Making a trap beat shouldn’t be too complicated. In fact, most of them consist of very few elements. In this article I’ll show you my trap beatmaking workflow! In case you missed it, here's part 1 with drums tips, and here's part 2 with melody tips. 3. Bass Once you have a melody it’s time to create a bass pattern. Most of trap bass sounds are called „808s” and are long, distorted sub bass notes. Here’s a typical trap bass pattern: Btw, my new sample pack includes a lot of awesome 808s and MIDI clips. Check it out here. The...

Making a trap beat shouldn’t be too complicated. In fact, most of them consist of very few elements. In this article series I’m showing you my trap beatmaking workflow in Ableton Live! Part 1: Drums Every beat’s core is the drumbeat. Most trap drum patterns follow a similar formula. The sound selection for trap isn’t hard either. A trap drumkit must contain of at least 3 sounds - kick, snare and hihat. All of these sounds should be short and snappy. Most kickdrums are short, clipped and lowpassed. The snare is an important element which gives you the most variety...

Are you looking to "color" your track with some cool and totally free piano plugins? Look no further, we've listed 5 top FREE VST piano plugins.  1. Iowa Grand Piano Made by the craziest free instrument maker - Bigcat Instruments, Iowa Grand Piano delivers a beautiful and sophisticated sound. Very simple to use plugin with useful decay and release knobs. Download: Mac / Win If you're looking for more realistic instruments, see this Kontakt Instruments list - there's more pianos, but also a lot of other instruments :) 2. 4Front Piano Although this plugin has no effects, I still find the sound quite...

Welcome again to the Editor`s choice of the 9 most Amazing FREE VST Synth Plugins! We made an effort in making a list of 9 high quality free VST synth plugins you can download and use right away. ENJOY! Oxe FM by Oxe Music Software    Oxe is a really cool FM synth definetely worth a shot. BrainStormer by Roazhon DSP BrainStormer is a freeware virtual analog synthesizer.  Uno FM by XSynth Uno has been listed as one of the best Freeware FM synths around by Computer Music Magazine. Try it out! VOMP by Sam VOPM is an emulation of the Yamaha YM2151...

In this tutorial we’re going to make an awesome Ableton instrument in Operator. We’ll go through all you need to know to make this patch even if you’re new to Operator. Here’s the patch we’re going to make: You can download this patch here for free. Let’s get started! Let’s load up Operator onto a MIDI track. Here’s what it looks like by default:     Now let me explain in short Operator’s UI. On the left of the device there’s four oscillators (they generate the sound). Then, the sound can be modified by using some of the sections on the right...

In this article we’re going to make an awesome Ableton instrument in Operator. We’ll go through all you need to know to make this patch even if you’re new to Operator. Here’s the patch we’re going to make:   You can download this patch & MIDI progression here for free. Required: Ableton 9.5+ Suite   Let’s get started! Let’s load up Operator onto a MIDI track. Here’s what it looks like by default: Now let me explain in short Operator’s UI. On the left of the device there’s four oscillators (they generate the sound). Then, the sound can be modified...

In this article we’re going to make an awesome Ableton instrument in Operator. We’ll go through all you need to know to make this patch even if you’re new to Operator. Here’s the patch we’re going to make:   You can download this patch here for free. Required: Ableton 9.5+ Suite Let’s get started! Let’s load up Operator onto a MIDI track. Here’s what it looks like by default:   Now let me explain in short Operator’s UI. On the left of the device there’s four oscillators (they generate the sound). Then, the sound can be modified by using some...

Remixes are a great way to piggyback on the popularity of already established artists or popular tracks and increase your reach as a music producer. It also allows you to express yourself as an artist by adding your own personal touch and adding something fresh. There are certain aspects that you need to be aware of before you start, though. To get the most out of your remixes and avoid burning bridges with artists and labels, we’ve listed eight things that you need to pay attention to. 1. Pick the right track There are several criteria that you have to...

Hey guys! In this article I'm going to show you how to use my chord generator rack. It can be downloaded for free here. It's an Ableton Live 10 MIDI device. The Chord Generator is a MIDI effect rack which transforms single MIDI notes into chords. It can be useful for playing chords if you don't have the skills to play the piano. How to use the PML Chord Generator First, you need to place it on the left of your MIDI device (piano, synth, whatever). Then, all you need to do is press keys on your keyboard from A to L, or just...

Thanks to artists like Flume, supersaws have become a very popular sound in EDM. Making a great supersaw isn’t as easy as choosing a saw wavetable and cranking the Unison. There’s a lot of tricks you can use to make that sound more exciting. In this article I’ll show you what you can do inside Xfer Serum to make your supersaw stand out. 1. Use both oscillators for different octaves Serum has two wavetable oscillators, so I like to use one for lower frequencies and transpose the second oscillator one octave up. I use the B oscillator for rich, harmonic...