How to make my tracks energetic?

MrAural · Post by **MrAural** » Mon Oct 03, 2011 10:36 pm

Hey. So I've been realizing where I'm going wrong, I've listened to the tips from people like 'Wub' over the last few months, I've came up with at least 1 decent track, but I've noticed that my tracks lack energy, how could I put the energy to make my tracks really flow? Because at the moment, I'm working on a "Laid Black - Eyes are Red" remix, and I need some help making a decent energetic bass.

Thanks in advance for any help.

accordionfan · Post by **accordionfan** » Mon Oct 03, 2011 11:09 pm

use air horns liberally

3za · Post by **3za** » Mon Oct 03, 2011 11:12 pm

Start breaking music down. You will learn lots of techniques/tricks they used to make it, but more imortantly you will develop your listening skills. Pick a track that you think is very energetic, and break it down, and find out whats making it sound that way, you might even find out about a few things you didn't know about/wasn't looking for.

If all that fails, use a tamborine swung 8th note pattern

MrAural · Post by **MrAural** » Mon Oct 03, 2011 11:17 pm

3za wrote:Start breaking music down. You will learn lots of techniques/tricks they used to make it, but more imortantly you will develop your listening skills. Pick a track that you think is very energetic, and break it down, and find out whats making it sound that way, you might even find out about a few things you didn't know about/wasn't looking for.

If all that fails, use a tamborine swung 8th note pattern

Modestep - Sunlight.

I might not like "brostep", but I liked 'Sunlight', very energetic, guess I could use this, thanks.

narcissus · Post by **narcissus** » Tue Oct 04, 2011 12:14 am

accordionfan wrote:use air horns liberally

well now "energy" can mean quite a lot of things. and it can come from a lot of places. the place to start is hi percussion and hats, definitely. next place would be quick rhythmic and lead synth patterns.

basically, bass and kick lay the foundation for the groove. snare adds "power," or UMPH. hihats add the "speed" in the track. likewise synth elements covering a lot of the midrange will give a "powerful" feel, whereas hi-frequency range synths or better for "speed," or "energy."

but this is all just my weird little mind's vision of it. analyze tracks you like.

stinjee · Post by **stinjee** » Tue Oct 04, 2011 12:54 am

Active listening is a good place to start as the peeps above said, try laying a track into your sequencer and try to recreate it. Dont worry too much about the actual sounds just the groove and midi placement etc. This helped me when i started out.
I would count how many bass notes there was per bar in a riff and shit like that.

Change up drums more, i dont mean like an extra snare hit here and there, but more like from the classic kick snare kick snare then whip into 4x4 for 4 bars then back etc. Little incidentals carefull placed can help too imo.

when laying your track think about the arrangement a bit. Loads of people will do 8 bars and the last bar of that will be a little break, but why cant that break carry on into the first bar of the next set of bars. Good example of this is in bengas drums west. (sick tune

)

Use percussion well and get some swing on it.
When writing the bass line try not to have it too quantised, and use maybe 7 note instead of 8 over 2 bars.
Be creative and see what happens.

viberous · Post by **viberous** » Tue Oct 04, 2011 1:12 am

Sometimes if you amp up the bpm a lil, it can make a huge difference. I notice a bunch of jump-up style artists have tracks at 142-145ish. Who said everything has to be at 140bpm. It really depends on the track though...

FSTZ · Post by **FSTZ** » Tue Oct 04, 2011 3:29 am

swing on the hi hats / tambourine like 3za said

narcissus · Post by **narcissus** » Tue Oct 04, 2011 3:35 am

swing isn't everything... lots of techno and trance is STRAIGHT 16ths and yet has tons of unstoppable energy.. not to mention hardcore, hardstyle. practically no 16th swing whatsoever. yet that shit POUNDS. or listen to some psytrance. often they have 32nd note hihat fills every coupla bars just to keep things quick.

i forgot to mention.. the most important thing is for YOU to have lots of energy.. make the beat when you are bouncing off the walls, and so will it be..

Insahn · Post by **Insahn** » Tue Oct 04, 2011 3:48 am

What Narcissus said about high frequency sound adding energy is true. Fast shuffling hi-hat loops, ride cymbals, crash cymbals, high passed break beats chopped up and set to intermingle with percussion, kick drums, and snares. Short sounds add energy as well. Long droning sounds can take away energy if they are stretched out over an entire track.

FSTZ · Post by **FSTZ** » Tue Oct 04, 2011 4:28 am

narcissus wrote:swing isn't everything... lots of techno and trance is STRAIGHT 16ths and yet has tons of unstoppable energy.. not to mention hardcore, hardstyle. practically no 16th swing whatsoever. yet that shit POUNDS. or listen to some psytrance. often they have 32nd note hihat fills every coupla bars just to keep things quick.

i forgot to mention.. the most important thing is for YOU to have lots of energy.. make the beat when you are bouncing off the walls, and so will it be..

I agree...

open 909 hats on the upbeat works a charm

mitchAUS · Post by **mitchAUS** » Tue Oct 04, 2011 4:52 am

I just listened to ur sig track and i think that lacks energy because the percussion loop sounds so disconnected from ur clap... In fact the whole arrangement sounds disconnected. So instead of the parts working together to give the track vibe, flow and energy they feel a little awkward like they are fighting each other. There is a lot to like about it tho so with a little cohesion between sounds and u will be producing better tracks for sure. at 1:40 when the percussion stops and u have the snare just on the 3, the track sounds sick! Here i could hear the elements working together. As much as i like that percussion loop i reckon u would gain from using a lot less of it and probably bring the volume down a little. If that percussion was working with ur claps and kicks this track would be bringing energy. Try not to overcomplicate it, offbeat hits and claps are great but u can go to far with it, especially as a novice producer. An offbeat, heavily syncopated claps and snares won't bring energy. I feel like that percussion bit should just be a bridge or change up not the focus for a minute with only 20 or so seconds if u are going to accompany it with that offbeat clap pattern. If at some point u change up the pattern to something a little more "predictable" u could have it sounding as strong asd that section at 1:40 which sounded dope and with that racing percussion sitting on top you would be bring serious energy.

And this last point is just a creative one and just my opinion, but i think u would benefit from layering a percussion element to compliment that percussion loop. With the bass being really stripped out and being a percussion driven track its a bit boring hearing the same loop for over a minute with not much else going on. That loop sounds more upper mids then sparkling highs so a hat pattern over the top could do wonders. Feel free to send me the stems and ill send u back an example of the changes I'm talking about

Electric_Head · Post by **Electric_Head** » Wed Oct 05, 2011 7:24 am

hatz n snares

Teknicyde · Post by **Teknicyde** » Wed Oct 05, 2011 7:36 am

Hats..

little side-stick fills...

Fuck white noise risers, reverse an explosion...

I have nothing more to add to this.

MrAural · Post by **MrAural** » Wed Oct 05, 2011 7:47 am

stinjee wrote:Active listening is a good place to start as the peeps above said, try laying a track into your sequencer and try to recreate it. Dont worry too much about the actual sounds just the groove and midi placement etc. This helped me when i started out.
I would count how many bass notes there was per bar in a riff and shit like that.

Change up drums more, i dont mean like an extra snare hit here and there, but more like from the classic kick snare kick snare then whip into 4x4 for 4 bars then back etc. Little incidentals carefull placed can help too imo.

when laying your track think about the arrangement a bit. Loads of people will do 8 bars and the last bar of that will be a little break, but why cant that break carry on into the first bar of the next set of bars. Good example of this is in bengas drums west. (sick tune )

Use percussion well and get some swing on it.
When writing the bass line try not to have it too quantised, and use maybe 7 note instead of 8 over 2 bars.
Be creative and see what happens.

Thanks all, but I was going for a more Pinch - Qawwali at first lol, then I found this pack on YouTube (will link if not, will upload) started to play about with the percussion samples, threw 2 into piano roll and went to town. Drumz West is an awesome track, and by 4x4 do you mean 4x4 bassline drums etc?

Gewze · Post by **Gewze** » Thu Oct 06, 2011 12:13 pm

sustained hi notes in the background, there was a thread a while back about this

Sparxy · Post by **Sparxy** » Thu Oct 06, 2011 3:07 pm

Teknicyde wrote: Fuck white noise risers, reverse an explosion...

I have nothing more to add to this.

Fuck explosions
Reverse the big bang

Amphix · Post by **Amphix** » Thu Oct 06, 2011 3:18 pm

For more energy I would suggest looking more at your drums, but that's just me. I find if you're happy with the track as it is but feel it lacks energy, maybe your drums lack some vital percussion, or are quite reptitive? Or you could try switching things up, reversing elements here and there to give the track some swing. Just my input.

UVOZ · Post by **UVOZ** » Fri Oct 07, 2011 5:43 am

big epic drums. build up the pressure. listen to my track heavens gate, its a pretty energetic track & i credit a lot to the drums.

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