Style: Electro House

BPM: 132

Production time: 3 days

Comments: My first track for 2.5 years, and my first using Ableton 7.0. Think of this more of an “experiment” – I was learning to use a new piece of software and the various plug-ins and soft-synths that are contained within the Ableton Live suite.

The entire track was produced within Ableton.  Since my wife made me pack all my gadgets away (moving) I coudn’t use a MIDI keyboard, so I had to make do with my PC keyboard – which is tricky.

The beats where the only samples used.  As with all samples I borrow, I cut them up and add a bunch of effects so they bear little or no resemblance to the original.

Near the beginning of the track (and the end), you should easily be able to hear a stacato rythm section.  This is pretty much an “accident” – it was the very first arrangement I put together in Ableton and I simply added a bunch of reverb, delay, autopan and autofilter effects to it.  It kind of gives the track a little push.

I really enjoyed messing around with the bit crusher effects, and I used that on the melodic synth line.  I like to add a bit of dirt to my synths.

The fast lead synth that appears about a 1/3 of the way through the track was built using Ableton’s Analog soft synth.  I basically messed around until I got something that I thought would sound pretty darn decent in the club (whether it does or not is another thing entirely!)

The overall mastering on this track is way off.  I hadn’t quite got to grips with the mastering effects (still haven’t) so it does sound pretty raw.