If you want become a trance producer, this is a top notch course by James Dymond. A lot of useful tips. Great workflow and the essentials to make the next step. Loved the whole course. Thank you James!
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James Dymond knows how to PRODUCE and how to TEACH. Early episodes here include a good âwrapup summaryâ at the end of each tutorial chapter of the major highlights covered in each segment; donât let the overall running time throw you - the material is expertly, efficiently and gently presented, especially in terms of detailing âwhyâ certain processing needs to happen in building a good foundation, one of the most crucial being the API EQ on the kick/drum buss, among others⌠You can find easy tutorials on âmid-bassâ sound design on youtube â itâs hard to do EVERYTHING in one course without making it like 14 hrs⌠here you learn so much that is transferrable to all music production. Bravo!
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great course - I deviated a bit but the fundamentals here were crucial in helping me develop my take, a cover version of Neil Youngâs âOld Manâ - thanks James Dymond - I have to still watch the last tutorials on arrangement/mixdown⌠I got impatient with myself, lol - I have a clinical diagnosis of ADHD. And LOL.
Excellent course, very well structured and designed for beginners! Learnt SO much with this! Thank you JD!
Absolutely amazing course
revisiting James on this one - very good tutor
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Revisiting this one 3 years later. If this thread is still monitored, I had one question about the Sub in Chapter 04, namely the cuts and boosts made with the EQs and the subfilter. â These settings were ideal when the Sub is playing in the root key of E. â The problem and question I had is about the Sub Progression, which also plays in C, A and D.
The problem I run into with sub progressions, is that even with many multi-samples, the volume/loudness and sometimes the dynamics changes with each note. â The EQ and filter settings can somewhat exacerbate this by making the root key louder. â I canât recall if this was addressed in any chapters after the Sub Progression appeared in Chapter 13.
Automating the EQs to change with each key was a bit meticulous. Duplicating the channel three times to process each individual note with its own settings feels like overkill. â Only other option I can think of its rendering the settings with the root key, and then transpose the sample via a frequency shifter.
â TL;DR, Iâm just seeking to have all of the notes in the sub progression playing just as loud as the root note. Cheers.
I wonât bother that much and try to get this surgical unless the bass line progression is conflicting with other elements in the track TBH. Using tools such as Volume Envelope shaper or a compressor and a limiter at the end of the bass channel FX chain should help to even loudness across different bass notes.
Some variation can also help to add movement and life to a track, the more you try to keep each and every note under control, the more your track might sound digital at the end of the day.
All depends of the impact of those perceived loudness variations on other channels or in context with the final mix, if itâs really an issue after trying to even the bass line progression with effects, then rendering the track to audio and tweaking further by editing audio regions, or just doing some volume automation on this audio track, might be easier than trying to get a perfect result with your effect chain in the first place.
Too much control and perfection isnât always desirable IMHO, the real questions are âHow does it sounds in the end ?â, âIs this really causing an issue in the final Mix ?â, âDo I really need to adjust and tweak further ?â
Thanks for the reply,
So firstly,
The solution I found was having each note of the Sub on its own sampler channel, and those channels within a Sub BUSS. The Pro-Q3 made it much easier to transpose the EQ settings. All thatâs needed after duplicating the EQ insert is selecting all nodes, and moving them left or right. â For example if the root note/ key of the track is an A, and the rest of the progression being an F and a G, one simply moves all nodes over by -4 and -2 semitones (using the keyboard). The bx_subfilter if used might need to be set manually.
(To avoid copyright conflicts, I moved the Kick EQ around randomly, the frequencies in the screenshot arenât important, I just needed to illustrate selecting all notes and moving them via the keyboard below.
â
I had a few thoughts on the perfectionism idea.
I wonât debate whether I am one or not, but if I am one, it would be because everything I did before I saw these tutorials, simply wasnât working or wasnât good enough. If there are any aspiring artists reading this that spent hours, nights, days, weeks, months, tweaking a track before finally sending it to a few respectable labelsâŚwithout hearing any response. WellâŚyou arenât alone on that.
We all have our strengths and weaknesses. While I can easily bang out chord progressions and leads blindfolded, I literally have to go step by step on the kick, sub, mid-bass, and kick & bass buss. Iâm decent with mixing, but I hate the arrangement and automation part. I have ADHD and focus/ organization is something I collect monthly disability for, lol.
The Sub Progression, is one thing I received feedback on. The tracks I submitted to Vandit and whatever other labels years ago, I was able to get feedback from Mark Sherry because of his mastering service. The critique was that the sub-bass was a bit weaker when playing notes, other than the root tonic. And that while not as noticeable on his monitors, that it would be noticeable on larger club and festival systems. The rest of the feedback was something about being selective with third party EQs and plugins that might have higher latency or phase-shifting as they can cause phase issues in the mix down. (Thatâs what I might call perfectionismâŚbut someone with his background might call necessary)
I mean, my friends have said that word âperfectionismâ but⌠a track either meets a respectable labelâs standards for being ârelease-readyâ or it doesnât.
As far as that goes, James Dymondâs tutorial is the most helpful on the surgical. Iâm in Giuseppeâs masterclass, and while his is better than Arminâs, his content mostly focuses on the creative and sound design, he doesnât go as deep as James Dymond on surgical and post-production. SoâŚIâm finding that combined the information from GOâs with JDâs is helping with a few breakthroughs.
Sorry for the length⌠I mean, its not like its my lifeâs work or anything, lol (yeah, it is)
Excellent course, everything was explained & reasons for doing it. Definitely recommend.
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Best ever âHow to makeâ a track for the trance genre. Great course and an even greater template! Sure there are some third party plugins involved but that is something you canât avoid if you want a production competing with the pros. Stock plugins can take you to 95% if you know what youâre doing (check the newer course from Trance Takeover 2023 from James) but if you want the polish of the 5% check this one!
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near the end of tutorial 6 kick and bass bus, you do the parallel compression - and your cpu hit is really low overall - did you bounce/freeze before hand or your system is super robust? my system setup is no slouch - thanks James Dymond amazing work I love your FL Tutâs you are the man!
i really appreciate James Dymondâs meticulous attention to detail - I never got such good mileage outta my fl studio after a lifetime of free updates = as now
Thank you, James! This is definitely one of the best trance tutorials on the Internet. You explained your moves in a very clear manner and also the purpose of each move. It would be great to have more of these trance tutorials! ;o))
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Ferry Helpfull Course
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Welcome aboard on the forums and thanks for your comment ! 