what are the elements of making HARD HOUSE?
- Thread starter dxl
- Start date
HOOVERS
those lawnmower/chainsaw/jet ski sounding slides.
Judging strictly by U.K. Hard House / Hard Trance / Hard Dance / NuNrg / whatever you want to call it. . .the formula appears quite simple :
This may sound cynical, but. . .
These types of tracks spend maybe 4 phrases (32 measures) in the intro w/ pulsing bassline (NuNrg has a more interesting bassline, f/ what I've heard), leads, angry synths, and then quickly a breakdown, leading to a 4 phrase build, with vocal cuts, hoovers, increasing occurance of sounds/loops, doubling up of loops ("doubling up" imm, means taking a 4 beat loop and just looping beats 1 and 2 over and over), a loud siren sounding thing, and then a measure before the peak, everything cuts out except for some background high synth, add vocal cut, drop in the track with a loud explosion sound and continue at this pace while gradually fading out individual tracks until the kick and snare at the end.
Some of it sounds good, most of it (that I've heard) sounds templatey. The variation comes from the different rythms, patterns, and melodies that are constructed by a combination of all the synths/hoovers/ etc.
There is not really that much which is "essential" for HH, unless you want to make one of those template tracks.
anyway, good luck bruddah
those lawnmower/chainsaw/jet ski sounding slides.
Judging strictly by U.K. Hard House / Hard Trance / Hard Dance / NuNrg / whatever you want to call it. . .the formula appears quite simple :
This may sound cynical, but. . .
These types of tracks spend maybe 4 phrases (32 measures) in the intro w/ pulsing bassline (NuNrg has a more interesting bassline, f/ what I've heard), leads, angry synths, and then quickly a breakdown, leading to a 4 phrase build, with vocal cuts, hoovers, increasing occurance of sounds/loops, doubling up of loops ("doubling up" imm, means taking a 4 beat loop and just looping beats 1 and 2 over and over), a loud siren sounding thing, and then a measure before the peak, everything cuts out except for some background high synth, add vocal cut, drop in the track with a loud explosion sound and continue at this pace while gradually fading out individual tracks until the kick and snare at the end.
Some of it sounds good, most of it (that I've heard) sounds templatey. The variation comes from the different rythms, patterns, and melodies that are constructed by a combination of all the synths/hoovers/ etc.
There is not really that much which is "essential" for HH, unless you want to make one of those template tracks.
anyway, good luck bruddah
my advice to add to popdz:
i like hard house, but 90% of hardhouse tracks i have heard are complete crap, only a handful are quality. what makes most hard house crap IMO is the repetitive 2-4 note bassline loops that are common in most hard house. if you listen to a good house song it will have a bassline loop that is at least 16 notes. boring do-do-do do-do-do basslines get old real fast. catchy hoover rifts are easy to come by, but good basslines are not. so keep that in mind when making your hh track.
i like hard house, but 90% of hardhouse tracks i have heard are complete crap, only a handful are quality. what makes most hard house crap IMO is the repetitive 2-4 note bassline loops that are common in most hard house. if you listen to a good house song it will have a bassline loop that is at least 16 notes. boring do-do-do do-do-do basslines get old real fast. catchy hoover rifts are easy to come by, but good basslines are not. so keep that in mind when making your hh track.
K
KasioRoks
Guest
dxl,
the important sounds for HardHaus are clearly ones that maintain/bring on a rush. Minimal super hard drums, throbbing bass and pads & leads that sweep upwards. when you're trying to chew your face off the last thing you want to worry about is a groove.
KasioRoks
the important sounds for HardHaus are clearly ones that maintain/bring on a rush. Minimal super hard drums, throbbing bass and pads & leads that sweep upwards. when you're trying to chew your face off the last thing you want to worry about is a groove.
KasioRoks
I actually quite like the boring, off-beat basslines... slight variation on the fourth occurrence deal. Like the man said, when you're rushing off your tits, complexity is not necessarily a good thing!! I really think the Keep It Simple rule applies!
Also, pitch your kick up a semitone, and whack a low pass filter on it to get that "knock knock"' sound.
I'm still working on my hoover technique...
There's an article over at (thinks... FM or somthing)
here we go: http://www.futuremusic.co.uk/fm_mmusic.asp?ID=4044
Also, pitch your kick up a semitone, and whack a low pass filter on it to get that "knock knock"' sound.
I'm still working on my hoover technique...
There's an article over at (thinks... FM or somthing)
here we go: http://www.futuremusic.co.uk/fm_mmusic.asp?ID=4044
Bongo Fiend
New member
Agreed. Worst of all, 90% of hard house has one of about 3 bass sounds - there's a fairly innocent trancey bass, a hard/'percussive'/distorted bass, and there's a warbley deep bass (like Untidy Dubs). And I'm sick of bloody hoover samples, sped-up vocal samples and the predictable 'how harsh a riff can we come up with' mentality!!!DJMangazm said:
If you want to make decent hard house, then I think you should try very hard NOT to sound like the template described above. N.B. PopD, I think you've described the style fairly accurately
The only real rule is that it should be around 140-150bpm, and it should have lots of energy. Now there's nothing wrong with that
I've heard some cool stuff by Nick Sentience - some of his stuff rocks without sounding cheesy/samey.
my buddy's roommate breaks it down in this article
D
djdalmation
Guest
I assume you guys are talking about UK Hard House. I'm from the NYC area so whenever anyone speaks of hard house around here they are referring to NYC Hard House which is in my opinion a somewhat different sound. To me UK Hard House has a "bouncy" sound and is somewhat happier. I really like dark almost scary sounding nyc hard house/hard trance. Does anyone at all listen to NYC hard house in any other part of the world? Maybe it's just under a different name? I'm curious.
DJ Nomar
DJ Nomar
D
djdalmation
Guest
Macguyver - Angel Of Darkness
Macguyver - Do You
Arome - Scream
Derb - Derbis
Mario Piu - Morpheus
Machine - Rocket
Depending on the dj spinning many times it can be very vocal (divas) and tribal a la Junior Vasquez or it can be very very hard and techhouseish like some thing a Jonathan Peters or Tony Draper would play.
DJ Nomar
Macguyver - Do You
Arome - Scream
Derb - Derbis
Mario Piu - Morpheus
Machine - Rocket
Depending on the dj spinning many times it can be very vocal (divas) and tribal a la Junior Vasquez or it can be very very hard and techhouseish like some thing a Jonathan Peters or Tony Draper would play.
DJ Nomar
Bongo Fiend
New member
Cool - I will check out some of this stuff. I much prefer darker house musicdjdalmation said:
Yes, I agree UK 'hard' house often sounds quite happy/cheesy to me. But in principle I like its bounciness.
D
djdalmation
Guest
Hard Trance and NYC Hard House definitely crossover at times but I think there is definitely a difference in the majority of the tracks.
Scot Project - Overdrive - Hard Trance
DJ Manu - The Shaker - NYC Hard House
In my opinion.
DJ Nomar
Scot Project - Overdrive - Hard Trance
DJ Manu - The Shaker - NYC Hard House
In my opinion.
DJ Nomar
S
Scramblicious
Guest
I take it.
that you frequent Sound Factory...
I agree, UK hard house has a different feel than NYC hard house.. Not saying either is better or worse just that UK hard house has a more up beat sound whereas many newer NYC hard house producers are making stuff that litterally sounds like HELL on earth.
Dj macguyvar - Is Calling, Angel Of darkness, The Prophetchy
Many JP(Jonathan Peters remixes and dubs) kreigen
gotta love it.
I think that the NYC sound all in all is much more dingy dirty and dark.. its how can i say it very Evil sounding..
Scares the girls right of the dancefloor. hahaha.
djdalmation said:
that you frequent Sound Factory...
I agree, UK hard house has a different feel than NYC hard house.. Not saying either is better or worse just that UK hard house has a more up beat sound whereas many newer NYC hard house producers are making stuff that litterally sounds like HELL on earth.
Dj macguyvar - Is Calling, Angel Of darkness, The Prophetchy
Many JP(Jonathan Peters remixes and dubs) kreigen
gotta love it.
I think that the NYC sound all in all is much more dingy dirty and dark.. its how can i say it very Evil sounding..
Scares the girls right of the dancefloor. hahaha.
D
djdalmation
Guest
That's a totally accurate description and yes I frequent SF and JP still bangs. I do think that there is alot of terrible cheesy hard house that gets played in whack clubs (mostly in jersey) that really gives people the wrong impression of what the NYC Hardhouse sound is all about. Besides in clubs like Soundfactory you don't get to hear what nyc hardhouse is until after 5AM anyway.
DJ Nomar
DJ Nomar
S
Scramblicious
Guest
djdalmation said:
By 11 am its real real real dark.
thats why ya gotta get there at 5!! lol
G
GaryG
Guest
post removed by author.
Last edited by a moderator:
Bongo Fiend
New member
Well I can't say I overly like all hard house - there is a lot of very samey stuff out there - but it's the same with trance, d+b, hip hop, etc. The point is, in all these genres, there is good stuff too.GaryG said:
So who cares about the crap stuff. In fact, who cares if there's more crap than good? Slating a genre as a whole is meaningless - it just says that you're not willing to dig out the good stuff. I find 90% of the hard house I've heard quite boring - but I wouldn't say "hard house is boring" because the good 10% of it makes it worthwhile.