Forum Activity for @simon-unsigned

Anyone want to make a track in 35 days?

Collaborative Space

I've made a start by jamming out a rough 1 bar bassline that I like the sound of and then auditioned vocal samples from the free members pack of Future House Acapellas. There's some really great sounding and usable stuff in there that I've cut into a few pieces to fit in around my bassline - so that was good timing.

Drums-wise it's all pretty formulaic tech-house stuff and I've pulled together;

- 3 kick drum samples that I'll be layering (credit: Simon Shackleton)
- 3 claps that I'll also layer
- 3 different hat loops that I've cut and spliced into a groove
- 2 shaker loops that also edited to combine into a new groove
- Snare
- Cowbell
- 3 different Conga loops that I've edited and will audition/decide on one once I've got the drums into a solid groove

I've also got a couple of pluck stabs and a riser sound

Next steps are to;
- Work on the drums a bit more to get them to gel as a single groove/shuffle
- Find another melodic/percussive sound
- Start to lay out all the parts into the main arrangement sections to see how it starts to flow

Anyone want to make a track in 35 days?

Collaborative Space

So on to Week 2 and when the fun starts (deconstructing the reference track was a bit tedious).

Again, it's broken down into 2 parts;

Part 1 (Days 1 to 2): Create your main parts

- Focus on drums, bass, chords and/or key elements and create at least half of all elements, but create as many as you have time for with a focus on the core parts.

- Create the basic rhythms or harmony/melody ideas – start with the parts that feel most obvious at this stage, where you have the most inspiration and carry on from there.

- You can either work along with your parts laid out across your arrangement map or just build everything within an 8/16/32 bar loop.

- As soon as you can, decide or work out the key of the track.

Anyone want to make a track in 35 days?

Collaborative Space

Right, I've got to the end of 'Week 1' - to be honest I think I might have gone over a week, but I lost 2 days without power thanks to Storm Eunice, so I'm going to claim those back!

After deconstructing my arrangement reference track I'm genuinely surprised by how few parts are in there! Which has probably confirmed what I already knew, that I always try to put to many elements in my tracks. The parts from the reference that I'm going to recreate my own versions of are:

Drums:
- Kick
- Clap
- Snare
- Shaker
- Hats 1 - smooth/quiet
- Hats 2 - bold/loud
- Congas

Bassline

Vocal stab
Vocal loop

'Pluck' stabs
'Ploppy' stabs

So that's it - 12 main elements in total and the only real melodic part is the bassline. The 2 stabs are tuned and kind of melodic but more percussive in how they feature in the track

Anyone want to make a track in 35 days?

Collaborative Space

Made a start laying out the template track in Ableton, main structure of the track is pretty straightforward and there's not a lot of different parts/elements - the main flow and dynamics within the track come from the drum layers and mix automation. I've attached a screenshot of the arrange window with work in progress

Anyone want to make a track in 35 days?

Collaborative Space

The tracks I picked as reference tracks are:

Wildcard - Be Right There (K-Mack Remix) - and I chose this for the parts/arrangement template
Giant & Vuss - I Don't Understand
K-Mack - Dancing Music
DOONS - The Change
Brodi - Up Late
SOFAT - Vibes All Night

Anyone want to make a track in 35 days?

Collaborative Space

I couldn't decide between making a Hard Techno banger or a mainstream Tech House track, so I gave my wife the deciding vote and she went for Tech House. I think I would have preferred to go Techno, but I'm using this as a good excuse to make something a bit different to my usual style. I've been told my stuff is a bit too underground/minimal and I also try to stay away from making stuff that's too 'obvious'.

So I'm embracing the opportunity to stick to a more mainstream formula and taking on the imaginary role of a ghost producer to make a Tech House track firmly aimed at the Beatport DJ market. The idea is to detach myself from the actual content that I create in the track and avoid my usual self-doubt so I can just crack on with completing a track that probably won't be the sort of music I like or usually make.

Anyone want to make a track in 35 days?

Collaborative Space

Love the genre-combining idea Rob, I'd be up for that!

Anyone want to make a track in 35 days?

Collaborative Space

My background is being a DJ rather than a musician so I want to kind of stick with what I know, so my target audience is DJs/clubbers. But I'm now an Old Git that hasn't been clubbing for years, so my tracks tend to always end up sounding quite retro/old school.

So I want to challenge myself with making something more up-to-date and current, but not a genre that I don't really know at all - maybe a full-on Techno banger or Tech House track - I'm going to have a search around Beatport and Spotify for inspiration and reference tracks before making up my mind.

One old track that I'll maybe use as inspiration, if not a reference track is Joey Beltram - Energy Flash

Anyone want to make a track in 35 days?

Collaborative Space

Week 1 - planning:
Part 1 (Days 1 to 3): Focus on what you want the track to be, e.g.:
- Do you have a specific genre (or blend of 2 or more different genres) that you want to create?
- What’s purpose of the track; e.g. something to dance to, singalong to or exercise to?
- What sort of mood do you want the track to create or have?
- Who is the target audience?
- Where do you see people listening to the track?
- Think of 3 words you’d like someone to use to describe it

Use the above points as idea starters and make as many notes/thoughts as you can about what you would like your track to be.

Find at least 3, but preferably 5 or 6, reference tracks that are similar to the type of track you want to make.

Pick one of your reference tracks to use as an arrangement template – you don’t have to create an exact match if don’t want to and you can use sections from the other reference tracks if you want. The idea is that you have a structure to start working with.

Part 2 (Days 4 to 7): Layout your parts
Ideally, you should import your arrangement reference track into your DAW and breakdown the track there. If you don’t want to make a straight copy of the arrangement, then create something from scratch based on different elements from your reference tracks.

Lay it out into the different sections e.g. intro/build up/first drop/4 bar break/main drop/breakdown/etc.

Describe each section with a label that makes sense for you.

Analyse the track(s) and create a list of each track element – do this on paper or create dummy tracks in your DAW. E.g. Kick drum/snare/clap (or just drums/percussion) / bassline / pluck arp / piano / pad / strings / etc.

Look up the deconstructed section of the Attack Magazine website for examples where they have done this.

Also list out elements such as fills and transitions – take as much or as little detail from the reference track that suits you.

For each track element write down ideas for what you might want to use in your track: this can be new ideas, elements from other tracks you’ve made, Loopcloud samples or straight copies of elements from one or more of your reference tracks.

At the end of week 1, you should have;
1. A clear idea of what kind of track you’re going to make
2. An arrangement map to work with
3. A list of all the track elements that you’re going to create

It might seem like a long time, taking a whole week before you actually make any music, but that’s the whole point – do as much thinking and planning for your track as you can before you get started – it will make the next stages so much easier and quicker.

Anyone want to make a track in 35 days?

Collaborative Space

Hi Rob - that's great! I have to admit I've never heard of Arab Trap until today Can't wait to hear it

So here's the plan - the 35 days are split into 5 chunks each a week long, all with a main focus and clear goal to have completed by the end of that week.

There is one golden rule; there are no rules, only guidelines. Here's week 1...