Alright let's get some productivity talk going on around these parts!
I wanted to bring up the topic of musical reaping and sowing and see your thoughts on it. What I mean by this is almost the complete opposite of the advice of only working on one song at a time.
So what do I mean exactly? Well, working on a song from an idea (the super interesting stage we all can do) till it's a finished song IS work…it cannot be denied. And sometimes it's ok that that work is a bit heavy, and it's fine that we don't always have energy for it. It's also very good to know when not to work on a song (because you may get bored of a song even when it's really good).
What I've often done with albums/beattapes is I let myself work on those loops and just enjoy creating them…dive deep in that creative flow without the pressure of having to make them into full songs… not yet. It's pretty much OK to put it aside and work on something cool, new, and fresh the next day. And nothing says of course that you cannot spend longer with a song, of course note. But I KNOW I will have to make them ALL into songs at some point.
Also, good and necessary advice relating to this technique: delete ruthlessly! If you create new stuff often, a lot of will naturally be not-so-great, and it's FINE to delete stuff that isn't grrrreat, as we will ALWAYS be able to create more.
So, my point is that sometimes it can be beneficial to enjoy a supercreative period where you just work on song ideas (sow) for a while, as it can result in a very fruitful bulk of work as your mind will always be in a pretty relaxed state and there's no worries…just the joy of diving into new ideas, which we all love. But if you are like me and work towards a goal/EP/album/release often, you know you will have to finish them (reap). But when you get to work on the songs, it should be fun once again as you'll have a good body of work that (hopefully) is pretty good, and once you've distanced yourself from it for a while, it should feel fairly fresh for you to take control of those songs again. Honestly, this is how I always work on my hiphop albums. Every single FatGyver album beattape is made this way, more or less: I also keep a notepad of all the good beats I want to have for a project/album, and at some point I get my album mode on and get finishing the beats into longer songs.
I know this might not work for those who always have trouble finishing songs and whose biggest problem is that having way too many unfinished songs gets heavy on them…but if you possess the skill of finishing songs, try out the reaping/sowing technique (e.g., on summer holiday, come up with new song loops often!)
Showing you a slightly more advanced technique: how to sidechain width in Ableton Live. This means that when one sound plays, some other sound will lose its width while it’s happening. Showing two ways to do it, one involving Max For Live, and the other only using Ableton Live’s native tools.
I want to give you a quick look into what's been planned to appear on my Patreon page at least, content-wise. Some of these will be free for all, while some "heavy hitters" will be for those with a paid membership only...some of this has been requested heavily for years.
In addition to these, there will of course be downloads, for example like the free downloads I've posted so far.
Also, I'd really like to hear what you'd like to see and hear about.
Without further ado, below you'll find a (slightly cleaned-up) copypaste from my current "Patreon to-do" notepad!
• How to set up an efficient mastering project in Ableton Live [video] • How to do program funky D&B drums Fanu style [video] • Making a “custom" DNB breakbeat [video] • Processing in some of my released songs [video] • Why I like Ableton Live [video or a post] • Why I like making music with an MPC [video or a post] • How to sidechain width in Ableton Live [video] • Fave free plugins [video or a post] • Replacing / enhancing drums in Ableton Live [video] • Megareese rack [download] • Low end kick beefery rack • Song structures [video] • Mixing quicktips [videos] • Plugin test drives [videos] • VLOG: Being a productive being • VLOG: Be(com)ing “successful” in what you do • VLOG: Producers with a broken spirit
…and that's just the stuff I've had on my notepad for a while. I come up with these ideas all the time, and as you may have seen on my Youtube playlist or my commercial Ableton masterclasses, I really like doing videos.
See anything interesting on the list? Want to suggest something? Let me know in this post!
(This was originally posted on my website in 2017 – I brought it here by a request)
So what's this for…now this is for those who want some LO-FI in their lives!
I did an “SP1200izer” audio effect rack for Ableton Live. How did I do it? I sampled two drumloops into my SP 1200 and back, and then put those on an audio track in Live and decided to try and make the original versions sound as close to the SP 1200 versions as possible. The result is this audio effect rack for Ableton Live.
I didn’t test it with any “music” or melodic material, but I was quite happy with how it sounded with those two drumloops. It’s not 100% 1:1, but it’s close enough, and sounds quite lo-fi and dirty....it can make drums sound nicely old and gritty.
Feel free to mess with it and let me know how you like it!
I’d like to emphasize that 1) this is not the result of any intensive experiment that took days of work using tons of audio material and intensive testing, which is what would be needed if you wanted to create a reallyreally authentic version that’d suit all scenarios and all samples, and 2) I’m definitely not trying to say this’ll replace any actual SP 1200 out there. So take this lightly if you're a grumpy SP1200 owner!
You only need Ableton Live; no 3rd party plugins needed.
So here's a multiband version of the free Gain Rack that has a Saturator, which I posted about yesterday (see previous post). This one divides the signal into three bands: lows, mids, and highs and also has a Saturator for each band. When you click on a band, you'll see its gain knob*. When gain is set to 0, the Saturator is switched off (this is done via mapping browser in Map mode) and it activates whenever any gain is applied.
*LATER EDIT: I actually edited the rack (thanks to Esa Ruoho's comment!) so that the band gain controls are in the macro knobs so you don't necessarily have to click on a band to access its gain.
This is handy for applying a bit of (or a lot!) or saturation into a signal: this is superduper helpful for adding a bit of tone for basses and drums, for example.
The creation and use of this rack is shown and explained in this video of mine(which also shows you how to create a 808 / "trap" bass quickly with Ableton Analog synth, so I won't repeat it here – this'll only take a few minutes of your time, so do watch it!
Note: you can and should of course tweak the Saturator settings to taste!
This should help you get familiar with @Ableton Live's easy and convenient chains and parallel processing.
PS: I edited the tiers slightly. I guess this'll take a bit of time to get everything correct. Anything to ask, feel free to!
Wanted to share with you this free yet useful tool for Ableton Live 10. It's an audio effect rack that has a gain knob as its macro knob. When you rotate it clockwise, it feeds the signal into the rack / a Saturator by the chosen dB amount (set by the Gain macro knob) and also takes down the output by the same amount so it compensates perfectly for the input level. This makes many saturators etc "one-knob" plugins for you.
(NOTE: you can set those minimum and maximum amounts when you enter Map mode: you'll then see them in the Browser, so if you want even more input gain, it can be done).
Why this, and what is it useful for? You often get fooled by loudness of certain plugins: you crank up their whatever essential processing knob, and it may raise the output level of the plugin, and to human ears, louder is often better, so this effect rack automatically compensates for that, so you won't be fooled into thinking that louder is better.
This'll be especially useful for plugins that react to input gain, such as the Saturator here: the louder you drive the signal into it, the harder it gets roasted (Saturator's own Drive setting and various settings do affect this, too, but this is a decent starting point), but you don't have to touch the output gain this way: it's all done for you. This will be useful for many plugins that color the signal by input gain stage.
Feel free to replace the Saturator with any plugin of your choise whose input stage colors the signal!
Have you been staying productive during this crazy Corona period? Me, I was fairly dang bummed out for a long time – I admit it! – before I just kind of accepted it all and started feeling sort of numb about it, and I've definitely been getting back to it music-production-wise in the past 2-3 weeks…but I'll be honest and say I was out of it for a while. I hardly ever get any types of writer's blocks, so that was almost the first one I've ever had or can recall at least.
Also had to take a quick week off to recharge as there had been so much audio work due to everybody sitting more in the studios and sending more music than usual.
Anyways, I'm finally on Patreon! \0/ I felt this time is good as ever, if not the best time to get this going. So let's build a community and exchange info and knowledge!
I've been discussing music stuff on Facebook and other forums and socials for ages, and the interaction is great, I can say that…its "downside" is that every single time I do a post, it seems to attract these posts on that I call "hey man" posts: they usually begin "Hey man", followed all sorts of free helpdesk requests: here's my song so please comment on it, I heard you're good at mastering so what do you think of my self-master, how do you do this in Ableton Live, what compressors should I be getting etc., how do you use Session View in Live…you name it! And don't read this in a whiny tone: this is a pure fact. I get these on IG, too. So, for the sake of consolidating as well as better focus, I felt I need one place for all this stuff, and I just want to use my time better: I know I've earned five truckloads of good karma with all the free help I've given over the years, and I guess I shouldn't feel bad for charging for it in a way or another, after having made electronic music for nearly 30 years and building my expertise, easily passing the 10,000 hour mark or any music degree.
I definitely want to do a lot of free posting about thoughts, just like I've been doing on FB, for example: I do enjoy the interaction and sharing ideas and vibes so let's keep doing that! But I also wanted to give myself a reason to do more video content and exclusive posts for those with a membership. I feel this is probably one of the best, if not the best, way to run a modern "blog" …and also for a supporter to support a person creating content.
I'm always messing with plugins, audio processing techniques, gear, etc...I always keep a notepad of things I should post / do a video / vlog about…so things are lined up! There's already a lot of stuff in that list and I feel I finally have a reason to get busy with it.
I just want to have a decent place for it all (I do still have a website www.fanumusic.com though), and it'll definitely be here (free Youtube videos will be here, too, and all existing Youtube music production stuff is on this playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLatQOhKHwJYZ7ek0RS3KZlLOPp8OrY_HL
I'll be up for hearing ANY thoughts on the tiers etc…honest feedback is best. And feel free to ask!
I know what I offer isn't for everybody, and I also kindly want to drop a few clarifying thoughts here: • Audio engineering is my main thing, so the reason my rates aren't ultra-low is I can't bury myself in a megaload of extra work. • I'm still taking in mixing and mastering as always, outside Patreon, and for that, please use my email fanusamurai@gmail.com. • If anything is unclear, do ask!
Anyways, I already got good stuff lined up, so…let's do this! Make some noise together :-)
New content coming…soon! Also do let me know what you'd like to see!
