Amable / Guides / Hard dance beat
How to make a hard dance beat in Ableton Live 12
Hard dance brings back the late-90s rave: a saturated kick on every beat, a bass bouncing on the off-beats and big detuned chords on top. Here it is step by step in Live 12, then the Eurodance version and the one-line version.
1. Set the tempo
Hard dance and hard house run about 145 to 160 BPM; 150 is a good middle. Click the tempo field in Live's Control Bar, type 150 and press Enter.
2. Add a MIDI track with a drum kit
Insert a MIDI track (⌘ Shift T). In the browser, open Drums, pick a kit and drag it onto the track. A 909-style kit suits it: any kit with a hard, punchy kick, a sharp clap and bright hats.
3. Make a clip
In Session View, double-click an empty clip slot on the drum track. Live makes an empty MIDI clip and opens it; the pattern below is one bar. Set the grid to 1/16 with the grid chooser at the right of the Clip View header (⌘ 1 and ⌘ 2 narrow and widen it), so each beat has four steps and the bar has 16.
4. Program the drums
Switch to Draw Mode (B) and click the notes in. Most Live kits follow the General MIDI layout (kick C1, snare D1, clap D#1, closed hat F#1, open hat A#1); check the pad names in yours.
- Kick on every beat: steps 1, 5, 9 and 13.
- Clap on beats 2 and 4: steps 5 and 13.
- Open hi-hat on the off-beats: steps 3, 7, 11 and 15.
- Closed hi-hat on the even steps, softer.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kick | ||||||||||||||||
| Clap | ||||||||||||||||
| Open hat | ||||||||||||||||
| Hi-hat |
Dimmer cells are notes played softer.
5. Drive the kick
Hard dance kicks are saturated. Put Saturator on the drum track and turn up its Drive until the kick distorts a little and cuts through. In Live Standard and Suite, Drum Buss does the same job with its own Drive.
6. The bass
The classic hard house bass is the double off-beat: two short notes after each off-beat, on steps 3 and 4, 7 and 8, 11 and 12, and 15 and 16, so it never lands with the kick. Put Drift on its own MIDI track (or Operator, in Live Suite) and play the root on those steps.
For more drive, roll the bass on the three sixteenths after every kick instead. A bass that busy needs sidechaining to the kick (here's how).
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kick | ||||||||||||||||
| Bass |
7. Supersaw stabs and the arp
For the supersaw, load Wavetable on a new track (it's in Live Suite), pick a saw wavetable and set its Unison to Classic: turn up Voices for more oscillators and Amount for the detune. Without Suite, Drift with a saw wave is a lighter version. Play Am, F, C and G as short stabs.
For the lead, drag the Arpeggiator from MIDI Effects onto another synth track, set its Rate to 1/16 and write the same chords an octave higher.
8. The Eurodance version
Eurodance is the same idea, slower and bouncier. Set the tempo to about 135 and swap the bass for one on the off-beats only (steps 3, 7, 11 and 15), or for eighth notes that jump an octave: the low root on each beat and the octave above on the off-beat, sidechained to the kick. Keep the chords.
Or ask Amable
Amable does these steps in your set when you ask in plain words:
set the tempo to 150, load a drum kit and make a hard dance beat
add a double off-beat bassline on a new track, in A minor
add supersaw stabs on Am, F, C and G and a 1/16 arp an octave up
It writes the pattern into a clip and fires it. Want to learn it instead? Ask it to walk you through it, and it guides you one step at a time, checking your set before the next.
Free trial, no card needed. Needs Ableton Live 12.