Enai, a prominent figure from Girona’s electronic music scene, has earned global recognition and respect for his melodic prowess, impressing industry leaders.
Photo credit: Enai – Instagram
His productions are admired by artists such as Solomun, Tale of Us, Adriatique, and Tiesto, underscoring his talent and commitment to melodic techno.
Besides production, his electrifying sets energize dancefloors around the world, from Germany, Belgium, and Tunisia, to India. He has performed at events like Amsterdam Dance Event, Fort Festival, OffSonar Barcelona, Delirium Festival, and Input Barcelona.
Recently, Enai debuted his ‘Our Mind’ EP via ATLANT. His frequent releases on BOg’s ATLANT label and Tale Of Us’ Afterlife imprint highlight his unwavering ambition to push the boundaries of modern melodic techno.
To mark his latest release, Enai offers insight into his creative process. He shares invaluable tips for enhancing your music production skills, drawing from his unique experiences and melody creation approach.
1. Mix the track from the beginning
Try to make the track sound minimally good from the start. If you are adding melodies, percussive loops, effects, etc., thinking that you are going to mix it when you finish, it is more likely that you will tire of that song faster, because it won’t sound good. I’m not suggesting making the mix perfect, but just enough to make the track sound decent. Besides, when you have to mix the entire track once you’ve finished it, you’ve already made significant progress.
2. Echo – Unsynchronised Delay
If at some point you have a melody, pluck, or even percussion, that you think lacks movement and you want to give it a bit more naturalness or just more groove, you can try to de-synchronize the L & R channel of the Delay or Echo, (by de-selecting the LINK button between the two knobs). Once this is done, you can automate these knobs to modulate and each do a different thing. The sound it creates is quite intriguing. You can also play with the Dry/Wet Knob to make this effect more or less present.
3. If it doesn’t sound good, discard it
Many times we are stuck on a song, we do not advance, or there is simply an element that you are not sure if it is right or not. In other cases, in the mix, the Kick-Bass sounds off, and you spend half the morning correcting mixing errors between these two elements. It is very likely that in the case of kick-bass, one of the two is wrong and you are accustomed to the sound of that kick and don’t want to change it, but often the solution is to delete the kick and select another one. The same thing happens with that element that every time it sounds, you doubt if it is right or not. Delete it and move on.
4. Make many versions
In my particular case, I usually make many versions of a song or a remix and I’ll explain why. A little bit related to point 3, if you are like in my case, doing a remix, and you are not sure that the direction of that remix is correct, even if it is ok, what I usually do is to save the project and save the same project as: X-X(Enai Remix V2).V2.1 if it is very similar but you have changed something you are not sure about. V3 is when the track takes a completely different shape. Then I can test these tracks live or send them to producer friends to get their opinion.
5. Take breaks
Your ear is not the same during the first 30 minutes as it is after two hours of Kick-Bass. Even if it’s making a coffee, calling a friend/family, reading, or anything that disconnects you from that song. This will do you good both physically, as your ears get tired, and mentally so that your brain rests from that melody. I assure you that you will hear everything much better (or worse in case you have something wrong on the track and you didn’t realize before), but it will help you to have a more realistic perspective of your song.
Enai’s ‘Our Mind’ EP is out now via ATLANT. Stream and download here.
Follow Enai: Spotify | Soundcloud | Instagram | Website
