It makes sense to me. It's a Dmin key and he took liberties with the flat 9 and playing the major 3, both are techniques that harken back to blues/be-bop jazz. It adds funk and bounce to it.
Right? Nothing so strange imho. I'm used to do this often, maybe because i like jazzy/funky sound i don't know it's like "natural" to listen to the track in this video, maybe that arpeggiated reverberated stab it's a bit out but seems like it fits so...
Bthelick, you've seriously elevated my production skills in the short time I've found your videos, since the vid "Why your songs don't sound like westend". I'm eternally grateful. Making a new house song every day has become a ritual, it's so much fun and they're coming out super clean. super grateful and would love to donate to you if you have that option. Also, wanted to ask if there's any way you can kinda explain how Eli Brown made "Be The One" , I really like what he did with the bassline, and also he seems to have done something unique with the kick, as it hits harder every 1-2 kicks, idk if that's just the sidechaining he did or something else. thanks so much man truly!
The request list for specific track break downs is pretty big right now. I initially wanted to do them mid week but I'm just not getting time right now. ( i do mention a donation link at the end of videos 👊😉) Great to hear the tracks are improving keep it up 🤟
I've been wanting to make my own music for about 10 years now, and every time I try to get into it, I get so SO overwhelmed with what to do. Not only in learning DAWs, but also in general ideas around music. I also have an incredibly short attention span and so that adds to my frustration. Imagine how overjoyed I am to find your videos. It's by far the best way I could ever learn about making the music I want to make. Thank you SO much!
Commenting because I want the algo to keep recommending your videos and promote them to others. I aspire to make music, but it's also just entertaining to watch you explain everything.
I am pretty new to music production and have been taking what you say as hard rules to follow. I’ve been having to remind myself that these are just new ideas to try out. There is no right or wrong way to make music.
yeah it's easy to forget with music. Always follow you ears and heart (and in the case of dance music follow the movement of your bum and shoulders too!!!) . IMO my rules of thumb are still a great starting point though obvs 😁👍👊
I have such an appreciation for your channel man. I haven’t put out anything in years because I felt like my production style was stuck in 2009 but your videos have given me so much confidence to start producing again and it’s so much fun flexing that creative muscle again. Cheers from Detroit!
From what I can tell music came first, rules came second, to, well, explain, train and entertain…so as far as creating tunes goes, particularly pop tunes, it just is whatever someone thought sounded dope…and so happens many others did too;) Your “outcome explanations” are awesome…thanks 😎🖤🍭
Found your channel a few months back and pretty sure i got you your first coffee on ko-fi! Super happy to see others encouraging others to do so as your channel really is a gold mine and you deserve it! Your videos are way above the rest in any topic you cover! Keep up the great work Ben, you inspire lots of us with your knowledge !
Man, I can't emphasize enough how much I enjoy your videos every time I watch them. Best in class in entertainment and knowledge. Well done!!!! EVERYBODY BUY THIS MAN A COFFEE!!!!!
This video was such a thrill to watch. I love your format. Thank you for blessing us with insight. I’m so inspired to hear to speak with such authority on music theory and music decomposition. Absolutely in awe. Thank you for making your RU-vid channel.
Man, your channel is great. Let me do your job here and break down what you are doing best. In a world of endless content telling us “short cuts” and how do things “industry standard”, you are finding a great way of relating everything back to the measured common sense you have developed through your experience. Keep going, even in the videos where I already know the stuff you’re saying, I am still enjoying them. This video is great! Keep it up!
@@Bthelick pleasure’s all mine. I subscribed after the first video of yours I found. Your deep dives are fantastic, I wish we’d had a channel like this 16 years ago 😂
love this and also thank you for introducing me to Vital 😍 I'm really impressed by it and I can see it being a big player in the synth game within a couple years
So I glad I found your channel, top production, super educational and so knowledgable! I absolutely adore the explanation format of running the songs/examples in the DAW while explaining the topics
Great video! Now I'm just thinking of all the cool sounding leads and basslines I've made that aren't in key and then ruined by 'fixing' them to be in key.
1. subconsciously incompetent ( you don't know that you're bad) 2. consciously incompetent ( you know that you're bad) 3. consciously competent ( you know that you're good) 4. Subconsciously competent ( you don't know how good you are) The stages of learning. Deadmau5 and other people that are legendary without formal training are in 4. Thanks B for the video. Love your way of teaching!
Interesting video, I have a simple view on all of this: If it sounds good, it works out fine. That is and should be the main core of any music production or any artistic pursuit. Some artists use the complete music theory system as much as they can, and cannot come up with something new because they are so engrained to create something out of a preexisting formula injected into a "Genre" or something. But some other artists use different sources of theory that has nothing to do with the medium and it works because its a translation from the inner world into a materialized form. Both approaches work as so many I am not aware of.
Your concervative easy to digest style full of clever and non boring subtle humor and your great knowlege makes your channel number one! ...without any overestimation! Thanks, every time exellent content!
Thanks for your videos mate, real gold for the beginners. Playing music has been my hobby for 20 years. Lacking the proper music education I always just 'pressed and guessed' and what you say about having a good ear training is def true. If you consume a lot of the same music over and over again, you start dissecting it to the bone, you know how it sounds, you know how it feels. It's been about a year since I actually started learning musical theory for real after going DAWless. It explains a lot of things I have developed an ear (or a taste lol) for, but so much is still out of the scope of a formal definition, it just sounds good, it feels good. Anyway, keep up with the good work 💙
Hi Bthelick. Thanks for the video. My favourite video of yours so far is the bass processing video. It was immensely helpful from a theoretical and technical standpoint. If I may suggest new video ideas: lead processing tutorial (similar to mau p / dom dolla tracks) or drums/perc processing tutorial. Cheers from Canada - Sam
Usually anything above the bass is down to sound selection, for leads; other than aesthetic preferences of delay/verb I don't do anything. For drums check out my "secret to my drum sound" short video. (Spoiler it's the same deal; sound selection and no processing)
i think you make the best production music videos that i ever saw!!!! you give a lot of insight of how house/dance music works!!! a lot of stuff that i learned but can not tell how cuz i'm working on feeling; it works you give it the words!
Pretty sure Deadmau5 uses Xfer's Cthulhu. The chord/music theory plugin from Steve Duda, a very good friend of Deadmau5. Definitely some great software for those of us with 'a lot of room for improvement' with our music theory knowledge.
@@Bthelick Yeah I guess so! Their keys sounds very 'live', especially in their songs like 'Muye' and 'The Rapture III' and even Rampa's Remix of Bind by RY X
Found your channel by chance and i’m learning so much. Would love your take on bass house genre, more specifically knock2. I think his sound is quite unique and I can’t figure out what i’m listening to
I touched on bass house in the video "genres that don't use chords" but I do intend to get round to a proper video on it. It's not easy reverse engineering those sounds, there's heavy use of non-standard oscillators through distortion, which makes it very much a trial and error affair.
After 12 years in music school i work this way... 😊 No meter wher i start...always i get there where i want. But i use much much more noise 😅. Cool ❤ video.
Hi. Don't know if many of your followers know Shingo Nakamura, but I am a huge fan of his music. He played at Tomorrowland this year. I would be delighted to see a video that teaches how to make melodic/progressive house in the style of Shingo.
If you find the time to breakdown a HiLo (Oliver Heldens alias) track, maybe something like Kronos or Mercury i would be very appreciative! They are so well produced and when seeing him play live the track ripples through your body it was insane 😂 love the videos mate
Hilo is just crazy. Ever since his track renegade master i was in love. It was also crazy finding out he was actually oliver heldens, my favourite future house artist back then haha. Kronos is just something else
Great video- funny enough a friend and I were discussing what rule of thumb meant last night. Apparently the etymology is unconfirmed so people shouldn't take your purported origin of the phrase as gospel :-) case in point.
5:50 - that pitch up. Is it a simple pitch automation with a tremolo or flanger? It's an effect I want to make use of and you probably have a better solution than I do.
Felix Da Housecat & Soulwax - Rocket Ride from NFS-U2 had a similar vibe with the alternating minor/major thingie. Also The Crystal Method - Born Too Slow from NFS-U1 had something similar in the vibe. You see, it's all about getting that NFS feel lol. Jokes aside, it sounds good than it is good. The Chemical Brothers - The Salmon Dance has that too. Kiss From A Rose anyone? If you guys know any other songs with this "feel" reply here, let's make a playlist!
Please don't bring Pearl Jam into this. They used the so-called "Devil's interval" which should obviously be banned. Eddie Vedder should be in prison for making such awful atonal music.
I love these track breakdowns. Everyone of them makes me think about heading back to the Mac and starting a new track. One track that keeps getting to me is Desko-Ascend. The trick fluttering sound is just amazing. Is there a reason why this sound is so engaging?
Probably because it's off grid. Not much is traditionally so it sounds fresh. Well it did until everyone and their dog started doing it for the last year! It stops people dancing so you can't really fit more than 1 in a set too, you gotta be careful about what crowd it's for.
@@Bthelick I totally understand, it’s an interesting effect that peaks your interest. More engaging for those who listen rather than dance. But it might make an interesting subject for a video (I’m sure the list is already long). “Things that you don’t expect, why they work and when to use them.” I also want to know how it’s done! Time to upgrade from playing around on GarageBand and switch to Albeton 😊
Mr. Lick, i have a slightly unrelated question (unrelated to the video but to do with music). Idk if you dj but I want to start and want to know what I should start out with. Was thinking about cdjs because they're the standard but if I want to save money what about a pioneer xdj xz?? Or something by denon?
It's not legal to re distribute other's samples. If I ever get round to making my own drum sample library it might be possible to legally share projects of my own tracks, but I will still have to wait until after release to prevent copyright complications.
If you can find a general rule for 'sounds good', you'd be a millionaire. I think you are right about the audio samples, it seems to be in the old early 90's rave style - anything that fits, like when using the old Amiga trackers. I've tried a little experiment (although I'm no way a good musician), with how to do transitions without effects, changing from obviously abrupt, to less so, by distraction technique right before a transition. Might explain why the two sets of rising notes not in a matching scale passes ok, as it's short, and draws your attention, although this sounds more of an 'effect' rather than programmed like you say. I wonder what it's perceived musical centre is?
where? apart from 1 eq bump to match the reference there is no processing I didn't mention in the bass processing video. its high pass into stereo faker into sidechain! 👊
I slowed the original to half to give me a chance, and I slowed it without time stretching to bring that high sound down an octave also. Then it's a case of make a similar sound , and then play-stop-repeat x1000 on every single change until you find the notes! Years of ear training means but this point I have near perfect relative pitch so that speeds things up , but the process is the same regardless.
Most likely produced by Chris Lake as is most of Fisher's stuff. He has some production streams from a couple years ago, well worth the watch! Great video as always 😎
He's credited on the ones he does, doesn't appear to be part of this one. Everyone is confused as what a producer does though so I might have to a rant on that too by the looks of it 🤣
@@Bthelick It's hardly no secret he's the man behind Fisher's biggest track Losing It even though he's not credited. Also on this particular track it's actually Chris Lakes wife Gita speaking just using an alias :)
@@Bthelick I'm pretty sure when anyone mentions Chris Lake "producing" Fisher (as they always do) it's more of a Maarten Vorwerk way than Rick Rubin way! Awesome channel, please keep them coming :-)
