Underdog Electronic Music School

Online Music Producer Bootcamp

DIFFICULTY LEVEL: BEGINNER ｜ €499

  • Learn the fundamentals of electronic dance music. Start from zero, and within 6 weeks you'll be finishing your first tracks.
  • 6 weeks (12 group classes) offering an overview of all the basic skills to get started as an electronic music producer. Classes are Tuesday & Thursday, 18h30-20h30, online via Zoom.
  • These are small group classes with experienced teachers who will have attention for you and your needs. No video tutorials, no premade content, just real organic learning.
  • The goal of the bootcamp is to teach you the essential concepts of music production in a structured way, so that afterwards you have all the concepts you need to autonomously deepen your knowledge with practice, other sources, or more classes.
  • You commit to learning the basics for 6 weeks, as a running start to your musical journey. We'll give you personalised advice to design your own learning strategy.
  • All classes are taught online, using Zoom. You can join from wherever, as long as you have an internet connection.
  • Check out the Underdog YouTube Channel for a taste of what it could be like! Come join the Underdog Discord to meet the Underdog producer community!
Full curriculum description

In the Underdog Bootcamp, you will learn a whole suite of concepts that will serve as your foundation for developing your own electronic music.

Underdog's focus is on producing electronic music genres, often oriented for the dancefloor.

You will learn all the concepts that producers use every day, in the music-making software called Ableton Live (you can use the trial version for free). This includes:

  • How to use Ableton Live's session view and arrangement view.
  • How to use audio and MIDI, exploring the benefits of both workflows.
  • The essential audio instruments that all producers use, including synthesizers and samplers. We will use these to make basslines and melodies.
  • All audio effects you need to transform sounds to fit your palette.
  • How to construct songs using the free sample pack we will give you.
  • Composing and arranging songs from a loop-idea to a full track.
  • The essentials of mixing and mastering, to make your songs sound professional.

This part of the bootcamp is taught by Athila Battery, Dubspot graduate, veteran music coach, and accomplished Drum 'n Bass producer.

You will also learn the basic theory behind music, including the following concepts:

  • Scales, chords, and chord progressions.
  • Rhythm essentials, drum programming.
  • Analysing your favourite songs so you can replicate them.
  • Workflow strategies for finishing songs.

These theoretical subjects are given by Oscar Verlinden, Underdog Founder.

Requirements: No prior knowledge necessary. This is a course for absolute beginners. You should have a computer, headphones, and Ableton's free trial version.

Next bootcamp starting dates

Next bootcamp starting dates:

Next Starting Dates

Course price: €499

Requirements

No prior knowledge necessary. This is a course for absolute beginners. You should have a computer, headphones, and Ableton's free trial version.

Online Producer Deep Dive

DIFFICULTY LEVEL: INTERMEDIATE ｜ €999

  • The deep dive is an advanced music production course for people who want to start really finishing tracks. It is a 3-month commitment that includes a combination of advanced production classes, project work and coaching that ensure that at the end you will be autonomously making tracks that are good enough to be sent to labels or played on the radio.
  • Deep Dive students qualify for Ableton Live's educational discount of -40% on Standard or Suite editions.
  • The course spans 24 classes, typically on Monday & Wednesday, 18h30-20h30. Classes and coachings are given online via Zoom.
  • Get personal followup throughout, with continuous feedback on your productions. In the class we will listen to your projects and together we will problem-solve them to make them shine.
  • Check out the Underdog YouTube Channel for a taste of what it could be like! Come join the Underdog Discord to meet the Underdog producer community!
Full curriculum description

The Deep Dive consists of a fixed curriculum, and an adaptive curriculum.

The fixed curriculum is a hybrid course of workflow, artistic and technical concepts to ensure that students never get stuck in their production projects. It goes into depth on the subjects of:

  • Defining an artistic project and determining the palette.
  • Making musical choices, and how to judge these decisions confidently and objectively.
  • Mixing techniques, including basic mastering concepts - all the technical tools needed to complete a project in any genre.
  • Technical analysis of different genres (proposed by students).

The fixed curriculum is given by Remy Lebbos, mixing and mastering engineer with more than 20 years of experience.

The adaptive curriculum focuses on the topics that are the most relevant to the students who are participating in the course. It pays attention to the particular questions that students are struggling with in their own productions, and takes time to focus on this in a deeper way. Typically this includes:

  • Genre-specific analysis of songs, to help students analyse and reproduce the music they are more interested in.
  • Advanced synthesis and sampling techniques.
  • Music theory fundamentals for dance music (rhythmic and harmonic essentials).

The adaptive curriculum is given by Oscar Verlinden, all-round producer with a focus on techno, house and electronica. Oscar releases music under his Torc moniker.

On certain days the focus will be on student projects in class. This means that students who are willing to share their work can do so, and the tutor will workshop this project, using it as an example for the other students of what works well, and what some strategies could be to developing the project further.

In between classes students will be given individual homework challenges, designed especially to help overcome their current production challenges. During the course, students have 3 project feedback checkpoints where they can submit their projects to the teachers privately, and receive a video-recorded feedback.

Between 2 and 4 Guest Masterclasses are held, where professionals from across the industry come and share their behind-the-scenes projects and workflows, answering student questions.

At the end of the course, there will be a graduation livestream where all graduating students will be able to play their productions, either directly, or as part of a liveset or DJ-set of their design.

Next deep dive starting dates

Next starting dates for the Deep Dive are:

Next Starting Date

Course price: €999

Requirements

If you are familiar with the basic functions of your DAW and started trying to finish tracks, you know enough to join the Deep Dive. Classes are taught using Ableton Live, but the concepts also apply to other software.

Location

All classes are taught online, using Zoom. You can join from wherever, as long as you have an internet connection.