Hey guys,
Just wanted to share this with you guys. I feel like I’ve just hit a wall with this one. It sounds OK, but I really want to bring it to that next level of quality.
Any suggestions?
Do it Now by Flaxo
nice drop really sick! would love to know how you mad the bassline and put it all together, ive been trying to get a tut on this type of production for ages! one thing im not a fan of is the panning of a lot of the main riff to the right on the build other than that sounds pretty nasty! 
Thanks for the reply!
Yeah, the build up was a source of pain for me just because I tried to make a really trance-y synth and that’s just not my forté…
As for the bass drop, that wasn’t too difficult:
If you have reason, this will be the easiest. IMO, the sounds reason makes just sound fuller and more lively, so I rendered a lot of the bassline from Reason into Ableton for the final bit. The synth itself is just a basic 3 OSC Saw-Pulse-Pulse with some Soft Clip and a low pass filter cranked all the way, minimal resonance.
Then, I put a digital delay line, some distortion, a bit of Parametric EQ (boosted around 100 Hz), some small room reverb, and finally, most importantly, a vocoder set to Equalizer mode.
This style of Electro is hard to figure out at first; what I would do is load up 5-15 synth one shots, things like an orchestra hit or a small pitch bend, and store those in a folder. Then, create a bassline with, say, 2 quarter notes, followed by 2 quarter notes of silence, and then an eighth note (like the 5th or 7th in whatever scale you’re in). Then “fill in the gap”. What makes it sound good is jagged rhythm; for example, land a synth shot on the sixteenth note right after the up beat. This gives it a bit of groove.
Hope this helps and glad you liked the choon!
this was a really good track man. i really enjoyed listening to this. this is definitely right up my alley for electro taste. I’ve been trying to learn how to make this style myself so this was even more awesome to hear somebody else doing this style on the boards.
When you say you are taking like 5-15 synth 1 off shots, are you making those sounds in an actual synth and then just recording a few notes that are in the key that your bass line is in? or are you taking samples and throwing them into a sampler and doing your 1-shots that way… or is it a combination of both?
i will give this another couple listens 2 see If I can make some more comments 4 ya.
A combination of both.
One thing I really like doing (because it reduces the amount of CPU power I need) is making a synth that essentially is just a quarter note, like a pitch riser or wobble. I render it out into an audio track and then copy it into a folder that I then use for the actual song.
So I have some samples I’ve downloaded from various creative commons websites for things that I can’t synthesize, like orchestra hits, and I use some samples that are easy “bridge” samples, pitch risers, wobbles, sin falls, etc…
really sweet track man, I love it. sounds great, Wolfgang Gartner-ish. All the effects and stabs and stuff during the drop sound very polished and fit in well. thanks a ton for the tips by the way, I’m looking into making electro house like this but it’s a bit tough starting off.
followed you on soundcloud
Haha yes, Electro House is so frustratingly difficult to crack. There were like 4 or 5 moments during the production of this song where I wanted to throw the laptop out of the room.
A few tips though, to get going:
Start Simple: The biggest mistake I made originally was making 5-10 different basses for a drop. Although electro house tunes sound like there are like 10 different basses playing at the same time, it’s a trick. Typically, someone like Wolgang Gartner will have one fat saw bass on the first bar, and then a few different synth shots and different notes from the saw bass. Try to limit yourself in a project; restrict yourself to 1-3 basses, then fill in the rest with chords/high notes.
DON’T overcompress your basses. Another mistake I made was to sidechain the hell out of my basses on the drops. While this shows off the fact that you can click a few buttons on your compressor, it kind of ruins the width of the drop.
For some reason, even the best sample packs seem to be missing great kicks. Claps and snares can really be used even from the crappiest sample packs, but great kicks are always necessary. Until you really find some professional kicks, I suggest sampling them from a song; by the time you’re done EQing, compressing, and adding verb, they won’t be recognizable anyway.
Lastly, search for this guy on youtube:
nzmusic101
Best kept secret on all of youtube. He does logic, so that may alienate some of you, but I’m an ableton and reason guy and I’ve learned an immense load from this guy. His tuts are brilliant (you can probably hear some of his sounds in this song)
Thanks so much again for the enthusiastic response to this! I’ve only been producing since late June, so I’m still pretty new to this. It’s really cool to get such positive feedback!
Oh, and I almost forgot!
Hi hats are transvestite murderer dinosaur vampires. Use them with extreme caution. They can really kill a mix.
sweet jesus!
Now (8)
…DANCE!!!