Loose house grooves

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Phil / Bryanbr
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I’m really struggling at the moment working to get good loose house grooves. The kind of perc that you hear a lot in the deeper house styles. Any chance of a tech tip with some pointers?br
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Cheersbr
Jon

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any examples?

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Thanks for replying so quickly Phil!br
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So, essentially it is the interaction between all elements but mostly bass and perc I guess. It’s the way that the groove feels loose but the track still drives forward, without feeling that it’s dragging or slow. Whenever I try my attempts all feel too unfocused.br
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I found it easier in the prog and techno genres where, to a degree, the bassline simply follows some musical line above it and the perc fits around that. I guess I’m just struggling when it’s looser and there’s more interplay between the different elements.br
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Here are a few examples:br
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Djuma Soundsystem Aki Bergen Ft. Lazarusman - Love Her Madlybr
[url]Djuma Soundsystem & Aki Bergen Ft. Lazarusman - Love Her Madly (Djuma Soundsystem Version) - YouTube
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Jimpster - These Times (Manuel Tur Remix)br
[url]Jimpster - These Times (Manuel Tur Remix) [Freerange] - YouTube
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Tube Berger - Imprint of Pleasurebr
[url]Tube & Berger - Imprint Of Pleasure (Original Mix) [Suara] - YouTube
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Solomun - Kackvogelbr
[url]Solomun - Kackvogel (music video) - YouTube

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have you tried extracting the grooves in ableton? br
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nothing special i can hear going on here… there seems to be lots of room for the kick and bass… seems like all other parts are subtlety rolled of around 500-600hzbr
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let me hear an example of where you are with one of your beats and ill see if i can diagnose

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Thanks Phil. Here’s a track I finished recently. I decided to give this one away.br
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[url]https://soundcloud.com/block-punch/block-punch-keep-on-unmastered/s-TEPrF[/url]br
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Here’s a sketch I’ve stopped working onbr
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[url]https://soundcloud.com/block-punch/lets-talk-sketch/s-Fqfq3[/url]br
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For comparison, here’s a new sketch of straight up techno where everything just seems to gel.br
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[url]https://soundcloud.com/block-punch/techno-sketch/s-SWhVP[/url]

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That Hats in your tracks are quite high up the register… around 4-5k where the first 2 youtube videos you posted the hats are much lower… maybe 1-1.5kbr
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The bass is much warmer too and higher in the mix… so maybe just bring your surrounding sounds down a bit… really try to keep the bass really low and top end stuff up high so there is almost a gap from 200-700 that you are keeping free.br
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This will let your bass and kick have space to breathe while the top end stuff still cuts through but isnt muddy in the 200-800 region.br
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Dont use sharp slopes on the EQs tho when you are cutting… make it all low Q settings this will give things a smoother overall sound.

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Also different EQs will give a different sound Ableton EQ 8 and fabfilter have a precise clean sound.br
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some of the Neve replications will give you a warmer vintage sound that is more suitable for this style.br
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something like waves v-series

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Thanks Phil. I’ll look into all that. I def tend to use high Q settings so I will dial that back.br
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Is that all? I just feel my efforts sound so flat compared to the pros. Keep trying I guess. br
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I appreciate your help.

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yeah to my ears it sounds like your stuff everything is sitting on top of each other… a lot of the sounds are full range… this means you lose all impact of the bass and kick.br
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if you dont have a good set of speakers it can be hard to hear the difference between a spectraly dynamic mix.br
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as speakers get bigger this perceived dynamic gets wider… when you are on a club system the spread between low and high freqs sounds massive and iv eyou have everything sitting on top of each other it will sound muddy and terrible.

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Nice tips there Phil. Thanks