Producing Piano House Explained
If you're looking to produce your own piano house track, but you're not sure where to begin, you're in the right place. Join studio wizard Larry Holcombe for a comprehensive look at producing piano house music, complete with numerous examples and demonstrations that take you through an entire track, start to finish. You'll even have access to the project stems so you can try out all the techniques and ideas for yourself in your own DAW! You'll learn production techniques, arrangement ideas, creative tips, and much more! These videos are for new piano house producers.
Videos
• Track Playthrough (05:20) - This first video involves a playthrough of the finished production so you have an idea of what we're aiming for.
• The Kick (05:28) - Next up, we program, EQ, and compress a suitable kick drum sound for the track.
• Clap (05:54) - Let's add a clap sound to our beat next and layer the kick with some vintage noise.
• Top Loops (14:05) - Various top loops are added to inject that all important groove and shuffle to the rhythmic foundation.
• Vox (06:27) - We add a vocal next to allow us to create a musical foundation and identity for the track.
• Adding a Piano Sound (16:43) - We approach adding a piano with various workflows. You?ll learn techniques using Logic?s Transposer and Chord Trigger, Scaler 2, and also MIDI played in directly.
• Piano MIDI Editing (08:11) - Next up, we make a decision on our piano ideas and then import the MIDI into Logic before making some amendments to the parts. This provides us with piano variants for arrangement purposes.
• Adding a Bassline (14:31) - We create a suitable bass sound in Serum next by using FM-style synthesis. We then program a bassline by reinforcing the low notes of the piano.
• Extra Sounds (13:15) - In this video, we add some strings and a layered pluck to create some melodic progression and momentum for the track.
• Arrangement Structure (15:12) - Discover an arrangement hack technique of copying an existing track?s structure next. This gets us into the finishing mindset with a start, middle, and end to the track?s structure.
• Arrangement Tools (15:21) - This video focusses on adding FX and arrangement tools to punctuate the track. These are spread throughout the track to add interest, tension, and excitement.
• Arrangement Tweaks (15:29) - Next up, we make a few arrangement tweaks on the back of a fresh listen. This includes adding a snare roll with volume automation and various reverse crashes and cymbals. We also set about creating an arpeggiated part to enhance the tension in certain sections.
• Breakdown Bass (13:42) - A ?Reece?-style bass patch is created next in Serum to fill out the low end of the breakdowns. We also filter the drums to again create peaks and troughs in the arrangement.
• Vocals & Arrangement (17:21) - We get deep into vocal arrangement next, adding effects to keep things interesting. We also add some vocal chops to build tension and work on the overall flow of the track.
• Piano & Vocal Production (15:56) - We produce the vocals and piano in this video, using some varied spatial effects to add depth and interest to these marquee sounds.
• Final Tweaks (15:02) - In this video, the arrangement is further tweaked, and a Korg M1 piano is added and layered with the original piano sound to enhance its attack and sizzle.
• Final Thoughts (05:47) - Finally, we mix the piano volume to make space for the vocals and then create a very quick and dirty mastering chain using Ozone 9.