Hi There

The following articles are for TechnoLite subscribers.

It is a mini guide, a reference booklet to get you started or get on the right lines to adding some cool moves into your music.

I have compiled and collected some top 20 pro music making tips. Some of the tips give you a bit of a chilled out feel, and some will make them hard as nails. Really an assortment of music making tips.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I have used them.

I have sorted them out into Chill, and Hard

But why an assortment of tips, why different styles?

I intended for you to use all the tips in your music making productions. Just because you are a dance artist, does mean that you can not add a touch of dub or even hardcore can give it a bit of zing, a bit of flavour.

With the audience always looking out for something new, adding various styles to your general music style is never going to hurt.

Example?

Pendulum…their album Hold your Colours has an array of dance, DnB and there is even a song that has a “swing” section. Yet the album has done very well, and it is all because of their appetite to be different…not following the crowd. That is the real key to music making.

Be similar and become a drone…you have to be the best to stick out from all the clones. Be different and people will remember you for being so.

There are some links to some cool downloads. As the Internet is always changing, the links might not work in the future, so download now anyway, or if they are missing, hunt for them on your favourite search engine :)

Happy music making.

Dominic

Chill Tips:

1Want some cool sounding synth pads? The best place to obtain some cool free sounds is Cygnus. The plug-in can be found here: Cygnus. Go to FREE SYNTHS and then download at your pleasure.

2. The only problem with pads, especially if you want to loop them, you can never get the loop actually right. It always clicks, or can never be too long. To help you, cross-fade the sample and it will sound much better. Cross-fade can be found in any sample editor.

3. Use nature. Nature has a way of giving you some cool sounds. Even industry, malls or even anywhere where people gather have a great tendency to be filled with interesting sounds. They are totally free and can not be reproduced. Obvious train sounds, water and station announcements need to be recorded.

4. I have always complained that there are no real instrument sounds in music, and some of the older synths out there hardly do a piano any justice. So there are some free VSTs that can help us. MrRAY73 MrRay73 and ePiano ePiano (click on VST synths).

5. To funk up any instrument, give it to an effects processor. If you go to this page: Classic Series you will notice an array of classic effects that no musician can be without. For example, by adding the Classic Auto-Filter to an instruement, like the piano, will create some mysterious atmosphere with a hint of jazz.

6. To tip number 5, add a Classic Phaser, for that spacey feel. Add a Classic Delay for some really weird sounds.

7. To any respectful chill track, reverb is the key. For cool reverb, try out BlackWater BlackWater

8. Want to have that old style record crackle trickling through your tracks? Well Milli Vinylli is one of the better free VSTs. It can be downloaded from here: Milli Vinylli

9. Create some cool lead sounds with your reverb. If you turn the reverb level “dry” right down you can make some cool atmospheres. If you have a short synth blip add the reverb effect with 100% wet, with a long reverb time- cool sounds aplenty.

10. One of the better chill out VSTs is the Coyote wah. Throw an effect or a pad through this to get some really cool chilled out vibes Coyote wah

Hard Tips:

1. The kick is the heart to your music. Without it the music will die. Get a kick and then add some Overdrive to it. Keep on adding Overdrive until you have the sound that you want. Add a bit of compression to make the sound feel a bit tighter.

2. If you kick hasn’t got enough Oomph find a sample that has punch in the 100hz area. EQ will help you in this department, but that only works if you have something there at hand, it can not add something if it is not there.

3. To get claps and snares just right they must really sit complementary to the kick and hihat section. Add a lot of reverb, but lower the dry level, experimenting with reverb times.

4. The drum roll is a stable effect of most electronic music, but it is getting a bit much now. So you need to spruce it up a bit. Add a phaser effect, or degrader, or even a pichshifter to the roll. But one main thing is to have the release times at their lowest so the whole thing sounds tight and not one big mess of snare sounds.

5. Short snippets of one vocal sound will eventually become boring and repetitive. Remember vocals are not immune to any effect. Chop it up and damage it to sound cool.

6. Heavily distorted beats will sound much better if you insert a high-pass filter over them to create a dirty techno feel.

7. Percussion in hard style tracks are about the effects applied to the kick and the fills rather than adding general loops. The beats are very minimalist.

8. The hoover…an institution of a synth sound, and they are still sought after, so how do you create one? All you need are a couple of detuned saw (or pulse) oscillators with a high sustain level and short attack and release times. There, now you have a template to create your own.

9. When using short synth sounds. Play the synth off and on the kick drum.

10. Pitch shifting your snare, clap or any percussion part can add some spice to your track. Even put a percussion loop up or down an octave for some spice.