Some technique’s

[serox]

Some technique’s that I have found work for me that I thought I would share.

Recent I have been getting down about 7 or 8 drums/perc’s for my groove. That will be 1 snare, 1 kick, 3 hats and something like a cowbell/rim/clap/. Once I have a basic groove down and then add my bass sounds and then I struggle to introduce new bits without starting to make things sound too busy. It is seriously hard to know when to say ‘that is enough’ and leave it, it takes confidence. Also when it comes to making the next few bars different instead of adding new sounds I am finding it works better to replace or layer another sound on top of one of the current hits but with different processing, ie big long reverb or a delay if the hit has loads of space. I have been trying to introduce too many new sounds and it is hard to keep the flow going when you do that so I have been changing the notes used and also where the hits land and changing the processing instead of loads of new big sounds.

For intro’s I would take the main part of the track and use that but will replace the sounds with something light with loads of processing (hi hats, clicks, snaps etc). I do this just to get the groove going and help make it familiar to the ears and it helps the flow when the track does kick in.

Less is more but leaving space and keeping it interesting is harder than it sounds!

[yellowhighlighter]

i've always tried to make my music minimal. it's funny you say that it takes confidence to know when to stop adding sounds because i've always thought that to make minimal music you have to be very brave. you're stripping down your music to the bare essentials. there's nothing there to hide your beat. a lot of the time i make my loop and then i start stripping away most of the elements of it. just so you have the skeleton of what was originally there.

[serox]

i've always tried to make my music minimal. it's funny you say that it takes confidence to know when to stop adding sounds because i've always thought that to make minimal music you have to be very brave. you're stripping down your music to the bare essentials. there's nothing there to hide your beat. a lot of the time i make my loop and then i start stripping away most of the elements of it. just so you have the skeleton of what was originally there.

Yep its hard. Its much easier to add more drums and fool yourself into thinking it is better because you have filled in a gap. It is like you are tricking your ears to thinking it is rolling. I keep hearing dnb style hi hats over Dubstep tracks and I am getting turn off them a little. I prepare the space you hear in tracks like Loefah and Kryptic Minds for example.

[Depone]

Ive not heard any of either of your tunes... Get some up on soundcloud!

[serox]

Ive not heard any of either of your tunes... Get some up on soundcloud!

Soon!

[DEMZ]

Good tips, I've never been one for busy drum tracks, not that I dont like em, as long as its not straight 16ths its all good, its just I dont think I do it well, its all open space and ghost notes for me, not the things you necessarily hear but the things that subtily add to the groove

[Pedro Sánchez]

A good track can get you groovin' with just 4 drum elements IMO. One of the reasons I stopped listening to D'n'b, when the majority of tracks that were coming out were where I could hear that there were more than 2 breaks layered beneath too many snares and too many hats because (a) hat has x freq that (b) hat doesn't, the drums tracks just stopped breathing and it became this techboy shit for the sake of it, I like drums that move me not require me the use of a calculator to work out what is going on. Thats why I love Theo Parish's stuff, simplicity kills every time I think.

[Basic A]

i've always tried to make my music minimal. it's funny you say that it takes confidence to know when to stop adding sounds because i've always thought that to make minimal music you have to be very brave. you're stripping down your music to the bare essentials. there's nothing there to hide your beat. a lot of the time i make my loop and then i start stripping away most of the elements of it. just so you have the skeleton of what was originally there.

This. Maximalism truly is king in EDM, because even if to the trained ear it can be broken down to be simple frequency filling for no realy groove purpose at all, to the audience, that stuff can matter. Look at bassnectar (bad exmaple but oh well) alot of his music, is so shamelessly maximal it makes me totally forget what I should be enjoying here...

i usually have 3-4 elements in a tune (Drums, Bass, Instrumentation, Ambience, occasionally, count 'incidentals' as a whole category). and not eveyone likes that...

I just feel like sometimes, the more they pile in, the more it distracts from the simple things that first made it beautiful.

Look at Skream/Pinch/Forsaken in thier earlier years...

Shit was bare

[krispy]

1 snare, 1 kick, 3 hats and something like a cowbell/rim/clap/

So i've always been taught to layer my kicks and snares.... A punchy snare and a deep snare or a high kick and a low kick for more fullness to the sound. Do you still do this technique? I see you mentioned 1 kick and 1 snare

[jaydot]

I learnt a technique this week and made the bass for the track in my sig (ignore the fact that it's an obvious preset.) and look at technique.

Gold star for anyone that knows how I did it.

[nowaysj]

You nailed it, the ability to make it different but keep it the same is what separates the pros from the hoes, in any artform.

I really think anyone can get a groove going. But to then turn that into a whole song that moves and arcs, and breaths and pushes and all that, well that is the next level.

Confidence is king, but your confidence needs to be based on a real assessment of your ability to generate and hold interest with the few elements that you have.

It is strife, bro.

[serox]

You nailed it, the ability to make it different but keep it the same is what separates the pros from the hoes, in any artform.

I really think anyone can get a groove going. But to then turn that into a whole song that moves and arcs, and breaths and pushes and all that, well that is the next level.

Confidence is king, but your confidence needs to be based on a real assessment of your ability to generate and hold interest with the few elements that you have.

It is strife, bro.

Luckily I dont rate much of my work right now

[serox]

1 snare, 1 kick, 3 hats and something like a cowbell/rim/clap/

So i've always been taught to layer my kicks and snares.... A punchy snare and a deep snare or a high kick and a low kick for more fullness to the sound. Do you still do this technique? I see you mentioned 1 kick and 1 snare

I find good samples instead of trying to use two shit ones to make a better one.

[krispy]

1 snare, 1 kick, 3 hats and something like a cowbell/rim/clap/

So i've always been taught to layer my kicks and snares.... A punchy snare and a deep snare or a high kick and a low kick for more fullness to the sound. Do you still do this technique? I see you mentioned 1 kick and 1 snare

I find good samples instead of trying to use to shit ones to make a better one.

^ Well that really does make the most sense lol

[tripwire22]

Ive not heard any of either of your tunes... Get some up on soundcloud!

[nowaysj]

Luckily I dont rate much of my work right now

Unfortunately I do, so toons please.

[Astral]

Ghosted notes are a perfect way to fool the ears into thinking the space is full.