Lesson video

Active listening.

Write down the following questions on your piece of paper.

What instruments can you hear? What happens after the piano introduction? And how does the listener know when the introduction has finished? We would have identified that this song gradually increases in texture.

It starts with just the piano, a simple melody, some chords and a bass.

As the piece goes on, more layers are added.

So in bar nine, we have a melodic riff, which is octaves and a plucking sound, and a four to the floor kick drum pattern.

This is all building up to Section A, coming in at bar 17, where we add another melodic riff, and a more full drum beat.

So a mix-in is adding layers prior to a fuller section.

And EDM uses texture to give the music direction.

So as the texture gets thicker, and more layers are added, and more instruments are added, we're sort of aiming towards that Section A.

And at Section A, all of the layers are there.

So let's listen to the track again, and we can follow along the table to see where we are in the structure.

This is bar nine now.

And bar 17 is now.

So some questions to think about then.

How do producers make a new section clear through the use of musical elements? How do producers build up to a new section? Why might a track build up at the start? And how does a track get people onto the dance floor? Answer these questions either in four sentences, or you can copy out the questions onto your piece of paper.

Using music software: you can create music using audio mixing software.

The demonstrations in this lesson use a free programme called BandLab.

BandLab is for use by over 13s only, and if you are over 13, you still need permission to use it from your parent or carer.

Creating an A section on BandLab: Use BandLab loops to create an A section for your EDM track.

Pause the video to complete your task, and resume once you have finished.

Okay, so here we are, back in BandLab.

We are about to make an A section.

So there are a few things that we said we absolutely needed, and one of those things was a four to the floor beat.

So I'm going to open up my loops, and I can either do that by going to add track and clicking on browse loops, or I can just click on loops in the bottom right-hand corner.

I search for EDM Megapack, or just EDM is fine, I'll go for the Megapack one, why not, doesn't really matter, and first thing I see here is a basic beat kick loop.

Okay.

So, that would work just fine, so I'm going to drag that in, and remember to always make sure that you're dragging it back to start on bar one.

So it wants to be at least eight bars long as well.

So I can click on the track, go to the bottom right-hand corner, and drag it-- Oh no, that's actually not how you do it.

To loop the track, you do the top right-hand corner.

So we'll do--there we go, up to bar nine.

So we've got eight beats there.

Now.

I would also like some hats.

So let's see, EDM top loop hi-hat.

Mm.

Nope.

Okay, I like that one, number three.

Add that in, doing the same thing, I'm going to loop that over to be at bar nine.

So I click and go to the top right-hand corner, drag that over.

Now, what else could I have? What's this clap loop? No, I don't like it.

This clap loop? No, I'm not a fan.

What else do I need, I need-- Oh, let's see what this piano sounds like! Okay, I like it.

Remember, this is going to be after our mix-in.

So we're going to need quite a few layers.

So I've got the stand up drop piano, and I'm going to also play the stand up bass.

Okay.

Add that in.

Making sure to--let's loop both of these as well, so they're eight bars long.

Like so.

Let's just hear what we've got so far.

It's not necessarily finished, but let's hear what we've got.

Okay, yeah, I like that.

I like that.

But there are more things that I would like.

So I've got four tracks at the moment, which is my minimum.

But as you can see, I've got so many things to choose from here.

Let's see what the high bass sounds like.

Yeah, okay, I can hear that going quite well.

And notice how I'm using stand up piano, stand up distorted bass, and stand up high bass.

The reason I'm doing that is because they have the same names, so I know for a fact that they are going to sound quite good together.

I don't have to pick all of them, and I could pick something else.

Let's see, string spiccato? Okay, as a violin player, I'm going to put that in.

For sure.

I'll pick one more, they have a lead synth here.

Okay, or? No, I prefer that.

It was the lead, yeah.

Okay, so I've got piano, bass, high bass, string spiccato, and my Supersaw lead.

Supersaw is referencing the type of wave it is.

Let's make sure that they're all loops, and let's hear what the final thing sounds like.

Let's go all the way back to bar one.

Okay.

Right, now you might not be able to hear that very well, but the mix, the levels are kind of off.

So the things I want to stand out the most are the kick loops, I'm going to turn that up.

I want the piano to be up as well.

So I think that's going to-- we're going to start with that in the mix-in.

And what else could do with being turned up? I think I can hear more piano as well.

Okay.

I am happy with that being my finished product.

Just turned up my sound a little bit, so we can hear that a bit better.

I'm going to play that one more time.

Let's just double check that we've got everything.

I've got my four to the floor kick pattern.

Two, three, four, yes.

I've got at least four tracks, yes? I have six, I think.

Something like that.

Do I have some kind of melody? Yes I do, in the stand up Supersaw.

Cool.

So I think that we're good to go.

I'm going to play it through a couple of times, let me just loop it.

That's what this top bar does, if you have it off, it's not going to loop when you get to the end of bar eight, it will carry on into nothing.

If you tap it, and play it from-- it'll go to the end, it'll loop back.

So let's hear it, the final thing, for the last time.

And, here it goes! Not bad, not bad.

Mm-hmm.

Okay, so already in my head, I'm thinking how do I build up to that? However, we're going to do that in a second.

Let's head over to the slides really quickly, and then we'll be back in BandLab before you know it.

So, see you soon.

Okay, so we're back in BandLab.

We've already done our Section A, and now it's time to create a mix-in section.

So we need to think about the best way to build up to this Section A section.

So I think what I'm going to do is just have the stand up drop piano by itself to start with.

And one of the ways I can do this-- there are many ways-- but I can actually keep everything where it is, and just decide to slowly introduce things.

One way I like to work is by zooming out, so I can see the project a little bit better.

So I just want to start with the piano, so what I'm doing is just moving everything four bars over.

Just for now.

And the great thing about BandLab is that you can change things if you don't like it very, very easily, and very, very quickly.

So we're going to have the piano, let's hear how it sounds like.

Okay, now that is a perfect opportunity to have something else join in.

So maybe I do have my kick loop joining in at bar five, I don't want my hi-hats to join in yet, so they'll come in a little bit later.

And well, let's hear what this bass sounds like.

No, that's--you know, that's too much.

So that's going to come in when it's the main section.

And I'm just pressing this "S" which means solo if I just want to hear one thing by itself.

I could, if I had that a little bit quieter, maybe I can automate that to gradually get louder and louder as we go up.

I think I do want this string spiccato in there.

So I'm going to keep that.

And the melody, I think-- again I'm going to use that automation, which I'll show you in a second-- to gradually bring that up in volume.

So let's hear what that sounds like at the moment.

Okay.

Not too bad, we've got some work to do.

So we want the piano to be looped the whole time, same with the kick drum.

I think that actually, I know I said that I didn't want the bass to come in earlier, but I think I do now.

Again, we'll just experiment and see if I like it or not.

Actually, I think I just want the piano and the kick to have a little duet by themselves.

Okay, that's good.

I feel like if we build up a little bit more.

One thing I want to look for in the loop section is-- let me see if I can find it quickly-- it's called a riser.

Now, I know for a fact--there it is.

Okay, I'm not a fan of that one.

I think this is something I was looking for.

Hmm.

Okay, so I like two and three.

I'm going to put three in first, and what it's going to do, it's going to help to have that feeling of building up to something.

Okay.

You can see in the waveform-- if I zoom in a little bit for you-- that it starts off quite loud, and then it gets gradually quieter, almost to nothing.

And then it gets louder and louder again.

So we need to place this perfectly, if we know that our Section A starts-- in I believe that's bar 13-- Bar 13.

We want it to be quite before then, and rise up and get there.

So it might be that we start-- let's see how that sounds.

Let's go from bar five.

Let's see.

So the noise is going to come in now.

And it's going to get louder.

Okay, that's building up now very, very nicely.

Let's-- before I wrap this up let's see if there's anything else I might want to add in-- What's this crash thing? Oh, okay.

I actually really like that.

So I'm going to add that in, the pop and snap.

And I'll add that in at bar 13, loop it.

So let's hear the final mix-in and Section A from the beginning.

There's no need to loop it now, so I can make sure that's turned off.

Go right back to bar one.

Press play, and yeah, let's enjoy this.

How we doing, so we've got-- Okay, now I messed that up and I didn't put that final loop in time, which is my bad.

It kind of sounded okay, but as you can see, it wasn't very accurate.

When you're zoomed out this much, it's hard to be accurate, so just make sure that we're doing it again.

I'll start from-- you don't have to listen to the beginning bit-- let's just go from bar five.

Okay, wonderful, wonderful.

One more thing I would like to do.

And it's called automation, I mentioned it earlier.

Automation is when we can automatically change the parameters, for example, volume.

And we don't have to do anything with the mouse, we just tell it, tell the computer what we want to happen, and it will either gradually get louder or gradually get quieter, depending on what we've put in.

So to get the automation panel up, we just click this bar here.

And I want the string thing to come in gradually.

So I'm going to set a point to be down here, and it's going to drop at bar 13, so we want that to be its loudest point.

So we can go back to-- zero is actually just the normal volume-- so if we're around zero then that's fine.

So if I solo that, you can hear what I mean.

Now it's going to start really quiet.

It's getting louder.

And louder.

Here we go.

Think it can even start quieter than that.

So let's have a listen.

Good.

I'm actually--I think it can stay quieter for longer, so I'm going to add in another point.

Good, so hopefully that was more noticeable that second time.

Let me just remember to click the automation button again, so all that goes away.

And let's hear how that sounds within the whole thing.

Listen up for the string bit.

There it is.

And if you just see above my head, the green button, you can see that moving completely by itself.

So, my hands are here.

You can see it's moving up.

There we go.

So that's the last thing I wanted to show you.

Of course you can use this for as many tracks as you want, you can even have the whole thing getting louder and louder and louder.

But that is how automation works.

So now it's over to you to manipulate your A section so that you have a mix-in and A section.

Yeah.

Good luck! Creating a mix-in on BandLab: use BandLab mix editor and loops to create a mix-in for your EDM track.

Pause the video to complete your task, feel free to rewind and watch the video tutorial, and click resume when you're finished.

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If you'd like to, please ask your parent or carer to share your work on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter, tagging @OakNational and #LearnwithOak.