everything you need to know you can learn from Groove Salad on SOMA FM.

http://somafm.com/play/groovesalad

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Chillout for me means trip-hop, acid jazz, downtempo funky shizzit. Start listening to Kruder & Dorfmeister, Tosca, Count Basic, Boards of Canada, even Moby. Even some of the less ghetto hip-hop is good for gaining an understanding of downtempo music. Please put away the chicane and cafe del mar shit, that's not chillout, it's trance music with the percussion taken out.

Listen to breakbeats too. Almost every good chillout track uses one; not the Amen break or anything particularly aggressive, but rhythm-wise, it's just really hard to make a slow track flow with a four-on-the-floor beat. A broken beat helps fill up all that empty space.

Psy-chillout or experimental music in the vein of Shulman or BT's Binary Universe are great examples too if you're leaning more toward the ambient side, but damned if I can even come close to imitating their sounds.

As for workflow, my advice is start with a deep (not aggressive) bassline and some light drums - snares, rimshots, sticks, etc. Then add some chords - not pads, but foreground elements, like a piano or guitar but try to find something less cliché. Make sure you make it swing/shuffle a bit as well. After you have at least some idea where the track is really going, then you can start piling on the ambient effects, and go nuts with 'em.

If you start out with just a crapton of ambient sounds and try to add substance later, the end product will sound like a crapton of ambient sounds with a couple of rhythmic elements tossed in, not like a cohesive chillout tune.

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quote:

Originally posted by DJ RANN Sorry to hijack, but I actually need a TON of good chillout for a spa I'm invloved with (extremely long story).

Electric Calm and Afterhours series from Global Underground are very nice.

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Well, I wouldn't worry about the tempo too much actually. Theres a lot of great chillout at 170, 140, 130, and 98 BPM. Its a very flexible genre tempo wise. I'd actually say tis more an attitude than a genre...
/DJ sprinkles

I'd just get some chords down, listen to some of the rhythms in chilled out music, you obviously won't be wanting a 4 to the floor beat if your up at 170 BPM, but it can work at 110 or something. Otherwise, just look into nice string sections, lots of pads, less percussion, more emphasis on the deepness... Some of the earlier people - actually not really, just some of the more popular people maybe?- to make more chilled tracks were enigma, so I'd maybe look there for a very generic template of what goes where.

RANN, aside from the obvious Chicane, Afterlife, everything but the girl, way out west stuff (which is chilled trance as far as I'm concerned, not just trance without the beats:whip you might also look into stuff on Elevation records. they released a best of some time a year or so ago with fuckloads of really cool deep tracks. Not really chillout, but I think even with chilled music, you really want some beats occasionally. I'd also throw some Bpitch Control stuff, they have a lot of good ambientish shit, artists like Apparat, Telefon Tel Aviv, Fuckpony, are all great. Dubstep is also a good source for stuff.

Like I said, I think its an attitude not a genre, so I can't really think of any music that fits into the "chillout" category specifically, without having other strong crossovers...

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There are a few here on this board that produce ambient/chill, most of you guys know about the awesomeness that is Owen F. But check out the work of Joss Weatherby too, and if you can get some old school Kopi tracks, those were great works!

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as with anything you will have a whole bundle of shit before you begin to master the nuances. you just need to start somewhere.

I had my biggest breakthroughs making downtempo type stuff; EDM felt too rigid and bound by rules and principles - I was not able to develop properly within those limits. All that tension and release shit, all the trademark sounds.

With downtempo, I could forget all about arranging with tension and release in mind. It was just a matter of finding a starting point. An interesting pad or sequence, maybe even a processed drumloop. Start at one and and just keep piling on.

An example. This started with a simple rhodes sequence automating out from under a reverb with FX on top, and just keep adding sounds. The great thing about downtempo is that its so easy to add drama to the tracks.

http://soundcloud.com/turbotrixie/k...berg-momentum-1


If all else fails, just sitting down really exploring a synth can lead to some cool ideas also.


shit, am I even allowed to post songlinks in this forum?

edit: how do you embed soundcloud players haaaalp!

edit2: trying to emulate BT's stuff will probably lead to suicide on your part

quote:

Originally posted by cryophonik

quote:

Originally posted by BshidoHEAT

Thank you both very much

Rann - I'd also check out Helios.

So, what is the distinction between chillout and new age? Seems like a rather blurry line.

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There are a lot of good chillout tracks in Hed Kandi compilations. Check out 'acid lounge in space' or 'winter chill', etc...

Groove Armada, Thievery Corporation, 45 DIP, Jens Buchert...too many artists to name.

quote:

Originally posted by aNYthing So, what is the distinction between chillout and new age?

Bathing.

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My party schedule:
2009-02-21 - DJ Attention @ I'm So Popular
2009-06-18 - DJ Annoying @ People Need To Know Where I'll Be
2012-11-32 - DJ Insufferable ɸ Or At Least the Stalkers I Complain About
2048-06-66 - Spastic & Whocares ¶ Although I'm Actually Flattered
9999-45-81 - Tweaker Gimp ☼ I Probably Won't Even Go To This But I Have To Make Sure I Fill Up All The Available Space Here

quote:

Originally posted by DigiNut Bathing.

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