Well basically everything has been said about using compression & eq.



So I´ll try and approach some other basics:



If you´re new to it, take your time. Look at everything carefully and if you don´t know what a knob does: change it and find out! Jot it down if you can´t memorize it, it will come naturally later on.



Also a comfortable environment is helpful. Now I live in a dark, cold ugly basement with hardly any furniture, no decoration and lots of spiders. I don´t even have a bed, so I sleep on a matress now for 3 years, and my back is killing me. Oh and my chair is uncomfortable, too. I´m a poor sucker, and I don´t really enjoy being down here, but I at least try to keep my production area away of everthing. It´s facing a wall so I don´t see the @#%$ surrounding me. Probably thats why my music is kinda aggressive.

What helps though is anything that´ll keep you comfortable: coloured lights, a strobo, a lava-lamp or in my case a silly cat who likes your music. Anything you can look at and get new ideas from. And believe me if it weren´t for my cat, I'd be making gabber...



Speaking of.... don´t be shy to go overboard, but do keep in mind 2 factors:

1. a DJ´s gotta be able to mix your track. No decent Mix-In and you can forget the whole thing. Keep the 64-Beat distances in mind. Oh and no 200 bpm ;-) 140-155bpm for techno is fine

2. don´t confuse people. I don´t exactly know how this is meant but I figure it´s that people who´ll dance to your track do not like unpleasant surprises. I´ve hear quite a few good tracks get ruined, just because the artist wanted to do something "intelligent". Usually this won´t work. Don´t worry, you can go crazy on the breaks, but stick to a basic pattern. Don´t change the main theme, people usually don´t react well to that.



well I guess that´s it for the moment, hope I could help anyone