You are right, that lead sounds like an FM to me. Also, you’re right that Spire is probably not the best choice for this job (can’t say much about Dune), I think synthesizers like U-He Zebra or Xfer Serum would do this better.

Speaking the truth, I’m not as good at sound design as I would like to be. So, to answer your question, I asked an expert to help — Tetarise. He is a music producer and sound designer who dedicated his time and efforts to creating professional sound banks.

Tetarise’s sound banks for Spire at Reveal Sound store

From there, Tetarise says:

This is quite simple and all about Pitch modulation. To achieve that sound, try to emulate FM synthesis using LFO modulation. Set the LFO rate at high speed and offset the starting point to reduce the modulation range. This method gives a pitch shift effect, most noticeable at lower notes.

Wave shape and oscillator settings aren’t making a big difference in this case, it can adjust the character of the sound just a little bit.

You can possibly make something similar in Spire as well, but it won’t sound as good as in Serum:

And how to increase chances for a response

It’s almost a year now since I’ve joined JOOF Recordings as an A&R Manager. It’s not much yet, but enough to see the picture from both camps. Brian, I’ll be glad to share my experience and try to answer your questions.

A new role

Do research

Surprisingly, how often producers send non-format tracks that don’t match labels genre. it may sound obvious, but first of all, do a little research before submitting a demo, make sure it is totally suit to style and concept of the label.

Some producers use mass mailing in hope that at least some label will pick their track up, but I assure you, chances to get released on a decent label by mass mailing are very, very low. Unless you want to get picked by “some” label that probably doesn’t really care about your music.

Personalize

In addition to the previous point, I advise personalizing your submission. Rather than simply say “Hi, here is my demo”, which may indicate that you probably sent this demo to other labels as well, add that particular label name in the subject line, or in the track title, or in track description, or wherever.

This little trick instantly gives a feeling of personal demo sent specifically for this label. And this is important. If you don’t care on which label you want to be released, then most likely label won’t care much about you either.

Use official contact

Pretty much all the people in the music industry have public accounts: on Facebook, Twitter, SoundCloud, Google+, and other social media. But the fact that you know these accounts, and each has a “send a message” button, doesn’t mean that labels would be happy to receive your demos there. In fact, it might be quite the opposite.

Personal and business communication are different things, and not all people like to mix it together. I advise to respect the privacy and do not send demos in personal messages on social media.

Instant messengers vs. email for business communication

For instance, Facebook has a sort of protection mechanics, and once a person reached out a certain amount of friends, he no longer receives notifications about new messages and friends request. This said, sending a demo via Facebook is not only disrespectful in terms of business ethics, but also has a very high chance that your messages will not be visible, at all. Think about it.

I recommend using the label’s official contact for demo submission instead. Go to the label’s website or Facebook page, open contacts section, check the procedure. If they accept demos via the form on their website only, then send via the form. If they ask to send an email to a specific address — send an email to that address.

Send links, not files

Never ever attach audio files to the email message. Firstly, because some mail servers and filters have a limit on incoming file size, you risk that your message won’t be delivered at all. And secondly, well, it’s a question of business ethics.

I recommend uploading your files to one of the trusted and reliable platforms, such as SoundCloud, Dropbox, Google Drive, or WeTransfer. Make sure to name files properly with artist name and track title, rather than something like “ID1.mp3”.

Personally, I prefer SoundCloud links most of all. But there are three things to keep in mind when sending over SoundCloud:

• Turn on download option. Yes, listening online is super handy, but sometimes a person who makes a decision may want to download this track to listen in another environment, let’s say on the phone while flying on the plane.
• Keep your uploads private. Labels want to get exclusive material that no one heard before, so public uploads significantly reduce your chances to get it signed.
• Make sure you send a private link. This one is a common mistake: to get a private link, you have to click on the “Share” button, and then copy text from the “Private Share” line. Double-check it: the link should include some few random digits at the end. If you just copy-paste regular link from your browser, everyone but you will see this:

soundcloud-not-found.jpg

Send a brief, but specific message

It’s surprising how often I receive emails like this:

Hi,
I hope you’ll like my new track!
Sent from iPhone

Who is the sender, what’s his artist name? What a track he sent, and for what purpose? You can only guess! Most likely, eventually such message will be simply ignored in favor of other incoming messages in the queue. Remember, credible labels with good reputation receive a huge amount of demos, dozens on a daily basis! But please don’t write a huge wall of text either.

The best practice is to briefly introduce yourself, tell something about this track and why do you send it. It’s okay to mention some other tracks or artists you like from the label, this shows you as a fan of the label, which is always a good sign.

A good message may look like this:

This is an example of a clear, simple and polite message, and you can be sure, this one gets higher priority to listen and reply among all incoming queue.

Feel free to use this as a template: one short paragraph about yourself, one or two sentences about this demo, and signature with the main website link.

Be patient

Don’t expect to get a reply back instantaneously. Good manners and business ethics implies to wait for the response at least within a week, this is one of the main difference between online chatting with friends and business communication.

Instant messengers vs. email for business communication

Keep in mind that A&R Managers are often acting artists that have a busy schedule with music production and touring.

It is okay to send a reminder if you haven’t got a reply in 2-3 weeks. But don’t fall into a trap of false illusions: probably, you won’t hear back at all. In one thing you can be sure: if your track is really amazing, well produced and totally fits the label, you will get a reply for sure.

Learn to accept “No”

Being an acting artist myself, I perfectly know how frustrating it might be. But don’t be afraid of “no” as an answer. In fact, this is the only answer that helps you grow up as a producer.

Frustration. How to move forward

Here at JOOF, we give advice and do a sort of mentoring to those artists in who we feel a potential. I’m sure other labels do the same. This is how all together we make our beloved music scene better.

I hope it helps. Good luck with your submissions!

Read also:
Insights on sending a demo to a record label, Part 2
“When sending a demo, should I do mixing and mastering by myself?”

On cover image: astronomical radio telescope at the Atacama Desert. Sometimes sending a demo to label is like send a radio signal to outer space.

Sebastian, the best advice I can give is to listen to a lot of music, and listen closely to how other artists do this job. Don’t stick to only one genre you like, in fact, you can learn a lot from other genres too. By the way, there is no big difference between the rhythm structure of Psytrance and other genres, like House, for instance, you’ll see why in examples down below.

Answering straight to your question, yes, I use some methods (or concepts) to build a rhythmic structure of the tracks. Here they are:

• Fill the gaps
• Note different patterns
• Let it breath

Let’s go through each of them.

Fill the gaps

In electronic dance music, all descendant genres that came out of House use a four-on-the-floor rhythm pattern, which is four kick drums per bar. So let’s start with the kicks.

Okay, we’ve got the foundation of the rhythm. To build up the rest, I use a method that I call “fill the gaps”. The biggest and obvious gaps are in between every kick drum, the offbeats. Typically offbeat is a place for open high hats. I gonna put shakers instead, they occupy nearly the same high-end frequencies and sound thinner, I like it.

Usually, I don’t do this, but for this particular example I gonna use a Drum machine in Ableton rather than separate Simplers, so you can see all MIDI notes in a single clip:

Still plenty of room. Now I gonna put closed hi-hats on every sixteenth note, and then I’ll add the classic backbeat — the 2nd and the 4th beats that are typically played by a snare drum. This is how it looks and sounds so far:

We’re doing fine, but this loop doesn’t have any time indicators, it’s easy to get lost if you play it on repeat. Let’s add a crash cymbal at the begging as a time stamp. In live music, a crash cymbal is used to indicate the beginning of a new section, chorus, and verse, while in electronic music is often placed every 16 bars.

Also, I gonna extend this loop up to four bars, so we will have more space to play with. And to bring extra diversity, I’ll add low tom by the end of the first bar, and then an extra snare hit by the end of the second bar.

Now I really want to put something in the first half of every bar, probably a mid-range tom. And we need to emphasize the backbeat since I used a pretty short clap instead of a snare drum, so I think I’ll put an extra layer of claps on top of that.

This already sounds like a solid groove. But for the peak climax moments, we can go even further and add ride cymbals to emphasize the offbeat:

Finally, let’s put this groove into the context of quick arrangement, so we can get feelings of a real-world scenario of usage:

Note different patterns

Do only drums define the rhythm pattern of the track? The answer is no. In fact, pretty much every sound can add a groove to your track. Rhythm can be made of stabs, leads, vocals, or effects, and all these elements can bring a nice diversity to your track.

Below is an example of a rhythm driven by a melodic pattern. Watch closely how later another melodic layer pops in, and it changes the perception of the rhythmic pattern of the track:

One more similar example. In this case, the groove is totally made of melody and bassline synergy. And again, later on, another melodic layer comes into play, which fills the gaps.

Next track I’d like to show a pretty typical groove made of bass and drums, but what’s cool here is an accent on the backbeat in the form of a vocal on top of the snare drum. Yet again, you can find such a pattern from Techno to Psytrance:

Talking about vocals, in Genesis I used the gate effect on a vocal sample to give extra driving rhythm after the breakdown, keep in mind that trick:

At these tracks, the groove is driven by offbeat sound, which repeats half fewer times — only between 1st—2nd, and 3rd—4th beats:

In uptempo Psytrance music, rhythm often is based on the “dialogue” of stabs, leads, and effects:

Let it breath

Having an empty space in the track is no less important than anything else. The first principle I explained above doesn’t mean you have to fill all possible gaps, let it breathe.

This one is probably the most difficult part because the balance is very thin: if the track is too empty, it will be monotonous and boring, if too dense — oversaturated and flat.

A good track must “breathe”. Empty and filled space on a track is like breathing and exhaling, like yin and yang, like Tom and Jerry are so different but necessary for each other.

Here are some examples of how the elements in the track “breathe”, forming a nice groove together:

I hope it helps.

Who is that person, and three questions to think about before hiring

First things off, I want to clarify: despite a popular belief, artist manager is not a booking agent. Sometimes these two jobs are done by a single person, but basically, these roles are very distinctive. Also, artist manager is not a guy who posts on Facebook instead of you, although, it can be part of his daily routine. If you just want to find someone who would post on social media on your behalf, you don’t need a manager.

Artist managers primary duty is to set the right strategy depends on the artist goals, whatever it’s increase music sales, or become a worldwide touring artist. They make decisions about what is good for the artist and what is not. They curate and develop artist’s music and his public appearance, i.e. branding.

A good manager has a plan on how to turn out your goals into reality. And to do so, he usually takes all communication and coordination on his shoulders: with labels, agents, press, and PR. Besides knowing how the music business works and having deep connections in the industry, a manager has to be a music enthusiast. Furthermore, a manager needs to believe in the artist even when others don’t. This one is probably the essential.

A good manager keeps things under control

Alexander, I don’t know where to find a manager. But before you will start to look for, I suggest thinking and honestly answer yourself to the three following questions.

“Do you need a manager in the first place?”

It’s tempting to think that once you’ll hire a person, he will solve all your problems. Let’s go through the obvious thing: a manager is a person who managing tasks. Simply enough. But If you have no fanbase, no mailing list, no music sales, no gigs, basically there is nothing for a manager to deal with.

A manager can’t take anybody and suddenly turn him into somebody, it just doesn’t work this way. For that reason most likely that the manager will find you rather than you will find him. Keep in mind that even a good manager doesn’t guarantee your success.

“Can you afford a manager?”

Standard deal in the industry is an agreement for 1–3 years with a percentage-based commission from the artist gross revenue, roughly around 10–20%. So, let’s say if your current contracts are $300 worth, a manager’s fee out of this will be like...$30? I doubt that any professional will work for such money.

Standard deal: 1–3 years contract with 10–20% commission from gross revenue

If your music doesn’t generate a solid income, you won’t be able to pay him, unless you have laid a long-term budget out of your pocket, or you have a sponsor. Simply like in any other business, the same rules apply.

“Can you do it yourself?”

Let’s take a chef. I used to work as a cook, so this is a first-hand experience. A good chef not only able to cook everything that available in the menu and beyond, but also he has advanced knowledge about management, chemistry, negotiations, supply and delivery, professional equipment, communication, and presentations. He knows how the restaurant business works. And he knows all of this because he passed through everything, from washing the dishes to where is he at the moment.

If you’ll find a manager too early, you’ll probably miss an opportunity to learn and experience all aspects of the music business on your own skin. But once you did, you’ll either get a better understanding of what kind of person you should look for a manager position, either you’ll realize that you don’t need a manager at all because you can handle the stuff and do it yourself.

Keep calm and do it yourself

On cover image: a manager watch you takes off. Illustration © Zyablitsev

Buy samples or make your own

Good question Justin. Kicks are one of the loudest elements in electronic dance music, it directly affects on a character of your sound, and even determines the genre — you can easily say “this is a Psy kick, and this one sounds like a Techno kick”. Hence why, as you mentioned, I do recommend to make your own kick drums.

Percussions, however, is a different story: I use samples, and I’ll explain why. But first, let’s make a little detour.

Formally speaking, percussions is a very broad group of instruments: there are dozens of traditional instruments from all over the globe. But speaking of electronic dance music, term “percussions” usually refers to drum kits of the legendary drum machines, Roland TR-808 and TR-909. This is a sort of iconic kit: bass drum, snare drum, toms (low, mid, high), rim shot, clap, hats (open, closed), ride cymbal, and crash cymbal.

Roland TR-909 and TR-808. Even Roland founder Ikutaro Kakehashi didn’t know what impact his products will make on the music scene

The most interesting thing is that these sounds almost hasn’t changed: producers of nowadays use these sounds in every single track just as their predecessors did 30 years ago. Let’s take a listen to several tracks throughout the past two decades:

As you can hear, every track has these classic snares, hats, rim shots, and other samples from Roland drum machines. Processed, edited and mixed, but they are still here.

Now back to the topic, I think of percussion samples as a raw material. Like bricks for house building, or like a potato. You can boil it, stir fry it, stew it, bake it, make a mash, make chips, and cook it by hundreds of other recipes. And the best things is that you don’t have to grow your own potato unless you want to, or you are a farmer. Luckily, we can buy a potato in the nearest store, and it won’t make any difference to our dish.

I found it more fun and more productive to process, edit, layering, and do other manipulations with these raw percussion samples, rather than make my own from scratch.

So here is my advice: create your own samples if you want to practice on sound design and synthesis (recreating authentic sounds is challenging task!), or you want to achieve something very specific, probably unusual or synthetic. Otherwise, get a pack of proper classic TR-808 and 909 samples, or buy a drum machine if can afford it — it will serve you for good.

But what I do not recommend is to get some odd genre-specific sample pack named like “Future Shocking EDM House Drums”: usually, such packs includes very processed sounds, i.e. not the raw material that we would look for.

On cover image: Roland Aira TR-8, a reincarnation of both classic drum machines in a modern instrument.

What makes you a better DJ

Over the past several years, I’ve witnessed numerous debates about “real” mixing on vinyl versus “fake” mixing using the sync button. And very recently, a new ‘demotivator’ picture popped up in my newsfeed that instantly flew across all social media, so I thought I had to write this.

In all those internet battles, people seem to forget one simple fact. Yes, beatmatching is the core principle of DJing and the basics of mixing techniques, but it alone doesn’t make you a good DJ. Whatever you beaеmatching in an old fashioned way, or sync button does it for you, there are plenty of other factors that a professional DJ should learn and care about: music selection, perfect knowing of his music library in general and each track individually, sense of taste, the ability to feel the crowd and guide them through the musical journey, the way how he interacts with the people on the dancefloor, how he behaves on the public, and the list goes on.

Once you master all these, your gear choice becomes absolutely irrelevant. And it works the opposite way too. Let’s say, If you mix on vinyl like a cool bro, but you have no idea how to feel the crowd, you suck as a DJ. If you play using the sync button with a ton of other modern tools around, but all you do is just stare at the laptop’s display, you suck as a DJ, too. As simple as that.

The only reason I see people still play on vinyl is that person’s nostalgic/romantic feelings about the “good old days”. And it’s totally fine, as long as you don’t put an equality sign between “vinyl” and “better”. It’s no better than any other way of mixing, it’s just different. Someone adores retro cars, and someone prefers modern and more practical vehicles, but neither of them doesn’t make you a better driver.

Same with the writers: if someone prefers to write old fashioned way with a nib pen and inkwell, it doesn’t make him a better writer than those who type on a keyboard, just like I do at this very moment.

As for myself, since childhood, I have been thinking about electronic music as a frontier of the future: science, technologies, intergalactic travel, you know, all that stuff. So it was natural for me to evolve my setup along the way, trying out new things and technologies. At the moment, I’m fully satisfied with the current setup with Ableton Live and a MIDI controller, but who knows, maybe someday I’ll step further to the new generation of Pioneer digital players, or something even newer.

Don’t get stuck in the past, be open-minded and courageous to move forward. The future is so exciting!