All language subtitles for Masterclass - Armin Van Buuren Teaches Dance Music_Full

It's all about the music.

Try to go to a wedding without music.

Try to go to a funeral without music.

Music is what gives color to life.

You're showing something of yourself,

your art, your music, your DJ set. That

is who you are.

As part of this class, I'm going to show

you a couple of the tracks that I've

produced in the past. I'll break down

how I constructed these tracks. I'll

tell you about the arrangement, about

the mixing and the mastering. I'll show

you my plugins. I'll show you my

techniques and the little things that I

think make the difference.

I'll show you how I work in the studio.

I'll create a track completely from

scratch. Also, I'll tell you all about

how I construct a DJ set and what I

think is important.

I was 8 years old and I was presented

with a cassette tape uh with a good

friend in school. Um it was a the the

guy uh the announce the announcer on the

news, the weather guy announcing the the

weather and he was sampled over a beat

and I thought that was the coolest thing

I ever heard. I was so excited about it

that every little bit of money that I uh

made with my paper route uh I I invested

in my own little studio. And at the time

there was a budget version of the the

big Akai samplers back in the day and it

basically had eight samples, eight mono

samples and you could sample something

like 10 seconds or something which was

ridiculously stupid actually looking

back at it. But I bought the thing. I I

that's the only time I actually asked my

dad to to lend me some money. I bought

the thing and I turned it upside down.

Eight samples, mono. But that's how I

created my first track. I sampled

everything left and right. TV shows, uh,

my mom talking, the cleaning lady, uh,

with the vacuum, whatever. I try I was

trying to understand how a sampler

worked. And, and I was just having so

much fun. And at that time, I I wasn't I

didn't even realize I was

self-educating. Um, so I was just making

weird mixes. And boy did I make some bad

stuff back in the day. But I was just

having fun, you know? I was having fun

creating stuff, making demos. And before

I knew it, I had 30, 40,

okay tracks. And I never really had the

ambition to become a DJ or to be a

producer. I I just wanted to do it

because I loved it so much. It was

really my passion, you know, making

little mixtapz for my friends. And

that's where that I still have that

passion in me. I'm still that little

kid, you know, that hasn't changed. I've

always seen it as a hobby. I still don't

see it as work. You know, for me, it's

still just fooling around in the studio,

trying different things and doing the

thing that I love most. It's sharing the

passion for music.

I'm using Logic Pro as my DAW, my

digital audio workstation. That's DAW.

And I'm using this program since version

three, I think. So the program's been

around for 15 years or 20 years or

something. Every day I work with this

program, I learn something new. That's

how complex the software is. I'm using

it every day, eight hours a day, and

still every day I you I learn new a new

shortcut, a new trick. So never think

that you're done self-educating. I have

the luxury now of road testing my tracks

secretly when my sets not are not being

broadcasted. H So in the middle of a

set, I might just drop a brand new track

of mine just to see how it goes. And

that's always nerve-wracking still to

this day. And I I I put on my new my new

song and then nothing happens on the

desk.

You're like, "Oh." And that happened to

me more than the other way around, you

know? So you go back into the studio and

you have to, you know, keep working at

it, keep working at it until it's

perfect. I know there's a lot of people

out there may who may dream of private

jets and, you know, Vegas residencies

and and playing mainstages on all the

big festivals around the world. And yes,

you can do it, but um there's a bigger

chance that you won't uh because simply

there's a lot of aspiring DJs. So that's

why I always tell people that having fun

is more important than anything else.

You know, if you're not having fun

playing piano or playing guitar or, you

know, fiddling around with weird plugins

or synthesizers, then stop doing it

because you know what? People will know.

People can see that. People can feel if

you're being real about what you're

doing.

Want dance music to grow. I want new

talents to flourish. You could be the

next superstar. That would be my dream

come true if my lesson would add to

that.

I'm Army Vanurren and this is my master

class.

I don't have a standard way of working

and I really want to stress this because

um that's how I get inspired. I do what

I love. So that means that one morning I

might sit in my kitchen table and not

even go into my studio, just grab a

guitar and and be creative uh or sit

behind my piano, come up with a piano

line and immediately run from my piano

to the studio to record uh what I'm

doing. One of my uh current tracks is

called Sunny Days and that was actually

born when we sat in the studio together

with Gordon who's another producer and

he brought his guitar and he played this

beautiful melody uh that we came up the

three of us and that was completely

unplanned. It was sort of a organic

thing. Hey, let's try this. Hey, let's

write. It's really that for me. It's

not, oh, we we we go in the studio with,

oh, I need to create a new hit record.

Do what you love. Go in the studio with

your heart open and go be yourself. Be

you in the studio. You are your own

sound. And I'm convinced that in every

human being, whether you're a musician

or not, there's a hit record. It's just

you have to go and find it.

It is important to have a basic

knowledge about, you know, difference

between major and minor chords. A few

basic lessons about chord progression,

about what's logical, what's not logical

can inspire you. I'm not saying that

this is the rules you should live by.

Completely off sounding chords can

sound, you know, st sampled can all of a

sudden sound like techno. techno guys

sometimes use

use a chord like this sample it reverse

it and make it interesting sounding just

because it is so off you know so that's

why I really want to be careful about

putting too much uh knowledge into your

music sometimes it's about the the spur

of the moment the the sound that you

that inspires you know uh I'm not a

guitar player by the way I'm not a

guitar player I don't know how to play

guitar my brother is a very skilled

guitar player but I bought two guitars

and I don't know what I'm doing I even

know if I'm hand if I'm handling it

correctly. I just put my guitar here,

put it through a paddle that I bought or

found it online somewhere. I put it in

in my DAW. I start playing two notes and

I put this beautiful reverb behind it

and who knows, you know, all of a sudden

you might be playing guitar on your own

track. You don't need to have guitar

lessons to be able to play guitar. It's

all about you the idea in your head. You

know, if it sounds good, it probably is

good. You know that that is the the the

philosophy for me. If you think that it

it touches you, whatever you're doing,

record it, capture it, and start fooling

around with it.

I usually start with the music. Uh I

rarely start with beats. Uh you can and

I did start tracks with beats, but

mostly I create the the melody first and

I start to create some sort of a

structure. uh more of a chorus verse

kind of approach even with instrumental

trans tracks. For example, I uh have

piano lessons every day and I get

inspired a lot about um the the music

the pieces of music that I play. Some of

these chords that were uh invented

hundreds of years ago are still are

still so fresh and still so new. Uh for

example, if I play Eric Sati, let's just

pull up the piano sound.

just those basic chords, right? The

that can be like if I'm really pulling

that up and it can really touch my soul.

So, if I would just grab these two

chords that are part of uh the Sati song

and I start adding another layer to it,

for example. So now I'm just using Eric

Sati's two chords as an inspiration to

write new chords. So let's go back to

Jimnopedi.

Such a beautiful piece of music. So

again, these are the two chords that

really inspire me.

And I just start adding different layers

to it. And maybe not play them as a

chord, but as single notes. So

that's just something I just thought of

from the top of my head. I haven't used

that in a song, but that could be the

basis for me. Uh quickly put in the mini

notes and start sketching with those

chords and and build top melodies. So

top melodies are really important. So

maybe I just do uh

just use your ears, see what you like,

see what chords move you and use that as

a basis and just fool around, you know,

sit behind the piano for hours and and

you go. And that that can also go for a

guitar. If you have a great sounding

guitar, grab your guitar, play two

notes, put them in your sequencer, you

know, arrange them in a different way.

I wrote a song called I Live for That

Energy, which was the anthem song for A

State of Trans. And the idea for that

melody uh was Beno me sitting in the

studio vibing away. And I had a certain

rhythm in my head. I don't know,

probably from another track or

something. And the rhythm was

so basically not even a melody yet, just

the rhythm on a 44. So it was like

being a piano note. And of course this

sounds boring.

That's not exciting. So I'm just trying

to use that rhythm and balance off the

keyboard. So it's just

that's the basis of I live for that

energy. I used that on a piano, created

it, put it in the media sequencer and

just replace the piano sound with a

massive sounding pad. I guess what makes

I Live for That Energy a powerful melody

is because there's a certain tension in

the chords that go underneath it. I

guess for I Live for That Energy, it's

more the baseline that make the notes

that make the track interesting. Because

this is not really exciting, but just

because the baseline does

and then of course the top melody moves

a little bit, but just because you keep

it that that that same chord, the top

melody, but the the the low end goes up,

it it generates that excitement and it

makes that epic feel. And then if you uh

choose those massive pads, really stack

them, make them really big. I think for

that particular sound I used something

like five silent synthesizers stacked on

top of each other. So every silent

synthesizer is doing a little part of

that melody stacked on top of each

other. Big reverb on it. There you go.

I love melodies. I love melodies more

than vocals. This is something I I've

always done. It's always been more about

melody, emotion, euphoria, about that,

you know, hands in the air moment. I've

been more of an instrumental guy. Of

course, you can just start filling

around on your keyboard and and come

trying to come up with an interesting

melody. For this particular uh melody,

we came up with a thing

uh that Beno calls throwing beer.

Uh I'll tell you why.

You know, if you stand in a club where

it's full and people are excited because

it's the weekend and they're having a

good time, uh, sometimes you don't want

melodies to be over complicated. Um, and

usually the most effective melodies are

the melodies that you can sing very

simple. I mean, who doesn't know the

Seven Nations army

that the whole stadiums of people are

singing that? I'm sure that a lot of

producers out there are dreaming of

finding a melody like that that that

soccer stadiums full of people are

singing. Well, that's what we did with

this particular track. Um, we sang the

melody before we wrote it. So, I

remember us sitting in the studio and we

I was filling around with this

particular sound, but we just ended up

singing the melody to each other.

Why? Because if you can sing it like

that, if it's silly like that, it's

usually very effective. I wasn't too

sure if this was going to work. I was

very insecure about it because it's it's

one of those, but it works. And it just

works with the melody. It works with the

pads and it just adds to it. So, let me

just play you the melody.

A

good way to find out uh if your demos

are working is to send them to other

people. Play them to other people. Uh

your friends. I co- co-write with Benard

Huy who's uh my studio partner. uh he's

not my engineer or uh he doesn't make my

tracks. We work on everything 50/50. Now

sometimes it may be that he brings in an

idea, he brings in a you know sketch,

maybe a groove with with a melody or

something. It's just something really

short and I'll start adding to that. And

or some it's the other way around. I'll

play something for him and he says, "Oh,

that's great." And he'll start adding to

it. So my suggestion if you have a bunch

of demos around, send those demos to

different producers. See if they vibe of

it.

If you're having a day where nothing is

happening, uh, and don't worry, it

happened to me plenty of times. I guess

you have to start with a different

approach of the same thing. Uh, first of

all, what I always do is I ask myself,

am I having fun? And obviously, if

you're not making music that you want to

make or it's not happening, you're not

having fun. So, try to have fun with the

equipment that's in your room, the

plugins that are available. Go online,

watch a tutorial. Uh, this is probably

one of the things that inspires me most.

Really dig into the plugins that I

already have. Start listening to some

music you really like. And if that all

doesn't help, uh, usually what I do is I

throw a bunch of loops together. I start

an electronic way. I start browsing

through my library. I start, you know,

all these plugins have an amazing

catalog of presets. I'm not a big fan of

presets, but sometimes they can be

really inspiring, so I don't want to

throw out that option. So sometimes I

just start, you know, digging through

loops. Maybe I find an interesting sound

in a loop that can spark. It's like a

fire, you know, it's it's one spark you

need and boom. So um that could be an

interesting way of working. Sometimes I

can just grab the sounds of a previous

track of mine, pull up the the tracks,

but throw away all the MIDI, just have

the sounds ready and start fooling

around with the the sounds that I

already used and really inspired me

because it was my previous track that

worked really well. Uh, so I start using

those sounds but in a a different way.

Uh, sometimes remixing an old track of

yourself can work. Uh, grabbing an AC an

existing song, an ac capella, that is a

great way of getting inspired. Um, grab

a track you really love, see if there's

an ac capella available and try to remix

that track. So, completely uh throw away

all the music and start remixing that ac

capella. And then when you finish the

song, throw away theap ac capella, of

course, because you're not you can't

release it. It's not yours. Uh but then

you have a great sounding instrumental.

So that's another approach. And if that

if all else fails, PlayStation

I didn't have a lot of money, especially

in the beginning. I mean, my parents

were willing to help me a little bit,

but not that much. I mean, they weren't

able to just, especially in the

beginning of my career, you didn't have

the possibility of doing everything in

one DAW. you needed a big mixer like

this and then a lot of outboard gear and

synthesizers and samplers and you needed

to, you know, connect everything via

MIDI and and so it was an expensive

hobby back then. Um only later it was

possible to do everything on one uh

computer. Uh that was only since 2002

2003 that that was possible. Computers

were fast enough. So that was that was a

that was really difficult in the

beginning. Money was definitely an

issue. But the good side of that is is

that um because I didn't have that much

money, I had to put everything that I

had upside down. I had to put, you know,

the the JX 3P only had a polyhon of four

voices, I guess. So, as soon as I

touched more than four keys on the

keyboard, there was always one note that

wasn't playing. So, how am I going to

solve this? Well, that meant I had to

sample one of the notes. And so if I

wanted to hear five voices at the same

time, I needed to sample the other one.

So that's how I became creative. Be in

the moment. Be in the moment. Be in the

moment. Be in the moment. Be in the

moment. Be in the moment.

It's all about creating a vibe in your

studio. That's also why I think it's

important to not only look at your room

acoustics, but also make sure you have

fresh air, a nice coffee machine, uh

some nice sandwich. You don't you should

not be in the studio being hungry cuz

that doesn't inspire you. you can kill

the vibe. You know, it's almost as the

atmosphere on a dance floor. It's a very

very uh delicate balance. You need to

create a nice environment where you feel

comfortable, where uh you know, where

there's, you know, maybe some people are

really into candles. I'm not, but some

people are. Great. Put candles in your

studio. Make it your your living room.

So, a place where you're comfortable.

And especially now with with the DAWs

and you can the possibility of doing

everything on a laptop, it's great to

just sit in your living room. Why do you

need to be in a studio like this? You

don't need to be here. I mean, this can

be pretty intimidating. You know, once I

walk in a room like this, I'm like, "Oh,

I have to make music now." You know,

looks looks like a studio and I have

really have to start working. No, you

know, it's about you.

The convenient thing about living in

these times is that you don't need to

spend a lot of money to make decent

sounding tracks. I like to use Logic Pro

and Ableton Live for production,

preparing my DJ sets. Uh you do need to

make a choice uh between one of the DAWs

that fits your sound uh and that fits

your style. And I would really suggest

to stick to one or maybe two DAWs and

really dig deep into what's possible and

what's not possible. Don't ever think

that if you're using a a different DAW

than uh than me or anybody else, then

then your songs will not be as good.

It's all about the chef, not about the

kitchen, if you ask me. Uh, of course,

you need a good uh meaty keyboard. Uh,

if you want to play some piano, you want

to put in some mey notes. It's uh some

people do it without a keyboard. Uh, I

had some piano lessons, so for me, I

love to work with a piano. Uh, the

reason why I'm using this particular

device is because it also has speakers

and sometimes you have an idea about a

chord and you don't want to wait until

the plug-in is uh, finished loading. So,

that's why I'm working with this uh, it

helps me to uh, put in med notes. It

helps me to put in my uh, velocity uh,

because it accurately records the way I

touch the keys and you can really put

emotion into the way you touch the keys.

So, a good master keyboard for me is

essential. I know there's people not

working with the master keyboards, which

is absolutely fine, but uh I like to

work this way.

If you really ask me what I would buy,

if right now I had like $500 and I had

uh a computer, what software would I

buy? I would probably go for Ableton

Live. I'll buy the Silent One. Uh, I buy

a couple of samples, you know, maybe go

online to Beatport or or splice.com,

organize those samples, get it going.

Um, the great thing about Ableton and

about Logic is they come with a standard

great amount of really good sounding

plugins. Just to mention a few from the

top of my head, like for example,

Spectroics's Omnosphere is such an

amazing plugin. It is such a complex

synthesizer. You can basically make any

synthesizer sound you want just by using

Omnosphere. And that's not the only

synth I'm talking about. You've got uh

the silent that I've mentioned, the the

Serum, the Massive. I mean, that's what

everybody's using. That's what any dance

DJ in the world is using. If you have

those four synths available, you're good

to go.

Of course, you need um a good uh sound

system. Um room acoustics is extremely

important and uh I always recommend

using two sets of monitors. Um mainfield

monitors which is the you know the big

boommy sound sort of represents the

sound how it would sound in a big room.

you're making dance music. So, it's

usually made for big clubs, big

festivals, and also to use the small

NS-10s are really popular, but you can

use, you know, any small sets of

monitors is good because then you're not

focused on the low end and it can really

blur your vision. So, sometimes when

you're mixing vocals, for example, or

you're mixing your lead sounds, you want

to be able to focus on that middle range

and not so much the bass or the kick.

Um, there's a lot to say about room

acoustics. quickly. Um, what you're

trying to avoid is, uh, waveforms that

are bouncing back off the walls and that

are canceling each other. Uh, that's to

put a long story short. You have to

imagine a sound wave comes from the

speaker,

reaches the wall, and the wall bounces

this the wave back. So, what happens is

at one point a new wave will come and

the other wave will cancel out that

other. So, no matter how loud you put it

or how soft you put it, there will

always be a spot in your room where you

hear no bass. I'm sure you you heard the

thing when you walk around in a club,

the music sounds completely different

when you stand in a corner than in the

middle of a dance floor. And that is uh

a problem. It is a problem in every

environment. Uh speakers, they generate

waves and waves bounce back of walls and

they cancel out uh the audio that is

coming from the speaker. And that is

something that you have to deal with.

Now, right now, all I'm doing is

generating a sine wave and I'm going up

from uh 10 hertz all the way up. And

then you can hear the difference in

loudness in uh volume in the place where

you're sitting. In an ideal world, the

the volume at this spot where my ears

are, where I'm sitting, the volume

should be equal at every frequency.

And I already hear a dip around 53

hertz. The volume is going down. And

then it's getting louder. And oh, now

it's really loud.

There's another dip. Then it's louder

again.

Louder.

There's another dip here.

All that's happening is the sine wave

comes from the speaker, bounces against

the wall, comes back, and it kills part

of the of the new wave that is coming

towards me. That is a problem. That's a

room acoustics problem. And every studio

you'll be in, every room you'll ever be

in, um there will be more or less that

same problem. And you can move around

the room and you'll hear different uh

information. You need to know that. You

need to know that your room is is is is

your limitation.

Putting blankets on the walls definitely

helps, but that will only help you with

the higher frequencies because a blanket

will only stop the the higher

frequencies from bouncing back. It's

usually the bass that is really the

problem. And here's why we're making

dance music. So, it's all about the

bass. So knowing your limitation of your

of your space is very very important.

You need to be aware of this when you're

mixing. You need to be aware. You need

to use different speakers for that

reason. And you need to uh road test

because in your car there'll be a

different uh frequency response. There

will be a different um sets of

frequencies reaching your ears. And

that's why I say car testing is

important. Using your mom's stereo is

important. Listening on headphones is

important. Try to uh test your tracks on

as many different sound systems as

possible. So yes, your your phone, your

your your stupid little speaker next to

your bed, your your the big sound

system. So uh that really helps you to

make the right choices.

Here

we go. This is my project uh uh template

which is set up with a very basic uh uh

setup. Uh it's a 130 BPM arrangement.

This allows me to quickly start, you

know, throwing down ideas and

everything. If I press the space bar, I

have a kick drum going.

So, what's here? There's a there's a

standard bass,

there's a standard lead, and there's a

standard white noise. And then we're all

using the the standard Logic ES2 and

EXS24. The great thing about Logic is

the buses. Recently, we found out that

um it's uh better to not send all your

audio tracks and your MIDI tracks and

everything straight to the master bus

and put dynamic processing on it.

Everything that I do, I route to bus 30

and bus 30 goes to bus 31, which is uh

called no dynamic processing and some

dynamic processing. The reason why we're

doing this is because you want to know,

you want to be able to switch between uh

the juice, the nice sounding uh dynamic

processing, you know, the glue together,

but you also want to be able to check to

see if you're not killing your

transients. There's no dynamic

processing at the moment, but I can

easily add a multiband compressor or

whatever I like. Um, so let's just throw

something on here. Something juicy.

Isotope is usually great.

So this is the juice

and let's pull up something lowend

accent. I don't know. Okay. So this is

going through there now.

Now I'm able to switch between how it

sounds without dynamic processing at the

end

and uh with some dynamic processing.

This is the thing about creativity. I

find it very important to grasp that art

of the moment I call it because you're

sitting down, you had a cup of coffee

and you're feeling well, right? Usually

for me it's in the morning at 10:00, but

it's sometimes it's for people it's at

night. I used to work a lot at night.

Now I work in the mornings and after a

cup of coffee at 10:00 I feel energized.

Okay, let's go make some music. I feel

happy. The sun is shining. I brought my

kids to school. I have a good feeling.

I'm sitting down. I have an idea. Uh

this is the track I want to generate.

Let's go. And then you don't want to be

looking for samples. You don't want to

be lost in your DAW. Oh, where did I

find this plugin? Or, hey, I quickly

need to grab a clap sound or a high hat.

I think it's really good to spend quite

a bit of time in organizing uh your DAW.

Stuff like color coding. I mean, if you

look at this arrangement, this is a

track that I've just finished, and you

see that there's quite a bit quite a few

tracks. That looks intimidating. I

understand that. But if you have 104

tracks in a particular song and you want

to be able to still oversee what you're

doing, use color coding and make sure

you group your tracks. So in this

particular arrangement, you can see that

we made all the drum elements red. We

gave them the red color. Uh the blue

color is for all the baselines. The

green for the pads and the melodies and

the leads that are going on. And then

finally uh at the at the at the bottom,

you see all our effects are usually

yellow. And for the vocals which we find

least important uh we make them orange

just put them um below.

One thing that I do recommend everybody

is save whatever you do and use version

numbers. Unfortunately, especially if

you start working with more complex

projects and third party plugins,

sometimes third party plugins and DAWs

don't like each other that much. Uh, and

in order to avoid that, you've made a

great track. A lot of people save the

song and I go like this and they say,

"Where we go?" So, special projects

masterclass. I'll say new track

and I'll uh think of a name. It was

sunny uh this morning, so I'll call it

sunny car drive for the moment. And I'll

also do version 001.

Save it. So I'm start working on this

track and every time I save and I

recommend you saving almost every two

three minutes you save you open it

again. save it and then you save it as a

different version number and you can

always go back to an earlier version,

which is great because you start adding

more sounds and sometimes you lose the

magic when if you're building and

building and you keep adding sounds and

you know you're you're you're adding

different layers to a track and then oh

wait uh I actually liked it how it

sounded better an hour ago. You can go

back to that version because you've

saved different versions. So, by a

standard rule of working, I always save

it in a ton of different versions. So,

all my tracks have a version number

behind it. So, when I'm DJing, I can

always quickly when I bounce a track

just for road testing, I can always see

which version I've I've played out for

for a crowd. And then I can go, all

right, version 67 sounded okay. Not too

happy with this. And then maybe I'll

work on it a little bit more. I have

version 72. You know what? Version 72

sounded great. The pads were bigger, but

I want to go back to the kick because it

sounded better in version 68. So, it's

great if you work with different version

numbers and save it. And then don't

touch it after you bounce it. Just use a

new version number. You can always pull

it up and go back to the magic that it

has because sometimes music just has

magic. You don't want to touch it. And

that's when version numbers are great to

work with.

I cannot stress enough that hard drives

are

bound to fail. Sooner or later, your

hard drive is going to crash. And you

need to realize that there's quite a few

um people that lost entire albums cuz

just because they thought that's not

going to happen to me. My laptop is

running so smooth. Well, guess what? The

moment you finish your album, the moment

everything's done, you haven't backed up

everything and you've lost your entire

album. And I know a lot of stories from

producers that lost their music. So once

I heard uh a guy that installed my

studio say, "Let's say you lost all your

samples, all your music files, your

entire catalog. How much money would you

pay me to get everything back?" And I

started to think,

"Wow,

that would be I would pay a lot of

money, maybe even a couple hundred,000

to get everything back." Imagine. So he

said, "Well, just give me a quarter.

just give me a small portion of that.

I'll buy a server for you and we'll make

sure that everything's backed up. So,

please please invest in a good hard

drive. You can also use um for example

carbon copy cloner uh which is something

I think is really great. You can

actually automate that as well. Make a

schedule so it automatically backs up

your data. So, I cannot stress enough

how important that is.

I want to show you how a normal day in a

studio and what it looks like. Um I want

to create a trans track from scratch.

Let's just uh for example take

inspiration from uh one of the greatest

songs ever made by Eric Sati Jimnopi. So

the beginning goes something like this.

love that song. Great. I'm going to show

you how that song inspires me to be

creative. So, these are the two chords

that I really, really love. And

now, let's just use that now as a as a

top melody. And let's just create

something

Maybe that sounds cool. I want to turn

those chords into a transy riff that

could go down in a breakdown of a

beautiful trans track which would fit

into my set. So, for example, I could

play these chords in a different way.

Well, let's record that with a

metronome. So, I got my template set up

here. Got a little kick drum going

there. And I want the trans track to be

132 BPM. But to make it easier for

myself, I'm still just, you know,

throwing together a couple of notes. I'm

going to lower the tempo a bit.

Something that is comfortable for me to

play. Maybe even more slow than that.

Can I play it like this?

Still pretty fast.

Why not? I have a computer. It can help

me.

Still pretty fast. Let's narrow it down.

I'll put it in record.

That sounds nice. Let's give it another

try. See if I can make it more

interesting, maybe.

And

Sounds nice. I have different options.

So, these are just notes that I've put

in and a random place in the

arrangement. Let's put up the notes.

Let's see where I am. So, this is my uh

maybe not so accurate

way of playing. Let's quantize what I've

done. See if it adds to the grit. And

now let's up the tempo a little bit. See

if it sounds somewhere nice. So I played

the same chord sequence but in different

ways.

Couple of errors here.

Let's correct Let's correct this.

Some really horrible notes there.

Um, let's make all these notes that they

have the same length

operate only. Now I can see that they

made some errors.

It's pretty fast. Um, I don't know if I

like it at that tempo.

Let me just double it.

Um, I'll stretch the notes

to double it. So, the original length

was this.

Um, let me look at this. Yeah. Throw

away the rest and double it to here.

Maybe that makes more sense. I don't

know.

It's a little off.

Correct it here.

Something in the modulation is not going

well. I didn't record my uh paddle here,

my sustain pedal.

Now, let's up the tempo to the desired

tempo, 132 BPM.

And this is normally the time where I

share my idea with my production

partner, Beno, to see what he thinks.

So, Beno, do you have any ideas with

this?

Sure. Well, it's good for starters.

Good for starters. good core

progression.

Yeah. Um I think two two things uh

yeah I think the the length of the bar

is is is is is great.

It's experimental because it's six. So

that's that's striking me and something

that I hear when I hear this melody. I

hear a progression going up.

Perhaps you hear it too as well.

Well maybe maybe you want to take a seat

in my chair and then

Well, I would like to try and see if

with the piano if it if I could amend

it.

Go for it.

Let me first figure out what you did.

All but I hear something.

Nice.

Something like this.

Yeah. So maybe to uh down the tempo a

bit again. So I have my original idea

which is right here.

Yeah, play it again because I didn't had

that.

No, no. What you should play is amazing.

Uh

want a faster tempo?

Um

this is good, I guess. So I'm just going

to put it in records. So just I can so I

can capture everything that he does.

Pedto is trying to add some nice melodic

ideas to the chord structure we have and

it's a little bit trial and error.

You have to develop a little bit of an

ear for this. Just try it yourself and

see which notes don't clash the existing

chords.

Beautiful.

Or

that's your step.

Yeah, I like that. I like the last

ending. But when I Here it is. I think

it's a little bit long.

I like it. Do you want to make it

shorter?

Well, double the speed.

Yeah, you you doubled the You doubled

the speed, right? So, what if if we cut

it in half right now because

the melodies is twice as long.

Good. Good idea.

So, what I would suggest first is to

clean my mess up because I didn't really

play it that well. Um, let me see.

that part.

Searching for your chords.

Right.

It's pretty fast and easy.

Yeah. But if we skip some notes

and maybe don't maybe remove the the

Yeah, because the length feels good to

me at least

because if if we if we stick to this

this this type of length, it will be

harder to to keep the span of the

attention. What your thoughts on that?

Yeah, I agree.

Well, then maybe save it as a different

version again. So, we can always go back

to this. I mean, this feels right to me.

This feels like we've got something

going. It's not a trans track yet. I

mean, we we're working with a piano. We

have something weird going on. We

haven't even switched to other

instruments, but this feels like a great

core progression. It feels a little bit

too busy, a little bit too much going

on. So, I like Beno's suggestion. Maybe

deleting some notes and see if we can

keep the chord progression, but with

less uh top melody going on there.

So, there's one thing that I would like

to fix because there's something in the

melody that's not quite right yet. You

see, the bar is not really

like 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 and then something

comes afterwards, which is a little bit

strange, right? So, can you help me out

here where it goes wrong in your

opinion? In your opinion?

Yeah, there it's too long.

Yeah, feels weird, right? So, let's

let's let's see. Um, can I take the

chair again?

Take your chair.

In the meantime, um, perhaps it's a good

suggest throw in a groove.

Get some claps.

Yeah, that needs to go up. What we're

looking for here in the production is

trying to add some melody to the song

that makes it more interesting.

The only way that your track is becoming

special is if you add a little top

melody to it that sort of goes against

the existing chords.

I love that. It's great. It's very

emotional. It's very euphoric. It's just

a little bit too much too many notes. Uh

so what I'm going to do, I'm going to

copy the entire part. Uh because I'm

going to fool with it. Um fiddle with

it.

Um

and I'm going to save it. So I can

always go back to to this. Meanwhile,

Beno uh is is maybe adding some

elements, something I'll leave him on

his own. You know, I don't want to tell

him what to do. He can just add elements

to it. Whatever. What I'm going to do,

I'm going to quantize this to 14.

This sounds more

relaxed.

Hey, you get doubles right now, right?

I like this. I like these chords. This

is great. Great. Beautiful chords. I

think this could work. This This could

work. Yeah.

Well, specifically in trans music, I

love to layer stuff. Um, there's this

function in Logic that if I want to add

a lead sound and I want to make it big,

for example, let me just play a chord.

I don't know. It's a bit of a silly

chord, but just go there. Quantize it.

Okay. So, I just standard pad.

I don't like that. Clear that here.

Go there. Make add a little swing to it.

I can copy the track, including the MIDI

notation, and start fooling with the

other uh track. So, this is basically

the exact same setting as this track.

Uh, yep. Which is going to bus 30.

And then I'll start fooling around with

this. So, it's basically another layer

that I'm adding.

Maybe D-tune it a little bit.

Maybe opening the release a little bit.

So, I'm just adding a layer to a riff

that I've just played, a very, very

basic riff. And just by adding layers to

each other, I can make the sounds sound

more wide and and and more interesting,

maybe. Um, then I can copy the channel,

copy the media information, and then for

example have a Nexus plugin, which is a

different sounding or rumpler. Let me

pull up a piano.

Search for a piano. PN

any any piano.

Uh, solo it for a bit.

It's a bit reverby.

Cue off the low end.

So, I I'm just fooling around at the

moment. I'm just throwing adding layers,

just being creative. Again, there's no

rules. So, just feel free to throw weird

plugins. I mean, who would put a

distortion on a piano, right? It's

non-conventional. Let's do it. Let's

grab a random distortion. I love to do

stuff like that. Just be just be random,

you know? Uh throw in uh this is one of

my favorite distortion plugins. So, I'm

just going to distort this piano.

Let me throw a reverb.

You know what? I like that piano sound,

but I feel it's a little bit far away.

And that's usually because you're

missing the transients, the attack of

the piano. So I'll just copy the channel

once again. So it's the exact same

piano, but I'm switching off this and

I'm making the notes a lot shorter. So

that this will be a very short piano.

I just want the top end.

Kill all the reverb. kill everything

that's not nice.

And if I add that with the piano that I

have,

it will add the attack to the piano

which makes it more sound like a piano.

So you hear the attack of the piano

better. So that's why my tracks have a

ridiculous amount of uh of tracks. It's

just because I like to add layers to it.

You have to be very aware that as soon

as you start layering, you're also

clogging up your mix. I mean, you're

basically adding frequencies, uh, and

the more frequencies you add, uh, the

more, you know, full your mix becomes.

So, you have to be very aware that as

soon as you start adding layers that you

use your EQ wisely. So that's why on

this piano for example, I've killed

everything below

a thousand hertz because I don't need

that information. I only want the

attack. So ask yourself, why did I

choose this sound and which part of the

sound is important to me? Which

frequency? So the one way to approach

trans music is because trans music is

this is also the problem with trans

music is very hard to mix because

there's so much going on, especially the

pads are are humongous and they're

really

getting a lot of space in your mix. Um,

so what you want to do is you want to

make sure that, for example, if you have

a kick and a bass going and you have a

pad you want to play on top, kill all

the low end of the pad because it will

fight with your kick and your bass

because there's also a little bit of low

end going on. So those frequencies will

uh will uh add add to each other and it

will make your mix sound really full and

not not really nice. So when you come to

the breakdown, you can have a copy of

the exact same pad and then you can add

the sub to it. Now that's the reason why

the pad for me would be have a different

track uh while the kick and the bass are

running and then in the breakdown I

would just kill the EQ and usually I'll

just do that on a different track. So

that's why I'm saying I use 104 tracks

on a track but it's not that impressive.

It's basically 20 or or 30 tracks. It's

just I I can copy the track and because

you know DAWs now are so good and so

fast that it's easier for me just to uh

copy the track and have a different

track with a different EQ setting than

to automate it. I can automate it. It's

just a lot more work.

Usually the leads are fighting with the

vocal on the same frequency spectrum.

Here you can see that we draw the volume

the the filter uh the low pass filter of

uh the main lead and we do that to give

space to the vocal. So if I would open

up the lead here and I would just play

the lead and the vocal

vocal

sexy sweet

feels kind of busy whereas I if I filter

the lead I give more attention to the

vocal

sexy you are sweet you are feel

it's also a way of telling your listener

hey I want you to hear this

in the breakdown of UR filtered in the

background. There's actually a lot of

paths going. Let's listen.

But you see, if if I mute the pads, then

the leads wouldn't come out that great.

Let me just mute the pads. Mute pads.

I'm missing something there, which is

the pads in the background. Uh, that

give it just that extra feel.

You don't really notice them. You don't

really notice the pads, but when they're

not there, you do notice them. That's

that's I think very essential to note.

Uh

sexy, you are sweet, you are hard, you

are pretty, you are

I also want to talk about uh the

conventional way and the unconventional

way of using plugins. So, here's a sound

that I've imported from a previous

project. And you can see I've just

I've used the initialized the the the

very basic setting of the silent. It's

just it's right under menu and you go to

insert and it basically gives you

an empty silent.

The most basic sound there is. It's a

saw.

I put it in legato mode, mono legato

mode, threw in some portimen, and then I

started adding different distortions to

it,

little reverb,

a compressor,

and the compressor basically brings out

the transients more.

Uh, let's throw in an EQ to roll off the

low end.

Uh, and let's do a dimensional expander.

Great uh, free plugin. You can find it

online somewhere.

So, I'm just starting to add random

elements, random plugins, throwing them

on there just to get inspired, find

inspiration in specific sounds,

interesting sounds. So, grab a synth,

put it there, and start adding random

stuff to it. Uh, distortions, delays.

Uh, I love using uh conventional plugins

in an unconventional way. Normally after

a sound uh you would add a reverb at the

end. Why not add a reverb at the

beginning and put a compressor behind

it? You know, it's maybe it sounds weird

maybe, but it brings out the the attack

better of the sound and it makes the

reverb sounding huge. So that's one of

the tricks. Just trial and error

basically.

So, I'm going to take the MIDI part, uh,

put it on a different section, and I'm

going to pull up, uh, a pad, a nice pad

sound. Uh, I don't know if I have

something here that sounds cool. Um,

let's just make a pad. Why not?

That's not a pad.

We can we can make a pad going. Maybe I

have two oscillators,

something wide,

something with a bit more release,

more voices. It's about getting a really

bright and wide pad. And to do that, we

have voices. Pan these voices left and

right and make sure your saw is a little

bit d-tuned. As a listener, we perceive

this as a wide pad. Maybe put a little

reverb behind it. I don't know.

So,

all right.

Now I'm going to manually uh delete

a lot of these notes.

It's nice though.

Pads are essential for trans tracks.

They're the basic structure of your

song.

It's what happens between your baseline

and the top melody.

A good pad sound basically covers the

mid-range of your EQ spectrum.

Uh maybe I don't know. I'm not too crazy

about that sound. So, let me see if I

can pull up Well, don't throw it away

yet because I do like the sound perhaps

for later on for some layering.

Okay, I'm going to save it. Copy the

MIDI

and

come up with this synth.

Pull up a nice pad somewhere. I don't

know.

Um, nice pad sound.

And I'm going to say uh delete duplicate

notes.

Um,

I don't want double notes because I've

quantized it. So, some of the notes are

on the same position right now. Now, I

say note force legato.

Uh, keep

and there's a pad sound.

Here

we go.

Heat.

Heat.

I don't like that last step. So,

I go in here. So, what if I put like an

LFO tool

on a

trans gate?

quite like that atmosphere.

I'm actually quite liking the vibe of

this.

Trans music is all about rhythmic

elements and melodies. And if you can

combine both things in one sound, it

makes it even more exciting. What I like

to do when I make a pad sound, I like to

add some rhythm to it. Add a volume

ducker. In this case, LFO tool, but you

can use any volume instrument to

generate something rhythmic in a pad

sound. Beautiful. It's

maybe I want to change the key. I don't

know. Let me try.

Has a nice vibe to it. It's very moody.

Okay. Uh, I'm going to copy this channel

strip

and create maybe something

massive, a lead. I'm going to try and

find a top melody. Create a lead

completely from scratch. So, I'm going

to start with the the most basic sound

that this synthesizer can generate.

Basically, the uh the init sound, the

I'm going to use that,

just to get inspiration. Um, I'm going

to put a reverb behind it. Uh, see

compressor.

Uh, so I'm going to go to

Logic dynamic compressor.

A great trick to have a certain lead

sound shine through in your mix is to

add a transient element to it. You can

use a compressor with a fast release

time to make the transient shine through

a little bit more.

Maybe a little distortion to introduce

some character to the sound because it's

very basic at the moment. So, one of my

favorite uh distortion plugin is the Fat

Filter Satin. And uh maybe just add a

few bands of distortion.

Uh see if I can create some.

Now it really shines through more.

And I want to add maybe a funny delay or

something. I don't know. Uh HD delay.

Here we go.

So, what key are we in

currently? Uh C#

C. Yeah. Yeah.

Uh, let's let's just loop this little

melody that I've got going here. And

let's just fiddle around to see if I can

find a nice hot melody.

With every trans track I do, I try to

tell a story with my melody. If there

are too many repetitive elements in a

certain melody, it may sound a little

bit stale or boring.

Try to experiment with going three half

notes up or down.

Is there anything that you liked?

You have a lead sound?

Just adding just trying different

things. Uh let's just quantize it for a

little bit. Uh maybe just add a little

bit of another LFO tool. Put it in a

different spot maybe.

Which chord shall I use?

You have any suggestions?

Yeah. Well, uh or maybe this one.

That's nice.

I think in the in the second section

there was a a nice flow to it that that

really told the story. Well, I guess

right about 37

First part is okay though,

but that that lifts could be a little

bit more Yeah, for me it's a little bit

too erratic where whether the other

thing

told more of a story.

I like this.

So what what if you would combine those

two? Take the first half of that section

that you played later on. So only the

first part and then do the second one

from that one.

From this one you this section.

Yeah, I like that.

Okay. So mute delete this the first

section.

Yeah.

Or cut it. Then then you can also

and then use this one. You mean

probably? Yeah.

Yeah. Okay. So, fixed note length. I

think this could work.

Uh, make it longer.

In the meantime,

I like this. I'm feeling this

I have no idea where I want it to go.

I'm still trying to figure out what kind

of chords I want underneath this. Maybe

a different lead sound. I'm just going

to open up,

I don't know, uh maybe the Nexus. See if

I can find a beautiful sound that maybe

complements this.

Um,

so let's go here.

I like these sounds. They're usually

great. It could be like a big pad. I

don't know.

That could be like a big epic breakdown.

So,

that sounds nice.

I don't know. What do you think of this?

I see where you want to go.

I think we should make a choice then

because or you should use that automatic

delay.

Maybe just use the first section of of

the chords.

Well, I like that that chord change

which is not in the other ID.

Could could be variation to it.

And I need uh uh uh uh uh uh uh

what if what if we make a jump here to

make it interesting on that point?

D

and the fifth.

Yeah. Uh now it's still higher.

Oh, this could work as well. But I I

hear this perhaps to uh to make it

sure it work. Perhaps this it's too

jumpy for you.

Perhaps this. Oh.

Um, well, you should adapt that one,

too. Could it work?

Uh, yeah.

Actually,

maybe have the top one on that one as

well.

sounds nice. I like it. Um, different

key

makes it more happy.

What if we change that on 32? Then I

think it's perfect.

No, no, the top note is is okay for me.

That one. Yeah.

Yeah,

sounds nice. Uh, let's try a different

sound. I keep the original sound because

I like I like the sound of it.

Hey.

Hey. Hey.

Let's see if I can add a baseline to

this.

Um,

I think this is nice. That chord

progression. I don't think I'm going to

use it. It's too, I don't know, too

cheesy, too obvious or something. And

this is something exciting.

It's It's beautiful. It's ethereal. It's

Let's try a different plugin. Let's see

if I can get some inspiration there.

This is how I love to work. Throwing

ideas down, trying different things, see

what sticks.

No, I'm trying to find a cool plucked

lead or something.

That's the sound that inspires me.

Let's

see what happens if I if I play it like

dance music works a lot of times in the

key of F, F#, G, and G sharp. But feel

free to transpose all your instruments

to a different key to see if it sounds

better. First of all, it could fit the

kick better, or B, it could just make

the mood of the track better. Oh, wow.

Uh, now let's see if I have some.

I love fooling around with sounds and

I've spent days in the studio just

organizing the several libraries that I

bought.

Maybe a different synth. I'm just

looking for inspiration.

Maybe something

not from this. I love this synth as

well. We haven't even touched on this

one. basically all about finding

inspiration with the sounds that you

really like. And I'm looking for more of

a plucked sound.

This is one of my favorite

I'm going to lower the tempo a little

bit. Maybe I can think of an arpeggio,

some sort of a top melody on top of

these beautiful chords.

Plus are so great for trans music

because they have a clear attack and

they don't clog up your mix very fast

because the sounds are usually very

short. So, they're great for

arpeggiating chords.

I really like that sound.

Uh, see, it's it's the baseline is moves

before.

Okay. Well, save that one.

It's happening.

You don't like it?

I like it. I love it. Just something

wrong with the

Yeah.

timing.

I think

on 66 and a half is not on the grid.

It's late, but I like it to be honest.

But when it's off, well, this one is

off.

The other one seems to be on the

uh and also it doesn't make sense in the

if you want to have it eight,

let me see.

Does it make sense now? No, it's six.

It's very creative.

But it sounds nice.

Okay. But expect notes afterwards.

They're not in there yet. Actually, it's

the the first

uh part, I guess. Which what what would

you suggest?

The very first the one

two of them.

Yeah, just copy them.

Yeah, those two. So from 65 to 66 that

bar.

Okay. Double it.

Get rid of that sick thing.

Yeah. And then you get can make the step

to the other progression.

Uh

That's it.

I like this progression.

Doesn't bore me, does it?

No, it's not linear.

That's good. that last note that you

added.

Sometimes it can really help to produce

a nonlinear melody. For example, when

you have a chord structure going up, you

define a melody that actually goes down.

And then the second time, maybe we could

go.

Well, if if we do that progression that

we had earlier on.

Uh yeah.

Uh maybe mute this.

Kill this for a moment. I hear the

Yeah. A lot of the times working on

dance music, you'll find yourself

editing MIDI files. Finding the

shortcuts on your DAW is very essential

because this way you can work really

quick and put down your melodic ideas in

really fast

and then

stay on the same note and then go up.

Yeah, this one.

Yeah.

Maybe bit predictable but

I like it a lot. I think we're getting

somewhere.

Wow. Add add layers to it.

That's nice. That's a nice one.

Yeah.

Go on.

Go on. Go on. Go on. Go on. It

finished.

Capture recording. One of the best

functions in Logic.

There you got it. It c without pressing

record. It captures your recording. It's

magic.

So, we only need to fix that over there.

I like this.

Now you got the chair.

Fix it.

Oh, you're almost there.

It's nice, man.

Oh,

I like the this second layer coming in

there

bells. Maybe something

more.

I like this.

Should Should Should Should Should

Should Should Should Should Should
Should Should Should Should Should

Should Should Should Should Should
Should Should we do a second layer

everywhere?

Or maybe I like when it's random like

not so

Yeah. You want to keep it?

Yeah.

Well, more like

nice string back.

That's a good thing.

But I like this this nice character to

it.

And it stays on the note. That's better

for me.

Cool.

Maybe a nice bright pad to fill it up.

Old school transman.

It's coming together, right?

Yep.

So pad pad.

What's this? Let's

Oh, is is it

This is nice because it's not so linear

or keep it on the same note.

Like it.

Love it. Put a delay behind it.

Well, let's capture this recording.

Yeah, let's go.

Like this, right? Just like

but in the right key. So, we're in B

minor.

Um,

if you play it like this is pretty

erratic, but it does work in the track,

right? Um, so

mute this. See if it's

This sounds better, I guess.

Could you copy that file to this

computer?

You know you're happy with a melody when

it really does something to you and when

you want to replay the same part over

and over.

This melody is really working for me.

So, that means I'm ready for the next

thing. Producing a kick and a bass.

You have to understand you're making

dance music. So people have to be able

to dance to your tracks. So there has to

be a certain balance between the kick

and and and the bass and the rest of

what's going on in your track. To put a

long story short, if if if your kick is

not working, if your kick doesn't have

the right low end, it won't rock a crowd

and then it won't work. uh you'll you'll

find that out the hard way.

I don't think that there's a thing as

bad samples. I mean, any sample can be

turned into a good sample if you use it

in a creative and an interesting way. Uh

I've built an extensive library just so

like for example, if I'm working on a

disco track or something else I want to

do, I want to be able to have my library

ready. So, that's why let let me pull up

an empty track in this particular song.

Create a software instrument. And uh I

love the EXS 24. It's it's my go-to uh

uh plugin uh for samples, but you can

use any sampler really. It's just a

matter of building a good library. And

if I go into the EXS 24 here, you'll see

the library that we've collected over

the years. And this is years of work. Uh

it's a lot of work. Uh but it's trust

me, it's worth it. So, you see here,

this is just drum bass drum. You see how

many kicks we have? It's ridiculous.

It's really ridiculous. And you think,

why the hell would I need so many kicks?

Well, there's a very simple reason for

it. You don't know what track you're

going to end up working with. So, you

just want to have your your, you know,

your your ammo basically for when what

track you're going to work on. So, here

you look here. kicks, breakbeats, kicks,

clubby, kicks, dirty, kicks trans, uh

you know, tonal kicks, um all the

libraries and all mapped out in EXS

instruments. The reason why we do that

is because you have them instantly

available on your keyboard. So, let me

pull up.

Those are all different kick drums. And

each of these kick drums could be used

in one of my next tracks. It all depends

on the other sounds I'm using, the

baseline I'm using, the the percussion

I'm using. Sometimes you want to use a

kick that has not such a low end.

Sometimes you might want to use a kick

that has or you just roll off all the

low end and just use the top of it. And

that's the great thing about Logic. You

can easily copy the same kick drum, roll

off all the low end, and start fooling

around with another bottom or another

top if you layer it.

Everything in dance music revolves

around the kick drum. And uh I'm sure

that if in a couple of years from now

there'll be a university degree in uh uh

dance music that uh you'd have to have

an exam about the kick drum. There's so

much to say about the kick drum. Uh the

kick drum in dance music is the holy

grail. It's what keeps you um that

brings you in a state of trance.

Basically, every kick drum has a low end

and a top. And for this particular

track, um, we, uh, sampled a kick, uh,

that was basically just from a library.

Put some EQ on top of it. This is the

basic kick,

but we also added another top to it. And

the top in this case exists of uh, this

plugin.

And we roll off all the low end. So just

for the top, see around two 5k,

it's nothing but that. It just adds to

the transients. It adds to the clearness

of the kick because you want to be able

to hear the kick not only on the on the

mainfield system, but particularly on

the smaller speakers because you want

this kick to also shine through in your

mom's kitchen and in your car stereo

when you don't have that big those big

speakers with those big subwoofers. So

in this particular track, we even have

two top kicks which is also

a sample

which is basically just a high hat

as a closed high added to the kick.

Talking about using unconventional

things. So kick closed just adding that

little top on top of the kick to make

the kick shine through. So let me play

let me play the kick without the top.

And now add the top to it

makes for a whole different kick. So

just adding the top to a kick and, you

know, adding those elements to it can

just make your kick shine through a

little bit more.

You know that you're going to use a

certain key in a track, whether it's G

or C or whatever. And that particular um

uh key that you're using can be very

important in choosing your kick because

your kick also has a key. Whether it's

short or long, it doesn't matter. Your

kick has a key and your baseline. So

depending on what baseline you'll be

using, you might be want to using a

different kick. If you use a really long

kick on 138 BPM, it won't work because

the the kick is not even finished before

the next kick comes. So it becomes one

big and especially in a big room, it

won't work. So, uh, the best thing to do

is then make sure your kick's short. And

again, that's where we use LFO tool. Uh,

sometimes you want to make your kick

even shorter just to make sure it has

poof and then it's gone. Uh, so I I I

could have done that on this particular

track. Let me pull on an LFO tool and

use it in a different way than uh to

give uh space for my kick. I'm using it

the other way around to shorten my kick.

Uh, so let me see.

Let me play the kick. Solo it.

Okay, now I'm going to use it.

But sometimes you want your kick to be

really long.

Also, for an intro, for a track, it

could be very interesting to have a

filtered kick that goes more like this.

If I decide I only want to have uh the

the the top of the kick and not the low

end, I use the LFO tool to make it

shorter.

My low end is gone because I I volume

draw the the rest away and now I only

have the top kick, but I do have the low

end of a little bit of low end. So, it

could be nice. That's a way of uh of

working your kick.

So, what we've done, we've pulled up um

The Great Spirit, this track that I

previously released with uh Vinuvichi,

and it sounds something like this.

Now, I know for a fact that that track

is sounding great on a dance floor

because I played it. I see the crowd

going crazy. So, we carefully listen to

the kick and the baseline.

So you just have to use your ears and

try to find a kick drum. Uh so in a

sample library we found this kick.

This is just a sample really.

We added some EQ to it though because we

felt that around 100 Hz that original

kick I can turn it off.

But by ABing with the other track, we

felt that this was the necessary EQ

curve adding to the side trans feel of

it.

And then I found a baseline in a library

in contact which is a native instrument

uh plugin.

Here you go. It's called FLB Instrument.

Uh so let me switch off all the plugins

that we added to the sound. This was the

basic uh baseline

with the kicks. You get

still not there. So then we just started

throwing a bunch of plugins on top and

sculpting the sound color-wise more to

the the AB track, the the Great Spirit

track. So if I start adding the the

plugins one by one, you can hear that

the baseline is getting more presence,

more color.

I love this plugin by iZotope.

Adding a little bit of top layer to it

so it gets more of a fresh feel.

a little bit of distortion

using the Fat Filter Saturn plugin.

Then we use the Bark of Dog plugin uh

for a little bit of low end,

more EQing,

and then finally enough, a little bit of

reverb because we felt that the the the

sound needed a little bit of space,

more EQ.

Quite radical.

Now, quickly go back to the other track.

See, it has some sort of a same impact.

It's a different kick, different

baseline,

different key, but we have the same sort

of vibe going on. We use that track as a

reference not as not copying just use it

as a inspiration for uh this track using

different sounds different percussion

but you know using the fundamentals the

and namely the the colors of the sounds

baseline and the kick are obviously

fighting for the same frequency

spectrum. Um, so the way you give room

to a baseline is our favorite plugin and

probably used most. I I don't know why

we use it three times, but here you go.

It's a volume shaper. Basically, the LFO

tool is probably our most used plugin.

And we use it to give space to the kick.

So, if you would mute the kick drum, you

would hear.

Let's switch off the LFO tool.

See? So, basically, I'm volume ducking

uh the baseline to give room for the

kick to shine through.

And I think Beno added another LFO tool

to give some sort of a groove feel

because he felt that a sitr is all about

volume, controlling the volume. So, we

have three LFO tools running on one

baseline just to give um to give the

baseline space in the in the mix.

If I would switch them off, you'd get

this.

Doesn't sound groovy.

switching them on.

So that's it's a natural way of of of

thinking. You know, you want the

baseline to be a bit more groovy. So

instead of that D, it sounds very harsh.

You want it to sound a little bit more

groove. So you can add groove to it by

just drawing the volume basically

because it's basically a volume

automator, an enveloper, if you will.

In this particular track, I think we

have something like 15 extra drum

tracks. Again, with a Sitrans inspired

track, it's all about the kick drum and

the baseline. That's the most important.

It's just adding the the icing on the

cake, the extra drums. It gives it that

extra feel. And if you see also in the

arrangement, you can see that there's a

fill on almost every end of the bar um

to make it to give it that side feel, a

little stop that to make it a little

groovy. In this particular track,

there's a uh a female vocal going. Let

me see if I can find it.

And that's this one. And that adds just

See, it just it's just one of those

little fragments that we added and we

put it in the vocal section, but if you

play it loud, it's just it gives it that

little vibe.

It's it's very far away in the

production. It's very far. You can't

even hear it if you But if you put it on

headphones, you hear that there's all

sorts of richness going on. It's a very

it's a bouquet of all kinds of little

sounds that are running in the

background. If you if you look closely

at this track, you see that no bar is

the same. Every bar is different just to

make it a little bit more exciting

because you don't want to, you know, you

don't want to repeat yourself. So every

bar there's something else coming in or

going out or fading in or fading out.

These are not particularly drums, but

these are like little side trans

effects.

So all those little things are running

in the background, if you mix them with

everything, it just makes it sound more

expensive, if you will.

We wanted to make a track that is

sidetrans inspired. And what we hear in

a lot of side trends tracks is that

there's little fills going on, little

drums, little reversed crashes and and

little exciting effects. So while Beno

was working on the kick and the baseline

and uh arranging the song a little bit,

I opened up Ableton. So I'm I'm moving

away from Logic for the moment. And this

was actually what I was doing. I was

just throwing together a bunch of

samples. And initially that was not on

138 BPM. It was on 132 BPM because

initially we started working on 132. We

didn't even know if we wanted to make a

side trans. Initially I wanted to make a

a 132 BPM track with a side trans feel.

But we couldn't get that feel unless it

was 138 which is sort of the holy side

tempo. So I went into my libraries and

threw in random loops inspired by trans

tracks.

baseline.

Another kick. Another kick. Uh drums.

Uh just adding

light a nice kabasa loop. And I'm just

giving just making content just trying

to generate several ideas that you may

or may not use in your final

arrangement. So then at the final point

we decided to put it at 138 BPM. And the

good thing about Ableton is is that it

immediately speeds up everything.

So just throwing vocal samples in there,

little cuts, little edits.

So you hear I have all different

elements going on and these are merely

used as add-ons to the groove. So what I

do and Ableton has a great

functionality. I select all these tracks

that I want to export. I say render

export audio video and I can say here in

um

render all individual tracks. So they

give me individual samples

all rendered at 138 BPM. So if I import

them into Logic, I already know that the

tempo is okay and I use them as

inspiration. So uh if you pull up uh our

final arrangement which is here, you'll

see that we end up not using everything.

We'll use snippets of those samples in

the final arrangement. Using samples is

a great way of getting a groove to your

tracks because some samples are not

really accurate on the groove. I by rule

I really don't quantize my loops that I

put in Ableton. I just throw in loops

that have a groovy feel or add to the

groove of the track. Uh having said that

is all has to do with the groove that

you choose for your track. Um I think

the baseline is very important to that.

If the baseline has a swing feel, then

your percussion elements could add to

that groovy feel of the baseline. Again,

not a golden way. Sometimes it's great

if your percussion has a straight

quantization and your baseline has a

groovy feel, but in general, I would

like to say that we follow the groove of

the baseline with our percussion.

So, here's our here are our drums. I

already talked to you about the kick and

here's the rest of our percussion. Um,

so what is very important in in side or

at least I think it is important is the

toms, the toms, fills and everything. So

I have six tracks that include toms. Um,

some of them are samples, uh, some of

them are plugins,

but this is basically running with the

track.

different elements, different to give it

to give it that exciting vibe. So, it's

all just little snippets of those

samples I pulled up and a couple of

plugins that we have. For example,

contact has a great uh plugin called

this comes standard with uh Native

Instrument Complete, action strikes. So,

if I would play the keyboard, I get

drums,

all different kinds of toms.

And you don't need them all. You just

need a little bits and little bits of

it. And if you combine them with those

samples and I found another library in

the Nexus, which is a great uh plugin

for epic big toms 4, which is part of

the Hollywood library that you can buy.

It's a great sounding library that has

those epic big Hollywood toms.

And to make sure that it has that feel

and it's not clogging up your mix.

Again, I'm using EQ to roll off all the

low end to not fight with my kick and my

baseline. That's very, very important.

And of course, an LFO tool again to duck

the kick because the kick is the holy

grail. Cannot fight with the kick. Give

it space. So, if I play everything

together,

uh, we also have a bunch of claps going

on here. Just a little bit of rhythm.

Those are all little elements. Nothing

major. There's just

everything is ducking with another LFO

tool. I think on almost every track

there's an LFO tool, a volume shaper.

You could also use any envelope tool

that you uh want to use, but it's very

important to give your gig space. So, if

I just focus on my percussion, the

groove without uh the baseline but with

the kick,

that should already sound pretty nice.

and and then adding the baseline.

See, that's why my projects are are do

have a lot of tracks because I like to

add those samples to my productions to

give it, you know, make it sound more

luxurious. And to be honest, it never

ends. It's an ongoing process of adding

samples, little reverbs, effects, and

but all those effects, they do matter.

If they're not there, you will miss

them. Sometimes you don't even notice

it, but it's the little things that do

matter in productions like this. Every

track has different plugins on them to

enhance them and make sure they have a

place in the mix. Because the danger

with uh tracks like these, if you use

104 tracks, is that you have all these

frequencies fighting with each other. So

on almost every channel, there's an LFO

tool and there's an EQ to roll off the

frequencies that we don't need,

specifically the low end, but sometimes

also the high end. You don't want you

don't want it to sound harsh or

anything. You don't want it to sound

full. you wanted to give, you know, it

needs to have some sort of a magical

feel to it.

So, here's another track uh that I

worked on that was really big in my

sets. I co-wrote this together with Beno

and Sunnery James and Ryan Marciano. So,

for me uh the the trick is and and the g

the thing I get inspiration from is to

find a groove that I would be able to

play and they would be able to play. So,

we came up with um this groove. Let me

see if I can pull up just the groove.

What you can hear here uh and what is

very important in this particular track

is the uh the baseline that's going

underneath and uh actually all the the

top end is is filtered out and that's

what gives it the groovy feel. So, let's

just focus on the baseline for now.

So, those toms are actually the

baseline. So, in this case, there is a

baseline going, which is this one. It's

a silent, but the actual baseline is

also a tuned tom.

and they're tuned in the same key as the

rest of the track, which sort of makes

it a baseline. Who says that a baseline

always has to be a synth? It can also be

a drum, right? If it sounds good, it is

good. And then again, of course, uh LFO

tool to give the kick space. We did it

pretty radical here.

Part of the baseline is actually also in

the kick itself. The kick is just

really, really long.

And this comes from a tonal kick bank, a

tonal kick six.

And what we've done is basically put an

EQ on top of it

to make it more dark.

And with combined with the tom and the

synth, it gives it uh the kick in the

bass.

So that that is basically the groove of

your track. And then just starting a few

elements to it. There's not actually

that much going on. We have a some sort

of a snare.

And again, everything volume automated

on the kick to give the kick space to

shine through. And everything played

together without the lead yet is

you are.

You are sexy. You are sweet. You are

hot. Feel the heat. You are pretty. You

are pure. You're my kind. I want more.

You are fire. My desire. You are fine.

And you're mine. Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine.

You are sexy. You are sweet. You are

hot. Feeling heat. You are pretty. You

are pure. You're my kind. I want more.

You are fire by desire. You are fine.

And you're mine. Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine.

You are.

There's not many section in this

particular track where everything's

playing together. I think only right

before the drop and just after we have

all the percussion elements, the kick

and the baseline coming together. And

there's not that many elements that we

added to the drums. It's just basically

the baseline, the kick uh and a few of

those tribal field percussion. Actually,

I think Sunny James pro programmed the

the drums. It's a really weird kind of

loop that he added, but it adds an

element to it which gives it a a groovy

feel. I think this was his edition.

very strange kind of loop. Just rolled

off all the low end again. And

see there's an LFO tool that has a

really weird shape.

If I would switch off the LFO tool, you

hear the entire loop.

But that's too much information. It's

not groovy. So, LFO tool again used to

add a groove to the track.

It makes your head bounce. If it makes

your head bounce, it's usually a good

sign.

Drum fills are essential in electronic

dance music also to make a keep a song

exciting. And how I decide when a drum

feel is right, I don't know, every time

is different. But I do like my kick, my

baseline, and the rest of the percussion

elements to interact with each other to

tell a story. So, for example, if if

there's a fill going on, then mute your

kick. Or the other way around, you know,

uh a kick sometimes double with the

baseline can be very interesting. Uh or

or at the end of a bar, have the kick

follow the baseline or another element

from the arrangement. An interesting

thing is that we uh as a fill, we pitch

down the kick, which is something you

hear a lot in electronic dance music at

the moment. Um, so when the rap goes to

the to the highlight and your mind mine

is what he says, we decided to uh pitch

the kick down and also pitch down the

pitch down the the snare here. Here's

the kick. Here's a pitch kick and

and the snare.

So, we use this as a fill just as a

radic. I've never done it in a in a

different track this way, but for this

particular track, it just works. So, let

me play you what I mean.

So, you you hear the kick going.

It's just freaking uh with the pitch

fill. And in this particular case,

that was done with,

let me see,

I think pitchbend. We just use a

pitchbend for this. Let me pull up the

pitchbend information. There you go.

So, the kick does this as a fill.

If you just have the kick on on the four

four, it can be a bit stale, can be a

bit boring. That's why you want your

kick to play with the rest of the

elements. Sort of an interaction, sort

of a question answer kind of thing. So

the more you do that in a track, the

more uh interesting it is because it you

feel like it's not just elements stacked

on top of each other, but they're also

interacting with each other.

So, just to be clear, um, we were

working in two separate Logic projects.

Beno was working on his laptop, creating

some grooves and throwing some elements

together. I was working on the main

DAW's setup right over here. What he's

doing now, he's importing all the media

information and the instrument into my

project, the one that's running on the

DAW. So, just to see if we throw those

elements together, see if it if they

make sense.

All right. So, now it sounds like a big

mess. What are we going to do? What

would your suggestion? I would suggest

to make more of a an energetic baseline

and and kind of

if we really want to go down this route.

Yeah.

Be my guest.

Maybe mute the maybe mute the baseline

that you've got going.

Yeah, sure.

That has a different feel to it.

In the meantime, shall I get some rises

and stuff? And what would you like?

Could do.

Do you mind if I change the kick?

No, no, no, not at all. It needs to be

changed.

melodies are a bit loud as well.

Yeah, we need to I need to lower the

volume on that one because it's clogging

up the mix. Um, so that is

that sounds more decent.

So, I think we need a riff, right?

Yeah. Let's uh put an LFO tool on the

kick.

Uh so, we

I could try to to see if if I could find

a sound for it for

like a a big sound for it. Or do you

want?

Yeah, absolutely.

You can try it both ways.

We're looking for a kick drum that fits

the rest of my elements. And I feel this

is a pretty standard trans track with a

unique melody. I want to use a kick that

really works on the dance floor, has a

beautiful bottom end, but isn't fighting

with my baseline.

Also that that plug sound a little bit

muddy.

Maybe we should start working on a on a

dug kind of an arpeggiated baseline.

Yeah. With a perhaps a square like uh

kind of sound. Yeah. Solid base kind of

solid

solid base.

Solid bass like not saying like solid

bass.

Well, why not we try the new one plugin

that we just bought like this one. See,

it's got that solid base. Uh

kind of like that.

Has a solid bass feel to it. What I'm

going to do now is so

I'm trying different rhythms with my

baseline in order to give the track a

certain groove. A baseline is extremely

important, especially in combination

with your high heads and your kick. That

is your groove.

I don't know if this is particularly the

baseline sound that I'm looking for, but

I'm looking more of a

Nah,

this particular track had a lot of room

in the mid-range of the track, but

that's why I like to use the solid bass

sound. It has a nice mid going on and

you can play a really nice groove with

it.

and just go like that. Same chord

progression.

I like that baseline. By the way,

perhaps a sub just

did something in

This could easily be a vocal track. This

could go as a as an uplifting trans

track. I haven't even decided on the

tempo yet. I mean, right now it's at 132

BPM because when we started, we said I

was going to make an instrumental trans

track for my set, which I still think

could really absolutely work. But we

need to work on sculpting the sound. We

need to work on the kick. We need to

work on the baseline. Sometimes it takes

us a week, two weeks to to finish one

song. And sometimes we do five tracks in

a week. There's no golden rule for it.

Uh but every day we do something and

every day something comes out of it. And

you'll see that you will never throw

away something. Always save your ideas,

bounce it, render it, back it up, cuz

this is your your money. This is your uh

this is you.

So, I have an idea for this. I think

this would be a great way to go into the

breakdown. Um, but what if we just

have a silent moment in the breakdown

and then we have a massive pad uh

following this chord sequence but played

in a little different way. Okay, let me

show you. Um, let's grab an ES2.

Um, make sure it's a lot of polifany.

Let me see. Little D-tuning.

work. And

let's just program this. So, it's

I like that.

Um, copy those notes.

Uh,

oh, wait.

Okay. So, what you could do is copy that

other part and then follow the lines.

That makes sense.

Which one? This one.

Yeah. If you

It's two down, three down. But should we

get like another note in there to make

it more exciting?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's already in there.

I don't know about like like the way you

play it, but then it should be following

the other melody.

Yeah. Yeah. So, this is two down.

Uh,

wait. But what if we add a third note?

Um,

I like that.

Yeah. A minor.

So, basically, I'm just copying the MIDI

notation. I'm making this one bar so I

can easily see uh what I have to copy.

So, this is an octave down

and we go two octaves up, I think.

Right.

Yep.

Okay. So, it's two down.

Uh, two down.

Let me So, I can see what I'm doing.

And then that's too Sorry, that's too

Yeah.

Two up. There's one note. Um

just my luck.

Uh

uh two up.

Two up. And then Oh, oops. That's the

same note, I guess.

Uh yeah, select these notes

and then the final note is that's fine,

I guess.

Is it?

Yeah.

Wait, this

So that's a C sharp far.

That's F sharp. Yeah. Then C sharp

B.

That one was uh

So that's G B D G

B D. So the upper note I guess. Oh no.

Yeah. D

this D. So it sounds good.

Perhaps it's nice to have this note one

down.

Which one? This one.

The middle one.

So the B goes to A. Yeah. So you have a

little bit of

one. One still.

Yeah.

Really? Yeah. Now one down. Another uh

Sorry, it's actually two semmit tones.

There you go.

What if we make this?

Yesterday you had an interesting note

for that section.

Yeah, I think you have just altered this

a little bit to make it a little bit

more exciting.

Oh, and what if we go up there

and go to a C? That's a C sharp.

Yeah. And then I have a sort of a Yeah.

Okay. So, this could be So, we throw

away this

Don't need this anymore.

And then follow the line. I guess we had

some something

going on already.

Quite like this. Now speed it up to the

original tempo again.

I make it wide.

this one. It's also a nice one if you're

using unison.

So, by experience as a DJ, I know that a

trans track really works if you go to

complete silence and then all of a

sudden kick in a sound that is really

attacking.

So, that's what I'm hoping to do with

these new chords.

have a big like a big uh reverb kick and

introducing this as the as the big

payoff

that will work.

So this could be like the big drop.

But wait, we have to write the first the

second section, right? Yeah. Just fit

the to fit the pluck.

Nice.

needs to go up. It's like

Yeah.

Yeah.

To make this this section a little bit

more exciting, we can go up with these

up the melody notes.

Yeah, sure. The top notes.

Actually, it's following that line, the

top line.

Isn't that boring if we do it with this?

Well, let's see. Let's try and see.

Maybe just add it.

It's got a certain emotion to it though.

I'm wait I'm I'm missing the this

go up one note.

Yeah.

Nice.

So, sustain a note

and then go up for the final note. Hold

it. Hold it.

I think we're there.

And then

Yeah. So we go.

Nice. And we want to do the Yeah. I'll

leave this up to you.

So I want this to sound

So I want this to go after. So we have

like we have the buildup, we have the

drums, and then we have a little insert

here. And then this needs to be like da

da da da da. So it needs to be

short power,

short, big with a low with a lot of low.

So this could be the riff that we do the

drop with. Um

Sure.

So I would like to add a bass part to

this

lowest notes. There. There it is. Select

the right.

What if we try a different synth? Let's

just save this for the moment. But I

want this to be epic. Big

silent.

Yeah.

Uh, silence.

Do you want to make something from

scratch or just browse, see what

happens?

Oh, it could be cool to make something

from scratch.

Um,

so let's really use the first

uh mix and create short notes. Give it a

few voices.

Uh, let's d-tune it. Um, filter

obviously

perhaps an envelope to the filter to

make it plucky.

Or do you want it to be massive just for

impact? Right. They don't need No, we

don't need it.

So perhaps that re-trigger

is better to put it over here.

I quite like this.

It seems though that it cannot keep up

with the notes. Is that correct?

You need to up the polifany.

Yeah. Don't be afraid to experiment with

a synth in your DAW. I usually set my

synth to init mode and then try to

create a sound completely from scratch.

Just try to freak with your sounds until

you really learn the basic foundations

of your synth. Open up the filter a bit.

Nice.

Add some more elements to it.

Yeah.

Would it also be cool to to automate

that so it starts short and then opens

up with the release or something?

What if we if if we would leave it clean

but add another layer to find some

character.

How would you suggest?

Well, I like it to be honest. I what

what I would like to try is copy that

whole channel strip. We got this as a

basic sound. Uh browse through some

presets to to feel if there's something

just working.

Give it an extra touch to it. I mean,

we go the preset route.

Not not sure what what I would like to

hear, but

uh what bank would you suggest?

Uh

you made some sounds for this one as

well.

Yes.

The factory presets, right?

The artist,

you're allowed.

I'm allowed to use my own artist

presets.

Uh yeah, this one

quite big.

Heat.

Heat.

So this could be our breakdown section

when we have the beats rolling here.

Nice.

A big reverse.

Songwriting, composing is one thing.

Mixing and mastering is basically a

whole different craft. It is really

about the choices. Which elements do you

want to sound important in your mix?

Which elements do you think uh people

need to hear? Because if I would switch

off all the plugins and I just leave the

instruments there, it would sound very

messy. Um, so you use EQ, volume

automation, uh, mixing, uh, and

mastering, of course, your multiband

compression and everything on the master

bus, your limiting that those are your

tools, uh, to say to the crowd, okay,

this these are the elements I want you

to taste or these are the elements I

want you to see.

We can never mix and master at the same

day that we're arranging the track. We

always need a few days to sort of let

the track settle in. I usually love to

test it in my DJ sets for a little bit

to see if it matches the color of the

other tracks that I'm playing. We use we

want to AB it. And the good thing is is

that Beno has a studio that is similar

to mine. He has different room

characteristics. And if it sounds good

in both my and his studio, then we're

almost good to go. But you need fresh

ears for that. I really recommend

everybody that that's why making music

takes time. you sort of need to

re-evaluate everything you've done. It

it can the next morning when you wake up

a track can sound completely different

and it then you remember it because just

because you have a set of fresh ears and

that's why it's important sometimes to

put a track on the shelf for a little

bit open it a day or a week later and

then you instantly you hear oh the

kick's too loud or baseline is too loud.

The track that I want to show you uh I

want to use as um as a a guide track to

uh to tell you about mixing and

mastering is my latest single Sunny

Days. Uh all these percussion elements

are here noted in red. Again, baselines

are blue, the green are the melodic

elements that you see here, the pads,

the plugs, the piano verbs, the vocal

orange, and below you can see all the

effects are colorcoded as yellow. So you

have sort of a clear vision what's going

on. Trans music is, of all the types of

dance music, one of the hardest types of

music to mix simply because you have so

much information going on in one mix.

And to make that sound uh to make that

sound reasonably okay, uh yeah, you have

to make tough choices and you really

have to make sure that everything's at

the right place in the mix. And there's

basically two things that you can do is

use volume or equalizing.

Let me see. This kick is

ah

this kick is a a standard kick that

comes from the Vengeance Essentials

Volume 1

uh VEDM. And let me see what we've put

on there.

Uh let me put the limiter off.

See what is going on here.

So this is the the kick plain and

simple. Actually I'll switch off the

dynamic processing just for this

demonstration

because at the end we have this uh chain

of dynamic processing going on.

So that's the kick naked as it was the

original sample.

Um I love the Bark of Dog plugin. Um it

basically does a little bit the same as

as Voice of God. Uh, you can just add a

character to the low end.

Makes the kick feel more big. I know the

difference is subtle, but on a big

system, you'll definitely hear it.

And there's a limiter.

I don't even know why we use a limiter

on that. No idea.

And I guess we found uh the kick to be a

little bit too boommy. We love the low

end. Uh but there's a volume automator

lfo tool on here to make sure that the

uh kick the the top end of the kick

shines through a little bit more than

the the low end which uh usually comes

later. So let me switch the LFO tool on

and off so you can hear the difference.

I guess there was just a little bit too

much low end going on. It was fighting

with the with with the kick or whatever

or with the baseline. Let me turn on the

baseline and see if that was the case.

Could easily be.

Yeah.

See, now the kick's way too loud in

comparison to the baseline. So, I guess

that's the reason why we chose to do an

LFO tool.

Still very clearly hear the low end of

the kick, but it's farther away to give

more space for the baseline.

Particularly, what I love about this uh

remix is the baseline. Um,

this baseline consists of a very basic

sound, a a solid um solid lead u, which

you could find in old classic syn like

the Yamaha TX81Z and the solid bass. And

now you see that there's a ridiculous

amount of plugins on this uh track. And

I'll mute them just for sake of the

demonstration. And now let me play you

the baseline sound uh just solo.

That happens to be a solid bass uh

sample coming from the Avenger.

And now we start adding the juice. So I

just want the baseline to stand out. So

one by one I'll start turning on the

plugin so you can hear the difference.

Especially

this little plugin here. It's called

Voice of God. There's a couple of

plugins on the market that do a similar

sort of thing like Bark of Dog. And this

one adds a bottom end. You like uh it

basically gives the baseline more of a

low end that's not there already. So it

kind of

transposes the low end of the frequency

spectrum. So here's with

and here's without.

Now, you would think that that

difference is not that big. I don't know

what kind of speakers you're watching

this course on, but trust me, on a big

system, you will hear a difference a

lot. And then, of course, LFO tools

again, volume. We're playing with the

volume.

Again, we have three different LFO tools

on this particular baseline, and that's

all because you want to give it that

groovy feel. So, this one is just to

duck the kick. Uh, and this one is it to

give it a more of a groovy feel, so it

comes on later. It's volume automated.

And this one is Exciter by Ozone 7. It's

really great if you want to add some

sort of clearness, give your baseline

more of a presence in your mix. It

distorts the sound, but it adds

character to uh the baseline and it

enhances the the feel of the transients

for me, the the little distortion on the

top end. So, you have to be very careful

with it not to overdo it. Uh and if you

uh mix it together with the kick, it

just gives it more of a groovy feel. So,

let's turn on the kick drum as well.

That is basically the the foundation for

this track. It is that groovy feel of

that solid baseline. I know this this uh

channel strip is kind of ridiculous, but

it's it is adding to the to the sound.

Interesting to notice that I'm using a

different baseline when the uh the drop

comes. Um, I guess also because when the

the the baseline earlier on in the track

has more transients, so it would make it

probably would make it sound more messy.

That's why I guess we chose a different

baseline here, which is more filtered

and has less top end, but just a low

end. Let me mute this baseline. The

baseline that is in the final mix.

Mute it.

Let's see what happens if I play this

with the solid bass baseline.

Too much information.

Let's mute that

and go to the subbase.

See, so there's less information coming

just because we chose it to play a

different baseline there. more of a

straight uh note instead of the uh the

plucky sound.

Well, all the all the leads, they all

have a different EQ section. I don't

even know. This EQ does nothing. Just

adds a little bit to the top. Let me

see. There you go. There a nice little

bit of 5k.

And here we go. We rolled off a little

bit of the low end. And we have this

particular plugin which is an EQ plugin

sort of. Um, you have quite a few of

these plugins on the market. Um, sausage

fattener is also one of them. It's

basically a bunch of different settings.

You could call it a macro. It has

different plugins or different EQ

settings, distortion,

uh, all matched into one plugin. And in

this particular plugin, it's called the

Noval Tac character, which adds a lot of

character to the top end of a sound. And

that's only added to one of the synths

on the on the pad. Here's a sub uh

going. And here we have another lead

synth. Let me just go over

It's just a big pad. Mass massive pad.

And here's another one

that sounds like it's the same uh

silent. It's actually not. It's a

shorter version with less release

stacked on top of the other uh d-tuned a

little bit. So uh you get the image that

it's even wider. Uh the the one with

less release I would use more for the

attack of the sound and the other one

with big reverb would be for the tail.

Uh and I really want I want to hear the

attack of the sound and I want to hear

the nice reverb sort of clouding it. And

then that all goes into a bus and that

goes into um uh this channel strip that

sort of controls everything. So I also

have a volume control here to make sure

that the leads are not sort of going

over everything. Uh, and then as soon as

the kick and the baseline come in,

there's another uh top synth being added

here. Uh, so we even take a step higher.

So just if I solo the leads,

you see here.

And here's where the kick comes in.

So without the kick in the bass, you can

easily hear the volume ducking. You can

also hear that we stacked up uh another

another synthesizer plus 12. So an

octave higher. So you get even more an

even higher lift uh if the kick and the

bass come in, which make it even more

euphoric. So with the kick in the bass,

it sounds something like this.

So, one of the things you hear a lot in

trans music is reverb. Uh, you a couple

of the elements are, of course, the

melodies, the sawtooth, the big wide uh

open up synths that that really generate

that transy feel. But reverb is a very

essential thing in trans music. Um, you

have to be very careful though because

reverb can really clog up your mix. And

this is what I hear a lot in in

productions from other producers. Um,

we've got a great plugin that we love

using. It's called the Arts Acoustics uh

reverb, but a lot of reverbs have it.

But the reason why we love it is because

of the EQ section.

So, in this particular track, we always

roll off the low end of the reverb

because it can clock. It can fight with

your you really have to be wary of

anything below 300 hertz will fight with

your low end and it will make your track

not sound as you know dancy. I mean

again there's no rules in music but

take it from me it won't have an impact

on the dance floor if you have that

reverb going on really long uh the EQ uh

on the EQ section. So that's why if we

use a reverb on a sound, which is great

for an atmosphere because you hear it in

the background going sort of it really

adds excitement to the to the track. Um

my advice would really be to roll off

all the low end also on your reverbs.

Well, the most important thing about

making tracks like this is making sure

that every sound has a space in the mix.

I found this really cool pluck sound.

Let's pull it up. The pluck in this case

is is that is not really it's not really

fighting with the frequency of the

vocal. Uh it's just in a different

frequency. If I use a frequency

analyzer, maybe I can even prove it.

So here's the here's the pluck zone.

So if you look carefully, you see that

uh this particular sound is made up of

several frequencies, harmonies if you

will. And here around 500 htz the main I

would say this is the the most important

element and here around 150 htz.

Now if we put the vocal on

I'm curious to see if it's fighting in

the same frequency. Let's open a

uh analyzer on the vocal.

So I just want the plug and I just want

the lead vocal. Where is it?

shelter.

If you see the vocal of Josh, you see

that he's mainly his low end is around

200 Hz

and around 600 Hz.

The only frequency that could be

problematic is around 500 Hz, but we

clearly made the decision to put the

vocal louder than the pluck cuz the

pluck is merely an atmospheric kind of

thing.

Let's put the two EQs next to each other

so you can see.

No more butterflies. They don't never

last. Stolen from the light by demons of

the past. It's always raining.

So the peaks are not really on the same

frequency. And that's why in this

particular case, you have to be careful

of course, but in this case, it goes

okay. The pluck is not exactly on the

same frequency, but you have to be

careful because there is some overlap.

Let's talk about um the uh um the endbus

the multiband compression. Um for this

particular track um we leveled

everything.

So uh like I said before all the

individual tracks on this particular

remix on this particular version of the

sunny days track um they go to bus 31.

And there's a reason for it because bus

31 uh goes to bus 32

which is two tracks. One channel with

all the dynamic processing and

everything we want on there. Let's see

what's on this particular case. Oh,

there's um an equalizer in the ozone 4.

Uh there is a uh

uad SSL GB compressor which is an

amazing plugin. Um and here we have the

brick wall limiter.

Some hate it, some love it. Um, I mainly

use it to get stuff ready for my DJ

sets. I want my uh tracks to have the

same loves um the same volume as the

track that's before me or after me. You

know, if there's a massive volume

dropper, you can you can correct it on

the mixer when you're mixing by adding

gain to it. But that's not really

something I I want to do. I want my

tracks to have the same level. And

here's the lux meter where you can see

what the average um loudness is of your

track. Um so but what I've done for this

particular case, I put a gain behind it.

So just the volume of uh the dynamic

processing is the same as the non-dnamic

and I'm doing this so you can clearly

hear what the multiband compression is

adding uh to this particular uh club

mix. So this is with dynamic processing.

Sunny days

now

without dynamic processing.

This is with

without

days.

So, in the dynamic bus, you can hear

that uh it's gluing the sounds together.

It's bringing out certain frequencies.

Um but also, it's killing a little bit

uh the the transients uh the the

difference in volume between the certain

sounds. Uh some of the uh the plugins,

they're upping the volume a little bit

of of the sounds that are a little

further behind in the mix. So, what I've

done for my uh big shows that I've done

um specifically for those big shows,

I've rendered a lot of my masters again

uh without dynamic processing or at

least uh a lot softer uh just because I

know for a fact that on a massive sound

system uh your transients will shine

through if you don't have that multiband

compression on the end. And the impact

of your sounds is just way uh is way

bigger.

So, the trick with mastering is you want

your track to sound as loud as possible

without distorting. Um, unfortunately,

it's a trend that a lot of the stuff

that's being released commercially right

now is clipping or close to clipping.

It's even a sound characteristic of the

time of now. You know, the louder my

track is, I want everybody to hear my my

music and all the elements. So, you're

close to distorting. And a good

mastering engineer can help you to

determine where that point is because no

matter what you're doing, if you're

limiting and you're upping the volume,

your sounds are going to clip, whether

it's you can't, you know, but it's a

matter of where do you hear it and where

do you where you don't and it's all has

to do with personal preference. the

older I get and the more tracks that I

finished, uh, the more I hate that sound

of digital clipping because basically

that's what you're doing. But, you know,

it's a it's a tough battle because if

you're on a big festival and the DJ

before you is playing really loud and

banging music and you start your first

track, you don't want there to be a

massive volume difference or a perceived

volume difference by the crowd. So, you

are in this loudness war whether you

like it or not. if you choose that your

set needs to have the same impact as the

DJ before you or after you. So, uh it's

a lengthy discussion, but let's up the

uh input gain on the visual limiter. Uh

you can see the the lux meter here, and

you can decide when you think uh the

track's distorting or not.

Heat. Heat.

Sunny days

break

it off

days louder distorting a little but I

find it acceptable.

Here's one more trick to show you the

difference between distorting and no

dynamic processing. So let me distort

it.

And now let's do the volume the same.

I'm clearly distorted.

But the no dynamic processing bus sounds

a bit boring. I like it better without

dynamic processing because I can carry

the elements more clear, but it does not

have that impact. You know, it's not

loud basically. Um, yeah, there's a

whole debate about invisible limiters.

I'm not a big fan to be honest. I I

prefer just my mix to be very good and

my kicks and stuff to shine through.

Also, your ears get uh less tired. Uh,

you know, you get really tired if you

listen to limited and compressed uh

music all the time. Uh, I prefer to

listen to music that is uh that has a

little bit of space to breathe, but it's

the it's the battle you're fighting if

you're a DJ right now. I mean, of

course, you can go against the grain and

say, I'm just going to play unlimited

tracks and everything minus 12 ls and

just have my tracks, you know, that's

why I really like live sets, artists

that are doing live sets on stage

because usually their their mixes sound

more clear because they don't have the

limiting.

It's it's a long it's a long discussion.

Generally speaking, when I'm working on

on on dance music, we don't work that

loud

because uh there's a very simple trick

to knowing if all the elements uh are

working well in your mix is if you work

on a really soft volume, you have to be

able to hear every element that is in

the mix. uh even on small speakers. So,

if you can't hear that element, you

really have to turn it up, then probably

the element's too soft in the mix. For

example, if I listen to this vocal and I

uh put the the small monitors on,

I put the volume, really soft.

What am I hearing right now?

What am I hearing?

I can hear the vocal. I can hear what

he's singing.

I hear the clap. I hear the kick. I hear

the baseline.

So, I'm good.

And

sometimes that's really hard to judge if

your speakers are too loud.

Right. Let's see what we're having here

mix wise because now we're coming in

phase two. Shall I just make it sound a

little bit coherent?

Yeah, let's let's

d on the on the mat. Are we all going or

are we going to stereo out? Ooh, that's

wrong.

Oh, yeah. Let's Let's fix that for now.

Everything,

right? So, first let let's decide what

we're going to throw away because that

that makes a lot more sense. Is is what

are we going to use from this?

I think we're going to use the baseline

cuz we we already That's a baseline. We

need to clean that up as well.

Which one? This

uh instrument 27. That's the baseline.

You need to copy that over actually.

That's solid, right?

Yeah.

The event.

Let's Let's clean up the project a bit

so we have more sort of an overview,

right?

A bit of the tedious uh part of uh

making a new track.

But you'll be so happy that when you've

cleaned it up, it's so much more easy to

to review your choices and go back. And

you know, when you start working on

another track and you open this project

again with fresh ears, then immediately

you see, oh, here's my kick, here's my

bass, here's my baseline. So perhaps now

is a good moment to

see

what we can do with the levels because

this is sounding quite okay.

So, I cut just a little bit of this low

end here.

Give it a little bit more room, but

might be too much. We'll see that later.

All right.

So, the kick is not really that powerful

here. Was like a headroom of like 12 dBs

or something.

And if we go to

first I need to reroute all these

elements which are not going to this bus

and we use mute this part you will still

see output that's not what we want.

So select all

parts and route it to the bus. You can

see where it's going to. This real handy

new feature in Ableton. Uh, sorry,

Logic.

All right.

So, everything should be going to that

bus. Yeah. Now, we're going to

try to do something from scratch here.

So, for example, Fat Filter is a great

one. Uh let's try to use u

uh multibond compression here. Um I'll

start for just trying to look something

more punchy.

So let's add some compression to it.

Here you can see what it's actually

doing. It's suppressing

uh when the kick comes in. And that's

what I'm after right now. A little bit

more attack perhaps. Not sure at this

stage,

but I always like to see this going to

zero dB. So you can easily AB without

having the levels too much out of

control. So let's add another one

for example to like this.

With all those different elements in

your mix that are going on, you want to

make sure that it sounds like it's one

track. Everything has to glue together.

And that's why we love using any

compressor that involves a pump sound.

With a pump sound, we mean a quick

attack so you can hear the transient of

the kick. So, it's really getting a

little bit of glue already, but I want

to see where my levels are at. So, let

me add u

um a level meter to it.

So, we're like minus 15, which is kind

of okay. If I unmute it, bypass it.

We're we're kind of like the same level.

So,

perceive loudness is is getting better

though.

Right, let's try some other glue.

So, what I would like to do is give a

little bit more pump.

And what I always like to do is just

crank up the

um threshold here. So, you see it

pumping right now

on the endus. I like long attacks so

that you get first it when the first

sound hits the compressor, it needs a

time to adapt and that's what this is

going to do. If I put it really short,

it's re reacting right away, which is

not what I want. I want pump. So doing

something like this release. Can we go

back?

So now you see that it's pumping and I

can adapt a little bit of the gain to

make it up for the gain reduction.

So you can hear a little bit of uh

attacks coming in.

It's subtle, but with the with with this

one as well on this is it's heading up

to it. Um,

let's do uh

invisible limiter to it. See if we can

get it to levels that are really loud.

If if it works when it's really loud,

then probably the mix is already in a

good sort of state.

See what happens. So, what I would

usually do is keep keep this on zero dB

and just crank it up here.

So, this is already pretty loud.

Normally I I would like minus 7, but if

you would really have it be forward low,

so to say, you could go to minus 5

perhaps,

but it's already getting distorted. So

I'll leave it up for

this point.

And the easy part of this is it I can

mute it and then it's not doing anything

this limiter. Let's put up the

oversampling. Makes it a little bit

better.

Now what I would like to do is see what

have we done to the signal. So

this is without dynamics. This is with

dynamics.

That's a little bit too. Let's see what

the level meter has to say about it.

Can we see that here? Put up another

one.

Compare the two.

Well, they're pretty the same loudness

range. So

this actually what I would like. So now

I have cranked it up. Um it's actually

sound a little bit better. Perhaps not

at the state what I would like for the

end result, but for now it's quite okay.

Right.

So if if I would render this this this

this kind of thing here right now, I

would be at minus 7, which is kind of

okay.

Right. So as far as I'm concerned, we've

cleaned it up quite a bit.

Let's see what we can do with this

stuff. But

I'm going to throw it all away and see

if he complains.

Um, this might be a okay one though. I

want to check it out.

See what is this. Ah, yeah. Glad I

checked because this one is actually the

one that I personally liked as well.

Way too loud.

So, I I hear some frequency which is

really annoying me at this stage. It's

coming into my ear too much.

This is always a a region which is a bit

problematic, but

can clog up your mix if you're not

really pay attention to it.

Right,

let's color code some more. And I think

I would be ready for for Armen to have

some new loops introduced to it.

See what is this?

Also, when I hear this sound on its own,

I think I feel it's it's a bit muddy,

though. So, let's see if we can just

polish it a little bit more.

Seems a bit radical though, but most of

the time this helps to to let the track

breathe. If if you hear it on its own

and if if we should decide to put it

here and as a solo part, then you might

want to to put it back in. But let's see

what happens if I would do this and

put beats to it.

So it's it's making it a little thinner

perhaps. Sometimes it's can be

uh how do you say it?

something that that that it feels like

you shouldn't do this, but most of the

times, you know, it's good in the end.

Let's leave it for now.

Actually, I'm I'm missing it right now.

Let's put it back on.

All right.

So, another nice feature of Logic is

that you can uh make your markers here.

So, you can quickly see where you're at.

Uh right now, we probably would do a

break. Well, let's put it here for now

and see what happens.

Farming comes in.

See if we can get some transients going

on here just to give them a little bit

more space. Not sure if it's in there,

but let's see. So, what what you could

do is

muting the auto gain here. So what you

see is if you if if if you uh turn this

knob the threshold the the level

reduction is going well quite radical.

A longer attack time might introduce

more transients.

There's not really a rule for it. It's

better just to uh to do it by air.

So, let's see what what we've done.

It's always good to have the the makeup

gain

um

adjust it in a way that if you mute it

that you have the same level so you

actually know what you're doing because

louder is always better perceived but

it's not always better. This is the way

to be absolutely sure.

I like this better. I'm going to try an

extreme setting with another one. Going

to use the

VCS for that one.

VSC, I'm sorry.

Crank it up at extreme settings. Let's

see what what happens.

Uh

nice feature of this is that you

instantly hear the the the reverbs and

the delays

coming more to the front.

Can use a little bit of makeup here

to match up for the level.

Not sure if this makes it better

actually.

No, let's

let's keep it like it is.

Would like to try something with this

syn here. Heat.

Cool.

Let's put in another pad to it

or sub.

Let's get a baseline. Just copy it.

I personally like Logic for the way you

can edit the the note length, these kind

of things.

If you like FL Studio or Ableton better,

why not?

So, I want to make them uh legato.

There's a nice function for it.

I can find it.

There it is.

So, let's convert this to something like

a pad. A little bit of voices there.

teach you a little bit.

Filter it.

It's mainly for atmosphere.

You instantly miss it. Or I do at least

when I mute it.

Make it more messive.

Let's run this track and let's go over a

few of the elements. I'll talk you

through it. So again, uh we'll start

with the intro of Be in the Moment.

So what you hear there is a couple of

elements uh specifically the kick that

I'm using later on, but it's on a

separate channel uh just to be able to

uh give it a different volume. Uh in the

beginning, I don't want the kick to be

as hard. Uh you want to make sure that

when the kick really enters the track

here, uh that it's loud. This is has to

be one of the possible loudest moments

in the track. So the kick here doesn't

need to be that loud. So in this

particular track, we um we put the kick

minus 4.7 dB. So it's not that loud yet

because you the moment kick and the

baseline come in, you want to really

slap you in the face. And that's why I

chose to copy the track and put it on a

different track, different channel.

Get rid of that.

Here's an interesting thing that we've

done.

We've bounced the kick and the bass that

are coming later as a separate audio

file. And all we've done is put a a

highp pass filter on it and we're sort

of filtering that in.

Not at full volume yet, but you're

teasing with the kick and the bass that

are coming.

That's a kick bas.

There it goes again.

Boom.

You want to be able to when that kicks

in, you want everybody to go, "Whoa,

what happened there

and then carefully adding all the other

elements, including little fills that

you have.

Here they comes

reverse baseline

clap." And here come more elements of

the percussion

side trans elements

sometimes

gives room for other things to shine

through stops continues again

the pads are ready with the breakdown

coming through

and here come the st

in the moment.

It's a breakdown. So, this is where the

euphoria comes.

This is a cello. That's basically a

standard uh contact library

procession strings

and then adding elements to it.

But there's a big path coming underneath

it. It's pretty it's pretty cool to

listen to this because you want to

create a more of a dramatic breakdown.

So here's all kinds of synthy elements

that that we've added. So there's a

couple of pads coming but they're all

moving. So, uh, either they're volume

automated or, uh, we roll off the low

end that's sort of introducing itself.

You don't want it to sound like, oh, you

know, somebody's turning on a pad. No,

you want it to sort of gradually come

in, tell a story, if you will. So, if

you listen to the individual elements,

for example, a pad that's going here,

another pad underneath it, a subpad,

which is basically just a silent synth

playing one note, uh, adding to the

baseline of a track. It's a sine wave.

Adding another pad and then violin

violin harmony

and then a choir sample which is

something I really love. One of my

favorite plugins is the Omnosphere. What

a great plugin that is. It's a choir

women's swell.

Let me open that up.

And you can see that we've only decided

to introduce the choir

uh later and not all the notes. Some of

the nodes are muted just to give it um

that feel. Uh let me see if I can pull

up the general pressure. No node

velocity.

How did we automate this? Let me see.

Uh choir.

Here we go.

So here you can see the choir pad coming

in and we basically draw volume

automation on a separate gain that gives

it that dramatic feel because the choir

is coming in later and it it adds to the

the epicness of the track. So if I would

solo the choir,

you don't hear it here because there no

there are not no notes being played very

quietly. It's coming in

that makes a dramatic ending of the pad

right before we introduce the big theme

of the song. And there's also some horns

going on. Everything is layered to give

it more of a classy feel, more of an

expensive feel. So the horns go

Let me see where they are.

It's only that little element that we

used on that particular track. Uh so

that's why we introduced that whole

sampler sampler the nexus just for that

particular section. But if you play

everything together, it gives it that

dramatic feel.

Now it comes the payoff.

I want to be in that moment.

So

Heat

up

here.

Now that is a dramatic change in the

track. All of a sudden you come to a

section that you completely don't expect

at least uh in a trans track like this.

It has a triplet feel. Uh we

reprogrammed the baseline on a triplet

uh quantization.

um you normally would expect maybe in a

trans track for the uh for the lead to

be the big payoff. Not in this

particular track. You just want to

surprise people by giving something

completely different. So we switch to a

triple feel. That also means that we

have to reprogram all our drums to the

triplet feel which makes it a different

track, a different it's also almost like

a completely different track starting

right here. completely new elements

adding to the song including uh marcato

violin strings that are coming later in

the section. And uh what we've done

which I think is really cool about this

track is the the main melody. Let me

play that one more time for you so you

recognize it. The main melody that make

the main payoff is is this one.

That's your lead. And in a triplet feel,

you want to be able to still recognize

that that was the lead that you were

that you were playing with. But because

we go to triplets, you have to rewrite

the melody, but still it has to have a

reference to the original melody that

was in the breakdown. So this is how we

chose to uh rewrite the melody.

So you hear the difference, but it is

still the same chord progression and

still the same melody just played in a

different way. and then add it on top of

the triplet baseline.

Toms are getting bigger and bigger.

Going back to 44.

So, this would be the section where the

DJ could mix in the next track because

we go back to 44. We don't have the

triplet signing, but uh we think it's a

pretty dramatic track and I really love

it and it really worked well on a dance

floor. It's really a track that I

wouldn't have made four years ago. It's

also a little bit based on on the sound

that's going on right now and and what's

happening on dance floors right now

worldwide.

Trans music is all about release. It's

about energy. It's about emotion. And

you can bring that out by arranging it

carefully. So, obviously, you have

dynamic moments. You have breakdowns.

And you have big drops. It's like a

wave, you know, uh you're a surfer.

You're waiting for the next wave. And

when the wave comes, that's the drop.

It's the kick in the bass. You want to

be on your board. and the wave needs to

take you to the to the to the beach.

A lot of my tracks start with a a

filtered kick just so when the the first

time that I'm mixing in a track um the

kick and the baseline really hit it. So,

for example, on this particular club mix

of Sunny Days, you can see that I

basically copied the the kick. It's the

same kick track except for the fact that

I don't have that big low end going on

that the bark of duck plugin is giving

me. Um, and I rolled off a little bit of

the low end.

So, you can see uh everything below 95

hertz, something like that. Uh, and

basically I've done that. I could have

automated that on the same kick track,

but it's just easier to also to see for

yourself like, okay, kick intro. I named

the track kick intro. So, and also what

I've done, I've done a volume automation

uh right before the drop. You can barely

hear it. It's still almost 4 dB that I

roll off right before the kick and the

bass hit. Uh so, what that does is this

volume goes down subtly. The kick is

filtered.

softer, softer.

So, when you're mixing in the club mix

of Sunny Days coming out of another

track, you can use that uh little trick

to really uh announce the fact that

you're bringing in another record.

you want people to sort of recognize uh

a song and there's several uh hints you

can use by already teasing what's going

to happen in the breakdown or or the big

uh chord progression. In this case, I'm

introducing the pluck sound uh to

announce the chord progression right

before the drop. This is where the big

drop is. And um in this particular case,

I'm already teasing with the chord

progression uh that's going to happen

here in the big breakdown, but I'm not

introducing the plugs and the pads yet.

It's just a baseline that's following

the chord progression. So, what makes

this track interesting to me is that the

chord progression is already going on

before we go into the breakdown and then

we introduce the melody only in the

breakdown and we have the big payoff

with the melody coming. It's not a a

standard way of working, but a lot of

trans tracks traditionally have the big

drop, the big melody, and the core

progression going when the kick and the

bass hits back on the drop. Uh, that's

not a standard thing because now there's

a lot of trans tracks that uh have a a

lot less uh a lot more minimal approach

to to things uh like the be in the

moment track uh that has a completely

different drop than this particular

song. This is more of a classic trans

structure, if you will, because it

really pays off with the full melody in

the drop.

In the breakdown, um, I'm doing

something that is for me really

essential to have a big impact on your

first big drop, the big payoff moment.

You know, when you're standing on your

surfboard going to the beach, you know,

you're that's the highlight of your

track. So again, what I've done on my um

uh pre-dynnamic master bus, so before

that goes into the dynamic compression

is I've done a gain automation again. So

right before the drop and my tracks uh

3dbs

softer and that makes it for a little

volume ramp makes it for a little harder

impact of your kick and bass. So you

really have a drop as we call it. Uh the

most important part right before the

drop are obviously the leads, the

synths. Um I'm coming out of a beautiful

section in the song where I' where I'm

introducing the chord progression. Um we

want to use something to introduce the

fact that we're going to bring a really

big drop. For this particular

arrangement, I chose to arrange my track

such that I I'm just all the all I'm

doing is I'm repeating the last chord

and it builds some sort of an exciting

tension. So all I'm doing is basically

grabbing the last chord of that chord

progression and looping it.

So the chord progression, let me uh pick

out one particular sound.

The chord progression is this.

That is the melody. This is one part of

the layer of the leads, the big stack of

leads. I want to play you this because

now you can hear clearly here that I'm

holding the last chord or the first

chord actually.

So I'm not giving away all the chords

yet because as soon as I release and I

have the drop, that's when I the big

payoff comes and that's when we have the

chord progression again. So to build

that tension, I looped the first uh part

of my chord progression and it gives a

certain tension. Uh so if I stack that,

it just you're like, "Okay, I want to

hear the chord progression again. I want

to hear the chord progression again."

But that comes at the same time the kick

and the baseline hits. So that's an

arrangement trick to build some sort of

tension and tell people, "Okay, guys,

it's coming. It's coming. It's coming."

You can't play a kick uh for three hours

straight in a transet, you know, because

then you can't give melody space to

breathe, but you can still say to the

person that's dancing on a dance floor,

hey, here's the beat. You don't hear the

kick now, but you know where it is,

right? And you hear something. So, uh

that's also the reason why in this

particular track, uh we have the pluck

sound in the break because it still has

a rhythmic element. So, if I would

switch off the vocal,

everybody knows where the kick is. So,

if for example, if if this would be an

instrumental track that I would play in

my set, a thing that I could do as a DJ,

you start to clap. So, people know,

okay, here's the beat.

Oh, clap. Rhythmic element.

So that's the beauty of of electronic

dance music. There's always something

that guides you home. That's the

pulsating beat. It's the heart. It's

it's the beat that takes you home. It's

always there. Sometimes you don't hear

it, but it's always coming back.

Another really important trick that I

use a lot on my leads and all the

elements is that I roll off all the low

end and uh and also volume automation.

So now let me play you the drop without

the volume automation and tell me if you

think that the track has just as much

impact.

So here you see my some leads. So this

is the bus where all my leads go

through. I'm going to mute the uh the

channel strip here that says uh ch uh

equalizing. And here's a gain

automation. I'm going to turn it off

just for the moment. Also, I'm going to

mute

my volume imp my volume automation here

on the bus. So, the volume will now stay

at the same level. And you can hear that

it will have less impact on the drop.

Listen.

still sounds okay. It's just there's not

much of a volume difference between uh

what goes on before the drop and after.

Now, let me switch on the automation.

Let me switch on those plugins. Gain

automation. Same part, but now with the

automation.

Sunday.

So that's how you build a drop. You have

a release moment and you use your

automation. You have to carefully use

your automation to really impact. The

only sound that I uh don't automate uh

obviously is the snare. The snare fill

goes here. And I've decided not to roll

off low end just because I want to have

the drama of just the snare being the

only sound that's there announcing the

big drop.

When I'm making a club mix,

traditionally, I hope that other DJs

will pick it up and want to integrate it

into their set because if that happens,

they're playing a radio friendly song in

a club mix and and people will

automatically recognize the song, which

would be great. So, I'm not trying to

make it over complicated with really

weird beat structures, you know? I don't

want to do uh seven and a half bars of

intro or something weird, you know, cuz

I can do if you want to be if you want

to be that that person. I mean, there's

there's DJs out there that have really

weird structures or use really weird

BPMs, but I make this track in the hope

that I can play it in my sets and people

will enjoy it and that other DJs pick it

up as well. So, I don't want to make the

structure of the song too difficult.

Having said that, you don't want to be

boring and too predictable. So, that's

why you try to introduce new and

refreshing elements to every remix or

every song that I do. So, this would be

the intro, the intro of the song. Um,

this would be traditionally the point

where I'm starting to mix in uh the

song. So, this would mean another

track's playing before this one and I

would start this at an appropriate uh

time when the other song is still

playing. So, you wouldn't necessarily

hear this section. It's only for the DJ

to get ready.

Probably at this point, you would start

to hear the first elements of this song

when the DJ is mixing in this track.

That's why I'm carefully introducing the

baseline. There's the snare feel coming.

So, I hope that the DJ is now fading out

the other track already. Maybe uh fading

out the bass a little bit, introducing

the low end of this track. And at this

point, I hope that the track is solo.

And here's where you introduce the track

to the crowd. They hear a funky

baseline. It takes some time for people

to get used to the baseline. You don't

want to introduce all the elements at

once.

And here we go with the vocal. She woke

up in the morning.

Now people start to recognize

classic structure where we first have

the first verse.

Second part is

the drum just baseline. What you hear

also is that the baseline is uh

it's straight. It's is still at a

straight U thing. It stays on the same

uh on the same chord.

So, it has more of a tough feel.

This is actually a funny element to see.

Um,

in dance music, it is more cool to have

a straight baseline. If it follows the

core progression, it's usually a little

bit melodramatic, and you want to sort

of try to to do that as late as

possible. So what I'm doing here, the

chorus is already happening, but the

baseline stays on the same note, which

introduces something exciting because

you know the melody is coming, but it's

not yet there. So listen to this. We

have the chorus vocal of Sunny Days, but

the baseline stays basically on the same

note. And then in the next bar, the

baseline goes down, which gives it more

of a high

Sunny days.

Same base.

Baseline goes down.

You're already teasing with the chord

progression that's coming without giving

away the top melody.

the flux. You can hear the flux already

coming in.

We're filtering in the flux.

We're setting you up for the breakout.

Some vocal effects going on to create an

atmosphere, a nice move.

And now the second verse comes on the

core progression.

All she needs is shelter.

But we're not introducing the full

everything yet. We're sort of fading it

in.

Little rhythmic elements of people still

need to remind them where the beat is. I

wanted people not to lose themselves.

The beat is your guide.

Stolen

by demons of the past. It's always

raining.

She keeps on praying.

Here

we go.

Already changing with the pads, the big

breakdown pads that are coming, but

they're filtered. They're far away. Here

they're coming.

And now open.

So it's really adding layer on top layer

on top of layer trying to tell a story

really impact the song. Looping the

first chord

attention

filtering out the low end leaving a

snare. Little riser going on.

Impact

and we're home.

Different baseline.

Stays on the same note.

Not a solid base like in the beginning.

Give space to the to the staffs.

And one more time, of course.

Adding some rhythmical elements to this.

Highs,

right?

One more time.

She keeps

again on the first chord. Looping back

to create tension. She's telling the

crowds. The baseline's coming back.

So now you're setting up for the DJ to

mix in the next track.

This will be a point where you can start

your next track.

This is a nice point to introduce the

next song.

So, this is normally what we do. We uh

sit here, everybody's in their own

comfort zone, and then I play to Beno

what I think would be cool for the to

add to this track.

Curious, man. Bring it on.

So, yeah, this is everything together.

Yeah, sounds great.

So, I have 15 uh tracks. They're all in

the same BPM. And I'm going to select

all these tracks.

I'm going to export these

Sounds like a hole kick.

It's a reverse clap.

Nice

noise effects. No noise. Fill household.

Huh? Household white noise.

I'll put it in

white noise.

Right. Next.

Crash. Crash.

I know it's a bit out of key, but I

thought it could be cool if you roll off

the low end, make it sound a bit more

technical.

Let's do right away.

You want to to have the top end then?

Yeah. Like the bleepy kind of a What?

What about a little room to it? Yeah.

Sounds okay for now, right? How do you

call it?

Uh loop um

hiq.

Hiq.

Yeah. Uh effects

closed hats.

Sort of a cowbell thing, right?

Yeah. Just roll up the low end. I think

it might clog up the mix too much if we

maybe put an LFO on it to give it more

groove or something.

What if he instead of do a quarter note

standard kind of LFO feel to thing like

this, what if he would do it like this?

Would that help? Yeah,

definitely add to the groove to make it

a little bit more different dynamically.

Okay, so this is actually a loop, right?

Cowbellish, I don't know. Yep.

These are all.

So what's next?

Another closed.

Yeah, some different groove elements.

Let's rename this in the same way then.

Tedious, but it's handy.

So this is the vocal effects, right?

Yeah. You need to put a reverb behind

it.

Roll off the low end. Just

one

long short. What do you have in mind?

Doesn't need to be loud in the mix. It's

just something extra to add to the

like this. Yeah. Beautiful.

Um, so it's more of an atmosphere,

right?

Right.

Do we need risers or shall we just see

what happens if we put it in and then uh

go from there?

Yeah, let's see if we can build.

Perhaps it's a good idea if you, you

know, build a basic structure for it.

Yeah.

Let me put this in the in place first.

Let me rename them. Name the parts.

There you go.

So, we have some more overview, right?

This loop is way too loud.

Still a little bit of low end.

You think should be maybe put a weird

panner effect on it or something

like that.

First I would like to

panner. Sure. Which is suggestions for

it.

Phase mistress

tremolo.

Just logic kind of logic. Uh

modulation.

You want it fast or just

Uh, you can adjust the symmetry perhaps.

No, I would like to. Well, sure.

This is what you what you kind of want.

Yeah,

it's moving a little bit in stereo.

So, this is actually Do we have a an

open high? A real open open like high.

That's open random. No, like this. This

is one of the things that's really

really come in handy. If you have your

library standby, you can just

pull up a nice open hide if you need

one. This

just play one. It's fine,

right?

What's he doing there? Did something

wrong, I guess.

I don't know if I like the tone of it,

right? Shall we repitch it or do you

want another one?

Another one

better. Yeah, a softer a lot softer in

mix.

Really?

Yeah.

Okay. Perhaps a little bit of

compression to have the kind of a

just a little bit and I think I'm good

to go.

Just a quick one. see if it helps.

The reason we're using this thinner high

hat is because the other one was

clashing a little bit with the

frequencies of the other sounds that

were going on. Well, it works for me

right now.

Um,

cool.

So, I'm going to start arranging this a

little bit. Uh, so the melodies, love

them. They're all fantastic. But at this

point, I want to mute them.

Um, so here's a solid baseline. Um,

we've already constructed the melody. So

now I want to use that as an intro. So

this is the key that the track's going

to be in. I want to mute this or maybe

just actually just use the first section

of that loop

and then just loop it. So,

when I'm arranging a track like this, I

usually think of the DJ that's mixing in

this song. So, you want to start teasing

with elements of the breakdown, but you

don't want to give away the entire

melody yet.

And then maybe add some of these

elements.

So this could be the baseline when the

track starts and add add this have some

close high hats going on maybe I don't

know

do do we might need some some stuff like

this like with a you know reverb on it.

Yeah, could be could cool. Could be

cool. Just a little thing.

And there's this one pad that I

absolutely love. Uh maybe we could use

that as an effect almost in the intro.

That one.

Uh if you just uh we're going to use

that as some sort of an introduction.

Every few bars. I'm going to introduce

that

And we have a little effect going on

here.

I think atmosphere is extremely

important in a trans track. That's why

we're using all these effects elements.

They're making the track sound a little

bit more exciting than just the kick and

the bass.

I like that. But maybe that should be

some sort of an introduction. So, we

move the kick here a little bit to give

it some space. Maybe a fill here to

introduce when the melodies are coming

in. That should be here.

And then

I'm going to copy this entire section.

That's what I love about Logic. You can

say uh repeat section

because I don't want everything to go on

at the same time.

Um I want to introduce it more. So, here

is an arp. I like this one.

I actually like that. That could be a

great thing to sort of start teasing

with the melody. So, if I'm going to

kill this, I'm going to just loop it and

maybe introduce it here with a filter.

Sorry. Make sure the loop's tight

here. Yeah. And then I want to my

beautiful arpeggio is here.

The low end should all I think we should

keep the low end uh only for here. So

maybe if I want to use this I'm just

going to use the top. I'm not going to

use the the low end. I'm I'm going to

save that meaty for when the drop comes.

So, if you ask me, kill this.

I like that. Uh, sort of building up.

And then

I don't know, maybe introduce that one

here. Mute that.

Heat. Heat.

I was mentioning that. Um, are you still

on the No, you're not under the

Yeah. into the breakdown now.

Yeah. Yeah. Sorry.

So, going here.

I like the tension of that one note.

Yeah, I like it. And I need to and I

want to sort of introduce this but with

really low filters.

Um,

I also put an extra pad to it.

Maybe even if we filter this and

automate that.

Oh yeah,

it will already bring out the melody and

the beauty of what's coming in just a

little bit. Um, so I'm going to leave

this till the big payoff.

Um,

arpeggio to here. And then, so this is

my breakdown. We're going into the

breakdown here, but I want the arpeggio

already to come in.

Um,

and I want that to continue maybe one

more time. So, I'm going to repeat this

section in the arrangement. Just copy it

over and then automate the highpass

filter.

Uh, and it's really coming from nowhere.

And it opens up till here.

And then maybe mute the low notes at the

end here.

We create some extra tension.

And

and here's where everything comes in.

This is where your breakdown will be.

Uh, let me see. Reverse noise could go

here.

The whole kick could go here. And um

where's the crash

fill

crash? The muted part clap. This one is

muted. Okay, it's muted. Okay, we put it

there.

Heat. Heat.

So, I'm using several effects elements

to make the drop sound more dramatic and

also to warn people something big is

coming.

can wait for that a little bit. So, this

is could be could be a nice arrangement

for the for the breakdown. So,

um just have to build this more, put

some pads underneath it, make this

bigger, and this really needs to kick

in. So, we also need to volume automate

this entire section to make sure that

this is really going to be the drop.

should also mix that FX part a little

bit. They're quite loud.

Yeah. Not sure which ones, but this is

okay.

Yeah, that reverse noise

really loud. off.

That one too.

So, there's an LFO tool on it right now.

Yeah, R's killer,

which is nice.

It needs to be a bit That needs to be a

bit bigger then, though. Needs to be a

bit more

I don't know. But so far, I like it. I

like the intro. Um,

bass seems a bit boommy though, huh?

Just a little bit.

We can look into that later.

Maybe the baseline can already move

here. I don't know.

and we LFO tool the baseline already.

We did right.

Yeah, it's better

softer than L.

This one just a little bit. Yeah.

audio effect.

Thank you.

I think we should already introduce the

arp here uh that we that I just

automated into the breakdown.

Uh but only the top notes, only the

melody, but then filtered. So we can

already introduce what's coming up. So

it's

this one needs it needs to be sing any

elements to this stage that I

I've made a riser.

Yeah, a riser. We need to go for the

drop now. And this needs to sound this

is not to my I mean I like the chord

progression. I don't like the the sauce

that we use. We need to make that

bigger. We need to look into different

layering of the the staffs we got going

on there.

So,

Beno has in a different Logic project um

made a riser uh which could be really

great for when we go into the uh the

main lead or uh right before the drop.

So, first of all, I want to make sure

that this is going this is going to

stereo out, and we don't want that. We

don't we want it to go above bus 30.

And this goes to bus 30 as well.

Uh, so obviously it's in the wrong

location. So, I need to put it here.

And so, this is actually an effects.

Is this an effects?

Yeah, you could use it.

Effects for synth. And this is FX riser.

You can use it when the beats are

rolling.

Okay, it's just a Furby synth. And I

just want to color code it and name it

yellow.

And here is a functionality name and

color.

Uh name regions by tracks. So now I know

that it's an effect.

Uh so let me see.

Also, what I've done, I've uh added uh a

track of mine, an older track of mine

that has a massive drop almost similar

to what we want to create with this

particular song. Uh it's called a track

called Jon Vita.

And let me quickly play you that. It's

not too loud.

So that would be my idea for the the

lead. That's kind of the lead that I'm

looking for. Obviously the chords are

different. But that's kind of the sound

I'm looking for that, you know, with a

little delay. So if we're abinging it

now, I mute this.

We're pretty far away from

pretty.

So we need to work a lot. I think what

the problem is right now sounds muddy.

Yeah, it sounds muddy. And we need to

remove all the low uh the low end. Uh so

um yeah the last thing of this

demonstration what I want to do

obviously is now build the drop. The

drop would be somewhere around here. So

uh the drop would be somewhere he here

with a kick and a solid baseline. I want

that to really kick in.

I want my reversed

clap maybe or the reverse noise to

announce when the break is going to

come. Uh we have to decide on if we want

this to to go into a loop or something.

But my suggestion, I like the pad, but

my suggestion would be to mute it for

the moment, go into these parts,

the individual layers of the uh the

drop. I think my problem right now is I

love this, but I think the low layer

makes it not cloudy. Makes it too cloud.

For the moment, I want to mute this.

What if you would use the the pad though

and you would cut the low end? So, you

would have

cut the pad. Yeah, could do. That's a

good idea. So, get the pad back on. Put

an EQ.

Cut the low end. Trial. Trial and error

basically, right?

I also want to do it here because I

think these low notes are sort of

killing the excitement.

Shall I make a reverse something for

Yeah, we can do it here. We can do it.

Yeah, we should do it on Logic. I'll

give you the chair.

Uh, so I'm going to mute these parts.

Mute the riser for the moment.

But this is not sounding like this yet.

Oh. So, so that's why I'm using AB uh

because this is where I want to end up.

Obviously, I'm not listening to the

chord progression. Chord progression is

different. This is uh way more longing

and this is way more I don't know uh

more tense I would say. Uh so I know

that this is a different chord structure

and I don't want it to to have that same

chord progression. I just want to have

the impact of this

and that needs to go here.

So we still got a bit of work to do.

Just a little bit. Let's see.

So, what I would suggest is to do route

this to a bus and see what happens if we

EQ or what if we get different what if

we get different um

synths. Yeah,

maybe try to find a different lead

sound. Just copy the the lead saw one.

Yeah, maybe go into try another find

another patch in the silent or maybe the

massive or or something to that it makes

it sound

Let me try something first before we do

this because I would like to know if

it's frequency related or really sound

related.

Okay.

So, I would to speed things up. I I

would like to try to see what what

happens if if if you would route this to

a bus. I know you you would like to

alter the sound a bit, but

I think it's also got to do with the

attack and the release. Um the sounds

are not

to me not that bad, but

maybe the notes are too long.

Yeah. Uh let's put this to a bus. Um

this bus needs to go to our pre master

input.

All right. So let's first see what

happens if we

go more into this area.

Um, maybe quickly AB with the other

track so we can show people what we're

what we're thinking

with this fret.

Loud.

All right. Um, let's volume uh

get a bit so we have a sense of what's

going on.

It's too long, I guess.

Yeah, the notes are too long.

Yeah, we need more attack to it. This

one is kind of dull as well, right?

Yeah, it's dull. The filter is always

closed. I think the notes are too long.

We need to shorten the notes and make

the release of the synths shorter so it

has more of that epic feel. And and the

delay is a problem, too. I think let's

do a little bit more attack to it as

well. Yeah.

The delay you said, right? Want a

shorter?

I like it. I like the delay.

They like delay.

Um, I would like to put a reverb behind

it. Yeah. More exciter actually as well.

Got low end,

right?

Getting better now. Some exciter. This a

little bit of spark. Dope.

Um, seven.

So actually this is a multiband excider

so you can excite or distort different

frequency ranges. I'm looking into this

range right now

and this range

now quickly AB the other track

from the beginning.

Yeah. Why is Oh, this is on solo.

Uh,

better getting there, but better.

Even more, right?

Yeah.

That's what I love about AB.

This is more interior, right? Yep.

Yep. Better.

Right. So, we fix this.

Um,

and a pad below it silent a sine wave

like this. Well, actually, I already

made this a little bit with it. This was

my intention for this pad actually.

But perhaps we should do this over here.

Make it a little bit longer. Not sure if

you

No, I agree.

If you if you mind, but do it over here.

Mute it here so it comes in there. So

you have an extra lift to it. Or perhaps

do it here.

Yeah, do it there. Yeah, probably

better.

So you have a more dramatic thing going

on.

All kick. Do we have it already going on

here?

Don't you want it?

Yep.

Cool. And we maybe not at the beginning.

Maybe here where the pad comes in here.

Yeah. Press on it. Reverse. You want the

reverse thing? Reverse clap. Press.

Yeah.

Keep it at the same note. Loop the last.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Building up.

Just loop the last uh four kicks. Would

like to fix this first because it's

totally out of tune.

This will be my guess,

right? Um,

what were you saying? Loop the last

section. Oh, yeah. Sure.

So I'll copy this

is actually the very first part as well

which makes sense.

No, because they don't have the high

note then

through that

I just copy section the the last the

last four kicks or

four or like this.

Yeah, it goes up.

See it goes up

first part. The first part. Yep.

Spit locators.

Cool. Loop it.

All right. And then uh we should do

something with filtering, right? And

yeah, probably something with a riser.

Did it not bounce my uh I have a um Do

you have a you have a snare roll? I have

it. Yeah, it's here.

Yeah.

Going to go to a bus. We need this.

Yeah. Put it in there. Right.

Um, this is where we would probably go

into the drop, right?

Yep.

So, now we're building the the big drop,

the big melody,

and then hopefully we have the payoff,

right?

Hopefully we have the payoff.

a little bit too early, right? But we're

getting there.

So, is this correct?

Yeah.

Yes. Right. So, we should cut this made

a make a reverb to it or do you have

another suggestion?

Yeah. reverb and a highp pass filter

from the baseline.

Fancy climax. Here it is.

Cool. And then the LFO should be going

on.

Let's It's already going to a bus,

right? So, all I have to do is put a

verb to it.

And

EDC, put your hands up.

See? Getting there.

Cool. It's a nice jump, boy.

Yeah. All right. So, let's bring in the

verb like this. Perhaps we should put a

a filter to it.

Let's do it with this one and get a new

one so it's not altering the sound.

Something like this. Right.

Another layer of

low cut frequency.

Shall we bring it back in? What's that

riser doing?

Rising

probably.

Right. We're almost done. Right. So,

um

it's

Yeah.

So there's a lot of verb going on.

What's happening here? The wet level is

still

actually you should have a top layer to

it because this is going up and then we

have a anti-limax because it's going

down.

Need another vocal uh melody.

Yeah.

See, the reason why it's not dropping

right now is because the volume before

the drop is way too loud compared to the

drop itself. It really needs to be. See,

it's 5 7 dBs louder now. So, now it

already comes down and mix it.

Let's automate that telephoto there.

We're almost there, I guess. Volume

drop.

I get so many demos that have this exact

problem that the breakdown right before

the drop is way way louder than the

actual drop. And that's a no-go in dance

music because people want to party and

jump up when this hits. And right now

it's not right. I mean, we're going to

fix it. I think it's because these rises

and the snare fill is so loud compared

to this

kick. So, let's mute this for a second.

See what happens. But my guess is that

this

see volume drops. So the risers are 7 to

10 dBs too loud.

A little better. Um shall we do it with

an automation on the the preaster? Uh

yep be a good way to do it.

Um let's automate it.

And then

so the reason why we're not automating

this volume thing here go because you

could also volume automate this one is

that you can adjust it later but still

have the same gain reduction. Yeah. Our

our suggestion would be when you're

mixing as also goes for Ableton don't

touch your volume faders because that's

your mix. That's your overall mix. And

let's say you want to change the volume

on your vocal or on your beats, you

can't do it because it's already

automated. So that's why I always

suggest to put a gain or a utility in

Ableton or something else on your uh in

your chain and automate that instead of

the volume. Don't ever automate the

volume itself unless you're doing a fade

out at the end or something because then

you can just you can always alter the

volume and if you if you automated it,

it's stuck.

All right. So, less more work.

One extra layer to it perhaps.

Yes.

And then it should work though.

What if he would plus this? See, now the

LFO tool is ducking the where the place

of the kick is. So it gives you the

it's not really doing the

the bursting.

See, now the volume is lower than than

the drop.

It's pretty decent, right? I like it.

Well, we built a a a track completely

from scratch only in uh two hours. um

you know from the uh early SATI idea you

know changing the chords and uh fooling

around with a couple of plugins and we

didn't we didn't prepare this at all. We

just did it live for you uh to enjoy and

we'll give you the project as well so

you guys can dig in and and look and

maybe alter it or or look at the stuff

that we've uh we've prepared for you. Uh

let me play the track what we've got so

far. I haven't really had time to

arrange it, but um you know, normally

before the track would start, I would

make uh a section where there would be

some percussion going on and there would

be a little build to introduce the kick

in the baseline. So,

this would be the section where the you

would mix in the track or this would be

the first part where the the dance floor

crowd would actually experience the

track.

I would probably spend more time on

making this more exciting with arranging

things like removing kick drums, making

little fills, introducing the clap. I

mean, that's now sort of been dropped on

your head, but we would definitely spend

more time on arranging it.

Maybe add like an ethereal vocal here.

Some effects to make it exciting.

Something in the far back to make it a

little bit more expensive.

It's one of my favorite parts, the the

stutter lead.

This is where the track would really

drive, would get the energy, it would be

more build. And he would be I guess we

would have some sort of a riser fill

here to introduce that we're going to go

into the drop

and then Okay,

so here would be the quiet moment in the

track that the crowd knows that it's

coming and you're building up to the big

drop, the big leads.

But I like it. I like it. And I like it

what we have so far.

So I would probably spice this up with

another pad or some other chords or

notes that would make it a little bit

more exciting.

Here's where you want it to be very big

and beautiful. So

this sounds too muddy to me. Now

this needs to sound more big. It needs

to sound more epic. I like the chord

structure. I like the emotion of it.

Maybe a clap to remind the crowd that

where where the beat is, where the kick

is.

And I need some sort of a build here.

Maybe some orchestral elements. Maybe a

a big pad or something. Female pad. And

here needs to be a reverse a reversed

effect. Uh we could probably sample the

first note of the uh of the lead here

and reverse it. So you have some sort of

a So yeah, now is the first chord and

then you get the big drop.

This could be a little bit bigger, I

guess. Maybe a female vocal somewhere or

or a female pad.

I like that the riser's already starting

here. So you hear that the drama is

coming

and you we hold the last chord

which also happens to be the first

chord. It needs to be a reverb kick here

at that at this point.

the risers can be bigger and it needs to

have more tension and then

I would introduce some more rhythmical

elements here. And also I like the

chords. I'm not too sure if I like the

actual sound of the the leads here. It's

it's okay. It's getting there. This

would particularly be a track that I

would play in a transy set. Um probably

in the first half of my set, maybe at

the end of the first half, uh cuz it has

a lot of energy. It's very beautiful and

emotional. It's not so dark. It's quite

friendly. It's quite beautiful really.

Uh it's emotional. Uh it's not something

you would cry to instantly, but it gets

you there. So, this would be a perfect

track to, you know, to build up to the

more dramatic transy stuffs.

I'm usually the one that comes up with

really strange titles because I love

reading books. I read a lot of books and

I I find my titles usually in books or

on the road or I have a a list on my

laptop with a lot of names that I come

across. And, you know, uh I I I just I

love language. So, whenever I'm in a

cafe and I see a weird thing on a menu

that has a weird name, I put it in my

phone instantly. So, if I would work on

a track like this, I would instantly

throw five really weird words at Beno or

he would say, "No, no, yes, yes."

So, but right now, for the moment, we'll

call it Masterclass Jam.

I'm not a native uh English- speakaking

person and at first I really thought

that I wasn't a songwriter and I still

think I'm not. But I came up with the

idea to put behind you are uh one

syllable words only positive. So, I went

online and I just searched for one-

syllable words that are positive. So, me

and Beno, we created a big list of

one-cllable words that are are are nice,

like sweet, hot, heat, pure, one-cllable

words. And I we wrote a rap uh wrote a

rap. Um and I'm not a rapper. I don't

intend to be, but we wrote a simple well

a simple rap. And I invited a guy that

works in the Armada office. He works for

Cloud9 on the on the administration, but

he's a he has a a Native American

speaker, so he has a very good American

voice. He has a low voice. And we

pitched his voice down, recorded him

twice, once on the left channel, once on

the right channel. And I sent that

initially to Sunnery James and Ry

Mariano to see if they like the idea

without even having started on the

track. So I'll play you the rap first

before I do anything else.

or something.

Sexy. You are sweet. You are hot. Feel

the heat. You are pretty. You are pure.

You're my kind. I want more. You are

fire. My desire. You are fine. And

you're mine. Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine.

It actually became one of my biggest

hits. So, one of the things also to make

music is not be afraid to step out of

your comfort zone and and try. Why not?

Why? You know, you're not native English

or you've never written a song before,

but why not try it? I mean, what's

stopping you?

You never know in beforehand if a song

is going to work. I mean, uh, the Oh,

Sunny Days was actually just something

funny I wanted to try because it was it

was a little different. It reminded me

of A Lovely Day by Bill Withers, but

usually your first idea, at least in my

case, is usually the best or one of the

best ideas. I remember this famous video

of ABBA uh when they were writing their

own songs. they were just throwing

gibberish on top of melodies. And that's

what happens a lot in songwriting. I'm

not saying that everybody does the same,

but usually for me, it's just

constructing a a top melody on on some

on a chord sequence and trying different

things and then the words usually come.

Uh that's just one way of approaching

songwriting.

House music has a lot of those uh

preaches. Uh in the beginning there was

Jack and Jack had a groove and all that

sort of stuff. And there's a couple of

others like something for your mind,

your body and soul. There's a couple of

those tracks that are are house

classics. And I started to think it's

funny that there's these preaches for

house music but there's no for none for

trans music.

So I was on holiday in ITA and I just

had I grabbed a notepad and I started

writing a preach like

um which became uh the I live for that

energy uh uh uh preach the the ac

capella. So, I wrote this and it was

lines and lines of stuff that I I read

in the past or, you know, just weird

sentences and I contacted uh if you go

online, there's these great companies

that offer u uh the possibilities of

hiring voices just basically somebody

that that helps you with narrating that

voice. So, it was a guy in New York. I

was in Holland and we had an online

connection and uh I think I had him

online for an hour and he just read what

I wrote and uh from all those lines that

he uh he he he narrated them in in

different with different tones of voice.

So, um it starts with I had a dream last

night, a vision. I saw a world full of

people. Everybody was dancing. It's

basically the message of trans music or

how I want trans music to be about. So

this is what uh this is what ended up

being the the final. This is also

available. I made it available uh uh as

a preach as a as a trans a trans music

preach to basically say what the music

means.

I had a dream last night, a vision.

I saw a world full of people.

Everybody was dancing and screaming

loud.

They were just there to listen to the

music.

Some even had their eyes closed.

Everybody was just smiling.

It was deep. It was underground,

transparent.

And he has such a cool voice. And of

course, we added some effects to his

voice. But the good thing was is that we

created our own sample. And I think it's

really important to touch on the subject

of sampling because there's this big

mistake uh that I I speak to a lot of

producers and they think that you're

just free to sample whatever. No, you

cannot. Some people think they can

sample 8 seconds. That's legal. It's not

legal. It's never legal to sample

something without permission. If you buy

a sample package online, there's usually

a disclaimer saying you can use these

samples or you can use these sounds for

your own productions. But if you sample

existing music, you'll get into legal

trouble. So my advice would be if you

want to use a sample try to recreate

that sample but in your own way. So

basically what this rap is it's inspired

by in the beginning there was Jack and

Jack had a groove which is an existing

sample. I cannot use that sample because

it's it's copyright protected. So either

I have to pay the master owner come to

an agreement with this publisher and

it's a lot of hassle. It's a lot of

legal hassle. You can do it. It's great

but it's better to use that rap as an

inspiration. Be inspired. write your own

rap and then you have your own sample.

This is the sample.

I want to be in that moment.

And Beno came up with a great idea to

use Alchemy, which is a plugin that

comes standard now with Logic Pro. It's

a fantastic synthesizer. really if you

dig into that hood you can go for weeks

and weeks and weeks to tweak and and

there's a granular synthesis section in

uh the alchemy and we uh put uh the

sample I want to be in that moment in uh

in the software

I want to be in that moment

so that becomes a loop so let me trigger

the sample be in that moment

moment

moment moment moment

moment.

It had some sort of a spooky vibe to it.

And when Beno played me this idea, I was

like, "Whoa, what is that? It sounds so

weird and so off and so exciting in a

way." So immediately I started adding to

his idea. So uh what we did is we uh put

a big reverb behind it, an arts acoustic

in this case. big reverb 10 seconds and

just fool around with the speed. So, let

me start the sample again.

exciting, right? So, what we've done to

avoid CPU conflicts and everything, uh,

we basically drew the automation just on

that one sample. So, I opened a

different arrangement and we basically

exported it from this arrangement into

another arrangement. So, we made our own

sample. So, if let quickly listen to the

results.

So, this is basically the automation of

that sample.

It's a really slow pitch of the moment

sample. And here you see the sample the

speed goes up.

And we tune the the chorus as well.

So we've used a human voice as a

synthesizer. Turn the human voice into a

synthesizer.

Moment.

It's just exciting. It sounds weird. It

sounds off. It sounds unconventional. It

sounds great. So, you go to uh bounce in

place or you export this sample and then

we have this sample as a as a as

something we can use in the final

arrangement. Here is the sample uh that

we just created in a different project,

the granular synthesis.

And uh I've added uh some more weird

effects to it. Sound shifter pitch

using some EQ

on that sample. And right now you think

it would be a synthesizer, but it's

actually a human voice coming up.

And then of course you start adding the

juice. So what in this case we wanted to

make it really exciting, really big,

really massive for that dance floor. So

when I start my DJ set, you want to have

the attention straight away. So we added

some pads and some stabs to it. Some old

school uh '9s stabs like

it's just a sample from the sample

library that's actually been on our hard

drives for a really really long time. Uh

and this is how it sounds all together.

really weird, right? And at this moment,

you don't realize that it is actually

the B in the moment sample coming up.

Heat. Heat.

There's pads coming there. There's all

sorts of excitement going on along with

the fast speeding up moment sample.

You want to suck the crowd into that

moment.

Heat. Heat.

off you go. I think that's a great

opening track to start your set because

you immediately grab the attention and

it's exciting. And I just tested road

tested this uh this track this weekend

in Mexico. And guess what? People

started screaming when the stabs came in

in the intro. And it was such a magical

feeling when when it's just me and Beno

in the studio sitting trying because

this is just we don't know if this is

going to work. You know, we think it's

great, but I don't know if people are

going to dig it. So, uh but uh it

worked.

So, here we are recording uh the song

called Sunny Days. Um, what I've done,

I've bounced down the instrumental

version of the pop uh version of Sunny

Days. Uh, the reason why I'm doing this

is because if I would be recording in

the actual project, I would be

introducing a lot of latency. All the

plugins are doing their work. So, I'm

trying to minimize the latency so I can

clearly hear what Josh is actually

doing. So, I have a stereo two track

here. And this is what we do a lot when

we're recording. So, open a separate

logic project and have a stereo two

track going with the instrumental song.

I really truly recommend to make a

little mix that the singer is

comfortable with. So, a lot of singers,

they love a little bit of reverb or a

little bit of delay on the voice. You

know, you you have to think of the the

singer first and foremost. If the singer

feels comfortable hearing the his own

performance, then the performance will

usually be better. But don't overdo it.

A lot of singers like a lot of reverb,

but it makes it makes for the fact that

they won't sing in tune. And of course,

singing is all about being in tune. And

I always find it very uh important to

motivate a singer. Uh, so make sure that

the singer feels good, that he's not, he

or she is not tired, he's not

frustrated, doesn't feel stressed. Uh,

one of the things about being a little

more known as a DJ is that some singers

feel intimidated because I had a few hit

records, you know, but every song that I

do is like doing a new exam. It's it's

starting from the ground up. So, I try

to make the singer feel as comfortable

as possible.

So, how you feeling, Josh?

Pretty fantastic.

Thank you for uh joining the master

class.

Thank you for having me.

Are you uh are you ready to do a couple

of takes?

Always.

My suggestion would be that we uh do the

uh first verse and chorus or you just

want to do the first verse? What What is

your preference?

Let's do the first verse a couple times

just to get into it.

Okay. See, now that is something I find

really important. I don't want to put

pressure on the vocalist. The vocalist

usually know what he or she wants. So,

if I tell the vocalist what to do, it

usually doesn't work. Some singers like

to sing the entire song in one take. In

this case, Josh just wants to get used

and really focused on the first verse.

So, that's what I'm going to do. We'll

do a first run. Uh, just let me know if

the volume's okay. Okay. Golden rule,

always record your first take.

D.

She woke up. She woke up. No. No. No.

She woke up in the morning

with the sunrise in her eyes.

All that she sees is darkness.

And she won't tell you why.

No more butterflies cuz they don't last.

Stolen from the light by demons of the

past. It's always raining.

She keeps on praying.

How did that feel?

Like a start.

Okay. You want to go for one more?

I'd love that.

Are you okay? Do you want some water?

You have enough air?

I'm well taken care of. Cool. Let's go.

Now, she woke up. She woke up.

She woke up in the morning

with a sunrise in her eyes.

But all that she sees is darkness.

She won't tell you why.

No more butterflies cuz they don't last.

Stolen from the light by demons of the

past. It's always raining.

She keeps on praying.

I have a suggestion for you. Um,

why don't we do the it's always raining

part as a separate thing because it

feels more like we should do sort of an

insert on that one cuz uh like demons of

the past it's always raining is

it's almost like it's it's two takes.

Okay.

Um so I would only sing like demons of

the past.

Okay.

And then later on we'll record it's

always raining.

Cool.

Because you get more uh you probably get

a more relaxed take on that. So, um, if

you can just sing the verse first up

until Like Demons of the Past.

Okay.

Yeah. And then we'll take it from there

as a punch in.

Sounds great.

She woke up. She woke up. She woke up.

Yeah. Yeah.

She woke up in the morning.

with the sunrise in her eyes.

But all that she sees is darkness.

She won't tell you why.

No more butterflies cuz they don't last.

Stolen from the light by demons of the

past.

She keeps on praying.

That's a great take. Good job. You want

to do one more?

Sure.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

No, no, no.

She woke up.

She woke up in the morning.

with the sunrise in her eyes.

But all that she sees is darkness.

She won't tell you why.

No more butterflies cuz they don't ever

last. Stolen from the light by demons of

the past.

She keeps on praying.

sounding great. Um, let me just quickly

comp uh the demons of the past line so

we can have the it's almost uh it's

always raining line after that as an

insert.

Okay.

So, now what I'm going to do uh I'm

going to quickly get my favorite take uh

just because there's another line coming

after Demons from the Past and I want

him to do a couple of takes on that last

one. So, all I'm doing right now

is quickly copying all the takes here,

and I'm selecting one of my favorite uh

takes of this one. So, here I am. I'm

going to um I like this one.

And keep this in record.

No more butterflies. They don't last.

Stolen from the light by demons of the

past.

Is that okay for you to sing the It's

Always Raining line after?

Yeah.

How are you feeling? Everything good?

Sounds great.

Cool.

No, no, no.

Butterflies. They don't last. Stolen

from the light by demons of the past.

It's always raining.

That's a great recording. Let's do it

one more.

No more butterflies. They don't last

by demons of the past. It's always

raining.

I like that attitude in that take.

That's a really great It's always

raining. I'm feeling that.

Should we do one more?

Absolutely.

No more butterflies cuz they don't last

from the light by demons of the past.

It's always raining.

Great. You want to do one more or shall

we comp this?

Uh, we can do one more. All right.

Safety.

No more butterflies.

past stolen from the light by demons of

the past. It's always raining.

Thank you so much. Can you uh come into

the room so we can uh review and comp uh

the first verse?

Absolutely.

I really liked his last take. I feel

he's really getting into it. Um so I

think we have four takes now uh which

gives us enough material to review what

he's done. And also I want him to join

me in the room to see how he sounds

because on a big system it sounds

different than on his headphones. So

maybe uh sometimes when you're reviewing

a vocal and you're comping it together

with the singer, the singer wants like,

"Oh, I can do that better." And he or

she jumps back into the booth and gives

you an even better performance. That's

why I find it important to comp together

with the singer. But it's not a golden

way of working because some singers just

don't like to be there. So it's a it's a

personal preference, I guess.

So, now uh Josh left the uh the vocal

booth. He's here with me and we're going

to comp uh the first verse, the first

takes of the first verse. And I just

want to have his opinion as well. I

think it's important to know if he's

happy uh with the recording that we just

did. Um, so what I'm going to do now, if

you're okay with that, I'm going to go

over each individual line and play all

the lines to him and then we can both

pick our favorites. And sometimes it

means that he has a different frame than

me and then we go into a discussion. So

I'm really curious to see what he thinks

of his vocal performance. So the first

line in the song uh would be here. It's

uh she woke up in the morning is the

first line. So the first take was here.

So I'm going to select the first take.

input off.

And then I'm going to send

um

I'm going to send this to the stereo

output for the moment.

She woke up in the morning.

She woke up in the morning.

She woke up in the morning.

She woke up in the morning.

She woke up in the morning.

One more time. The first take.

She woke up in the morning.

Second take.

She woke up in the morning.

The third take.

She woke up in the morning.

Do you have a favorite?

I don't know. It's between one and four

for me. I think one one's a little more

subtle. Yeah. But I do like four.

I think the timing on three was good.

Three is also Yeah. Two is definitely

the one I don't like.

Two is the one you don't like. Why you

don't like it?

Play it back.

That C on cup is so aggressive to me. It

has no feeling. She woke up. It's like a

violent awakening.

Okay. So your one your favorite would be

one or four. She woke up in the morning.

It's more subtle.

Feels like an opening line

as that morning.

She woke up in the morning.

And this feels a little bit lazy, laid

back to lay back.

Mhm.

So again, we were right. The very first

take was the one.

So for the first line, uh we've just

selected the very first uh uh take. Um

so that's going to go up. So I've

selected this and now I'm going to go to

the second line. Again, I'm first I'm

going to play

uh the very first

uh take, which is this one. So, I'm

going to select this. Vocal comping is a

is a very personal process. It is really

what makes you an artist. And I think

it's al is very important to do it

together with the vocalist because he or

she probably knows her voice the best.

But I'm also knowing as an artist what

I'm looking for, what kind of emotion I

want. And I think you also have to take

into account the the meaning of the

lyric, how you want that to come across.

And something I find really u really

important is is intensity. You know, I

have to believe the singer. I have to,

you know, it's not like you're doing

you're not shopping for groceries. It

has to be something that I have to feel.

So now, let's check out the second line

of the first verse. This is take number

one.

Take number two. with a sunrise in her

eyes.

Take number three.

With a sunrise in her eyes.

And the final one.

Well, I think we can all agree we don't

need to hear take number one again.

No, that was a bit off.

Yeah, we we'll leave that one for the

garbage bin. Uh I don't know. I think

three and or two had that nice eyes.

Yes.

But then four has that sunrise with that

nasal tone that I like as well. What do

you think? I think two is my favorite.

Shall we review two and four again?

Sure.

All right.

And now four.

The sunrise is a bit off. So I I think

my favorite would be take two.

All right. Yeah, I'm good with it.

All right. Let's go to the next line.

Uh I have a question. Would it be

possible for me to hear it back with

some autotune or something?

Absolutely. if that's what you want.

Yeah, just to see what it would sound

like.

That's a good question. Josh wants to

hear autotune. Now, we get into the

discussion of autotune. Um, there's a

big big camp out there that hates

autotune, and there's a big big camp out

there that's very pro- autotune. I'm not

really sure what I want yet. I'm not a

big fan of autotune personally, but you

can use it as a creative instrument as

well, and some words just need

autotuning.

Josh in this case wants to hear his

track uh with autotuning on. So, I'm

going to just to please him. And also I

want him to be comfortable here in the

studio with me and I want him to have a

good time and I want him to hear his

voice like he hears it. So just for him

and just for sake of the of the comping,

I'm just going to play these first two

lines through an autotune.

Let me pull on autotune.

There we go. Uh

that is autotune.

Here we go. Uh what's the key of the

track?

E minor. So, we go to E. You can put it

in chromatic, right? Or you want it?

We'll do E minor.

E minor.

I'm not that good.

She woke up in the morning.

It's a little bit too much of an

artifact.

Artifacting. Yeah.

So, what we would do is we would uh put

it more slow. I guess the retune speed.

Mhm. She woke up in the morning.

How's that? Little faster retune.

Yeah.

She woke up in the morning.

That's getting there.

What would you suggest? You want a

little bit more reach?

A little bit more be amazing. Like

around 70, something like that. And then

also the correction style sometimes.

Yep.

Yeah, that's the one.

Yeah.

Kind of gets rid of some of that

artifacting.

See, at this point, I don't even hear

the difference anymore. But he knows his

voice better than anybody else. So, you

know, for me, it is all about making the

singer feel comfortable and he has to

have a good time. I want him to leave

the studio with a demo or initial uh

version of something we recorded so he

can also review it. So I want because

he's the artist, you know, he might be

on stage with me pretty soon. So I want

to make sure that he feels comfortable

and uh has a good time uh recording cuz

remember this is just the first verse

and I still need him to do an awesome

performance on the chorus. So, now we're

going to go to the third line. And for

this, uh, I'm going to switch off

autotune again, if you don't mind,

because, you know, I like to hear the

takes without autotune. It's easier

probably. And, uh, you can just throw

everything through autotune, but I just

want to hear his performance. Nothing's

going to leave the studio um, you know,

without his consent. And he knows this.

We made an agreement. And I think it's

important that before you step into the

studio, before you start a session with

a singer, that you tell him how, you

know, you cannot just throw a vocal uh

let somebody walk in the studio, comp

the vocal yourself and release it.

Always make sure you have an agreement

with the singer and that the singer is

happy uh with the performance no matter

what because you can get into some real

big arguments if you don't do that. So,

I've switched off autotune again. We're

going to turn it on in just a little

bit. I just want to finish the comp. So

now I'm gonna go to the third line.

Gonna go to take one.

But all that she sees is darkness.

But all that she sees is darkness.

But all that she sees is darkness.

But all that she sees is darkness.

Tricky tricky.

I think the darkness on three is the

best one. What do you think?

I like two.

You like two?

Yeah. Let's review two and three again.

All that she sees is darkness.

All that she sees is darkness.

The darkness is more subtle.

Mhm. But the all that she sees is less

pushed though. You're right. On two.

You want to go for the entire two or you

want to use the darkness from three?

Let's split it.

Split it. Okay. So now I'm going to make

a crossfade between take two and three.

And I just need to find where you won't

hear that we're actually crossfading

between two takes. So this is how it's

going to sound.

Not too bad.

Yeah.

What do you think?

I like it. It's more uh subtle.

Now let's go to the fourth line and

finish the comp of the first verse.

Again, I'm going opening up take one.

She won't tell you why.

She won't tell you why.

She won't tell you why.

She won't tell you why.

What do you think? I wonder if

I think four.

Four.

I like the jazzy like she won't tell you

why.

Okay.

Maybe we can even record that line

another time so we can have the Y a

little bit longer. But

I like the, you know, you have that

jazzy feel to your voice, which I think

is great. But for the moment, I would

say four. What What would you say? Would

you agree?

I kind of liked one, but four is also

good.

All right, let's review both.

She won't tell you why.

She won't tell you why.

Uh, no, you're right. Four is better.

Four is the one.

So now let's listen to the first four

lines again through the autotune.

She woke up in the morning

with the sunrise in her eyes,

but all that she sees darkness.

She won't tell you why.

You can see that we took from all four

takes

uh we took different elements. So it's

the first sentence of the first uh take

uh the second sentence of the second

take and then we took a little bit of

the third take and then the fourth take

is the last line. But what I would do

now is I would um say the logic flatten

stack. I would flatten this take to make

it one audio file. Here you go.

Flatten and merge. Right. Flatten.

So there you go. Here we have the entire

take that Josh did.

I would want to listen to the take

without the music and without the

autotune to see if I'm happy. And if I

wouldn't be happy, I would ask him to go

back and do a couple of takes more. But

I think he did a great job. So, let's

listen to the to the takes. Our favorite

pick in one line without autotune.

She woke up in the morning

with her eyes,

but all that she sees darkness.

She won't tell you why.

If you carefully listen, you heard uh he

smacked a little bit with his voice,

which is normal because it's sing, you

know. Uh, but the DAWs are so you hear

everything on a vocal performance. I

don't remove all the breaths because it

makes it feel unnatural. Uh, sometimes I

put the volume down on breaths and

stuff. I do however want to remove the

little click that he did with his mouth.

And that was around here

see a little smack going on there. And

you won't really hear it unless you

start adding compression. Uh, if you add

compression to a vocal, which is

something you normally do when you

finished recording and you've got

autotune and everything set, and if you

have a little click, the compressor will

bring it up and it will sound like uh

something that could bother the groove a

little bit. So, that's why I always

spend a little bit of time on actually

cleaning the take and use fade in, fade

outs without making it sound unnatural.

I would go in here uh

I would select this take and I would say

here a little fade in

she woke up in the morning

because I don't need to hear the other

audio. So fade out here but just be very

very careful that you don't um make it

too short because the human voice you

know you hear when somebody's taking a

breath and it's actually part of the

singing process for me. So, I like to

hear when he's taking a breath to sing a

a certain uh sentence.

She woke up in the morning.

So, I'm going remove that and fade in on

this one.

Fade out on this one.

Let me see.

She woke up in the morning.

And I would turn it up a little bit so I

could really hear everything that's

going on in the take. She woke up in the

morning

with the sunrise in her eye.

See, now the S is gone. Where's the S?

She woke up in the morning

with the sunrise in her eyes.

See, I don't see the S, but I hear it

because I, you know, the waveform is not

showing it. But you do need to check.

You need to be very very careful when

you're uh cleaning your vocal takes

as a little tick at the end. And we can

clean that up with

a fade out.

There's a little breath.

I want to hear that breath. Um, so

here's here's a here's the thing, you

know, this is where I also this is why I

want the singer to be there uh when I'm

um when I'm comping the vocal. Um,

because I think it's important to have a

discussion. Some singers don't like

their breaths and some singers do. I

think it's natural to have a little bit

of a breath in the vocal uh when you're

listening to the to the track.

All that she sees is darkness,

but it should be um it should be subtle.

All that she sees is darkness.

All that she sees

all

darkness.

There's a little click going on when we

switch from the different takes. Um, if

you if you remembered, you saw that we

uh took take two and take three. And you

can clearly hear a click when we move

over from take two to take three. So, be

very careful of that. I'm going to clean

that by selecting a crossfade.

All that you see is darkness.

It's still there a little bit. Yeah.

But

what you can do to fix it is try a

different uh different section of the of

the song. Um so I have to move the

barrier here a little bit.

All that you see is darkness.

There you go.

Much cleaner.

Much cleaner.

And let me see.

darkness

click. There's a click at the end. It

may not seem a lot that little pop at

the end, but if you put a compressor on

it, remember that little pop will come

up and you will hear it in your final

track.

Mhm.

All that you see is darkness.

Still there, but all that is darkness.

It's better.

Better. So, I can live with that for the

moment. Uh, let's go on to the next

line.

There's a little breath here as well. I

like it. But fade in.

Beautiful. I can remove all this because

there's no singing here.

Fade out a little bit. She won't tell

you why.

Beautiful.

Next line. You okay with that so far?

Sounds good.

Oh, we haven't actually comped that.

It's just the first verse.

So, this would be I can throw this away

as that was intro singing. Uh, this

would be the first verse actually. Um,

I've removed all the unwanted noise. I

made some fade in, fade outs. Uh, now

the fun part starts.

Now I can bring back the track, put on

the autotune, and we'll start

introducing some compression.

Um, let me see. What will we do?

Dynamics. Which one do you love?

Do we have Fab Filter?

We have Fab Filter.

Yes, the Pro C.

Proc is the one. I know.

Oh, heaven on earth. There it is.

She woke up in the morning,

the sunrise in her eyes,

but all that she sees darkness.

She won't tell you why.

It's pretty good. Um, I do suggest at

this point uh introducing some DSing.

Um,

it's not that bad, but um, I would do a

little bit of DSing before we go into

the compressor.

Let's see how bad it

see. I'm using an audition functionality

on the DSing

to see what range of the voice I want to

DS.

See, there's there's the S. That's

pretty in your face. And we have to be

very careful because if you use the DS

are too uh extensive, then it can sound

very artificial.

Okay, I can live with that.

She woke up in the morning.

And here you see um what uh S what high

frequencies of the S uh the ProDS is

actually um gain reducing you could say.

And it's amazing that you're doing this

too because I think a lot of times

people try to make their vocals bright

and don't do this and it gets so harsh

and hard to hear. They think okay it has

to be muddy or it has to be harsh. But

this lets you have the best of both

worlds. It's a great tool.

It's a very subtle thing though.

Uh now I'm going to add my favorite

reverb.

So I'm using a utility uh to actually go

to stereo and then it will let me select

my favorite reverb which is the arts

acoustic.

Um so put the dry up a little bit wet

down roll off a little bit of the low

end and make it for a night. I like your

voice and I like long reverbs but I

don't know if it works with this track.

Let's see how it sounds.

She woke up in the morning

in her eyes

way too long. All that she sees

darkness.

She won't tell you why.

She woke up in the morning.

The sunrise in her eyes.

All that she sees is darkness.

Are you happy or you're suggesting any

any other changes?

I mean, Lily Q maybe close it all off.

Um, I like I like the high end of your

voice a little bit. Let's see what the

analyzer says.

Let's do that before we go into the

compressor.

a little bit brightness.

And there's a kind of a low end around

200 hertz that I really like about your

voice. Do you like to bring it out or?

Yeah, it sounds great.

She woke up in the morning.

It's more of a character there in his

voice.

There it is.

But all that you see is darkness.

She won't tell you why.

I guess the choices you make when you uh

put effects on uh on a voice all have to

do with the musical background. Uh what

elements you want to bring out. Um Josh

has a beautiful part in his voice around

200 hertz. Obviously, you need to roll

off everything below 70 Hz and then um

yeah, you need to you just, you know,

it's trial and error, I guess. Um it's a

little bit personal preference also. And

usually I'm just throwing a bunch of

stuff on there. What I do with every

track though, there's always a DSer on

there. There's always an EQ, there's

always a reverb, there's always a bit of

compression somewhere. And then

depending on the singer, uh, if you like

autotune or not, usually what I would

do, I would make a separate track with

the exact same settings and one has

autotune on it and one don't. And then

only the words that I feel that do need

autotuning will go through that specific

track. I don't mind a singer to be a

little off just a tiny bit because it

also brings character. But the

difference between character and

something that's wrong is, you know,

that's a long discussion that you can

have. But for me, the singer usually

knows his or her voice the best. So I

would with this in this situation, I

would go um back to Josh and tell him,

are you comfortable with the session so

far? I mean, obviously uh our time here

in this master class is limited. So, you

know, if I would really seriously record

the vocal here, we would probably do a

lot more takes and we would really go

over every every little detail again and

I would spend hours and hours coming and

going back. And also, sometimes you need

to hear it with fresh ears. But before

you do that, I do recommend everybody to

do an entire recording of the song

because the next day the singer might be

coming into the studio and say, "Okay,

I'm going to fix this and this." And the

voice might may sound different. It's no

problem if you want to do harmonies or

or backing vocals uh because they they

sound different anywhere in a different

place in the mix. But especially with a

lead that is so apparent like this one

just make sure you record everything on

the same day because the the voice of

Josh will sound different just because

of the food that he he eats. Uh the milk

if he drinks milk or not it sounds

stupid but I had a singer once and I had

lunch with the singer and she had she

drank a carton of milk and her voice

sounded completely different. Well,

completely of course, but if you are so

into somebody's voice and every little

detail, you hear the difference. You

just hear something weird in in his or

her voice. So, you need to be very wary

that. Also, you know, keep the

microphone in the same position. If you

move it in your room, the reflection

will be different. So, you're catching

different waves. So, you need you need

to be aware of that. If you're recording

vocals, I mean, obviously you like to

record in a room when there's no

reflection, but unfortunately, I guess

not a lot of you watching are able to be

in a room where there's no reflection.

If you are, great, but usually there's a

little bit of reflection. So, moving the

microphone even a tiny bit can have a

different reflection on the wall and it

can may it may uh change the sound of

your voice. So, you need to be when

you're recording vocals, it's a very

delicate process. The next thing I'd be

doing now is I uh as soon as I recorded

everything and we are happy with a with

a take, I'd make a I'd give him a bounce

of just the instrumental and and the

voice, then I would open up the original

instrumental again with all the all the

plugins and I would bring uh the the ac

capella into um into that song so I can

do maybe vocal effects or maybe make

sure that it absolutely sits in the mix

and it's not fighting with the other

elements.

If you're not getting a good uh

performance from your vocalist, uh

there's a couple of things you can do.

If you don't have a lot of time and you

really need to record it that that day,

maybe you hired a studio or you flew in

a singer and it's expensive. Um then, uh

maybe you can add some elements to it to

make it a little bit more fun. Um I

would suggest throwing in a big reverb,

uh maybe a compressor. It's not ideal

obviously, but as soon as the vocalist

hears that something exciting is

happening to his or her voice and he or

she's happy with uh what what he's what

they're hearing back, then that can

usually spark something. So, uh there's

always a few things, a few tricks to get

a vocalist excited. Uh maybe he or she's

not feeling the lyric. Maybe you have

another song that you guys can work on,

or maybe he or she has an existing song

that she wants to sing just to get

comfortable with the microphone. Uh this

is a trick that I've done in the past

where muting some of the parts of your

instrumental. Maybe just work with a

piano or um uh maybe the opposite,

throwing a big beat to get the singer

excited. Sometimes I feel like I'm a

psychologist when I'm in the in a studio

with with a vocalist because you know

vocalists are are are artists and

artists sometimes are very very

sensitive people and you always have to

imagine that the voice is the instrument

of the artist. uh almost like a you know

a guitar player plays the guitar. So he

or she is usually very very particular

about how you use his or her voice in

your mix. Um so I would really suggest

to communicate with your artist uh

before you go through management or

anything. Uh it's very tempting to

communicate with the manager. I find it

very important to have a personal

contact with the uh with the artists uh

them themselves. And sometimes you even

end up uh asking the artist to record

the vocal at her own place cuz sometimes

artists are just not comfortable in an

environment like this. I mean this is a

really nice looking studio but it can be

very intimidating because you walk into

a a big space you see all these people

there these these big mixers and and all

this professional software and sometimes

people just like to record in the

comfort of home and there's nothing

wrong with that. Again there are no

rules in music if you ask me. All that

that matters is is that you like what's

happening and you like what you're

hearing.

She woke up in the morning

with a sunrise in her eyes,

but all that she sees is darkness.

So, the way this song is structured,

it's completely different than a dance

track because a dance track needs to

have impact. It needs to have a big

drop. You need to be able to dance to

it. You can dance to this track, no

problem. But, uh, it's not structured in

such a way that the kick and the bass

have a massive impact. Uh, the baseline

actually only comes when the drums are

already rolling for quite a bit.

There's the baseline.

So, it's more of a laid-back approach.

If I would play the radio version, uh,

which I sometimes do as an encore in my

set, uh, then it would just wouldn't

make sense. I would I I'll show you. Uh,

for example, if I if I'm if I'm DJing,

I could be playing a track like this.

high energy. And then if I would mix in

this track,

that wouldn't make any sense because the

it's a different energy level. There's

there's there's a different emotion

going on. I still love the radio

version, but it's more for laid-back

sets or uh more for, you know, sunrise

sets or whatever. Not when you're

playing, you know, iconic stuff, like

high energy stuff. That's the reason why

I'm making a remix of my own song.

Sometimes actually the club mix is is

born sooner than the radio version.

Sometimes it goes the other way around.

I'm still working on tweaking on the

radio version when I'm already sort of

energized to do the club mix because the

club mix for me is is most important.

And for a single like this, um it's it's

very easy to make a remix of this. So

you basically take the vocal, you throw

everything else out, and we speed it up

to a tempo that matches the rest of the

uh tracks in my DJ set. So, for this

particular track, the original uh BPM

was 115 beats per minute. I sped it up

for my club mix to 128 beats per minute,

which fits the tempo of my current DJ

sets. Um, so all I took was from the

original was the vocal.

There you go. And the good thing was,

um, I already did all the processing on

the vocal. Basically, I just exported

the vocal uh so I have a separate vocal

stem and then I can just add some juice

to it to uh match the sound

characteristics of all the other

elements that I choose in the club mix.

So here we have the ac capella. She woke

up in the morning

with the sunrise in her eyes,

but all that she sees is darkness. If

you carefully listen, you can hear that

the vocal is actually time stretched.

That gives a little bit of an artificial

element to it. I don't mind it. It's

electronic music, so if it sounds a

little greasy, I actually think it's

cool. But of course, you hear uh Josh's

voice sounding a little unnatural. That

is because I time stretched it from 115

BPM to 128 BPM. Obviously, it's a vocal

track, so I do want people to be able to

hear uh the vocal, otherwise I wouldn't

be making a vocal track, but I guess

it's about 2 or 3 dBs softer relative uh

than uh in in the radio version.

So, we start um with the vocal and you

on this particular remix, I found this

really cool pluck sound. Um the pluck

sound, let's pull it up, comes from this

plugin. It's a fairly new plugin called

the uh VPS Avenger.

And

it just has a it's a beautiful

atmospheric sounding. Uh

I just love the emotion of it and I

found that this sound had the same kind

of emotional feel as the lyric of Josh

Comi. So I started fooling around

So I started to find some chords that

would be not go nice.

So I first started constructing the the

breakdown of the track. So the focus was

on this particular sound that I found as

a preset in the Avenger plugin which I

thought was great. And uh I came up with

uh this melody.

And this is typical for trans. It's very

emotional.

Fits a dance floor nice. It's moody.

It's I could even enjoy this track just

as an instrumental cuz it's so

beautiful. It's very ethereal.

And uh I just made it fit with with the

vocal. So just uh having the vocal and

that beautiful pluck sound make it sound

like this.

I love it when he says this one could be

heaven. It's like the pluck is almost

like an angel playing harp in in heaven

or something. That's what I envision it.

Um so that's the breakdown. And as soon

as you got the breakdown, it's just then

the fun starts, you know. you know, you

have a great vocal, you have that hookie

uh kind of feel, and then we want a big

riff to come in as soon as the drop

comes. We want massive paths to go along

with that beautiful plug. So, in this

case, we just stacked a bunch of u

sawtooth saw wave synths. Uh a silent

with a lot of stuff on it, another

silent, another silent, all with

different processing on top of it.

And they're all basically playing the

same lead melody. So if I play you the

individual stems, you'll hear it.

Here it's filtered.

So the more I stack on top of it, the

more epic it gets. The bigger this the

squares, the the you really you want to

make that transy feel. because you want

to have that euphoric uh moment and

that's why I use stack and in this case

I use a track stack which basically

means a couple of these tracks all these

sins are being routed to a bus and on

the bus again there's loads of EQing

going on there's a big SSL plugin on

that just to make it big make it nice

and of course uh very important for the

mixing part the LFO tool again to give

the kick some case.

What we do is we make our edit soon as

we've done the extended version. We make

the edit in the same arrangement.

There's a reason for it because if you

want to make changes to your extended

version, you also want to make them in

your edit. So, for example, if you

decide to put your kick louder or softer

or you want to add an element to it, you

don't only want to do it to your

extended mix, but you also want to do it

to your edit. So, as soon as we've done

um with the extended version, we

basically copy the entire media

automation, the audio information behind

the track and we just start removing the

beginning and the end, make it shorter,

so you have an edit for the online

portals and and whatnot. So, usually the

edit is the one that gets on all the

online portals. The extended version is

usually more for the DJs. It's available

on Beatport and a number of other

portals. Um, but the edit is usually the

version you hear, but we always think in

extended versions. And the cool thing

about making an edit is you can throw

away everything and make it shorter. And

usually shorter is better. Not always,

but uh in this particular case, the if

you hit a track in 3 minutes, uh I like

the extended version better, but you

know, in these times, everybody wants to

hear an edit of three minutes, three and

a half. So that's why we always choose

to put the edit behind the extended

version.

The basis of DJing is very simple. It is

you're entertaining somebody else. And

it starts with your enthusiasm for a

certain piece of music, whether it's

your own music or other music that you

really like. And I'm sure you know the

feeling that when you've heard this

amazing song or this amazing album, if

you're really excited about it, the

first thing you do is you share it with

somebody else. Uh you know when and back

in the days when I used to buy CDs,

when I was excited about a track, the

first thing I would do is I would either

call my brother or I would tell my wife,

"Come, come here, listen to this track.

Listen." I would put it really loud and

and that excitement is the basis of

DJing. You want to share your passion.

You you you want to scream from the top

of your lungs, listen to this music,

whether it's your own or or music from

somebody else, this music needs to be

heard. You need to hear this. So, if you

have that enthusiasm, you're already

basically a DJ cuz you're sharing your

passion, your excitement for for music.

I started to DJ in a local club in

Leiden, uh which was basically my

education. And it was a really really

small club. I think just as big as a

studio. I I think it had a capacity of

about 50 or 60 people. But it was a

great place to start for me. And that's

how I educated myself. You know, I I

DJed for 7 hours uh once a week, twice a

week, sometimes three or four times. And

it was a normal thing, you know, playing

seven hours straight. And uh sometimes I

even had to bartend while I was DJing,

while I was spinning. And I was just

having the best time because that was a

place where I could test my uh my music

for an actual crowd and sometimes there

were 20 people in the room and if I got

them dancing, you know, that it meant

that the track worked, you know. So I

was I started to use that really small

residency that I had as basically that

was my university

that nightclub cuz I self-educated and

of course there were other DJs there

that taught me some tricks and and uh if

I saw uh if I saw that there was a

poster for a DMC mix championship or

something I went you know I bought all

the VHS tapes to see all the DJs do the

weird tricks with scratching and and and

all that sort of stuff and I try to

recreate that cuz with my friends we had

battles um uh mixing, you know,

scratching for each other and and having

a little fun. So everything that I

learned I, you know, sucked it up.

Well, being a DJ these days is different

than 20 years ago. I mean, 20 years ago,

the DJ was basically just a little bit

better than the barman. Back in the day,

uh, the DJs were were the the the guys

spinning the vinyl, and the producers

were usually glued against the wall

behind the DJ, and they were usually the

nerds holding their white labels, hoping

they would get a moment to give the

white label to the DJ and praying that

that DJ would play that track. And now

the nerds took over like me.

And now we're we're the DJs because

every DJ out there, every popular DJ out

there, uh, is making their own music.

Uh, it sounds crazy. So, if you want to

be playing music, you have to make your

own music. But that's the reality.

An important factor if you want to be a

DJ is to stay on top of things. So, you

have to self-educate not only about

software, about production

possibilities, but the most important

thing is if you're an aspiring DJ and

you want to play the major festivals, I

mean, you can also be an underground DJ

and choose to go a completely different

direction. I'm not here to tell you what

to do, but if that's what you want to

do, you need to know what other DJs are

playing. You need to know what tracks

are hot. I'm not saying you need to play

those tracks, but you it's good to have

that knowledge. Maybe you can do

something with it. Use an element of it

in your own music. make a mashup or

maybe speed it up or, you know, give

people a little hint. You're an

entertainer, so people want to be

entertained. And if you're going to play

radically different music,

I don't know if people are really going

to enjoy it. Maybe because you're so

radically different and you do it with a

big smile and maybe you put an elephant

on your head. I don't know if that

entertains people. It can work. But it's

really important to keep on top of

things. And fortunately, we have the

internet. You're only a few few mouse

clicks away from the latest developments

in electronic music. And I'm not saying

again that you need to play the top 10

most popular tracks. That probably won't

get you anywhere because that's what

people hear everywhere. But maybe play

one or two, mix it up, mash it up, play

a few of your own tracks.

Maybe that's a good start.

I'm not the type of guy that prepares

his set to the minute. There are DJs

that do that. No disrespect. That's

fine. I can completely understand. But

I'm a bit old school. Uh the way I

started as a DJ was in a bar and I used

to look at the crowd and then decide

where I went with my set. If I would

play a pre-programmed DJ set, I wouldn't

like my job very much anymore. I love

room for experimentation. And so the way

I organize my DJ sets uh is that for

example, if I have a 1 hour DJ set and I

know I can play between 18 and 22 tracks

in one hour, I would have a folder of 40

tracks standing by. Everything

organized. So the tracks that are in the

same key, they're all mixed together. Um

and then I know in my head which tracks

I absolutely want to play. I usually

know my starting track and my second

track. After that, they can go any way.

And that also makes it exciting for me

because I've noticed that the crowd kind

of feels when I'm excited or not. So if

I'm tired or if I pre-programmed my sets

in a minute, I can't get excited. It's

not exciting for me. So that's why every

DJ set that I prepare, I I want to leave

room for experimentation.

A DJ set, a good DJ set, in my opinion,

tells a story. Um, and the story it

doesn't mean uh every story starts the

same. But, uh, I love it. Uh, when a DJ

set has a a beginning, a middle, and an

end. On my last show, I had a really

famous trumpet player called Eric Flums.

Uh, he was introduced in three sections

of the show. It's an old theater rule.

Um, to he was there for the opening, he

was there in the middle playing a a

really small little thing right in the

middle of the show, and he was there for

the end. So, I love that that that's

storytelling and and bringing back those

elements and people love that because

they recognize it. I've just used this

trumpet in three different ways, but it

does connect uh the whole evening and

and give some sort of a flow and and

tells a story. For example, this track

is Sunny Days, but I also have a

beautiful encore version of this. So,

let's say this track would be the

absolute highlight of my set. people

will go crazy and I I just feel like in

my set halfway through this was the

highlight. Then I could as an option uh

play another version of the same song

but just as an encore version. So, we

had the set and you already heard Sunny

Days, but it's already been an hour ago.

And this was the highlight of your set,

but I introduced the same track,

same chord progression, but as an encore

song. Now, this could be an encore song

for me. So, I we'd be playing the the

the same song twice in my DJ set, but in

a completely different way.

She woke up in the morning.

It's like, you know, the sweet dessert

at the end.

And further on in this track, I do

introduce

the breakdown of the club mix again.

So, here we go. The plucks come again.

And one more time, I build up to that

massive drop.

So that would be my last track of my

set. And it would just be a reference to

one of the highlights of my set. And

this is one way you could build a DJ set

by bringing in elements or different

versions of of your set and tease fans

with it. Especially if it's a big single

and it's doing well.

If you want to be successful and if if

you're an aspiring DJ, you want to be a

headliner on all the major festivals,

you got to have something unique. And

that can mean that you have to play a

track or you have to play a set that

people recognize but is a little

different. So try to surprise people. Um

I think it's very important to ask

yourself one question. Give people a

reason to come out of their homes. Tell

me in two sentences why they would have

to come and see you. What is so special

about you as an artist? Why are you

better than the next headliner? Do you

have a a great track out? Is it your

performance? And dare to be different.

You know, nobody tells you what to do in

this life. Life is short. Make it worth

and try to be different than the other

guy. So think yourself, what do I really

like? Because you know, one thing I find

extremely important as a DJ, if you're

trying to be the next DJ and you're

trying to be a copy of somebody else,

people are going to see. People are

smart. But if you're real and you're

playing music that comes from your soul

and from your heart and you're having an

amazing time, that's all that people

want to see. So try to be you. And

that's probably the best advice I can

give you of the entire master class. Be

yourself. My mother always taught me

every day we wake up a little bit more

and you discover yourself your own

tastes. I now listen to completely

different music than I used to listen to

10 years ago because your sound changes.

Accept who you are and try to present

who you are on stage because that's when

you are at your best.

There's a lot to say about constructing

a DJ set. I think it's a whole different

craft. Um I could talk for this about

this for hours. Uh but normally the way

I would construct a DJ set is I would

say okay um here's all my music. Um I

used to DJ with vinyl and when I was

DJing with vinyl I usually had a bag of

records and that bag could hold maybe

100 150 tunes. Um and I would probably

go shopping for records twice a month or

three times in a month. Uh my crate now

is digital, but I still like to think of

my uh record box as you know stack of

vinyl. So what I do, I organize my

tracks in folders for months. And these

this is the the folder for this month.

These are all the tracks that I think uh

I I want to play in my DJ set. This is

my record box.

Um, when I prepare a Tomorrowland set,

for example,

um, I make a folder and I call it, um,

Tomorrowland

and I start with the tracks that I

really, really, really want to play

because usually when you're playing on a

big stage like Tomorrowland or EDC or

Ultra, you get an hour, an hour and a

half and you have to make it worth

because there's a probably a really

popular DJ beame before you and probably

a really popular DJ playing after you.

So, how are you going to impact? How are

you going to uh have a character there?

How are you going to stand out from all

the other DJs that are playing before or

after you? Well, uh my advice would

always to introduce be to always

introduce a couple of your own songs.

Your own songs is what makes you stand

out. And the cool thing is if you if

you're your uh your uh your own producer

and you produce your own songs, then you

have the freedom to play it for as many

times as you want. If other DJs play a

specific song for five years, it's a bit

weird. But your own songs you can start

playing forever. So let's say this is

the folder that are all my tracks of the

month October or the month that I'm I'm

going to play. All right, I've decided I

really want to play

this one and this one.

Maybe this one.

I live for red energy. So, let me just

grab a few tracks.

I like that one.

So, these are are the essentials for me

that I absolutely want to play in my DJ

set.

I throw them in this folder.

So, these are the essential tracks. So,

I'm starting to look to see if there's

uh a possibility of creating mashups or

editing tracks. Every track that I play

in my DJ set gets an edit. So, I would

really strip down uh my set to the bare

minimum to see if I can create

interesting combinations, but really,

okay, what do I want? What part of this

track do I want to use? I'm not I don't

have the time to play the entire track

because the entire track is maybe six

minutes and I want to play 18 or 19

tracks. So, I have to edit my tracks

and, you know, making mashups, combining

different tracks, making using different

elements from different tracks. That's

also a way to set you up.

Let's say I really love this track. So,

let's um let's pull up Ableton. It's 132

BPM. So, I start to listen to this song.

has a pretty long intro. It's a very

long track. I want to play it. It's not

a known track. So, that's a bit risky

because if I'm playing a massive stage

somewhere, the attention span of the

crowd is bound to go away. If I play the

entire intro of the song, I mean, don't

get me wrong, I love the intro and I

think it really suits the track. Just

for my set that I want to play and I

only got an hour and I really insist on

playing this song, I have to make a

choice. So, what I usually do is I I

look for where that the track starts.

That would be a starting point for me.

I don't need this. Throw that away

here.

So instead of going here, I would go

there. So let's just I just remove all

the extra information. I'm sorry because

sometimes it feels like I'm I'm ruining

somebody's painting, but I have to

because I can't play the entire track. I

simply don't have the time. So now the

buildup will go something like this.

Few bars of this

and move this

already there.

Already feels pretty long to me.

Now you hear that transition. It's not

really going smooth. There's a couple of

tricks for that. You just grab the last

bit of uh of this, put it on a different

track,

uh, you know, just pull up a reverb,

put it on wet, make it a bit long, roll

off the low end, down the volume a

little bit.

That's still a bit weird. it still

sounds like it's a cut. And there's

several tricks to do that. What I love

to do is pull up my sample library. Uh

go to a a library that I love. Here's uh

fills. And I go to this one, long fills.

And let's see if that one works. I don't

know.

128.

It already introduces the breakdown a

little bit more. Um,

let's see if I have a a nice drop or

something that helps me with the

transition.

A little impact. Maybe

that sounds nice. Maybe something with

more low end. That could work. So, put

that here.

And maybe something reversed.

Uh, reversed

synth or a vocal.

That could be nice. Just a reversed

effect. So now where we previously

really hurt the cut, now I get this.

So I've cut the track, made it shorter.

I can still play it. Uh I can introduce

people to new music. Yes, I'm I'm

cutting into somebody's painting, but

you know, if you want to hear the

original version, it's it's it's out

there. But, uh, at least I can play the

stuff that I want to play. So,

especially if I play these massive sets

for uh big festivals, I always make

edits of all my tracks, try to add

elements to it, u maybe enhance the

drops a little bit, and also look at the

mastering because sometimes I feel that

a track, even though it's mastered,

doesn't really sound uh like the track

before that I want to play or the track

after. So, I do spend a lot of time also

maybe EQing a little bit here and there

or making sure it's loud enough or it

has a big impact.

So, when I prepare for a DJ set, I look

at my short list of tracks that I've

selected that I I absolutely want to

play and then I start looking at

interesting combinations. Uh there's

several ways to organize uh uh your

crates. Uh a lot of people use this

software. Uh mixing key. Uh it's a piece

of software that helps you to analyze uh

what keys your tracks are in, what BPMs

your tracks are in. Uh there's several

ways that you can use uh the key

notation. You can use the Camelot keys

uh which is something that's very easy

to help you with minor and major chord

scales to see what tracks fit together

easily. I'm a bit old school.

I love to use sharp keys.

So, my entire DJ career, every track

that's that I've used or played, uh,

first I've put into the right key in

BPM.

So, here you see all the tracks that

I've selected for my set. I want to play

it Tomorrowland.

And behind every track, you see what the

source is. It's a web file or it's a

it's a 320 MP3. I try to avoid that as

much as possible. I try to play web or

AIF or the highest quality I can get

and I start analyzing what keys I have.

I don't want to play my entire set the

same key because that's a bit boring.

But let's see. I I'm seeing here I've

got F. I got one in G. Oh, here's one in

Gar. Hey, I see one in G# here as well.

So my track UR u my track F flashlight

and another track from a guy called Coma

are all 128G sharp.

So that's interesting. So I can see what

elements of these tracks do I like best.

Let's play the coma track to see if what

that track is about and why when I play

it.

I like that. Good energy in there. It's

a bit boring that section. What track do

I What What section of this track do I

really like?

I like that melody

creator.

I don't know if I necessarily like that

drop so much, but I do like the melody.

So, let me put uh that track into

Ableton.

Let me grab another track

flashlight that's also in 128 BPM.

And maybe

let's grab URO,

which also happens to be 128 G#. I'm

just going to throw them all in.

Now, in Ableton, you want to make sure

everything's attached to the grid.

So, what I normally do, I would grab one

of the last kick drums and the first one

and tie them to the grid.

So, here we go. There's the first beat.

That's correct.

Here I go.

If you don't know where you are with the

grid, there's a little metronome here to

help you. So, I'll solo this. Turn on

the metronome. Go to 128 BPM.

So, I hear it's on the grid. The third

track.

Let's go.

Here's another track. Put the first beat

right there.

Make sure it's accurate. Last beat here.

See, it's always a little off. You make

have to make sure that the beginning and

the ending are tight.

Okay. Um, now I'm going to drop the

volume a little bit because I don't want

to distort. So I'm going to put every

track at minus 10

minus 10 dBs. All right, here we go. So

now I can start

mashing the tracks up. See where I find

it. What elements do I want to use?

I like this section. It's a really good

song, but I think I want to use the

melody of this section.

I want to use that, but I want to use

the intro of this track.

So, for example, I'm just going to throw

away that entire section of the song and

use this as the uh as the intro for that

track.

Flush light. Flush light. Flash light.

Okay. Um, that's not going to work. So,

what if I put it here?

See, now I made a seamless transition.

This track is 128 Garp and this one is

the same. So just by cutting it,

I've added another intro to that uh to

that part. Here's my other track with

Senary James and Ryan Marciano. It

already has a lead.

A lot of elements going on. You know

what? Maybe I'll just pull up the ac

capella of this song. And I it happens

to be my track. So, let's see if I can

pull up the ac capella here. So, let me

pull up another audio track. Let me see.

Uh, you are extended ac capella.

So, I know this track is 128 BPM. Oh,

it's a little softer. That doesn't

matter.

All right. Here we go.

You are You are sexy. You are free. You

are.

You are. You are pure. You're my God. I

want more. You are fire.

So, I have the ac capella of this track.

You are sexy. You are sweet.

I'm going to throw away the entire other

track. I just want the ac capella. So,

let's see if if it sounds cool if I put

if I put this here. So, we introduce the

drums here.

Flesh light.

You are sexy.

Okay, that needs to go here.

You are sweet. You are hot. Feel the

heat. You are pretty. You are pure.

You're my kind. I want more. You are

fire. My desire. You are fine. And

you're mine. Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine. You

are sexy. You are sweet. You are hot.

Feel the heat. You are pretty. You are

pure. You're my kind. I want more. You

are fire. My desire. You are mine. And

you're mine. Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine. You

are.

Actually, I think the drop should go

there. Let's cut this entire section

because I don't want my tracks to be

that long. I just want to tease a little

bit with different elements from

different tracks. So, I think this is

long enough.

There we go.

Make that shorter. Maybe we need a

little bit more of a dramatic drop right

there. So, that's when I use uh samples.

So, let's go here. Let's pull up uh I

don't know, some dramatic fills

and maybe a big drop uh a drop fill. Let

me see.

I want to add some elements to it so I

can introduce that new drop. So, let me

pull up another audio channel. See if I

can find a nice fill to fill up.

That sounds nice. Let's just put that

here. I know it's 128 BPM.

See if that fits.

Turn down the volume a little bit.

Here we go.

You are sweet. You are hot. Feel the

heat. You are pretty. You are pure.

You're my kind. I want more. You are my

desire. You are mine. And you're mine.

Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine.

So, I just made a mashup of four tracks.

Um, I intro I'm using this as an

introduction to Koma the Creator. I'm

coming out of a track called Flashlight.

I have the ac capella view and I'm using

a snare fill from a package from uh

Vengeance just to introduce that drop.

This way I can still play the tracks I

want. I've played the ac capella of UR,

so my fans have heard UR just in a with

a completely different uh feel to it. It

has a completely different background.

For every DJ set, I try to make edits

like this to make my set more exciting,

throwing elements from different tracks

together and making your set more

unique.

The secret to making people dance is the

music that you play. And this is your

equipment. Uh, as a DJ, uh, you can use

all these wonderful knobs and buttons.

And there's a there's a lot of buttons.

And over the past couple of years,

they've been adding more and more

buttons and more possibilities. When I

started my DJ career, I had nothing but

vinyl, two turntables, and uh over the

last couple of years, they uh switched

completely to digital. So, basically,

the tools that I'm using, basically,

this is a computer. Uh this has uh uh

almost nothing to do with uh with with

vinyl anymore. I would strongly advise

if you're an aspiring DJ, anybody to

really get into this equipment. And that

doesn't mean you have to buy it. Uh, I

tell all aspiring DJs to rent this

equipment for a month. Uh, put it in

your home and turn it upside down.

There's a lot of functionality on these

uh, on these players and you can use

them in so many different ways. I know

hip-hop DJs like to scratch with the

CDJs and that's super cool. That's

something I normally won't do. I may do

a backspin using the vinyl mode

function. Um, I limit uh myself to using

a few functionalities of the CDJ and my

u my audio goes into a mixer. I've

chosen this mixer. Um, I like the sound

of this particular mixer. I like uh the

effects that that are on this mixer

because it has separate reverb, delay,

um, you know, different effects per

channel. U, there's other mixers where

you only have can select one effect that

you do on your master or on a on a

specific channel. Um, all my audio comes

from a USB thumb drive. The cool thing

about USB is um is that you can upload

the tracks using the record box software

um that's provided. Record box uh not

only helps you to organize your tracks,

but also it automatically analyzes every

single track. It basically puts a grid

over each track. It recognizes the BPM.

It recognizes the key. And that's a

great way to organize your music.

There's a link functionality in every

Pioneer uh player. I stay away from it

because the Pioneer players are

connected via an Ethernet cable. Uh so

it means if you're using the link

functionality that you're basically

playing the audio not from your local

thumb drive that's inserted in your

player. You're playing it you're playing

the audio from a thumb drive that's

connected to this player. Generally in a

live environment, I would suggest to

only use the USB that is plugged into

the actual player. Um, don't use the

link functionality because that cable

can get loose. You know, you have to

understand you're working in an

environment where everything is

trembling, everything is moving, your

cables are moving and sometimes it can

happen that a cable will detach from the

other player. Gone is your link

functionality and then uh the uh CDJs

will go in an emergency loop. and then

you'll lose the vibe of your set and

then you start shouting at everybody and

that that's not a nice thing. That's not

what you want to do. The reason why I

have four players. I I may be using a

third player just for an extra loop if

I'm you know if I'm feeling like it. But

the main reason why I have two more

decks is because uh these these are

computers and they can break and it

often happened that you know for example

the jog dial here breaks or you know

somebody spilled a drink and your pitch

and you can't use your pitch control

anymore. There's a thousand things that

can happen. So, if you have an option to

do that, always make sure you have at

least three CDJs standing by. Uh, so in

case something happens, you can always

move to the other CDJ.

I like to organize my uh my USB thumb

drives and two ways. First of all,

I here have all my tracks for this

month, October. So, this is my October

folder. These are all the tracks that I

like to play this month. It's my record

box. These are all the tracks that I

play that I trust, some new tracks, some

old tracks. I start with my intro

tracks. I have several intro tracks here

at the beginning of uh my October month

folder. And then I go down and I order

my tracks in order of BPM. And I order

them in key. So you'll see here there's

quite a few tracks that are 128 F minor

and I go all the way down my BPM will go

up and I'll order them um in such a way

that the next key that's coming up so if

I'm moving from F minor I know uh I can

use C minor uh because it's in the same

chord so it's the last note on the same

chord. So that's why I put C minor 128 C

minor after that. So, making sure your

tracks are ordered in key gives you the

opportunity to quickly mix to the next

track because the crowd won't really

notice if you're mixing properly, uh,

that you're go that you're transitioning

to another song. You have to be very

wary of one thing, though. If you're

mixing your entire track, your entire

set list in, let's say, uh, F minor, it

can be a little bit boring. Sometimes

it's cool to dramatic dramatically go to

a different key because that makes it

more exciting.

As a DJ, I'm always counting in the back

of my head, and that's something you

have to teach yourself. Um, the best way

to make a transition, obviously, is

follow the 16 bars. I'm always counting.

1 2 3 4 2 2 3 4 3 2 3 4 2 And you, you

know, when you start as a DJ, it may

sound a little tedious, but it can

really get you going. Um because if you

start counting in the back of your head,

you can never miss a single beat. Almost

every track is built off of sections of

16 bars, 32 bars. Um maybe you've heard

it. If you've been mixing yourself, then

you know that. Um if you order your

tracks in keys, that makes your job even

more easy. And I like to work with hot

cues and Q's. Basically, it means if I

select a track,

let's go to this track,

it automatically starts at the very

first beat.

Now you can see that I made a hot Q here

and a Q point here and I can instantly

jump to that particular section using

these two buttons. I do this in my

record box software. So now I jump uh 16

bars further into the track.

Why do I do that? Well, I have an

option. Let's say I'm playing a longer

set. Then maybe I want to play this

section of the beat. But when I'm

playing a short set, maybe on a

festival,

and maybe I don't want to have that

section at all because it makes the

track really long. So using Q Q buttons

and Q positions in your track, you can

instantly jump to different positions in

your track and then shortening the

track. A lot of people ask me, why don't

you just make an edit? I mean, a lot of

people go into Ableton, shorten the

tracks. Well, here's a very simple

reason. Maybe people really like this

track, but I've edited into 3 minutes.

Hey, uh, there's no way to extend this

track anymore because I made an edit.

So, what I do, I use the quantize

functionality of the CDJ. And this is

some a function that I absolutely love.

And I'm going to show it to you right

now. What I've done, I made a hot Q

here. Now, I'm going to fast forward to

that position, the first drop in the

track.

This is the breakdown.

Now, what I'm doing, I'm looking at the

crowd, and I'm carefully analyzing to

see if people are enjoying this track.

Put my hands up, try to build the party.

I mean, I love this track. That's why

I'm playing it.

Now, this drop that's coming right now

is the exact same as later on in the

track.

I'll play the first drop.

And now I'll jump to the second drop.

The same sound.

So when I when I plan this methodically,

but I I'll jump to the same position

again. And because of the quantiz

functionality, it will end the bar and

jump to the second track.

Nobody hears that I jumped. And I just

skipped half the record.

So, this gives me the option to decide

maybe I do not want to play the entire

track because I'm looking at the crowd.

Are they feeling this? Maybe this is a

little bit more of an unknown track. You

know what? I'm just going to jump to

that second drop and nobody hears it.

At the beginning of my career, I thought

I needed to do a lot of uh effects and

and scratching and all that, but I found

out that for my type of music, people

really come for the tracks. So, I want

the tracks to shine through and

celebrate the music with the people that

are in front of me. Scratching and all

that sort of stuff can be cool.

Definitely, if that's your thing, it can

be. But for my type of DJ sets and and

the music that I would like to play,

people really come to hear the tunes.

So, the vocals, the breakdowns. So, I

really do not mess too much with if

there's a beautiful melody there or if

there's a beautiful breakdown coming.

You know, once I've decided to play that

track, I let it breathe.

Let's make a transition. Uh, I'm going

to start in the in the first breakdown

of this track. My crowd doesn't like the

track, so I'm going to play a little bit

of a different track. Same BPM, and I'm

going to start mixing in this track that

h that is in the same key. Uh, now

listen carefully what happens.

Check out the mix. This is the mix. This

is the queue. And I'm going to queue up

this track. And I'm going to move 16

bars further.

Looking at the crowd interacting. See if

they like the track.

Kick the feel the bass on this one.

Fader still closed.

They don't like this track. So, I'm

going to drop.

Nobody noticed that I actually jumped

and I shortened this track.

I'm going to bring in this track slowly.

Now there's a fill coming here and I

still haven't introduced the low end of

the next track.

Here we comes and instead of the

baseline on this track, I'm going to

move to this track right at at the right

point.

This is still running. I can hear the

percussion going and hear the lead, but

I've already introduced the baseline of

the second track.

I love to use the loop functionality.

So, I still have

the stab going

and I'm using the reverb

and open it up.

That's a I've just I've just ended this.

This could be the end of my set or

something. But that's how I would

generally do a a transition. Make sure

it's smooth and people don't actually

notice that you're going to the next

track.

Let's jump into this track.

So here I'm playing here I'm playing

this track and instead of mixing in the

track when the beat's running, I've

decided to start mixing it already.

It's already running, but it's in the

same key. And I'm I've decided that I

only want to play a very very short bit

of this track because I want to quickly

mix in the next breakdown. I'm in a

hurry, you know. I only have 1 hour. I

need to impress people. But this track

is already running.

I'm already teasing with the next rag

without the the low end already.

Because the two tracks are in the same

key, I can quickly mix. And now I'm

overlapping two tracks almost the entire

track. And here's the next breakdown.

So this mixing in key enables me to put

more tracks in a shorter time. It gives

high energy to the crowd. really makes

him going. This is a transition I

normally wouldn't do when I'm playing

like let's say a three-hour set. I would

let the record breathe a little bit

more. Uh because, you know, the producer

of the track probably meant something

with the arrangement, make out the you

know, make it come out the melodies a

little bit better and a little bit more,

which is fine, but if you're playing a

mainstage set, you want to impress

people. So, probably means that you have

to mix very fast. So, some of my tracks

are in the mix, maybe two, two and a

half minutes maximum, and then I'm on to

the next track.

Well, the problem with uh tempo shifts

in tracks is that you're basically not

on the grit. And it doesn't have to be a

problem. You know, everything comes with

preparation. So, let's say I'm switching

to 150 BPM. I probably make sure that I

have another 150 BPM track uh ready to

stand by and you know mix it in into

that but then I can't use the grid

functionality. Some people like to use

the beat sync. I'm not a fan of that

because it means record box need to

needs to do its job right and sometimes

when you're quickly importing a track

record box doesn't always get it right.

Nine out of 10 times it does but if it

doesn't you're looking really silly if

your track just you know runs out of

sync. So, I don't trust uh record box

fully. I always trust my own ears and I

I never look at the grit. These tracks,

obviously, it worked out really well,

but especially if there's a a speed up

in a track, obviously record box won't

be able to follow you. So, you still

have to use your ears, but that doesn't

mean you can't play that track. You

know, if there's a transition could be

really cool, but one of the things that

can help you is also just start stop. I

mean, you don't always have to do a

transition like I've just showed you.

You can also decide to just stop the

track with a reverb and then start the

next track, maybe a start stop mix. You

don't always have to do the same

transition. I like it because it brings

you into a certain state of trans,

especially with trans music. People like

to be connected to the beat all the

time, but there's other types of

electronic dance music where it's almost

a rule to start stop your mixing. So

again, how you mix and how you make your

transition is entirely up to you. I like

to mix in key and try to make the

transitions as smooth as possible. And

sometimes stopping my DJ set and, you

know, doing a some sort of an encore or,

you know, transitioning to a little bit

of a different section. But generally

speaking, I stick to 132 BPM and build

up my set slowly to 134, 136, and 138.

But that's just the style that I choose.

Um, it depends on who you are as a DJ

and what you want to represent. Again,

there's no right and wrong. If the crowd

is dancing in front of you, who am I to

say it's right or wrong?

I like to use reverb a lot. Uh, it

smoons out my transitions. For example,

when I'm going into a breakdown, I like

to have the reverb from the previous

track a little bit only in the high end.

So, it makes the transition even more

smooth. And I like the sound of the

reverb diff of this particular thing.

So, let's say I'm playing this track,

right?

You are

Heat. Heat.

Heat. Heat.

So the track I used a reverb to it was a

little bit loud. Uh now I would normally

bring it the volume down a little bit

more but you get the point for the

demonstration. Uh you have a reverb on

the previous sound. So the last note

will last a little bit longer if you use

it very smoothly if you're really

interacting and you know you can use it

as an extra instrument.

Also, one of the uh things that I love

about this mixer is that you're able to

switch very quickly and add another

channel to your sound. So, for example,

I'm playing this track and I can pull

this channel here and I have the same

audio on this channel.

So, I have two channels of the same

track.

And you would think, why would I do

that? Well, it makes it makes it for

quite interesting possibility. Let's say

I put a reverb on this

I can make the track sound bigger. This

is a wet reverb, right?

can make the drop even bigger and make

the effects more dramatic or put a delay

behind it or you know that's that's what

I love about the the possibilities of

this mixer because uh you can easily

move and add tracks like if it's like I

can even put one track over four

channels and put a different effect on

all channels so you can go absolutely

crazy with that and I I quite often use

that

another thing I really like to use is

the loop functionality. If a beat's

running and you're doing a transition

and your track's almost about to end,

uh, put it in loop, but make sure that

record box uh, put your grid behind it

in the right time. Uh, there's a couple

of effects that are possible. U, I'm I'm

sure if you visited one of these

festivals, you heard a DJ play. Um, let

me make a short loop.

I can put the tempo in wide up the tempo

and shorten the loop.

And if I use the reverb, I can make it

even bigger.

It's great to use as a pitch riser or as

an ending of your set or, you know, you

can use it, you can make effects with

the CDJ. Like I said, it's an instrument

and it's fun to use.

This may sound weird to you, but I I

still get really nervous for all the

sets that I play. I start looking

around. I I want to see what the mood is

like in the room. Uh is there a line

outside the door? Uh how are the

bouncers treating the fans? Uh how's the

promoter? Is he happy or is he stressed?

Were there any technical issues? That

kind of stress can be can be can be

really heavy. Uh so be aware of that.

But also tell yourself that people on

the dance floor are there to have a good

time. So they're not there to to boo

you. They are there to give you a shot.

People like to see you smile. Make eye

contact with people in the first row.

Also, if you want to uh make sure you

contact with the entire crowd in front

of you, a really nice rule that uh

somebody from the world of theater

taught me is look at the last line of

people. So, when you're talking to the

crowd, don't don't be going like that.

Address your crowd, you know, be an

artist, present yourself.

One of the things that I learned uh

playing in the early start of my career,

I was playing in this really really

small club that's probably not even

bigger than this room that we're

currently standing in. Uh it had a

capacity of about 50 60 people, but I

learned some really basic rules there.

Uh I learned, for example, the rules

that if people are at the bar ordering a

drink and they really have to shout in

the ear of the bartender, you're

probably playing a little bit too loud.

the the people in front of you, they're

really in a good mood. They're going to

dance anyway. Uh, of course, you're

playing to them as well, but I always

like to look at the back and the people

on the sides. Those are usually the

critics. If they're headnodding, you're

probably on your way. You're doing a

good job. If they're not having their

arms up, it doesn't mean they're they're

not having a good time. You know, I've

seen DJs where the crowd would be having

their arms up the entire set and the DJ

after their arms were up, but not the

entire time. In general, speaking

online, after the DJ set, they thought

that he was a better DJ because he had a

little bit more daring track selection.

So, arms up in the air is not always a

sign of you doing a good job. If you see

the dance floor emptying, it can mean

either you're not playing a good set or

it's late, it gets cold. I mean, it's a

very delicate balance on a dance floor.

You know, the sound can be harsh. Uh

there can be a fight going on. uh it can

be 4:00 a.m. and people have to get up

in the early in the morning, so they're

leaving. It doesn't necessarily mean

that you are doing a bad job instantly.

So, please take that into account.

It's good to talk to the crowd because

it gives a personality, but I don't like

to overdo it. There's DJs that use the

microphone in every track. That's also

dependent on your style. I'm not here to

criticize other DJs. My style is to use

the microphone every four or five tracks

or when I feel the crowd is going down a

little bit. Whatever you say, say it

loud and say it proud and make sure that

they're able to hear you. Especially if

you're a young upand cominging DJ and

you have a DJ name, you know, put the

fader down for a little bit. Make sure

that people hear your name, but don't

talk for hours. people come to dance,

you know,

especially if you're an upand cominging

DJ, you probably have to warm up or play

after the headliner. Uh, that's always a

tough job, but guess what? That's what

everybody had to do. When I started as a

DJ, I had to play after the headliner or

before the headliner. I was just so

happy that I got a break. So, there's a

few tricks to overcome this. You have to

try to grasp them. So don't scare them

by all of a sudden putting the volume

really soft or really loud. Try to get

into the groove of what the of what the

the previous guy is doing and try to

lure them into a different sound, you

know, and also try to bring it down

because if you bring it down, you can

bring it back up. It's a very simple

rule. If you play nothing but peaks and

and highs and known track, people sort

of get fed up with vocals and mashups.

Sometimes you want to hear a track

that's a little bit more empty uh that

people can dance to, that they can

groove to. You know, I like to call this

dance music. So, I like to see the crowd

not stand still, though. The breakdowns

should not be too long, unless that's

something you do on purpose. But, um if

you're looking at an arc of a DJ set,

I'll be very careful not to have too

long breakdowns, especially in the

beginning. Uh, if the DJ before you has

a lot of long breakdowns or a lot a lot

of stops, you know, an encore and

another encore and another encore, maybe

it's a wise thing to uh, you know, the

first 20 minutes of your set to have no

breakdowns at all. Quickly mix and, you

know, skip the breakdowns. People want

to dance. You know, sometimes you see

young DJs, they come up and they want to

score and they want to, you know, they

want to be successful. They want to put

the hands up in the air and they want to

have the energy and they want, "Yeah,

I'm finally here. I'm standing in front

of 40,000 people. Yeah. You know, dude,

uh the DJ before you already played like

a ton of hits.

If you're playing for a mainstream

crowd, so a crowd that generally doesn't

go clubbing a lot or maybe a few times

and they're not really known in the

underground uh uh stuff, then I have the

one on oneoff rule. Uh, for me, like I

like to play a known track, whether it's

my own or or something that may be

bubbling on the radio a little bit and

then an unknown track and see how far

you can stretch it. I mean, I love

nights where I play one known track and

then four unknown tracks and then go

back to the known track. A known track

can just either be one of my tracks, uh,

a classic, uh, a top 40 record, maybe a

mashup, or something that you've played

before. I love to step out of my comfort

zone and I always look at the crowd and

see if I see the energy go. I also have

a folder on my USB drive that says if

all else fails. It's kind of that it's

my tried and tested tunes. It's the

tunes that I generally do not want to

play anymore. But if you're playing for

that crowd and they're waiting and

they're screaming for that tune, uh this

is just the type of DJ that I am. I like

to please people and you know if I'm

coming in a specific venue or specific

gig and people are holding up signs and

they want to hear that tune, I want to

be able to have that tune instantly

available.

Generally speaking, there are quite a

few unwritten rules in the world of

DJing. Don't play tracks from another DJ

that's before you or after you. Don't

play tracks from his or her label. And

if you can be a little nice and you know

that there there's a DJ that has a track

and that he loves and he plays every

set. Don't play it as your last track. I

mean

it's it's not it's you know there are no

rules in music. I know but still you can

try to be a little bit professional. I

don't want to go over my time. That's

something that always annoys me. If I

only have an hour and the DJ after me

has an hour, I make sure I stop exactly

dead on the hour so he has an hour as

well. Usually they have an intro. So

going 2 minutes over, it makes you look

a little bit silly. I mean, I don't get

angry anymore. I know that there's DJs

that do, but generally speaking, I like

a good atmosphere and I like a

professional attitude also from my

colleagues. I think it's really nice

when they are uh uh professional nice

and and you know, they shake each

other's hands and be respectful. Be in

the moment. Be in the moment. Be in the

moment. Be in the moment. Be in the

moment. Be in the moment.

Everything comes down to preparing. Um,

and this is I can't stress this enough.

Go online, go on Beatport, buy and

support the other artists that are out

there. They're making all this great

music for you to shine as a DJ. So, I do

a lot of homework. I spend hours on the

internet, checking other DJs track list,

listening to their radio shows, making

mashups, uh, mashups of other tracks, my

own tracks, trying to create interesting

elements to spice up my set. I mean, I

think if you're a DJ, you should be

ready for any situation. That also means

you have to be ready for the little

unprofessional guy that plays before you

and decides to play five of your own

tracks. You can do two things. You can

walk on stage and hit him in the head.

Or you can be professional and say,

"Okay, I'm going to change up my set."

So, that's why I have this October

folder with like five different intro

tracks. And of course, I'd love to start

with my best intro, but sometimes it's

simply not possible because the guy

before you plays the same track, but

then not as the intro, as his last

track. Well, too bad for you. Uh, that's

also a part of DJing. If you're playing

a party, you're playing for the people.

You're not playing for your own ego.

That's the way I like to view it.

The tracks you select is basically are

basically your your identity as a DJ.

That's the sound you're going to play.

So try to gather as match as many

mashups, exclusive tracks, edits,

remixes that no one has and mix it up

with a little bit more known tracks so

you can get, you know, you have exciting

uh stuff to present to your crowd. If

you're friends with other DJs and you

share your mashups with them, it's very

likely they'll send you a link to one of

their mashups. And then you have an a

pretty exclusive tune. So the next party

you might be playing, the other DJ isn't

playing. Hey, you have a mashup that no

one has. And that's your weapon. That's

your that's your merchandise. That's

what you have to sell. Also, what I like

to do is uh on my USB stick, I always

have a little bit of folder that has

weird tracks in it. You never know what

situation you're going to end up. Maybe

a DJ likes you very much and he asks you

to come and play backtoback with him in

an afterparty. Be ready for it. You

know, as a DJ, I think you just need to

select and collect and organize yourself

that as soon as you walk on stage, put

your thumb drive in and you start having

fun. I mean, at least that's my

philosophy and that's what I really

enjoy.

when your set's being broadcasted online

or on a radio show. Are you playing for

the crowd that's in front of you or are

you secretly playing for all the

tracklisters online? Because guess what?

When your set's over, you'll grab your

phone and you'll start reading the

comments on Twitter. Trust me, you will,

cuz I've done that as well. And then

you'll read the comments from the people

that are not on the dance floor. They're

sitting at home watching on on on

whatever social media. they're they're

they've experienced your set and maybe

the transition wasn't that smooth on

your third to fourth track and you know

you'll feel down because somebody gives

a comment about the mistake you made

but always remember this you're DJing

for the crowd that's in front of you. Um

I think it's really important to state

that. Um when you're making a radio show

that's different because then you're

interacting with the fans that are at

home listening or watching your radio

show. But when you're playing for a

crowd and that set's being broadcasted

all over the world, try to focus on the

people that are in front of you and try

to forget about all the people listening

online. I'm not saying they're not

important. I'm just saying like you have

to rock the crowd that's in front of

you. Those people are important and that

those are the people that matter. The

rest comes later.

I like to play the tracks that people

expect me to play a little bit, about

50%, the other 50% is stuff that I

really like. And I like to try to find a

middle ground. So in an ideal situation

when I'm having a good time, the crowd

is also having a good time. I think

that's a a very important thing to state

because if you're if you're there and

you're playing seven nights in a row and

you're on your seventh night and you're

a bit tired and you play the same set as

you played the night before, the crowd

sees that. I mean, you may be able to

fool one person, but there's a crowd of

40,000 people there. You're not going to

be able to fool them.

a radio show or a podcast is a very

direct way to communicate with your

fans. Uh the good thing about it is is

that there's no uh journalist or

anything uh correcting that. It's you

talking to your fans. I use my radio

show as a center of everything that I

do. Whether it's telling about a new

track, a new album, something that I did

on tour, something big coming up, a an

artist that I admire, uh a label I want

to support, I use my radio show as a

direct way to communicate. Also, the

radio show sort of uh makes me go

through all the new music that week. So,

I have to go through all my promos,

which is tedious sometimes because I get

sent so much new music, but because I

have a radio show, I need to go through

all those new tracks, which also uh

excites me because it prepares me for

the weekend. Uh, so sometimes I'm a

little bit bored. I go through all the

tracks, but there hasn't been a week

since I started the radio show that I'm

not inspired by a brand new song. That

also excites me to go back into the

studio to create my own music. So in a

way I make the radio show not only for

my fans but also for myself.

Every week I have about 60 new tracks

that I want to play in a radio show and

every week I get to play about 28

including uh the the standard things of

the show. Like every week on the show I

have a tune of the week which is my

favorite track of that week. I have a

future favorite which is uh the the web

vote. Uh people can vote on my website

and pick their favorite. We have a

trending track which is the most

discussed track of that specific week uh

like on social media. So I have a guy

monitoring the social media activity

during the show of last week. And then

again I play the the track that was most

talked about but not necessarily the

best but most talked about track of the

week after. Then I got this new thing

called Service for Dreamers, which is a

track that I get a story with from a

listener. Uh, which is one of my

favorite things of the show because we

always invite a guest to the studio,

tell a story about a specific track and

it really makes a connection with the

crowd. Uh, so those are always the

standard uh things uh in my radio show

and uh I always play a few recurrents. I

don't want to play all new music in my

show because that can be a little bit

uncomfortable if you play nothing but

new music. But mainly I would say 70% 60

to 70% of every radio show I do is new

music because that's what I want to use

radio for to get people in touch with

brand new music that I think they should

hear. Uh I dare to say that if you

listen to my radio show a state of trans

that you hear about well at least 60 to

70% of the trans tracks that matter you

know that really can have a big impact

or are successful in the charts or

whatever and underground charts that is.

So, uh, that that is what my goal is,

you know. Uh, I I feel like I'm the guy

in the middle. Uh, the connection

between all the great producers that are

out there and and the fans. So, I'm just

passing on the great music. Uh, and I

hope that people will like it. And the

radio show gives me a lot of creative

freedom because I can just play the

music that I really, really like and

share it with the crowd.

There's a lot of sources for good music,

and you don't need to be on all the big

promo lists to uh have a really good uh

forward-thinking radio show. Uh there's

a lot of blogs out there that you can

follow. Uh there's a lot of websites uh

that can tell you exactly what the new

and hottest tracks are. And again,

there's so much music out there. So many

new tracks every week. I think somebody

told me the other week there's like

30,000 tracks being uploaded to some of

the streaming portals every week or so.

So that's hours and hours of music. So

it's it's it's not possible for a human

being to listen to all the new music

that's being released every week. But

it's your job as a DJ to find that

specific track. So, you need to look on

the online and find the blogs that

support the music that you really like

and and look for the, you know, the the

trends. Also, there's quite a few

websites out there that tell you the set

list of the other DJs. I look at them

not to copy other DJs. I just want to

know what tracks are popular at the

moment. Use the internet as your tool

to, you know, get information about what

tracks are hot and not. And I got to be

honest with you, sometimes I miss out on

a track. But hey, you're a human being

and people understand that. So I will

tell that on the show like, okay, I I

got this as a promo two weeks ago,

missed out on it, but hey, this week I'm

going to make it up because you know

what? It is a great track.

What I'm looking for in a track when I I

listen to it, it has to hit me. It has

to hit me emotionally. Sometimes I even

switch off uh the naming. So, I just uh

make a playlist and I put on a different

screen like the news. I start reading

the news and I just use my keyboard to

go to the next track cuz sometimes I

don't want to know the name of the

artist because some that can be, you

know, sometimes you can just look for

labels and names and oh that's a great

artist, his previous track was great so

the next track will be great too. No, I

think it's also important to sort of

randomly pick tracks and start listening

through them. Uh because you you can be

very uh surprised how many really good

tracks didn't make it onto the top of

the pile. I every week I'm so surprised

that I find a track that like why did

nobody jump on this, you know, and it's

an unfair world in that sense because

some some good tracks don't get the

attention that they deserve. It's just

how it is. But it's your job as a DJ to

share that track with people.

I can play a new track on my radio show.

Tell my listener, "Hey, it's a new track

by such and such. I don't know if you

like it. Tell me if you like it." And

then the people talk back to you through

social media. They tell you if they like

the track. So, there's many tracks that

when I first heard them, I wasn't too

sure about it. Then when I played it on

the show and people replied to me, I I

all of a sudden I used their ears. You

know that feeling when somebody tells

you that, oh, the new album by such and

such is so great and you're like really?

But because your friend pointed you to

that album, you started listening to it

and you're like, hey, you're right. It

is a great album. You know, so sometimes

you need to use the ears of somebody

else to sort of be more open to a

specific track.

when you plan your radio show, let's say

you have an hourlong radio show, uh I

don't think it's wise to announce every

track because you know internet is so

good nowadays you don't have to put you

don't have to announce every track

because people can go online and can

find the track list. It is good to tell

them the website address. Um and it is

very good to keep reminding people what

radio show they're listening to. to

almost every talk. You can say

you're listening to a state of trance.

That was a new track by Vincent the

Moore still coming up. My brand new song

stay tuned. It's hot. But first, check

out this one. That can be one talk. And

you you get people excited because they

know that they have to stay tuned and

you want them to listen as long as as as

they can, right? Um so, and if you talk

too much, people will be annoyed by that

too. So, they're going to switch off the

radio. So, plan it, let the music

breathe, and when you say something,

make it short, make it snappy, a little

humor, uh, something specific like, uh,

I once said in my radio show, Who's

Afraid of 138? As a joke, now it's a

label. Uh, so, you know, stuff like that

makes people excited to listen to your

radio show. If you have a few things to

to say, for example, you've got a gig

coming up that's important that

everybody should know about. you've got

a uh a new single that you want to

premiere in that radio show. Um you've

got a new website that you want to

promote. Don't put all those things in

one talk. Try to spread it out through

the radio show. Also, if you have

jingles in your radio show, make sure

the jingles are uh that that they're

telling the right story. Sometimes I

hear a radio show going like this. The

jingle saying, "This is a state of

trance with Army Vanurren." Hey guys,

what's up? It's Army Vanurren with a new

episode of A State of Trends. That's

what your jingle already said, right?

So, don't share the information double.

You know, your jingle said that, so

don't repeat it. It's little tricks like

that that can help you.

It's good to be aware of the attention

span of the listener. Uh, somebody once

said that it's not bigger than 20

seconds. So you get 20 seconds to say

something and that will stick to

people's minds and the rest they will

forget. It's very important to uh write

down the things that you want to say in

a radio show. It's very particular how

you have to say it. Um I'll give you an

example. You have a competition, right?

You can give away a new album, your new

album or new compilation. So you could

present it in two ways. You could say,

"Hey, it's Army Vanurren. Stay tuned.

just a little bit, you'll win my new

album and here's a new track by such and

such. I don't think you'll get a lot of

reactions. But if you say,

"So, imagine you're one of the few

people that actually gets a signed copy

of my brand new album. Would you like

that?" Stay tuned. In just a little bit,

I'll tell you how you can be the lucky

winner.

That's just sort of u psychology of the

human mind, I guess. Uh we they call it

the inverse setup construction. Uh that

we also do that with for example giving

away tickets. You can say

in just a little bit I'm going to give

away tickets for my new show and here's

a new track. Or you can also say

how would you like to be dancing with

your best friends on one of the hottest

parties of the year? Stay tuned. In just

a little bit I'll tell you how you can

join my party. It's it's about involving

the listener in your world.

I make live radio every week. Uh even if

I record it, I do it in one take. Uh cuz

I like the element of live. Um when you

pre-record it, it sometimes loses that

that excitement of,

you know, the live radio show and people

miss that human connection. So, if you

make a little mistake in your talk,

that's okay. It gives it a human uh uh

character thing. Also, be very wary that

people that listen to your radio show,

they want to know about you. They want

to know what what happened on tour, why

you like a track. Be be a try and be a

personality on the air. Uh that makes it

fun to listen to a radio show. You know,

I I love to hear DJs that say like, "Oh,

uh yeah, so I'm playing this track. I'm

not too sure if I like this one or I

like this previous one better. What do

you think? So, interact with your

listener because your listener will

really appreciate it. And I think it's a

great way to promote your gigs if you

have gigs coming up, no matter how big

or how small. Also, a very important

rule is don't talk down on yourself.

Well, it's not such a big gig, but you

know, I hope you guys show up. No, tell

everybody like, "Okay, this weekend I'm

playing there. You need to come down.

It's going to be an epic night, and I

hope to see you there." You need to sell

yourself a little bit. You know, I hear

radio shows sometimes that make me feel

really uncomfortable because people are

just talking down on themselves.

I can't really listen to music with

normal ears anymore. I overanalyze

everything. You know, what's going on?

Is the baseline going up and down? Uh

what does the top melody do? That's why

when you take me to a bar or a club, I

immediately turn silent because I'm

starting to analyze the music. You have

to train your ear. It's also, I guess,

it's the same thing as as looking at

photographs or watching a painting. You

know, some people have attention to

detail. You know, how is this painting

made or how was this photograph shot?

What kind of lights did they use? What's

the shutter speed? Um, and that's how

you have to learn how to listen to

music.

There was always music in my house. My

father was a doctor and he worked really

really hard and uh his way to relax was

to play music really loud and that made

me feel at home cuz my bedroom was just

above his living room, the our living

room and my dad had these massive

speakers and he already had this big

tape machine and he used to record

really strange radio shows in the 70s

and 80s synthesizer music uh by the

likes of uh Claus Schulz Jeanjar. Of

course, I remember the the big cover,

the vinyl covers of his concerts in

China, which is still uh one of the

greatest albums ever made, I think, uh

together with Zuluke, also one of the

best albums ever made. So, I guess my

dad has been a massive influence first

and foremost.

When you're 14, 15, you try to love

something that your parents hate.

And boy did my parents hate dance music.

I guess that was really a big part of it

too, you know. Um I mean now they they

they appreciate it and and you know

everything is full circle now cuz you

know I I use classical elements in my

music and my father's extremely proud

but back then I can I I I think I lost

count how many times my dad came

storming up in my room saying please

turn it down like the same kick drum is

always on the same spot. Can you play

some different music? and like no

cuz I was at that age you know it was my

I was being rebellious against my

parents and dance music brought me

exactly that. So I felt at home

listening to electronic music. I felt at

home uh being with my friends talking

about the radio shows that we taped and

these other DJ s we were listening to. I

made my own concerts in my own bedroom,

you know, uh pretending that there were

be thousands of people there and I was I

really looked up to the popular DJs of

that era, you know. Uh they're still my

heroes now. I I know all of them. I I

said hi to them, but they're still my

heroes, you know.

There's quite a few artists that have

been extremely important for me. Uh

well, first of all, I call him the Jedi

Master, Ben Libron, simply because he

had a mix show on Dutch radio, uh which

was actually a part of another radio

show, and he used to uh make

combinations of several tracks or or he

would use a he would make an 8-minute uh

mega mix of all the Madonna tracks or

whatever. And I wasn't the biggest

Madonna fan, but he made her sound so

cool with all those edits and cuts. And

it just it just it wasn't, you know, it

was ear candy cuz it sounded so

different. and and I I looked back at

what he was doing and he was cutting

tape and was making edits and it was

making it sound so cool. Um, for me, I

guess I wouldn't be sitting here if it

wasn't for Ben Lebron. Back then, there

was nobody else mixing two records

together. And certainly he there was

nobody doing a 1-hour mix with all the

big hits of the year, 100 tracks in an

1-hour mix. Every kid that I knew was

taping his mixes and overanalyzing how

that mix was constructed and he, you

know, he used the chorus from one track

and then had the first verse from

another track and it sounded so cool. It

almost sounded like a new track. So that

was my inspiration to become a DJ. I

wanted to know how that was done.

Another guy that was really important

for me was Jojar. Um, I think he's uh so

uh he's been so important for the birth

of electronic music. He made it popular.

You know, he made synthesizers popular,

which is a weird thing now, but back in

the day, you have to understand that a

lot of people thought of the synthesizer

as a devilish instrument that could

never be used as as, you know, as a m

musical instrument. It's not it's not a

guitar, you know, that it can't be

anything. and Jean Zojar was the guy to

really make that popular together with

Vanelis who's a genius as well. I love

his music. Uh I have all their albums

and I still listen to them. Those albums

still sound timeless to me. They

basically invented trans music in a way.

I mean it was trans music before trans

music was named trans music I guess. Um

and I remember my father and I used to

listen to all of them you know. Uh

Antarctica the album by Fangelis was

hugely important to me. Zulu by

Jeiahojara, one of the greatest albums

ever made, I think. Same thing like um

Xiaomi Zhojara who made an ambient track

called Ananton

50minute ambient track with just a piano

pad. Beautiful, crazy. And I love this

different way of thinking. A little bit

rebellious, I guess. Uh that's what I've

always been into a lot.

Well, I have to mention a few DJs.

Obviously Paul Oakenfold, Sasha, John

Dickweed, Kyle Cox, Pong, Judge Jules,

To Paul, you know, the the the founders

of of of what we now call EDM or

electronic dance music or whatever you

want to name it. Uh they've been really

important to me. Uh a few Dutch DJs I'd

like to mention. Ron Mullandike, Dutch

DJ was really important to me. Dimmitri,

Marcelo, Remy, they were the Dutch

heroes back then and you know, I used to

follow them closely. Michelle de he had

a label that was really really

influential to me. Was sort of the early

techno I guess. Uh Speedy Jay, a Dutch

producer that uh I really admire a lot.

I have all his albums. So he would make

a track and then he would just put the

tempo of the entire track. You just just

half half of it and that that was the

track.

So that that those things always

inspired me.

I do think you can learn a lot from

classical music. Bach and Beethoven and

especially Mozart, they were already

really aware of of the emotion and how

you can play with melodies to really get

people excited or emotional. If you

listen closely, you can see that those

chords are quite basic. If you strip

them down, you're like, "Hey." And

that's how I get my inspiration, you

know, every time, every week, I have

piano lessons and I play a piece of

shopen. And I'm not a really skilled

piano player. I'm not I mean, don't ask

me to play for a big audience. I won't

because I'm not worthy.

But I always get inspired making a new

song, playing something that's already,

you know, out there.

Every DJ that I know or every top 100 DJ

in the world has become famous in a

different way. For some DJs, it was

their radio show. For other DJs, it was

their big track. Uh for other DJs, it

was their big collaboration with another

artist. That's also something to notice.

Or a couple of great releases on a

well-known label. So, there's always a

different story with every other DJ. So

there's not a path you have to walk. You

have to find your own path. It's out

there, but you just have to look for it.

Be in the moment. Be in the moment. Be

in the moment. Be in the moment. Be in

the moment. Be in the moment.

I'm 40 years old now. Uh, and I've been

making music for well since I was 15, I

think. And in the beginning, there

weren't that many people interested in

my music. Like like I said, I I released

that one track in 1992 on that small

label in the H. It took me eight years

to have my first big track and that was

a hit in the UK. So that was a long

journey. Of course, my parents were a

little scared of of you know what's he

doing with this dance music thing and I

had I had a good thing to fall back on

and I had that education. So that's why

I never felt the pressure of having to

perform or having to make a next track

to pay rent. You know, then you can get

pressured and that music is no longer

fun anymore because you have to make

music to make a living. So I was always

always very aware of that. So let's

finish my degree. Let's have something

to fall back on so I can still be having

fun in the studio. So I was trying to be

a little bit experimental because of

that because I wasn't I I I didn't have

to make tracks to be number one or

anything. I was just having fun in the

studio, you know, making really really

weird tracks. I made like a track of

that that lasted for two hours and there

was constantly elements adding. I mean

it's a silly thing, but I was just

trying different stuff, you know. I was

trying to think out out out of the box

and I guess that that helped me.

I remember uh uh having this little

small job just to make some money uh at

this firm that uh basically was a

supplier for the local record stores. So

uh um and there was a guy working there

who knew a guy who knew a guy and he was

working at a label. So, I made sure that

I I gave him a tape, a cassette tape,

and I gave him 10, you know, which was a

little bit of money for me back then,

buying 10 tapes and and putting all

those tracks on those tapes. And one of

those tapes ended up on the right desk.

So, there was a lot of frustration

there, making a lot of tapes that that

were just I probably ended up with the

garbage somewhere, you know. And I feel

bad because now I get a lot of USBs and

and and demos from other people and I do

give them to my ANR managers at at the

Armada office which is my label and uh

yeah, most of them are just not good

enough. You know, it's just because

there's so much music out there. If we

want to sign a track or release a track,

it has to be something special. It

really has to stand out. Uh there's tons

of stories of DJs that all of a sudden

are playing the main stages just because

they had one or two really successful

tracks. And those tracks are usually

really good standout tracks. They're

really special and they're usually

classics. So, uh, the way to get heard

is just to make a really good track. Uh,

and that's something that you have to

teach yourself. Um,

if nobody's hearing you, it probably

means that your track just isn't good

enough yet. You still need to work a

little bit more. I think every artist is

frustrated at some point because you

know it's not going exactly as you

planned in your head. But you know what?

I think that is something we share.

That's everybody shares that. You hear

this track by this other producer and

you think like why is he successful with

that track? I think my track is better.

No, it's not. Your track's not better.

His track's better cuz it's working on a

dance floor. The dance floor doesn't

lie. It's very true. It's a very harsh

lesson.

The quickest way to the top is to get

other DJs to play your tracks. And

that's a very important thing. There's a

couple of ways to do that. To reach

other DJs, you can either go through a a

well-known label. Labels are really good

at promoting and supporting you. So, if

you can associate your with your

favorite label and you think that your

music fits that label, just stalk the

record company. Uh most record companies

have demo drops. uh they have a phone

number, they have an office. So just

like I started, I just sent so many

tapes. I mean in the beginning of my

career, that's all I did. I wanted to

release on this and this label. Another

thing you could do, it's a little

harder. Uh but you can also approach

individual DJs. Many popular DJs out

there have their own labels. You can

also try to get signed to a label of a

DJ that you really like. For example, on

Armada, we have a demo drop. We have

seven ANRs that check all the records.

And trust me, we do check every demo

that's out there. Just make sure that

your track is good. If you are an

aspiring DJ, don't send a demo with,

"Oh, this track is not mastered."

Or, "Uh, I'm not too sure if you like

this, guys." No. Present yourself as,

"Guys, I have this track. It's great.

You need to hear it. Please check my

track." And also, don't send 12 tracks

at once. Send your three best ones.

Don't forget to include your email

address and make sure that they can

reach you if they like the track because

they will listen. And if they hear

something that they like, make sure they

can reach you. That's a very, very

important rule.

Your fan base is everything. And the way

to reach your fan base nowadays is

through social media. You need a social

media platform. You need to be on

Facebook. You need to be on YouTube. You

need to be on Instagram. You need to be

on Twitter. You make you have to make

sure that people can find you. That's

your job. You you're an entertainer and

you need to interact with your fans. And

fans love personality. They love to

hear, you know, it can be you can be an

extreme personality. Even online, you

know, uh I generally do not like people

who are negative, but if that's your

thing and if you can get noticed that

way, why not? I mean, there there's

quite a few examples of DJs that have

this arrogant look. Some people like it.

you know, they drive big cars and other

people think it's cool. It's fine. Who

am I to judge? Right? For my social

media, I love to share positive things

with my fans. Also, some of my doubts, I

mean, one of the things I do in my radio

show, I tell my fans if I if I'm not

sure about a track because it also makes

you human. So, not every picture you'll

see me on social media is a filled arena

with a lot of people with hands in the

air. Sometimes you'll see a picture of

my cat. Um, you know, we have a really

young cat now and it's that's also a

part of my personal life and I like to

share that because this cat stole my

heart and you know, I'm having a good

time with my cat or sometimes I'm having

fun with my crew on the road. I love to

share it with my fans because, you know,

I'm a human being just like yourself and

sometimes I want to have a little bit of

a laugh or sometimes I'm tired or

actually my set didn't go that well and

I share that with a vlog or I tell it on

the air and my radio show. I think it's

it's good to share something show

something of your personality because

you're a human being.

I made the conscious decision to keep my

private life private also because that's

my um my personal thing. I have two

children. I have a wife and I don't want

to share too much about that. There's

nothing uh exciting about that. I I'll

immediately admit I you know I take out

the trash. I go shopping. I help my wife

with cooking. where have nothing to

hide. But I think it's also important to

have a little bit of a private life.

Some DJs choose to share everything

about their kids online. That's fine,

too. I chose to have a moment of peace

and a moment where I find energy to do

my next set. Uh cuz sometimes I like to

be anonymous.

Well, it's very important to read the

response on on social media. Uh follow

your fans, see what they like.

Um, you also have to be very careful of

that because social media is a platform

where people can also be very

expressive. Let's put it that way. Uh,

also we human beings, we have the trend

to not really notice the positive

comments and to focus too much on the

negative. Um, I know of quite a few DJs

that are so eager to get out there that

they read every little comment on

Facebook and Twitter. I think it's very

important to protect yourself a little

bit from those comments because

they can hurt you. This is something

that really bothered me when I was uh

the number one DJ in 2010. I went to was

went to see a coach u because I couldn't

handle it anymore. I wanted to please

everybody. I wanted to be 100% perfect.

I wanted to play the latest tracks. I

wanted to play the best set and I I

couldn't handle it anymore. pressure. I

saw 100 positive comments and then I saw

two people that really weren't digging

my set because you know what? Oh, he

played that track already a month ago or

I was expecting something more and I was

down. I was feeling down and now I

understand what I have to do. Always

remember that when you're playing a set

or you're making a track that is a a

personal expression, you're basically

telling people, "This is me. Do you like

it?" And guess what? There's never been

a work of art that 100% of people on

Earth liked. That is because we're all

different. So, we all have different

opinions. This is very important to

realize. Best way to protect yourself is

just telling yourself, "I've done

everything possible to have a good and

decent set."

In 2000, I had a big uh success in the

UK with a track called Communication, an

instrumental trans track uh that was

actually being played on daytime radio

in the UK. So, for I think two or three

years, I DJed in almost every club in

the UK. Uh and I was so thankful for

that. You know, I got paid like $600 and

I had to pay my own flights and my own

hotels, but I didn't care. I was I was

DJing in the UK, which was, you know, a

dream coming true. Uh the only problem

was that after communication I had a big

blackout. I couldn't think of anything

anymore. I just felt uninspired and I

guess I was really influenced by the

label as well telling me oh you need to

make another communication cuz that

track was so huge and everywhere I came

everybody wanted to hear communication.

Uh so but after three years I got pretty

sick of that track you know playing it

over and over and I had wasn't having

any inspiration at all and that was just

because I was trying to recreate the

success that I had with that specific

track. So all I was trying to do was I

was using the same kick drum. I was

using the same high hat. I was using the

same piano sound and it didn't get me

anywhere.

I was just trying to please other people

where I found the answer and the answer

was in me. So, the only way I can make

music is be in the studio and have fun.

And that's the essence of everything

about making music. If you're not having

fun, stop doing it.

So, thank you for listening to me. Uh,

it was an honor and a pleasure to share

this information with you. I really hope

that you have the tools now that you

need and you're a little bit more

inspired and especially motivated to go

and have a lot of fun because please do

not forget to have fun. If you're

standing behind the decks and you're

shining and you're having an amazing

time, it will have an effect on people.

Same thing with your music. If you're

having fun in the studio, it will shine

through your track. So, please remember

that. Always the most important thing is

try to have as much fun as possible.

When I started as a DJ, I never thought

I'd end up where I am today. Um, I

thought there were so many DJs, um, you

know, so many aspiring DJs. My best

friends were aspiring DJs and I thought

they were a lot better than me. Well,

here I am presenting my master class to

you. So, it's it is possible. I dreamed

big because I loved this music and I

always focused on just one thing, the

music itself and what it does to people.

If you focus on that and if you keep

dreaming and keep trying to persuade

people with your music and your passion,

you can get there. Trust me.