Formal Project

A Tyler de Arrigunaga experience

Table of Contents

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3…………………………………………………………………………….………………………………………...Introduction3…………………………………….…………………………………….……………………………………….....History4………….………….………….………….………….………….………….………….………….………….…….Ch. 1 Before Producing4………….………….………….………….………….………….………….………….………….………………..What you will need6………….………….………….………….………….………….………….………….………….………………..What to expect6………….………….………….………….………….………….………….………….………….………………..What to do first9………….………….………….………….………….………….………….………….………….………………..Ch. 2 While Producing9……….………….………….………….………….………….………….………….………….………….……….Bassline9………….………….………….………….………….………….………….………….………….………………..Drums10………….………….………….………….………….………….………….………….………….………………Chords10………….………….………….………….………….………….………….………….………….………………Samples12………….………….………….………….………….………….………….………….………….………………Ch. 3 After Producing12………….………….………….………….………….………….………….………….………….………………Mixing12………….………….………….………….………….………….………….………….………….………………Equalization13………….………….………….………….………….………….………….………….………….………………Mastering15………….………….………….………….………….………….………….………….………….………………Finishing Touches16………….………….………….………….………….………….………….………….………….………………Index17………….………….………….………….………….………….………….………….………….………………Works Cited

Introduction:

In the music industry, production technique is everything. From heavy metal bands to those annoying pop songs on the radio, a competent producer is behind it in order to sound good. But what makes a song “good”? Plenty of things- choosing the right tempo, appropriate samples and

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instruments, adjusting the sound levels, editing audio clips, hard-tuning the vocals, building a soundscape, creating balance between the bass and treble, equalizing your track and most of all- mastering. In addition to this, there are plenty of technicalities and formalities depending on the genre you pursue.

The problem is that while there are tutorials to mix, master and compose nearly every genre of music, there are nearly none for the genre of French house. Most, if not all, are arranged in a piece of software called “Fruity Loops Studio” which is not a bad digital audio workstation, but not the one preferred by most professionals. This tutorial remedies that by using “Ableton Live”, a far superior digital audio workstation. Furthermore, the tutorials lack concise explanations, clear audio, and most do not really embrace exactly what French House music is. That will be fixed as well.

To fix this problem, I give a complete rundown of every fundamental necessary for someone to start producing excellent French House. The tutorial starts with a look at the history of French House, what it is and how it came to be. Following that, I teach people the appropriate types of drum samples and instruments to use- Hard hitting kick drums, high pitched claps, a bass that is high frequency paired with a bass that is very low frequency, etc. After that, I teach the user how to properly edit samples (both vocal and instrumental)- chopping up 70’s disco songs tend to do the trick. Next, the user learns how to mix their sound levels and equalize their tracks, and the consequences of not doing so. Finally, they learn how to master their tracks, and tricks that make the song really pop.

I have learned good production technique from a talented producer in Austin, the live music capital of the world. Furthermore, I have been in the business for about two years and produced a number of singles, one of which is now played on internet radio stations. Rest assured, you are receiving quality information from a quality source.

History: The history of French House is deeply rooted in 70’s American Disco, Rock n’ Roll and Rave music. French house wasn’t quite an instantaneous movement, but a slow progression. A few French artists who had begun in hip-hop shifted to writing the genre after they had attended their first raves. They took the music of their parents and refreshed it to fit the tastes of their time. After time, cuts of disco, rock, funky basslines and an array of filtered effects were applied and became the genre that it is today. Its characteristics are very heavy kickdrums at danceable tempos, funky basslines that would otherwise characterize funk or disco, light, catchy chords and cuts of disco songs all in the mix. Among the pioneers of the genre were Daft Punk, Cassius and Pansoul. Today, artists like Madeon contribute to the scene as well.

Chapter 1: Before Producing

What you need:

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The first thing necessary for writing this genre of music is a competent computer. Your computer should have an Intel Core i5 (or better) or an AMD A6 (or better) Processor.

This is what they look like

You will want to make sure that your computer has 8 Gigabytes of RAM, as the digital audio workstation we will be using is a memory hog.

Finally, you will want to make sure that your computer has a large hard drive, preferably 500 Gigabytes or larger, as you will be outputting a lot of uncompressed audio. These files are about 10 times the size of your typical MP3.

What you will need (cont.):

Ableton Live Suite 8 (Available for both Mac and Windows)

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Vengeance Essential Club Sounds 3 An MP3 of a 70’s Disco or Classic Rock song

What to Expect:

Spending long hours at the computer Being frustrated

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Having fun

What to do first:

1. Install Ableton and Massive

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2. Make sure the Vengeance samples are in an easily accessible folder

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3. Plug in the studio monitors and make sure Ableton is set to output to them

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Chapter 2: While Producing

1. Writing the Bassline:

Pick a key for your song. This will remain with you the whole song Open up massive. Play with all the difference Oscillators until you find a sound that you like for your bassline. Listen to the disco song for inspiration to write a riff. You will want a 70’s sounding disco riff Begin writing the bassline.

(tip): This bassline will repeat often, saving you a lot of clicking and dragging. Just copy and paste the bassline!

2. Drums:

Inside of Ableton’s file browser, locate the Vengeance folder. Look for your bassdrum folder and click on a few of the samples for reference

(tip): A sample is basically a clip of sound or music that you will use in your song. The drums we are talking about here were sampled from somewhere else, hence the name “sample”.

Once you have found some sounds you like, open up an instance of Ableton’s drum machine. Drag your samples into the drum machine. Repeat these steps for both claps and cymbals.

VERY IMPORTANT- Most French House songs have a tempo of 130 BPM. Choose a tempo around there

3. Chords

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(tip): Choose very light sounding chords for this type of music. In French House, it’s all about the bass.

Open up another instance of the Massive synthesizer and again, choose sounds that fit your liking. Once done, draw some chords in Ableton that fit the same key as your bassline

4. Samples

(tip): In order to give the song its “French” feel, you’ll want to include some samples of disco songs.

Open up a new audio lane in Ableton Grab the 70’s disco MP3 that was discussed in the beginning and drag it into the audio lane Clip up the parts that contain vocals, basslines or just anything that really sounds interesting. Use Ableton’s key change feature to fit the song into the key of yours if it isn’t already

(tip): since disco and French house have similar tempos, you won’t have to worry about changing the tempo much, if any at all.

You can either add the samples to the existing melody, or create an entire melody with samples alone. For an example of both instrumental and sampled melody, listen to “Yes” by SebastiAn. For an exclusively sample based melody, listen to “Face to Face” by Daft Punk.

Now that the composition section of your song is finished, you can go on to the next and final section!

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Chapter 3: After Producing

1. Mixing the track:

So you’ve just written a banger tune, chords are great and everything, but it still sounds terrible. That’s because you need to mix, master and equalize it.

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Mixing is very simple. You just go into each track’s volume control in Ableton, and adjust the volume until everything sounds decent and isn’t clipping*

In order to get a “decent” sound, you’ll want to make sure your bassline and percussion is prominent, but not overkilled where the chords are overshadowed.

Everything will sound muddled at first, which is perfect. That’s where we go to Equalization

2. Equalization:

Picture a number line, like in math class. This number line goes from 20Hz all the way up to 20,000Hz. This is the range of audible sounds for humans. This will also be known as your spectrum. (see below)

The reason the track sounds “muddled” right now is because all of the sounds in your song are trying to fight for the same frequencies. They’re clashing and because of this, your track sounds very quiet, garbled and plain unprofessional.

Enter the Equalizer. Similar to the one in your car stereo or home theater receiver, the equalizer boosts certain frequencies and cuts others. The key to a clean sounding song is to assign each track or instrument in your song certain frequencies. Your bass and bassdrums take up the low end of the spectrum. Chords, melodies, snares/claps and samples take up the middle, and cymbals, bass and bassdrum take up the high. Yes, you read

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that correctly, your bassline and bassdrum will also have a high. Without this, your basses and drums will sound very flat. They need just a little touch of high frequency boosts to make them really pop.

To start equalizing your track, drag an instance of Ableton’s EQ8 into each track lane.

(tip): rather than just drawing in the frequencies as you please with your mouse, it’s best to write out all your instruments and assign them frequencies on paper, so as to not accidentally overlap some tracks which not only causes muddled sound but also can induce clipping.

Once you are finished, press play. You’ll notice that your track sounds a lot cleaner than it did before.

3. Mastering:

Mastering is a short, yet tricky part of music production, as it doesn’t offer many guidelines. This is mostly because mastering is up to the artist’s discretion.

Once you finish Equalizing, you’ll want to go ahead listen to your song quite a few times. Get very used to how it sounds.

Open up all of your tracks and slightly boost the gain on each at an equal ratio until right before you start clipping. Once done, go into the track labeled “Master” and drag a compressor into there. In the left side of the compressor,

open up the sidechaining window and have your track sidechain itself. Your track will get very, very quiet. That is perfectly normal. Drag up the threshold slider until right before your song begins to clip. This is a very simple and easy way to boost your track volume. (Examples are below)

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4. Finishing touches:

Congratulations! You’ve just written and produced your own French House song! Some finishing touches to really get the song pumping are all that’s left First off, apply just a touch of reverberation to your “master” track. Chorus also works well too. As the very last effect, drag an EQ8 and slightly boost the low end (around 200Hz works fine) and the high end

(around 10KHz or so)

Feel free to pass out your masterpiece on CD’s, post it online or put it on your MP3 player!

Index:

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Clipping- When there is too much sound on a certain frequency, you will notice Ableton’s CLIP indicator flashing. Clipping is characterized by static in your track and just an overall unpleasant sound, similar to a speaker being turned up too loud.

Equalization- The process of making your song have balance

Gain- The level of input from your instruments. Basically the volume

Mastering- Increasing the volume and overall quality of your song

Mixing- The process of making sure the volume of all of your tracks are rationally balanced

Reverberation- A fancy word for echo

Synthesizer or VST- The “instruments” of electronic music. Most people think of a synthesizer as simply an electronic piano. This is not the case. A synthesizer is a piece of software or hardware designed to either emulate real sounds (pianos, saxophones, etc.) or create digital electronic sounds (sine waves, saw waves, formants, etc.).

Tempo- The speed of your song. The higher the tempo, the faster the speed.

Track- (Also known as lane) A track is a specific audio recording for each singular instrument, sound or voice. When you put multiple tracks together, you get a song.

Works Cited:

http://www.xlr8r.com/features/2007/10/history-french-house-sound

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http://www.native-instruments.com/

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_GD7kgG_0bkc/S5TvU1h_JoI/AAAAAAAAAMM/ucbwRrQUQJQ/s400/compressor.jpg

http://audio.tutsplus.com/tutorials/production/quick-tip-side-chain-compression-in-ableton-live-8-part-1/

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