Main and side issues
The Big-4 has been developed from the live experiences of our founders and coaches and separates main and side issues during your development.
The method is an inspiration for teachers from many musical institutes around the world who visit us to witness how we teach, and is the most important secret behind the level of our students.
1. IDEA
Defining boundaries
A clear idea is the foundation of a top track. Limiting your options and setting rules and (genre based) boundaries will help you keep focus. Which impact should the track make and which emotion should it create? You develop the skills to channel your inspiration and become highly effective.
Your own sound
Discover which genres fit you best, broaden your musical scope and dive into the history of your genres for sounds that inspire you. Find reference songs that tell you what your stand for as a future producer.
2. TRACKS
Learning by analysis
The stems are the separate sounds of your tracks. Analyzing your favorite tracks is the foundation of building your stem-toolkit.
What is so good about your favorite tracks? Which elements does it consist of and which skills do you need to reproduce them? You learn these skills from your coach to reach a high level of producing.
Less is more
You focus on the most important elements of a great track and how to come up with a great melody, bassline and chord scheme. Chosing the right sounds is very important before you can apply the ‘less is more’ concept.
3. STRUCTURE
Keep it interesting
The structure of your track determines if it keeps the attention of the listener. Which developments should take place and when, which instruments should play where and why.. Solving these arrangement issues really helps to produce great tracks fast. This is hard to find knowledge and has big impact on your producer level.
Learn to hear it
Professional dance producers make big impact with minor alterations of sounds, to keep a track gripping without adding new layers of sound. You learn to hear these alterations and apply this knowledge to add or delete sounds during the track.
4. MIXING
Creating that big fat sound
Mixing stands for the sound of your track as a whole. It is determined by the sound of the individual stems, and the relationship between them. You learn how to adjust levels of beats, instruments and vocals to create the best mix.
3D Approach
You learn to hear the different sound dimensions and their relationship by looking at hight, width and depth. Hight: volumes, EQ’ing compression and side-chaining. Width: panning, stereo imaging. Depth is the use of effects like reverb and delay.
Mastering
Mastering is adjusting the overall sound of your track, to shine on any kind of medium or device like radio, Spotify, car stereo or club system.
Though mastering can be yourself we highly recommend to outsource this task to a professional mastering engineer. You learn how to create the best mix of your track and what a Mastering engineer does. And what is needed for him/her to be able to deliver the best results for your tracks.
RELEASING YOUR TRACKS
How to get a lable release
When you and your coach are convinced your tracks are at release level we guide you to the right connections and labels. We have a clear view on how good your tracks are and when you can go looking for the right label.
Life as a producer
Life as a producer isn’t easy and making money from your music is a privilege that is not easily obtained. We coach you in how to develop as a musical entrepreneur to succeed in achieving your goals.
It is crucial to discover what your ‘unique selling point’ is and which image you should build around that. Learning to be yourself and stand for your unique sound is a journey on it’s own.
HOW WE COACH YOU
At DJ School Amsterdam we pay a lot of attention to the way of coaching you. We always work 1-on-1 because we believe this is the only way to master an art form like producing and to find your own style.
No matter how proud we are of our Big-4 method, it can only exist by the power of the individual while transferring knowledge. Individual coaching is only fun when there is a good connection with the tutor.
That’s why we have a team of teachers that consists of very accessible, likable, openminded and dedicated DJ’s and producers with whom a ‘click’ is usually very quickly made.
