E|ectro-house |s very much a product

of the t|mes, and so |s |arge|y bu||t

around soft synths and 0AWs.
0onsequent|y, the gear you need |s
w|th|n most peop|e's pr|ce range. F|rst
and foremost, you'|| need a decent
ana|ogue mode|||ng soft synth, for
those Moog-sty|e e|ectro bass patches.
Next up |s a d|g|ta|-sty|e soft synth,
|dea||y an FM sound|ng affa|r, for a||
those p|ucked and be|| ||ke no|ses we
need to f||| out our track, not to
ment|on b|g, nasty meta|||c bass
patches to d|rty th|ngs upl
Effects-w|se, you'|| need as many
crazy p|ug-|ns as you can get your
hands on, and some stuff to phatten
th|ngs up e|ectro |s some of the best
produced dance mus|c out there r|ght
now, so |t must be |ncred|b|y we|ghty
but crysta| c|ear at the same t|me.
A drum samp|er |s a|so a good
|dea, as |t enab|es you to bu||d up your
own beats qu|ck|y, wh|ch w||| a|ways
g|ve your tracks more |dent|ty than just
|ayer|ng |oops la|though you'|| need
|oops tooll.
F|na||y at |east as far as p|ug-|ns
go a soft samp|er w||| he|p no end
when |t comes to chopp|ng up and
sequenc|ng sect|ons of voca|.
But what shou|d you be runn|ng a||
these p|ug-|ns |n? We||, th|s |s |arge|y a
matter or persona| taste, but don't fee|
||ke you have to do everyth|ng |n just
one p|ece of software. For examp|e, we
prefer to use packages ||ke Reason,
0uru and Ab|eton L|ve to get an |dea
go|ng, before f|n|sh|ng |t off |n a
package w|th more soph|st|cated
arrangement too|s. You can, natura||y,
f|n|sh a comp|ete track |n, say, L|ve,
and you can a|so get a good |dea
go|ng |n Log|c or 0ubase, but the
former |s better for |deas and the |atter
are better for arrang|ng and po||sh|ng,
so |f you have access to both, make
the most of theml
Iddahd[i]ZigVYZ

|ectro |s a funny o|d term. ^ few

years ago it largely referred to a
type of retro breakbeat music
based on the early electro hip-hop vibe
pioneered by ^rthur Baker, Kraftwerk
and ^frika Bambaata. These days, it's
more commonly used to describe a
new type of house music. Essentially,
electro-house is a hybrid of funky house
and techno, with elements of old-school
UK garage and hard house thrown in for
good measure. lt's been gaining
popularity in clubs all over the world,
and has become a feature in almost
every house 0I's set playlist. lts effects
are even felt in the funky house scene
itself, with disco loops increasingly
being replaced by played synth parts.
So what makes it tick? Well, first and
foremost, funky beats are the order of
the day, and these can be minimal,
tribal sounding or skippy as hell just
as long as they're upbeat and driving.
The next thing you need are some
big old synth sounds. The electro part of
|o, s no 'jus no|e| Cnce en|e |o cn |e |e|n |on |e ||
p|oCucon v|ues o e|ec|o|ouse. Jon us s we unk |ns up.
electro-house generally refers to
massive-sounding stacked saw and
triangle wave patches. This is the
classic electro ingredient, which is
usually garnished with a variety of
percussion-style synth patterns. These
are ideal as they can cut through the
thicker patches and sit nicely over them
in the mix.
Bass, of course, plays a big part in
the proceedings, and is often the same
as the lead, but it must be as massive
as the lead patches electro is all
about an enormous bottom end.
Finally, vocals should generally be
minimal |with a few notable exceptionsl,
very chopped up and skippy. That said,
electro is one of the few house genres
that offers very kicking tracks with few
or no vocals.
Right, now we know what it is, we
reckon it's time we showed you how to
make it. Rere in Part 1, we're going to
show you how to get started and put a
nice groove down. Xb E
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0o the 0V0
IUI0PIAL FILE5
A|| the M|0| and aud|o f||es
and the comp|ete L|ve Froject
for th|s month's |nsta||ment
are |n the Iutcr|a| F||es fo|der
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0ur k|cks are f|ne, but we run the |oop through Son|c
Max|m|zer and use a h|gh-pass f||ter to tr|m off
everyth|ng be|ow 790Bz, so we on|y get the sound of
the |oop. Some Son|c Max|m|zer, v|ntage Warmer, extra
compress|on and stereo spread comp|ete the hats.
5
We do need some type of |oop, though, so we |mport a
one-bar |oop created ear||er |n Log|c, compr|s|ng a k|ck
on each beat, a snare on beats two and four, and a h|-
hat on every e|ghth-note, start|ng w|th beat one. Th|s g|ves the
track a 'rea|-percuss|on' fee| and f|||s out the beat sect|on. >>
4
We want to keep th|ngs m|n|ma| on th|s track, so we
opt for a n|ce e|ectron|c-sound|ng c|osed h|-hat and
have |t p|ay|ng a very fast pattern lon every l6thl, thus
dr|v|ng the track forward and mak|ng |t sound much faster
than our project's current sett|ng of l26bpm. >>
3
Now we bounce the k|cks down as one and |oad the
resu|t|ng k|ck samp|e |nto a new aud|o channe| |n L|ve.
We then |oop the k|ck samp|e over a quarter bar, so
that we f|na||y have a k|ck drum p|ay|ng on every beat. We
a|so set our tempo ltry l26bpml. >>
2
To make |t eas|er to concentrate, we |oop the k|cks over
a quarter bar. Then we app|y some t|ght compress|on,
w|th Attack |n the 3-5ms range to create a n|ce crack.
We a|so app|y some bass boost, Son|c Max|m|zat|on and a
bass cut at 32Bz to keep our k|cks t|dy but heavy. >>
1
We're us|ng L|ve for the f|rst part of our tutor|a|, but f|rst
we want a beefy k|ck drum samp|e, wh|ch we're go|ng
to make |n Log|c. We start by tak|ng a few d|fferent k|ck
drums from var|ous sources. Some are punchy, some have
we|ght and bottom end. We then |ayer a|| of them. >>
HI:E7NHI:EIdi]ZWZVid[i]ZYgjb
EGDI>E
Whenever you're making house music
with heavy quantisation, watch out for
elements that clash particularly
those with different amounts of
groove applied. Iry nudging clashing
events together manually or, failing
that, pull them back to the rigid
quantise position.
EGDI>E
Be careful with percussion. 0ther
house genres lend themselves to
layering lots of loops, but electro
requires more precision than that. lt
often has deceptively complex
percussion, but this will be made up
of very tailored hits, all working
towards a central groove.
0
rums are the ||feb|ood of a||
house mus|c and e|ectro |s no
except|on. The most important
thing is a phat, punchy kick drum, but
close second |or even joint firstl place
goes to the percussion. Tribal-style
loops, skippy hats, effected snares and
various other bits and pieces all play a
part, but the most essential ingredient is
swing. lf you don't take advantage of
your sequencer's swing and
groove-quantising features |or at least
sample a loop from an existing track,
which will almost certainly have groove
appliedl then your track will probably
sound amateurish and wooden.
You should also be prepared to add
a variety of effects to your percussive
sounds, to ensure they evolve over the
course of an eight-bar loop, particularly
on quite minimal patterns.
\ibe-wise, the most important thing
is to have plenty of skip andlor chug.
Iust as with funky techno, the key is to
have energy, but without needing to
ramp up the tempo in fact electro is
usually made in the 125-130bpm range,
which is a fair bit slower than much of
it sounds.
THE BEST ELECTRO-HOUSE HAS A VARIETY OF PERCUSSIVE
ELEMENTS, IN THE SAME WAY AS EARLY HARD HOUSE
Finally, the best electro-house
music has a variety of percussive
elements, in much the same way as
early funkier hard house did in the late
90s, but it doesn't generally feature the
standard 909 open hat too prominently.
0ften there will be no open hat at all, or
if there is, it will be gated and punchy.
^t the end of the day, it's like
learning to produce any style of
music you progress by copying
and adapting.
9gjbh
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We fatten th|ngs up w|th Son|c Max|m|zer lh|gh and |owl
and FSF v|ntage Warmer. After that, we use L|ve's Beat
Repeat feature and automat|on enve|ope contro|s to
br|ng |n the effect at the end of every four bars.
2
Bav|ng found a ||ke|y patch, we p|ay |n a su|tab|y
monotone bass||ne that f|ts our d|sgust|ng bass
patch perfect|y. >> 1
The f|rst mus|ca| e|ement |n most e|ectro tracks shou|d
be the bass||ne. We start by f||ck|ng through a few
patches |n a soft synth. We're us|ng v|r5yn's Iera 3
part|y because |t sounds huge, but more because |t has |ots
of presets to make a start w|thl >>
HI:E7NHI:E6aa"^bedgiVciWVhh
We've a|ready d|scussed the type of
bass||nes that you get |n e|ectro, but by
far the most recogn|sab|e |s the
bass||ne as a |ead. And |f you don't th|nk
you've heard th|s type of track lor,
|ndeed, genrell, then you must have
m|ssed the Stud|o B track, -7II+MVPW,
wh|ch was rather |arge |n the charts and
c|ubs |ast year ldesp|te hav|ng been
or|g|na||y re|eased some t|me before
thatl. The vers|on you w||| recogn|se, and
the one wh|ch |s arguab|y the def|n|t|ve
b|uepr|nt for bouncy e|ectro la|be|t a
much |ess cred|b|e b|uepr|nt than |t was
before MTv and The Box got ho|d of |tl,
|s actua||y the Tom Nev|||e 0razy Legs
rem|x. 0I and producer Tom |s at the
cutt|ng edge of th|s type of sound, and
regu|ar|y performs ||ve sets w|th a
comb|nat|on of Ab|eton L|ve and
F|oneer 00I Mk||s. B|s sets natura||y
feature p|enty of these enormous and
bounc|ng |ead bass||nes, so |f you want
to try to master them yourse|f, you cou|d
do a |ot worse than to check out one of
h|s sets. And though -7II+MVPW has
|ost much of |ts street coo|, |t's st|||
poss|b|y the best examp|e of how to
comb|ne a f||thy bass||ne w|th
percuss|ve synth |eads on an e|ectro
track, and shou|d be cons|dered
essent|a| ||sten|ng.
7VhhVhVaZVY
EGDI>E
0ne of the best ways to liven up your
percussion is to flick through some of
the more esoteric lF0-driven synth
patches particularly those with little
pops and clicks. You might have often
wondered what use they were, but
they make perfect percussive
elements for electro tracks.
EGDI>E
0reate excitement by applying a little
phasing or flanging to some of your
stranger percussive elements. When
applied to funky and minimal electro
beats, this can really add to a track.
Iry bouncing down 32 bars of it,
and choose the best effected
four or eight.

|ectro bass |s a wonderfu| th|ng.

lt can either be a rumbling
sub-bass groover or a tearing
lead line, but as with everything else
about this techno-house hybrid genre, it
needs to be funky.
Essentially, there are three main
types of bassline in electro the
bassline as a lead, which can be more
melodic, the low, grooving and
reasonably monotonal sub-bass of the
more minimal tribal-techno style tracks,
and the absolutely hammering
monotone beast of a bassline, such as
we plan to roll out in today's session.
The key to the first and last of these
types of bassline is a big, phat and
tonally rich bass patch, ideally made of
some stacked saw and triangle
waves, and then grunged up with a
low-pass filter and tweaked resonance
settings. Seriously, the bigger the
better, and if you need to layer up a
couple of synths |or morel to get a
really thick and dirty sound, then go for
it. ^fter all, if your bass kicks in and the
crowd don't start punching the air and
cheering, you've failed miserably and
might as well go back to making Iames
Blunt sound-alikes.
IF YOUR BASS KICKS IN AND THE CROWD DONT START
PUNCHING THE AIR AND CHEERING, YOUVE FAILED
7Vhh
5hcct|ng Icr the -7II+MVPW a|bum
artwcrk must've been a tcugh jcb.
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0ur r|ff sounds so good that |t's worth copy|ng to the
other channe|s for use at the arrangement stage. We
can then a|ternate between d|fferent comb|nat|ons of
the fu||er and the more sparse r|ffs, g|v|ng us p|enty of opt|ons
w|thout need|ng to c|og the m|x w|th add|t|ona| e|ements. >>
5
To f||| |n the gaps wh||e keep|ng th|ngs ro|||ng, we copy
our r|ff over by one bar, so that |t starts to p|ay the same
th|ng aga|n over the end of the prev|ous bar's r|ff. The
Bammond-esque patch |s prov|d|ng some much needed
mus|ca| dr|ve, and smooths over the gaps gent|y. >>
4
We copy the r|ff to yet another channe|. We want to
start f||||ng the gap, but |t can't be a sound w|th |ots of
top and upper m|ds, or the start-stop v|be w||| be |ost.
Bammond organ-sty|e patches are good for th|s, so we ca||
up just such a th|ng |n 0perator. >>
3
Any more r|ffs now wou|d ru|n the groove, but we st|||
have p|enty of scope to use that r|ff to the fu||, so we
copy |t to a new channe| and ca|| up a p|ucked
c|av|-sty|e patch |n 0perator. Th|s s|ts n|ce|y under our
Euro-synth patch and adds some new tona| qua||ty >>
2
By f||||ng some of the gaps |n the r|ff w|th shorter, qu|eter
and |ower notes p|ay|ng just before each of the |onger
ones, our r|ff ga|ns energy but we're st||| carefu| to
|eave that three-beat gap at the end. We m|ght want to put a
stabby voca| |n that space, but more on that next monthl >>
1
We start out by p|ay|ng a s|mp|e r|ff w|th a Euro-synth
patch from Ab|eton's 0perator. The r|ff |oops over four
bars, w|th a three-beat gap. Th|s k|nd of start-stop r|ff |s
|dea|, and |eaves p|enty of room for our bass||ne to dom|nate,
wh||st keep|ng to the same groove. >>
HI:E7NHI:EHnci]^ije

|ectro synths that aren't bass

patches are a|most a|ways qu|te
p||nky affa|rs. ln other words, they
tend to have piano-like envelopes, with
fast attacks followed by a quick drop-off
and reasonably fast release. The reason
for this, as we've discussed, is that
these sounds lend themselves well to
the large synth patches usually found
on electro basslines, and also because
their percussive nature provides plenty
of room for funky minimal riffs and sexy
tape-delay effects.
There are also lots of pads and
strings employed in electro, as they can
fill up tracks nicely without interfering
with the groove and flow of proceedings.
For this reason, they're often used in
conjunction with very severe high-pass
filtering, to ensure there's plenty of room
for the bass to stand alone.
The last really common type of synth
sound in electro is the type of blip and
squeak that brings R202 to mind and
those suspiciously good synth
programmers who have long beards
and wear baseball caps until they're
well into the their 50s. Electro synth riffs
are generally quite minimal, with big
gaps to emphasise the groove of the
Hnci]hdjcYh
A COMMON SYNTH SOUND IN ELECTRO IS
THE TYPE THAT BRINGS R2D2 TO MIND
track, and little synth sounds playing
one or two notes in these gaps help
keep things moving along, in much the
same way as little guitar or keyboard
riffs sit nicely in the gaps between
the lines of a song.
But enough talkl lt's time
to sprinkle some sweet
musical icing on our rather
substantial electro-cake.
5t|ck a b|t cI P2D2 I|ava |n ycur tracks.
cu can't get mcre e|ectrc than that
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9
The |ast th|ng we do to our |ead |s ca|m down some of
the patch's preset effects. We d|sab|e the p|ng-pong
de|ay, and turn down the reverb cons|derab|y. You on|y
want enough so that |t |sn't unnatura||y dry-sound|ng. More
than that w||| muddy the waters. >>
8
We add some v|ntage Warmer to our |ead, set to a
strong compress|on |eve|. Th|s |s comp|emented by
some Son|c Max|m|zat|on of the top end, and a bas|c
stereo spread effect to g|ve the m|x a b|t of w|dth. F|ay w|th
the sett|ngs unt|| the bass and |ead stand apart. >>
7
|t's t|me we t|d|ed land phattenedl up our synth ||nes.
Start|ng w|th our Euro-|ead, we tr|m off some of the
bass w|th a h|gh-pass f||ter at around 80Bz. We
want |t to have we|ght, but not so much that |t c|ashes w|th
the energy of our bass||ne. >>
12
We add s|m||ar v|ntage Warmer, Son|c Max|m|zer
and h|gh-pass sett|ngs to our c|av|-sty|e r|ff, a|be|t
w|th the CutcII set h|gher l430Bzl. F|na||y, Eros|on
adds some gr|t to the c|av|chord sound, and Aud|o 0amage's
0ubStat|on prov|des s|apback-sty|e de|ay.
11
We |nsert a v|ntage Warmer and Son|c Max|m|zer
for we|ght and c|ar|ty. 0ne more compressor
p|ug-|n lw|th qu|te a h|gh Pat|c and fast Attack and
Pe|ease sett|ngsl comp|etes the organ r|ff. We shorten the
Pe|ease of the patch s||ght|y for even more punch. >>
10
Next up |s our organ r|ff. Th|s |s too bass-heavy, so
we |nsert a h|gh-pass f||ter set to l08Bz. Th|s way
we get the tona||y r|ch |ower-m|d frequenc|es
between the bass and the |ead, w|thout |nterfer|ng w|th e|ther,
wh|ch |s v|ta| |f we're to have the organ p|ay|ng a fu||er r|ff. >>
^s we've already mentioned, electro
influences can be felt right across the
range of house, funky house and
progressive house music, and it really
does pay to check out a good range of
work from the professional producers
out there.
lf you're interested in the more
minimal side of things, there are few
producers better than the highly
in-demand Mark Knight. With his very
minimal almost techno style, he
manages to get even cheddar-loving
disco-queens rocking on the dancefloor
every time.
For the hands-in-the-air brigade, the
much sought after Raji & Emmanuel
remixing double act can be relied on to
rock the place every time, and they
have a string of high profile mainstream
pop acts on their remix roster.
But the greatest thing about electro
is that the level of production is so high
that you can learn new tricks and get
ideas from almost every track you hear.
The scene has its fair share of derivative
dross, of course, but new producers
emerge every day, and each month
brings another storming new track from
a previously unknown producer.
So get out there on the web, point
your browser to Beatport and have a
listen. ^nd make sure you do it before
next month's concluding instalment, as
that's when we'll be doing our
arrangement and mixdown, and you
can't do those properly without a good
template to work from.
GZXdbbZcYZYa^hiZc^c\
Dcwn|cad scme e|ectrc Ircm www.beatport.com and nab scme rcduct|cn t|sI
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We add some 16I quant|sat|on to our organ, but as
th|s |s more bass-heavy, we pu|| one or two rhythm|ca||y
s|gn|f|cant notes to the|r quant|sed pos|t|ons |n the M|0|
ed|tor. We add 35 16I quant|sat|on to our bass||ne, make a
copy and shorten a few notes for a more sparse var|at|on.
2
We app|y some of the same 16I quant|sat|on to our
|ead and c|av|-sty|e r|ffs, but th|s t|me at around 45, as
they're qu|te ||ght l|e, bass-||ghtl sounds and so can
afford to be a ||tt|e more severe. The more bass there |s |n a
sound, the |ess sw|ng you can get away w|th. >>
1
We start w|th the percuss|on. The |oop |s a s|mp|e affa|r
so not a good cand|date, but we app|y a ||tt|e 16I
ltr|p|etl quant|sat|on to the hats. L|ve enab|es you to
spec|fy the percentage of groove app||ed, so we se|ect
around 30. >>
HI:E7NHI:E<Zi^cidi]Z\gddkZ
3
And that's |t for th|s month. We have a|| the mak|ngs of
a rock|n' ||tt|e e|ectro tune a|| we need now are some
be||s, some wh|st|es, a voca| sn|ppet or two, some
str|ngs and a k|||er arrangement. So, actua||y we're a |ong way
from the end, but we are at |east trave|||ng on the r|ght road.
2
Us|ng L|ve's ||ve performance too|s, we try out d|fferent
comb|nat|ons of parts, and d|fferent segues between
them lyou can do th|s manua||y |n any sequencerl. Th|s
w||| throw out arrangement |deas and h|gh||ght what add|t|ona|
e|ements are needed to comp|ete the track. >>
1
W|th our key e|ements |n p|ace and effects app||ed, we
try a few var|at|ons on patterns. We make d|fferent
vers|ons of our |oops, some p|ay|ng two bars and then
s||enced for the next two, some s||ent for two then sound|ng
for the next two. We copy each var|at|on to each part. >>
HI:E7NHI:EEjaa^c\i]^c\hid\Zi]Zg
I]Z[adl
A
ny track |n a genre bu||t around
funky grooves w||| |nherent|y ||ve
or d|e on the strength of |ts funk
appea|. You cannot just draw in notes
on rigid 16ths and expect to get people
wiggling their asses. Fortunately, almost
every modern music-making package
comes fully stocked with
groove-enhancing tools. But don't just
switch on the swing setting or apply a
groove-quantise template and leave it at
that. Sure, these can work wonders, but
it's the personal touches that take this
sort of thing to the next level. Try
manually shifting some of your
percussion and notes ever so slightly
forward or back |right or left, on most
Ml0l part editorsl. ^nd don't be afraid
to put a few notes or percussion
strikes back on the rigid beat, if it tidies
things up or emphasises the other parts
of the groove.
The two things to remember at all
times, though, are that there's no right
way to add swing and groove, but there
are plenty of wrong ways, so don't get
carried away with super juddery edits.
^lways apply the head-nod test to
everything you're doing the more
you're nodding and swinging your head,
the better the groove. Remember that
key technique and you can't go too far
wrong. ^ll of which brings us to our own
masterpiece lets get swinging.
Us|ng a grccve
tem|ate |s the qu|ck
and easy ct|cn use
ycur |mag|nat|cn tc
Iunk th|ngs u a b|tI
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