Phew, that was quite a ride!
What was initially going to be a three and a half month journey turned out to be a month longer due to the postponement of Kerri's gig here in Finland. I made tons of tracks, some bad, some good, some mediocre, some yet unfinished. I learned a whole new bag of tricks about producing house music, about myself and life in general. Got to know some lovely new people. I also learned that making music on a deadline with strict quality criteria is not an easy task! While the first month or two was relatively easy due to all the exciment of it, the latter half of the journey was a lot rougher. The forced labour thing, health issues, lost faith, ever decreasing amount of time available, me getting sidetracked with all kinds of track that Kerri probably wouldn't play no matter the quality as well as a million other things that kept me from making music eight hours a day, including my own laziness.
But in the end everything turned out to be perfect and by perfect I mean much more than I had even hoped for. I failed at getting my tracks to Kerri's attention pre-gig, which would've been ideal as he could've properly auditioned the tracks before his gig. But, by sheer luck, I ran into him just before his gig in a quiet spot of the club, managed to exchange a few words and give him my memory stick containing the track I had finished literally two hours before I left home to the club that night. I didn't have my hopes up, as a loud club is not an ideal place to check out fresh tracks. I also didn't have the chance to check out the final version of the track on any kind of speakers, so all I could hope was that my humble DIY mixing and mastering skills were up to par and the track wouldn't sound awful next to professional productions, for which there was a huge possibility considering I make music with just headphones and mostly freeware plugins.
Thankfully, it didn't sound awful. Much better than I had expected actually! It didn't seem to clear the dancefloor either and it didn't sound out of place in Kerri's set. So, as I said, things went much better than I had ever even dreamed of.
Despite the rather pompous subtitle of this blog I don't think I became a world class house producer, but I learned so much both about music as well as about other important things that I can safely say that I reached another level entirely. I'm not quite at the level of Theo Parrish, Moodymann, Larry Heard or Kerri Chandler himself, but at the very least I'm amongst the top 10 house producers of Maunula now!
I could go on for all day as I'm still very excited about that special night, but I'll just keep it (relatively) short.
I'd also like to thank the following people who helped me a lot during my journey:
Pasi Savoranta for providing me with some useful samples as well as giving some feedback for my tunes.
George Jackson for letting me remix his tracks and learn a thing or two during the process.
Panu Antero Posti and Matti Stenman for releasing one of the tracks I made during the project, which will come out on their compilation on Mean Seed Records in about a month from now.
Ronny Pries, for helping me with finding some very useful, yet free plugins. It saved me tons of time, thanks!
Miikka Hasari for making a DJ mix out of some of the tracks I made during this project.
Mikko Noranta for borrowing me some money so I could renew my DAW license.
Toni Rantanen for booking Kerri to play.
Everybody on the Gearslutz message forum. Despite some occasional and rather heated
arguments, I received some valuable advice. I'd especially like to thank
Karloff70 for providing me with his wonderful kick drum collection,
which proved to be invaluable. Go buy it now, it's great!
http://www.wavealchemy.co.uk/2-keyboards-worth-of-kicks/pid167/
Everybody on the Subsekt message forum and especially the chat room associated with it.
Everybody on the Elektronauts message forum and the Elektron IRC chat room. I don't currently have any Elektron gear but will definitely have in the future!
The following friends of mine for having the patience to listen to my (occasionally terrible) tracks and giving some valuable feedback: Tuomas Nieminen, Ville Aarnikko, Mikko Silventoinen, Johannes Haapala, Sami Keskikallio, Pirkka Esko, Tommi Partanen, Pasi Kyönsaari, Marc Fred, Juho Ylitalo, Janne Nevalainen, Tapani Tunturi, Ilkka Vuorinen, Riku Kivilinna, Pietu Korhonen, Janne Juopperi, Seppo Louhimies, Jarno Ruusuvuori, Olli Ahvenlampi and Stelios Kirtselis. In the (likely) case of me forgetting your name from this list, just drop me a note and I'll add you!
Everybody who listened to my tracks, regardless of whether you hated or loved them.
And last but definitely not least I'd like to especially thank the man himself Kerri Chandler for being kind enough to play my track in Kaiku. I will be eternally grateful for giving me a shot!
PS. I have a new blog project coming in the future as well. The working title is "How to (not) start a record label". More about that later.
Barfunkel out!
Tuesday, August 2, 2016
Sunday, July 31, 2016
The moment of my life
I've been a bit quiet on the blog front. My health ain't what it used to be and I've had to cut down some things. I haven't stopped making music, however, only severely limited my Internet presence.
Anyways...
Last night was the big night. Kerri was in town. I had tried my best to get through to him via some promotional channels I had available, with zero success. So my only shot was a long one, I had to hope he'd be hanging out in Kaiku before his gig and not just appear 2 minutes before his showtime. I'm polite enough to not bother DJ's while they're playing, so things weren't completely under my control. To make things worse, the club was full and loud, so things didn't look good from a friendly chat point of view.
However, I was very lucky to spot him walking up the stairs where it was relatively quiet. I politely approached the man and he was living up to his friendly, down to earth reputation and talked to me for a little while, during which I gave him a memory stick containing the track I had been working hard for the last week. As a club environment isn't the best place to check out new music, I didn't have my hopes up but at least I made a contact, which was already more than I had dreamed of!
Kerri played for 2 hours and as he was playing disco in the end and my track wasn't played in the beginning when it was more housey I was just enjoying the music he was playing, almost forgotting I had given him my track. However, he switched it back to house near the end and to my surprise I suddenly heard some rather familiar drums and what the heck, my track started to play! It was a little bassy and I'm not entirely convinced that the chords in the intro and the breakdown are the best things I've ever written and if I had had a few extra days I probably would've made them a bit better but it's no biggie. I'm just glad he played my track on the spot, without having the chance to get really familiar with it.
I'll make a separate post in a few days about all the people who've helped me during my journey, thanking them all. Meanwhile, I'm still a bit high about this all, as it was definitely one of the finest achievements of my life. Definitely not easy, as I've lost all hope several time during these 4 months. Still, I've persevered, trying to learn from all the mistakes I've made. In the end, it all paid off. I reached my ultimate goal and had Kerri Chandler play my track. Did I become a world class house producer? Probably not, but I did learn enough new tricks to safely say I've reached a higher musical level. I had been kinda stagnating for a while, unable to lift myself from what was a very low level of producing. This project, as stressful it occasionally was, was very good at motivating me to really better myself.
Anyways, I've slept only for an hour and I'm out of words, so I'll just post the track I gave Kerri:
It's not perfect and some things bother me already, I'll see if I'm able to do something about those or do I just move on to the next project.
Anyways...
Last night was the big night. Kerri was in town. I had tried my best to get through to him via some promotional channels I had available, with zero success. So my only shot was a long one, I had to hope he'd be hanging out in Kaiku before his gig and not just appear 2 minutes before his showtime. I'm polite enough to not bother DJ's while they're playing, so things weren't completely under my control. To make things worse, the club was full and loud, so things didn't look good from a friendly chat point of view.
However, I was very lucky to spot him walking up the stairs where it was relatively quiet. I politely approached the man and he was living up to his friendly, down to earth reputation and talked to me for a little while, during which I gave him a memory stick containing the track I had been working hard for the last week. As a club environment isn't the best place to check out new music, I didn't have my hopes up but at least I made a contact, which was already more than I had dreamed of!
Kerri played for 2 hours and as he was playing disco in the end and my track wasn't played in the beginning when it was more housey I was just enjoying the music he was playing, almost forgotting I had given him my track. However, he switched it back to house near the end and to my surprise I suddenly heard some rather familiar drums and what the heck, my track started to play! It was a little bassy and I'm not entirely convinced that the chords in the intro and the breakdown are the best things I've ever written and if I had had a few extra days I probably would've made them a bit better but it's no biggie. I'm just glad he played my track on the spot, without having the chance to get really familiar with it.
I'll make a separate post in a few days about all the people who've helped me during my journey, thanking them all. Meanwhile, I'm still a bit high about this all, as it was definitely one of the finest achievements of my life. Definitely not easy, as I've lost all hope several time during these 4 months. Still, I've persevered, trying to learn from all the mistakes I've made. In the end, it all paid off. I reached my ultimate goal and had Kerri Chandler play my track. Did I become a world class house producer? Probably not, but I did learn enough new tricks to safely say I've reached a higher musical level. I had been kinda stagnating for a while, unable to lift myself from what was a very low level of producing. This project, as stressful it occasionally was, was very good at motivating me to really better myself.
Anyways, I've slept only for an hour and I'm out of words, so I'll just post the track I gave Kerri:
It's not perfect and some things bother me already, I'll see if I'm able to do something about those or do I just move on to the next project.
Monday, June 27, 2016
Last night a DJ saved my life
Again, one of those "I'm still alive" type of short posts. I was out of town for a few days plus I've been extremely busy with work and life, so very little time to make music.
Because of that I have no new tracks to present, but a DJ friend of mine made a mixtape of my tracks he liked the most. It's a good chance to hear my tracks in the environment they were meant for ie. in a DJ mix. I also had the chance to hear my tracks on a good PA yesterday, which gave me a much needed confidence boost as I was somewhat satisfied with how they sounded.
Also in the news: Kerri's gig over here has been postponed a few weeks so I have some precious extra time to make new tracks.
Next post will be longer again I hope.
Barfunkel out!
Because of that I have no new tracks to present, but a DJ friend of mine made a mixtape of my tracks he liked the most. It's a good chance to hear my tracks in the environment they were meant for ie. in a DJ mix. I also had the chance to hear my tracks on a good PA yesterday, which gave me a much needed confidence boost as I was somewhat satisfied with how they sounded.
Also in the news: Kerri's gig over here has been postponed a few weeks so I have some precious extra time to make new tracks.
Next post will be longer again I hope.
Barfunkel out!
Thursday, June 16, 2016
Feelin' kinda low
I'm tired. Too much (unpaid) work. Not enough sleep. Lots of pressure from everywhere. Absolutely no inspiration to write anything of note.
However, actions speak louder than words, so I finished two of the few tracks I've been working on lately.
And that's it for now.
However, actions speak louder than words, so I finished two of the few tracks I've been working on lately.
And that's it for now.
Friday, June 10, 2016
Dance to the drummer's beat
As promised, this post is about drums. I'll try to get in to the details and explain how I make the drums in my tracks.
The kick
Most of the time I start my tracks with a kick. Yet, I wouldn't say it's the most important part of my production, far from it. I just like to have some sort of a metronome to which I can make the rest of the music. Most of the kicks in this project originate from Wave Alchemy's sample pack called 2 Keyboards Worth of Kicks. It's a really nice and especially varied kick drum collection that always seems to have some sort of a starting point for me to mould the kick to my liking.
After I've picked a kick sample that I happen to like at the moment, I start to process it to fit my needs. The first thing I usually do is to simply edit the amplitude envelope of the sampler software. I use a freeware sampler called Grace by One Small Clue. It's fast, simple and free. There are probably better commercial alternatives out there but I'm satisfied with Grace. The envelope editing is a very important phase, as most raw samples are just that, raw samples. Many drum samples, kicks included are quite long and I usually prefer shorter, more defined sounds, so I usually edit the envelope to shorten the kicks and occasionally mess with the attack phase of the envelope as well, as sometimes kicks have quite aggressive transients that are simple to smooth out with an envelope.
With a quality sample and the right envelope settings you should have a decent kick going on already. The next phase is turning something decent into one monster of a stomp. The secret sauce to that is proper EQ'ing. Classic Pulteq style EQ especially. I obviously can't afford a real Pulteq or currently even a commercial plugin, so again, I turn into the freeware world. There's a really nice Pulteq emulating EQ called SonEQ by Sonimus (tipped to me by an online friend Ronny Pries, to whom I'm grateful for his help). You need to register to be able to download it, but believe me, it's definitely worth the trouble. It's not a jack of all trade kind of EQ, but for kicks it does magic. I don't really understand how it works internally (you boost and cut the same frequency, which is counter-intuitive but just works), but just semi-randomly turning knobs leads into happy places pretty much every time. SonEQ isn't a surgical, fully parametric EQ, so I occasionally use a second EQ for kicks, typically Reaper's built in one. If I hear (or see with a frequency analyzer) some frequencies that bother me, I just cut them out with finely tuned EQ.
What about compression then? I'm not quite sure whether it's my lack of a proper tool, lack of skills or what, but I don't use compression on kicks that often. They often seem to suck the life out of the kicks or at least make such tonal changes to the characteristics of the kick that what made the kick good in the first place is lost.When I do use compression, I usually use another free plugin called Blockfish by Digitalfishphones. When the kick occasionally needs compression, that plugin usually does a decent job.
The clap and the snare
I love a good snare but I hardly ever use one in my housier productions. I prefer to use claps, playing a very basic rhythm, typically on the 2 and the 4. It's not rocket science, but there's still a lot more to a good clap than just taking some unedited clap sound and placing it on the grid.
As with my kicks, I usually start with choosing a basic sample I like, then editing the envelope. Most of the time I use a trusty old 707 clap sample. It just seems to work and takes all kinds of processing well, meaning it can be quite versatile when needed. As with kicks, most clap sounds are quite long by default, so I typically edit the envelope to make them a bit shorter and snappier.
Processing-wise, a solid combination of EQ, transient designer and reverb with some compression thrown in seems to do the trick. As I use a basic 707 clap sample a lot, I don't need to rely on EQ that much. Usually I just highpass filter a bit of the unnecessary low end content away and that's it. The real magic happens with the transient designer and the reverb. Typically I remove a bit of the attack with the transient designer, which both makes the sound a bit smoother as well as changes the perceived timing a bit. As mentioned before, I often edit the envelope to shorten the clap, sometimes to the point of it just being a short snap. It sounds a bit strange in it's raw form, but that's only because I haven't put the reverb on it yet. I typically use a bit of plate reverb from a freeware plugin called EpicVerb by Variety of Sound. I use quite short reverbs and almost always mess with the predelay settings as well. After this treatment the clap fits the music better than by just using a long clap sample to begin with. It blends in and is somehow a bit airier and takes less valuable frequency space. Most of the time the clap is done by now, but if it's not, I might add some gentle compression to make it smack a bit more.
While the clap usually sits on the 2 and the 4, I practically always mess with exact timing of it. When it lies exactly on top of the kick, the rhytm often sounds quite stiff. While you can of course just move the clap around with the sequencer, I prefer to use a specific plugin for the job. In Reaper, there's a handy little plugin with which you can make some very accurate timing changes to the whole channel. My go-to setting is moving the whole clap channel about 5 milliseconds to the right. It's not much, but it's often enough to turn a boring kick-clap-kick-clap pattern into something a bit funkier.
The Hi-hats
The most important drums in house, the hi-hats. Also, the most difficult to get right. Kerri is the king of swingy house hi-hats, I wish I knew what's going on with them but since I don't, I just do them the Barfunkel way.
As always with my current workflow, I start by going through my sample collection, trying to find something that fits my mood or the music I've written so far. Most of the time I start with something a bit different, only to change them to basic 909 hi-hats a bit later. I do this with the closed hi-hats especially often, which could partially be caused by my lack of a variety of really nice closed hi-hat samples. 909 hi-hats do sound really housey though and take processing well, so they can be used in different kind of tracks.
As with kicks and claps, I start by editing the envelope. Hi-hats can be quite tricky to edit, as they often convey tons of energy but if the shape of the sound is wrong, it's the wrong kind of energy which can almost ruin a track. The attack phase of the sound is of especial importance, as many hi-hats can have quite loud transients, which can be great for aggressive techno, but if you want to make smooth house, it's usually for the best to soften them a bit, almost to the point of making them sound as if they were played with brushes instead of sticks. I typically want to have quite a subtle hi-hat sound, not a Dance Mania type of in your face sound.
Processing-wise hi-hats are quite simple most of the time. EQ them a bit, maybe add a transient designer and occasionally some kind of an actual effect like a flanger or a bit of delay. There are no rules really with hi-hats, I just do what sounds good to me and fits the context of the track. Not that there are rules in anything else either, I just mean that there's a much wider variety of possible hi-hat sounds that work in a house context than there are kicks for example.
What makes the hi-hats difficult is the sequencing. Anyone can make a basic, offbeat open hi-hat pattern in about 2 seconds, but if you want more than that you probably need to spend some time on your hi-hat pattern. The placement of the notes, their exact timing, the swing settings, the length of the notes (if applicable) all matter, to a degree that a very minor change can make or break the pattern. I wish I could teach it, but unfortunately I'm not very good at it to be honest and it's also something that's very difficult to explain. You just gotta change stuff up until you like what you're hearing, then stop immediately before you ruin it.
The cowbell
While most would just lump the mighty cowbell along with the rest of the random percussion sounds, I'm writing a separate paragraph about it. Why? I love the cowbell, that's why! It's also surprisingly difficult to use subtly but effectively, because it basically screams "look at meeeee, they made an SNL sketch about meeeee". Don't get me wrong, I love that sketch but living in the post more cowbell-era has it's difficulties. Namely, it's difficult to approach the cowbell seriously. I'm not opposing using humour in music, I mean seriousness as doing it properly and with class, even if the intent is comedic.
I don't use the cowbell as a comedic effect though. Ever. I'm dead serious about my cowbells.
Looking at it from the production angle, the cowbell is actually quite problematic. It's difficult to make sit in a mix, it almost always kinda like floats around the mix, without ever landing in it's proper place. Don't ask me how Kerri did it with Bar A Thym, as I don't know. I kinda assume that he put the cowbell there first, then wrote the rest of the music to support it. Doing it the other way around easily leads into tracks that sound almost like two separate pieces of music, the actual track and the cowbell that sits on top of it. The example track I made (scroll to the bottom of the page if you want to hear it now) kinda suffers from this. It's the best cowbell I ever made, but it's far from perfect.
The breaks
What do crusty old breakbeats have to do with house production? In my case quite a bit! Almost every single one of the tracks posted to this blog has had breaks in them. The thing is, I don't just put an unedited Funky Drummer there in it's entirety and call it a day, I try to be a bit more subtle with them. Lots of times you can't even hear them, but you would notice if they weren't there. They're quite quiet, but an extremely important little piece of the rhythm puzzle for me. They create the groove in almost a subliminal way.
While I use Grace for my one shot samples, I use another free plugin for my breaks called Short Circuit 2. The thing with Grace is that it's user interface isn't ideal for breaks, as zooming is very cumbersome with it and chopping a break into little pieces that you spread across the keyboard is impossible.
Strangely, I usually audition breaks outside the DAW, meaning I have the basic drum beat playing on the DAW, then I pick and play different breaks with the Windows Media Player until something tickles my fancy. Only then I load up the sampler plugin and the break sample. Before I start to chop it up, I usually just play the entire break and change the pitch until it loops roughly in time with the house beat. I typically use something like 3 to 6 chops of a single break, spread over the keyboard for easy sequencing. There is no standard to this, as breaks can be very different. Sometimes I use them just as additional single hits, sometimes I use little bits of the original rhythm as well, especially hi-hats and congas/bongos. I sequence them to add a nice little groove to an otherwise sometimes too static house beat and voi la, you have a nice groove going on. This is my secret sauce.
Processing-wise I mostly use some extremely heavy-handed EQ. I often hi-pass filter most of the kicks away, occasionally I just leave a little trace of the hi-hats playing. It's entirely context dependent, but I try to remember that a break is usually the entire drum section of a finished track, which means that without EQ there's very little room left for the rest of the drums. Less is more is usually a good starting point for everything music-related, but when EQ'ing the breaks more is often more. Just cut away to the break of dawn! I'm not a big fan of sidechain compression, but I do occasionally use it with breaks. Just a tiny bit of pumping can make the breaks sound like the belong to a house track a bit more.
Percussion
I just lump everything else under this umbrella. Shakers, tambourines, congas, bongos, toms, finger snaps, random bleeps, bloops and whatnot. They often play an auxiliary role in house, which is a good thing to keep in mind. They aren't always even necessary, tons of classics have been written with just kicks, hi-hats and snares, They can, however, add a little bit of extra funk to your music, just try to not overdo them as they can easily overpower your rhythm section.
The same principles that work with the other drums apply to percussion as well. Start with a quality sample (or synthesize one yourself), then edit the envelope and finally use some plugins to process it to your liking. There's too many variables in place to make any kind of a useful blanket statement.
Bus processing
So, your individual drums are done now, then what? While I didn't do it in my hardware days (mostly due to the lack of gear that can actually do it) I have a drum bus all the time nowadays when I'm ITB. A drum kits carved out of random sounds can sound a bit incoherent, which bus processing can rescue in a nice way.
While the specific vary, the bus usually consists of some variations of EQ, compression and saturation. Nothing too drastic, as the intent is to not completely crush the life out of it, just give it some gentle glue and presence. I don't usually EQ the bus that much, because can always just EQ the individual sounds with more precision, but I occasionally use gentle high frequency boost on the whole bus, to give the drum track some sense of air and excitement, typically with the Baxter EQ by Variety of Sound. Compressing the bus gives it some much needed glue, a sense of togetherness. For this I usually use either TDR Kotelnikov by Tokyo Dawn Labs or SlickHDR by Variety of Sound, both freeware. For saturation (to make the drum kit sound a bit less ITB-like) duties I often use FerricTDS by Variety of Sound, combined with a reel to reel tape simulator plugin called Ferox by Jeroen Breebaart. I would love to own the U-He Satin for this, but it's unobtainable for me at the moment.
I also have a new track to represent. It started as a simple drum workout, but in the end it became a fully fledged house production that I personally am quite fond of. The intention was to make a DJ toolish drum track, but as these things often go, a real track showed up it's little head and I didn't want to restrain my creativity because of some principle.
The kick
Most of the time I start my tracks with a kick. Yet, I wouldn't say it's the most important part of my production, far from it. I just like to have some sort of a metronome to which I can make the rest of the music. Most of the kicks in this project originate from Wave Alchemy's sample pack called 2 Keyboards Worth of Kicks. It's a really nice and especially varied kick drum collection that always seems to have some sort of a starting point for me to mould the kick to my liking.
After I've picked a kick sample that I happen to like at the moment, I start to process it to fit my needs. The first thing I usually do is to simply edit the amplitude envelope of the sampler software. I use a freeware sampler called Grace by One Small Clue. It's fast, simple and free. There are probably better commercial alternatives out there but I'm satisfied with Grace. The envelope editing is a very important phase, as most raw samples are just that, raw samples. Many drum samples, kicks included are quite long and I usually prefer shorter, more defined sounds, so I usually edit the envelope to shorten the kicks and occasionally mess with the attack phase of the envelope as well, as sometimes kicks have quite aggressive transients that are simple to smooth out with an envelope.
With a quality sample and the right envelope settings you should have a decent kick going on already. The next phase is turning something decent into one monster of a stomp. The secret sauce to that is proper EQ'ing. Classic Pulteq style EQ especially. I obviously can't afford a real Pulteq or currently even a commercial plugin, so again, I turn into the freeware world. There's a really nice Pulteq emulating EQ called SonEQ by Sonimus (tipped to me by an online friend Ronny Pries, to whom I'm grateful for his help). You need to register to be able to download it, but believe me, it's definitely worth the trouble. It's not a jack of all trade kind of EQ, but for kicks it does magic. I don't really understand how it works internally (you boost and cut the same frequency, which is counter-intuitive but just works), but just semi-randomly turning knobs leads into happy places pretty much every time. SonEQ isn't a surgical, fully parametric EQ, so I occasionally use a second EQ for kicks, typically Reaper's built in one. If I hear (or see with a frequency analyzer) some frequencies that bother me, I just cut them out with finely tuned EQ.
What about compression then? I'm not quite sure whether it's my lack of a proper tool, lack of skills or what, but I don't use compression on kicks that often. They often seem to suck the life out of the kicks or at least make such tonal changes to the characteristics of the kick that what made the kick good in the first place is lost.When I do use compression, I usually use another free plugin called Blockfish by Digitalfishphones. When the kick occasionally needs compression, that plugin usually does a decent job.
The clap and the snare
I love a good snare but I hardly ever use one in my housier productions. I prefer to use claps, playing a very basic rhythm, typically on the 2 and the 4. It's not rocket science, but there's still a lot more to a good clap than just taking some unedited clap sound and placing it on the grid.
As with my kicks, I usually start with choosing a basic sample I like, then editing the envelope. Most of the time I use a trusty old 707 clap sample. It just seems to work and takes all kinds of processing well, meaning it can be quite versatile when needed. As with kicks, most clap sounds are quite long by default, so I typically edit the envelope to make them a bit shorter and snappier.
Processing-wise, a solid combination of EQ, transient designer and reverb with some compression thrown in seems to do the trick. As I use a basic 707 clap sample a lot, I don't need to rely on EQ that much. Usually I just highpass filter a bit of the unnecessary low end content away and that's it. The real magic happens with the transient designer and the reverb. Typically I remove a bit of the attack with the transient designer, which both makes the sound a bit smoother as well as changes the perceived timing a bit. As mentioned before, I often edit the envelope to shorten the clap, sometimes to the point of it just being a short snap. It sounds a bit strange in it's raw form, but that's only because I haven't put the reverb on it yet. I typically use a bit of plate reverb from a freeware plugin called EpicVerb by Variety of Sound. I use quite short reverbs and almost always mess with the predelay settings as well. After this treatment the clap fits the music better than by just using a long clap sample to begin with. It blends in and is somehow a bit airier and takes less valuable frequency space. Most of the time the clap is done by now, but if it's not, I might add some gentle compression to make it smack a bit more.
While the clap usually sits on the 2 and the 4, I practically always mess with exact timing of it. When it lies exactly on top of the kick, the rhytm often sounds quite stiff. While you can of course just move the clap around with the sequencer, I prefer to use a specific plugin for the job. In Reaper, there's a handy little plugin with which you can make some very accurate timing changes to the whole channel. My go-to setting is moving the whole clap channel about 5 milliseconds to the right. It's not much, but it's often enough to turn a boring kick-clap-kick-clap pattern into something a bit funkier.
The Hi-hats
The most important drums in house, the hi-hats. Also, the most difficult to get right. Kerri is the king of swingy house hi-hats, I wish I knew what's going on with them but since I don't, I just do them the Barfunkel way.
As always with my current workflow, I start by going through my sample collection, trying to find something that fits my mood or the music I've written so far. Most of the time I start with something a bit different, only to change them to basic 909 hi-hats a bit later. I do this with the closed hi-hats especially often, which could partially be caused by my lack of a variety of really nice closed hi-hat samples. 909 hi-hats do sound really housey though and take processing well, so they can be used in different kind of tracks.
As with kicks and claps, I start by editing the envelope. Hi-hats can be quite tricky to edit, as they often convey tons of energy but if the shape of the sound is wrong, it's the wrong kind of energy which can almost ruin a track. The attack phase of the sound is of especial importance, as many hi-hats can have quite loud transients, which can be great for aggressive techno, but if you want to make smooth house, it's usually for the best to soften them a bit, almost to the point of making them sound as if they were played with brushes instead of sticks. I typically want to have quite a subtle hi-hat sound, not a Dance Mania type of in your face sound.
Processing-wise hi-hats are quite simple most of the time. EQ them a bit, maybe add a transient designer and occasionally some kind of an actual effect like a flanger or a bit of delay. There are no rules really with hi-hats, I just do what sounds good to me and fits the context of the track. Not that there are rules in anything else either, I just mean that there's a much wider variety of possible hi-hat sounds that work in a house context than there are kicks for example.
What makes the hi-hats difficult is the sequencing. Anyone can make a basic, offbeat open hi-hat pattern in about 2 seconds, but if you want more than that you probably need to spend some time on your hi-hat pattern. The placement of the notes, their exact timing, the swing settings, the length of the notes (if applicable) all matter, to a degree that a very minor change can make or break the pattern. I wish I could teach it, but unfortunately I'm not very good at it to be honest and it's also something that's very difficult to explain. You just gotta change stuff up until you like what you're hearing, then stop immediately before you ruin it.
The cowbell
While most would just lump the mighty cowbell along with the rest of the random percussion sounds, I'm writing a separate paragraph about it. Why? I love the cowbell, that's why! It's also surprisingly difficult to use subtly but effectively, because it basically screams "look at meeeee, they made an SNL sketch about meeeee". Don't get me wrong, I love that sketch but living in the post more cowbell-era has it's difficulties. Namely, it's difficult to approach the cowbell seriously. I'm not opposing using humour in music, I mean seriousness as doing it properly and with class, even if the intent is comedic.
I don't use the cowbell as a comedic effect though. Ever. I'm dead serious about my cowbells.
Looking at it from the production angle, the cowbell is actually quite problematic. It's difficult to make sit in a mix, it almost always kinda like floats around the mix, without ever landing in it's proper place. Don't ask me how Kerri did it with Bar A Thym, as I don't know. I kinda assume that he put the cowbell there first, then wrote the rest of the music to support it. Doing it the other way around easily leads into tracks that sound almost like two separate pieces of music, the actual track and the cowbell that sits on top of it. The example track I made (scroll to the bottom of the page if you want to hear it now) kinda suffers from this. It's the best cowbell I ever made, but it's far from perfect.
The breaks
What do crusty old breakbeats have to do with house production? In my case quite a bit! Almost every single one of the tracks posted to this blog has had breaks in them. The thing is, I don't just put an unedited Funky Drummer there in it's entirety and call it a day, I try to be a bit more subtle with them. Lots of times you can't even hear them, but you would notice if they weren't there. They're quite quiet, but an extremely important little piece of the rhythm puzzle for me. They create the groove in almost a subliminal way.
While I use Grace for my one shot samples, I use another free plugin for my breaks called Short Circuit 2. The thing with Grace is that it's user interface isn't ideal for breaks, as zooming is very cumbersome with it and chopping a break into little pieces that you spread across the keyboard is impossible.
Strangely, I usually audition breaks outside the DAW, meaning I have the basic drum beat playing on the DAW, then I pick and play different breaks with the Windows Media Player until something tickles my fancy. Only then I load up the sampler plugin and the break sample. Before I start to chop it up, I usually just play the entire break and change the pitch until it loops roughly in time with the house beat. I typically use something like 3 to 6 chops of a single break, spread over the keyboard for easy sequencing. There is no standard to this, as breaks can be very different. Sometimes I use them just as additional single hits, sometimes I use little bits of the original rhythm as well, especially hi-hats and congas/bongos. I sequence them to add a nice little groove to an otherwise sometimes too static house beat and voi la, you have a nice groove going on. This is my secret sauce.
Processing-wise I mostly use some extremely heavy-handed EQ. I often hi-pass filter most of the kicks away, occasionally I just leave a little trace of the hi-hats playing. It's entirely context dependent, but I try to remember that a break is usually the entire drum section of a finished track, which means that without EQ there's very little room left for the rest of the drums. Less is more is usually a good starting point for everything music-related, but when EQ'ing the breaks more is often more. Just cut away to the break of dawn! I'm not a big fan of sidechain compression, but I do occasionally use it with breaks. Just a tiny bit of pumping can make the breaks sound like the belong to a house track a bit more.
Percussion
I just lump everything else under this umbrella. Shakers, tambourines, congas, bongos, toms, finger snaps, random bleeps, bloops and whatnot. They often play an auxiliary role in house, which is a good thing to keep in mind. They aren't always even necessary, tons of classics have been written with just kicks, hi-hats and snares, They can, however, add a little bit of extra funk to your music, just try to not overdo them as they can easily overpower your rhythm section.
The same principles that work with the other drums apply to percussion as well. Start with a quality sample (or synthesize one yourself), then edit the envelope and finally use some plugins to process it to your liking. There's too many variables in place to make any kind of a useful blanket statement.
Bus processing
So, your individual drums are done now, then what? While I didn't do it in my hardware days (mostly due to the lack of gear that can actually do it) I have a drum bus all the time nowadays when I'm ITB. A drum kits carved out of random sounds can sound a bit incoherent, which bus processing can rescue in a nice way.
While the specific vary, the bus usually consists of some variations of EQ, compression and saturation. Nothing too drastic, as the intent is to not completely crush the life out of it, just give it some gentle glue and presence. I don't usually EQ the bus that much, because can always just EQ the individual sounds with more precision, but I occasionally use gentle high frequency boost on the whole bus, to give the drum track some sense of air and excitement, typically with the Baxter EQ by Variety of Sound. Compressing the bus gives it some much needed glue, a sense of togetherness. For this I usually use either TDR Kotelnikov by Tokyo Dawn Labs or SlickHDR by Variety of Sound, both freeware. For saturation (to make the drum kit sound a bit less ITB-like) duties I often use FerricTDS by Variety of Sound, combined with a reel to reel tape simulator plugin called Ferox by Jeroen Breebaart. I would love to own the U-He Satin for this, but it's unobtainable for me at the moment.
I also have a new track to represent. It started as a simple drum workout, but in the end it became a fully fledged house production that I personally am quite fond of. The intention was to make a DJ toolish drum track, but as these things often go, a real track showed up it's little head and I didn't want to restrain my creativity because of some principle.
Wednesday, June 1, 2016
Barfunkel's Disco House Ant-hem
As you probably know already, I've been working like a dog lately. Dead tired all the time, barely time to sleep and rest, very little time for music. No pay either, so it's a lose-lose kind of situation.
Anyways, I did manage a few music hours the last few days and this was the result of those precious hours:
No idea about the quality of it as I had a flu for a week, my ears are half-deaf because of it and like I said, I've been extremely tired lately. Something is better than nothing I suppose?
I still have a month to go to my target, but the chance of success seems very small. The last 3 weeks have been busy, I've had maybe 10 hours to concentrate on my music. At this rate, I don't see a chance to improve enough to write a Kerri-worthy track. I still won't give up, maybe I'll get lucky and hit the right notes accidentally?
The next blog post will be a longer one and the topic is drums. Until then, so long!
Anyways, I did manage a few music hours the last few days and this was the result of those precious hours:
No idea about the quality of it as I had a flu for a week, my ears are half-deaf because of it and like I said, I've been extremely tired lately. Something is better than nothing I suppose?
I still have a month to go to my target, but the chance of success seems very small. The last 3 weeks have been busy, I've had maybe 10 hours to concentrate on my music. At this rate, I don't see a chance to improve enough to write a Kerri-worthy track. I still won't give up, maybe I'll get lucky and hit the right notes accidentally?
The next blog post will be a longer one and the topic is drums. Until then, so long!
Monday, May 23, 2016
Do it your way
Personality. Having your own sound. How do you achieve those in such an old and well-defined genre like house?
Even if I might come through as someone who just wants to be a Kerri copycat, that's not my intention. My plan has many phases. The first phase involves learning the necessary production tricks to be able to make release quality house tracks and as I'm not a genius who can just invent everything on my own I have to study the masters, learn to copy them as well as I can. Kinda like the painters of yore who spent years and years copying paintings before finding their own artistic vision. That's what I'm currently doing. I study Kerri, MAW, Mood II Swing, Chez Damier, Larry Heard, Theo Parrish, Moodymann and so on. That's phase one. Phase two, if I ever reach that far, is to find my own inner voice and vision. I want it to be recognizable as house, but with a little Barfunkel twist. Only time will tell what that twist could be. Maybe something a bit humorous or tongue in cheek, as I'm a big fan of absurd, borderline random humour. But, for the time being, I would be extremely satisfied to reach even the minimum standards, both musically and production-wise, so that I could get my music out there. Even that is a dream far away, as I do realize I'm not much of a musician or a producer.
How does one find his own voice then? Unless you're a singer who writes his own lyrics it isn't going to be easy, particularly if you want to work within the framework of a relatively restricted genre. While production skills are important, it would be extremely difficult (but not entirely impossible) to be so good that your music would be instantly recognizable because of the production. If your music is up to it, good enough production skills are, well, good enough. Many house classics aren't that great technically. There might not be amateurish mistakes in them as such, but they often aren't polished to perfection (in a pop music sense) either. They have what it takes, the magic lies in the music.
While I've made some fairly unique music in the past, I think I'm struggling a bit in this project. Trying to keep it housey while making something that stands out is a daunting task. House has been around a few decades now and many ideas have been used, re-used and recycled several times already. I also don't want to make a novelty song, something that's different just for the sake of it. Sure, I could make a house track with scatting, yodling, bagpipes and panflutes. Then again, there's a good reason no one has ever tried such a combination as far as I know. Genre conventions are there for a reason, they are things that have been tried and tested again and again on the dancefloors over the years. They work, that's why they are used.
To be honest, I'm a bit torn here. As I have only about a month left and time is thus limited (especially now, with the slave labour thing I talked about in the previous post), should I aim for uniqueness at the expense of making something that is more likely to work on the dancefloor? Or should I aim for a banger and forget about finding my own voice in house music? I don't have the time for both.
While I haven't made up my mind quite yet, I did make this track:
Definitely not a very original track. More like a cheesy disco house banger. It's even called the Cheesy Disco House Banger! Yeah I know, naming tracks ain't an easy job. To my defense, I made the whole thing in about 3,5 hours, of which naming it took about 3 seconds.
Oh, and the track I made a remix of a few posts back is finally online in all it's original glory! Comparing the two, you'll probably notice that my remix doesn't bear much resemblance to the original. I didn't want to make a remix where you just change a few drum hits, maybe write a new bassline and that's it. It's a bona fide Barfunkel remix treatment!
And to refresh your memory, here's my remix:
And that's it for now. See you next time!
Even if I might come through as someone who just wants to be a Kerri copycat, that's not my intention. My plan has many phases. The first phase involves learning the necessary production tricks to be able to make release quality house tracks and as I'm not a genius who can just invent everything on my own I have to study the masters, learn to copy them as well as I can. Kinda like the painters of yore who spent years and years copying paintings before finding their own artistic vision. That's what I'm currently doing. I study Kerri, MAW, Mood II Swing, Chez Damier, Larry Heard, Theo Parrish, Moodymann and so on. That's phase one. Phase two, if I ever reach that far, is to find my own inner voice and vision. I want it to be recognizable as house, but with a little Barfunkel twist. Only time will tell what that twist could be. Maybe something a bit humorous or tongue in cheek, as I'm a big fan of absurd, borderline random humour. But, for the time being, I would be extremely satisfied to reach even the minimum standards, both musically and production-wise, so that I could get my music out there. Even that is a dream far away, as I do realize I'm not much of a musician or a producer.
How does one find his own voice then? Unless you're a singer who writes his own lyrics it isn't going to be easy, particularly if you want to work within the framework of a relatively restricted genre. While production skills are important, it would be extremely difficult (but not entirely impossible) to be so good that your music would be instantly recognizable because of the production. If your music is up to it, good enough production skills are, well, good enough. Many house classics aren't that great technically. There might not be amateurish mistakes in them as such, but they often aren't polished to perfection (in a pop music sense) either. They have what it takes, the magic lies in the music.
While I've made some fairly unique music in the past, I think I'm struggling a bit in this project. Trying to keep it housey while making something that stands out is a daunting task. House has been around a few decades now and many ideas have been used, re-used and recycled several times already. I also don't want to make a novelty song, something that's different just for the sake of it. Sure, I could make a house track with scatting, yodling, bagpipes and panflutes. Then again, there's a good reason no one has ever tried such a combination as far as I know. Genre conventions are there for a reason, they are things that have been tried and tested again and again on the dancefloors over the years. They work, that's why they are used.
To be honest, I'm a bit torn here. As I have only about a month left and time is thus limited (especially now, with the slave labour thing I talked about in the previous post), should I aim for uniqueness at the expense of making something that is more likely to work on the dancefloor? Or should I aim for a banger and forget about finding my own voice in house music? I don't have the time for both.
While I haven't made up my mind quite yet, I did make this track:
Definitely not a very original track. More like a cheesy disco house banger. It's even called the Cheesy Disco House Banger! Yeah I know, naming tracks ain't an easy job. To my defense, I made the whole thing in about 3,5 hours, of which naming it took about 3 seconds.
Oh, and the track I made a remix of a few posts back is finally online in all it's original glory! Comparing the two, you'll probably notice that my remix doesn't bear much resemblance to the original. I didn't want to make a remix where you just change a few drum hits, maybe write a new bassline and that's it. It's a bona fide Barfunkel remix treatment!
And to refresh your memory, here's my remix:
And that's it for now. See you next time!
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