This week Geoff, aka Bluffmunkey, is back with a different take on our usual ‘How To Make’ courses. This time he’s aiming for a certain style, referencing the awesome Melodic Techno Afterlife label and building a track in a genre that he hasn’t attempted before - so, in effect we’re learning at the same time as him.
Starting with a set of reference tracks form artists such as Yotto, Colyn and Stephan Jolk, we try and find out the common themes and layout with this style before going through each of the different elements in-depth of Bluffmunkey’s track. From beat creation, sound design, arrangement, effects and mastering, we check out how close he gets to the Afterlife sound.
What do you think? We reckon he nails it, so check it out!
A question: Do you have a tip for a good Tom Plugin or Tom Preset Pack?
And just a workflow tipp: If you mark multi Ableton plugins and just press “0” on your keyboard all marked inserts are deactivated and afterwards you can switch on one after the other.
As an ex Trance Producer that Moved into this Genre ( Now as El Retsof ) , I ended up stripping a lot of big elements out and making them come and go through a track . I stumbled into this genre about 5/6 years ago when ,not called this sub genre .
Very Good presentation as ever and enjoyed the track -maybe too much Fx Sweeps etc ? However , that’s a whole other debate !!!
Totally agree bud, and I even mentioned that in the final thoughts video. This was genuinely the first time I tried to make this genre though, and trying to figure out what I did ‘wrong’ was part of the process. It’s that old trance muscle memory smashing those sweeps in lol.
I think the idea of the presenter making a track that is outside of his comfort zone and showing his/her strategy and approach is fantastic. Please, more of this!
this is a brave, amazing tutorial - and it should be a format more encouraged - great thinking Chris Agnew. I mean Bluffmunkey. Seriously, more in this style - please try Nu Gaze next. Um it’s a good idea to watch the last video first I did that - it helped me keep in mind along the way like where to watch out for having too much going on - it really is about giving everything its proper space. a hat velocity too high here - and the dominoes come all crashing down - it’s a fine balancing act for sure in this genre. like trance, in that sense, there are times you need near-surgical precision. I learned a lot - including using utility on every track for gain staging wow thanks man.
you’d need to have a beast of a computer to be able to mix into a master. i dunno. that whole process is like when you used to develop a negative into a print photo in a darkroom. there’s a magic that comes from putting the lacquer on that hand made rocking chair - things change and when you’re focused on mastering vs mixing… i suspect a lot of “those guys” who mix into a mastering chain are really not trusting their understanding of mastering so they’re afraid of a let down getting into a separate mastering phase - and not being able to bring out the mix the way they want thru proper mastering. plus your ears get fatigued faster. i dunno. like everyone could mix into a master now if they thought it was the way to go - does Bob Clearmountain do that? Rick Rubin? yeah.
