KVR Audio

azoc · Post by **azoc** » Tue Sep 04, 2012 7:20 pm

Hi fellow KVRers,

I want to make 90s Eurodance music, but i keep having the same problem. It sounds like trance at the end.

I found bunch of threads about 90s Eurodance, but basically they are all about instruments used back in the day (I have a lot of good VSTs, so that is not a problem). I need something more like a tutorial or a book on how to make 90s Eurodance (on how to get that sound). The sound I aim for is something like LaBouche, 2 Unlimited, Sash!...

I can do Remakes of old songs to learn, but I don't want to copy-paste other peoples music

Any advice would be much appreciated!

dark_virus · Post by **dark_virus** » Tue Sep 04, 2012 7:39 pm

It's your lucky day!

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=254949

azoc · Post by **azoc** » Tue Sep 04, 2012 8:29 pm

@dark_virus Hey, thanks for the reply!

I already found that thread, and it helped me a lot. Because of that thread I bought Korg Legacy Collection and Diva

But that thread is like I said 90% about equipment used back in the day. I need something about production techniques for that type of music

sjm · Post by **sjm** » Tue Sep 04, 2012 8:44 pm

Well the thing about the stuff that passes for "trance" these days is that it does sound remarkably similar to a lot of 90s Eurocheese.

But 90s Eurocheese is less about the instruments and more about the insanely stupid lyrics and the obligatory bad rap after the second "verse" and chorus.

dark_virus · Post by **dark_virus** » Tue Sep 04, 2012 9:00 pm

azoc wrote:@dark_virus Hey, thanks for the reply!

I already found that thread, and it helped me a lot. Because of that thread I bought Korg Legacy Collection and Diva
But that thread is like I sad 90% about equipment used back in the day. I need something about production techniques for that type of music

But the "secret" relies mostly in the equipment itself.

There's nothing really special about Eurodance, it's standard preset stuff. A 909 for drums (specially the snare and hihats), a Lately Bass preset for that moroder-like ubiquitous basslines, Korg M1 for the piano part... and, of course, the elements sjm pointed above.

Of course, top Eurodance artists like 2 Unlimited had access to better studios/professionals than most similar artists, but the core elements are pretty much the same.

I don't even see any remarkable studio trick that worths to mention. And I really like and still listen to old Eurodance, BTW.

bronxsound · Post by **bronxsound** » Tue Sep 04, 2012 9:06 pm

sjm wrote: But 90s Eurocheese is less about the instruments and more about the insanely stupid lyrics and the obligatory bad rap after the second "verse" and chorus.

+1

azoc · Post by **azoc** » Tue Sep 04, 2012 9:07 pm

How is percussion programmed in Eurodance... As far as I see, they used 909 kick(pitched up with laserzip), 909 snare and open Hi Hat just before kick and maybe shakers in some songs? Correct?
I read that most of Eurodance is written in minor key...

azoc · Post by **azoc** » Tue Sep 04, 2012 9:10 pm

sjm wrote:Well the thing about the stuff that passes for "trance" these days is that it does sound remarkably similar to a lot of 90s Eurocheese.

But 90s Eurocheese is less about the instruments and more about the insanely stupid lyrics and the obligatory bad rap after the second "verse" and chorus.

Oh come on, Pitbull is the SH*T these days and his music is more cheesy than a WORST eurodance song. But people buy his music (and BTW every single one of his HIT songs are stolen)

People back in the day at least used to make whole songs on their own. They didn't sample whole track.... lazy producers! -.-

Tricky-Loops · Post by **Tricky-Loops** » Tue Sep 04, 2012 9:27 pm

You'll need an ATARI to make real Eurodance music...

Joking apart, I saw a video about Torsten Fenslau (Culture Beat RIP!

) that is very interesting because you can see partly what he used for his music.

Here it is:

BTW, I'm grown up with Eurodance and I love it - but I've never made Eurodance myself. But IMO some of the Eurodance tunes are more creative than all this fine-tuned, frequency-filled, pitch-bended and melodyned crap of today...

azoc · Post by **azoc** » Tue Sep 04, 2012 9:35 pm

@Tricky-Loops Thanks for share!!!

OMG, he produced Mr. Vain, he's a GENIUS. That melody is of the hook <3

Tricky-Loops wrote:BTW, I'm grown up with Eurodance and I love it - but I've never made Eurodance myself. But IMO some of the Eurodance tunes are more creative than all this fine-tuned, frequency-filled, pitch-bended and melodyned crap of today...

Amen to that!!!

Tricky-Loops · Post by **Tricky-Loops** » Tue Sep 04, 2012 10:08 pm

azoc wrote:People back in the day at least used to make whole songs on their own. They didn't sample whole track.... lazy producers! -.-

They sampled everything, except the whole track...

I think of Twenty 4 Seven - I can't stand it -- they even sampled Martin Luther King...

Or KLF, they used samples of public scenes and created "Stadium House"...
From "3 a.m. eternal": "Sample city, through Trancentral, basic face kick, elemental, swings, brings new technology..."

As I'm a big fan of samples, I want to get back to the Eurodance time. At this time there still weren't such rigid copyright laws as today.

maxxxter · Post by **maxxxter** » Tue Sep 04, 2012 10:19 pm

DELETED

azoc · Post by **azoc** » Tue Sep 04, 2012 10:22 pm

maxxxter wrote:kill yourself. now.

Ahhh, Justin Bieber fans...

Roman Empire · Post by **Roman Empire** » Wed Sep 05, 2012 6:12 pm

I assume you're after the song composing part of the music here.
As with any kind of music, you'll just need to listen to it and get a feeling of how it's done. It's great music, but really not difficult to disassemble what an average eurodance song is made of. I could listen to some tracks and then write down their structure and chords, but you could also do that yourself. It's not avantgarde jazz, and it should be easy to get a good idea of how it's done.
It was a constant evolving genre and it did not reinvent the wheel. The characteristics of Eurodance was the length of the song, themes built over 4 measures repeated again and again and sometimes replaced by another theme in the chorus. Not often using chords with 7ths and 9ths, but rather just simple and "clean" chords.
It'd often incorporate a "stop" effect between the verse and the chorus, where for 1-4 beats the drums and eventually all instruments would disappear, sometimes with a noise effect with filter opening up to the chorus ... something that would create an empty space to be filled with more instruments in the chorus than in the verse (these could be an extra pad in a higher octave, an extra synth theme, a tambourine etc).
That last part I think is the most significant difference between eurodance and other kinds of music. I remember a pretty stop effect in Blue Systems "Laila", where it's simply a bassdrum with a long reverb playing for 1 measure, at the end of which the last two beats are filled with 16th snares.
Oh yeah, and that's also very characteristic for eurodance, the snare fills on 16th, and later even 32th, often rising in volume.

But the rest you'll figure out from listening to it.

azoc · Post by **azoc** » Wed Sep 05, 2012 9:12 pm

@Roman Empire, Thanks for a great post!

Yeah, you're totally right. I was asking about song composing part, because every genre of music is made of some "rules" that you follow to get that form. I guess I should go the old fashioned way... paper and pen, and probably "disassemble" 10-15 songs to see what are their basic characteristics (in what key it was written, what chords did they use, what type of instruments etc.). Midi songs are good source of information.

I noticed that my song (that I'm currently working on), started to sound trancy when I used wrong lead synth, so good choice of lead synth is a must for classic euro.