7 steps to making your own EDM tracks and remixes

Want to learn how to make your own Electronic Dance Music tracks or remixes?
Whether you like Armin, or Hardwell, or Tiesto, or Skrillex, you can learn how to make your own EDM / Trance / Electro / House / Dubstep tracks in 7 steps.
For 7 Saturdays in April and May, come to School of Music and Art (Singapore) where Ben from EML / Cosmic Armchair is teaching the annual course Electronic Music Production and the Art of Remixing, basic level for beginners. The advanced course, for more experienced producers, will be from July to August.
To find out more, email SOMA at info@soma.com.sg , or call 6884-3611, or come for the free introductory workshop at 4 pm on Sat 22 March - Facebook event here https://www.facebook.com/events/435079006624105/?fref=ts.  See you soon!

Prerequisites

1. Must know how to use Windows or Mac. No specific software experience needed. You will download Ableton Live Demo (link will be given). You can bring your own laptop ( recommended) or use our computer lab.
2. Must be prepared to learn music chords. No music theory or playing experience needed, but it's a bonus
3. No hardware or instruments required. If you want to play notes on a keyboard, or beats on pads, we can recommend inexpensive options

Outline of the Basic Course

1. Getting Started / Beat Making
2. What Makes a Hit Track Tick? Introduction to Song Structures in Electronic Music
3. Sampling and Synthesis - Using the Sounds of the World
4. Shaping Sound with Audio Effects and Autotune
5. Remixing, Mixing and Mastering
6. Playing Live with Launch Pads and Controllers
7. Putting it all together

Details of the Basic Course

1. Beats are the foundation of every hit electronic dance music song, and in this class you will learn how to build your own groove from loops, personalize them, and also build your own beats from scratch.
2. Learn how the most successful electronic dance music tracks can be described in a few core structures, then use that knowledge to start making your own hit tracks.
3. Use sampling technology to capture sounds from the world around you, and to turn them into your own unique electronic music, and use different software synthesizers to create your own riffs.
4. You've heard what autotune and other audio effects like filters and stutters can do to change how singers and music sound, and in this class you will learn how to use them to shape your own sound.
5. The beats are bumping, the tunes are thumping, but how do we make everything work together? In this class you will learn how to make it all fit together sonically (instead of causing an audio train wreck), through the magic of mixing and mastering.
6. Finger drumming and launch pad playing make electronic music performances visually exciting and fun. In this class you will learn how to set up your own template for launch pad playing and special techniques for playing live with launch pads.
7. Finalize your track and learn how to share it with friends, or even the world

Course outline for Advanced Course

Lesson 1 – Beat Making 
How to make specific genre beats – House, Trance, Hip Hop, Trip Hop.
How to combine programmed beats (MIDI) with sample loops (Audio) effectively
Lesson 2 – Song Structures 
How to build tension and suspense (builds and drops) for electronic dance tracks
How to write tunes and melodies
How to combine basslines and chords
Lesson 3 – Synthesis and sampling
Exploring advanced synthesizers
How to use Trance Gates and Arpeggiators to create motion
Lesson 4 –Audio Effects
How to use Auto Filter and Side Chain to make huge builds and drops
How to fine tune effects on vocals
Lesson 5 – Remixing 
Hands on remixing chart tracks
How to mash up
Lesson 6 – Live Performance
Hands on launch pads
Hands on with controllers, knobs, sliders and touchscreens
Lesson 7 – Final Review and Remix

About the instructor
Benjamin Ang is the Producer / Remixer of Cosmic Armchair, synthpop / EDM band based in Singapore, and Principal Tutor of the Electronic Music Lab at NUS. With Cosmic Armchair, he has remixed prize winning tracks (The Catalyst by Linkin Park, Beautiful Clothes by TV Mania) and tracks that have been released internationally on electronic music label Alfa-Matrix (Life is Short by Mondtraume, Reasons by Simon Carter)

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