REQ: Underdog Electronic Music School - Melodic House : Start to Finish Course
Music production can be bewildering. There's so much to learn, and nobody offers you a system to go from your vision all the way through to execution and publication.
In this start-to-finish course I do just that: I show a clear and logical workflow that you can copy.
We start with the vision, before anything else, where we make a moodboard and musical analysis. Then we program drums, synthesisers, we learn music theory and mixing checkpoints, arrangement and climaxes, and finally the finishing and polishing before publication.
This is a follow-along course, meaning that I make a track from start to finish in 11 hours of video, explaining every step along the way. The crux is: I don't know what I'll be making until it's actually made! So you can see the thought process, the planning, the vision, the mistakes, the self-doubt, the existential crisis, everything!
Have a quick listen to this track to see if the genre is generally in the right direction for your taste! Then, as soon as you can, forget what it sounds like, so you can follow along with the course with a blank mind, like mine :)
The course also includes:
- a workflow poster
- a Goldbaby x Underdog sample pack with 100 drum sounds to get you started
- a MIDI chord pack for melodic house
What is this course made of?
Planning & vision
Before even touching any software, we spend time making a playlist of references, a moodboard, an ingredients list, and a workflow plan. By analysing reference tracks we get a clear idea of the musical tropes we'll be implementing.
Drum programming for house music
We program drums for house music, including the core drums, additional drums, and various techniques. Goldbaby have kindly provided a refined selection of samples included in this course!
Mixing checkpoints
We'll mix the track as we go, with two important mix checkpoints: the rough mix balance, and the pre-arrangement mixdown. We'll consistently reference, ensuring that our mix evolves towards something clear and professional.
Music theory for house music
Melodic house makes use of a lot of harmony to tell its emotional story. As such, we need to refresh our basics, learn how to use chord progressions to give our track emotional glue, and analyse a bunch of reference tracks to learn how they do it! We also include a small MIDI chord pack to get you kickstarted here!
Basslines & lead synths
Once we have our emotional journey planned out, we'll start designing some basslines and lead synths. I'll explore several options for each, showing many different ways of approaching these elements. I use Ableton Live native plugins and some 3rd party VSTs to show the possibilities.
Additional synths
to give our composition depth and variety, we program several additional synths. We show how I would record an analog synth for this, and how we use orchestral samplers to create drama.
Automation & arrangement
With all these interesting musical elements in place, it's time to turn our loop into a full storyline. I'll do this through subtractive arrangement, and then automation to add movement and tension in the climaxes.
Feedback & polishing
It's rare to get things right the first time. I ask for several expert opinions on the track. That feedback then becomes a checklist of things to improve, and we do this together! Feedback is provided by Alice (Mercurial tones), STRANJAH, Stefan Brown (Lesser Of), Downside (Fuse), and Anton (Face the Sun).
Finalising & mastering
To prepare the track for mastering, I show how I would do a self-mastering, and then how to export a pre-master. Stefan Brown then masters my track, and gives a full PDF of all the changes they made. We compare the results and learn valuable lessons!
100 essential drum machine samples
Programming the drums, I realised it was a perfect chance to collaborate with Goldbaby to provide us with a toolkit of reliable classic drum machine sounds. These drum samples are a solid first step in building out your sample library.
In this start-to-finish course I do just that: I show a clear and logical workflow that you can copy.
We start with the vision, before anything else, where we make a moodboard and musical analysis. Then we program drums, synthesisers, we learn music theory and mixing checkpoints, arrangement and climaxes, and finally the finishing and polishing before publication.
This is a follow-along course, meaning that I make a track from start to finish in 11 hours of video, explaining every step along the way. The crux is: I don't know what I'll be making until it's actually made! So you can see the thought process, the planning, the vision, the mistakes, the self-doubt, the existential crisis, everything!
Have a quick listen to this track to see if the genre is generally in the right direction for your taste! Then, as soon as you can, forget what it sounds like, so you can follow along with the course with a blank mind, like mine :)
The course also includes:
- a workflow poster
- a Goldbaby x Underdog sample pack with 100 drum sounds to get you started
- a MIDI chord pack for melodic house
What is this course made of?
Planning & vision
Before even touching any software, we spend time making a playlist of references, a moodboard, an ingredients list, and a workflow plan. By analysing reference tracks we get a clear idea of the musical tropes we'll be implementing.
Drum programming for house music
We program drums for house music, including the core drums, additional drums, and various techniques. Goldbaby have kindly provided a refined selection of samples included in this course!
Mixing checkpoints
We'll mix the track as we go, with two important mix checkpoints: the rough mix balance, and the pre-arrangement mixdown. We'll consistently reference, ensuring that our mix evolves towards something clear and professional.
Music theory for house music
Melodic house makes use of a lot of harmony to tell its emotional story. As such, we need to refresh our basics, learn how to use chord progressions to give our track emotional glue, and analyse a bunch of reference tracks to learn how they do it! We also include a small MIDI chord pack to get you kickstarted here!
Basslines & lead synths
Once we have our emotional journey planned out, we'll start designing some basslines and lead synths. I'll explore several options for each, showing many different ways of approaching these elements. I use Ableton Live native plugins and some 3rd party VSTs to show the possibilities.
Additional synths
to give our composition depth and variety, we program several additional synths. We show how I would record an analog synth for this, and how we use orchestral samplers to create drama.
Automation & arrangement
With all these interesting musical elements in place, it's time to turn our loop into a full storyline. I'll do this through subtractive arrangement, and then automation to add movement and tension in the climaxes.
Feedback & polishing
It's rare to get things right the first time. I ask for several expert opinions on the track. That feedback then becomes a checklist of things to improve, and we do this together! Feedback is provided by Alice (Mercurial tones), STRANJAH, Stefan Brown (Lesser Of), Downside (Fuse), and Anton (Face the Sun).
Finalising & mastering
To prepare the track for mastering, I show how I would do a self-mastering, and then how to export a pre-master. Stefan Brown then masters my track, and gives a full PDF of all the changes they made. We compare the results and learn valuable lessons!
100 essential drum machine samples
Programming the drums, I realised it was a perfect chance to collaborate with Goldbaby to provide us with a toolkit of reliable classic drum machine sounds. These drum samples are a solid first step in building out your sample library.