A Question About House Music

Music Production Music Tech Discussion
1

Hey SA members,

I’ve kinda found my niche in terms of the music I want to focus on producing, for now, it is that main room, clubby house style (the fact that I’m half swedish might be a factor in why I"m drawn towards this style of music :P)

The thing is, I’m good at writing chord progressions and melodies and the corresponding basslines etc… However, it never sounds very “clean” even when I EQ everything so it has its own place. Its almost like there’s too much layering within my mixes.

I developed my technique mainly from practice and the “main room house” tutorial. But I’m still not very happy with my sound.

SO… my question my main question is, for those of you who have good ears… In the Max Vangeli and AN21 remix of “On Melancholy Hill” (Posted below), did they use a bassline, mid stab chords and a lead? Or are they just using a lead with a layered bassline? I asked this because whenever I use mid chords and a bassline I find that my mid chords hit a bit high in the mix and my bassline is always a bit too low and empty sounding, but when I transpose the bassline up an octave its too high to be a bassline. This causes my mix to sound kind of cluttered rather than that bangin simple yet layered sound in the song below.

So if you guys could give it a listen and give me any advice or tips based off of the tune below that would mean the world to me!

Thanks in advance!

<EMBED src=http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F24708526 width=“100%” height=81 type=application/x-shockwave-flash allowscriptaccess=“always”> Kaskade vs. Gorillaz - Steppin’ Out On Melancholy Hill (Max Vangeli & AN21 Mix) (Kaskade Mash Up) by Kaskade

2

I guess its kind of also a question on how to get that clean sounding bassline. Mine always sound to subby and muddy. (and yes, I do drop frequencies below 40Hz)

3

I’m assuming the VST settings you have use multiple OSCs right? Are all the OSCs for a particular sound playing in the same register or do you have any transposed up or down an Octave? That can help to thicken up a sound.



Also, do you notch out the relative freq’s in the kick and bass to have them sit together well and give them a bit of room to breathe?

4

Well I mainly use massive and nexus for basslines. And yes, I do notch out the bass to make room for the kick as well as sidechaining so that the kick pushes through and stands out more.

Should I be using more than one layer in my bass? Or should I be using something like operator and using FM synthesis to bring out the harmonics and sidebands in order to get that “full” sound?