10 Obvious things every Electronic music producer must have to make good beats
By now almost everyone knows, having a big name doesn’t mean making good music. You don’t need a college degree or a diploma from one of those expensive sound engineering schools to make a groovy beat. It also won’t cost you a penny to create a masterpiece if you have a laptop or borrow your friends. You don’t need to go to the studio to sound like the good old timers did. The sound itself has changed beyond recognition. Music is now different and it’s a lot easier to make. Anyone with learning abilities can theoretically write a song. Will it sound good? Is there a universal formula, a special equipment, perhaps a magic spell, or divine inspiration? Any decent electronic music producer will agree, it’s all of the above and then some. What is a “good song” what defines a good sounding Electronic Dance Music composition. Ask yourself these two simple questions. If you were a DJ would you play it? If you were on the floor, would you dance to it. Below is the list of obvious things that are necessary to make the music that have a chance on the dance floor. Go through it and make sure you have it all.
1. Talent is otherwise called a gift for a reason. You get it for free and this is your most precious possession because others love what you create. In this particular case, you’ve got a set of good ears and make a constant effort to put together a combination of good sounding tones and pleasantly layered melodies. A machine while having a full capability of creating a perfect song, will never make one completely on its own unless somewhat programmed. Even the most advanced DAW will not start up one day on its own only to amaze its Master with an occasional hard Trance banger that will beat Showtek to the punch. Should we judge a machine or a fruition of a project that’s been assisted by one? Just like any other tool, a machine is there to help the talent manifest its creation. To conceive something that others enjoy is a talent.
2. Studio Monitors.
Anything mixed on a shit box, will sound like shit. Plastic and other unknown materials used for cheap speakers along with their lazy designs and specifications will distort discolorate and generally rub your mix blind of all the goodies leaving your ears with a meaningless plastic whoomp. What you’re hearing is not the actual music but the music that is being played through the shitboxes. Good monitors will not have that problem because all frequencies are successfully passing through and undistorted therefore unchanged. So if it still sounds like it needs work, you can’t blame your speakers. Once you can trust your speakers to deliver what your song will sound like, the closest to what you have imagined it to be, you are one step closer to the perfect mix.
Our top picks for good quality studio monitors are:
KRK RP5G3 Rokit 5 Generation 3
Yamaha HS8
Adam A7X
3. Computer:
Unless you’re planning to record on tape, you’re gonna need some computer power to help you make music. That’s right, whatever you hear these days, without any exceptions was made on the computer. Since of course there are only 2 computer platforms in the entire world, we’re not going to get into a life long battle of what’s better for making music. Just in case you didn’t get the memo, both platform have been running on the same exact chip called Intel. So really it’s the same thing. Having said that, my personal preference is Mac and I would recommend that to anyone I teach computer music. Make sure your machine is running an updated OS and that your hard drive is ready to receive process and store some heavy data.
3. i|0
It means in and out. The essence of an audio wave lays in its movement, it comes in from the source as a recording or a pass through, being manipulated as a digital file, and comes out as an audible by humans set of frequencies. What makes it all possible? A sound card that’s also called an interface which provides input and output capabilities beyond those your computers has to offer (usually not much). How do you pick a good sound card? Let’s start with a question. How many inputs and outputs do you need? Are you trying to record a DJ Mix with only two mono channels uniting into one stereo? Perhaps you are after recording a combination of several mono and stereo instruments. Here are a some of the coolest interfaces on the market. Now you have a way to get your sound in and out.
Apogee Duet
Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 USB 2.0
RME Fireface UCX 36-Channel USB and FireWire
4. DAW
Digital Audio Workstation is a pretty self explanatory title but make no mistake about it, there is absolutely nothing self explanatory when it comes to using a music production software. No attempt will be made to teach anyone how to work one but just a statement of its absolute necessity. What it essentially does is everything that comes to recording, arranging, and mixing a musical composition. With all that said, you will have to spend a decent amount of hours learning how to manipulate and get the best results out of any music production or recording software. Below are our picks for the best DAW for the money.
Avid Pro Tools 11
Ableton Live 9 Suite
Steinberg Cubase 7.5
5. VSTi
Virtual instruments. You guessed it, something needs to make the actual noises. There must be over a thousand of VSTi’s out there. Anything from drum modules, saw signal generators, and samplers to synthesizers, arpeggiators, and everything but a big closet full of wires. You’re in luck as all the wires only exist virtually, meaning for you to see and to have a way to communicate your idea to the processor. The same goes for drawing notes that trigger the sounds that you preset on the VSTi of your choice. Below are some examples of cool sounding virtual synths, instruments, and samples
Native Instruments Komplete 9
Toontrack Superior Drummer Software
Spectrasonics Omnisphere Software Synth (Mac and Windows)
6. The Magic Formula
What? A magic formula? Yes and it’s very simple. The entire song is broken into several parts. There are Intro, Verse, Chorus, Bridge, and Outro. Each of those consists of bars. Bars are merely measures of time it takes you to listen to a particular piece. Each bar consists of 16 Beats. And finally a Beat is that thumping kicking sound that makes all of us go crazy. 16 of those make a bar. A house song of 120 BMP Beats Per Minute will change up every other bar making all of us interested in going crazy. Assuming that you already know what a Snare a High Hat is, here’s the magic formula for, you guessed, going crazy.
Kick: 1:2:3:4:5:6:7:8
Snare: :2: :4: :6: :8
7. EQ Effects and Compression
Countless hours could be spent talking about audio effects. You’ve probably heard of reverbs, flanges, and delays. These guys are the usual suspects that hang in the mix. They smooth out, extend the length, and make your instruments sound more enticing. EQ or equalisers are used to adjust certain frequencies so your instruments feel as they belong with each other. You can shave off your highs or beef up your lows by adding or subtracting sound frequency levels. Compression is used for compressing of course, it traps more air and lets it out with force right out of speakers to make you go craaaazyyyy. All of those usually come in neat packages. Check this one out:
IK Multimedia Total Studio 3 Software Effect Suite
8. Ballance.
It’s all about a perfect mix. If your snare sounds loud as a rowdy crowd and your kick sounds like a sleeping beauty, your song is never gonna get anywhere near Beatport. A lot of producers disregard their own ears because they pay too much attention to one instrument leaving another one touched. Balance is everything! ALl of the tracks must have a respectful volume. Make sure you can hear each and individual sound well while still listening to the entire spectrum. Not sure? Listen again and again. That’s what we do most. We listen more than we write. Remember, you can only get a “true” sound of your mix on proper studio speakers.
9. Mastering.
As we evolve as humans so do our ears and the tools that are made to please them. Mastering is the final touch upon your mix. While it will not make your song catchier, your sounds better, and magically fix up your mistakes, it will polish your mix, make it louder or more fulfilling to listeners ears. There are mastering services around the world that will take your mix online, process it and send you a sample. From this point on you can decide if you wanna keep it how it is or make adjustments. I wouldn’t recommend mastering in a small square room or without proper acoustics. This is the part of the process where your song needs particular attention as the competition in punchiness clarity and loudness is getting stronger by the minute. If you do decide to master your own tracks here’s something you might like.
IK Multimedia T-RackS Deluxe Mastering Plug-In Suite
10. Releasing
Some say making a song is only half the struggle. Now you have to let your baby out for the entire world to hear. Are you nervous? I would be. One mistake in promotion and online marketing can seriously hurt or even ruin your career. As with mastering, I would recommend outsourcing your release, distribution, and promotion to those who deal with it for money. If there is no one financially interested in your music, your music will barely make it out to the soundcloud. If you want the world to hear your music, you will either need a good budget or a persistence of a Spartan to make a dent on the worldwide EDM market.
