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

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then adjust the envelope to a fast attack and decay with a short release and no

sustain. Normally, this envelope is applied positively but experiment with neg-

ative settings as this may produce the character you need. If possible, it’s also

worthwhile trying out convex and concave settings on the decay slope of the

ﬁ lter envelope as this will severely affect the character of the sound, changing it

from one similar to a Moog through to a more digital nature and onto a timbre

similar to the TB303. In most house tracks, the ﬁ lter follows the pitch (opens

as the pitch increases), so it’s prudent to use ﬁ lter positive key follow too.

This creates the basic timbre, but it’s practical to begin experimenting with

LFOs, effects and layering. Typical uses of an LFO in this instance would be

to lightly modulate the pitch of the primary or secondary oscillator, the ﬁ lter

cut-off or the pulse width if a pulse waveform is used. On the effects front, dis-

tortion is particularly effective and an often-used effect in house as is phasing/

ﬂ anging, but if you choose this latter option, you will have to exercise care.

In all dance mixes the bass should always sit in the centre of the stereo spec-

trum so that not only do both speakers share the energy but also any panning

applied during mixing is evident (this is covered in the chapter on ambient/

chill out). Consequently, if heavy ﬂ anging or phasing is applied then the bass

will be smeared across the stereo image and the mix may lack any bottom-end

cohesion. Of course, if the bass is too thin or doesn’t have enough body then

effects will not rescue it, so it may be sensible to layer it with another timbre

or in some cases ﬁ ve or six others ﬁ rst. Above all, bear in mind that we have

no expectations of how a synthesized bass should sound, so you shouldn’t be

afraid of stacking up as many sounds as you need to build the required sound.

EQ can always be used to remove harmonics from a bass that is too heavy, but

it cannot be used to introduce harmonics that are not already present.

Alongside the synthetic basses, many house tracks will employ a real bass. More

often than not, these are sampled from other records or are occasionally taken from

sample CDs, rather than programmed in MIDI. However, provided that you have

(a) plenty of patience, (b) a willingness to learn MIDI programming and (c) a good

tone or bass module (such as Spectrasonics Trilogy), it is possible to programme a

realistic bass that could fool most listeners. This not only prevents any problems

with clearing copyright but it also allows you to model the bass to your needs.

The key to programming any real instrument is to take note of how they’re

played and then emulate this action with MIDI and a series of CC commands. In

this case, most bass guitars use the ﬁ rst four strings of a normal guitar E –A–D–G,

which are tuned an octave lower, resulting in the E being close to three octaves

below middle C. Also they are monophonic, not polyphonic, so the only

time notes will actually overlap is when the resonance of the previous string

is still dying away as the next note is plucked. This effect can be emulated by

leaving the preceding note playing for a few ticks while the next note in the

sequence has started. The strings can either be plucked or struck and the two

techniques produce different results. If the string is plucked, the sound is much

brighter and has a longer resonance than if it were simply struck. To copy this,

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the velocity will need to be mapped to the ﬁ lter cut-off of the bass module

so that higher values open the ﬁ lter more. Not all notes will be struck at the

same velocity, though, and if the bassist is playing a fast rhythm, the consecu-

tive notes will commonly have less velocity since he has to move his hand and

pluck the next string quickly. Naturally, this is only a guideline and you should

edit each velocity value until it produces a realistic feel.

Depending on the ‘bassists’, they may also use a technique known as ‘hammer

on’ whereby they play a string and then hit a different pitch on the fret. This

results in the pitch changing without actually being accompanied with another

pluck of the string. To emulate this, you’ll need to make use of pitch bend, so

this will ﬁ rst need setting to a maximum bend limit of 2 semitones, since guitars

don’t ‘bend’ any further than this. Begin by programming 2 notes, for instance,

an E0 followed by an A0, and leave the E0 playing underneath the successive

A0 for around a hundred ticks. At the very beginning of the bass track, drop in

a pitch bend message to ensure that it’s set midway (i.e. no pitch bend), and

just before where the second note occurs, drop in another pitch bend message

to bend the tone up to A0. If this is programmed correctly, on play back you’ll

notice that as the E0 ends the pitch will bend upwards to A0, simulating the

effect. Although this could be left as it is, it’s sensible to drop in a CC11 message

(expression) directly after the pitch bend as this will reduce the overall volume of

the second note so that it doesn’t sound like it has been plucked. In addition to

this, it’s also worthwhile employing some fret noise and ﬁ nger slides. Most good

tone modules will include fret noise that can be dropped in between the notes to

emulate the bassist’s ﬁ ngers sliding along the fret board.

Whether you decide to use a real bass or a synthesized one, after it’s written, it’s an

idea to compress the previous drum loop against the bass. The principle here is to

pump the bass to produce the classic bottom-end groove of most house records –

they tend to pump like crazy. This is accomplished by feeding both bass and

drum loop (preferably with the hi-hats muted) into a compressor and then set

the threshold so that each kick registers approximately ⫺6 dB on the gain reduc-

tion metre. Use a ratio of around 9:1 with a fast attack and set the gain make-up

so that it’s at the same volume level when the compressor is bypassed. Finally, set

the release parameter to 200 ms and then experiment by increasing and reducing

this latter parameter. The shorter the release becomes, the more the kick will begin

to pump the bass, becoming progressively heavier the more that it’s shortened.

Unfortunately, the only guidelines for how short this should be set are to use your

ears and judgement but try not to get too excited. The design is to help the drums

and bass gel together into a cohesive whole and produce a rhythm that punches

along energetically. On the same note, it should not be compressed so heavily that

you loose the excursion of the kick – you have to reach a happy medium!

MELODIES AND MOTIFS

With the bottom-end groove working, the lead instruments can be dropped

over the top. As touched upon when discussing basses, the lead instruments ’

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melody will depend entirely on the type of house being produced. Funky bass

lines will require less active melodies to sit over the top while less active basses

will require more melodic elements. Additionally, since these leads are often

sampled from other records, it’s na ïve to suggest that they are programmed

with MIDI and therefore it’s impossible to offer any guidelines apart from to

listen to the latest house records to see where the current trend is.

This also means that there are no deﬁ nitive sounds that characterize the genre

and as such practically everything should be seen as a fair game. In fact, a pro-

portionate amount of house producers feel the same as many have sampled

heavily from previous records (particularly disco) to produce the sound. With

that said, there are some timbres that have always been popular in house

including the Hoover, plucked leads and pianos from the DX series of synthe-

sizers. These have all already been discussed in detail in the chapter on sound

design, so here we’ll look at the general synthesis ideals.

Fundamentally, synthetic house leads will more often than not employ saw-

tooth, triangle and/or noise waveforms to produce a harmonically rich sound

that will cut through the mix and can be ﬁ ltered if required. Depending on how

many are employed in the timbre, these can be detuned from one another to

produce more complex interesting sounds. If the timbre requires more of a body

to the sound, then adding a sine or pulse wave will help to widen the sound

and give it more presence. To keep the dynamic edge of the music, the ampli-

ﬁ ers attack is predominantly set to zero so that it starts upon key press but the

decay, sustain and release settings will depend entirely on what type of sound

you require. Generally speaking, it’s unwise to use a long release setting since this

may blur the lead notes together and the music could lose its dynamic edge, but

it’s worth experimenting with the decay and sustain while the melody is playing

to the synth to see the effect it has on the rhythm. As lead sounds need to remain

interesting to the ear, it’s prudent to employ LFOs or a ﬁ lter envelope to augment

the sound as it plays. A good starting point for the ﬁ lter EG is to set the ﬁ lter cut-

off to low pass and set both the ﬁ lter cut-off and resonance to midway, and then

adjust the envelope to a fast attack and decay with a short release and no sustain.

Once this is set, experiment by applying it to the ﬁ lter by positive and negative

amounts. On top of this, LFOs set to modulate the pitch, ﬁ lter cut-off, resonance

and/or pulse width can also be used to add interest. Once the basic timbre is

down, the key is, as always, to experiment.

For chords, the most common instrument used in-house is the Solina String

Machine which has made an appearance on hundreds of house records

including those by Daft Punk, Air, Joy Division, Josh Wink, STYX, New Order,

Tangerine Dream, Roger Sanchez, Supermen Lovers and nearly every disco

track ever released. Although this synth is now out of production, a similar

timbre can be created in any analogue-style synth. Begin by using three saw-

tooth waveforms and detune two from one of the oscillators by ⫾3. Apply a

small amount of vibrato using an LFO to these two detuned saws, and then

use an ampliﬁ er envelope with a medium attack and release and a full sustain

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(there is no decay since sustain is set to full and it would have nothing to drop

down to). Now, experiment with the sawtooth that wasn’t detuned by pitching

it up as far as possible without it becoming an individual sound (i.e. less than

20 Hz), and if possible, use two ﬁ lters – one set as a low pass to remove the

low-end frequencies from the two detuned saws and the other as a high pass to

remove some of the high-frequency content from the recently pitched saw.

Once this basic sound is created, it may be prudent to make it appear as though

it’s been sampled and subsequently affected. To do this, it’s worthwhile copying

the timbre to three sequencer tracks and removing all the bottom-end frequen-

cies of the ﬁ rst track, all of the midrange from the second and everything but

the high frequencies on the third with a good EQ unit. Following this, insert a

ﬂ anger or phaser across the audio track that only has the high frequencies and

then mixing the three tracks together under it produces a timbre that sounds

appropriate for the track. Depending on the music so far, this may also involve

applying the ﬂ anger (or phaser) to the mid-range or the low-range track or per-

haps even all of them. In this case, the basic principle is to have the effects sweep

the frequencies present in each track by differing amounts to construct a big tex-

tural timbre. Once complete, export these three ﬁ les into a single audio ﬁ le and

then place it into a sampler and create a chord structure to suit the music.

Even if this sound is not used, effects can play an important role in creating

interesting and evolving pads for the genre. Wide chorus effects, rotary speaker

simulations, ﬂ angers, phasers and reverb can all help to add a sense of move-

ment to help ﬁ ll out any holes in the mix. A noise gate can also be used cre-

atively to model the sound. For instance, by setting a low threshold and using

an immediate attack and release, the pad will start and stop abruptly produc-

ing a ‘sampled’ effect that cannot be replicated through synthesis parameters.

What’s more, if you set the hold time to zero and adjust the threshold so that

it lies just above the volume of the timbre, the gate will ‘chatter’ which can

be used to interesting effect. Overall, compression is generally not required

on pads since they’ll already be compressed at the source, but if distortion or

heavy ﬁ ltering or EQ is used then it may be prudent to follow them with a

compressor to prevent them from clipping the desk.

With all the parts programmed, we can begin to look at the arrangement. As

touched upon in the musical analysis, house is an incredibly diverse genre, so

there are no deﬁ nite arrangement methods. Nevertheless, as much of house

relies on the sampling ethics introduced by Todd Terry, a usual approach is to

arrange the instruments in different conﬁ gurations to produce a series of dif-

ferent loops. For instance, a loop could consist of just the drums, another of

the drums and bass mixed together, another consisting of the drum, bass and

leads and another made from just the leads. Each of these are then sampled (or

exported from an audio sequencer) and set to a speciﬁ c key on a controller key-

board connected to the sampler. By then, hitting these keys at random you can

produce a basic arrangement plus if one-shot mode is disabled on the sampler

it’s possible to create the stuttered mix effect used on some house tracks.

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That said, as with all genres this is subject to change, so the best way to obtain a

good representation of how to arrange the track is to listen to what are considered

the classics and then copy them. This isn’t stealing; it’s research and nearly every

musician on the planet follows this same route. This can be accomplished using a

method known as ‘chicken scratching ’. Armed with a piece of paper and a pen, listen

back to the track, and at every bar, place a single scratch mark on the paper. When

a new instrument is introduced or there is a change in the rhythmic element, place

a star below the scratch. Once you’ve ﬁ nished listening back to the song, you can

refer to the paper to determine how many bars are used in the track and where

new instruments have been introduced. You can then follow this same arrange-

ment and, if required, change it slightly so that it follows a progression to suit.

The data CD contains a full mix of a typical house track 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 house and, as ever, 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 your process-

ing, effects and synthesis. In fact, in many cases it’s this production that makes

one track better than the other, and if you want to write house you need to be

on the scene and listen to the most inﬂ uential tracks. If you listen closely to

these, they will invariably reveal signiﬁ cant information about how they were

made. Keep in mind that the timbres are unimportant since this genre does not

necessarily rely on a particular sound; it’s more to do with feel and groove. With

this in mind, what follows is a short list of some of the artists that, at the time

of writing, are considered the most inﬂ uential in this area:

■ Daft Punk

■ Room 5

■ The Supermen Lovers

■ Modjo

■ Stardust

■ Kid Cr ème

■ Stylophonic

■ Some of Moby’s work

■ Laylo And Bushwacka

■ Roger Sanchez

And of course, some disco artists who could be used as a source of inspira-

tion are:

■ Alec Costandinos

■ Bohannon

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■ Bootsy Collins

■ Cerrone

■ Chic

■ Deodato

■ Donna Summer

■ Eddie Kendricks

■ Evelyn King

■ France Joli

■ George McRae

■ Gino Soccio

■ Giorgio Moroder

■ Gregg Diamond

■ Gwen McRae

■ Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes

■ Heatwave

■ LaBelle

■ Larry Levan

■ Lime

■ Love Unlimited Orchestra

■ Meco Monardo

■ Patrick Adams

■ The Salsoul Orchestra

■ Shalamar

■ Sister Sledge

■ Slave

■ Sylvester

■ Sylvia

■ Tavares

■ Thelma Houston

■ Tom Moulton

■ Van McCoy

■ Vicki Sue Robinson

■ Vincent Montana Jr.

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Trance

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Trance is possibly one of the most ambiguous genres of dance music because it

appears in so many different forms and few can actually agree on exactly what

makes the music trance. However, it’s fairly safe to say that it can be roughly

generalized as the only form of dance music that’s constructed around glamor-

ous melodies which are either incredibly vigorous, laid-back or pretty much

anywhere in between. In fact, it’s this ‘feel’ of the music that often determines

whether it’s Progressive, Goa, Psychedelic, Acid or Euphoric. Even then, some will

place euphoric trance with Progressive and others believe that Acid trance is

just another name for Goa. To make matters worse, some forms of trance are

given numerous titles by both DJs and clubbers. For example, euphoric trance

may be subdivided into Commercial or Underground, each of which is different

yet again. This obviously presents a dilemma when trying to encapsulate it for

the purpose of writing an example track since it becomes a Hobson’s choice.

Nevertheless, much of how the music is written can be determined by looking

at its history and one thing that is certain is that trance, in whichever form, has

its roots embedded in Germany. During the 1990s a joint project between

DJ Dag and Jam El Mar resulted in Dance2Trance and their ﬁ rst track labelled

“ We came in Peace ” is considered by many to be the ﬁ rst ever ‘club’ trance

music. Although by today’s standards it was particularly raw, consisting solely

of repetitive patterns (as Techno is today), it laid the basic foundations for the

genre with the sole purpose of putting clubbers into a trance-like state.

The ideas behind this were nothing new; tribal shamans had been doing the

same thing for many years, using natural hallucinogenic herbs and rhythms

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’ The “ soul ” of the machines has always been a part of

our music. Trance belongs to repetition and everybody

is looking for trance in life

… in sex, in the emotional,

in pleasure … So, the machines produce an absolutely

perfect trance … ’

Ralf H ü tter (Kraftwerk)

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pounded out on log drums to induce the tribe’s people into trance-like states.

The only difference with Dance2Trance was that the pharmaceuticals were

man-made and the pounding rhythms were produced by machines rather than

skin stretched across a log. Indeed, to many trance aﬁ cionados (if there is such

a thing) the practice of placing clubbers into a trance state is believed to have

formed the basis of Goa and Psychedelic trance.

Although both these genres are still produced and played in clubs to this

day, the increased popularity of 3,4-methylenedioxy- N -methylamphetamine

(MDMA or ‘E’) among clubbers inevitably resulted in new forms of trance

being developed. Since this drug stimulates serotonin levels in the brain it’s

difﬁ cult, if not impossible, to place clubbers into states of trance with tribal

rhythms; instead, the melodies became more and more exotic slowly taking

precedence over every other element in the mix. The supposed purpose was

to no longer induce a trance-like state but emulate or stimulate the highs and

lows of MDMA. The basic principle is still the same today in that the chemi-

cals, arguably, still played a role in inducing a state, albeit a euphoric one, and

the name euphoric trance was given to these tracks.

This form of music, employing long breakdowns and huge melodic reprises,

became the popularized style that still dominates many commercial clubs and

the music charts today. As a result, when the term trance is used to describe

this type of music most view it as the typical anthemic “hands in the air ” music

that’s ﬁ lled with big breakdowns and huge melodic leads. As this remains one

of the biggest and most popular genres of dance music to date, this form of

trance will be the focus of the chapter.

MUSICAL ANALYSIS

Possibly the best way to begin writing any dance music 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 examine the similarities between each track

and determine exactly what it is that differentiates it from other musical styles. In

fact, all music that can be placed into a genre-speciﬁ c category will share similari-

ties in terms of the arrangement, groove and sonic elements.

In the case of euphoric trance, it is viewed as being an anthemic form of music,

which essentially means that it has an up tempo, uplifting feel that’s very acces-

sible to most clubbers. As a result, it can best be illustrated as consisting of a

relatively melodic synth and/or vocal hook line laid over a comparatively unso-

phisticated drum pattern and bass line. The drums usually feature long snare

rolls to signify the build-up to the reprise and breakdowns, alongside small

motifs and/or chord progressions that work around the main melody.

Consequently, all euphoric trance music will utilize a four-to-the-ﬂ oor time sig-

nature to help clubbers keep time while ‘stimulated’ and be produced either

allegretto or allegro. In terms of physical tempo, this can range from a rather

contained 125 BPM and move towards the brain mashing upper limits of

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FIGURE 12.1

Typical trance drum

loop

150 BPM, but most tend to stay around 137 –145 BPM mark. This, of course, isn’t

a demanding rule but it is important not to go too fast as it needs to remain

anthemic and the majority of the public can’t dance to an incredibly fast beat.

THE RHYTHM SECTION

The best place to start when programming any dance music is with the rhythm

section as this will deﬁ ne the overall pace of the record. With most trance this is

invariably kept quite simple and will almost always rely on a four-to-the-ﬂ oor pat-

tern. This means a kick drum is placed on every beat of the bar, along with snares

or claps laid on the second and fourth beat to add some expression to these two

beats. To complement this basic pattern closed hi-hats are commonly placed on

every 16th division, or variation of 16ths, while to introduce some syncopation

open hi-hats are often employed and placed on every 1/8th division of the bar.

Notably, any closed hi-hats that occur in this position should be removed to pre-

vent any frequency clashes between the closed and the open hi-hat ( Figure 12.1 ).

This, of course, is only a general guideline to the drum patterns used and is open

to your interpretation. For instance, occasionally a set of triplet closed hats may

sit at the end of every few bars to add some extra variation, or alternatively, the

snare/clap may be placed a 1/16th before the kick occurs on the last beat of

the fourth bar. Additionally, the kicks are sometimes used to add variation and

a double kick at the end of the fourth bar can be used to signify a change, for

example, when introducing a new instrument into the mix ( Figure 12.2 ).

Although these techniques produce what is essentially an incredibly basic

loop, this is exactly what much of trance relies on. Indeed, bongos, congas and

most other percussive instruments are not commonly employed since a more

complex drum loop will not only reduce the room left for the lead melody

but may also take the attention away from it. On this same theme, despite