Hey
I have a problem and i hope you guys can help me
So i can make decent drums but i have a problem when it comes to melodies
I have come up with some sick basses but i dont know how draw them into the piano roll.
I have done a bit if music theory
I know about major n minor scales ,intervals , chords and all
I just dont know how to bring this knowledge into making tunes.
So with chord progression ,how many do i do in like 4 bars?
How many bass notes in the same period?
I have been a dnb dj for about 5 years now
I work on logic
Thanks
Fuck music theory (I don't know any of it).
Try try try... you'll get there if you really want.
Rome wasn't built in a day.
There's no magic formula.
For the numbers you ask (chord progressions, bass notes and what not) check tunes you like and listen what they do.
There is no law in Dnb that tells you how many this and thats per bar you need, you're free to do what you like.
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being a dj you would know the ideal structure of a tune.. as for what happens within that core structure- like the guys say- use your ears and if it makes you move.. you are doing it right!
I know exactly what you mean, i have been stumped there many times.
For me I usually start by picking a key in which the song will be in and then have the drums going while im free-styling until something catches my ear and then i build off that. Sometimes i get the notes i want in 10 minutes and sometimes its a few days. Just try to start off with something simple and develop it into epicness
just keep trying out stuff!
and believe me, if u dont have inspiration, i suggest u fill up your idea tank before starting to make melodies.
vocals + drums usually get the inspiration flowing for me.
and you could try and get diffrent synths playing with eachother.
what i tend to do alot, is make way 2 complicated melodies.
alot of times a few notes + another melodie / bassline / pad does the magic for those notes.
good luck, and take the breaks and listen to other tunes (and genres)!
The start... drums
In the beginning I'm always messing with drums.
Layer some breaks, add single hits, pitch up pitch down, rearrange... mess mess mess.
I've become pretty good at this but I've been doing about 2000 breaks up to now.
I tend to make a bar of drums and then make 2 variations (let's call them A, B and C) and then use this pattern: AAABAAAC.
Depending on the situation I might make a few more variations to keep boredom away (e.g. ADABADAC).
Again, there's no rules. If you have a strong break and you want to go AAAAAAAAAA, then do it. If you want to go for very complex drums and your structure looks like ADCBEAFQCDA then that's fine. Just go with the flow of the moment. I've written a tutorial on making breaks from single hits as well, you'll find it here
The bassline
Then I just load a bass synth or a (few) sample(s) (whatever I feel like) and split the signal in 2 channels, (sub and mid), compress the sub, boost the mids and distort them in some whay (again it's experimenting for hours). I set up a simple demo bassline to hear what my tweakings do to the overall sound of the bass. When I'm somewhat happy with the sound of the bass I try to construct a 2 bar bassline. There are several posts on this site about bass treatment so go and read them (1)(2) if you need more background on that one.
Chaos reigns
This process isn't very linear, it could be that I change the processing of the bass (and the drums) during the bassline construction about a dozen times. Once I find a sound that works for me I set up a minimal structure (16 bars for the main drop) and I add stuff on the fly to fill out the spectrum and to add to the bass groove. During these 16 bars things should stay entertaining enough to not make you hate it. Then I repeat these 16 bars (copy paste) and make more variations to the second half.
The second drop
Copy the whole thing again, it will be the second drop. In the second drop I'll add some extra drums or a new filter on the bass or some pads or what not. There's no rules, go with your feelings, not too much with your mind.
I'm no God like Dillinja who manages to take his second drop to new heights and actually leave the first drop behind him. I guess you are fine with my method for now
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The breakdown
When I have a second drop which sounds good enough I'll make a gap between drop1 and drop2 (4 to 16 bars, depending on what I think the tune requires (always add groups of 4, so 4, 8, 12 or 16 bars). In this spot I copy the equal amount of bars from the first drop and take out several things (let it cool down, so go easy on the drums, leave out the mids from the bass, focus on pads and vocals,...). In the breakdown you want to create tension to go into the second drop so something building up to the point where the second drop appears would be good (pitching synth, drumroll, rising levels, ...).
The intro
Yes, I make the intro as last element.
Once I have all this in I know what my tune will actually sound like (I don't start off with a main idea or anything, I just wander my way to the final tune) it is time to make an intro. First I make room for it (16-24 bars, depending on BPM speed and how long you want to tease the listener) In this I pick up a couple elements from the drop, but never give away the main break or the main bass groove. I add new elements that add up to the correct atmosphere, this sounds easier than it actually is. It might be a session of several hours going through your sound collection or searching the web for sounds that have "just that".
In the intro you need to build tension as well, a bit of mystery is never a bad thing. Make your audience curious and lead them to the drop by adding more and more elements. Some tension building is needed too (pretty similar to the breakdown).
The magic
I don't want to pretend that I have "magic" at hand but after doing the above you have a basic tune which might be great, but mostly it isn't. You'll need to listen to it several times and spit all possible critique before anyone else does.
"Things get boring around 2:34"... ok, you'll need to add some variation in there then. An extra drum variation? A filter on the bass? Some automation on a knob of the existing filter? You are in charge, again, do what you think is needed. Dare to experiment and if it sucks you remove it again or return to a previously saved version.
Being lazy is good
Don't think that you need to finish a tune ASAP. When you get stuck you just leave it alone. There's plenty of other things you can do without hitting a wall in your creative process.
- You could go sample hunting on the web for future productions;
- Read up on techniques, VST's;
- Do some sports;
- Watch TV/read a book or magazine;
- Listen to other people's tunes (AND REVIEW THEM/VOTE FOR THEM);
Why am I saying this? If you focus on a tune too much you'll start to hate it. Doing completely different things will help you to return to it with a fresh approach.
The treasury
I have tons of tunes on my harddrive that I started in like 2008 which are not finished and I don't mind. I have these moments where I start to dig through them and find something which I hated back then but love right now. After fixing some of the mixdown (I improved over the years so those old gems sound like total shit most of the time) I might immediately know where I want to take it. It might be though that I'm still stuck so I save a new version and that's that.
The rush
I rarely have them but when I have them I feel superior (no shit). The production rush, you start the process as mentioned above and you feel like it all works out super well. In no time you have a first drop and you already know what you want to do with the second drop. Drums sound mint and the bassline is rocking like hell. That's what I call production rush, it is soo good, it gives you the feeling that you are in total control and that you are good at what you are doing.
My next tune 2Buploaded here was made in such a rush. Started at 11 pm and finished at 3:30 in the morning. All on headphones (of course). One session no breaks. I bounced it to mp3 and the next day I listened to it on my monitors and was totally pleased with the result (goose bumps, head nodding, smile, ...).
The writers' block
But I also have weeks, even months that I don't feel like production and don't do shit. As soon as you feel forced to make a tune again you might freak out because nothing works and you don't feel ok with messing around any more with the crap sound that comes out. Close your DAW and go play outside because you'll get a mental situation which is called "writers' block". You can't force creativity so only when you feel eager to compose you should actually do it.
You tha man
When you are producing you and only you decide what happens, so you work as long as you want, take breaks when you want, throw the tune away when you want. So don't let people tell you how to work on your tune. It's often healthy and refreshing to leave the tune alone for a couple of days and then work it some more.
Also from a mixdown point of view you'll have better results when you have fresh ears. Often you reload a tune and play it and hate yourself for the mess you made last night. The problem with human ears is that they adapt to bad sounds so after hours of listening to bad EQing you think it is actually good. The next time your ears have been reset to everyday sounds and will find your mixdown "funny".
Some Advice
Some word of advice to make life more enjoyable...
- Number one: SAVE
As soon as you have made something you would not like to recreate because you managed to lose it you might want to save it to your harddisk.
I guess most daws offer a "Save New Version" button which allows you to keep a version for every change you made. Very good if you want to go back to a more basic version of your tune after you took a wrong turn.
Set the maximum undo levels to a very high value (if your DAW allows you to do so). If your DAW offers "auto save to new version every X minutes" then go for that as well. When you are done with the project you can still throw away all "in between" versions you don't want to keep.
- Number two: avoid doing repetitive tasks
When you have finished a tune and people say "your eqing is good and the bass sounds great" it would be a good idea to take the project file from that tune and save it as "basic setup", then you strip out all the sounds.
Next time you start a project you just use "basic setup" as a template and it will get you on the go really fast. Watch out to not make the same tune over and over again though. I always start from scratch because I want total control over what I am doing.
__ Check my soundcloud (exclusive tracks on there)
If anyone feels that something is missing to the "starter guide", feel free to post.
If I think it adds to the quality of the guide I'll add it and credit you.
This might be turned into an article for the article section any time soon.
__ Check my soundcloud (exclusive tracks on there)
BattleDrone, great that you compiled this, I might add a few technical things. These are only recommendations, and specifically for beginners. You may not fully agree. BattleDrone, you are much more experienced, feel free to change/modify/add if you think so.
- EQ is the most important tool, EQ every track/sound (or possibly sub-busses) separately. Do not EQ on the master.
- Better to cut than to boost frequencies; when boosting, do with less db and wider Q parameter.
- Highpass filter everything! E.g. highpass sub at 30 Hz, kick at 80 Hz, snares at 150 Hz etc.
- Avoid clashing frequencies of different instruments, each sound/instrument needs its own frequency-space.
- Leave space for the kick, usually around 90-120 Hz, between the sub bass and low mids, snares etc. Possible conflict between the kick and (sub)bass requires special attention, select samples with care and use EQ, filters.
- Try to fill in the whole frequency spectrum, but without seriously clashing sounds, especially in the lower frequencies.
- Especially be careful with frequencies between about 150-400 Hz, the muddiness area.
- Kicks, snares and bassline is almost always layered = several (usually 2-4) sounds/samples play simultaneously
- Bass: often sub + low mid + high mid layers, processed separately, sub usually compressed, mids distorted, slightly reverbed, chorused etc.
- Low frequencies, say below 200-250 Hz are mono. I.e. at least sub bass and kick = mono. (usually snares too.)
- Don't overdo reverb, less is usually better. Don't reverb the sub bass.
- Don't use effects on the master.
- Don't use chords on the bassline.
- Use FX movements on the bass timbre, pads, most often filter movements.
- Simple bassline is often better, especially if the break is more complicated.
- Do not compress on the master bus (possibly only with very low ratio, say 1.2)
- Avoid clipping (peaks over 0 db), e.g. drums could peak at max. -6- -8 db, bass somewhat lower.
- If unsure in what key to write, start writing in F or G minor. (Later it will be clear why.)
Hello, this is my first post. Just wanted to add an important thing to BattleDrone's awesome post. Use good samples right from the beginning. If you put shit in you get shit out. I think it was Axwell or someone who said that.
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