Forum Activity for @simon-unsigned

Anyone want to make a track in 35 days?

Collaborative Space

So my Week 2 didn't quite go to plan. Due to a mix of work and family commitments, I managed to get very little time working on the track, so didn't make as much progress as I would have liked. Plus, on one of my longer sessions, I ended up down a rabbit hole trying to get the hi hats working 'better' which is the type of thing I was telling myself I needed to stop doing!

So lesson learnt, I've told myself not to do it again

Now onto Week 3 to try and make up some time...

Anyone want to make a track in 35 days?

Collaborative Space

Here's the framework for the rest of week 2:

Part 2 (Days 3 to 7): Complete and finalise all your parts and combine them into the arrangement sections.

Finish creating all the main elements that will go into your track. If you’ve only got them all running in a loop, lay them out into the different sections of your arrangement map.

Now the parts are working within the different arrangement sections, consider whether any parts aren’t working and replace them if needed. It’s best to make these decisions as early as possible and commit to your parts and arrangement before progressing further with the track.

Work on the minor elements; fills and stabs etc so you’ve got all the content laid out across the whole arrangement.

Make any sound design tweaks you think are needed and start to make some fundamental mix decisions and basic eq adjustments – the track should be starting to gel together and you should have a clear idea how it’s going to sound as a finished track.

If there are any major mix automation/transition sections e.g. filter/EQ sweeps, you should start putting the basic elements of these in now, but not aiming to have the finished result yet.

Depending on your progress, carry out the following steps either right at the end of the week or if the track is starting to take shape sooner you can do the following process multiple times between sessions:
- Export the track as an audio file
- Transfer the file onto a phone/cloud drive; somewhere you can listen to it away from your DAW and on a different set of speakers/headphones
- After a break (ideally the next day), listen to the audio file (important to do this away from your DAW) with a notebook and make a list of anything obvious you want to improve
- Ideally your notes should be specific and actionable e.g.
- Tune or replace the snare sound so it fits with the rest of the drums
- Add some shuffle to the hi hat pattern
- Layer an additional sub bass sound into the bassline
- Change the pad chords at the end of 8 bars to create more tension

At the end of week 2 you should have…
- A complete track with all your parts laid out across the arrangement timeline
- Basic mix/eq settings on some of the tracks
- An audio export of the track so far
- Written notes of areas that you need to work on

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