Eurobeat in GarageBand (The Next Step)

Okay! Some of you may have been paying attention to (or otherwise stumbled upon) my directions on how to use the basic Garageband instruments to create a basic Eurobeat arrangement. That is, just the basic sounds you can get once you update the Garageband Software. However, that guide does not address the Jam Packs that Apple has available for GB, which vastly expands the fledgling producer’s repertoire.

Welcome to Part 2: Kicking things up a notch! In this case we’ll be working with the Jam Packs that I have (meaning, everything but the Vocal FX Jam Pack), and working off the sounds supplied there!

OVERVIEW

So. You’ve tinkered a few times with the sounds I suggested last time and are pretty satisfied. But with the dearth of new sounds, it’s worth exploring new territory. In fact, in order to produce any amount of diverse Eurobeat works, one MUST learn to incorporate new/varying sounds. After all, not every Eurobeat song uses that synth-brass sound; most Aishu (slower, more sentimental Eurobeat) uses a rounder, more crystalline sound, and some songs use a shorter-length “clickier” brass that’s used in very quick succession (think Speedy Speed Boy or “Initial Rin” Buchigiri Ni Shite Ageru). And that’s EXCLUDING such groups as SAIFAM who will use darn near any synth sound, or Hi-NRG Attack who has used literal brass and even an accordion! Also, attentive listeners will notice that “stabs” prominent in most Eurobeat productions are difficult if not impossible to mimic in the basic GB sounds. With the new sounds in the Jam Packs this is no longer a problem. Before we go too crazy, though, we need to use the basics to…

FLESH OUT THE SOUNDBED

“Wha? Zoupzuop2, not everyone understands your music lingo.”
In layman’s terms, this means “make the song sound fuller”. If you have too many high-pitch instruments your song will sound tinny; too many bass sounds, it sounds drudgy and almost depressing. Also, too many sustained sounds makes the song seem like it “drags”, and too many quick sounds makes it sound weak (of course, these CAN be used to a composer’s advantage if taken into account). I find that the best productions have a nice mix of many layers of all of those; some mid-range sustained notes holding the basic chord structure together, with some hard-hitting bass and small trills of high-pitched strikes. Phil Spector is known for the “Wall of Sound” approach (amongst other things I won’t go into); I vary in the sense that instead of many instruments playing the same thing, my approach is many instruments playing similar/supplemental things that cover the general audio spectrum (High-Mid-Low). Given that much of this is personal approach and ‘flavor’, it’s up to you to agree and implement or prove that the opposite may be true.
Nevertheless, let’s consider some basic Eurobeat arrangements and how they can be attained with our new Jam Packs.

THE “STAB”

So many new producers don’t have this, and it really kills the Eurobeat feel if neglected! Fortunately we have a sound called “Ard Core” (hurr hurr) that we can modify to make a workable “stab” sound (a chord played on the same beats as the bass). Select the Ard Core sound, then next to the word “Manual”, click the pencil logo (I’ll refer to that step as “Modify” from here on for speed) and change the sound. I use these settings:

• MODULATION: 91
• CUTOFF: Crank it to 127.
• RESONANCE: 52
• ATTACK: 58
• DECAY: 102
• SUSTAIN: 103
• RELEASE: 51

That gives us our basic “stab” on the beats! You can already go back and fill these in for your previous tunes, or incorporate them into your new/current works. Don’t get too carried away though, we’ve just gotten started!

BEEFING UP THE DRUMS

Oh! Before I continue, if you have the “Euro Dance Kit”, start using that instead of Dance Kit. In fact, you can use that ALMOST exclusively, the sounds are MUCH more conducive to making decent-sounding Eurobeat. After all, Eurodance and Eurobeat are both descendant of the same parent genre (Italo Disco), so work with it as much as you like, unless the Dance Kit is your preference.

AISHU (*Sniff… sniff… SOB*)

Anyone who’s listened to Norma Sheffield songs at ANY point knows what Aishu is; this is quickly followed up by such names as Leslie Parrish and (arguably) Rick Castle. These songs tend to use a different setup than the traditional “BLAST ‘EM WITH ENERGY” approach. A common arrangement for this would be your basic Drum Kits, a round bass sound (try to go for one that’s not too distorted; the basic “Round Synth Bass” or Trance Bass with the echo removed works well), any sort of strings (I tend to like the Orchestra “Xtra Cello Sect Legato” a lot, it sounds a great deal like the same thing), and Berneray Chill (for the life of me I can’t seem to find the folder that contains this…) for the lead. The way I like to do things is I’ll take the Chill and pair it with a Piano, and let the sounds really ring out. Let the Chill dominate, in this case. Aishu is the closest thing to “dark beauty” you can get in Eurobeat, so let the riff really sound out, and don’t let much pollute the somber feel.

ENERGY’S OVER THE RED DEGREES~

Speedy Speed Boy! I Will Survive! My Rock is for Japan! Bratt Sinclaire really seems to like sounds like this, and we could argue that Go Gos Music’s “hit-synth” is very close to it. If you want to give this sound a try, let’s revisit our friend the Ard Core. This is a sound I’m still working out, to be honest, but what I’ve found comes close comes from Modifying Ard Core to these specs:

• MODULATION: 91
• CUTOFF: Cranked to 127
• RESONANCE: I like this high, like 114.
• ATTACK: 58
• DECAY: 28 (Remember, the sound doesn’t have much longevity of its own!)
• SUSTAIN: 17 (See above hint)
• RELEASE: 51

Remember to use this sound in really fast riff lines. Getting this sound right is a bit tricky, as it requires a certain flavor of riff, usually chord-based by default (whereas a synth-brass can be somewhat more single-note oriented).

YOU GOTTA FIGHT THEM ‘COS YOU’LL BE THE ONE

SAIFAM… they’ve put out songs I’ve loved, loathed, and both at the same time. In either case, they have some of the most distinguishable sound choices in the Eurobeat world, much like Hi-NRG Attack does. One such sound that sets them apart is this really heavy-hitting, almost distorted Bass. This sound doesn’t work in every approach, but if you want an aggressive sound with lots of speed and energy, hit this one up. (In fact, a good practice to have is to use more than one bass sound, or mix the same sound very differently each time so it sounds different. Don’t let your sounds go stale!)
For my “Saifam-esque” bass sound, I used a Digital Mono instrument and used THESE specs in the Modifier:

• TUNING: 42
• HARMONICS: 0. Zilch. Don’t touch ‘em.
• TIMBRE: 16 (BTW, for those unfamiliar with this term, Timbre— pronounced “TAHM-brr”, for reasons known only to whoever made the word up— has to do with the specific nature of the sound; I.E, why a saxophone sounds different from a trumpet or a tuba or a log of wood.)
• TIMBRE ENVELOPE: Also 16.
• DECAY: 37
• RICHNESS: 33
• DISTORTION: 3 (Could be 0, see why in just a sec)

Now hit up the Visual Equalizer and give the very extreme edges a very light boost. The reason we didn’t distort this sound is because the extreme nature of the sound as it is— with no harmonics and low numbers in other fields— gives it its own “carry”. You can apply overdrive to this sound but it’s unnecessary if you ask me.

SHAKE IT LIKE A POLAROID PIT-CHA

One thing I’ve noticed in a lot of Eurobeat songs is the use of Modulation— that is, when the synth brass starts to sound “shaky”. If you don’t know what I mean, revisit the basic Synth Brass sound we made together in the first EB in GB tutorial, go under the Piano Roll/”Scissors” button, and click the dropdown that says “notes” and click “Modulation”. Play around with it (and maybe the Pitchbend too if you haven’t already).
Now that you know what modulation sounds like, let’s put it to practical use. The sound we’ve made is a bit TOO “shaky” at 127 Modulation, so instead of giving a note/set of notes a constant value of 127, I make a “ramp” in the editor that goes from 0 to 100, then cuts off.
BY THE WAY! It’s important to know this about GarageBand’s Modulation/Pitchbend editors: To make one point just beneath the other (say you wanted to make the ramp I suggested), first you draw the beginning point at 0, then the end point at 0, THEN you click above it at the value you want. This may take some VERY slight mouse movements to get the exact value you want (God forbid GB could just let it work…), but it’s worth it.

Alright, I’m over it now, brah

Alright! That’s enough out of me. Those are some of the presets I use in Garageband when I arrange/compose, and my approaches. With this info, you’ve got enough to make Eurobeat songs worthy of attention and praise!
Before I conclude, though, some of you may notice I don’t address EQUALIZATION very much, at least, not for more than one instrument, anyway. The reason I don’t address this is twofold:

1. I’m still learning how to do this myself. Some sounds in the very same instrument field (basses, synth leads, guitars) need wildly different mixing in my experience, and not all of my songs follow the “proven” methods.
2. There is no ONE, SET way to do things. ABeatC and Go Gos Music do not mix the same way as each other. A Time song is mixed very differently from a Hi-NRG song. Most songs don’t use as much reverb as SinclaireStyle songs seem to use. I could go on, but the point is, it’s up to you to experiment, make mistakes, FIX the mistakes, and create unique mixes FROM those mistakes to make something that catches our attention.

In fact, my entire personal musicianship journey, from MIDISoft Studio to Logic Studio, could be claimed to be one big collection of small mistakes that worked. Now, go out and make yours.