Snoman R. Dance Music Manual: Tools, Toys, and Techniques

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■ Small sustain

■ Short release

■ Filter

■ Low-pass 24 dB

■ Modulation

■ Sine wave LFO positively modulates pulse width of oscillator 1

■ Triangle wave LFO positively modulates pulse width of oscillator 2

■ Filter keyfollow to maximum

■ Filter cut-off modulated with velocity commands

This is naturally open to artistic licence, and once the basics of the lead are

down, it’s prudent to experiment by replacing oscillators, the LFO waveforms,

depths and envelope settings to create variations. If this technique does not

produce a lead that is rich enough, then it’s worth employing a number of

methods to make it ‘bigger’, such as layering, doubling, splitting, hocketing or

residual synthesis as discussed in the chapter on sound design.

Finally, the timbre will also beneﬁ t heavily from applying both reverb and

delay. The reverb is often applied quite heavily as a send effect but with 50 ms

of pre-delay so that the transient pulls through undisturbed and the tail set

quite short to prevent it from washing over the successive notes.

For the delay, this is best used as a send effect but the settings will depend on

the type of sound you require. Generally speaking, the delays should be set to

less than 30 ms to produce the granular delay effect to make the timbre appear

big in the mix, but, as always, experimentation with longer settings may pro-

duce the results you prefer.

If vocals are employed in the track then there may be little need for any effects as

the lead should sit under them. However, if you want to keep a wide harmonically

rich sound and vocals, it’s wise to employ a compressor on the lead timbre and

feed the vocals into a side chain so that the lead drops when the vocals are present.

MOTIFS AND CHORD PROGRESSIONS

With both main melody and the all essential groove down, the ﬁ nal stage is to

add motifs and any chord progressions. The latter progressions should require

little explanation as, if used, it’s simply a case of producing a chord structure

that harmonizes with the lead and the bass. Motifs, on the other hand, are a

little more complex and require more thought. These counter melodies are the

small ad-lib riffs best referred to as the icing used to ﬁ nally decorate the musi-

cal cake and play an essential part of any dance music, adding much needed

variation to what otherwise would be a rather repetitive track. These are often

derived from the main melodic riff as not only do they often play a role in the

beginning part of the track before the main melodic lead is introduced but they

are also re-introduced after the reprise.

There are various techniques employed to create motifs, but one of the quickest

ways is to make a copy of the MIDI lead and ‘simplify’ it by removing notes to

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create a much simpler pattern. Once created, this pattern can be offset from the

main lead to make the motif more noticeable, or alternatively, it can occur at the

same time as the lead but the attack and release of the timbre are lengthened. In

fact, this latter approach will often produce the best results since, as discussed,

dance music works on contrast and so far all the instruments have had a deﬁ -

nite attack stage. By lengthening the attack and release, the motif will take on a

whole new rhythmic character which can quickly be changed by listening back

to the arrangement so far and adjusting the ampliﬁ er envelope’s parameters.

Above all, using any of these techniques it’s sensible to avoid getting too car-

ried away and it’s vital that they are kept simple. Many dance tracks simply

use a single pitch of notes, playing every eight, sixteenth or quarter, or are con-

structed to interweave with the bass rather than the lead. This is because not

only do simple motifs have a much more dramatic effect on the music than

complex arpeggios, but you don’t want to detract too much from the main

melodic element ( Figure 12.5 ).

It should also go without saying that the timbre used for any motif should be

different from the lead melody, and it’s at this point that you’ll need to con-

sider the frequencies that are used in the mix thus far.

As touched upon, in many trance tracks the lead is harmonically rich, which

reduces the available frequencies for a motif, so it’s quite common to utilize a

low-pass ﬁ lter cut-off to reduce the harmonic content while the lead is playing,

yet set this ﬁ lter to open wider while there is no lead playing. Additionally, as

with all dance music, this ﬁ lter is tweaked ‘live ’ to create additional movement

and interest throughout the arrangement. This movement obviously has to

be restrictive while the lead is playing, otherwise the mix can quickly become

FIGURE 12.5

The motif

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swamped in frequencies and difﬁ cult to mix properly, but during the beginning

of the song, the ﬁ lter can be opened wider to allow more frequencies through

to ﬁ ll up any gaps in the mix.

More importantly, the rhythmical pitch of the motif will have to be carefully

chosen. A motif that is mostly written using notes above C4 will naturally con-

tain higher frequencies and few lower ones, so using a low-pass ﬁ lter that is

almost closed will reduce the frequencies to nothing. Therefore, the pitch of

this motif and the timbre must occupy the low to mid-range to ﬁ t with the bass

and the lead melody, assuming of course, that the lead melody contains higher

frequencies.

Indeed, with trance, it’s careful use of the ﬁ lter that creates the ﬁ nal results, and

often you will need to compromise carefully by cutting some of the frequen-

cies of the lead to leave room for the motif and vice versa. Having said that,

if the bass is quite simple, an often used technique is to programme a motif

that contains an equal amount of low frequencies as mid, and then use a ﬁ lter

to cut higher frequencies to mix the motif in with the frequencies of the bass,

helping to enhance the low end groove, before proceeding to remove this low

end interaction by cutting the lower frequencies and leaving the higher ones in

as the track progresses. This creates the impression that all the sounds are inter-

weaving with one another helping to create more movement and the typical

‘ energy’ that appears in most club tracks.

One ﬁ nal, yet vital, element of trance before we come to the arrangement is the

programming of rolls. Although these may not initially appear to be particu-

larly signiﬁ cant, dance music relies on tension and drama, which best imple-

mented with well-programmed snare rolls. The quick snare rolls that interrupt

a groove along with the huge 4- or 8-bar snare roll that leads up to the main

reprise create a build-up of tension, followed by the ecstatic release when the

track returns so it’s vital that these are well designed. Typically, the snares are

the same as those used in the drum loop and are best programmed in step

time as this allows you to programme them precisely while also allowing you

to edit each note in terms of time, size and velocity. The most common snare

rolls used in this genre are programmed by dropping in MIDI notes every

1/16th followed by 32nd and then drawing in velocity that continually rises.

As a result the snares become progressively louder as the roll reaches its apex

(Figure 12.6 ).

Even though many trance tracks rely on this strictly programmed 16th/32nd

snare pattern these rolls form such an integral part of the emotion of the music

that it’s worth experimenting further to see what emotion it can convey. For

instance, rather than programming a strictly quantized pattern of notes, mix-

ing 16th and 32nd notes together with velocity that does not always climb

upwards can produce interesting variations ( Figure 12.7 ).

Along with the velocity, pitch bend can also help to add some extra anticipa-

tion by pitching the snares up as they reach the apex, or alternatively, a low-pass

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FIGURE 12.6

A typical trance snare

roll

FIGURE 12.7

A more intense snare

roll

ﬁ lter across the snares which opens as the roll progresses can also help creating

a building sensation (as used in the example track).

Snare rolls should not just be restricted to the main reprise either, as shorter

rolls can be used to denote a new passage of music or the introduction of a

new instrument. This commonly consists of placing two snares near the end

of the bar a 1/16th apart. The timbre of these two snares is usually different to

indicate a form of signing off the previous bar and introducing a new one. This

is best accomplished by pitching the second snare a semitone up from the ﬁ rst

while also placing the kick drum to play at the same time, in effect creating a

small kick/snare roll ( Figure 12.8 ).

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Ultimately, these are only suggestions and you should be willing to spend as

much time on the snare rolls as every other instrument. The real key is to try

out variations at building and applying effects to the snares to create as much

tension as possible within the music.

THE ARRANGEMENT

With all the basic parts laid down you can begin to look at the arrangement.

Unlike most other genres of dance music, this doesn’t commonly rely on repeat-

ing phrases but generally follows a more musical structure. Possibly the best way to

accomplish this is to mute all the tracks bar the drums, begin playback, close your

eyes and listen. If you’ve listened to trance before (and if not it is strongly recom-

mended that you do!) you’ll instinctively know when a new instrument should

be introduced. However, if you’re still stuck for where to go, listen to other trance

tracks and physically count the bars, making note of where new instruments are

introduced and then implement this same structure in your own music. While this

may seem like stealing, it isn’t. Many trance tracks follow the very same arrange-

ment principles (and remember that arrangements cannot be copyrighted!).

Indeed, although it would seem unreasonable to say that all euro-trance tracks fol-

low a set pattern and rather that you should use your own integrity to produce

the arrangement, trance, like most forms of dance music, is an exact science and

it is important that you don’t stray too far from what is considered the standard.

Staying with this principle, it tends to follow a particular blueprint that normally

consist of a combination of bass, drums and inter-melodic lines that culminate

into the main uplifting climax. More often than not, this ﬁ nal climax is a culmina-

tion of the ﬁ rst part of the track mixed with the main melodic reprise. Occasionally,

this main reprise is different thematically from the beginning section but the tim-

bre used will have been present beforehand to retain some continuity throughout.

FIGURE 12.8

Using a skip in the

rhythm to introduce

new instruments

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With this in mind it’s generally best to ﬁ rst plan the track using a song map.

Trance, like all dance music, deals mostly in emotional waves, consisting of

building and dropping the arrangement to generate an emotional state in the

audience. Mathematics play a part in this, created by collecting and introducing

sounds every 4, 8, 16, or 32 bars, depending on the individual elements used

within the track and the required length. This may sound overly mechanical

but it’s a natural progression that we have all come to expect from music. As an

example, try introducing a new element into an arrangement at the seventh bar

rather than the eighth and it’ll sound off beam.

Generally speaking most trance tracks will begin with just a basic drum loop

playing over the ﬁ rst 16 bars to allow the DJ to mix the record in. At the end of

the sixteenth bar, a new instrument is often introduced which could be signi-

ﬁ ed by a cymbal crash, or short snare roll. This instrument is often another per-

cussive element to complement the drum loop or the bass itself to generate the

groove. This is often left playing as is for the next sixteen or thirty-two bars to

allow the clubbers to become more comfortable with the groove of the record.

After these bars, the ﬁ rst motif tends to be introduced with another crash or

snare roll and this motif continues for the next 16 or 32 bars. Notably if this is

to play for a more prolonged period of time, it’s prudent to employ ﬁ lter move-

ments to prevent the track from becoming tedious.

After this, the ﬁ rst drop of the record commonly appears. This often consists of

dropping the percussive elements bar the kick drum and motif and may con-

tinue for 4 or sometimes even 8 bars. At the end of the ﬁ nal bar of this drop, a

crash or short snare roll is used again to signify the groove of the record return-

ing along with another new element. In many instances, this new element is

the lead motif which has been sliced up and simpliﬁ ed. This is to give the audi-

ence a ‘taster’ of what is to come later in the record. How long this plays for

depends on the track itself but generally it can range from 16 to 32 bars with a

cymbal crash or small snare roll/double kick placed at the end of every fourth

bar to keep the interest. Occasionally, the lead riff may also be ﬁ ltered with

a low-pass ﬁ lter which is gradually opened at the ﬁ nal 4 bars of this section,

often complemented with a 4-bar snare roll and perhaps a pad or string sec-

tion laid underneath.

A crash cymbal placed at the end of the ﬁ nal bar, treated to reverb and delay

so that it echoes across the track, is often implemented as the rest of the mix

drops leaving just the ﬁ ltered down lead or the previously introduced pads.

These pads/leads continue for 4 to 8bars whereby a 4- or 8-bar snare roll is

built behind the instruments creating an emotional rise towards the reprise of

the track. This breakdown and build-up forms an essential part of trance and

has to be executed carefully, as the whole idea is to link one fast section to

another without losing the speed or feel of the track.

At the end of the snare roll, the same crash that was used to signify the start of the

breakdown is commonly used to echo across the introduction of the full track

and all of the previous instruments are playing together to create a crescendo

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of emotion. At this point, additional snares are often introduced to add a skip

to the rhythm and a few sweeping effects or an additional motif is introduced.

This often plays over 32 bars but sometimes 64 with a cymbal crash placed at

the end of every fourth bar. Finally a 2-bar snare roll often signiﬁ es the removal

of instruments such as the lead and melody as the track is slowly broken down

again to end with 16 bars of the drum loop.

Notably, trance relies heavily on drive and, if at this stage, it seems to meander

along, it’s prudent to inject some additional drive into the patterns. Typically

this can be accomplished by changing the position of some elements in rela-

tion to the rest of the rhythm. For instance, keeping the kicks sat ﬁ rmly on the

ﬁ rst and third beats but moving the kicks (and snares) that occur on the sec-

ond and fourth beats forward by a tick or two (so that they occur earlier in

time) will add more drive to the piece. Alternatively, moving the bass a tick or

two forward in the arrangement can add a feeling of drive.

The data CD contains a full mix of a typical Trance with narration on how it was

constructed.

RECOMMENDED LISTENING

Ultimately, the purpose of this chapter has been to give some insight into

the production of trance and there is no one deﬁ nitive way to produce the

genre. Indeed, the best way to learn new techniques and production ethics is

to actively listen to the current market leaders and be creative with processing,

effects and synthesis. Phaser, ﬂ angers, chorus, delay, reverb, distortion, com-

pression and noise gates are the most common processor and effects used, so

experiment by placing these in different orders to create the ‘sound’ you want.

While the arrangement and general premise of every trance track is very simi-

lar, it’s this production that differentiates it between all the others. With this in

mind, what follows is a short list of artists that, at the time of writing, are con-

sidered the most inﬂ uential in this area:

■ Ferry Corsten

■ Redd Square

■ Binary Finery

■ Sasha

■ DJ Sammy

UK Garage

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UK garage has its roots ﬁ rmly set within the development of jungle music;

therefore, before we analyse this genre, we need to examine the roots and devel-

opment of jungle.

Jungle was a complex infusion of breakbeat, reggae, dub, hardcore and artcore,

but in the majority, it is the complex rhythms which deﬁ ned the genre. These

can be traced back to the 1970s and the evolution of breakbeat. Kool Herc, a

hip-hop DJ, began experimenting on turntables by playing only the exposed

drum loops (breaks) and continually alternating between two records, spinning

back one while the other played and vice versa. This created a continual loop of

purely drum rhythms, allowing the breakdancers to show off their skills. DJ’s

such as Grand Wizard Theodore and Afrika Bambaata began to copy this style,

adding their own twists by playing two copies of the same record but delaying

one against the other, resulting in more complex, asynchronous rhythms.

It was early 1988 and the combined evolution of the sampler and the rave

scene really sparked the breakbeat revolution. Acid house artists began to sam-

ple the breaks in records, cutting and chopping the beats together to produce

more complex breaks that were impossible for any real drummer to play natu-

rally. As these breaks became more and more complex, a new genre evolved

known as hardcore. Shifting away from the standard 4/4 loops of typical acid

house, it featured lengthy complex breaks and harsh energetic sounds that were

just too ‘hardcore’ for the other ravers.

UK Garage

CHAPTER 13

’ When I ﬁ

rst started to make Speed Garage, I didn’t

term it as Speed Garage. I’d been into drum and bass

for years. The scenario was, I’m not gonna try and

make drum and bass, I’m gonna take it and put it with

house and see what happens. That’s all it is, that’s the

birth of Speed Garage … ’

Armand Van Helden

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Although initially scorned by the media and record companies as drug-induced

rubbish that wouldn’t last more than a few months, by 1992 the entire rave

scene was being absorbed in the commercial media machines. Riding on this

‘ new wave for the kids ’, record companies no longer viewed it as rubbish but

a cash cow and proceeded to dilute the market with a continuous ﬂ ow of

watered-down rave music. Rave became commercialized and this was taking its

toll on the nightclubs.

In response to the commercialization, in 1992 two resident DJs – Fabio and

Grooverider – pushed the hardcore sound to a new level by increasing the

speed of the records from the usual 120 to 145 BPM. The inﬂ uences of house

and techno were dropped and quickly replaced with ragga and dancehall,

resulting in mixes with fast complex beats and a deep bass. Although jungle

didn’t exist as a genre just yet, these faster rhythms mixed with deep basses

inspired artists to push the boundaries further and up the tempo to a more

staggering 160 –180 BPM.

To some, the term ‘jungle’ was attributed to racism but the name was derived

from the 1920s. It was used on ﬂ yers to describe music produced by Duke

Ellington. This featured exotic fast drum rhythms and when Rebel MC sampled

an old dancehall track with the lyrics ‘Alla the Junglists ’, ‘jungle’ became syn-

onymous with music that had a fast beat and a deep, throbbing bass. This was

further augmented by pioneers of the genre such as Moose and Danny Jungle.

Jungle enjoyed a good 3 –4 years of popularity, but as the beats and bass line

became darker and more minimal, and drum ‘n’ bass took over, the music lost

a majority of its appeal to the more mainstream UK audiences. Drum ‘n’ bass

and jungle were described as far too aggressive and clubbers wanted a happier

vibe to dance to.

This is where the history of garage becomes disjointed to many. Garage had

already existed before the jungle revolution but not in the US term of garage.

This was a term derived from Larry Levan’s Paradise Garage, which incorporated

a broad range of musical styles. The earlier UK garage was a laid-back form of

house music with mellow beats and vocals. Often referred to as ‘Sunday music ’

because it was music that wasn’t popular enough to be played to the main-

stream on Friday and Saturday nights, it was an evolution of jungle that bought

garage to the masses.

To many, it was Armand Van Helden’s remix of Sugar Is Sweeter by CJ Bolland

in 1996 that started the garage phenomenon. By mixing house beats with the

slow dub/warping bass lines of jungle and time-stretched vocals, the genre was

soon labelled ‘speed garage’. This was further augmented with his next release of

Spin Spin Sugar by the Sneaker Pimps . Further artists such as RIP , Dreem Teem ,

Booker and 187 Lockdown began to add their own unique styles to the music.

Todd Edwards, a producer from New Jersey, began to experiment further with the

garage sound. He started to strip down the verse and chorus and instead picked

out vocal phrases, choosing to play them like instruments and experimenting

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with the latest sampling technology of the time to make them stand out above

the crowds. One such technique was pitch-shifting individual syllables, a style

that has become characteristic of the whole UK garage scene.

By 1997, the genre of speed garage began to diversify with the evolution of 2-

step garage. This broke down the 4/4 rhythms of speed garage by removing the

second and fourth bass kick from each bar, placing an open high-hat on the

upbeat and introducing syncopated bass lines, altogether giving the rhythms a

funkier feel. MJ Cole , The Artful Dodger , Ed Cas, Shanks and Bigfoot and the

Dreem Teem are all accredited with evolving this new genre, although for many

it was Baby Can I Get Your Number by Silo that pioneered and paved the way for

2-step garage.

In 2000, 2-step garage hit the mainstream charts with releases from Craig

David and Daniel Beddingﬁ eld . However, it wasn’t long before the record com-

panies took their hold on this new genre and the charts were bombarded with

track after track of 2-step ‘pop’ garage for the masses. As those passionate about

the music – not the money – tried to distance themselves, breakstep garage was

born. This exhibited heavier break beats than before and deeper bass lines. This

was further evolved into dub-step, a much more minimalist approach to the

rhythms but still featuring heavy dub bass lines.

MUSICAL ANALYSIS

The most proﬁ cient way to approach writing garage is to ﬁ nd the most popu-

lar tracks around at the moment and break them down to their basic elements.

Once this is accomplished we can begin to examine the similarities between

each track and determine exactly what it is that differentiates it from other musi-

cal styles. In fact, all music that can be placed into a genre-speciﬁ c category will

share similarities in terms of the arrangement, groove and sonic elements.

However, in the case of garage, the divergence of the genre over the subsequent

years has resulted in a genre that has become heavily fragmented and as such

cannot be easily identiﬁ ed as featuring any one particular attribute. It can fea-

ture house rhythms with slow pounding bass lines, it can incorporate more

funky rhythms or it can be extremely minimalist. Indeed, since garage takes

its inﬂ uence from just about every other form of music it is near impossible to

analyse the genre in any exact musical sense. It is only possible to make some

very rough generalizations unless we select a speciﬁ c genre to work with.

While garage is inﬂ uenced by most other forms of music, its strongest roots lie

within its history: jungle, hip-hop, dancehall and R ‘n’ B. Generally the music

will use a 4/4 time signature, but sometimes with the more complex 2-step a 3/4

time signature is used. In terms of tempo, this can range from 94 to 145 BPM.

For the purpose of this chapter, we’ll examine what has been termed speed

garage (more recently reinvented and renamed ‘niche’), a genre featuring heavily

warped bass lines with straight 4/4 rhythms, a motif and time-stretched vocals.

Although we will be focusing on this genre of music, if you want to produce