Rookie mistakes in techno

Let's take a look at some techno tracks I made 10 years ago, and learn 4 lessons from them so you don't repeat the mistakes of my younger self 😂
(wow the noise examples really got mangled by the video codec, sorry!!!)
- Follow Torc here: / torcaudio
- Follow Face the Sun here: / face-the-sun-be
- My Foundations of Electronic Music course: courses.underdog.brussels/cou...
- My Industrial Techno follow-along course: courses.underdog.brussels/cou...
Contents:
0:00 Intro
0:44 The three tracks
1:51 Lesson 1: Hear what you are doing
4:30 The low limit monitor test
7:43 Lesson 2: Clean up your low end
10:35 Lesson 3: Tonal balance
16:35 Lesson 4: Clarify the groove of the track
21:20 About making rookie mistakes

[@OscarUnderdog]

Torc: soundcloud.com/torcaudio 🔥🔥🔥 Face the Sun: soundcloud.com/face-the-sun-be 🌈🌈🌈 Find Oscar's video courses here: courses.underdog.brussels 🖤🖤🖤 Join the Underdog Discord channel: discord.gg/z5N9CTA 👾👾👾

[@Rex-dk1rx]

Could u sometime base a track around Error Func, Flamingo zoom on lucidflow label love to get a understanding on what they are doing with the bass sounds and sharpness of the mids and what sort of sound design they are doing. Lucidflow label is amazing when it comes to production

[@MaceOjala]

Yeah techno or GTFO. Great sound and always super insightful and engaging videos! Thanks for sharing them

[@boydw1]

An important aspect of the Fletcher Munson / Equal Loudness curves, is that they are a DYNAMIC curve, in other words, our perception of EQ balance changes based on the listening level/SPL. It's important to check your mixes at levels that resemble the anticipated SPL the audience will typically experience.

[@bababodhi]

This guy is incredible, not spending too much time with all the small details or DAW technicalities, which we figure out either way, but teaching us the general principles and concepts of what makes a good track. Not only this is useful when producing, but even just listening to EDM, I can now hear what decisions the producer made to make the tracks sound great. Thanks Oscar.

[@nu7m39.in.l0v3]

Indeed, thanks a bunch ✌️❤️🙂

[@ricardojmestre]

Yes he is ❤

[@designzonebeats]

This is really great even at the frequency test. As a 49yo beginner I wonder if my hearing of high or low frequencies will effect the music I make. Only 1 BlackSabbath/Motorhead concert in my history 🤣

[@aerialgrey2566]

I’ve been producing for 10+ years and I still learned some things. The way that you’re able to express and articulate your thoughts is direct and easy to understand…Great content bro.

[@citizenoftheverse4653]

Producing since 1995 and those video are so much pertinent !

[@twatmunro]

Another killer tutorial. When he's on his game, Oscar's doing the best Techno tutorials on KZbin.

[@AlbertSirup]

very cool, i love how roasting your own old tracks allows you to be critical without holding back - much more helpful than analysing other people's tracks where you naturally don't want to demotivate people

[@Luwispurpul]

That was an excellent video. I really enjoyed it. One other thing I have found helpful with building groove is prioritizing elements and then using notch EQ to cut out the strongest frequencies of your high priority elements in your lower priority elements. So for example if you have a clap that hits with a lot of energy at 800hz, and a noisy texture sound that comes in from say 400 - 4k hz then use an eq to cut a “dip” out of it around the 800hz mark. I’m sure you know this already tho :)

[@jokmenen_]

I also knew, but this is a good reminder that i need to do this more often!

[@sinewaves1631]

This would be what trackspacer would do too right?

[@CatFish107]

I sure did not know this. Thanks for sharing!

[@aerialgrey2566]

Yep! You can notch and you can also sidechain so that every time that clap hits, the noisy texture slightly dips. I do both depending on the sounds being used.

[@keithjones3481]

Yes indeed. I think it is important to do the stuff that Oscar was talking about first. That way you probably don't need as much eq (ie shallower notches). This is where dynamic eq comes to the fore. That way the noisy texture (as you put it) is only affected when the clap hits. I always use dymanic eq and sidechaining for the Kick and Bass. It's like magic. Whomever invented it should get a Nobel Peace Award IMO 😄

[@ethanpreston]

Absolutely the best electronic production channel on YT, always so clear and understandable in the way you explain everything! Keep it up!

[@mechanicom]

Man, based on your early monitoring situation..I’m impressed!

[@JaffaDelicious]

Reason does have a handy frequency display. It's the large button with the wiggly line just below the yellow EQ tab on the SSL mixer. Super useful.

[@redbones6046]

I was just scrolling through to see if anybody had pointed that out

[@mukulkataria9128]

My first comment ever on your channel. I just want to let you know that you are the best teacher here on entire KZbin. Especially covering all type of music not just techno. But you are my go to techno teacher. Love your content.

[@OscarUnderdog]

Thank yoooouuuu 🩵

[@kubagornowicz]

Story of my life around 20 years ago in ReBirth and Fruity Loops - tracks I made are dry as Sahara sand - I wish I had back then all the resources that KZbin can give you today. But I hope for a new fresh start now.

[@namyzarcmai]

Thanks for sharing your early work, that takes a lot of courage! And great tips, as always

[@Samivermusic]

Cool video. Been producing for just over a year and your videos and other you tubers sure help. Still learning but see progression in my soundcloud so good for you to share your earlier work to aspire others to get better.

[@ikkoikki2773]

Been watching a bunch of your videos while beginning and learning how to create tracks (only about a year and a half experience). Thank you for what you do!

[@frankiewylde7649]

the audible groove and overall feeling of a techno track was awesome insight. i would love to see you do a video of building a groove, and balancing the various elements in real time to make a coherent groove that works really well! thank you for your videos, loving your content.

[@carlrowlinson2833]

Wow! I heard so many of my own mistakes in your examples Oscar! That groove tip is a game changer!

[@jang3853]

This is one of you best videos Oscar, thank you! And I can only confirm, learning gain staging and using references is crucial for a good sound. Took me way too long to realise that.

[@soifpls]

Each video I'm amazed at how much I can learn thanks to you. And I'm not even trying to produce music, but my listening experience is greatly enhanced - now, I'm gonna pay attention to the tonal balance of my favorite tracks for instance. Thanks !!

[@ruidokalasa3171]

definitely the most util and necesarie videos of music production on the entire known internet

[@bricheag]

Extremely useful info in this video and also in all your underdog clips from your channel. ❤

[@CaptainPhilosophical]

Along with good speakers, I found that my room was also important. When I first started I played in my basement which had a concrete floor, finished walls, and no drop ceiling. All the surfaces were relfective. This resulted in me fighting mud that surfaced after the sound left my PAs. My new "studio" in my next house has carpet on the floor, a drop cieling, and I made acoustic panels from rigid 3M fiberglass panels. Plus theres soft furniture in the room. So, there is much less mud. Good headphones would eliminate that for everyone but I like to mix on the PAs I am going to use so there are less surprises. Thanks Oscar for your time and efforts in sharing your knowledge. Peace.

[@tombanner3720]

Thanks for the incredible content Oscar! Best electronic music teacher I have ever listened to. (And please keep up the Reason videos!)

[@phantom-lab]

Your teaching style is next level. Clear and precise. You have helped me so much and I thank you! 😉

[@djdsp8207]

Thank you, for taking the time to teach for free. I appreciate what I learned from you and it has helped me immensely. I just wanted to say thank you.

[@analisatafro5140]

Wow. I am 8 months into production and this was a lightbulb video for me. Thank you!!

[@dodogreners]

This video was bloody fantastic. Just what I was looking for! THANK YOU

[@prantorp]

You continue to give us gold - thanks!

[@noxyu3m]

You are an amazing teacher and really great in explanations! ❤

[@MoodooVanSpoon]

Thanks. Best EDM teacher I have seen on youtube. I am struggling with choice paralysis so I like how you break things down. Also you seem like a thoroughly nice bloke! Wishing you the best with your channel and music. M.

[@fabgott8026]

Amazing auto analysis and criticism. I don't recall I ever seen any video like this. Very helpful. Started to follow after I've watched one of your video about the rumble on reason. You're my man. Big thanks 🤜🤛

[@meltdowninteractivemedia]

I'm really enjoying these videos, so insightful. Thanks Oscar.

[@ko_3x335]

Wow! Very important Stuff right on the point explained with your own Story, Examples and Mistakes. Really enjoyed this Video :-)

[@OpenEarth]

I love how practical your examples are, especially the relationship with white, pink, and brown noise and how that relates to looking at a track's RMS and LUFS. Absolutely brilliant. I have several tracks that I really like, but they have a lot of issues despite all of the other tutorials I've watched about tonal balance and mastering, and this one video has given me a real plan to address what has been getting me stuck for months. Your videos always take me 500% longer to go through because I take so many notes. ;)

[@OscarUnderdog]

Cheers, so happy it's helpful ✌✌😁

[@barely_awake]

Awesome video! A quick tipp in regards to high-passing (or a little addition to your tipp on listening to the sound "thinning out"): Consider the key your song is in and root notes you use in your music. If the lowest note in your song is an A, you should cut frequencies a few semitones below that note, as to not take away the "foundation" of your sound (e.g. an A1 is 110 Hz, so you should maybe start cutting at somewhere around 100 Hz).

[@carlosgil9886]

Dude you are an amazing teacher, thanks for your work. Honest and clear.

[@dominikpoignee9297]

Great video! This made me feel finally understand at least some basics. Now have to test it on my tracks 😁

[@riquelmista6153]

SUPER useful tips!! Thank you very much, you have a great way to communicate your knowledge.

[@brutalkubi]

Thank you so much for your great tips always!!!

[@martinbridgewater]

I’ve learned more in this 22 minuet video than I did in the years of ‘experimenting’. Eureka moment. Thank you!

[@mantascepaitis9227]

this guy is amazing, so passionate, always learn a lot from short videos :)

[@idontknowwhattoputhere371]

this is my fav channel so glad I found it.

[@myceliumtechno]

What a great teacher you are!

[@konzekuenze]

Another great and very useful video. I also wish I had all the help available now when I was younger. Thank you Oskar. A suggestion for a video about fails... Sidechain.

[@andreglam1]

You are the best! It's so easy to learn with you man!

[@mortenwintherolsson3237]

Lesson #1 learned from this video: the built-in iphone speaker is surprisingly good at reproducing low frequencies! I could still hear the operator quite well a bit below 100 Hz. Not that I do any production on my iphone, but… maybe I should? I’ve got a bunch of music apps on my ipad, they’re quite fun to fiddle around with sound design…

[@imlxh7126]

Listening on my crappy 2015 MacBook Pro, and somehow I'm able to hear all the way down to 70Hz (though it's very quiet)?? That's like...a LOT better than I expected.

[@LocaliLLocano]

Yes I’m shocked at how Apple did this. I’ve mixed songs for artists and if it doesn’t translate well on my iPad speakers, I need to do so more surgery

[@djkrptdnb]

I do all my production in iOS - we now have enough decent apps and plugins to compete with desktop systems and there are various setups you can configure to your liking. Mixdowns are another matter, but we’re slowly getting there too!

[@carlrowlinson2833]

My Shure Aonic 215 earphones didn't have any drop off at all. Could even hear it when the frequency got so low it started to disentangle from a tone to a vibrating series of clicks. Just as well I use them when producing on the move! 😂

[@rutgerdenijs9286]

In this interview with Rampa of Keinemusik, he tells that he does all his mixdowns on his macbook speakers. His way to check the sub and bass was by feeling the soundbar while laying on his couch.

[@midcam]

Really all in in this video! Thanks! 👍

[@onito974]

Great job, easy to understand, i learn a lot with your videos, many thanks

[@followtheboat]

Yet another video of yours that I will have little use for, because I don't produce music, but watched from beginning to end because it's so fascinating and well explained. Thanks for the Torc recommend too. I have a 20 hour playlist of Pure Techno on Spotify so I'll be adding a couple of your tracks to it. Listening to Transistor Fey right now 😃👌

[@simonvegas793]

Absolutely love this comment! :)

[@followtheboat]

@@cmpc724 I tinkered in the past (I've been experimenting with sound and DJ'd since my teens in the 80s!) but these days my time is spent filming and video editing. There's still a lot of crossover though, which is why I love this channel so much.

[@TheDjAliceD]

pls more Videos like this, this realy helps so much!!

[@ArcticXun-936]

I’ve learned so much from your videos, and I really appreciate your work that you do. 🙏 Btw. On a side note; I watched this on my iPad without headphones & I could surprisingly still hear the sound down to 34~33Hz 😄

[@NIGH.NE.]

Always great advise, thanks :)

[@jsav100]

GREAT idea for a tutorial! Thank you!

[@unternehme]

incredibly useful, I have been making most of these mistakes myself at the beginning and wish I had been explained this back then!

[@evanmetayer7858]

You're an excellent teacher and it takes a lot of heart to criticize your own tracks in such a way. Thank you. Groove is huge for me right now. Refusing to touch the 'Swing' knob and doing everything manually, nudging drums on the grid at 960 PPQ. Can already tell it's making me better.

[@jonwatte4293]

Also, the noise signals were totally garbled by KZbin compression, even on high quality. I wonder if there's something we as creators can do to improve this?

[@OscarUnderdog]

Yeah it's super annoying! This happens when I use AAC as the audio codec. Using PCM doesn't have that problem but the filesize is too large then I think for a video this long. A bit of a dilemma :/

[@poykehmusic]

@@OscarUnderdog Thanks for that information, I'll do that 😉

[@briancase6180]

This is just excellent advice, a truly great lesson on some very important fundamentals. Even though I know these lessons instinctively, I'm not certain I could have articulated them as well as this. Thanks! This is very useful. I wish I had seen it three years ago!

[@MrMichaelHeat]

Very pleasant and easy to understand. Can I really confirm everything exactly like that. Also, how well he gets to the heart of the important things will save many a beginner many years of frustration. And you also get a rough structure that helps you to find a start and to keep track. Thank you. 😀

[@GrozerVonTeplitz]

Very useful indeed, you are very clever because nobody has ever explained it too me like you do. I actually learned something 😁👍thanks

[@Jefrejtor]

Fastest click of my goddamn life. Love your content (but techno especially ;D)

[@diegosalazar1086]

So many answers in this video! amazing class

[@mattster303]

Really interesting and informative, learned a few things, Thanks!

[@TheC0G]

Absolutely incredible and invaluable video. Thank you for sharing!! 😎👍🎶🎵👏👏

[@grzesiek13307]

I love your videos, big up!

[@Luka_Griffin]

Hi Oscar! About a year ago when I first watched this video I did the frequency test with my cheap headset and way above the 45-40 Hz level, I couldn't hear a thing. I just got a new pro-level headset, and the first thing I remembered was this video. I'm so happy that I can hear those frequencies with this headset. I'm very happy your channel is doing great. Thank you for your content. I hope to become one of your students soon.

[@jonwatte4293]

80 euros should be enough for a pair of MDR 7505 headphones. Mixing only on phones alone isn't great, but it's probably better than just bookshelf speakers. And then look at the spectrogram and compare to good mixes :-)

[@citizenoftheverse4653]

Great video and content as always....

[@AlPlatino]

Thanks for these advices! Cheers from Madrid.

[@draganbevandic2859]

Just what i needed, thanks Oscar!

[@talentro3304]

Thank you sir very well explained I'm sure takes a lot of practice on the tips you shared ❤️

[@emersonvogel5244]

9:40 i think a a pretty widely applicable guideline is to turn something up until you _hear_ it and then roll it down a tiny bit to just _feel_ it

[@Bartyron]

i may be a musical illiterate, but I like the snippets of Hedon and Instinct massively.

[@murat_buyuk]

Still hearing 30Hz, 27Hz was more like feeling than hearing :D

[@SuperRingoffire1]

Brilliant advice cheers 👌😁☮

[@ReasonStudios]

Great tips!

[@xgmode]

Some solid advice here, thanks a lot.

[@daly_ramay]

Thanks Oscar! You make musical world better! I wish you a good luck!

[@FranckMartin]

I enjoyed this video, especially describing what I hear.

[@michaeljohn2029]

Love your videos.... I suffered the same really and only appreciated what your saying when i bought my KRK ROKIT monitors....They are just awesome for me..... Not sure if you know either (i assume you do) but if you press F2 in REASON it bring up a full spectrum analyser EQ box where you can adjust LPF, HPF for each track using a more familiar style line curve...

[@adamdoppler]

Real dope. Thank you so much.

[@binarysun_]

I am most impressed how those old tracks still load in your Ableton version. I have lost numerous tracks through incompatibilities. That's why I stopped using Ableton at some point.

[@goldwingdu44]

Thank you so much for this video !

[@dbdbdb12345]

great video ! thank you !! keep doing good job :)

[@pierrestachowicz5249]

You're freakin fuckin amazing thanks for the quality content mate

[@GeekGearSynths]

Super helpful! Thanks a lot!

[@ivomatos336]

Your generic, played at the end of the video (underdooooooog), is it a track, or just those few seconds? Just curious. Great video btw, learning a lot with all your videos ;)

[@OscarUnderdog]

Just a little stinger I made :) Not a full track. Thanks for asking though!

[@interestedbystander196]

I LOVE this!! ❤

[@Spearced]

Excellent stuff as usual. Regarding the speaker frequency response test: I've never bothered to actually do one for my laptop as I avoid doing anything mixing or sound-design related on anything other than my studio monitors, but since I watch many videos like this on my Macbook (Pro, 2018), I thought I'd give it a try and hear how bad (or not) its speakers are. In the video itself the sound disappeared around 50hz, but when I opened up Max/MSP and swept a sine wave down manually I still had sound down to around 35-40hz, which was interesting. Perhaps something to do with KZbin video compression. Regardless, my Macbook did better than I expected!

[@renx81]

Yeah, it's probably compression. Compression algorithms tend to widen the lower frequencies, while cutting the higher ones. You are right about even 50 Hz being quite impressive for laptop speakers.

[@tonyt303]

Excellent presentation. Thank you. You have one more subscriber xx

[@Reg-Edit]

Great video ✋❤️

[@omojjegomosc8211]

Useful as always

[@FredericVCthinking]

Great video! ✨

[@binsquirrel]

Useful stuff as always

[@nym053]

Hp (24db) at 17-23 hz is where I usually set it, because I don't want my sub to sound less smooth (due to phasing maybe). The BX_Subfilter is a great tool to avoid this though. Haven't used it enough myself. A bumped hp for the kick with env modulation around the key note can also be a trick to clean up as well as give the kick more power. Only started using this though.

[@DeepStateKilla]

-24 too much there. -12, or even -6.

[@roryfunkedub]

That little EQ scope looking button above the HP/LP filter controls opens up the spectrum analyzer.

[@mrvictorick]

So I was curious and decided to test this out on my Airpod Pro Max... 28.2 HZ. I wish latency wasn't a thing with bluetooth. This is an amazing video!

[@Trk-El-Son]

Although you are strict about targeting techno, I would say that pretty much ANY kind of music producer can learn from your videos. Very good stuff.

[@dsyy90210]

agreed, i mostly make rap beats but the principles he talks about seem universally useful

[@BeingAMonkey]

I needed this 24 hour ago before i released my first Techno song 😂

[@pahvalrehljkov]

bruh, your tutorials are amazing, but your techno is even better :D

[@GeorgeLocke]

What is groove? Groove is in the heart.

[@ravemealone]

I remember discovering sidechain... it was gift from heaven 🤯