Composing DJ Music

70

By peteratomic

Photo by David Haines
Photo by David Haines

Patterns for Correctly Structuring Your Tracks

If you are new to producing dance music (whether house, breakbeat, progressive, techno or other genres) there are certain patterns and techniques you need to follow to make your track "DJ friendly." These fall under two main categories - structure and composition. Be mindful of them as you're creating your track.

DJ Music Structure


While there are always some variations, this is the format that most producers use when creating their tracks. This is to ensure that your track can be easily mixed with other records, or as is the more common case today, MP3s and other digital formats.

If you're gonna press onto vinyl, you should be able to see distinct grooves where these sections are. (Take a look at some records for reference.) If someone is using music mixing software, then these changes should be fairly obvious in the wave forms.

32 Bars Intro and Outro - "Bookends" to Your Track


The most common structural element for DJ tracks is the 32 bar intro and outro. Minimal elements are best. Kicks, snares, hi-hats and a maybe a little bit of FX to flavor it. Rarely will anyone place any bass or synth melodies within these sections because they're going to be mixed with another track, so less is best.

32 - 64 bars


Bass line kicks in and we're starting to feel the build. If you want the meat of your track to have a complicated or very melodic bass line, then it's best to start with something minimal. Reduce it to a few notes. This is also best for those DJs who like to do long, 64 bar mixes. You don't want any overpowering bass or synth parts in this section because a DJ could still be mixing your track with another.


64 bar break


Usually this is a short one, lasting only 16 bars. The drums drop out, giving a sense of space and dancers a chance to take a breath. It's a little breather before you get to the real meat of your track. For DJs doing long mixes this is usually the point where the previous track ended, so having a little drum roll, cymbal crash or whooshing sound right at the end of 64 bars is a nice effect (especially if there's some nice ending on the DJ's previous record).

If you're using any samples in the song, you could play a short bit here. Another possibility is to introduce part of your main hook. This usually sounds great with the drums missing. Imagine it pumping through a sound system without any kicks and snares - best to have a nice juicy sound here!

80 - 128 bars


The length of this section can vary, but most tracks build up around for at least 32-48 bars before the big break in the middle. This is your chance to go a little bit wild, but don't give it all away yet! You should make this section your chance to constantly introduce new sounds every 8 bars, building the track into a frenzy before the big break. Bring your unique percussion sounds and melodies in and out (then back again) but always mindful that this section should be leading to a major release. For the last 16 bars before the break, try rising pitches, swooshes and other obvious builds to create the sense of release at:

128 bars -- the 32 bar break

32 bars is the standard, but there are always exceptions. There's a 50/50 chance that the DJ playing your record will be mixing in beats from the next record or will just the song play out as you produced it. So it should be minimal, but interesting. This is the time for voice samples (if it's an instrumental track), long ambient sound effects and other interesting sounds. This break gives dancers a chance to catch their breaths and for the DJ to prepare the incoming record. In the last 8-16 bars you'll want to do another build to prepare people to come out of the break. Dubbed out percussion, crazy synth effects and other swooshing sounds are great to pull people back into the beat at:

160 bars


Go nuts. This is your solo moment where you can introduce the complete hook of your song, revealing what you've been hinting at all along. From here it's really up to you how long you want to play this out -- let the melody and the rhythm be your guide. But know that your DJ is ready to mix in the next record, so don't let it last forever.

Final 32 bars


No bass line, minimal synths. The next track is in, yours is almost over, so go totally minimal. The last 32 bars can often be a duplicate of the first 32, with some modifications, usually in FX and such. It's up to you whether you want to put a roll, whoosh or cymbal at the very end. Sometimes its really nice because it blends with the DJs next track well, but it should almost never be melodic in nature. If you have too many melodies playing in the last 32, your DJ is gonna have a hard time mixing it with another record.

Always keep in mind, DJing is an art and your track is their paintbrush!

Final Thoughts - Mastering

If you're an apartment dweller, most likely you can't run a loud sound system at three in the morning while you're working on your track. Most of us tend to work on tracks using our DJ headphones and while it may make the track sound great, beware of being convinced that it's ready for the clubs.

The reason for this is that most of the best DJ headphones have artificially boosted low ends which is necessary in order to hear a kick in a noisy club. The reality is, if you want your track to bump you're gonna need to get it mastered. Only those with tons of experience producing electronica should try to master the track themselves. Hiring a pro is a necessity.

One thing you can do to test it out to see how it sounds is to go in to a club before or after hours and see how it sounds next to one of your favorite tracks. That will give you a good idea of how it matches up and will tell you if you need to work on more compression, isolating frequencies to prevent mud, fattening up the kick, etc. But after all that's done, hire a pro to do the final mastering -- you won't regret it!

working