tips on producing Kpop/jpop

[Esperado]

A freind of mine offered me a chance to do the music for a youtube video he was helping with, but wants the song done in a jpopish style. Im not big on jpop, but i think it would be alot of fun to try, and it would help me be a more rounded musician, somehow. the song example he gave me was this:

I was curious if anyone had any particular tips on generally what various synth techniques to use, baselines that are typical,typical song structure, sfx. etc.. to use in a basic jpop song. thanks!

[ectogemia]

Sounds like a bunch of saw waves. Pretty simple.

The bass sounds like a saw wave with a few unison voices and a little bit of unison panning. Probably a bit of distortion of some sort. There's some low pass filtering of the bass waveform which is evident because there's essentially no high-end sizzle to the sound which you always have with unfiltered saw waves.

At 1:18 there's some square-y plucked arps. Maybe they're chorused a bit?

The drums are just kick-clap-kick-clap. Doesn't get any simpler than that. They may not even be layered. Man, pop music makes it easy for you with percussion.

At 2:18, there's some 808 snares.

2:58 is a minimal sort of supersaw. Just a few saw waves stacked on successive octaves, each a little detuned + some chorusing + a touch of reverb. It's gated in a basic rhythm that should be easy to recreate.

Aaaand, those transitional sounds throughout are probably just samples you could drag in from any old effects pack.

I think that covers literally everything in this track besides the vocals, hah.

Yeah, this sounds pretty damn easy to recreate, man

Just make it catchy.

[Garpocalypse]

...that's really.... not Jpop. Or even close to in my opinion. Probably because they are Koreans but it sounds more like standard clubbin' music that travelled eastward.

I found an article awhile ago detailing the characteristics and forumlae for Jpoppier tunes but i haven't been able to find it recently. If i ever find it again i'll post it here. It shouldn't be too hard to find the patterns though if you are able to play through a few of them on a midi keyboard or some other instrument.

If that's what he wants then go for it, outside of the production techniques you'll need it shouldn't be too hard for you to get that.

Though when i think Jpop i think more of

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kd5KSuYAxEk Nina Mizuki

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbL0ED-m5NU Onoken

and Susumu Hirasawa

Good luck!

[AngelCityOutlaw]

I guess in the late 90s to early 00s there were some common traits. Synth brass/orchestra hits, bell-type synths, clean guitar arpeggios, distorted guitar solos and rhythm, synth bass...just listen to a lot of anime intros and video game music.

There are a few artists I can think of that some would say most would associate with a "J Pop" sound though. They were/are also fairly famous due to their contributions to animation and video games so that probably has a lot to do with it.

Koda Kumi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pp6YqoVZZxE

Shiina Nagano/Two Mix

Alan

If you make something along the lines of the first two artists, you should do fine. Like others said though...the link he gave you sounds very much like something I'd expect to hear in North America.

I'd be interested in reading that article if you find it Gar!

[Esperado]

thanks for the tips! I'll see what I can come up with. I suppose I shouldnt group it all together, k-pop and j-pop. Theyre likely two distinct genres, I just know nothing about them really so it made it hard to distinguish them.

[Nase]

Yellow Magic Orchestra might be worth checking out for a history lesson.

http://youtu.be/aHhYbVVDuoA

good stuff