The easy secret to writing bigger tracks

Most of the time when producers are thinking about writing huge tunes for the dancefloor they think it's about fancy sound design, complicated mixing techniques, or writing a huge drop with tons of layers.

I've found it's really quite the opposite.

The big secret is really about pulling everything out to create moments.

Let me explain.

The most iconic dance music tunes that go off live usually have all of the elements stripped out during one part of the song and BREATHE. They have one moment, one section in the song that all the focus is on.

I'm going to use 2 examples to show this in use. One of them from older edm and one from a newer song.

Example 1: Showtek - Booyah 

Everyone knows that iconic synth line. It really came down to that moment where nothing but the synth was playing in the song that made the MOMENT. Sound design and a good melody was a part of it, but that sound of everything pulled out of the song and only the lead playing made it epic.

 Example 2: Mau P - Drugs from Amsterdam

Here's a new age house example too. Everyone goes crazy to that vocal into the drop fake out. Another good riff and decent sound design, but just that lead synth playing alone by itself in the pre-drop that really makes the moment in this one. The vocal was also a great memorable line which adds and really makes it stick.

So what is the big take away?

LESS IS MORE.

To create the huge moment on the dancefloor you need to pull things out and put all the attention on one element sometimes. It's not even really about the drop as much as it is about setting the moment up before. This can feel counterintuitive to what a producer should think. After studying a few songs like this, I believe focusing your effort on a great lead and then making a special moment for it by itself is a common thread amongst some of the biggest dancefloor bangers out there in dance music.

See ya next week!

-Henry