So hey guys welcome! My name is LOOPERS.
Today I'm doing a masterclass and I'm
explaining my latest release "I'm Odd" that
has been released on STMPD RCRDS.
First of all I'm gonna deconstruct the
intro then we're going to do the build up
and finally we're gonna go to the
drop and see how it's built.
I usually always start my songs with the intro and
I always have an extended mix and like a
Spotify mix for tracks because for DJs
you need another mix for clubs and for
Spotify as a listener you want the song
to not have a very long intro so it
stays interesting for the listener. Today
I'm gonna show you the Spotify mix and
not the extended mix of the track, but
first of all let's hear track.
So first of all what I always make... thank
you. Before I start making any track I am
the producer that always puts my master
chain on
so before I start explaining the track I
won't show my master chain.
For my master chain, so first of all I use I start off
with the EQ. I use Fabfilter Pro-Q2 and
I can recommend everyone to use
this one as well because in my opinion
is the best EQ out there, so what I do on
my master I will open a new one to show.
So here you have the
channel mode it's on left-right normally
but I change this to mid side and what
does this mean this separates your mono
from your stereo in your track, so why do
I do this because in my mix I want
certain frequencies and to just be a
mono and certain frequencies I want in stereo.
I do this because it makes the mix more
clean and it makes it more tight on the
master chain, so how do I do it. So first
of all you click on the mid side and
then you double click and then here you
have the scissor function that separates
the mono from the stereo so I click this
one and then you have like a
stereo and a mono here so what I do
these frequencies I'm using right now
are not frequencies you should
definitely use I'm only showing your
range of frequencies you could use
so my mono let's say for example I cut
on 30 and I do a low cut a little less
and then let's say the stereo for
indication on 120 also a low cut
so like I said you don't need exactly to
copy the 30 or the 120 Hertz frequency
this is just the indication to play for
yourself with it and see what just
sounds nice for you. So this is for the
master and the EQ then I used Glue
that's a compressor, it's a very good
compressor and what I do I'm gonna put
this all down so this is how the Glue
looks like when you open it so what I do
is I put the ratio from four to two
because I don't want it to be that heavy
and I have a very fast attack and my
release I changed from point one to
point two.
I put the threshold on minus nine and I
put the makeup on plus nine from point
one in this case, this also is not a
value you should every time use I would
say start off with like minus seven plus
seven for your makeup and if you want to
compress it more just push the threshold
up and push a makeup up as well. After
the Glue I use the Ozone for one certain
option it gives and that's the imager
and what I do in the imager what I use
it for is to put my stereo elements in
my track even a little bit more wider
but what I want to do is to keep the
mono of frequencies and a low
frequencies I want to keep those in mono
so in in case of this track my root key
is the E and the third octave third
octave of the E the frequency is 164 Hertz.
So what I do is that I make sure
that this first band is on 164
and so that's band one the blue this
part is band two, this part is band three
and this one is band four. My first band I
want no stereo so I put this thing on
zero and I don't use it. The other bands
you can play with those things here
you can put these a little bit wider or
this one a little bit wider it's just
also taste. Here I choose to like use a
bandwidth of like mostly between 15 and
20 in this case it's 17.7 12.7 and 15.2
once again these values you can play
around with it but make sure your first
band is on 0 because your want your bass in mono.
After that I only use a limiter
and that's the brick wall limiter of T-RackS.
I just keep the style on clean the
input is on 0 and the output is on 0 as well
I don't boost anything here on my
limiter at the end I just want something
to keep my sound not higher than 0 dB.
So that was for the MAS chain I want to
like a quick moment right now not for
too many questions but it has someone a
question about the master chain before
we proceed to the rest of the track? Yes
Do you always start your tracks with
the master channel? Always.
I always put it on and at the end when I
finish the track I might like boost a
little bit with the EQ on my master or
just change the values that I just
showed a little bit to taste but I
always put it on first because for me it
makes the whole process of making a
track better because at one certain
point I just want to hear the loudness
and I want to feel it you know and if I
do it afterwards I never get that point
in my production where I'm like OK this
sounds cool you know, I need to do this
in order to make the track it works for
me but I can understand that for other
people it works all the way you know. OK, thank you.
But also it's a time for you that
you don't send it to a mastering
specialist afterwards you're gonna earn
the final mastering yourself? I've tried
it once to use the mastering service but
I don't like it to be honest. I just want
to do everything myself I think like mix
like mixing in
general is also a tasting there is no
good way to do a mix there is no one
rule you should follow to have a thing
it's all like taste and that's the
beauty of music there are no rules just
do it it's when you think it sounds good
like believe in it you know and when
someone else says no you cannot limit
every channel, just do it and see how it
works for you. There are multiple ways to
Rome guys.
So that's for the master.
Any other questions about the master before
we proceed? Nope?
Cool. Okay so for the intro in this track
I'm gonna mute the stems here
I mostly start with like a breakbeat or
like a yeah I just like breakbeats a lot and
most intros I start for the Spotify
mix I'm start with a breakbeat kind of
thing and then I'm always in search for
the right vocal so as you know I also
made a track "I'm Heavy" that says
something about me and in the track "I'm Odd"
I was looking for a vocal that says
something about me because in the end
your music is a reflection of who you
are in your character so I always try to
find elements that can translate who you
are into music so I'm also a little bit odd.
So to start with the breakbeat.
So that's the breakbeat, it's actually a
loop but I chopped it up a little bit
because I want variations I didn't want
to look to repeat itself and have some
variations and the processing I will
show now. I didn't do that much I think I
removed a little bit of the low
frequencies, boosted in the mid and the highs.
This is without the EQ.
With the EQ as you can hear the mids and the highs are
little bit boosted and here I used the
Waves L2 limiter to control my volume
because I don't want it to be louder
than minus 6.5 in this case as you can
see that's your outer ceiling, so your
output. So we have the breakbeat now and
then I went searching for the right
vocal so in this case so this is the
original vocal this is from a pack, I
bought it just to a pack with rap vocals
in it and just go through the vocals and
see what's what sounds interesting what
words can relate to you you know so in
this case it's ...
This was original sample, I actually didn't even
change that much to this sample and how
I combined it with the breakbeat it
turns out to this.
So now we have two elements, we have the
breakbeat and we have the vocal and then
mostly I'll goes searching for the right
baseline. In this case I used Serum.
And I'm here I did like a triplet thing
that makes it bass a little bit unique
because the track is actually not in
triplet but these notes go in triplet
so it gives like a kind of weird
flow to it but I like, so right now I
will show you're processing of this bass
and then after this I will play together
the vocal, the bass and a breakbeat
together.
Oh no processing just the
sidechain let's see.
So that's the reese, the vocal and the
breakbeat but I was missing some synth
aspect in the mid frequencies so I was
searching for a sound that can fill up
that and that's how I came up with the
top lead for the intro that sounds like this.
And as you can see this kind of also has
the triplet notes here in it what makes
a melody kind of unique in a way because
it plays straight notes but also
triplets and together it sounds like this.
So now we have the top lead, the bass, the
breakbeat and vocal so at this point I
already at the feeling okay this this
sounds cool this okay but I need some
fillers some things to play at the background
and that's where we
get like these sounds from like this.
Nothing really special but like small
elements that add some detail to your
track and I think at the end a good song
has all these small elements that play
in the background or just like in some
phases of the track and maybe as a
listener you don't know it said at once
but your underconscious knows that
this sounds like deeper it has more
dimensions to it so always try to add
details add things to the background
that fill up your whole main concept you know.
So that's actually for for the
intro this all the elements I used so
altogether we have this.
Okay then as you notice the build-up
starts and the build-up has this very
cool guitar sound in it and what I did
here actually I played this, I don't
know if I have the layer here but I made
this melody
And as you can hear this guitar sound
has a very organic real feel to it and
it's really recorded I just made the
melody and a very good friend of mine is
sitting here actually
he's a very good guitar player and he
played it in for me so in my tracks I'm
always looking for a way to combine
digital aspects with organic aspects and
as far I cannot play any guitar I get the
help my friends in that way, but that's
nothing wrong with it in my way and I
think if you have a idea for a cool melody and
you cannot play the guitar yourself you
can use plugins like Kontakt to recreate
a very organic sound but if you have
someone who can play it in for you why not? Just do it!
So for the build up its the
the build up actually consists of this
guitar element the vocal that keeps
loops here
Let's look at the processing of the
guitar melody so I will first play the
guitar melody without the chain and then
I'm gonna explain this chain.
Let me turn these off here so we can properly
listen to the guitar
So this is the guitar without the
processing I did let's have a listen
So I started off with an equalizer I just
removed some low frequencies and I boosted
it a little bit the highs and the mids
Then I used some Fabfilter Saturn this
is saturation and how can I explain
saturation,
I think saturation in my belief it's a
kind of mild form of distortion it just
adds some extra edge to it and a mid or
high frequencies it really depends on
how you use the saturation but the
saturator gives this effect.
So as you can see the sound sounds
louder in the mid and the high sections
and more loud in general as well and
after that I used a reverb.
All the reverb I uses the ArtsAcoustic I
started off with this reverb there's no
specific reason but I really like the
sound of this reverb but if you wanna
have a good reverb I can also recommend
Valhalla Room it doesn't use that much
CPU as well and it's sounds very nice.
So after the after the EQ, the saturation
and the reverb, I use the limiter and
here just I made sure the sound doesn't
go higher than minus 10.3 so
what it does your here you can decide
the threshold how much you want to limit.
The more you push this down, the more the
sound gets limit, but you don't want too
much otherwise the sound dies in a way
it goes over the top so you want to keep
your dynamics but you also want the
sound to be loud in a way so play around
with the threshold and what the outer
ceiling you can decide what the maximum
volume the DB of the sound is going to be.
I can show you how it sounds if I push
it all the way down so you can hear how
the track get sound gets affected and it loses
Think it's a little bit hard to hear from
the from the room but that is for a
guitar lead processing. So yeah so now
right now we discussed the intro we have
to build up and now we're going to go to
the drop section so let's take another
listen to drop first.
So what you guys might notice is that I
use a lot of A-B structures in my drops
so you first have the melody this part.
So that's A and this is the B part.
And I feel it as like a question answer thing
so the first part is the question and
the B part is the answer to the question
and for drops I just I start off with
the A part and then I just try out
different B parts and see which loop
actually which two A-Bs work the best
together and this part takes a lot of
time to be honest because in my opinion
it's pretty hard to make something that
flows into each other but also goes back
in a good vibe to the first melody but
yeah for me this is like exciting
because I don't use the same melody all
over and drop and you always have this
contrast from A to B A to B, so you keep
the attention of the listener in a way.
So let's first deconstruct the A part
and then we go to the B part.
For the A part let's start let's turn all the synths
off and the claps and let's just start
with the fundaments the kick drum.
So this is the kick I used and as you can
hear it doesn't have like a click on it
so no top kick it's only body
And this one as you can see is like it
comes I put a little bit lower in my
mix something I normally like put my
kick on like -5 dB
but sometimes I push it up to -3
during the track or like I lower it even
to -6 it's also these values are
not fixed values you can play around
with it but for me to start off I always
start with -5 for my kick and the
rest always plays lower than the kick
because my kick is the loudest element
in my track so here we have the kick
drum and then you have the click so this is the click.
There's actually a click
from a track that I made like years ago
"Seoul" like four years ago but I always
I really like the sound of the click and
that's why I always also recommend when
you make a track and you have like a
specific cool sample in it that you
really like just save these things
because you never know how you're gonna
use it later and some elements of some
tracks I use already for years so that's
also adds to developing your own sound
you know, so the body of the kick and the
punch together sounds like this.
Without punch, with the punch so then let's go to
the also for the punch also let's go to
the chain so as you can see the punch
definitely plays lower volume than my
body I don't want my punch to be as loud
as my body because if your punch is too
loud it takes away the power of the kick
underneath it so I try to put my punch
lower than my real kick and that sounds
very well.
So next up claps.
There's a clap I use a lot.
It's from the Roland 808 pack
and I
I just layered it with this clap that
gives a little bit of tail to it.
That's for the drums in a way I have
some filler drums without come to that later.
So next up so as you guys already
know also in the track "Game Over",
in the track "I'm Heavy" and
this track have a kind of signature low
bass that I really like using in my
tracks and how I make my drops I have
this kicks and the claps ready and
then I'm searching for the right bass groove.
So in this case that is this bass.
And as you might hear there's like a
slight difference in the sound of the
bass between the A and the B section the
B section has this small notch thing
sound on it
that just gives a little bit more body
to the to the bass.
so let's dive in deeper into the synth
and the bass that I used here.
This is a Serum sound as well.
And a lot of you guys might be
producers that make synths and basses from
scratch from init. I really don't like that.
It's not my thing I just like take
presets and I like and I just tweak them
in a way and make them unrecognizable
and that's also approach I mean there's
like I said there's no one way to do
things the thing you should watch out
though with using presets is that you
don't sound that it doesn't sound as how
the preset it actually sounds so if you
have a coup precedent sound just try to
tweak it that much that is
unrecognizable anymore and it's a unique
sound you know, so for this sound
I want to go to the processing of it so
without my chain it will sound like this
We have 10 minutes left so I need to
hurry a little bit we're almost there
because after the A part I will
deconstruct the B part and then we're
kind of done and you can ask the
questions. So bass what did I do here I
didn't like cut a lot of my low
frequencies here because I have not
another bass play here actually so I
wanted to keep the power of this bass so
I just like cut it a little bit and I
boosted I think my root key also a
little bit so let's just listen with the
first EQ and with the other mixer chains off.
So the next thing that's that's my
magic to be honest that's the Wow filter
I really love this really really
love this plug-in I use it a lot on
basis only because if I use it in this
way I use it on synths or higher elements
it just doesn't work it's like very good
for lower element lower sounding
elements so I would just reopen this one
and show you exactly
my approach to Wow filter.
So here we go.
So this is how it opens up
normally and then you click on vowel
mode and it jumps into vowel mode and
wow mode and basically a vowel is like
ah a or those are vowels and what this
thing does it I think it boosts these
vowels and these harmonies and it just
adds like a tube distortion kind of
effect because the way I use it normally
it's on vowel mode but I also put it
here on band reject and this plugin
actually was used back in the days for
the first dubstep sounds where people
automated this button and then you could
like make these dubstep growls but I use
it use it in a different way I just put
it on vowel mode and band reject and
then I take the resonance a little bit
back and give it a little bit of
overdrive and then I just start playing
around with these vowels combinations
so you have a vowel A and you have a
vowel B so after some tweaking I have
found out that one of my favorite
combination is the I going to this crazy Ö here.
Yeah this one I don't know how
you call it O with two dots on it is it
Jack Ü or something I don't know
something so yeah so with the Wow filter
on it sounds like this
So what the Wow filter also does what
you don't want it added new frequencies
to your sound and I just cut it a little
bit of the lows so I think it added too
much low so I cut it a little bit more
again and then I started boosting here
ducking a little bit of the highs and
boosting in this range but resulted in this.
So because I also had the top lead
playing in this drop I didn't want all
the high elements of this bass sound and
I really wanted to focus on the lower
elements then what I use is a limiter I
actually like use the Waves L2 on almost
every separate channel in my mix some
people find me crazy for it but I like it.
So it works for me
what I did here is push threshold a
little bit down and define my outer
ceiling on -6 and just a simple
sidechain plug-in Kickstart that's the
processing for the bass so because I
don't have much time left I will go a
little bit faster to the process right now.
So that's for the bass and for
the top lead actually guys it's one layer
it's just from the KRANE pack actually
and the melody I was talking about
earlier that my friend played I just
used that melody again in a drop but
with a total different sound which gives
the contrast that I was looking for so
first you have the acoustic guitar and
you don't expect something like this to
come afterwards and that's kind of the
shock factor to the track I think so I
will play this sound.
So for the processing of this one there's
some Fabfilter this year which see
right now is it's called notch EQ and what
you do is you put these bands all the
way up actually and then you'll start
searching for the annoying frequency
range so this is a pretty high sound so
it's pretty common that it has like
frequencies that bother your ear you
just go through them and you find that
exact frequency and then you just duck
it down so let's say
super annoying so I duck this down
and that's what I did but
watch out doing this because I when I
started doing this I just ducked too
much frequencies and then it loses all
the power of the synths so you don't
want to remove all the annoying
frequencies just choose a few and then
see if the sound is good enough at that
point and don't duck everything because
you will kill the sound so after that
equalizer again, boosted a little bit
more of these frequencies. This is the
BX stereo maker it's a stereo plug-in
that I use from brain works I just did a
little bit of stereo expansion here then
I use the reverb, a limiting and these are
my side chains afterwards. So that's for
the A part of the drop then we go, how
much time do you have left? A little less
than five minutes. Okay I will do this
one in one minute guys. Okay cool. So
let's see so for the B part is the synth.
It's a Serum sound and a very cool
function in Serum that I use is the sync
function on synths and it sounds like this.
And with this you can you can so let's
say I start the drop and I first used this
sound then in the second 16 bars I can
put this one up and then at the same
place of harmony instead of the original
sound so you can keep building tension
in on track. So yeah my little bit going
a tweaking of this one so once again
just equalizing my Wow filter, another
equalizer, just some reverb and some
limiting and that's it for the drop
I want to finish it by ear and give you
guys some time to have some questions. OK
cool if you got a question. Yes
First of all thank you so much for having a
quick look inside of your kitchen so if
you have a question for LOOPERS
please raise your hands up and you will
get a microphone. Anyone in the back of
course. I saw you let your
sub bass go through in the entire build
up and I was wondering why don't you cut
it up just before the drop? So the thing
you see it playing there but on my
master I have a filter that that cuts
the low frequencies during the build up
so all the low frequencies get cutted so
eventually you don't have the full bass
playing with all the full ranges there,
because that's the thing also you can
like you need to like put a filter on
your master towards to drop to like
take out the low frequencies and bring
them all back. Sorry ladies and gentleman
can you please keep it quiet if we can't
hear LOOPERS. Alright thanks man! thank you all
No worries sure.
Anyone else? How much time did you use on
the project? Oh I can see that 23 hours. You expected that? Or more or less?
I think to be honest like on the average I
spent like 40 hours on a project but
this one was such a simplistic thing
because as you can see there are not
that many elements actually in this
track it's like a bass and melody and a
guitar thing and that's it, so that's
that's the power of less is more I think
Another question here yes. Do you sidechain
your bass and your synths with the same
waveform? Yeah, for everything I use the
same sidechain I don't have per se a
reason to it but it just sounds tighter
in my opinion. Okay cool.
We're running out of
time so we're gonna close this session up
ladies and gentlemen please give it
up one more time for LOOPERS!
