Skip to main content
MusicRadar MusicRadar The No.1 website for musicians
Sign in
  • View Profile
  • Sign out
  • Drums Week 25
  • Synths
  • Guitars
  • Guitar Pedals
  • Guitar Amps
  • Keyboards & Pianos
  • Controllers
  • Artist news
  • Drums
  • Software & Apps
  • More
    • Recording
    • DJ Gear
    • Acoustic Guitars
    • Bass Guitars
    • Tech
    • Tutorials
    • Reviews
    • Buying Guides
    • About Us
More
  • Santana on Beck
  • Friday, I'm in Love
  • Knopfler's 4-note secret
  • 95k+ free music samples
Don't miss these
Eight producers
Artists "Turn a few seconds into a four minute, finished piece of music”: 8 producers show how they finish tracks
ARMNHMR
Djs ARMNHMR on their tools of the trade
tape
Artists Richie Hawtin produces short film inspired by '90s Detroit techno scene
Silva Bumpa Feel Da Same
Artists Why Silva Bumpa created his own R&B instrumental just to remix it into the garage-inspired Feel Da Same
Nadia Struiwigh
Artists Tresor resident Nadia Struiwigh on why she avoids tutorials and keeps things 'loose' in the studio
loukeman
Artists Loukeman reveals his favourite plugins and unusual production techniques
Silva Bumpa
Tech Breakout producer Silva Bumpa on the secret to creating sub bass and UKG rhythms
rudimental
Tech "It's one of my favourite synths": Rudimental reveal their favourite plugins for drum 'n' bass production
Peel
Producers & Engineers "On every laptop you have access to every sound you could ever want. That can make creativity hard": Peel
rival
Artists “You end up doing different things with a plugin versus a hardware synth”: Rival Consoles on why he still uses a Prophet emulation – even though he owns the real thing
Monolake 1990s
Tech How rowdy live sets, field recordings and misused gear helped Monolake create dub techno classic Hongkong
disiniblud
Artists “It creates a tone that you can't find in Guitar Center”: Disiniblud on the self-built instruments behind their debut LP
adam beyer
Artists "It feels like there’s a blueprint for electronic music - it's boring”: Adam Beyer on the evolution of modern dance music
Reference tracks
Tech Reference tracks can be your secret weapon when mixing - but be mindful of replicating other artists' choices too much
Plugins
Plugins To mark Plugin Week, here’s our pick of the most out-there sound design plugins you should grab now
  1. Tutorials
  2. Music Production Tutorials

Umek & Beltek's making of Out Of Play

Tuition
By Chris Barker published 19 December 2011

Production advice from this notable techno twosome

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

Intro

Intro

Out of Play is the title track from Umek and Beltek's album which was recently released on Toolroom Records.

It's built around a sample of Los Ninos del Parque, a pre-industrial alternative classic from 1981 recorded by a German group Liaisons Dangerouses. The most distinguishing element of the original is the Korg MS-20 bass line produced in a 6/4 rhythm, which is a quite non-typical for a pop song and especially dance music.

The album is available to buy now.

iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/out-of-play/id476064085

Beatport: http://www.beatport.com/release/out-of-play/825726

Page 1 of 11
Page 1 of 11
The sample

The sample

"Nowadays it seems that every big story starts on the You Tube. We began by downloading a really crappy 96kbps mp3 rip from the You Tube of Los Ninos del Parque.

"We chopped it and started working on that poor material, as we wanted to stop this on-going war on superiority of formats (analogue vs MP3 vs Wav) by proving it that you can do the best quality of music from the worst recording. The success of our track speaks for itself: it’s already been #1 on Beatport's techno chart for more than a month.

"Our recommendation: when you sample, use the best quality of original material available, but the most important thing in producing music is still creativity. You can do a lot with poor quality samples – but only if you have good ideas and skills to do it. We’ve done the final mix after we finished the whole album and we also had to clear the sample, where Toolroom Records stepped in with their legal department."

Page 2 of 11
Page 2 of 11
The structure

The structure

"Most of our tracks look like this, with two big chunks of sound and a big break in the middle. At one point we had a huge arrangement on around 120 channels in Logic, which we downsized to 66 channels in the final version."

Page 3 of 11
Page 3 of 11
Replicant

Replicant

The base line in our track bares a lot of similarity with the original, though we totally chopped and rearranged it, especially in the first minute into the track. We did that with Replicant, a tool that chops the sample and rearranges it randomly. Firstly we chopped and rearranged it by ourselves and in addition we applied this tool, which adds different equalizer modes and effects to each of the chops, thus making the whole sample sound differently even weird at the moments.

...

Page 4 of 11
Page 4 of 11
Drop preperation

Drop preperation

"The break is very important tool for building the energy, expectation and euphoria on the dance floor.

"Usually it’s a combination of drop down and then the build up which makes the track, and we also pay a lot of attention to the rhythmic part just before the drop. There you need a good kick and a heavy bass line."

Page 5 of 11
Page 5 of 11
Baas Lab

Baas Lab

"We used a loop of a sample to build the baseline. The original was powerful and punchy in the middle, but it lacked some energy on the bass.

"So we decided to strengthen it with additional synths using only subs. This way bassline sounds contemporary, full, thick and powerful. We did this with Reaktor 5 Baas Lab. The combination of the bass and a kick is one of the pillars of this track."

Page 6 of 11
Page 6 of 11
A moment of silence

A moment of silence

"It’s important what kind of sounds, tricks and frequencies you use in the break. We love having long and detailed breaks. We spend a lot of time producing these part of the tracks.

"The bigger the explosion the better the effect it makes the dance floor. One of the tricks we used couple of times on this album is that at the end of the build up, just before the big bang, we created a pause. This moment of silence makes the next kick even more effective. It’s like a moment just before you reach the orgasm."

Page 7 of 11
Page 7 of 11
Variations

Variations

"The peak of the track is at the end of the break, with the release of that heavy energy. But that doesn’t mean you should just let it go on from there .

"To keep the rest of the track interesting we introduce new moments after every 4x4 segment: we take a sound out, bring in some new, create mini breaks, use an effect and more. This way we keep it interesting and dynamic."

Page 8 of 11
Page 8 of 11
Mixing and mastering

Mixing and mastering

"Here you can see just how many and which plug-ins are used on each channel. We limit the sound, apply equalizers and effects, lower beats to gain some distortion, we move the pans and volumes left and right..."

"This is what we spend a lot of time on channel by channel, to gain the sound we want."

Page 9 of 11
Page 9 of 11
Busses

Busses

"A bus is a channel on which you gather similar sounds. We put all percussions channels on one bus, all bass sounds on another, the same with hi hats, claps and so on.

"Then we master the whole groups at once. In this case we gathered 66 channels in 15 buses. Then once we’re done with fine-tuning the buses, we limit and compress the whole track, so that nothing stands out where it shouldn’t and the sound is clear.

"In this track we were working with Waves’ L3 UltraMaximizer, UAD Percision Maximizer and Sonnox’s Oxford Limiter. Right now there is a lot of passion for loudness on the scene. We’re against that, as we still prefer the clear sound and dynamic to distorted loudness."

Page 10 of 11
Page 10 of 11
Tits

Tits

"If we were do this track again now, after 11 months, we’d apply a bit more of limiter and we’d give it some 'tits' (we’d use equalizers to raise the level of middles and highs a bit as seen here!)

"Don’t get us wrong, we like big breasts, but it’s not the size that matters the most when you want to set the dance floor on fire!"

Page 11 of 11
Page 11 of 11
Chris Barker
Read more
Eight producers
"Turn a few seconds into a four minute, finished piece of music”: 8 producers show how they finish tracks
ARMNHMR
ARMNHMR on their tools of the trade
tape
Richie Hawtin produces short film inspired by '90s Detroit techno scene
Silva Bumpa Feel Da Same
Why Silva Bumpa created his own R&B instrumental just to remix it into the garage-inspired Feel Da Same
Nadia Struiwigh
Tresor resident Nadia Struiwigh on why she avoids tutorials and keeps things 'loose' in the studio
loukeman
Loukeman reveals his favourite plugins and unusual production techniques
Latest in Music Production Tutorials
Logic Drums
How to think like a human drummer when building software beats
Virtual drums
How to make virtual acoustic drum performances sound like the real thing
How to program MIDI drums that sound like the real thing
Drum recording
10 tips for recording perfect drums
Auto Filter Tutorial
6 ways to bring your tracks to life with Ableton Live’s revamped Auto Filter
Eight producers
"Turn a few seconds into a four minute, finished piece of music”: 8 producers show how they finish tracks
Latest in Tuition
Overhead shot of electronic drum set plugged into a laptop running a VST
“At certain points in music history it became fashionable to place accents on certain beats”: How to score a drum part
Man in white t-shirt playing a Roland electronic drum set
10 common electronic drum set issues and how to troubleshoot them
The easy guide to recording drums: kit tips, mic placement and setting up your DAW
Where to start with a drum kit
Plugins
How to get famous sounds and effects using only Logic’s stock plugins
Plugin Chains
How to emulate a classic analogue recording system entirely with plugins

MusicRadar is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

  • About Us
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Advertise with us
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Careers

© Future Publishing Limited Quay House, The Ambury, Bath BA1 1UA. All rights reserved. England and Wales company registration number 2008885.

Please login or signup to comment

Please wait...