Main Chorus Riff and Leads

Main Chorus leads

Hello i posted a few screen shots from Massive if there is any other vst you have youd like me to post an tutorial on do let me know as im here to help you out the beginner.The newbie.

the first one shows you settings for envelope 1 the second for envelope 4

id like to know what sounds you get out of my example.

tomorrow i will show you what this sounds like and in my supersaw page i will show you how to give a melody its character. And of course will update you with some more screen shots so you newbies can try out. This is what this blog is for newbies!

As you can see from the picture you dont need to use saw waveforms to make trance experience with all waveforms to get the sound you want don't discriminate when it comes to waveforms be creative and get the sound you are after. Here is a trance lead you can use again from Massive.

Make sure you stack your musical elements

a lot of people fall into the trap of just looping a 1 or 2 bar loop thats the last thing you want to do!

your best option is to make a 32 bar loop and loop it once for example and make it 64 bars.

The trick is in stacking the elements though thats where the character comes from the emotion ,or the feeling you have when you leave the club and your still humming the tune of the melody hours after you left. Thats the feeling you want to achieve when you stack elements. If you dont your music will be cold and boring then after a minute youll be bored with the track.

 So what you want to do is change your musical idea every 4 bars or every 8 bars or every 16 bars it all depends on you and how epic you want to make your epic trance lead how epic you want your anthem.

I personally like to change the idea every 8 bars so i will have 8 different ideas in the song in the same key ill give you a sample of this tomorrow and youll really see why stacking elements really helps your music come alive.

So for the example you can hear the emotion rather than a boring 1 bar loop that loops 32 times . So take my advice and get creative and have fun with music theory and make your listeners want to get out there on the dance floor so have a listen Now you see from my example you want to hear this over and over cause its so catchy and memorable so the key to this is always use emotion and feeling in your music rather than just playing 2 notes over and over and looping a 1 bar loop.


Lets dissect what you just heard


Without going over the whole song from start to finish i will just tell you the secret a lot of newbies dont know just dont tell anyone the secret is to be versatile and have some repitition in your synth and some contrast the contrast is what makes a great melody and gets the crowd going crazy on the dance floor when you create that tension.

So follow what im about to tell you each time you make a melody.

create your motif lets say your motif is A  then A2 is your Motif altered a bit then A3 is your Motif going backwards  B is a brand new motif in new key new chord

so your melody may be something like  A,A,A2,B,A3

or you may do something like A is your Melody and B  is your contrast your tension so youd do something like
A,A,A,B
each time you get to be the crowd on the dance floor is in a frenzy they cant wait to get back to A.
When they do get back to A they are feeling  good again.

So come up with your own ways to create tension

a little hint for people if your lost is  for example:
bars 1-9  A
bars 9-17 A2
bars17-25 B
25-33 A

its all up to you do what feels right to you remember nothing is written in stone ,theres no right way or wrong way to make music just do what sounds good. I am only here to be your guide ,your tutor its up to you to carry the torch and take it to the next level. So create your own arrangements and post them below in the comments section and let me  know what you come up with cheers and happy programming.

How to get that rich and full warm sound of hardware synths

the trick is layer your sounds so program some trance riffs or use one of the 2 i have above and layer them with your sounds. Then the result will be a warm sound youd only hear on like hardware synths or at a concert the truth is soft synths alone are great but they are not hardware so if you want to replicate hardware you have to layer your sounds like this.

Remember 

you do not always  need to use a supersaw wave or a saw wave or a square  or a sine wave.

I took this same melody and changed the waveforms and took out all of the saw,sine and square waveforms and it still sound great so have a listen

If you feel like your having trouble making your own sounds and want to take the easy way out. Let me warn you i dont advise this but, if you are struggling making your own sounds and need to complete your track like soon then you can buy some loops Here . The reason i dont advocate buying loops is you want to have your own sound your own signature sound in your music,so its very beneficial when you can make your own sounds your own loops,then when people hear your music they will know instantly its you its your music and more rewarding but,if you are struggling and just need to purchase some beats one time i understand go for it.

The bass as a lead

Up until now we have focused on using vsts and synths for the main chorus and leads and arps . You must not overlook the bass as a lead as it can play a huge role in edm music. As in acid house,minimal techno,and so forth. Also the bass organ is also used a lot in deep house and soulful house music so I will be demonstrating them here and will also give you the blueprints you can implement them in your own tracks.

So do not only focus on using lead sounds for lead sounds and bass only for bass some bass sounds are perfect for the lead it self. You can also use a lead for a bass note to create some tension but thats a whole other blog post but,do give it a try.

Have a listen to my 2 examples of the acid lead and organ bass lead  below via my soundcloud page.

The settings for your daw

For the acid lead

One oscillator

Saw wave form

Amp envelope fast attack,medium decay,no sustain or release

Filter envelope no sustain or release shorter decay than the amp decay

For fx add a bit of distortion and some glide

Expirement with making the amp decay longer to get the sound you want .

For bass house Organ

you need a 3 osc type synth

3 sine wave forms

Leave first  Osc as is the second Osc turn down 1 octave

Osc 3 turned it up 19 semi tones

No filter envelope is needed

Set the amps envelope to 5% attack, 50%  decay,10%sustain and 25% release.

Then experiment with your fx and other settings you see  fit until you get the sound you want. If you still cant get the sound your after ill send you a screen shot of my synth or let you download the patch.

Id love to hear what you come up with so post your samples in the comment section below.

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