning to sound a bit tired these days. That said, I put them in my last tune! Haha! Tunings for all your sounds are important but for your congas etc, its key! (scuse the pun!)
They have to be tuned
Use swing quantise on your sequencer. (also known as humanise) personally I always found this gave random and undesirable results (as though the conga player had had a few too many disco biscuits) so I always nudge the timings myself. Tedious, but more realistic results.
.ok. theres loads more, but that will do for now. This is a pretty vast subject, more lessons to follow.
Darren Gilbert writes for Plan-Do Records & Elektrafunk
Author:: Darren Gilbert
Keywords:: Elektrafunk, Jodie Berry, Sunshine, Plan-Do, Darren Gilbert
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