5 Minute composition
800 word synopsis
PRODUCTION
For this project I decided to make a track that falls in between the styles of euphoric house and speed garage. I drew from inspiration from artists like X Club, Kettama, Club Angel and Ocean. I used the DAW Logic Pro to produce this track and will be talking you through my production process below.
Bass + Side-chaining
The key element of many dance tracks is usually the bass, so I wanted to craft a sound that was thick and subby but still punchy enough to have presence in the overall mix. As I was going for a track with influences from speed garage, I opted to create a classic Reese bass sound often heard in this genre of music. I created the bass sound using Serum 2, a very popular synthesiser used by professional artists and producers within dance music. In terms of sound design, it is actually a very simple sound when broken down – I used 2 harmonic morph sine waves on oscillator A and B, that were then filtered using an Mg24 low filter, which were backed up with a sub for extra depth and beefiness.
In terms of processing for the bass, I added slight tube distortion in Serum 2 to add a subtle grittiness to it, giving it more presence in the overall mix. To ensure the overall low-end was balanced, I made sure to side-chain the bass to the kick drum. The kick drum is the main driving element in most dance tracks, and helps keep a constant pulse throughout, so it is important that this can be heard clearly in the mix. To Side-chain the bass to the kick, I used a volume ducking plugin called ‘Kickstart 2’ – essentially every time the kick drum hits, the bass is slightly ducking in volume, to leave space for the kick to punch through, as these are both low frequency elements. A clash of sounds here can cause muddiness in the overall mix, so I wanted to keep it clean and professional sounding. As you notice in the picture below, I have programmed it so that only the frequencies below 151Hz are ducking – this is to ensure there is not a loss of presence in the bass on each beat, which can sometimes be heard when using heaving side-chaining and ducking the whole sound rather than targeted frequencies.
Bass – no side chain
Bass with side chain
Drums processing
When creating the drums for this track, I was heavily inspired by artists like Kettama. Overall my drums consisted of a kick drum, a hi-hat top loop, a clap, an additional top loop for texture and a ride which comes in later to show variation and progression throughout the track. For processing the drums, I ensured all high end elements had the low frequencies cut to again leave room for the bass and avoid clashing. I applied a plugin called OTT to the overall drum bus to help add some subtle grittiness and saturation to the drums. These are processes that I have learned from Four Tet, who we went over in our lectures this year – I further looked into his harder hitting drums and how he processed them. Listen below for a before and after of how they sound:
Before
After
Stabs
I wanted to create some lush chord stabs for this track, in the style of x club and kettama for example Kettama’s track ‘Sort it out’, heard below:
I came up with a euphoric chord progression, and layer this sound on two different instruments to make it thicker. In addition I added a compressor to glue these two sounds together, an EQ to cut lows and kickstart 2 once again to sidechain it, giving it a slight pumping effect, helping the song drive.
Vocals
For the vocals, I wanted something rolling and euphoric for the main drops, so I found a super cool Indian Bollywood vocal sample, which I chopped and manipulated and pitched up to fit the key of the track. This is something that I went over in my lectures where we covered gold panda and aphex twin, where they both used vocal manipulation to make it more rhythmic and bouncy. I also added reverb to make them more airy and angelic sounding. I wanted to make sure these vocals were also only present in the main drops, as this was the area with the highest energy.
Vocals before:
Vocals after processing:
Samples Used
*ALL SAMPLES CAN BE FOUND ON SPLICE (splice.com)
STCR2_HDSH_150_Toploop_Expense
DS_DARBY_140_drum_top_mind
STCR2_SG_Kick_Distant
GH_Drum_Loop_15_Ride_124
DS_SG_drum_clap_go
91V_BPT_120_vocal_ambient_purple_stack_Fm
SS_VMTT_125_fx_solar_uplifter_bpm_sync
STCR2_NR_FX_Impact_InTheClub
JMK_IVP_120_indian_vocal_female_hook_humming_dance_bollywood_wet_Gm
STCR2_AHV2_122_Synth_Pluck_Stars_Bm
AFP_MSV_percussion_one_shot_whistle_babbelas
