this is a in-depth guide to the structure of hardstyle, focused on the at the moment typical "intro-midintro-break-climax-midouttro-outtro"-pattern and newer hardstyle sounddesign
I'll also talk a little about anti-climaxes and oldschool aswell but it's mainly focused on what i just wrote above.
I hope you guys will appreciate this tutorial, it's basically most of the stuff i learned about hardstyle composing over the last year of producing, analyzing and simply using my ears when listening to this kind of music
have fun reading, learning, listening and composing!
sara
Index:
1) The Basic Patterns
2) Percussion, Instruments and FX
3) Melodies & Rhythmics
1) The Basic Patterns
The most common pattern at the moment is the "intro-midintro-break-climax-midouttro-outtro"-pattern
As an example I chose Headhunterz - Rock Civilization
Everybody knows this track so it will be easy to explain what I want to tell
0:00-0:53: this is the intro
- Intros feature the basic percussion and after 16-32 bars the kick hits in
Intros are mostly important for mixing, less for listening, as a producer you mostly have to accept that this part maybe won't be heard by the audience, which is btw no excuse for making it uninteresting.
the DJ's will hear it and those people are the ones who choose what an audience will hear
0:53-1:50 this is the midintro
- In the mid-intro the first real characteristics of the track start to come out, this could be certain sounds or screeches aswell as vocals and other stuff
sometimes also parts of the melodic pattern start to come out
when this part comes in the mix the audience will be already recognizing the track while the other one is still played, fades out or is already faded out
1:50-3:17 this is the break
- Ohhh breaks! This is where the magic happens There are a few different kinds of breaks: breaks which have two melodies, breaks which have a two parts with different instruments, breaks with heavy vocal use, short breaks, long breaks etc etc... as a producer the break is YOUR MAIN chance to give the track a certain feeling or to boost up the feeling and atmosphere the track already has - as i said: this is where the magic happens! And it's also (mostly) the main appearance of the melody or the melodic pattern the track follows
Newer hardstyle tracks mostly have very very melodic breaks with pads and plucky leads or also piano, some even with very heavy vocal use (see: JDX feat. Sarah Maria - Live The Moment:
Older hardstyle tracks have shorter breaks and less use of melodic elements, the main focus in these breaks is on bringing in a new screech, or pattern or a very short melodic (303, stabby lead or similar) pattern
For a DJ the break is the core of the track and is mostly played unmixed with an other track - time to dance, interact with the crowd and chose a new CD
3:17-4:09 the climax
- Time to daaaaaaance! The climax is... yeah... the climax of the track. It's the part where you're already singing along, dancing, jumping, moving - whatever! It's the most energetic part of the track and features the main kick, while in the intro and outtro other kicks or parts of this kick can be used. The climax-kicks are most producer's "signature-kicks", but I'll also explain these things later...
A climax can also be an anti-climax: anti-climaxes can be very diverse, just like climaxes, they can add epic rawness to a track or they can destroy it completely (xD)
A very nice example for a pretty awesome anti-climax would be Zatox - "Ear Fucking" (
At 2:14 you hear the sound rising and then 2:24 - BAM BAM BAM!
An anticlimax does not have a melody and mostly sounds like some kind of alternated mid-outro, most common (these times) are non-reverse (signature-)kicks and a different sound/screech-pattern then in the outtro and mid-outro, but this can be very very different depending on the track, the artist the atmosphere and the harmony of the track
Some deejays already mix in the climax to add another break or climax right after and create the illusion of some kind of a "double climax"
4:09-5:00 the midoutro
- The mid-outro mostly sounds like a alternative mid-intro. mostly it "builds down" just like the mid-intro has built up, but there are also mid-outros which use parts of the climax.
5:00-end the outtro
- Just like the mid-outtro the outrro is a "reversed" intro. this is the most common way but as in all forms of art and music - this depends on the artist and the piece of music itself
I have to add that some tracks have two breaks or two climaxes or even more (eg: Technoboy - Rage , featuring different melodies and melodic patterns or different vocals and other stuff, sometimes intros and mid-intros can already be part of those elements or are combined with those
As a beginner in producing it's the best thing to slowly start off with the easy patterns and oldschool-styleish stuff and then slowly work your way up to this more complex variations and composing patterns
There are some more common patterns and some more exotic patterns, a good exercise for composing is doing an analysis of your favourite songs
Simply try to figure out what pattern the songs follows and write it down, then slowly start going deeper and count the beats, bars and measures - you will learn a lot about your favourite producers as well about composing
simply find YOUR way to do it - there is no wrong way as long as you keep the harmony
2) Percussion, Instruments and FX
Too keep it very simple and short I try to divide hardstyle instruments and effects in the following:
- Leads & effect-leads (screeches, stabs, acid...)
Percussion (snare, hi hat, rim shots,...)
Kicks & bass (pitched and reversed)
Vocals
And effects (reversed cymbals/crashes, noise rises, filtered kicks, channel effects like low/highpass and other,....)
Leads
Leads and effect-leads are the voice of your track, they sing the melody, they scream for attention and movement and they tell the story of the track
Leads can be very simple like being based on square waves or very complex modulated and layered
They are part of the "signature-sounddesign" of every artist (or should be - "presetwhoring" is killing this aspect of sounddesign a lot) and you'll know the feeling of recognizing a new song of one of you fav artists by sometimes just recognizing the sound of the lead synthesizer or the screech
Leads can be done with synthesizers (soft or hardware) with samplers (for orchestral stuff, piano, "real" instruments or emulating hardware patches and sounds) or in other creative ways like using voice or sound samples
- Very common synths and samplers used for leads would be (hard and software in no particular order):
Nexus, Vanguard, Z3TA+, Hydra, Sylenth1, V-Station, the TB-303, the juno 8080 and the famous Virus-series
The percussion keeps the rhythm, together with kick and bass - it makes tracks interesting and structured.
percussion is mostly sampled from old hardware drumsynths like the 808 or the 909 by Roland and then spiced up with effects and equalizing by sampling-companies or producers and sold as CDs, other sample packs include drumloops, "real" drums or very exotic percussive instruments.
other people synthesize their own percussion (it's easier then you might think
) or modify the hardware samples on their own and use those, but for the most common stuff like snares, hi hats and cymbals, rim shots and other sampling is very okay(i'll later explain when and why sampling is NOT okay - in my opinion and for the sake of being original.
)- famous sample packs in hardstyle:
the VIPZONE hardstyle samples, the Blutonium Boy samples as well as a lot of other dance-music focused sample packs and CDs
But I highly recommend you downloading the 808-sample pack (which is free!!!) or other "dry" (un-effected) samples and start doing your own percussion...
Kicks are maybe THE number one signature sounddeisgn element in hardstyle - at least they're hyped as fuck among listeners and producers of all ages, countries and skill-levels.
Kicks can be very simple or very complicated, just like leadsounds and just like leadsounds you'll sometimes be recognizing a producer by his kicks
The synthesis of a good kick takes a lot of practice, patience, experience and a good hearing for fine elements, cause even tho hardstyle kicks may sound very intense and hard - they are very fragile and just a little twist in some parameters can change the sound to the very best or very worst.
There are a just a few really common kick types: the pitched kick (or also called "nu-style-kick" - a kick with a pitched bass attached), the gated kick (a kick combined with a gated reverb, mostly followed by a revered bass), filtered kicks (the so called "noisecontrollers"-kicks", can be combined with both bass-types very easily) and simple kicks (for mid intros, spicing other kicks up and other stuff - can also be combined with both bass types)
But just a kick on it's own sounds a little boring in the main part and is mostly just used for (mid-)intro/outtroparts of the track - the real fun and drive comes when the bassline kicks in!
basslines can be two types:
Straight forward (pitched kick,..) or reversed ("rawstyleish" or oldschool etc etc,...)
Whilst straight-forward basslines are more melodic and harmonic, reversed basslines mostly carry more drive and agression with them, the decision of the right bassline combined with the right kick can change the atmosphere of your track a LOT (and yea, really - A LOT)
Straight forward basslines are set on the same beat as the kick, reversed basslines are set in between two kicks
- Nice and common synths for making basslines and kicks are:
Hydra (Junglist) , µTonic, massive and the classic TB-303
Vocals can carry the message, vocals can carry the emotion, vocals give your track some kind of recognition value. I don't think i have to come up with examples here
Everybody here will have some favourite vocals and lyrics! Vocals can be dumb and nonsense (like talking about brooms and hoovers taking over the world), about the music itself and everything around, about emotions or about certain stories. Vocals are mostly done by vocalists (Nikkita did a WONDERFUL tutorial on how to work with vocalists! make sure you check it out!) or are sampled voices from movies, documentaries, other songs or anything else spoken!Vocals can be sung, spoken, shouted, rapped - whatever! They give your song something less synthetic and very human
- Here's nikki's tut about working with vocalists:
tutorials-f22/working-with-vocalists-t1629.html
Effects are a VERY important part about sounddesign, and cosing the right sound effects as well as the right effect-chains (effects on the channel-strip in your DAW) is something that can be very simple as well as it can be very complex - both can sound good if it's well done
Effects like differently pitched filtered kicks can announce a change of the melody, a reversed cymbal can change the atmosphere before the break hits in... there a LOTS of synthetic effects (like noise-rises and other) and "natural" or percussive effects - and almost any sound can be used as effect too (just think of doors being smashed or glass being broken, etc etc!)
Effect-chains change how a channel sounds - like distortion on a bass or reverb on a lead or vocal
This is also very important cause it may change your sound and atmosphere a lot
just think of what an epic lead would sound like without reverb in a break!- Very common sound effects would be:
Reversed crashes/cymbals, noise-rises, noise-falls, vocal-cuts and all kinds of random samples
The most common effects in hardstyle are:
Distortion (bitcrusher, banddistorion, overdrive,..), reverb/hall & delay/echo, filters and equalizing (which can be also used as effect)
3) Melodies and Rhythmics
- I'll first start of with rhythmics so you'll get the idea of how a hardstyle beat is composed and then go on with melodies
This is basically something more extended than what ViceOfFire already explained here:
tutorials-f22/hardstyle-nustyle-melody-tutorial-some-theory-t2292.html
what does this mean?
Four by four beats (4/4) means that one beat has four quarter notes. and four to the floor means that the first quarternote is the kick.
So everything you compose will have several multiples of four!
Beats per minute is a metering for how many times this four to the floor pattern can be played in 60 seconds or how many times the kick kicks in 60 secs - so the BPM count is the speed of the track.
- You can check an examples of some different BPM-counts here:
tutorials-f22/beats-per-minute-tutorial-t623.html
(thx to marxe)
Beats, patterns and melodies you do and compose in hardstyle will be either 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, or 62 beats
most melodies are either 8, 16 or 32 beats, some very complex ones even 62 beats, but mostly 8 or 16
melodic patterns are 2, 4 or 8 beats and are the "skeleton" of melodies as well for stabs, fx and screeches.
Drum patterns mostly have 1, 2, 4 or 8 beats, some very complex ones 16
- One beat equals one hit of a kickdrum
Very complex rhythmics are not common in hardstyle percussion since the four to the floor is very dominant, but yet there are some things you should know about building interesting rhythmics, since you'll maybe need them for playing around with vocal cuts, snare-rolls and interesting melodies
Always stick to multiples of 4 or 2 - everything else will sound unharmonic and chaotic, there are surely some cases where something else can sound good too (e.g. triplets!!!!!) but mostly sticking to 2, 4 or 8 is the safest way to go - avoid uneven measures
A cool example is the classic 8 beat snare-roll with a ride.
The beat goes on normal for 4 beats with the kick and the snare on every first 4/-note...
On the 4th beat the ride is also part of the four to the floor and the snare is now not just on every 4th note, it's on every 2nd (so it rolls in)
In the last beat the snare is on every quarter note
Try to alternate this pattern, you will see that the patterns winch count a multiple of 2 or 4 will sound the best
Now melodies:
Melodies are made of notes in a certain scale, the note values say how long a note is played whilst the scale holds a selection of certain pitch values which fit together perfectly.
You will find some scales more appealing to you and some scales less, some scales allow very complex and epic melodies whilst other allow very simple and memorable ones - it's all a matter of taste and composing skill to find out what scales you like best and can work best with
The most common note values are 1/8,1/4, 1/2, 1/1 and 2/1 - so a 1/8 note is 1/8 of the beat whilst a 2/1 note fills out 2 beats
- also 1/6 and 1/3 notes, so called triplets are commonAs a beginner you best start of with 1/8, 1/4 and 1/2 notes and a very simple scale to build your first melodies.
Remember of the rhythmics! Notes set on multiples of 2 and 4 will sound better then some set randomly at 11, 7 or 5
Simply try! It's all training and practice!
Scales and pitch values are some more complicated, one bar up or down in your piano-roll is called a semitone.
The value for one semitone is 1.
The value for half an octave is 6.
And a whole octave is 12.
An octave goes from e.g. C1 to C2 or from F3 to F4, etc etc
Those values are very important especially for detuning and bass-lead elements.
The bass part of a melody is mostly 24 or 36 semitones under the lead sound.
A melody mostly goes over one or two octaves in the same scale.
Everything takes practice and training - so go! Open up your sequencer and have fun producing!
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial/guide
Additional notes:
if there are ANY questions or want to add something or don't feel like i told it the right way, feel free to drop that in this topic, I'll try to answer as good as possible!
if you discovered any typos or grammar mistakes, drop me a pm.
- oh.. and yeah... sampling...
i accept sampling - but i HIGHLY advice all upcoming producers to to their own thing as much as possible, I'm still a newb too, but i find it very sad that there is so much "presetwhoring" and ripping from other producers and tracks...
especially kicks and advanced soundsynthesis like leads... guys TAKE the effort to learn and create! this is was music is about! realizing what you hear inside your mind!
dare to do your own! simply start off with analyzing your fav synth... what do the knobs? what do the values mean? what do the strange words mean? etc etc!
try alternating your fav preset, learn how it's build and what you can do with it, try to recreate it!
or analyze what your fav kick is made of, analyze, practice and CREATE YOUR OWN!
or try putting effects on dry drum kits or anything else! simply try try try!
if you UNDERSTAND sound and all the "boring theory" you'll be able to create stuff nobody ever has created and this is TOTALLY necessary if you want to be unique and stand out from other in the best way
try to enjoy sounddesign - especially your "own" signature-sounddesign!..
+ Need a "make your own samples" tutorial !
