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 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.
3) I recommend adding pitch bend, portamento, vibrato and velocity variations to your melodies.
They help break the monotony and add a lot of feeling. You can hear pitch bending on both the
lead synths and the bass in my track Secrets with Tiesto. Also, be conscious of the length of all
of your notes and how that affects the rhythm you create. This can be very important.

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.
Developing your own sound takes time. Often as producers we try to emulate the style of other
artists, and I think by failing in the process we often achieve our own sound. It helps to have
people around you when you produce, because they will be listening objectively and can tell you
when something sounds good. Whereas, perhaps, you could only hear your failure to achieve
the sound of someone else.

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.
I compress all of my synths individually, as typically my supporting synths collectively via a bus.
Multiband compression is useful on the supporting synths bus as well, to ensure random
frequencies aren't popping up here and there.

Creating Big SuperSaws

"How do you make supersaw so big?"

- 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.
The bass notes can really help make your SuperSaws groove and not feel so static. I
recommend playing with their length quite a bit and sometimes pitch bending to bend from note
to note.

"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.

Mid-Side EQ

"Not a lot of people, including myself, knows their way around mid-side EQing. It's supposed to
be a great trick to get a full & wide sound. Have you used this technique? If so, what do you
think of it? And would you be able to explain it any further? Thanks!"
- Rachel McGrath

Sure I'll talk about this. I'm new to it, but basics:
1) You don't need wide audio in your low end. so take a high pass, set it to sides, and drag up
the frequency spectrum until you can hear it affecting the song.
2) A lot of synths presets are very wide these days, so in the final stages of mixing you can use
the side EQ to pin point frequencies where synths are rubbing with more precision. You typically
won't be affecting the drums which is great because those are generally centered.
3) Similarly, if you do want to color your drums in mastering, using the mid EQ to boost your kick
works well without adding mess to the side information in that range.
Lastly:
What's most important is that you've got power in the middle as well as the sides. It's easy to
lose power in the center. Making a wide synth mono doesn't work. If you want a wide synth to
punch in the center, but when you check it in mono it sounds bad, you have two options:
a) Experiment with adjusting the oscillators of the synth so that they do not phase (check their
detune and voices.)
b) Try using Center by WAVES. It allows you to easily remove the side information, and solo
what power the synth has driving down the middle (if any.)
Hope that helps.

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.

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.
Sidechain is really important here as well. The image below is roughly the sidechain I would
apply to the sub using LFOTool. Other bass synths should be sidechained the same, but with
slightly less overall reduction if you see fit.

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 KSHM!"
- 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.
- 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.
- Kicks and sub should be mono. There is a plug-in by Brainworx called Control that can help.
Center by WAVES also.
- 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.
- Often times I'll take the first few milliseconds from a short, punchy kick and quickly fade it into
a big tonal kick. It can help your kick stick through the mix and you avoid the potential phase
cancellation of simply layering two kicks.
- The melody of your lead will determine your sidechain setting but generally I keep it quick for
big room, allowing a little attack for the transient of the lead to come through.
Progressive Low-End and Kicks
- Use a punchy kick, preferably in key with the root of your song
- The sub bass should be low-passed, cutting off about two-thirds of the spectrum, so that
certain frequencies do not interfere with your leads and other bass synths. The sub bass should
be covering only the lowest parts of your spectrum.
- 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.
- Lower-mid bass: I usually include one or two more basses with "fuzz" that creates a buzzsaw
type effect. The should be sidechained like the sub, but slightly less extreme.
- Lower-mid bass should have saturation, OTT, widening, whatever it needs applied so that it
buzzes nicely.
- Generally speaking, try not to make your bass pattern complicated. Simply playing the root of
each chord with the right amount of sidechain often works fine. I did this on my song Kashmir.
- 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.
- Your bass synths will inevitably play different notes at different volumes. Try compression and
limiting. Another option is bouncing your bass to audio so you can see which notes are too soft
or loud and adjust their volume accordingly.

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
- Middle: main synth and other synths that support the main synth and give it body
- Lower middle: some kind of mid bass supporting the main synth (or in the case of melodic
progressive house tracks, supporting the chords) without getting in the way of the sub
- 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.