Contextual Studies 1 (Production) (SHR4C004M) 

Song Prod. & Write Up (SHR4C004M~003) 

Tom Ditchfield 25101143 

When it comes to making/producing music, I don’t have a set way of what music elements I make first e.g. drums. I like to be flexible and will create whatever comes naturally. This helped very much in this case, as it allowed me to be flexible with my work and allowed a range of ideas to come into the song freely. The foundation of this song would fall under tech house however it has certain elements and inspirations from all genres of dance music with heavy influence from minimal tech house songs and artists like Chris Stussy. 

Firstly, I started with the Drums. Normally, I like to have drums that take up space and have lots of random percussion and sounds to create a groove. I started with finding a kick and 2 claps. I then slowly started layering my hi-hats on top. Before finding different loops of percussion in my sound library. When I make my drums, I like to find random sounds from all kinds of music to give them a unique groove and sound. After making the drums, I turned to the bassline. I reworked a simple bass preset from Roland Zenology and tailored it to the sound I wanted. After laying down a pattern, I duplicated the bass onto another track, cut all the high end up to around 150Hz and tuned the low end to create a sub that layered the main bass. 

After creating a track with a nice groove and feel, I started to think about melodies. The chords came by messing around on logics built in keyboard by pressing the keys, and similarly, the melody came shortly after. I messed around with some sounds but finally landed on these airy chords accompany with Glidey sounding leads.  

I had the raw cuts of a cool tune, all that I needed now was some vocals, some ear candy and some fx’s to tie it all together and transition from verse to chorus etc.  

I sent this song to my friend Mary and asked if she wanted to put some vocals on. We both came up with a couple ideas, but the vocals i wrote orginally  worked best on the track. For the vocal chain, I compressed her vocals as they were very quiet, cut some of the low end out and boosted some high Mids. I put an echo, a ping-pong delay and reverb on and finally side-chained the vocal subtly. The vocal melody works well with the chords and leads already going on in the track. Iwanted to make sure that the vocal didn’t go on through the whole song, as the bassline and melody present were already enough and would have overcomplicated things. 

Sampling: 

Sampling is an important part of production when I make music. I primarily use samples in my Fx but will also use little samples and one-shot that I call ‘ear candy’ to break repetition and add texture to my songs. For example, in my Fx’s I used white noise risers,  releases/impacts and swooshes to transition or build up to a big drop. These help tie together the different parts of the track and glue the whole song together. For the ‘ear candy’, I went through the splice catalogue and started liking anything that sounded cool, like sprinkle effects or random unorthodox noises, for example, a recording of a police siren in the distance.  sampled from other presets and sounds. After finding these sounds, I started to mess around with them and place them around the song, making sure I didn’t repeat them too much, so it wouldn’t become boring. Another important part of sampling is Drum samples. Choosing the right sounds for the drums will ultimately decide how the song feels. If they have heavy drums, then most likely the song is going to have high energy. Vice versa, softer drums would give the song a more chilled vibe. I like to use orthodox Kicks, claps and hi-hats, but after that, I like to mess around and fill in the gaps with different sounds from everywhere. Using different drum samples from all kinds of genres to make the song sound different and less generic than other dance music in that genre. 

Commercial Potential 

This song, if released, would lie predominantly in the electronic dance market. It has the DNA of a deep house song, with its repetitive structure and house influences. The song would mainly get listens/streams through people hearing it in clubs and DJs playing it at different events, rather than traditional radio play. Because of the structure of the song and the tempo, it allows DJs from all dance genres to mix it into their sets, meaning there is a greater chance of streams, as the more it gets played, the more people are going to hear it. DJs plays are arguably the most influence source of support and often are more influential than marketing. 

However, the somewhat underground sound means only a small portion of listeners will be drawn to this song. Many mainstream listeners who seek vocal-driven songs and desire less repetition in music won’t align with this kind of sound. In comparison to more pop songs, this track would be considered niche. 

That being said, according to SoundCloud’s 2025 music intelligence report, EDM was cited as the genre rapidly outgrowing any other form of genre indicating that the market is increasing and there would be an increase in streams for songs like these. 

Overall, this song highlights the foundations of deep house music in a modern twist on production. The melody-driven leads, backed up with a strong rhythmic structure, showcase the desire to keep the listener moving and not focus on catchy vocal hooks but rather the groove and production behind the song. 

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