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KSHMR - Production Techniques & Advice PDF
KSHMR - Production Techniques & Advice PDF
KSHMR
PRODUCTION TECHNIQUES & ADVICE
3 Tips For Writing Melodies
"What are your top 3 tips for progressive house
production?"
-Jacob Harbron
I'm going to focus mostly on melodies because I feel they
are the most important aspect and I've addressed mixing
in other questions.
1) I usually write all of my melodies, whether they're for the
drop or breakdown, using one synth over simple chords.
Even if you end up not using chords on the drop (i.e. a big
kick with one note) I think it's still much easier to be
inspired when writing those melodies to chords. My collab
"Burn" with DallasK was done this way.
2) Learn at least one scale really well. For instance, I'm
most comfortable in F minor. I know what notes are used
in other scales, but because I know F minor so well I can
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hear in my head which notes sound good together it saves
a lot of time.
You should also learn variations of the scale for more
interesting melodies. For instance, the F harmonic minor
scale adds the note E. Thus, the C major chord is available
and it builds tension extremely well, especially into an F
minor chord.
Of course, not all of my songs are in F minor. I transpose
the melodies after I write them. Ableton has a useful MIDI
effect called pitch that you can apply to any synth and it
will do this for you.
Tips to get started producing
"What is the best way to get started With producing, like
building habits and stuff? How do you develop your own
sound? Will it come within time?"
-Darian Garmiani
I think the best way to get started is by watching YouTube
tutorials and downloading the templates people make. I
still do it all the time to see how people get certain sounds.
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Classical Piano Training vs. Drawing In
MIDI
"Can you play the piano classically or do you produce
melodies by altering pre-existing midi?"
-Matt Johnson
I am not classically trained. I usually start with a blank slab
of MIDI and draw in melodies. Sometimes I use MIDI's from
packs for inspiration to get started. I think that's fine as
long as you change them significantly.
Layering Drop Synths
"Do you layer your drop synths? If so, how are you able to
keep the frequencies from clipping or overlapping?"
-Glenelle Clarke II
I do layer drop synths, though typically I make sure there is
one main sound and that it stands out above the rest. The
supporting synths should assist in making the main one
sound full, not covering it up. To ensure they do not cover
it up, use an EQ to make cuts in them individually. Always
EQ a synth with other synths playing. The cuts you make to
a synth may sound bad when played by itself but are good
for the mix as a whole.
Creating Big SuperSaws
"How do you make supersaw so big?"
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-Gabriele Ciottolls
I layer my supersaws quite a bit. Some will be playing the
bass notes, some will be playing the chords, some will
playing the top melody and some will be doing all of the
above. I typically compress and multi-band compress
them as a group as well. I recommend removing their
individual reverbs and having one consistent reverb that
they all route to.
You're also going to need bass. In my experience a plucky
bass works well. You can create a mod that quickly opens
up the Cutoff Filter everytime a note is struck and closes
shortly after. You can add one that spikes the volume
when a note is struck as well.
Tips On Reverb
"How do you get that clear loud reverby sound?"
-Mridul Virmani
I like to get the reverb out of the way of the synth. One easy
way to do this is to apply reverb as an insert to your synth
and add a compressor or multiband compressor after the
reverb in your chain. I also like my reverb long, sometimes
5 second decay. Reverb takes a lot of experimentation for
me.
Alternatively, I'll bus my reverb and sidechain it to the
synths so that the reverb ducks whenever the synth is
played. I usually EQ all the low end from the bus and
sometimes make it wide by cutting out all of "center"
audio from it. This can be done Pro-Q or WAVES Center. If
you do this, make sure you are sidechaining to the kick as
well.
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How To Tell When A Drop Is Full
"When do you know when you have created and layered a
sound well enough to use for a drop or lead melody?"
-Michael Liedtke
I think with experience you eventually get familiar with the
point at which things sound and it's best not to add any
more. My best advice would be this:
- Decide on a main synth that catches your ear and build
around that.
- Adjust your main synth and lower the volume or remove
anything that doesn't sound good. For instance,
sometimes there will be a white noise OSC that gets ugly
after you apply distortion, multiband compression, etc. to
the synth as a whole.
- Add layers to your main synth that fill up the mids and
make it warmer. Use an EQ, ad infinitum, to carve out any
parts of the supporting synth that are competing with your
main synth.
- Add layers to brighten your main synth. Ideally, only one
synth will be adding white noise in your drop. And better
yet, if none of your synths are noisy, you can be in full
control of what your white noise is doing by having it on a
separate synth or audio track.
- Ideally your main synth sounds good in mono. You can
then use the higher-frequency supporting synths to
achieve greater wideness.
- Generally speaking, for all your synths, remove the reverb
and delay they come with. It's usually better to have these
effects on a bus, and for all of your synths to have the
same reverb, delay, etc.
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Kashmir-Style Rolling Bass
"How to make that rolling bass in songs like Kashmir or Let
Me Feel by Vicetone and Nicky Romero?"
-Baber Parweez
To do this, layer a sub with a few bass synths. EQ any low
end out of the bass synths which may interfere with the
sub.
They should all be playing the root of each chord in your
chord progression. For instance, in Kashmir the chord
progression on the drop is:
F minor -> C# major -> D# major -> F minor, with each
chord playing one bar each.
So the bass synths are playing:
F -> C# -> D# -> F, also one bar each.
On Kashmir, all the bass synths pitch bend down (try -5 or
-12) on the last beat of every bar, creating the effect of
sliding into the next note.
Note that although every bass synth is playing the same
notes, each synth can be playing the notes at different
octaves. For instance, they might be like this:
Sub: F1 -> C#2 -> D#1 -> F1
Bass 1: F2 -> C#2 -> D#2 -> F2
Bass 2: F2 -> C#2 -> D#3 -> F3
And so forth.
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Kicks & Low-End
"How do you get such a full low end in your mixdowns?
What do you do to make kicks so loud and such a tight
bass? Thanks KSHMR!"
-Morgan Carmont
Here are some of the techniques I use for kicks and bass.
Hope they help.
General Low-End and Kicks
- Using the notes between D# and G# will inevitably sound
the most powerful in your sub and bass synths.
- Transient designers can bring more focus to your kick but
be careful you don't lose the mid / low end.
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- Use the high-pass on your EQ to cut as much low end
from your leads as you can without sacrificing their power.
Do the same for their reverb if on a separate channel.
- Mixes usually end up with a lot of wide information: audio
that is not exactly centered and mono. This is a good
thing, but it shouldn't be happening in your low end and
plug-ins like Pro-Q can do this for you if you turn on their
Mid-Side feature.
Big Room Low-End and Kicks
- For Big Room, there are a lot of packs available with
great, huge kicks for every key (e.g. Cr2 and Sounds To
Sample). I recommend starting with those.
- Try using an EQ to make 3 or 4 dips where the kick
doesn't seem to be making a difference helping your mix
when played all together.
Progressive Low-End and Kicks
- Use a punchy kick, preferably in key with the root of your
song
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- The sub bass should be sidechained such that it ducks
completely when the kick plays, then fills up the low end
as the kick fades. Essentially, their waveforms should be
the inverse of one another. LFOTool is what I use for this.
- Printing your bass to audio and using fades to duck its
volume when the kick plays is another option.
- Recently I've been using an arp on the bass, triggering
1/16th notes like in my remix for Galantis - Runaway. This
also an option. It adds a lot of energy.
- Making the bass strong for every note is important. This
can be hard depending on the key. For instance, if you
need your sub-bass to play a C, you'll find it hard to pick
an octave: the high C will feel weak, the low C will feel lost.
This is where layering your sub with mid-range basses will
help. They will fill out the more difficult notes, whereas a
sub alone can not. In my track Secrets with Tiesto, the first
note of the bass on the drop is C. The sub plays the low C,
generally thought of as too low, but the other bass synths
help to fill it out. Thus, the low-end survived without losing
presence.
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Making mixes sound full
The best to make things sound full, in my opinion, is to
keep adding synths and figure out which ones are best
filling each area of the spectrum
Basics
- Very high: should be white noise, or a synth that has
white noise like a super saw
- Upper middle: main synth
- Low: this area belongs to the kick and the sub, make sure
you eq the lows out of all of the synths I listed above so
that they do not interfere with this area. The relationship
between your kick and sub depends greatly on your
sidechaining so learn this technique well
Misc
- The kick should have a nice attack on the top end as well
as the low. It may help to add a clap (with the lows and
mids cut out and a fair amount of reverb) on top of every
kick
- Putting groups of the synths on a bus (e.g. main synths,
bass synths, etc), or a simply grouping them as with
ableton, and then compressing and eq'ing that group
helps as well
- There are plug ins such as OTT and FabFilter's Pro G
which can help to make synths sound bigger using upward
compression
Hope that helps
-KSHMR
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