Barfunkel tries to learn the secrets of house music

Barfunkel · 2015-03-30T11:28:14.000Z

So. I recently changed gears (literally), sold my A4 and some other bits and got a Moog Sub Phatty + an old rompler instead. I’ve made 95% techno the last 5 years, decided it’s time for a change. I’ve always wanted to know how to make house, but haven’t really gotten the kind of results I wanted. But now I decided to really tackle the beast and learn the secrets of house!

I made one fast attempt yesterday but it wasn’t very good so I deleted it.

This is the second attempt, which is slightly better but still nowhere near the quality I’m aiming for. Hopefully future will bring better results!

Some serious tips are welcome!

https://soundcloud.com/user4904810/house-journey-vol-2

More will follow!

Barfunkel · 2015-03-31T09:35:31.000Z

Here’s another practice run:

https://soundcloud.com/user4904810/house-journey-vol-3

Rusty · 2015-03-31T09:37:08.000Z

45% more funk?

Barfunkel · 2015-03-31T09:40:48.000Z

Yeah I’m a bit drunk.

waldemaR · 2015-03-31T10:47:57.000Z

""Barfunkel"":

Here’s another practice run:

SoundCloud - Hear the world’s sounds

This really move my ass
So maybe more drunk more house
All the best,
waldemaR

maass · 2015-03-31T10:54:15.000Z

the second one is really nice, it’s kinda deep house, isn’t it?

Just i tiny tiny bit more variation here and there and i would buy it…

Rusty · 2015-03-31T11:15:25.000Z

[quote=“” Rusty""]
45% more funk?
[/quote]

Yeah, second one is 45% more funk.

That the Vintage Pro I hear?

I’d slap a bit of verb/delay on that personally…

Barfunkel · 2015-03-31T11:35:04.000Z

""Rusty"":

[quote=" Rusty"]45% more funk?

Yeah, second one is 45% more funk.

That the Vintage Pro I hear?

I’d slap a bit of verb/delay on that personally…
[/quote]

Plenty of Vintage Pro in that one. The conga loop, the organ pad and the e-piano melody(which I think is the weakest part of the track, I’ll try to make something better in it’s stead) come from it.

Barfunkel · 2015-03-31T12:26:21.000Z

Changed it a bit, here’s the new link:

https://soundcloud.com/user4904810/house-journey-vol-3-take-2

Barfunkel · 2015-04-01T17:02:36.000Z

Here’s a new one, the best one so far imo.

https://soundcloud.com/user4904810/house-journey-vol-4

dubathonic · 2015-04-01T19:14:14.000Z

^dug that most recent one. great vibe. the bass sounds a bit heavy through headphones but i like what you’re trying to do with the line.

poonti · 2015-04-02T01:26:46.000Z

https://www.samplemagic.com/details/72/the-secrets-of-house-music-production

Barfunkel · 2015-04-02T07:20:23.000Z

""poonti"":

https://www.samplemagic.com/details/72/the-secrets-of-house-music-production

That book is on my shopping list. Tried to buy it off Amazon the last time I ordered stuff from there but it was out of stock.

Have you read the book btw?

Barfunkel · 2015-04-02T08:56:07.000Z

After owning the OT for a year I finally figured out that you can turn off quantization. When they say RTFM, maybe they actually mean it?

So, here’s me playing the (rather annoying) flute melody with no quantization, with the OT’s keys, not a real keyboard.

https://soundcloud.com/user4904810/house-journey-vol-5-aka-the-annoying-flute-track

poonti · 2015-04-02T16:35:05.000Z

""Barfunkel"":

[quote=“poonti”]https://www.samplemagic.com/details/72/the-secrets-of-house-music-production

That book is on my shopping list. Tried to buy it off Amazon the last time I ordered stuff from there but it was out of stock.

Have you read the book btw?[/quote]
I kind of half-jokingly posted the link because of your subject title (good fit!!)
But I do have this book and here are my thoughts:
[ul]
[li]it’s a nice coffee table style book with glossy pages[/li]
[li]it’s written by the dudes from Toolroom, and is nicely presented[/li]
[li]it is extremely DAW/VST centric[/li]
[li]breaks down the elements of different styles of house tracks [/li]
[li]sections on drums, bass, vocals, synths, structure, effects, and mixing[/li]
[/ul]

Overall, it’s OK but I much preferred Rick Snoman’s “Dance Music Manual” even if outdated, as well as Music Theory for Computer Musicians, and Composition for Computer Musicians by Michael Hewitt.

Would I buy Secrets again, knowing what it is now? Nope…

poonti · 2015-04-02T16:47:26.000Z

Having said all that, does anyone know of a decent book or series based on hardware sequencers/synths like Elektrons?

[Cough Cough Dataline/Cuckoo, maybe something to consider for the Elektron line!?!? Although videos are way more informative in many ways, a nice book is also useful!]

Sorry Barfunkel, no more topic hijacking from me. I did listen to your house track and like the way it’s progressing! I would put it under “Chilled House” category, being a genre sub-category nut case that I am!

Barfunkel · 2015-04-02T17:52:08.000Z

I’m more of a reader than a video watcher. Good videos where the producer actually explains what and why he’s doing are rare, though. There might be, for example, a tutorial on how to recreate some track on a DAW, but there is no music/production analysis of the track at all, making the video useful only for creating a cover version of the said song.

It doesn’t really matter IMO whether a book is DAW or hardware-specific, if the information is generic. Music is music, if you’ve ever used a DAW the information in easily enough transferrable to hardware.

poonti · 2015-04-02T18:14:25.000Z

I kind of agree, if the info is generic yes. There are some track breakdowns, for instance this one for electro-house, which I suppose can be transalted to hardware tracks from DAW arrangement view:

https://www.samplemagic.com/images/uploads/stock/original_60-1339570805.jpg

But I have to say, I don’t think along these lines when I jam on my Elektrons. It’s a lot more “jammy” and trial and error, than a linear progression. Maybe that’s my problem with too much loopiness in my tunes.

Barfunkel · 2015-04-05T14:15:30.000Z

Yet another one:

https://soundcloud.com/user4904810/house-journey-vol-6

Barfunkel · 2015-04-06T07:52:48.000Z

Aaaand another, pretty much in the same vein as the one before.

https://soundcloud.com/user4904810/house-journey-vol-7