Day 2 of Dancefair has been yet again an amazing day for us and the team. We have seen many familiar faces, met new people and heard the best tips and tricks from the industry stars and upcoming stars. If you haven’t been to Dancefair we strongly advice you to visit it next year! Day 2 was all about Roog, John Christiaan, Budi Voogt and many more. Read our full report below and let us know what you think!
John Christian
The final day of Dancefair 2016 we started with the masterclass of John Christian. The masterclass was an extension of his masterclass from the day before, but because so many producers asked him to repeat a few topics of that masterclass John started with the highlights of his class from Saturday.
“Always trust your ears”
John told about how to get the kick and bassline work together. Multiple times he said that it is very important to have the kick drums and bassline in the same key. The class started at easy level and was building in to advanced details.
Infinity 2016
After the summary of his class from Saturday he started to dissect his newest single: Infinity 2016. First he let us hear the final product and after that we listened to the project without effects. That version caused a lot of response in the room as it was a major difference. After this introduction he started to reveal how he made this song, very interesting and soon it also became quirt technical, but that was just where we were looking for!
Hardsoul (Roog) Vocal recording and sampling
After the masterclass of John Christian we had some meetings, the masterclass we visited next was the masterclass of Hardsoul about vocals.
First they told about how hard it was for them to establish because they were the first and only one who made soulful vocal House in a time where happy hardcore was big.
After the introduction they started with the tip to first arrange the administration of a deal with a sing and songwriter, before starting to record. They told that a lot of talented vocalists can be found in London. About recording they told that they start recording the verse most of the times. they do a lot of takes until the vocal got the right feeling.
“You don’t need to rent a $1000 a day studio to make good music”
After the recording subject they spoke about editing the vocals. They’ve got a whole list of things they do after recording which includes EQ, compression, de-essing, etc.
After that they have got their dry signal which they load in their DAW. On the question “how do you put the vocals in the right spot of the mix”, they didn’t had a standard solution. They told that it was always a big fight to do, especially on tracks which are meant for the club. It is a fight for frequency, you have got to make a gap for the vocals.
Egbert
After the masterclass of Roog we did split up and one of us was visiting Egbert, who was going to speak about low frequencies.
Egbert did a long introduction about himself, where he came from. He started producing with one of the “trackers” and was alway making music, but he did never put a track online.
After making more than 500 songs he did put a song online and within a week he got reaction from Secret Cinema. It came to a release and he got a lot of support from Sven Väth.
His career went very fast from then, within a month he was the DJ in a huge stadion while he had never Dj’ed before!
After the long introduction he spoke about the kick and bassline, about how to make a sub bassline from your kick and how to check if it got the right keys (put the bassline a few octaves higher for the test). Egbert was using a lot of standard plugins from Fruity Loops Studio and told that it was very important in this digital era to deoptimize the sound, it shouldn’t be perfect, but a bit rough he said.
Marketing with Budi Voogt
Another great masterclass was up ahead, this time by Budi Voogt. He kicked off with a lecture about Soundcloud and his book “The Soundcloud Bible” which is about marketing and exposure on the platform Soundcloud. In this book he explains the ways to get big on Soundcloud with real likes and followers. He learned this when he was the manager for San Holo (DJ and Producer of Bass House). In the beginning he had no knowledge about music distributing, labels but the music was good. Unfortunately once he got the attention of the record labels they showed no interested in the record. Instead of working harder to gain their attention with more tracks he worked the other way around. Starting his own management, own record label and push the artist(s) through these channels with good marketing.
“They say all you need is 1000 true fans”
One of the many tips Budi Voogt gave in his lecture was that you need to schedule your releases (and free downloads) properly. Try to push something in the market every 3 to 4 weeks. Best is to do a free download first, then a regular release, a free download again and once again a regular release. Try and create momentum, build a good platform of fans (and super fans) and keep engaging with them. If you have a superfan let them know that you appreciate them and keep them engaged with you and your music.
We totally agree with Budi, but we feel that he is missing one thing out: it all starts with quality content. If your music is not good (not in key, drums are lacking on punch, etc), you don’t know how to represent yourself (logo, corporate identity, press photos) you will get a very hard time building your fan base. But most of all you must believe in yourself and your music.
Entrepreneur with Sebastiaan Hooft
Sebastiaan is an entrepreneur who has a passion for (House) music. His presentation was about how to manage time for yourself and your career. Sebastiaan first talked about his paste when he ended up in a hospital in 2009. He worked (almost literally) 24/7. In the hospital he realized that he needed to change his live. He sold his companies but knew soon enough what his next big step was going to be…
“Find an audience – make what people want”
Sebastiaan wanted to a be a DJ and producer, share his passion for music with other people and combining this with his entrepreneurship. You need to see yourself as a brand, to be a top entrepreneur you need 5 things:
Idea – What you do
Team – Who you dit with
Planning – Understanding where you come from, where you are and where you are going to
Recourses – What you have, and what you need
Health – How to measure your success
We can go in-depth about the full lecture but honestly we advice you to follow one of the many seminars Sebastiaan is giving! One thing we do want to share is that you need to be surrounded with people who are professional, who want to help you or those who are willing to be your mentor (or be part of your team).
If you have any questions or tips about this write-up please feel free to contact us on Twitter or Facebook!