A Guide To Building A Dance Music Track From The Beginning



Posted: Monday, February 16, 2009

by Mark Spacey
Dance Midi Samples

Whether you are just starting out or if you are an expert at producing dance music tracks, creating a new track can be especially daunting but by following certain rules it can be surprisingly rewarding! For the purposes of this article we will look at constructing a 4/4 dance track using various audio dance samples from sources found on the Internet.

A great starting point is to listen to the music your trying to create and learn what the songs you like use in terms of sounds in the tracks and where they use them. First part is to layer up a percussion sound in an eight-bar loop in your sequencer software. Then move onto the Bass, by using plugins to your sequencer you should be able to find some bass patches to use for now. Then look at deciding your pattern and then tweak the sound to your preference, by manipulating sound effects or using filters.

Try not to start arranging sounds at this point as it is too early to put the percussion into the state of a finished track and you will want to arrange it all when the sounds are all read in. Continue then building the track until your complete the intro section. Then start a new loop (main part of the dance track) and add a lead synthesiser MIDI file on top of the percussion you have previously set. Then repeat this and create loops until you have loops for the main sections of your track.

Now you’ve got the basics, its time to listen to what you’ve got and ask yourself how yoru favourite dance tracks work, i.e how they build up to the crescendo and how the bass line rocks hard, what do they do to produce this feeling and effect. By answering questions like these you can gain a better understanding as to what a successful track should have and also look at dropping in any effects that you think may help.

When your happy, then its time to be critical of your own work and listen to it throughout. Take a break first and even get a mate to listen to it. Ask yourself questions such as did the bass line rock, did the loops work where they were supposed to etc. This helps to make your track better and mean that you will be on course for creating stomping dance tracks into the future.

Mark is a passionate DJ who likes to remix and produce tracks with various house samples and house loops. Mark works for dance midi samples in the UK who sell various DJ MIDI Sample packs.
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