u-he

Erkenfresh · Post by **Erkenfresh** » Thu Jun 11, 2015 10:02 pm

Hi folks, I'm recording a video tutorial series on making a genre of music called Freeform. It's about 170 BPM with a lot of the elements of Trance. So, kind of like Hard Trance, but not all that hard... more uplifting than pound your face in... Eh, just listen.

This series stars U-he's Diva and Hive, with assistance from Soundiron for vocal samples.

I hope you find something useful in the series. Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... m78JZbDEHP

aaron aardvark · Post by **aaron aardvark** » Fri Jun 12, 2015 2:10 am

Erk,
I watched most of the ARP Lead video, learned some stuff, so that was good. Visual quality is good in full screen mode. Some shortening edits could improve things, but for free, I shouldn't complain. Thank you. I always want to drag & drop the control the wrong way in Hive, makes me wonder if I'm the only person with that line of thinking. Some day it will sink in. Watching video is helpful in that regard.

Erkenfresh · Post by **Erkenfresh** » Sat Jun 13, 2015 2:01 pm

Hi! Not sure what you mean with "drag & drop" control. Are you referring to the modulation matrix?

The only thing I haven't quite figured out it why the audio quality is bad on my vids. That's probably something I should be more worried about in music making tutorials.

aaron aardvark · Post by **aaron aardvark** » Sat Jun 13, 2015 5:59 pm

Erk,
Yes, the mod matrix. Don't make me come over there and grab that tongue of yours.......oh....but then you wouldn't be able to narrate any more videos. Never mind.

Erkenfresh · Post by **Erkenfresh** » Sun Jun 14, 2015 4:52 am

LOL, well let me finish this one up at least.

(Almost done...)

Erkenfresh · Post by **Erkenfresh** » Tue Jun 16, 2015 9:35 pm

And now I am done, the final track can be listened to in this tutorial:

Feel free to rip out my tongue now Aaron.

audio/fault · Post by **audio/fault** » Thu Jun 18, 2015 6:37 am

this is a new style of music?

we had this already more than 20 years ago. it was called rave or techno or dance or trance or whatever.

things like rmb ("redemption"), raver's nature, everything by klaus jankuhn (westbam, marusha, members of mayday) etc.

but somehow these old songs had way more dirt and charme!

still like to listen to them.

btw. that vocal starting at 2:42 is horrible out of tune!

Erkenfresh · Post by **Erkenfresh** » Fri Jun 19, 2015 1:17 am

Funny, I don't recall ever claiming that this genre of music was a "new style of music". Freeform is an offshoot of Happy Hardcore, beginning some time around 98 or 99. Remove the cheese and replace with complex arpeggiated rhythms (albeit my arp in this track was fairly simple). Kevin Energy was a huge proponent in pushing the genre forward with his Nu Energy label for quite some time, but since his retirement other labels have sprung up in it's place such as Smiling Corpse, Rebuild Music, and Stamina Records (which I don't think hosted any of the artists you mentioned, but which I may check out nonetheless).

Big artists in this genre would be Arkitech, Ephexis, Lost Soul, Kevin Energy, and Pain on Creation. More recently, Qygen has been making some incredibly psy-influenced freeform. Really good stuff there.

As for the vocals, sorry you didn't like them. I think they sound great!

aaron aardvark · Post by **aaron aardvark** » Fri Jun 19, 2015 2:40 am

Erk,
I will have mercy on your tongue. I think all of the "vocals" sound good, except at around 2:42 to ~3:40 (sorry), where they sound like they are mostly in the wrong key (or pitch bent), to my ears. My favorite part is the first transition from the fast synths to the piano: I was not expecting that; it was a pleasant surprise.

audio/fault · Post by **audio/fault** » Fri Jun 19, 2015 6:40 am

Erkenfresh wrote:Funny, I don't recall ever claiming that this genre of music was a "new style of music".

ok, sorry! my fault. i thought it's one of those fancy genres i've never heard of that heavily rely on 90s european dance music

though 98/99 is still 6 years later than the same sounds in europe.

Kevin Energy was a huge proponent in pushing the genre forward with his Nu Energy label for quite some time, but since his retirement other labels have sprung up in it's place such as Smiling Corpse, Rebuild Music, and Stamina Records (which I don't think hosted any of the artists you mentioned, but which I may check out nonetheless).

in fact i've never heard of any of these names, but around that time i was listening to an entire electronic genre. and no that labels didn't hosted any of my mentioned artists if they are founded around 2000 and the artists started releasing music around 10 years earlier

As for the vocals, sorry you didn't like them. I think they sound great!

ok, that's fine for me. but as also aaron said, they really seem out of key and i can't stand these things.

btw. i didn't wanted to critizes your effort in making the tutorial. it's kind of you.
i just think this kind of music (at least the "original" one from the beginning of the 90s) doesn't work with modern production methods as they sound too clean. you need an (alpha) juno, a 303, a 909, an akai s1000, one or 2 other synths (all hardware of course and sequenced by an atari st), 1-2 fx-units and compressors and an old mackie mixer...

Erkenfresh · Post by **Erkenfresh** » Fri Jun 19, 2015 12:28 pm

Well, we can never go back and be the first to make electronic music. I have great respect for those who forged a new path in <insert art form here>. But to hold that against everybody else who also makes that art, well it's not exactly fair. In other words, the works of someone like Kevin Energy may be greatly influenced by other artists, but that doesn't mean what he did was worth any less. I hope that makes sense.

As for the cleanliness of modern production, some folks, like Hans Zimmer, have claimed that Zebra is every bit as good as those hardware synths. (I know I read that in a post here on KVR but can't seem to find the quote now...) And Urs says so too!

So, it's clearly a difference of opinion on that one. I haven't had the joy of working with hardware synths myself so I can't say from personal experience.

audio/fault · Post by **audio/fault** » Fri Jun 19, 2015 1:12 pm

funny, i don't recall ever claiming that zebra or hive doesn't sound (as) good (as hardware)...
i love zebra, diva, hive and everything u-he (nearly the only softsynths i use). and urs knows this

my "problem" is not the synths but the whole production process. it was much more simple in the 90s (especially in the mixing and arranging process - you had to work with only a handful of instruments/fx and could not use hundreds of eq, compressors etc on every channel

). that's what's charming to me. and that only counts for that kind of music. and of course only to my taste. there are styles that i really like, that sound completely clean.

and regarding the respect. i didn't want to offend anybody. my first impression was that it's some new genre and i thought it's funny, that there's a new genre that sounds exactly like something that existed 20 years ago. someone who makes 60s rock/pop now would say it's 60s rock/pop and not something new and fancy

2ZrgE · Post by **2ZrgE** » Fri Jun 19, 2015 1:51 pm

Erkenfresh wrote:
As for the cleanliness of modern production, some folks, like Hans Zimmer, have claimed that Zebra is every bit as good as those hardware synths. (I know I read that in a post here on KVR but can't seem to find the quote now...)

I guess it's from V.I.:

A Very Sad Story:

I'm in the middle of doing an all synth score. We've fixed the CS 80, tuned the Oscilators on the Moog, got the PPG 300 and the Waldorf Wave to make noise again. We are using crazy expensive pre-amps and A to Ds. We are using not just one but two 'Knifoniums' and a 'Schmidt'. 8 Super Jupiters and a Roland system 700.

....and you know what? zebra sounds just as good....

-Hz-

Erkenfresh · Post by **Erkenfresh** » Fri Jun 19, 2015 11:36 pm

2ZrgE, yeah that's the exact quote I was thinking of.

Audio Fault, I am in total agreement with ya, on the same page for sure. We have the luxury today of just grabbing from tons of plugins in our library to make huge effects chains, something not possible in the last millennium. And while software certainly lacks some of the charm and the cool factor of hardware, it's also opened up the possibilities for some crazy complicated music. It's also given a chance for hobbyist like me to make something that sounds pretty decent without paying for a bunch of studio equipment.

Anyhow, that was a bit of a tangent. I'll maybe see about auto-tuning those vocals into the scale as an experiment. I can see how that might sound grating to some people. It's not uncommon to use chromatic notes in a track to add interest, but that might bother some folks a lot more than others.

aaron aardvark · Post by **aaron aardvark** » Sat Jun 20, 2015 7:51 am

It is certainly not unusual for me to hear melodies that sound good to others, that sound off key to me. I know some people like the tension of things that are "off key" at times. I could be wrong, but I would check the MIDI note values of the "singer" versus the synths. I doubt the vocal samples are off key. But if it sounds good to you, that is immaterial. I know that everybody doesn't like all or any of the tunes I come up with. I know some of my music sounds off key to others (I usually sing in my own tunes, even if I'm not the greatest singer; even if I have used occasional pitch correction for years), or perhaps some famous song (not by me) sounds good to me, may sound off key to others. Can be subjective. Here is a song that was a huge hit, & to me the verse vocals often sound flat (though it hits me worse on some days than others):

u-he

KVR Audio

Let's Make Freeform (starring U-He)