Transcripts
1. Course Intro: Ladies and gentlemen,
welcome back to another masterclass with
yours truly key Orion, the man who is obsessed
with making great music and teach you how
to make your own. In today's masterclass, I'm going to teach
you how to make this be inspired by Drake's honestly
Nevermind album. I've been feeling house
records lately and I'm going to show you
exactly what I did. So there are a couple of different keys when it comes
to choosing instruments, the effects that I chose, and then also some tips
and tricks when it comes to mixing house records that I'm stoked to
dive in with you all. So if that sounds
good, set aside 30 to 40 minutes and
let's jump into it.
2. Crafting Melodies: When it comes to the
melody section, these are, I just chose two chords, really simple and a couple of different instruments sounds. When I listened to drinks album, there are a lot of kind of, he uses a lot of cool, analog, lush, retro sense which I love. And so what I use
for that is often this suite of plug-ins from arterioles, the
arterioles bundle. And you can get it
I think you can actually rent to own
it through splice. And so that's where I got almost all of these instruments, but it was just through
this analog lab. So pretty much you can choose other instruments
that are kinda like mix-and-match and go from there. So the first thing
is this really, what this project was built
around is these keys section. I'm going to take off the
side chain right now. And I'm going to just show
you these keys are first. The whirling wonder.
Tweaked a little bit. And as you can tell if
you can go in here, I also messed with the
midi note velocities. So if you look at these, these are all very different. Just to add a little
bit of variation, all I did is I just came
in here with the pencil, boom, and then I just drew them. I just do this like I wanted
to go down a little bit, like have a little bit more of an accent
on the last note. So I just kinda did
this little loop. Andrew goes in and
then when I would copy that out to the
other instruments, I switched up the
velocities obviously here. So this one doesn't
have as much variety. This one has a lot more. It just depended on this French horn for some reason this sound didn't sound great, but those velocities a little bit more receptive
than the others. I didn't put it on there. But these keys are
what is built around. So these are, this is kinda like the
starting place for it. And then the next thing I wanted was something a little higher. So when you're pairing
instrument sounds, I think it's important
that you have things at different frequency
ranges may be different. If they aren't the same
frequency range would be the accent each
other differently. So this French horn sound, I took in, I put this much high. It's in a higher register or it's the same notes,
but a hierarchy. It's just saw that. So still kinda lush, still a lot of reverb. The keys have this
retro color on it. I'm not doing a ton of EQ
on this this retro color. I love retro color, you
know that about me. No more boring pads preset which I just
tweaked a little bit, nothing too crazy
just to give it a little bit more
ambiance, you feel me. And then going from French horn, the next thing was this plug. I felt like this was if we were listening
to just these two together. Let's turn these off. This is what they
sound like together. Just kinda a little bit
more depth to the sound, but I still felt
like it missed that. Kinda like I wanted a little
bit of high-end sparkle. So I added this
pluck on the top. And as you can tell,
this is a very reason that you can here actually, I should probably turn that off this because this retro color, I think it has the
noise on or maybe not, that's coming from the analog
lab instrument itself. I don't love that, but
I'm not going to totally didn't even realize
that that was on until I was recording this. So I'm not going to worry
about it, but I don't love that like white
noise in the background. They do that to replicate
like old instruments. And that's not exactly my
vibe, but it is what it is. Anyways, this pluck, sparkling. I told you all. This French horn sound
was again analog lab. This is French horn solo. So there's that. Let's see if I can show you
guys what this actually was. So this was a mellotron sound. This is a French horn
mellotron sound, which then I, I edited a little
bit, loved the Mellotron. This is normally
ever like for pads, but the pluck is this. I actually have a little
bit more flexible and on this is analog lab again, obviously I love this thing. This is from the
the June, June six. So this is a pluck sound
called the Little Big, which I then edit
it a little bit, just kinda came in here and took that these to get
these little sparkler. But as you can tell, like
it's not super loud. So this is just a little
bit of shine on the top. And then I reverb it out and
added this course effect, which was from which is a
built-in able to plug in. But any type of course
affects really this is without it is with it. I'm just kinda like
make it a little bit kinda just wanted to make
a weird, gonna be honest. That is the bread and
butter of the melody. And then there's one more piece. So what we have is the
keys, French horn. Then the last piece. And actually my favorite
is these vocals I had, and then I edited them and decide I'm actually
not going to keep them. Maybe I'll use them
later in the track like for breakdown section
or something I'm saving, I'm not going to delete them, but they aren't super important, so I'm just muting them for now. The next piece was this vocal sound which I got
from this contact library, exhale the presets,
Secret Garden, I think, Secret Garden. And then this is what it
sounds like without anything. So it's just a little
bit more breathy. And then this just makes it
a little bit more spacey. This vocal is actually in competition with
this French horn. If you listen to them together. Pretty similar frequency range. But I felt like
without the vocal, it just like it was
missing something. So this is what it's like. Like that's cool, but feel
the difference when I add the vocal end with it. So that's the melody section. Those are, they're
all the same notes, missed a little bit around with the velocities and then
had some sort of like a high pad just to kind of accent the top end a little bit. Let's jump into the drugs.
3. House Drums: When it comes to the drums, these or anything super crazy. These, I'm going to
save the low-end for later because that's kind of
a beast in and of itself. But I'm going to tend to
like the top line drums. So these are the
snares, the claps. This is what the drum sound like without the kick and base. And then at the very end of the measure it goes like this. So what do we have
going on here? I have to this a snare, snare in a clap layered. Pretty much a clap, clap snare. And a little bit
of reverb on it. This is without it. Little dry because these house
records don't. I want these to feel spacey. I'm going to have a lot of reverb bone on different
parts of the track. So there's a little bit
of reverb going on there, but that first snare, and then this little clap,
I'll save till later. The next piece are the
perk in this little thing. This is the official
name of the instrument. No, I'm just kidding.
It's not. But that's how I understand when
I labeled things, I know what it is,
it's the little thing. So this is the load thing
with the percussion. And that's where you kind of, that's where you're going to get the, I learned these. I love my percussion game. I come on, be honest, I stole
straight up from KT Canada. I love kitchen out.
If you want to make house records with bounce, you want to make house bounce. Listen to a lot of
kitchen workers. I'm still learning that
I'm gonna be honest, but his use of shakers
in percussive elements, he's a master at it
given that house bounce. And then I've got that a
shaker in there, I believe. Or maybe not. I thought
I had a shaker. Yeah. I guess I don't I had a shaker at 1, I
guess I deleted it. Shakers and other instrument I love to add a little
bit of balance, but for that, I think maybe I felt like I was overdoing it. And when I was listening
to these great records, Drake always has pretty
minimalist production. You don't want to go overboard, but just like adding a bunch of stuff because it
gets distracting. So I think I had a shaker
and then I was like I just make the beat
with whatever key tip, key tip alert, make the beat with whatever
feels good to you, and then go back and
take things out later. Don't worry about
too much about it when you're making it,
just make it feels good. Come back later and take it out. This clap echo again because I wanted things to be
reverb down a little bit. I have on I don't
have it on here, so I guess it's every every other measure. That one. Then at the very end, just this little low clouds, low clouds little thing. Obviously very hip
hop trap inspired. Yeah, I just like
this little, again, this is a little balance
before this last flap echo. And that's it really like not super crazy
if you wanted to, if you wanted to turn the hook, maybe I'd bring in
the shaker again, maybe do something a
little bit more fun just to add a little bit
of variety to it. But since I was just
kinda making this a simple beat that I wanted, I knew I was gonna
do is walk through. I didn't make it super crazy. So that's it, man, lay your snares and mix them so that they
sound good together. And then add some different
things with reverb, maybe some elements
to kinda take up a little bit of space there. Maybe one or two percussive elements for a little
bit of bounce. House drum tips
from kitchen ADA. Okay, Moving on
into the low-end.
4. Low End (Kick + Bass): For me, low-end with house, especially when it came
to these Drake records was nailing the base
because he has, again, if you're going to use a reference track coming here, go in and listen to his different sound
choices and stuff. He has some whoever's
making his records. I love the basis. I wasn't able to nail it,
but the Drake base that I was using is from omni sphere. You can also get some really rad Travis Scott type of
basis with this preset. This is a weak base, but it sounds like
that compression demos and Travis Scott type vibes. But they're kinda like
darker Drake base, you know what I'm talking about? Geometry recording. Okay, cool. Then the kick, I want
it to be really dumpy. This is kinda the driving
part of my track. This was, this is all the same
kick, not a layered cake. But since I knew the snares, we're going to be on since it was going to
be four on the floor. These every other kick I've come in and less than the
volume of a little bit. If you listen to just the kick, you're going to hear the
change in that volume. I'm almost at the
heartbeat. Let's Dance. And then this is what the base, pretty simple. That's super crazy. Where are you going
to get your balance? You can, if you want, you can use your
balance when the base, like in these Drake tracks he has, he has some really cool. I don't play a lot of base,
but it's amazing basis. I get a lot of my balance, my house tracks
from my percussion. But there's another place if you wanted to experiment with it. These are pretty
much the same thing. I'm using, the same copied
and pasted midi notes, the same root nodes as the
chords for the melodies. But here's the thing I
wanted to talk to you about was actually, you know what? I'm going to save that
for the next piece because it comes into mixing. Let's talk about
mixing a house record.
5. Mixing + Mastering House: When it comes to mixing house, I think one of the key
pieces that you can use is some sort of
side-chain compression. Well, let's do a kick. Whether that's another plugin that you use for
this sort of thing. It depends, It's up to
you what you wanna do, but what I do is I use a compressor and
then I side chain. Pretty much all the melodies and everything to the kick with
the side chain compressor, with the sergeant compressor, this isn't super complicated. But Google searching oppression if you don't know
what that means. But if you watch
this, check it out. I'm sorry, I changed the kick. And then I'm saying I'm
telling you if the side chain only with the frequencies
over this amount, then the attack and
release and the dry wet. And the threshold is how you can then smooth it
out a little bit. So check this out. That's not a great little
clicky but doesn't sound great. So you kinda come in here, you can kinda smooth
it out a little bit like that and maybe
message because the little clicky still
the attack a little, so it comes out a
little smoother. I don't love those
clicks and pops. So I tried to smooth
those out a little bit. Maybe bring the driveway
down a little bit, get rid of it for the most part. Maybe still a little clicky
but better than it was. And then I add that same type of compressor to the entire instrument group. So all of these instruments
are in this instrument group. And this instrument group,
I have an EQ compression, I'm going to do
anything with it. And then this LFO Tool, which you can kinda do
something similar with. But I just liked
them more with the, I found it easier with
the searching oppression, but continuing to do the
same thing with an LFO Tool. Lfo Tool, right? Shape in which is cool to play with this
now and I'll show you the difference between the two sides. She's like different like different basic
side-chain shapes but I like the elbow too, but I just realized I like to come searching compression more. To me that helps the mix a ton. So that's kinda like a key
mixing pieces entire thing was getting that kneeling
that side-chain compression. Now I want to talk to you about when it comes to actually mixing
one of these records. The pieces that I
found most important. So I want my low-end to be
the most important piece. When I'm mixed, when
I was mixing this, I always start with
my low-end first. Go like this, bring those in. So I brought my kickin
around negative, it looks around like a
negative 9.5 and then debase. It's gonna be around like
negative seven, negative 7.5%. Minimum to cook. Push one goes up a
little bit more, but I'm not spending too much. The next piece I'm
going to bring in, honestly is the stair. And then I get my drums going. I kind of like a loose all the
drums kinda going loosely. And then I'll bring my
melody piece in later. What I'm shooting
for is that not pass like negative four, negative 3.5 on the master will come out. Negative 4.5, which is cool. And then for by mastering chain, I'll do these one
at a time for you. I first have this pro Q2 little mid-side EQ
action just to this, I feel like just kind of centers might low-end a little more if you weren't
wearing headphones. And now this is going
to make any difference. But if you are had
once you've got it, if not, it's going to
take my word for it. Mid side chain, you
do with this EQ. Little bit of sparkly,
sparkly distortion, mostly above 800 hertz. This you'll notice a lot as the, as the track is louder. And then I like tea racks
for these two things. This classical
presser, negative one, not much watching this
rig and logical flip. Why the classic
clipper over limiter? Great question because
I'd like to be able to control the
slope a little bit more. I feel like rather
than having just be like a hard like limiters, I feel like a little
bit more hard and his little bit more
of a rounded slope. And then I set, so I set it so that
the output can't go past negative 0.3. And then I'll add a limiter. Very well be my last piece. I just want to eke out a little
bit more volume from it. I use the limiter, but I like
using some sort you can do. You don't need T racks for this. By the way, you
could come in here and load up a saturate, or you could do this by turning on soft
clipping, I think. And then you could
choose like some sort of another curve here. Like you can just tell, even just by changing those like it makes
a big difference. Then turn on soft clipping
and there you go. But for me, this
T-Rex want to rock, so that's the one that I use. So yeah, let's jump into
tracking the beat out.
Kia Orion, Artist & Music Producer
