How do I go about making Disco?

[Pitch Police]

Hey all, I'm currently 4 months into learning to produce music and I was really interested in making Disco, Disco House, or something along those lines. I currently make Progressive House, Electro House, and Trance music, but I really want to try Disco because I've always been inspired by a lot of the producers and tracks. I know the basics of drum programming: 4/4 kick drum, closed hi hats on eighths, open hi hats on sixteenths, and a lot of swing for groove. How exactly do I go about making the Disco bassline sound? What synthesizers can produce such sounds (I currently use FM8, Sylenth, Massive and Albino) and what production theory do I need to know? I just want some information to get started, but the tutorials and guides on the Internet are unfortunately sparse :(

Any help, advise, or tutorials would be amazing :o

[BrunoRepublic]

Hey all, I'm currently 4 months into learning to produce music and I was really interested in making Disco, Disco House, or something along those lines. I currently make Progressive House, Electro House, and Trance music, but I really want to try Disco because I've always been inspired by a lot of the producers and tracks. I know the basics of drum programming: 4/4 kick drum, closed hi hats on eighths, open hi hats on sixteenths, and a lot of swing for groove. How exactly do I go about making the Disco bassline sound? What synthesizers can produce such sounds (I currently use FM8, Sylenth, Massive and Albino) and what production theory do I need to know? I just want some information to get started, but the tutorials and guides on the Internet are unfortunately sparse :(

Any help, advise, or tutorials would be amazing :o

I seriously debated as to whether I should respond to this at all, since I'm not sure if it's an attempt at trolling. But anyway.

Out of curiosity, what is the disco song you're thinking of? I take it there's only one, because I don't see how else you could call it "the disco bassline sound", when nearly every disco track had its own sound, except for those which were highly derivative.

I gather it's some sort of electro or Hi-NRG number, because I also don't see how you could expect to convincingly replace things like real drums, strings, and horns -- which are the defining elements of what I'd call disco -- with a bunch of VST plug-ins. Aside from a few mostly-electronic productions by Giorgio Moroder et al (which could now be convincingly faked with software... but why bother?), disco wasn't programmed at all: it was composed, arranged, and performed by musicians, often small armies of them, many being highly skilled session performers who were among the very best in the business. Even with the finest sample libraries, trying to recreate that with software will give results that don't sound much better than a General MIDI demo.

You won't find online tutorials for a genre that hasn't been cost-effective to produce for over 30 years. Likewise, if you're looking for a VST instrument or sample set that will allow you to create a convincing disco track in a couple of hours, I think you're out of luck.

[JussiK]

..or, check the new (2011) double lp by the tremendous Scotch neodisco act Den Haan. They're all synthetic of course as real string & brass sections etc are obviously a bit costly to hire these days. Still, it's quite Disco, evoking the early late 70's Patrick Cowley period, when he was doing his I Feel Love and Magic Love remixes. There are actual catchy and often very beautiful melodies in the Haans too, not just bleeps, washes of sound and relentless beats. Black Devil albums/cds are also an intelligent choice. - And I so wish a certain gentleman posting here would finally put out his sublimely atmospheric nudisco works for the people to buy. Been spinning them ever since getting hold of the stuff.