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A Guideline To Electronic Dance Music Production Genres & Styles by Xe-Cute

February 11, 2020 by Tom Watson

Lessons, Music Production, The Serious Sounds Network

Dance music genres, EDM genres, Electronic Music Genres

Acid

Anything made with a TB-303 or other squelchy noises in it. TB stands for Transistor Baseline, it’s a kinda drum computer. Acid is a high squeaky sound; normal bpm (130). Acid has also been introduced into many other genres such as house & trance, and is pretty much used in every other style of electronic music. Similar Artist: Sven Vath

Acid House

Maurice, some Chemical Brothers, Lords Of Acid. Characterized by use of a Roland TB-303. squelchy, squeaky sounds — the “funky worm”. Normal: 130 bpm. Precursor to Trance.

Acid Jazz

Jazz to dance to played by people now. Often features Hammond organ. Lots of strings and bass. Similar to abstract drum & bass sound in ways but also contains the main assembly method used in Jazz and the squeaky Acid elements are not as apparent or refined, but are noticeable after listening to Acid Jazz for a while. Similar Artist: PhoteK

Ambient

No defined beat, just chill-out sounds. Whale noises, washy sounds, textures, colours, lights. Drug vegetable music. Aphex twin reinvented it in 1991 but its been around forever. The music is typically very fluid and progressive, alot of current artists use a minimalmistic approach with ambience and elements of Environmental Soundscape are used quite often in unison to achieve the right groove. Okay since Erik Satie,FSOL

Ambient Breakbeat

Quite a specific, narrow style. Like trip-hop music, only with less energy. Much more relaxed than proper breakbeat.

Ambient House

Original term for house music with ambient elements and structures. Originated as post-Rave music in London during the 80s. Inspired by Chicago House, older ambient music and progressive rock.

Generally, ambient house is house music you wouldn’t dance to: softer midtempo house beats, synth washes and ambience added to dreamy vocals and plenty of samples. (This term isn’t used much now as ambient house spawned so many different styles of downtempo music that are hard to categorize.)

Ambient Techno

Ambient techno is the same idea, but…get this…with techno.
Ambient Techno Dance able elements and techno style percussion lines, but usually has swirling un-definable soundscapes imposed along with classic techno elements. 303 lines, deep bass, 4/4 beats.

Breakbeat

Prodigy, Chemical Brothers. Precursor to Jungle. Loud, fast, aggressive, fueled by speedy drums. Uses 909 kick drum through a distortion pedal as main beat. Beat pattern characterized by 1 2 & 4 “on the floor” and a syncopated 3.

Buttrock Goa AKA: Heavy metal Goa

Goa trance where the main riff or melody is voiced by a metal guitar, the melody doesnt have to be a guitar though, it can be just a rythmn kind of metal guitar as well. Some classic examples are None of this is Real – Infected Mushroom and Swamp Thing – Juno Reactor.
Usually around 145 – 160 BPM

Club

Simple bassdrum, hihats, constant leads, fast synths & of course lots of vocals. The roots of club are highly influenced by disco. Club music became mainstream around the mid 90s with artists such as Paul Van Dyk, Robert Miles & ATB just to name a few. Normal bpm was (130) Now it’s slowed down to 124-130bpm. Club music was EDM before EDM was a thing.

Dark Rave

A hard constant Beat with the use of Industrial Electronic Effects. The overtone is somewhat Gothic and Dark. Using low percussion/metal hits, hard base, distorted vocals & Hard Rave Bassline. This style is relatively new and has not gained alot popularity as of yet. Similar Artist: RaveCore

Dark Trance

The added use of looming effects and scary samples to make a typical Trance song darker. Typically most trance is on a higher octave, typical Dark Trance replaces the higher octave to a lower one creating a darker vibe. Also a Faster version of the Dark Rave style beats are used when creating Dark Trance. Similar Artist: Gatecrasher

Deep House

DHS. “Deep house is a started as style of house most prominently influenced by a combination of gospel and [80’s] Chicago house beats. As of 2020 it often means just deep basses, often low pitched vocals, 909 style hats and 909 style drums.

Dub

The bass is like a police man, everything else splinters off in shards of reverb. Started in the 60’s with electronic music technology. (ie. tape recorders reaching Jamaica.)

Dubstep

Started by Skrillex. Weird robot like growl noises that sounds like robots trying to have sex. Went commercial and people lost interest. Still lives on in the underground a little.

Deep

A bit difficult is this one. Sort of the opposite of pop music or the radio edit in dance music. Implies loud throbbing bass, good to mix and not nice to just listen too. But this is the shit to move too. Deep Example: anything (it seems) on the Basic Channel label.

Detroit

A variation of Acid & House with a backwards pull and a strange way of laying down beats. Also known for very distorted vocals. The uniqueness of Detroit Style is gaining popularity due to a few reasons. The non-symmetric drum & percussion arrangement helps vary the sound enough to be used perfectly with other styles of music such as House & Tech Step. Similar Artists: Daft Punk, Josh Wink

Dolphin

Offensive term for intelligent/ambient jungle.

Downbeat

More general, common term for modern new ambient. Slow break-beats with dub influences and ambient synths. Samples are still present as well, though there is less emphasis on vocals than in, say, modern chillout.

Drum & Bass

Photek, LTJ Bukem, Source Direct. Origin: London. Offshoot of Jungle. Fast, lots of layered percussion, minimal melody, smooth flowing bassline, flowing string sounds.

EDM

Standing for Electronic Dance Music is a combination of electro & pop with big heavy kick drums often tuned to a specific note. Made commercially popular by David Guetta and all those that followed. It eventually became heavier, less musical and more predicable in terms of arrangement. Still is the main genre at lots of music festivals in the US.

Electro

Early hip hop with 808 drum ‘BWAUM’ noises. 1983, New York. Currently enjoying a revival with new stuff from people like the Clear record label. Electro music is highly regarded by alot of older techno buffs. The reason that the old skool stuff was so great, was the fact that keyboards/music equipment wasn’t that advanced, and the ability to use a keyboard & equipment to create good sounds. Even if they are a bit abstract. It peaked around 2005-2010 and was the the foundation of EDM.

Euro-Dance

Mostly female vocals and male rap. Always a loud, well-defined bassdrum: normal to fast (140 bpm) This style of music is basically the same thing as club except for the European Vocals and a somewhat faster BPM. Similar Artists: Snap, 2 Unlimited, Ace of Bass.

Euro-Rave

Consists of fast breakbeats and a typical rave sound and some properly arrange european accented vocals. Synth always very fast (160+) and loud; e.g. Marusha, Mark Oh, Scooter, Dune.

Future House

Uses a main melody/riff often within a chord in a short 2 bar loop. Combines Deep House, Electro and Club music together. First went mainstream by Oliver Heldens. In fact, most early Future House just sounded like imitation Oliver Heldens songs. Has evolved slightly but not much.

Future Bass

Future bass is pretty much Flume and those trying to sound like and pretend to be Flume. The sound was started in Australia by Flume.

Gabber (gabba)

Made in Rotterdam 1987; not music really 😉 Means ‘mate’ in dutch. Very fast(180+) and hard hardcore often with strange vocal samples. Some elements of Acid & HardCore are used to help make the furiest gabber style beats. Basically this is Techno’s equivalent of Punk.

This style of music has some of it’s roots in PUNK & HardCore. This style of music hasn’t been too popular, but Gabber seems to be making a come back. Similar Artist: Gabber Dan

Garage

4/4 house, very vocal-oriented, lots of hi-hats. “Garage came from Philly soul, originally was no more than 120 bpm in its speed, had up and down lines in its bassline department, and had generally a more ‘soul’ feel than house did. Originated at the Paradise Garage Club, NY.”

Goa

Juno Reactor, Eat Static. Trance with a steady, fast 4/4 (“stomping” beat), multi-layered buzzy/ acidy/ psychadelic sounds and noises, hard bassline. Occasional sci-fi-esque sample. Faster than House but slower than Drum & Bass.

Goa Trance

Goa trance is recognized by the following characteristics that distinguish it from other forms of trance. A very steady 4/4 beat. lots of very psychadelic sounding wobbly noises, and acidy sounds. A lot going on, noise wise. No poncey Detroit minimalism here – just chuck in loads of boingy wibbly noises, all on top of each other.

Imagine early Eat Static, but with less imaginative rhythms, and you’re getting close. Pyschedelia is the key.

It is traditional, but not obligatory, to have at least one sample from a cheesy 50s Sci-Fi film or Star Trek sample per track. “All channels and frequencies clear”, “The electrons do it to the neutrons, the neutrons do it to themselves”, kind of thing.

Tracks generally go on for ages.

Happy Hardcore:

Loud fast Rave music with very very fast leads and effects. Also lots of child like vocal segments are used. This style of music has become very popular with new Ravers to the scene, but also has it’s original roots with the Rave & HardCore Generes. Alot of people mix Happy Hardcore with Hard Club. And this genre as well has been over commercialized and is loosing its luster because of it.

On a different note there is alot of Anti-Happy Hardcore sentiment that has surfaced on the rave scene lately from people who decide to choose different styles to listen to. Similar Artists: Roller Girl, Dune, Anabolic Frolic

Hardcore

HardCore arrived around the same period as Electro/Minimalistic & Acid. Loud fast aggressive fueled by speedy drugs. Uses 909 kick drum through a distortion pedal as main beat went underground circa 1990 and was used to help define other genres such as Rave, Gabber & Happy Hardcore. HardCore has become more of an element that’s added to songs rather than a defined style. With some work this style could be brought back, just like gabber.

Handbag House:

70s disco influenced house. DJs: JPW, TWA.

Handbag

House music with a cheesey but happy feel to it. So called because people dance around their handbags in the clubs where it originated. Northern UK, 1992?

Handbag Jungle

Early 90’s hardcore.

Hardbag

Hardbag = handbag with no cheese and no vocals. Surely hardbag = house. Like Handbag but HARDER ie. faster and with more umph. .

Hardstepper

Jungle with a strong heavy off beat bassline.

Hard Trance

Typical trance but faster leads, beats & transitions. Better at speeding up the crowd =)

Hi-NRG

Dead Or Alive. Mid to late 80’s. Fast: 130+ bpm. Upbeat, bright clean sounds. Loud, tight bassdrum, handclaps and hats. Evolved into Euro.

House

In its original form (sometimes called Chicago House): Originally formed circa 1983 in Chicago, “House is a feeling…House is an uncontrollable desire to jack your body etc etc…” Formulaic grooves at 120bpm. Monster kick drum sound pattern w/ high hat, with a prominent melody. Steady and clean sound with soul-inspired vocals and samples.

Moby, Keoki. Today the term House embodies a more uptempo, happy, rave-influenced sound. Strongly groove-oriented. Steady four- on- the- floor. Dovetails with Nu-Energy. Spawned its own sub-genres.

IDM Intelligent Dance Music

Most often not dance-able at all. Its a usually ridgid and complex percussion oriented music. The lines are sometimes hard to discern where the downbeat is at all. Much of the sounds fall into glitch and beep types sounds but don’t have to necessarily. The use and Importance of silence and space takes equal precedent to sound.

Industrial

Front 242, A Split Second, Clockdva, Front Line Assembly, Nitzer Ebb, Bigod 20, TGT, Skinny Puppy. Began mid 80’s. Mechanized, hard, robotic. Beats and samples that evoke metallic or cyberpunk imagery. Can be instrumental or vocal — vocals usually raw, in your face. The forefather of much of today’s sound, with traces found in Hardcore / Breakbeat / Jungle. Spiritual descendant of Kraftwerk in the 70’s.

Isolationism

Introverted, sparse ambient music. The opposite of new ambient, isolationism is more like a new version of the original ambient music of Eno etc. It continues these artists’ ideas but using modern production tecniques, synths and samples.

Jungle

Drum and Bass (!?) (1) DEEP baseline and a well-pronounced breakbeat; also fast (160); many reggae influences. London 1990/1991, combination of hip hop, rave, and hardcore with a sprinkling of dub. Sampler music, typically uses speeded up samples of other records as main rhythm. Original fast as its hardcore roots but nowadays labels like Metalheadz put out medium tempo tunes.

Minimal

Techno with a small number of different noises and much empty space in the track. Alot of progressive and fluid sounds overlapping and interleaving to make new sounds. This is one of those genres that either people will get or not. We tend to use the Minimal style of arranging some more complex sounds.=

Nu-Energy

Nu-energy is predominantly characterized by a hard techno-based 4/4 bass beat with plenty of pumping basslines. Melodies tend to be pretty anthemic/epic synth stuff and breakdowns are par for the course. Cheesy, breathless vocal samples can be found in many Nu-Energy choons too.

Basically, Nu-Energy is the less accessible offshoot of commercial European-type house, mutated into something harder and faster. Leading Nu-Energy exponents include baby doc (with his choon “Neurotica” being regarded as something of a Nu-Energy classic), Blu Peter (check out his “Elevator” project and the “magic”, “first movement” and “shinny” releases, all of which are on React records I think) and DJs Tall Paul and Tony de Vit (i’m not sure if they do their own choons though). Red Jerry (a prolific remixer and one half of JX – you know, “son of a gun” and “you belong to me”) is one of the best of the bunch in my opinion.

An obvious example of clubs would be London’s “Trade” night. Nu-Energy attracts a disproportionately large gay crowd and many Nu-Energy clubs supposedly have a gays only door policy (Note: I’m not getting in to the politics, just telling it like it is). Labelwise, check out React, Moonshine, Hooj.

Progressive House

UK’s combination of German trance and house.

Psytek Trance AKA: Minimal PsyTrance.

This is just normal PsyTrance, but instead of having blips and blurps and wizzes, it has samples of evil laughing, babies crying, people dying and other really evil sounding effects. A classic example is Claustrophobic Sting – Prodigy, except that uses a break beat, but it’s the same kind of thing.
Usually around 145 BPM

Punkcore

Gabba with punk samples. No, as old punks know hardcore = 80’s punk. Then ravers stole the expression. Thus punkcore = hardcore; and hardcore really = ravecore =)

Rave

Music that consists of a constant bass drum with occasional doubling up to make it more interesting. A progressive bass synth with lots of resonance. A fast arrangement of percussion or hihats and occasionally some strayed vocals. Rave Music is an actual genre of music (Not Just a location where Electronic music is played). Other Genres that helped define the Rave Genre are HardCore, RaveCore, HardCore, and Gabber. Rave music is timed accurately and is highly percussive. If too many leads, vocals, or beat variations are made it would be Hard Trance, Hard House, or Hard Club depending on what elements were added.

RaveCore

Adding unique styles of each genre into the beat and motion of Rave music. Typically using methodology of timed beats, but bringing in new aspects of other genres. Over the last few years we have been able to bring in aspects of Trance, House, Electro, Acid, Club, Industrial & Experimental into this methodology. Creating a unique beat and overall vibe. We are still defining this genre of music and ideally the standards for this genre for years to come.

Stadium House

The KLF, Utah Saints. Strong house or tribal beat evoking a “stadium” atmosphere — echoing vocals and keyboards, boomy bass, samples of cheering crowds.

Speed Garage

Garage sped up with an added touch of reggae. New for ’97

Techno

Techno is the most versatile of all the genres. It ranges from the intensely hard percussive sounds made mostly of white noise (waveforms-Jeff Mills) to the disco sounds that were around in the 70’s (South Side-Dave Clark).

The diversity is such that Techno is no longer Techno but a whole host of even more specific “pigeon holes” Like minimal techno, which makes the best club music as there is such a large opportunity to show off ones DJ’ing skills.

How about: ‘I grew up thinking that techno music is actually something that you can’t imagine.” That is techno at its best. If you hear something that you’d never expect to hear – that’s techno. If you hear something that kind of sounds like you’ve heard it before, then it’s not techno.

Tech House

Tech House is a combination of minimal, house and techno. It’s very popular in Ibiza and many different parts of Europe. Tech house is usually pretty repetitive with 1 or two bar bass-line loops and lots of digital clicky percussive sounds. Tends to fall from 120bpm to 126bpm.

Techstep

Jungle (usually dark jungle) which uses techno style drum machine sounds.

Trance

There are three R’s… repetition repetition and repetition. But that loop evolves with effects and modulation. Also sounds ‘clean’, “new beat is boring, acid house is dead.. This is trance dance” said klf sleek German trance missiles were the next evolution of sound after acid house… 1989? Many different (synth) sounds, always a clap (or something like it) on the odd beat, so the music goes: beat – clap+beat – beat – clap+beat – beat etc. IMO the best trance comes from England: fast (140+ bpm).

Tribal

Lots of indigenous samples and hand percussion but can also describe a primal (thud thud) approach to rhythm. This style also has cultural influences from tribal music around the world.

Trip Hop

Los Angeles 1993? but popularized and altered by Bristol 1994. Music based around hiphop beats with little or no rapping and employing electronic sounds (bleeps, acid riffs?) rather than old soul funk or jazz samples (but not exclusively); covers the 120/130 bpm acid-hop of the dust brothers, tales from the woodshed, bomb the bass with justin warfield, to the laid back beats of mo’wax and the bristol sound; the two extremes don’t sound very similar at all and most people in the scene hate the term.

About the Author

Current Sound Presents The Serious Sounds Network

This was written by Xe-Cute on The Serious Sounds Network.

More Genres

You can also checkout this crazy image of the different genres that has been circulating the net. The source is unknown.

It seems pretty accurate aside from the fact that some of the artists in the list do other genres and some of the main artists or producers are sometimes not mentioned. I guess that is the problem with artist based genre lists.

Anyway, I didn’t make this one but I thought it was useful to include it.

Want to Learn How to Make These Genres?

Subscribe to the mailing list at the bottom of this page and/or take a private piano & beat-making lesson from Tom Watson at Current Sound.

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Current Sound & The Serious Sounds Network Forum Merger

February 11, 2020 by Tom Watson

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Music Producer, Tom Watson in the recording studio at Current Sound, Hollywood, Los Angeles

Why You Need Studio Monitor Speakers For Mixing – Home Studio Tips

February 11, 2020 by Tom Watson

Lessons, Recording and Sound Engineering Lessons, The Serious Sounds Network

Home recording studio, Home studio tips, Lessons, Mixing music, Recording Lessons, Studio Monitor Speakers, Studio Monitors, The Serious Sounds Network, Tips, Why do you need studio monitor speakers

So you want to start a home studio. Maybe you’ve heard about studio monitor speakers? You’re first thought is probably, why do I need studio monitor speakers for mixing? So I’m here to tell you why…

Can’t I Just Use Stereo Speakers?

This is usually the first question people ask when being told they need studio monitor speakers.

Let’s start by having a look at any of the speakers in your apartment or living room. You will find that they are all over the place. I bet that everyone has theirs in a different place. No wonder sometimes the music you listen to at home can sound different to what the guys in the recording studio intended you to hear. So where are yours? Are they behind you or in front of you?

Mixing Using Stereo Speakers

The biggest contribution to a bad mix is not always down to the guy doing the mix, even though this often is the case lol. The biggest problem even for an experienced engineer, is a monitoring system that will not reproduce the sound that has been recorded correctly in playback.

How many times have you mixed your sound in your studio and played it back somewhere else just to find that it sounds totally different? This is where a proper monitor system comes in play for any professional or home studio.

Mixing on Stereo Speakers Vs Monitor Speakers

Using monitor speakers ensures you are hearing what is exactly there. That means you can mix the audio properly so that it will play back well on most systems.

The point of having good speakers is to hear your music played back properly and accurately, no matter what system it is played back on. The reason for this is, that everyone has different stereo system, speakers and this could range from massive PA system in a night club down to Joe Bloggs playing your tune walking down the street with his iPhone. So in a sense, this is why it is important to have the proper monitoring system while mixing down your song in the first place.

Life would be so easy if we all had the same systems, monitors and hearing! But this is not the case, when you do find those decent monitors, you have to trust the output they are giving you and this will come through time

So when it comes to buying you monitoring system, get the most out it! Ask the music store for a system that will suit your needs. What is the point in of going overboard? But never buy a system just because the price looks good. You usually get what you pay for when it comes to studio monitors.

Large Professional Studios & Wall Mounted Monitors

The large format studios with huge control rooms that need to output a higher volume level. They often have several sets of monitors to switch between. There will be large monitors; usually ‘soffit’ mounted (that’s fixed in the wall to you and me) which represent the full sound spectrum including the bass end. And there will be smaller nearfield monitors placed closer to the mixing position that, due to the limitations of cabinet size, have a more limited bass response.

Nearfield monitors simulate playback conditions comparable with your home listening environment, reproducing the quality of sound played back on, say, a standard hi-fi system.

Mid-Sized Professional Studios & Home Studios – Nearfield Monitors

As few of us have the budget or space for huge monitors, especially in Los Angeles where space and rent is super high. It’s nearfields that must be the speakers of choice. You can also add a sub if you need more low end bass response.

Why Can’t I Just Use My Stereo Speakers

So, the first question must be, if nearfields are meant to sound like domestic hi-fi speakers, why not use your existing hi-fi speakers and save some money? The truth is, hi-fi speakers are often deliberately designed with ‘coloration’ that flatters the music, rather than reproducing it, warts ‘n’ all.

Nearfield monitors reproduce the entire frequency range as accurately as possible with a minimum of distortion and coloration. So they’re much truer to the real sound.

For example, if you mix music on hi-fi speakers tuned to make the bass sound louder, you might not add enough bass to your mix. In this case it’ll sound lightweight and lacking in bass when played on other systems. Studio monitors are also built more robustly to take higher sound levels; useful when you want to solo a particularly raucous sound at high volume.

Passive Vs Active Monitors

Most monitors these days are active. That means they have their own build-in amp. If you’re buying used monitors on ebay or Craigslist, check to see if they’re active or passive. Lots of older monitors could be passive.

Passive speakers need a separate power amplifier whereas active speakers have the amp (or amps in the case of bi-amped systems where the tweeter and bass drivers have separate amps) built into the speaker enclosure. Active speakers mean you can’t choose your own power amp, but their built-in amps are specifically designed to work with their speakers, creating an efficient, matched system.

Most nearfield monitors have little bass reproduction below, say, 50Hz, so you won’t hear the real low end. Still, if you need to hear these frequencies, the bass response can be extended with the addition of a sub bass unit, which can sit out of the way under your mixing desk.

Monitor Placement

You want to place the monitors in an equilateral triangle between yourself and the speakers. That means, from where you sit at your desk, the speakers should be the same distance away from each other as you are from them. The tweeters should be at the height of your ears.

If you can’t do this for whatever reason, as a last resort, if the speakers are too high, you can angle them downwards towards your ears.

Either use floor speaker stands or, if you are placing them on your desk use something like IsoAcoustics speaker stands to raise them up to the correct height.

Secondly, the speakers should be angled slightly towards your listening position so the sound focuses towards your head. The recommended textbook starting position is usually to have the speakers positioned to subtend an angle of 60 degrees to the listener. Basically, you sit at the apex of an equilateral triangle formed by yourself and the speakers; this is the ‘sweet spot’ where you’ll find the most accurate representation of the sound.

Tom’s Tip

Personally, I think it makes a little sense to break this rule slightly and point each speaker at each ear rather than the center of my head. This creates a slight increase in the stereo width and separation so that you can hear each speaker individually a little more.

Use Vertical Monitors Vertically!

It’s usually better to mount monitors vertically so the sound from the tweeter and the bass driver arrives at the ear at the same time, although some specific monitors, such as the old Yamaha NS10Ms, can to be placed horizontally as well as the Adam A77X monitors and a few of the other horizontal monitors on the market.

Also, the distance between the speakers shouldn’t be more than about two metres or the central stereo image may suffer. You could also run into problems if the distance between the two speakers is greater than the distance between the speakers and the listener. (Not an equilateral triangle)

Position in the room

Unless you monitor solely on headphones (not recommended, although if you have to, Audeze LCD-X headphones are pretty good), it’s a fact of life that the room you’re in will affect the sound you hear. The size and shape of the room, together with the materials on the walls, ceiling and floor, can all exert an influence on the sound, as can any objects in the room.

Sound from the speakers will be reflected from and absorbed by the various surfaces and objects that can result in distinct echoes, reverb and certain frequencies being cancelled or reinforced.

All these things, can be tackled by acoustic treatment such as bass traps and acoustic panels. In saying that, room influences can also be minimised by using nearfield speakers positioned correctly and won’t be as bad as using large format monitors. Nearfield speakers tend to reduce any room effects, as they are closer to the listener, so the direct sound from the speakers dominates rather than any reflected sound.

Reflections

Whatever speakers you use though, it’s always useful to minimise the effects of reflected sound as much as you can. Symmetrical positioning of the speakers in relation to the room is important. If the distance between the speakers and their adjacent walls is not identical on both left and right then any reflections from the walls will be different and may disrupt the stereo image.

By the same token, any nearby racks of gear could cause reflections so just keep this in mind.

Reflections can also come from the surface of your mixing desk. If you have a large analogue console, placing your speakers on stands behind the desk rather than sitting them over the meter bridge can minimize this problem.

Acoustic treatment.

Once you’ve got those points covered, adding some acoustic panels and bass traps will help increase the accuracy of your monitors more by reducing the reflections further.

Monitoring Tips

Now your monitors are nicely set up, here are a few practical tips to help your mixing. The first one is don’t monitor too loud for extended periods. Protracted listening at high volume cannot only cause permanent ear damage but it can also wear out your concentration more quickly and dull your perception of top-end frequencies.

There is always a temptation to turn things up because, let’s face it, music usually sounds more exciting that way. However, you may soon get immune to the constant high level. It’s far better to monitor at a reasonably low level and just turn it up occasionally for a quick high volume check. Monitoring at different volume levels is good practice anyway. Turning the level right down allows you to hear if things are jumping out of the mix. It’s also a good way to check if, for example, the vocal or snare is too loud. Also – and this may seem a bit strange – listening to the track while sitting at the back or walking in and out of the room gives you a different perspective that may prove useful. Try it and see.

Reference Tracks

As there is no such thing as a standard monitor speaker. Each speaker design provides its own version of the truth. So it stands to reason that, to get the best results, you need to know your own speakers inside out and to trust what they’re telling you.

The easiest way to get familiar with them is to play your favorite songs through your monitors, both in isolation and while mixing your own tracks, and compare the sound.

Presumably you’ll have some music in your collection mixed in a professional studio on a top-class monitoring system. So comparing this to your mixes in progress, checking not only the overall sound but also specific areas will do no harm.

I’m not talking about making slavish copies here, but it will help check things like if there is enough top end, if the bass is too boomy, if the mid range sounds too harsh, if you’ve added enough reverb, if the vocal sits well with the music and if the drums are too loud.

Using Other Speakers

If you have access to several sets of speakers so much the better. Switch between them from time to time to see how the music sounds on each set and occasionally check how things are sounding on headphones.

If you have just one set of studio monitors you can always run off mixes in progress every so often to play back on a ghetto blaster, domestic hi-fi system, car stereo or personal stereo.

Summary

So now you know why you need studio monitor speakers for mixing. Following these tips will help you get have a more accurate listening environment for mixing. Keep practicing and training your ear. Compare with to reference tracks and learn the sound of your monitor speakers.

If you can get your mix to sound good on really bad speakers as well as decent ones, then you must be doing something right.

Mixing at Home Vs a Professional Mix & Master

In saying that, mixing takes a long time to learn. To create a radio ready mix and master, you’re probably going to need to send your recording off to a mixing and mastering engineer like Tom at Current Sound to create something that the influencers are more likely to play and share.

For more tips on how to improve your home recording studio, checkout this free guide on how to make a home recording studio, which covers everything mentioned in this article plus way more.

Recording and mixing at home is a great way to write songs, create demos and rough mixes though. The more you learn and practice, the better you will get but it will take some time. So subscribe to the newsletter below for more free lessons.

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Written by Bluejooz & Catz on The Serious Sounds Network. Edited by Tom Watson at Current Sound.

How to Change Keys Within a Pop Song

February 11, 2020 by Tom Watson

Lessons, Music Production, The Serious Sounds Network

Free, Free Lesson, Music Production, Music Theory, Piano Theory

Modulation Explained

How to change keys within a Pop Song. Modulation is a word used in music about moving key centers within a song. This occurs any time the song moves out of a single scale/key. Grasping this musical tool will help in finding new tonal centers for moving your melodies and chords within the song to create interest.

Full Key-changes

If you remember Pop songs of the past, especially in the 60’s, it was common to move the whole chord progression of the song up a half-step after the main chorus or bridge. The song sounded like it took off somewhere, yet sounded the same. All they did was modulate the key up a half-step (like from the key of D Major to D# Major).

In Modern Music

Not suggesting that for today’s dance scene lol, but that’s a simple example of modulating to a different key or tonal center within the song. Going to the key’s relative minor for the main chorus was another often used change, but not really a modulation (6th degree chord of the scale; i.e., in C Major the relative minor would be A minor). OK, so those are really cliques today.

Using More Than One Key in a Song

But what if you don’t want to be tied down to simply one key and scale for your song? What if you want to reach out and find new harmonic possibilities using a few simple rules?

A very important basis to remember with musical movement is resolution. This applies to flow of chord movement in a song, developing a lead solo or melody, and also with modulating to a different key center.

Another way to say it is the ‘turnaround’. At the end of your verses or musical phrases most often you’ll have a turnaround structure that sets up the return back to the first chord in the key, the I chord.

What is a Turnaround?

If you look, you’ll notice it’s usually some form of the key’s V chord (a chord built on the fifth note of the scale you’re in; in key of C Major it would be a G chord). Even if you’re dealing with melodies, you’ll still find you’re doing it with notes. If you play a C-F-C-G chord progression, you’re ear will naturally want to play the G chord just before going to the C chord to end the song. That’s called a V-I resolution, or ‘turnaround’. Resolving from the V chord to the I chord is the most natural sounding resolution.

That V-I resoultion pattern is very important in Western music. Try ending a song that starts in the key of C Major with a different pattern than a G (V) to C (I) and you’ll understand. With modulating to a different key within a song, that V-I resolution is most often what you depend on to establish the new tonal or key center. To do that you can use commontone modulation, which is the easiest method.

Example

For example: here’s the chords in the key of the C Major Harmonized Scale (C maj scale with each scale degree harmonized into chords). With this example our song is in C Major – something simple like a C – Em – Dm – G – C chord progression.

Cmaj-Dm-Em-Fmaj-Gmaj-Am-Bmb5.

If you can find one of those same chords in another key, then you can modulate to that other key.

Let’s try the key of G –

Gmaj-Am-Bm-Cmaj-Dmaj-Em-F#mb5

Finding Similarities in Chords & Keys

Do you see those Am and Em chords in G are also common to the key of C Major? That means during your original chord progression in C Major, you can ‘pivot’ on one of those chords that’s common to both keys, and change the key center within the song to the key of G Major. But how do you establish the key center of G with the pivot chord? Simple, use chord resolution, the V-I movement mentioned above.

Ex: original prog. in key of C Major
C – Em – Dm – G – C

Do a pivot using a chord common to both keys:
C – Em – D – G

Then Move Out of the Key

Using the Em chord as the pivot, and then the Dmaj chord, which is the V chord in the key of G, we’ve just established the tonal center of G Major. You would then continue to use the harmonized scale chords within the key of G Major to stay in that tonality (G-Am-Bm-C-D-Em-F#mb5). Remember, this kind of movement applies to scale notes and arpeggios too, hence melodies and arpeggiated synth harmony! (Basis of all music is made up of scale notes, chords, and arpeggios; so this musical movement applies to all three).

Now Return Back to the Key

How do we get back to the original key center of C Major? You could… end your song in the new key center. But to go back to the original tonal center of C Major, you simply do the same type modulation with a pivot chord common to both keys.

Something like this:
G – Am – G – C

or G – Em – Dm – G – C etc.

Note that Dm (ii) to G (V) – C (I) movement to get back to the key of C Major.

To use this you’ll need to know how to spell key signatures (what sharps and flats are in which keys). You’ll also need to know the chords spelled in each key to find common tone pivot chords. For this you can use my chords in keys chart as well as research the circle of 5ths and circle of 4ths.

Summary

Hopefully this gives you an understanding of a couple of ways to change and break in and out of a key within a pop song. There are many more ways, especially in R&B and Neo-Soul when you can get away with jazzier chords. This is just one basic way. I’ll do some lessons later on some more complex modulations.

For those who have grasped this basic modulation technique, you should now see a multitude of harmonic possibilities opening up for new songs and melodies. To apply this in melody writing, you’d simply keep in mind the chord harmony from which to pull your melodies from. When you modulate pull out notes based on where the chord harmony is at the moment.

Author

By Waveheavy of The Serious Sounds Network – Bought Back to Life by Current Sound.

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Using Chords & Scales for Beat-Making/Music Production

February 11, 2020 by Tom Watson

Lessons, Music Production, The Serious Sounds Network

Chord Chart, Chords, Chords and Scales, Chords in the Key, Music Production, Piano, Piano Theory, Scales

Do You Need to Know This?

Most people getting into beat-making (or music production as they like to call it) and songwriting these days rarely that the time to learn how to use chords & scales when the start out. Relying on your ear to figure out chord harmony works for some. There’s been many excellent musicians that were could play by ear. In saying that, most of them had either a basic or very vast understanding of music theory.

With the temptation of pre-made loops and samples and technology, most people that don’t understand any music theory just end up be re-arrangers of some one else’s music. That’s not really what creating music and songwriting is all about. It’s better to be in control of what you’re doing so you can express yourself through your music.

If you understand how harmony works, can write more complex and smoother sounding song structures.

For people just starting out, or those that never took the time to understand chords and harmony, this article is going to help you get started.

Free Piano Chords Chart – Music Theory 101

Download this piano chords chart for free to learn all of the major and minor chords on the piano.

Free Chords and Scales Chart

This article assumes that you know the names of notes on the piano or whatever your instrument is. There is a free chords and scales chart here that shows you all the major and minor chords in each key.

Where do Chords Come From?

Chords; it’s simply easy math once you understand how they’re built. Western Diatonic harmony is built on the Major scale like the notes C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C (C Major scale). Each note is numbered from 1 to 8 called degrees. Between the E-F and B-C is a half step interval (one fret on the guitar). It’s the same for all instruments. On piano you’ll notice there’s no black key in between the E-F or B-C notes. Everywhere else between the scale degrees it’s a whole step (two frets on guitar).

What gives the Diatonic Major sound is that interval spacing between the 3-4 (E-F) and 7-8 (B-C) degrees of the scale. In C Major no sharps or flats are needed, because that E-F and B-C are naturally a half step apart on those 3-4 and 7-8 scale degrees. But with the other keys either sharps or flats are needed to keep that Major scale whole step – half step relationship. To really get a handle on chord harmony one must at least refer to a chart to know what and how many sharps or flats are in the Major keys.

Triads Within the Key/Scale

A chord is made up of at least 3 notes called a Triad. Take one note of the scale, then go up skipping every other note until you have 3 notes. For example, using the C Major scale which has no sharps or flats, the first chord spelled is C Major using the C – E – G notes of the scale. The chords on the C Major scale harmonized to Triads look like this:

When we covert them to Chords in the Key, we get this

Cmaj (1) – Dm (2) – Em (3) – Fmaj (4) – Gmaj (5) – Am (6) – Bmb5 (7)

It helps to think of each note of the scale as a number like this:

C (1), D (2), E (3), F (4), G (5), A (6), B (7)

You use the notes of the scale you’re harmonizing. The major chord formula is the 1 – 3 – 5 degree notes of the scale. The rest of the chords are named from their respective scales. For example, the Dm chord is a minor chord here because in D Major the 3rd note is actually an F#. Using the C Major scale to harmonize means staying with the C Major key notes, (i.e., an F natural for the 3rd here). When you flat the 3rd of a major chord you get a minor chord (1 – b3 – 5). That’s why these 2nd, 3rd, 6th, and 7th degree chords are minor chords.

Note: A lower case ‘m’ after the chord means minor. A capital ‘M’ after the chord means major but typically you’ll see nothing after the chord which implies major. For example, a chord chart that simply says C, means C major. Cm means C minor.

There’s only 4 types of Triads in western music:

1 – 3 – 5 (Major Triad)
1 – b3 – 5 (Minor Triad)
1 – 3 – #5 (Augmented Triad)
1 – b3 – b5 (Diminished Triad)

Note: The small b means flat for those who don’t know and the # symbol means sharp.

Next Level: 7th chords

A 7th chord is formed simply by going up the scale and adding a fourth note to the Triad.

A C Major chord (1 – 3 – 5 or C – E – G), becomes a Cmaj7 chord (1 – 3 – 5 – 7 or C – E – G – B).

The C Major scale harmonized to 7th chords looks like this:

Cmaj7 (1) – Dm7 (2) – Em7 (3) – Fmaj7 (4) – Gdom7 (5) – Am7 (6) – Bm7b5 (7)

Common Tone Chord Relationship & Chord Families

If you compare the notes in those harmonized scale chords, you’ll see a common tone relationship with some of them. They’re divided into 3 chord families based on their sound.

1. Tonic Family:

Cmaj7 (C – E – G – B)
Em7 (E – G – B – D)
Am7 (A – C – E – G)

Do you see how all three of those chords have at least 3 of the same notes? When you’re composing, try swapping out a chord for another chord in the same chord family.

Chances are it will work with your existing melody but create a different feel.

2. Subdominant Family:

Fmaj7 (F – A – C – E)
Dm7 (D – F – A – C)

Same goes for those 2 subdominant family chords, can experiment with swapping them for each other too.

3. Dominant Family:

Gdom7 (G – B – D – F)
Bm7b5 (B – D – F – A)

What Intervals are Most Important?

Three notes form a chord. Two notes means an interval, also called a ‘double-stop’ (old violin usage term). Two notes can IMPLY many different chords. But with 3 notes, the type of chord will almost always be well defined in sound.

In pop music, the 1st note (known as the root) and the 3rd are the most important notes in the Triad. In fact, in Jazz music, often the 5th is removed and just the 3rd and 7th are played, with the root note (1st) being played by the bass player.

For a C Major chord, you could simply use the C – E to imply a Cmajor chord. C – Eb would imply a C minor chord. That 3rd in the chord is important because it marks the difference between a major chord (upbeat-happy) and a minor chord (sad-dark). With a Dom7 chord, like a G7, the 3rd and 7th notes need to be preserved, for they form the Tritone interval which gives that Dominant chord its “I need resolving” sound.

Chord Embellishment & Color Tones

All that means is continuing to spell a chord from its scale going up into the next higher octave.

Example

For example, notes: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 of the scale
In C major that would be C (1) – D (2) – E (3) – F (4) – G (5) – A (6) – B (7) – C (8) – D (9) – E (10) – F (11) – G (12) – A (13) – B (14) – C (15)

Thus a Cmaj13 chord is the 1 – 3- 5 -7 – 9 – 11 – 13 degree notes of the scale. Often you can get by with playing just the 1 – 3 – 5 – 7 – 13 notes which is a Cmaj7 (add 13) chord.

What chord is this… C – E – G – B – D? That’s the 1 – 3 – 5 – 7 – 9 notes of the two octave C Major scale, so it’s simply a Cmaj7 chord with the 9th added, making it a Cmaj9 chord.

If it had the 11th note (F) also, it would be a Cmaj11 chord.

You can also add any other notes of the scale to a chord, including those within the chord. For example, adding the 2nd. For Cmajor that is, Cmaj2, sometimes written as Cadd2 or C2 for short. As well as the 4th, Cmaj4, sometimes written as Cadd4 or C4 for short. This is the same for minor chords. Eg, Cmadd2 (Cm2), Cmadd4 (Cm4).

That’s all there is to embellishing chords and color tones. It’s not as complex as it seems once you understand how it’s done.

Suspended Chords – Sus2 and Sus4

There is another type of triad we haven’t mentioned so far. This is called a Suspended Chord or Sus chord for short.

Remember before we said that the 3rd note of a triad defined the sound. If you remove the 3rd and don’t play it you just have the root and 5th. This is what a power chord (most distorted guitar chords) on an electric guitar sounds like. When you play a power chord on a guitar the 3rd is not present. You can play this chord on the piano too, sometimes referred by musicians as playing chords in 5ths.

When you play this on the piano and then add the 2nd degree/note of the scale 1 – 2 – 5 or C – D – G, you get a Sus 2 chord. This gives a suspenseful feeling. It is not major or minor, it is suspended between the two.

If you add the 4th degree to the root and 5th, 1 – 4 – 5 or C – F – G you get a Sus 4 chord. This also gives a suspenseful feeling. Again, this is not major or minor it is suspended between the two

Doing either of these, you would often resolve them by playing either the regular major 1 – 3 – 5 or minor 1 – b3 – 5 chord. Without resolving, the listener doesn’t know if the chord is major or minor and leaves a very suspenseful feeling (often heard in movie soundtracks). That’s suspended chords in a nutshell.

Free Chords in Keys Chart – Learn Chord Progressions

You can download this free Chords in Keys chart that I made showing you the chords in every key. I’m dropping the last chord off since it’s not a major or minor chord and is rarely used in pop music.

Pay attention to the numbers above each chord. They show the relationship to the sale. This is what musicians are talking about when they speak about a chord progression in numbers.

Chord Progressions

The order that you play the chords in the relation to the number they are in the scale will determine the feel of the song.

Example: 4 Chord Song

For example, this is the 1-5-6-4 progression that is in many pop songs and used in the viral video Axis of Awesome – 4 Chord Song.

Note in the video though that the are a couple of times that they change the song half way through the progression with the next song giving you a 6-4-1-5 progression. If you play the 1-5-6-4 progression, starting from the middle, 6-4-1-5 you get a completely different feel because you are starting on the minor chord instead of the major, thereby pushing the song into the relative minor key.

What they have done here is clever. They took a bunch of songs from other keys and sang them in the same key. Notice how they still sound like the actual songs. That’s because the chord progression determines the feel of the song and those songs, although don’t use the exact chords, use the same relative progression 1-5-6-4 to the key of that song.

Other Chord Progressions

Have a play around with creating different chord progressions by changing the order in which you play the chords in the key. Really, the feeling of the song is going to come from the order of the 6 major and minor chords of in relation to the key, not so much by the key itself.

That’s why most songwriters think of the chords in terms of the their relationship to the key.

Summary

If you’re want to be a beat-maker or music producer one day or if you’re just learning an instrument, understanding chords is the backbone of all modern music. Whether it’s hip-hop, R&B, EDM, Dance and Pop/Top 40 or any sub-genre, the one thing they all have in common is the underlying chord progression.

Music and chord progressions are not that complex once you analyze it and understand some basic music theory. I hope this article was useful for you.

If you spend some time understanding chords, scales and music theory means you can come up with great ideas with less trial and error.

Eventually you can hopefully get to the stage that I’m at when I can sing a melody or chord progression in my head and instantly play it. It just takes time and practice.

Technology will change but music theory remains the same. You’ll never regret taking some time to learn music theory, even if your goal is to be creating beats and producing music.

I should mention that learning music theory on the internet alone is not the best idea. You have no one to correct your mistakes and help you with your playing technique. If you’re getting into music production, the best thing is to find a pianist in your area. If you’re in LA, I teach private, one on one piano and beat-making lessons here at Current Sound.

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Authors

This was originally written by Waveheavy on the music production forum, The Serious Sounds Network http://serious-sounds.net which has now merged with Current Sound. This article contains new exclusive content & chords charts by Tom Watson at Current Sound as well as some extra music theory.

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Coming Soon…. Chord Inversions & Common Chord Progressions

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Daily Archives: February 11, 2020

A Guideline To Electronic Dance Music Production Genres & Styles by Xe-Cute

Acid

Acid House

Acid Jazz

Ambient

Ambient Breakbeat

Ambient House

Ambient Techno

Breakbeat

Buttrock Goa AKA: Heavy metal Goa

Club

Dark Rave

Dark Trance

Deep House

Dub

Dubstep

Deep

Detroit

Dolphin

Downbeat

Drum & Bass

EDM

Electro

Euro-Dance

Euro-Rave

Future House

Future Bass

Gabber (gabba)

Garage

Goa

Goa Trance

Happy Hardcore:

Hardcore

Handbag House:

Handbag

Handbag Jungle

Hardbag

Hardstepper

Hard Trance

Hi-NRG

House

IDM Intelligent Dance Music

Industrial

Isolationism

Jungle

Minimal

Nu-Energy

Progressive House

Psytek Trance AKA: Minimal PsyTrance.

Punkcore

Rave

RaveCore

Stadium House

Speed Garage

Techno

Tech House

Techstep

Trance

Tribal

Trip Hop

About the Author

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Mixing Using Stereo Speakers

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Large Professional Studios & Wall Mounted Monitors

Mid-Sized Professional Studios & Home Studios – Nearfield Monitors

Why Can’t I Just Use My Stereo Speakers

Passive Vs Active Monitors

Monitor Placement

Tom’s Tip