Rich Ellis’ new UK Garage anthem is available via London-based Bad Parrot
There’s been a glorious and most welcome revival of UK Garage over the past few years, with artists like Sammy Virji and Interplanetary criminal bringing the genre an element of mainstream success for the first time since the early naughties. The below cut from Scottish producer Rich Ellis, might be one of the freshest takes we’ve heard on the genre for a long time. Filled with lush, funk-rich groove, it’s a track that nods to the heritage just enough – without losing it’s modern production style
Speaking about the elements that make up the track, Rich Ellis says: “”Float’ blends the heavier side of Garage with the lighter, smoother side. It’s definitely dance music, but I was listening to a lot of 90s R&B around the time I made it and I think that influence definitely seeped through. I wanted it to be as easy to dance to in a club as it is to listen at home.”
We asked Rich to take us through how the track was made..
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Arturia Pigments
Most of the synth sounds in this song were made using Pigments. It’s my favourite wavetable synth, and I personally think it’s a much better option than Serum / Massive / Vital just because it just sounds better. The FX are great, and I love that you are able to process the sound so it fits in the mix from entirely within the synth. You can do that in other synth plugins, but not to the same extent. Pigments has parallel processing, sends and returns, the full lot.
For ‘Float’ a lot of the sounds are fairly basic. I don’t really feel like there’s much super complex sound design in UK Garage generally. The majority of the classic UKG sounds are based around sine waves and are pretty simple, and that’s definitely the case for ‘Float’. The notes in the MIDI clips are doing the talking, as opposed to any intricate synth patches.
VISION 4X
This is by far the plugin that has made the biggest impact on my production in the last few years. My biggest advice to someone wanting to improve their production skills is to LEARN WHAT YOU LIKE. VISION 4X helps you do exactly that. By analysing my favourite music through a spectrogram or oscilloscope, I can see why my favourite mixes sound the way they do, and apply those principles to my own productions. It vastly reduces any guess work when mixing, and for ‘Float’, I could ensure the mix was in the same world as the songs that inspired it.
Ableton Spectral Time
Long Live Stock Ableton Audio Effects! With this effect you can add delay to different areas of the frequency spectrum, which is how I got the sweeping sound in the synth during the drop. The ‘Tilt’ knob is the secret to that – positive values delay the upper frequencies more than the lower ones, and negative values add more delay to the low frequencies rather than higher ones.
It works really nice as an alternative to an ADSR Envelope. It’s similar to modulating the filter cut-off, but it’s different and doesn’t sound the same. I really like the swirling sound it gave and feel like it gives a feeling of being underwater, which helped give the song its name.
Devious Machines Infiltrator
This is a weird one. It’s a Multi-Effects plugin, with some unbelievable presets. I’m not in control with this one. I just run a sound through it, hit the randomise button, and then see what comes out. It completely transforms anything you run through it and you almost feel like you’re part of the audience because you don’t know what it’s going to spit back out at you. I got recommended by a friend a while back and it’s been my go-to way to mangle a sound ever since.
In ‘Float’ I ran a sample through it and experimented with some filter randomisation. I recorded it while cycling through some filtering presets, and then took the best parts from the recording to use in the song. That’s how the funky filter-y sounds were made in the drop.
Quick Fire Tips For Making This Genre
- Learn what you like! Stop guessing and look at as much of your favourite music as you can through analyser plugins.
- ‘Hook’s’ are often seen as a pop-music must have, but I think they are equally as important in dance music.
- More time should be spent picking the right drum samples than doing any kind of post-processing. If you’ve picked the right sample, then the only thing that should NEED adjusting is the level.
- I think there’s a case to say that build ups are more important than drops. A drop only hits hard if there’s anticipation for it, so take the time to make sure you’re building tension effectively.
- Surprising your listener will entertain them. Take risks. Make unexpected moves. Dance music is meant to be exciting!
The post How It’s Made: Rich Ellis takes us through his new single “Float” appeared first on Magnetic Magazine.