Underdog Electronic Music SchoolThis is a tutorial on how to apply the "Trance Gate" technique. In Ableton Live, you can use the "gate" effect to cut sounds rhythmically from long, sustained source sound. This allows you to get really groovy, really quickly, and is a classic staple in many dance genres, including popular artists like Bicep, Ross from Friends, Max Cooper and Moderat.
Contents: 0:00 Introduction 0:37 Getting set up 2:50 Power Chords 3:50 The Trigger Track 4:57 The Gate 5:53 Sidechaining the Gate 7:24 Using a voice as the source sound
--------------------- At Underdog Electronic Music School we run interactive online classrooms for all levels of music producers. We do "bootcamps" for beginners (no prior knowledge required!) and "deep dives" for intermediate producers. We are also available for private coaching and advice.
The trance gate technique (like Ross from Friends, Bicep, Max Cooper and Moderat)Underdog Electronic Music School2021-05-10 | This is a tutorial on how to apply the "Trance Gate" technique. In Ableton Live, you can use the "gate" effect to cut sounds rhythmically from long, sustained source sound. This allows you to get really groovy, really quickly, and is a classic staple in many dance genres, including popular artists like Bicep, Ross from Friends, Max Cooper and Moderat.
Contents: 0:00 Introduction 0:37 Getting set up 2:50 Power Chords 3:50 The Trigger Track 4:57 The Gate 5:53 Sidechaining the Gate 7:24 Using a voice as the source sound
--------------------- At Underdog Electronic Music School we run interactive online classrooms for all levels of music producers. We do "bootcamps" for beginners (no prior knowledge required!) and "deep dives" for intermediate producers. We are also available for private coaching and advice.
Contact me directly: oscar@underdog.brussels Instagram: @underdogmusicschoolYou got rejected by a record label, what now?Underdog Electronic Music School2024-10-14 | Viewer Lee asks: "I finally finished a track, applied to a big label and got rejected. What now?". Let's unpack the many different parts of this question!
Contents: 0:00 Lee asks me this question 1:37 The actual song 2:11 Present your song more professionally 3:43 Fix those low end issues 6:24 The popcorn kernel theory of creative development 8:42 Aim for smaller labels 11:30 Contribute to the ecosystem 13:11 Don't take me too seriouslyHow to make a techno homage of your favourite songUnderdog Electronic Music School2024-10-01 | An homage is a tribute to something you love. I've been crushing on this Sister Sledge song ('Thinking Of You'), so I made a techno homage to get it out of my system.
Contents: 0:00 Whats an homage 1:06 Working out the harmony 2:19 The bassline M1 Perc Organ 3:13 Pulsar23 layers 4:09 B version percussion 4:56 Just execute one ideaBarry Can’t Swim, but his euphoric chords will leave you floatingUnderdog Electronic Music School2024-09-16 | There's this electronica artist called Barry Can't Swim, and his songs usually involve beautiful euphoric chords with an uplifting rave feeling to them. Let's sit at the piano and discuss what the core concepts are behind understanding such a chord progression!
We'll specifically look at God Is The Space Between Us, and Lone Raver, and I'll show it all on the piano, so you can follow along no matter what DAW you use for music production.
Contents: 0:00 Barry can't swim's gorgeous chords 1:05 The three musical voices 1:42 four five six one (god is the space) 3:12 the top note is the melody 5:32 the rhythmic cell of the motif 5:50 the four magic chords 8:00 two three six five (lone raver) 8:58 counting notes can be confusing 9:46 sing the chord progression 10:48 let the top note travel 11:55 cousin chords and cadences 14:42 The chord sound designAnnouncement: ADE techno session w/ Alice!Underdog Electronic Music School2024-09-11 | On Thursday 17 October 2024, Alice from Mercurial Tones and myself will be co-hosting a day-long techno workshop in Amsterdam. @Alice-Efe
It doesn't matter if you're just starting out or if you've been making tracks for years - the idea is for everyone to learn something new and maybe get inspired. It's also a great chance to meet other people in the scene and exchange ideas.
You can sign up for just the morning session, the afternoon one, or stick around for the whole day.
Morning session: (2 hours) - (TECHNO ARCHITECTURE) • Hooks in techno - 20m • Track analysis - 40m • Fixing a track on the go - 1h
Afternoon session: (3,5 hours) - (TECHNO CRAFT) • Creative workflows — theory & mindmapping - 1h • Sample flipping session? — everyone produces on their own laptop - 1,5h • General Q&A - 1hLearning from the best: Stromae’s three songwriting toolsUnderdog Electronic Music School2024-09-09 | Stromae is one of Belgium's best pop artists, and his songs are deep and powerful. Let's immerse ourselves in his song called "l'enfer'" ("hell") and take 3 key musical concepts away from it. A deep analysis of pop music and music theory!
Contents: 0:00 Piano interpretation 2:05 Stromae maestro 2:30 The harmonic minor scale 3:58 The four chord progression 4:30 Major 3 chord 5:40 Pushed chords 7:30 Applying it to dance music 9:13 The rest of the songThree ways Four Tet keeps the dancefloor groovingUnderdog Electronic Music School2024-09-02 | Let's learn from the master! Four Tet's dancefloor track "I've got feelings" showcases a bunch of really useful tools that we can learn a lot from in our own productions. Here I focus on three concepts: the triplet groove, the punchy midrange, and the arrangement (and the concept of the Squeeze-In to provide contrast and emotional dynamics).
Contents: 0:00 Track analysis 1:11 The three lessons 1:50 The triplet groove 4:16 The punchy midrange 6:20 The arrangement 9:25 Follow the patreonWhat the heck is tonal shaping?Underdog Electronic Music School2024-08-26 | Do you tonally balance your musical elements before you do more detailed EQ? Big, broad strokes of EQ can tonally shape an element so it sits better in the mix! If your primary mixing tool is a parametric EQ, I'd like to challenge your mind a little with this thought experiment!
Contents: 0:00 Guess the processing minigame 1:05 EQ three and utility 1:39 but why not use parametric EQ? 3:43 multiband EQ as a tool 6:45 say something nice to meMake your techno hihats come to life with this little trickUnderdog Electronic Music School2024-08-19 | Samplepack here ► https://we.tl/t-Tdzw8sWDpP
Let's set up a simple workflow that lets us create hihat lines that are alive & contain movement. We can do this in any DAW using any tools, but in my case it's Ableton Live, using a VST drum machine (D16 Amazon), and two analog drum machines (Some Pulsar23 and Nord Drum 3). The techno composition possibilities are actually endless.
Contents: 0:00 Hihats that breathe 0:47 Using a VST drum machine 3:23 Record loops for yourself 5:34 Soma Pulsar23 drum machine 7:30 Nord Drum 3 9:00 outro strictly for cuties6 key concepts for arranging technoUnderdog Electronic Music School2024-08-12 | In dance music we rely less on Chorus & Verse structures to carry the musical storytelling of our tracks - so how do we keep things moving forward in an interesting way without getting boring? Here's a toolbox of 6 concepts that you can implement to keep a minimalist dance/techno idea fresh and alive in an arrangement.
The toolbox: 1. Shifting gears in the high percussion 2. Focus on contrast (turnarounds, breaks, squeeze-ins) 3. Markers and reverses 4. Calls, responses & polymeters 5. Scoop-up & minimalism moments 6. Performing & recording
Contents: 0:00 Why not just verse and chorus? 0:44 Dynamic interest 2:04 blocks of sixteen bars are the backbone 3:16 the Dynamic interest toolbox 3:14 Tool one: top percussion gears 6:38 Tool two: breaks and turnarounds 8:36 Create contrasting timbres 9:34 The squeeze-in 11:54 Tool three: markers and reverses 13:54 Tool four: Calls and responses 17:44 Tool five: scoop up and minimalism 19:28 Tool six: performing and recording 20:33 SynopsisWhat’s the best time signature for techno?Underdog Electronic Music School2024-08-06 | Techno production will almost always be in 4/4 time signatures, simply because the tools guide you there automatically. But it’s great to realise that the backbone of much techno could also be considered 2/4 or even 1/4. We introduce the term “rhythmic cell” to help us wrap our mind around this!
Contents: 0:00 day one lesson one 0:34 Rhythmic Cells 2:12 Music Theory 2:37 Take Ownership 2:42 xysecretTechno rumbles in 2024 (the grain tutorial)Underdog Electronic Music School2024-07-29 | The sample pack and poster ► https://we.tl/t-FK5CIs254Y
Contents: 0:00 Adding grain to a kick 1:58 The diagram 2:15 Kick synthesis 3:26 Creating a grain 6:35 The importance of sidechain gating 7:17 Balancing kick and grain 10:46 Treating the resultant sound 11:43 Regaining some perspectiveHow to elevate your techno with a paradiddleUnderdog Electronic Music School2024-07-22 | If you've never drummed before, you may never have heard of the paradiddle, a drum rudiment that follows a simple pattern: RLRRLRLL - it's surprisingly potent once applied to rolling percussion in a techno context. Try it out!
Contents: 0:00 what is a paradiddle? 0:44 how to do it in techno? 1:17 let's do it on mid percussion 2:11 accents are important in techno 3:33 run it into a synth 4:13 it works on hihats too 4:32 it works on low toms 5:45 next stepsbrat but it’s oscar making a tutorial about itUnderdog Electronic Music School2024-07-15 | Make a video request for sound design! Send me a DM with your video on Instagram (@oscarunderdog) or tag me in your video!
How about this CharlieXCX music production tutorial? I use Ableton Live to recreate the key elements of Charlie XCX 365 track, from the brat album. It's got hyperpop, rave, early 2000 pY2K aesthetic elements all over it, and a super bouncy synthesizer bassline.
Thanks to my sister Tessa for the challenge 😁
Contents: 0:00 the challenge 1:25 the beeping sound tutorial 4:46 my sister's reaction 5:19 what other musical elements are in this song? 6:14 dark and edgy chords 8:30 going up 1 semitone is the key 8:57 the major 3 chord 9:50 365 oscars versionWhat is a bodhrán, and can it techno?Underdog Electronic Music School2024-07-08 | Irish traditional music uses a frame drum called a Bodhrán - I bought one, just to see what it has to teach me, and to find out if I can find a place for it in electronic music 😃
Contents: 0:00 Why explore a handdrum? 1:36 Piccadilly counting 2:35 Tone variations 3:56 Sound exploration 6:03 Handdrum vs VST instruments? 9:21 The most tactile connection to the music? 10:50 Give me some adviceBlurring the lines between drums and synthesizersUnderdog Electronic Music School2024-07-01 | Try thinking of your synthesizer lines as if they were percussion - as if you were a drummer with a snare drum, trying to add rhythmical accents to a composition - where would you add snare hits?
Contents: 0:00 a little game 0:26 Rhythm belongs to the drums? 1:01 Let's play a synth as if it was percussion 1:37 A little Ableton experiment 3:27 Triggering it on a drumpad 3:59 What does this perspective teach us? 4:25 Expression through accents 4:48 Taking this back into the DAWDRUMMING for electronic music (first two weeks)Underdog Electronic Music School2024-06-24 | I figured it was time to learn to drum! I'm two weeks into learning how to drum, and this video are my first conclusions, the things I'm finding that either confirm my intuition, or things that are taking me by surprise!
Contents: 0:00 Actual instruments are underrated 2:15 Kick snare and hihat 3:06 Pulse and syncopation 3:59 Splash and fill 4:50 Rudiments 6:16 Dynamics and accents 6:40 I love this sound 7:09 Drum styles 8:25 Listening differently 9:40 Please give me adviceWhen you need a sick synthesizer soloUnderdog Electronic Music School2024-06-17 | When you're programming a synth lead by hand, sometimes it's not clear how to generate cool variations on your riff - here's a method using note length and an arpeggiator, mapped to a midi controller to generate crazy new ideas.
Contents: 0:00 example of a synth solo 1:03 setting the stage 2:12 designing the synth lead 3:10 polymeter lead masterclass 5:22 subtle midi flavor 7:40 The synth solo (how to) 8:31 Doing it in my DAWAn unexpected music injury #electronicmusic #musicproduction #musicproducer #bodhran #drummingUnderdog Electronic Music School2024-06-14 | I found myself with an unexplained injury today, until I tried practicing the Bodhrán again 😂Youll surprise yourself with this musical improv gameUnderdog Electronic Music School2024-06-10 | Here's a little game for people who don't consider themselves good keys players: set up a sequencer with a few predetermined notes, and jam in between them, into a delay, and record the output. The hunt for musical vibes should generate loads of musical ideas!
Contents: 0:00 This is a game to jam with yourself 1:14 Setting up the sequencer 2:01 Improvising on the piano 2:26 Add a delay and record output 5:28 Doing it on a synthesizer instead 8:10 Doing it with a VST instead 9:30 Doing it on the melodica instead 10:44 Turn it into a compositiondistorting reality with Roar (Live12)Underdog Electronic Music School2024-05-27 | Multiband saturation and distortion, it's all included in the new Ableton Live 12 native plugin called Roar. It's similar to Izotope's Trash, Output Arcade's Thermal, but it's native to Live 12 and it's very very powerful. Let's play around!
Contents: 00:00 what's distortion again? 1:33 quick tour of Roar 4:20 parallel and multiband modes 5:27 let's make some music 7:30 wubble bass 8:50 some synths 9:44 simple tilt EQ in roar 10:34 let's sing a little 11:33 tell me what you thinkVocal trick for electronic music #sounddesign #electronicmusic #musicproduction #vocalsUnderdog Electronic Music School2024-05-24 | Weekly electronic music making tutorials & inspirationThree vocal tricks for electronic musicUnderdog Electronic Music School2024-05-20 | Singing is hard - here are three ways you can warp and affect your vocal to use it like an instrument, almost like a synthesizer. We'll look at autotune, melodyne, and LittleAlterboy as 3 VST effects, in a little whirlwind 3-minute tour. We'll also slice up some vocals into vocal chops and use Ableton Live 12's MIDI generating tools to create something cool.
Contents: 0:00 Autotune 0:23 Melodyne 0:44 LittleAlterBoy 1:45 Record and slice to MIDI 2:21 Ableton Live 12 midi tools Seed 2:55 Like and subscribe pleeeaaaaseIf you’ve never used infinite delays, try this!Underdog Electronic Music School2024-05-14 | Try feeding any sound into extreme delays! You can do this with any delay that can reach high feedback settings, in any DAW. It's great for transitions of for adding loose layers to something that's otherwise a bit "rigid" or programmed.
Content: 0:00 Audio examples 1:03 Setting up a delay 2:12 Setting up a tactile surface or midi tool 3:16 Resampling a delay ride 4:12 Finding a more extreme delay 6:00 Using this sample as a transition or turnaround 7:44 Doing it across your whole composition 11:30 Adding chaos and tension to a break 12:19 Anyone can do it!Oscars cheeky guide to DIY breakbeatsUnderdog Electronic Music School2024-05-08 | All my favourite electronic musicians make breakbeat house and garage inspired drums, so i decided to study what’s so cool about them. We’re talking about artists like Ross from Friends, Overmono, Bicep, Barry Can’t Swim, Burial, Four Tet and many others. We break the drum sounds into lows mids and highs, and figure out that alternating them in swung 16th notes is what makes things really interesting.
Content: 0:00 Breakbeat masterclass 0:31 The vibe we're aiming for 1:10 djembe tones 2:02 Into the DAW 2:47 It's pebbles 2:52 Adding swing 3:40 The magic formula 4:52 Make your own damn patterns 6:11 Is there a backbeat? 7:29 Adding synthesizer sounds 8:08 you’re free to go! 8:15 Or are you? 8:27 Add texture 8:54 Wriggly Bits 11:07 Markers and turnarounds 11:59 I love trash 12:23 OutroIs Live 12 the future of MIDI?Underdog Electronic Music School2024-04-29 | Ableton Live 12 has new MIDI tools that are pretty awesome! Let's explore together what's possible.
Content: 0:00 Ableton Live 12 MIDI tools 1:03 Humanise your MIDI 3:17 Time warp is the GOAT 4:19 Transform your MIDI 6:04 Harmonic transformations 7:16 Techno acid riff generators 8:22 Rhythm generators 11:47 Stacks are chords FYI 13:35 Time warp everything 14:12 A sneeze of notes 16:43 What's my take?Meld: Ableton Live 12s most advanced synth?Underdog Electronic Music School2024-04-22 | Ableton Live 12 has a new synth called Meld. Is it any good? In this video I explore it with you, and in the process discover I actually vastly prefer Ableton's other synth: Drift 😂 But Meld is pretty cool too, especially for deeper sound design and weird leftfield stuff. Check it out!
Contents: 0:00 Meld 12 review 0:19 What's important to me? 1:16 Meld's oscillators are pretty wild 6:56 How to make a simple synth patch 8:33 The presets are frustrating 10:09 Can't get no instant gratification 12:36 I discover I actually love Drift 14:08 In conclusion, what's my advice?The art of musical subtletyUnderdog Electronic Music School2024-04-15 | Electronic music is too robotic? Or is it a skill issue? Let's look at a cool way of adding organic flavour to your rhythmic synthesizers, using chordal polymeters.
Contents: 0:00 sixteenth note patterns can get intense 0:41 adding accents 1:25 chord with 3 polymetered accents 3:22 before and after 4:13 add a drumbeat and a chord progression 6:13 here's one I prepared earlier 7:08 DAMN THE NOISEAm I too old to start making music?Underdog Electronic Music School2024-04-08 | I sometimes speak to people who are embarrassed by their age, thinking maybe they're too old to get started making music. I'd like to talk about that in this video, to look at it from a bunch of different angles - are you too old to start pursuing this?
Contents: 0:00 The big question, are you too old? 0:29 The global hunger games of young professionals 1:31 Old people still show up to training 2:36 The pursuit of your craft 4:02 But what if you really want achievement? 4:38 You want to make money? 5:25 Acts of service (with guest speaker Oscar) 6:57 The pursuit of goals is the whole story 7:31 You're not too old to get startedDungeons & DancemusicUnderdog Electronic Music School2024-04-01 | 🧙🏻♂️🧙🏻♂️🧙🏻♂️
Welcome, young beatmaker! Racso, the dancefloor sorceror, will teach you the six essential attributes of a powerful dancefloor beat. Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma - the six perspectives you want to master to cast dancefloor magic.
My Foundations courses ► https://courses.underdog.brussels Underdog Mailing List ► http://eepurl.com/gZmNbv Patreon ► https://www.patreon.com/underdogmusic... Discord ► discord.gg/trDbVcDHB3
Contents: 0:00 The six stats of a good beat 0:26 Racso made a beat 0:46 Strength 1:12 Dexterity 1:36 Constitution 1:56 Intelligence 2:24 Wisdom 2:43 Charisma 3:07 Gather your party and venture forth
"Agnus Dei X" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0My first impressions of Ableton Live 12Underdog Electronic Music School2024-03-25 | Ableton Live 12 is here, and I have totally ignored its development so far, so we can discover it together! In this video I'll give you my first impressions of this new and improved DAW, and discuss whether it's right for you to upgrade from Live 11 or not.
Contents: 0:00 I saved myself for this moment 0:38 First looks 3:24 momentary latching 4:33 splitting midi notes 5:34 new MIDI tools 6:24 the biggest disappointment in Live 12 9:02 sound similarity search 11:31 Is it worth the upgrade? 13:19 quick stress test on an old project 14:19 Am I going back to Live 11?The simple theory concept behind adore u (by Obongjayar & Fred again..)Underdog Electronic Music School2024-03-18 | Obongjayar wrote this gorgeous song, and Fred again.. reworked it - now the two songs tell a dramatically different story, despite sharing 99% of the lyrics - so how did that happen? In this video we explore the concept of 'juxtaposition' in art composition: the combining of two very different ideas, that leads to an unresolved tension that the audience actively wants to resolve, drawing them deeper into your art.
Content: 0:00 the struggle of being too boring 0:31 the key is juxtaposition 1:24 Fred again's version 2:27 Obongjayar's version 3:49 Juxtaposition revisited 5:44 Say something niceTechno remix workflow: making a mindmapUnderdog Electronic Music School2024-03-11 | My friend sent me some stems for a techno track, and asked if I wanted to do something with them, so let's listen to them together & make a plan to remix these stems!
Contents: 0:00 Oli sent me some stems 0:44 Exploring the stems 2:06 Mindmapping on paper 5:18 Super epic producer montage 6:24 What the heck did I make?! 10:05 Designing the break 10:59 What's next?Steal my avant-garde techno workflowUnderdog Electronic Music School2024-03-04 | Musical riffs have 3 dimensions: a rhythmic motif, a melodic contour, and an evolving timbre. We can design these three dimensions separately, and get exciting and surprising results.
Contents: 0:00 Electronic music is the coolest ever 1:12 Demonstration of the three dimensions 2:30 Using VCV rack as a MIDI generator 4:05 Synth madness 4:48 Not your average melody 7:34 More synth madness 8:40 This is sick! 9:21 If you don't have a synthesizer 10:56 About my earringA silly little guide to music theory (for beginners)Underdog Electronic Music School2024-02-26 | There's this cute website that offers an interactive guide to music theory, so let's check it out together and refresh our fundamentals!
Check out the explorable explanations website yourself ► explorabl.es
Contents: 0:00 Explorable explanations 0:35 Never gonna give you up 0:44 Sound, what is it? 1:38 Harmony 3:25 The pentatonic scale 5:15 The chromatic scale 7:34 Chords 9:10 Major and Minor Keys 10:38 Diatonic chords 13:03 Chord progressionsIf you hate your hihats, watch this videoUnderdog Electronic Music School2024-02-19 | The hihat and high percussion in your music is the energy infrastructure of your track: it's super important to get right, but can't be too interesting or it will distract from the lead elements. How do we program good hihats? How do we make them sound alive?
This tutorial shows concepts that apply in all different DAWs as long as you have a sampler plugin. I'll be working in Ableton Live 11, myself.
Contents: 0:00 Get your education pants on 0:57 The natural upbeat of music production 2:11 The four levels 2:57 Level one, the programming 4:23 Syncopation 6:53 A B A C 7:43 Level two, sound design 9:12 The three tools of hihat sound design 9:24 The ADSR 10:42 LFO - time 13:01 EQ 14:42 Transient designer 15:59 Level three, the group design 20:02 Level four, too much funHow I use a synth despite having no talent :)Underdog Electronic Music School2024-02-12 | Make hardware synthesizers work for you, even if you have no piano or keyboard skills! This is a tutorial for all the electronic music music producers and composers who use a software-first approach to making music.
Contents: 0:00 Who is this for? 0:31 The simplest answer 1:00 "Oops I don't know how to play piano" 1:41 Rhythm and notes design 3:43 Replacing the placeholder with the synth 4:09 Performing and capturing 5:02 Here's one I prepared earlier 5:59 Random madness at 226bpm 7:28 What to do with all thisThe eurodance tutorial nobody asked forUnderdog Electronic Music School2024-02-05 | Let's produce some nineties eurodance music! This video features a tutorial recipe to make a classic dance music anthem like it's 1994. The original song is Ku Minerva's "Estoy Llorando por Ti (Remix)".
Contents: 0:00 Time travelling to the nineties 0:13 The drum and bass 0:59 909 hihat layers 2:29 The lead synth 2:49 The chord progression 4:30 Staccato lead 5:03 Hardware synth layers 5:19 The foundations composition 5:31 A 'talented vocalist' lmaoFour steps to techno harderUnderdog Electronic Music School2024-01-29 | A playful formula in four parts to generate harder techno material.
Contents: 0:00 follow along 0:20 Drum machine w/ distortion 1:14 Distort and resample 3:14 Equivalent machines 4:05 The Culture Vulture 5:10 Nailing the vibe 6:12 Pattern control and randomisation 8:33 A percussion synth 9:32 Creative delays 10:42 Sketch arrangement 11:05 SummaryIs electronic music burning you out?Underdog Electronic Music School2024-01-22 | When making art we sometimes get stressed and anxious - why is this happening to us? Let's talk about the "cortisol pit" and why electronic music producers are particularly vulnerable to it. We'll also talk about Receptivity Discomfort, a different type of discomfort that we experience when we try to open ourselves up to new ideas.
Content: 0:00 Music making anxiety 0:29 The cortisol pit 1:37 Four steps to deal with it 3:10 Accumulating uncertainty 4:40 Volume balance problems 6:11 Staleness of your loop 7:37 Receptivity discomfort 9:28 Summary and recapHow to not drown in bassUnderdog Electronic Music School2024-01-15 | I tend to over-do my bass frequencies when I'm composing electronic music. Maybe you do too? Here's a way to check, and also some techniques on how to deal with it. I'll also introduce you to the metaphor of frequency "buckets" per octave - does each bucket have enough sound energy in it? Do some have too much? Let's discuss!
Contents: 0:00 Putting too much bass 0:44 How to know if it's too much 2:48 Let's tilt the frequencies 3:43 Thinking in octaves 5:46 Bass buckets 6:33 Cleaning up low-end mess 7:50 Obsessing more about octaves 11:55 A lot of little movesI misunderstood how Four Tet makes musicUnderdog Electronic Music School2024-01-08 | Listening to a Four Tet song, I started coming up with a weird and wonderful way to recreate the lead. Little did I know that the original was simply sampled from a record - but as a happy accident I now have developed this super weird and cool melody-making technique using the piano sustain pedal and modwheel. So, thanks for the inspiration, @fourtet555 !
Contents: 0:00 How Four Tet did not make his melody 0:28 The Indian Santoor instrument 1:10 How would electronic musicians approach this? 2:17 Using the piano sustain pedal and mod wheel 4:12 Discord community challenge 5:33 Other sounds achievable with thisTechno rumble secrets nobody is talking aboutUnderdog Electronic Music School2024-01-02 | Techno rumbles bathe us in warm low-end energy, but what makes a good rumble? Here I argue that it's the ATONAL noise, rather than the tonal noise, in the sub-bass frequencies that makes rumble so exciting. This video is a masterclass of various considerations for advanced-level techno rumbles.
Contents: 0:00 Deep rumble theory 0:33 Tonal vs atonal sounds 1:22 Deep down low noise 1:44 Rumble smear 2:45 Audio demonstration 3:30 Tonal rumble warning 5:00 Boosting the mids secret 5:30 Soloing a frequency band 6:12 Bad monitoring hurts my soul 7:23 Mixing per frequency band 7:50 Squeezing the dynamic range 8:50 Favourite plugins 9:30 Next steps for techno producersYou make dance music, but where is your metronome?Underdog Electronic Music School2023-12-27 | If you want to make dance music, you want to make music that makes people move their bodies. To achieve that, you definitely don't want to confuse them too much. So how do we make sure the audience is never lost, never stops dancing? Your music's internal metronome!
But not all genres use the same type of metronome - are you aware of what the appropriate metronome is in your genre?
Contents: 0:00 Where is your metronome? 0:40 The techno metronome 1:10 The Drum n Bass metronome 2:27 What to do if your composition is messy 3:33 Adding a reese bassline 4:24 Martin Ku's example that triggered the video 5:18 Summary and next stepsDo seventh chords belong in electronic music?Underdog Electronic Music School2023-12-18 | Here's a music theory nugget: use seventh chords without getting overwhelmed!
Many online resources overcomplicate this subject, making it hard to follow. In this video I explain why you might want to use seventh chords, and how to use them easily and tastefully.
Contents: 0:00 Who is this for? 0:55 Music theory recap 4:03 Seventh chords 4:45 Simpler way to make seventh chords 6:16 Fred Again example 6:31 Let's play a guessing game 8:18 The song reveal 8:43 Recap summaryWhat are cascade arpeggios?Underdog Electronic Music School2023-12-12 | Here's a cute sound design technique that results in odd arpeggios: play several notes at different BPMs and find places where they phase in and out of sync.
Contents: 0:00 Listen to this! 0:20 The inspiration meme 1:09 Making things less griddy 1:29 Sketch composition 1:53 Making chord changes 2:50 Public service anouncementHow to catch your audience off guard (in a good way)Underdog Electronic Music School2023-12-04 | In dance music you sometimes want to confuse the audience, disorientating them slightly in a pleasant way, so you can heighten the release of tension with some surprise. Let's look at a techno example in Ableton Live, for music producers of all levels.
Contents: 0:00 the oomph of an unexpected drop 0:38 the original track I was remixing 1:10 my remix drumgroove 1:23 syncopation misleading you 2:01 the climax trick in action 2:28 oscar is so proud haha 3:02 syntactic ambiguity 4:05 get the release on bandcampFour steps to create your own home studioUnderdog Electronic Music School2023-11-27 | Electronic music producers often start with nothing but a laptop and a dream. So, where to take it from there? Here are the four levels for a simple beginner home studio for electronic music musicians.
Contents: 0:00 Laptop producers be like 0:21 Level 1 - the dreamer 1:02 Level 2 - the audiophile 2:00 studio monitors 2:44 two types of cable 3:25 Level 3 - the musician 4:24 Level 4 - the producer 5:49 synthesizers vs midi controllers 7:04 midi cables 7:38 How to learn moreIs modular most direct way to make music? (feat. Joranalogue)Underdog Electronic Music School2023-11-22 | As a proud Belgian I decided to visit the Joranalogue modular synthesizer headquarters. Meet Joran, and get ready to have your mind blown by the voltage mastery.
Contents: 0:00 the sound of voltage 0:28 meet Joran from Joranalogue 2:04 filter eight 3:15 not just bleeps and bloops 3:52 building a patch 5:53 Everything can be everything 7:19 Oscars mind explodes 7:45 digital vs analog workflows 8:40 making a kick from a delay recipe 13:48 kick drum result 14:15 the future of modular synthesis 15:08 like and subscribe!getting a little too excited about resonatorsUnderdog Electronic Music School2023-11-13 | Resonators can turn anything into moody chords - from whitenoise to percussion loops. So let's geek out over them, and show what happens when you use resonators, dub fx and polymeters in conjunction!
Contents: 0:00 My challenge to you 0:54 Resonator basics for dummies 1:58 Minor 9th chord smooth jazz 2:42 Envelopes matter, okay? 3:18 Adding LFOs for aliveness 4:11 Hijacking percussion loops 6:01 Even more LFOs because why not 6:20 Envelopes for sparseness 7:05 Adding Dub FX but actually just delay 8:31 Adding a deeper polymeter 10:11 Oscar really approves of this one 11:00 Kickdrum & filters 12:42 Rough mastering 13:45 Isn't that gorgeous?Dub chords for dummiesUnderdog Electronic Music School2023-11-06 | Making dub chords is a fundamental skill for electronic music producers! In 5 steps you can create your own, and take it whatever direction you want!
Contents: 0:00 what are we going to do? 0:45 smooth piano chord 1:09 sawtooth synthesizer 1:31 plucky amp envelope 1:57 lowpass filter and LFO 2:50 delay FX 3:10 in a techno loop 3:59 most important advice