Sample Video
What’s Inside?
After a quick introduction and running down all his Reason settings and
preferences, Al gets to work on the all important Trap drum beat. Al builds up
his kit in Kong, programming his drum track in distinctively complex rhythms
that are the hallmark of Trap music. Moving on to the sub bass, Al shows how
to use Reason’s Subtractor synth to create a simple but devastating Trap
baseline.
Once the beats and bass are created, Al focuses on introducing musical
elements to the composition, and quickly builds strong melodic parts in the
Trap fashion. Next up are vocal elements that are heavily processed short
vocal clips, enhanced via time stretching, pitch shifting and ultimately
resampling all in an NN-XT.
Now it’s time for the drop! Al builds some filthy lead synths from scratch
using techniques such as FM synthesis, oscillator syncing, pitch modulation
and filter sweeps. After putting together the final arrangement, Al creates a
few FX sounds like noise sweeps and pan risers to close out the track and the
series.
How Does It Work?
After buying this online course, you will receive your personal Groove 3 access code and a URL that takes you directly to the Groove 3 site. Just click the link and enter the code to start learning!
- For all beginner to intermediate Reason users
- Simple to use video control interface for Mac & PC
- Watch Online, Download, Stream to iPad, iPhone & iPod
Tutorials
Introduction (08m:40s)
In the last year or so Trap music has exploded on a global scale, it’s
popularity has grown to the point of even rivaling that of genres like Dubstep
and Drum’n’Bass. As a multi genre producer and DJ I’ve produced a lot of
original Trap tunes as well as Trap remixes for other artists. In this series
of tutorials I’ll be teaching you how to use Reason 7 to create all the
characteristic genre tropes of this hugely successful genre of bass music.
This introductory video shows a brief run down of my settings and preferences.
Making Trap Beats Pt. 1 (18m:59s)
One of the most characteristic aspects of Trap music is the drum beats. Over
these next two videos I’ll demonstrate building up a great kit in Kong and how
to get the most out of our drum hits with further processing in Kong. I’ll
also demonstrate how to program the distinctively complex rhythms that are the
hallmark of Trap music and how to make your beats even fatter with the use or
parallel compression now more convenient than ever thanks to Reason 7’s new
parallel channels feature. All the drum hits I’ll be using in this video come
directly from Reason’s own factory sound bank.
Making Trap Beats Pt. 2 (19m:20s)
This video shows how to program Trap beats using the kit created in the
previous video.
Sub Bass in Trap (10m:27s)
This is a very simple element of Trap music but it’s arguably the most
important. Heavy sub bass is the driving force behind Trap music and is
essential if you want your track to sound huge on a club system! In this video
I’ll demonstrate how to use Reason’s Subtractor synth to create a simple but
devastating trap sub bass.
Composition in Trap Pt. 1 (14m:18s)
We’ve got our beats and our bass. Now it’s time to look at things from a more
compositional perspective. In this video I’ll demonstrate how by putting
together some simple musical elements you can very quickly build the basis for
a strong trap tune. Advanced music theory knowledge is not required, two
chords will do, as it’s more about building up a rich timbre. Along the way
I’ll also be demonstrating some of Reason 7’s fantastically handy new features
such as the new spectrum EQ and bus routing. I’ll also demonstrate how to make
the instantly recognizable trap “riser FX” sound!
Composition in Trap Pt. 2 (10m:50s)
In this video we add a few more elements to the song as well as some effects
such as reverb.
Processing and Resampling Vocals Pt. 1 (16m:52s)
In this video I’m going to demonstrate some techniques for mashing up vocals
in Trap music. One of the key characteristics of Trap is the use of heavily
processed, short vocal clips. The first technique we’ll look at, involves
taking a short rap line, time stretching, pitch shifting and ultimately
resampling it in an NN- XT. The second technique involves sampling a female a
capella and using the powerful tools of Reason’s NN-XT sampler to turn it into
a unique lead sound.
Processing and Resampling Vocals Pt. 2 (10m:50s)
In this video we add more glitchy processed vocals to the song.
The Drop Pt. 1 (11m:22s)
In this video we’re going to major on the filthy lead synths which will
populate the part of the arrangement, often referred to as “the drop.” We’ll
be using four instances of Thor to create four unique synth patches. The sound
design techniques we’ll be using to achieve these patches include FM
synthesis, oscillator syncing, pitch modulation and filter sweeps.
The Drop Pt. 2 (14m:49s)
We continue to building the drop section of the song.
The Arrangement and FX (19m:05s)
In this video I’m going to talk you through the final arrangement of our Trap
tune, as you heard it in the introduction video. Having put together a killer
arrange, we’ll need to populate it with a few FX sounds like noise sweeps and
pan risers.We’re going to use Thor to create three unique FX sweeps to be the
icing on the cake of our song!
