A-LUSION: HOLLAND IS THE #1 COUNTRY WHEN IT COMES TO HARDSTYLE

Onne Witjes, A-lusion, has grown to be one of the most valued artists in the hard dance scene over the past decade. The typical “A-lusion” hardstyle sound reached many hardstyle fans around the world. He started his professional career in 2003 and has performed in many clubs around the world and at the most prestigious events such as Qlimax and DefQon.1.

Holland is the number one country when it comes to Hardstyle, but where do you see the US in respect to this. Will it be the second biggest – or biggest market for hardstyle in the future now that Q-Dance enters the market?

Holland is indeed the number one country when it comes to Hardstyle. It all started over here.

Our country has all the right ingredients for having successful events with Hardstyle music. Every event is within driving distance and often features the best Dutch Hardstyle Djs. The genre is in our DNA and is really accepted in our music culture. A lot of people over here grew up with the ‘harder’ styles of EDM.

It took about 10 years for Hardstyle to be as known as it is now. If Hardstyle will be as big in the US as in Holland, will really depend on how much buzz is created around the genre and the events. The majority of the US citizens haven’t even heard of the Hardstyle EDM sound yet. This needs to change of course.

The Internet and media will have to play a big role in growth of the market. It’s a great thing that Q-dance enters the US market now. Mainly because of their experience in creating awesome shows and video registration. Many of the readers have probably seen an amazing Qlimax or DefQon show on YouTube.

But of course the US already has other big organizers throwing EDM parties. Q-dance entering the market will probably encourage the other organizers to step up their game. They can’t fall behind. Bigger shows, better video registration, more pyrotechnics & perhaps event anthems. And they should program more Hardstyle acts and not only Dubstep, House and Trance. As soon as this happens, I see a big future coming. The population of many US cities is so big, it must be possible to get 5000+ crowds every weekend.

So yes, I do see a promising future for Hardstyle in the US ahead. But it will take dedication and a lot of effort. Let’s start by sharing the Hardstyle sound with all your friends!

Share a production trick for making the best hardstyle kick drums.

There are a lot of video tutorials on the Internet about creating the so-called “distortion tail”. My tip would be not to focus on that too much. The most important part is the beginning, the sound quality and drive of the kick. Good results in this can be achieved by layering, comparing, eq-ing, compressing and layering again. Also try to play with the phase of the individual layers. Don’t try to get the sound from 1 layer. That simply doesn’t work anymore with the current kickdrum sound. The warmth of the kick (100 – 400 Hz) is also really important. Don’t focus too much on the sub sound as this is fairly easy to replace in the post-processing.

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