Hardstyle for Beginners: History, Kicks and Secrets

Nimble Kick automatically pitches any kick you draw into it. You might wonder why you need that plugin if you can just pitch your own kicks. The thing is, FL Studio at least doesn't really have good pitching options. Being able to just drop a kick in and have it go through an algorithm like Time Machine Stereo is great.

I think it's 20 euros. It's one of the best investments you can do, because it makes it so much easier.

People think they get that big break sound by just using two presets. That's not how it works. Open up Layer, add your melody, click the plugins you want to assign and click Set Children. Now it plays three plugins at a time. I do the same for the chords, so three leads and three chords.

This is where your computer will crash, so render out each part and get them into the mixer. On the leads, always use a high pass on order Steep 8 to get the sub out. Don't cut the low mids, there's presence in that area.

This is a huge part of hardstyle production. Duplicate the channel. The Total stays 100% dry, that's so important. Total goes into the new channel and in there you make a reverb send. I use Valhalla Room, 100% wet with a lot of decay, then OTT because it just pumps it out, then an EQ to cut the bass and muffle the highs slightly.

Then add a Fruity Limiter, go to Compression and find the Total send. It compresses the reverb whenever the Total is playing, so when the lead stops playing it opens up. That's the ducking reverb effect. The threshold is kind of the wet knob at this point.

For the build-up, slightly take the master volume down, from 80 to around 73, then back up to the normal volume. Now the drop hits harder. You can also put an EQ on the master on linear, so it's not messing with the phase, and automate the lows so they get cut a little through the build-up.

For mastering I take down the 300 Hz range slightly and use Pro-Q 3 to make the sub mono. Then Pro-MB with the Low-Mid Cleanup preset, because the mids are muddy. Don't remove too much of the mids though. Then Maximus on Clear master RMS. If that's too much, I put a soft clipper in front and take down the post gain until it stops clipping in Maximus.