How can I make my songs more danceable?

[hasezwei]

its allllllllll about the mood of the whole track, changing tempo, oscillators will really do nothing.

Jokes thread, but this is the one innit. There's nothing wrong with sit-in-a-corner music, but if you want to make people dance you have to have that in mind from the word go...

the hats thing was no joke

[slothrop]

its allllllllll about the mood of the whole track, changing tempo, oscillators will really do nothing.

Jokes thread, but this is the one innit. There's nothing wrong with sit-in-a-corner music, but if you want to make people dance you have to have that in mind from the word go...

the hats thing was no joke

Also true. Although in my experience taking a heavy sluggish tune and sticking a load of swung hihat rhythms on top doesn't make it sound like a slinky dance tune, it makes it sound like a heavy sluggish tune with a load of swing hihat rhythms stuck on top.

[nowaysj]

Fucking 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2.

[Shum]

Put a donk on it. Sorry.

[nowaysj]

--> sidenote: Shum, I'm french kissing your avatar at the moment and getting my monitor all slobbery. Thanks bro.

[marktplatz]

On an abstract level I've found it fruitful to think about musical pulse. A strong pulse will tend to make a tune more danceable. I find even noise music that has a noticeable pulse (e.g. Mincemeat or Tenspeed's album Strange Gods) to be danceable. Or, in another dimension entirely, I'm always really impressed by how strongly rhythmic the cellos in "Eleanor Rigby" are and how strong the song's pulse therefore is despite no drums.

A four-to-the-floor kick is a really simple and effective way to make a strong pulse because then it is manifested as a regular bass and sub-bass impulse. The strong hi-hat on offbeat 8th notes that comes from disco and is almost always present in house and often in techno strengthens that quarter-note pulse further (boom-tss-boom-tss-boom-tss-boom-tss). But as the hardcore continuum has demonstrated for so long, there are a lot of other ways than 4x4 kick to make a strongly danceable pulse. Garage often keeps house's offbeat hi-hats even as it syncopates the kick and snare and often other hats, so those regular hats (often including offbeat 16th-note hats, listen to like every FaltyDL song) become the thing that connects it back to house most strongly. When halfstep dubstep has regular hats (as everyone else has already alluded to) it can still really swing and bump despite the sparseness of the kicks and snares (but it really helps to have a little more kick and snare than just the 1 and 3).

It's not even really necessary to have any single element that's completely regular though; e.g. breakbeats, though their hats are often regular, manifest their pulse more by filling in every 16th note with some sort of sound (as obviously plenty of other dance beats do too, but not so irregularly). So although the kicks and snares are often syncopated (especially the kicks), the quarter note pulse is still tangible.

What I find most inspiring is when a tune uses a number of elements none of which gives much of a pulse on its own but all together add up to a fantastically danceable brew. "Wot Do U Call It?" is my favorite example. Sparse hats/high perc, irregular kicks and snares, irregular bass (somewhat), that couple of shakes in the second beat of each bar, etc - and yet it's supremely danceable. I aspire to that kind of alchemy. I'm also interested in making ambient-like music that contains no transient sounds, just slow-attack sounds, but that has a strong enough pulse from those to still be danceable. The abstraction of the idea of pulse really expands the potential universe of dance music if you think about its range of possibilities.

[marktplatz]

Or yeah, as Shum said, put a donk on it, there's yr pulse right there.

[Shum]

LOL pulse = donk , my old composition lecturer at uni would probably have a heart attack if I told him that. That's a good guide you wrote out by the way.

[narcissus]

the way i learned to make people dance was getting on a lot of dance floors and dancing with a lot of people. get out a ton mate, have a good time. basically that is the best way to observe the energy of a good dance tune..

[marktplatz]

LOL pulse = donk , my old composition lecturer at uni would probably have a heart attack if I told him that. That's a good guide you wrote out by the way.

Thanks, it's all stuff that's been rattling around in my head for a good while. I also second that it's good to observe firsthand in clubs what makes people (and yourself) dance, and listen closely. Common sense. Haven't done nearly enough of it myself but it's always enlightening.

[atticuh]

Wot Do U Call It?

I think its hilarious how they pronounce "garage".

In all seriousness though, more melodies with a well defined and consistent rhythm normally help make a tune "more danceable" for the rhythmically challenged masses.

[E-T-F]

another way would be to shoot at your mates feet...

[zerbaman]

Maybe dancey stuff isn't your style perhaps? Some things just don't work for some producers. Like whenever I try and go all out mad brostepping, I just can't for some reason.

Best things I can say are definitly working on kick placement and hats. Depends a lot on the stuff you're making though.
This:
Soundcloud
Won't make you dance the same way as this:
Soundcloud


IF your working on deeper, skanky 2 step tunes, it is all about your kicks and hats. For the most part at least. Try and use "smaller" snares, less to no bass weight, just mid to high, they sound quicker in a sense. Another thing that can help is having a decent groove/rhythm in your bassline, something vibey and bouncy, slide notes etc

For heavier stuff, it's pretty similar, you can still get people dancing without moshing and fist bumping. But mainly it is in the bassline, have a nice varying rhythm or sound bank for your bassline, keep things switching and flowing


And marktplatz, that's not always true, first time I ever knowingly made someone dance was today haha, never been to a club atmosphere at all

[marktplatz]

Oh certainly. Going to clubs isn't a prerequisite for making these things work, it's just highly useful is all.

[FluidMoShun]

Hats

I hear Fedoras work well.

But songs don't have to be upbeat and happy to be danceable. Lots of STS9 songs are really dark and intense but are still very danceable. Just let the music flow and evolve and dancing should come naturally. Sorry if I'm being too general

[BevOh]

Try to work in elements of other dance genres like house, fidget house, electro house and all of the fuckin sub genres but keep it at a nice 140 or so bpm. give it energy by pumping out samples that are linked to a midi controller so u can get a feel for the pattern and how they mesh together.

[wub]

Triplets.

[XavierC]

Cheers for the info - looking forward to bringing some electrobrostep to the forum!

[oprs]

Cheers for the info - looking forward to bringing some electrobrostep to the forum!

[Dystinkt]

Cheers for the info - looking forward to bringing some electrobrostep to the forum!

my god we've bred a monster