maw, welcome to my vision on music. I'm going to discuss some, from my point of view, very important theory you might wanna dig into. I will discuss tonality problems, dissonances and frequency waves later on. I know it's done before, but anyway, here we go.
1.
First off all, we know most of the time all hardstyle tracks are composed in minor, we have exceptions, like in some Scope DJ tracks, but generally everything is in minor. What does minor mean? Minor stands for at least three notes, one tonic, another tone at the third interval from the tonic and the third one at an interval of a perfect fifth note above the tonic, forming the minor chord together.
For example: C -> Eb -> G
Spoiler
In the minor chord of scale C, the D# is called an Es. This is because of the major chord in C. When we 'transform' to minor, we lower the third note in the C chord by one semitone, from E to D#, and because of this 'E', we say Eb! ('b' means lowered 1 half note)
The basic chord sequences we all use in hardstyle are as following, with root note C as example
Euphoric:
- C(minor) | Bb(major) | Ab(major) | Bb(major)
http://vapour.nl/tut/chord1.png
C(minor) | Bb(major) | Ab(major) | G(major)
http://vapour.nl/tut/chord2.png
C(minor) | Bb(major) | Ab(major) | G(major) | F(minor) | Db(major) | Ab(major) | G(major)
http://vapour.nl/tut/chord3.png
C(minor) | Ab(major) | Bb(major) | C(minor)
http://vapour.nl/tut/chord4.png
exceptions;
C(major) | B(major) | E(minor) | D(major)
http://vapour.nl/tut/chord5.png
C(major) | F(minor) | Db(major) | Db(major)
http://vapour.nl/tut/chord6.png
- C(minor) | B(major)
http://vapour.nl/tut/chord7.png
C(minor) | E(minor)
http://vapour.nl/tut/chord8.png
2.
I get shitloads of questions everyday about leads. Mostly about the main leads, and I'm not going to discuss introleads, as there are too many 'tutorials' on the net for that allready. The key to success is some uplayering square lead, with some saw leads in the background, multiple chordal (which means not in one scale, but like from C4 to C6, duplicating your melody one octave below (or up), and a shitload of REVERB! Reverb is the key to epicness! Your track will sound less dry, and your plucks will sound massive! You don't need badass hardware synths like the Virus TI or some Roland stuff, you can even do it with 3x0sc! My advice is Sylenth1
, and this is what a typical (melodical) introsynth layer looks like:
This layers consists of: (check sample here ->
Spoiler
1x Nexus: Chords in BG
2x FM8: Screech alike saws (no, that one is not muted)
1x z3ta+: Sawish octave-lowered uplead
The same story about the kicks. Layering is teh key! U don't get a frrrrrreaking phat sounding kick out of one layer! U can get a pretty decent one, but it's never 'it'. People always ask me; What VST do you use to create your kicks? The answer is; it doesn't f******* matter. U need some oscillators and a pitch envelope, a shitload of eq'ing and distortion and the use of layers.
This is my chain for a raw, hardcorish kick ->
U notice this chain? First I EQ'd the raw kick, so I gain 'control' over the frequences, then I compress it, so it doesn't reach badass levels, then there is some obvious overEQ, which I don't recommend, and then there is: Quadrafuzz! A great plugin for standard distortions. As I am using a little bit distortion from the junglist synth (this is the raw crunchy layer), I EQ'd and applied FX to all three VST's, so they have their own sound, and then routed them to a channel together, and put a multiband compressor on it, and afterwards some EQ! U get some pretty cool results when ur trying various things. Happen to notice the Fruity Reeverb on it? This is for the use of the FX kicks i make. U shouldn't put reverb on one of your kicks normally though.
Then over to FX kicks, alot of distortion and reverb, muting some bass in your kicks will get you pretty far, right?
U can check some of my results here.
http://www.youtube.com/user/Vapourx7
Lately, I started using my voice alot more in my tracks. People seem to notice! It is such an easy way to accomplish what u want, instantly! You don't have to mock some MC around with; 'its not good man, you need to say that typical letter in that way'. Customization! U can always rip some audiobook, but you will never get the text u want to. Speech synthesizers are verrrrrrrrry difficult to master. I do not recommend this, as it never sounds natural. Start recording ur own voice! Get a cheapo 50 euro mic, plug it in, make up some nice punchwords (get hit with tha moofooing real) and sort. There's a bunch of Waves plugins wich get u pretty close to the donkey roller voice. Waves Diamond Edition I guess. Then there's always a way of pitching, stretching, using vocodex a bit (at 20% volume) and equalizing! And, if you wanna sing, and u don't feel comfy with ur voice, try some autotune before you send stuff out.
maw, I will be adding more stuff, soon.
, nice that you added pics too!
