If you're not familiar with Ableton Live 11's new tool, Spectral Resonator, here's a look at its feature that's become a favorite of mine: how to harmonize any track based on incoming midi notes.
In this video, I'm making the acid line and drums of my house track "sing along" musically based on some chord notes – and the same can be done to any track.
In a session with a student yesterday, I showed him a rack I always use for trying out different plugins that introduce analog saturation – i.e., plugins that react to the input level and add some pleasant harmonics to the sound.
I absolutely love trying out those types of plugs, and saturation has always been a big part of "my sound".
The one thing that often annoys me about plugins like is that you don't have a knob that'd handle both input and output at the same time, so you end up doing that yourself, constantly fiddling the level in and out.
And to keep objective ears, the level should stay the same all the time.
So, I've created a rack for Ableton Live for that: it has three Utility devices. Download it here.
Turning the In/Out macro sets both the input and output level, and it's also bipolar, so you can use it to even turn the input gain to less than it'd normally be. So, you can put any "roasting" plugin between the first two Utility devices (shown in the pic) and use the In/Out macro to drive the signal into the device (I've set the gain to go +-20 dB, but you can make this even more if you enter Map mode for the device), and the second Utility in the rack compensates for this level increase.
The Output 2 macro is a final level tweakery knob that allows for +-5 dB tweaks after the plugin you're using.
In short:
Use this rack for a convenient in/out knob operation for any plugin that allows for the sound to be roasted without having to mess with any in/out level settings in the plugin itself. Super nice with Saturator, for example: place Saturator (or even Glue Compressor with soft clipping engaged and threshold all the way up to compress as little as possible) between the first two Utility devices, mess with the In/Out knob, and enjoy!
PS!
There's some other tracks I've posted:
• EQ8 rack for Ableton Live 11
• SP-12 drum rack
• SP-1200-izer effect rack
• Multiband roastrack
Any wishes for racks, holla!
In the series of me slamming you with song stems, here we go with stems for a jungle tune called Crusty-Ass DS165 (peep the link to hear the song).
It was a one-off Bandcamp single release.
Done with an Akai s3200XL sampler, run hot into a Soundcraft desk, the sound I was going for is very Droppin' Science (one of my fave jungle labels, run by Danny Breaks), 90s jungle.
You'll get some breaks, basses, and various sampledelia you can use in your productions as you wish.
DOWNLOAD STEMS HERE (once again, pls no sharing, but feel free to tell a friend)
PS: An Ableton Live 11 video tip dropping SOON: showing you how you can use this nice new harmonizing tool to "melodify" anything based on midi chords…even a 303 acid line, which I'll show ya – sounds very interesting…aaaand got a ton lined up as always: Renoise stuff, that new session with Addictive Drums 2 (finally – been requested a lot!), will show how to do some crazy breakcore stuff with Ableton Session View etc etc…TBH there's a LOT coming!
Oi friends!
I'd love to hear about YOU.
Let me know how you are doing musically, what type of music stuff you make (feel free to post links), what your musical aspirations are like, what's the biggest challenge for you in music, etc…make yourself known here!
I'm trying to pick my next video from a long list of topics…there's sure something to do, so just wait!
This weekend, I was actually demoing the Renoise tracker and ended up buying it and doing some stuff and I really liked it, as I did start with tracker software in 1992 and kept rocking with them for some years.
I thought I might actually do a first impressions type video of it: what I like about it, what I think it's good for, etc.
Will soon also want to do another song dissection video, like I did with my Baretta tune. Any wishes for a tune of mine, from the past few years?
BTW, I added the option of me mastering one song of yours per month to the Producer Tier 2.
Anyways, hope you're all good – just wanted to holler quickly at ya'll and say thanks for the support; I've now been doing this for nearly a year and can't say I regret it!
Been having some nice one-to-one sessions with some of you, critiquing some of your work etc., having some nice talks about music, hearing your music etc…I love it!
So, thank you…hitting you with more new content soon!
2021-04-25 18:54:47 +0000 UTC View Post
Alright, friends!
Earlier this month I promised to do a video on how to set up a mastering project in your DAW.
So here it is!
It's an exclusive video for Patrons only, not a protected file (don't even know how to do that!) so PLEASE DO NOT SHARE THE LINK BUT do tell a friend.
• VIDEO IS HERE •
Showing you how you can fairly easily set up a mastering project in your DAW, and talking about some relevant considerations, and referencing, too.
I hope this helps some of you in trying to master your own songs a bit better.
I will talk about mastering in general at a later stage, as it's definitely a thing of its own.
This video is NOT a mastering tutorial but it touches the rudimentals.
• Any Qs? Holler.
• Want more assistance in mastering? Consider joining a producer tier or get in touch directly.
• Need mixing or mastering? You know who to ask :-)
PS: Soon I'll have been doing this for a year…glad I started! Thanks to all supporters ❤ ❤ ❤
More content will come…that's a fact!
Hi guys.
As a mixing and mastering engineer, I'm often asked about good reference songs, and here, I'm listing some good ones.
I'll keep this post short yet informative, because this month I'll be doing two exclusive videos for you:
1) how to reference efficiently and
2) how to set up your own mastering project in your DAW.
I don't want to cram all the info in one package, so let's start here, and I'll simply list a few reference tunes I've been using a lot over the years and say a few words. You should be able to find all of these tunes by Googling.
I have way more refs than these, but these mostly represent a good, natural, balanced sound for most genres I work with. I always listen to the client a lot, too, and may add for refs of their own, and of course accept everything they may send.
I will talk more about referencing later this month (e.g., how and why!), on a video, so let's save that till then!
DNB
• Nucleus & Paradox – Analogue Life. A great minimal tune with amazing drums that cut thru like bricks)
• Alix Perez – The Raven. Same reason as above + hefty sub like minimal tunes allow. Great clarity and ”reasonably” loud.
• Calyx & Teebee – Perspectives. Really clean, great production. I usually want to go a hair dirtier than this, but still, this is a good one where everything has its place.
• Coco Bryce – Blue Tile Lounge (really crisp, very bassy, with light drums)
• Moresounds – Warriah (loud, energetic, great mids and bass, very fitting for loud-ish UK bass music)
• Bunit – Onionz. Nicely loud, clear, and while the sub is interestingly low, the great bass harmonics make up for it)
• Minimal/autonomic stuff: Everything on https://modernconveniences.bandcamp.com. All tunes are mastered by me: I like how all of these have come out. Modern, bassy, crispy.
HOUSE
• Jack Dixon – E. A great overall deep house ref: crispy, weighty, the drums cut nicely.
• Leon Vynehall – Dont Know Why. Amazing how well the kick cuts thru, and the overall production and sound is very nice and energetic.
• Denham Audio: Back 2 Life and Burnin' Up. Both from the same release. I had the pleasure of mastering these. Nicely bassy and crisp, with good definition on the breaks.
• Luke Vibert: Acidhouse Ecstasy and pHoam. Both from the same release. I had the pleasure of mastering these too! While the breakworks isn't mega heavy, it's kind of lighter and crisp, leaving nice room for the sub. I recall shaving some resonance off the acid line, so it's nice and perfect. Things just sit so well!
• John Summit – Deep End: A good techy house ref. A big hit on Defected, mixed and mastered by myself (I've worked with John for over 4 years now)…a good example of ”louder isn’t always better”…this one has got over 20 million streams on Spotify now, and I’m proud, as we’ve never tried to win the loudness war. The vocal isn't trying to be mega aggressive, but works well and I feel there's a decent weight there.
• John Summit – Thin Line. This one, like 98% of all JS tunes, is mixed+mastered by me. A good ”bold” tech house ref. The piano came out really loud and wide yet fitting. The vocal has a lot of energy. I’m JS’s engineer, and every time we want to go a bit ”bigger” and bolder, this is the ref. If you're into tech house, peep John's tunes, as there's a lot of variety: we haven't made all heavy, but some we've kept really bassy, for example.
TECHNO
• Sandwell District – Immolare. Very crispy highs and great sheen, and nicely bassy and gentle at the same time.
• Shifted – Drifting Over. Also great highs and definition for everything. Crispy, and the kick hits just right: not too banging, but has some nice kick authority nevertheless.
• Function – Descending. Hecking nice and just the nice amount of brightness and bass. (Most of my techno refs are like these. If the client wants to go really hard, I may ref with DNB and bass music a bit and just go a bit less loud; there’s definitely a type of techno that hits much harder than these, and things are more in front, and there, your good old bass music / DNB may work well – just go for a bit less loudness and you’re probably good.)
HIP HOP
• Brother Ali – Own Light. When mixing or mastering hip hop, this is one of my go-to refs: very clear, great definition with everything, vocal sits nicely in its own space, modern-ish sound but not too much)
• Marco Polo – Terrified (punchy, hits really hard, weighty drums, vocal cuts thru fairly nicely)
• Big L – The Enemy (old Premier beat, so a bit more oldskool, and has great weight, and the Big L vocal while maybe slightly too resonant for today’s standards, cuts nicely thru the mix)
• Pete Rock – I Wish [instrumental] (great punch and weighty roduction overall)
• AZ – Rather Unique. An older track with big beats. Displaying how the vocal doesn’t always have to be mega loud, but it’s still heard well here.
TRAP
• Big Sean ft. Kanye & Drake – Blessings (mega heavy kick, bass a bit too low, but amazing and very modern vocal clarity cutting thru, with instruments nicely in the background)
• Kevin Gates – Two Phones (while not mega weighty with bass, the production is clear, the vocal is good, and while the bass isnt the heaviest, it has nice harmonics)
• Schoolboy Q – That Part (I like how the kick and bass hit, and sure enough the vocal is mixed nicely)
• Vince Staples – 745 (everything nice and punchy and crispy, but the vocal, while good, is a bit too quiet – I do have a few refs for ”Make it better/louder than this”, which can also help)
Yo friends!
I have a new remix out on a new label called Make Or Break.
It's tracks 3 and 4 on this EP.
The label owns the song, so I won't share that, but let me share the drums from my remixes.
Basically track 3 is the main one, and track 4 is an alternative version where the intro is slower. Once again did manual work, alternating-looping the hits – I don't timestretch my drums.
DOWNLOAD:
• the remix drums
• alternative version
The break is the classic "Kool Is Back" by Funk Inc.
Why the pic? Did the drums with an Akai s5000 that I had bought just before getting busy with the remix and ran it thru my Soundcraft desk.
It’s my 41st birthday today, so here’s 41 tips and thoughts from a 41-year-old.
I wanted to do a list of thoughts and tips, looking back at what I’ve done and what I do – some successes and failures (i.e., things you learn from).
My expertise on all things music and audio is, luckily enough, my living, and sometimes it’s interesting to have an introspective look at things. It is OK sometimes to recognise where you’ve succeeded but also where you could’ve done better and acknowledge some possible failures or things that you have learned from.
What I do is a lifetime deal: 2022 will mark a 30-year milestone of music for me, counting from the year when I started making music, and I’ve been on that road ever since.
These days 100% of my living comes from my expertise relating to music and audio stuff.
This will be a mixed bag of stuff in no particular order: making music, making a living from your art and skills, how to conduct your business, creativity, productivity, motivation, how to conduct yourself as an artist, etc. I’ll wildly hop from a topic or a field to another with no actual transition. The connecting thread here is stuff I do and have done. I admit there’ll be some overlapping and possibly some repetition.
I’m trying to keep all points short, while some would warrant a full, juicy post of its own. I’ll force myself to keep every point brief (I know very long articles are hard to digest, no matter how good they are).
I’ll lash things out in no particular order instead of honing this for days (protip number one could actually be along the lines of “Don’t always use more time on a task than is actually necessary!”)
Sheesh, I already feel like I’m rambling – ain’t got time to waste, so here we go!
In terms of knowing how “to do stuff proper” there’s no better person to learn from than an actual professional, whether it be getting music done, mixing music, being productive, growing a business, etc.
Many pros these days offer assistance/services/guidance (some offer direct contact, some run Patreon/Yotube etc.), but of course many don’t, and sure enough in the artist field especially, there’s a lot of secretive operators not willing to share anything.
Get in touch with those that can teach you. Watch inspirational Youtube videos by artists, engineers, etc. Absorb as much as you can: it’ll teach you and also inspire you.
Find interviews of those who have been doing things for a long time, and there’s a lot to learn from their truth, and their words can often spark some new motivation in you.
E.g., recently, I’ve been digging up interviews of some artists that have been making their living by making music for 2-3 decades, and there’s plenty of truth that they’re dropping, and they’re also often open about admitting some of their career mistakes etc.
(I, for one, help music heads with literally everything I know and I love doing it, and that is a big part of my career: mixing and mastering music, offering critique on song content and mixing, making breakbeats, and whatnot, so get in touch if you need assistance with pretty much anything relating to music)
Find your strengths and listen to your heart, and these will steer you in the right direction.
If you’ve been making many different styles of music, and let’s say your house releases seem to go somewhere, that might be indication that that’s where some of your strength lies, so work on that a bit more.
Or let’s say you’ve been enjoying teaching what you’re good at (art, yoga, music, etc.): even if it’s a side hustle or a hobby, don’t ignore it: it could go a long way if you started giving it more time and focus.
Basically where you keep planting your seeds is where you will see growth over time. Life will give you small hints and pointing you to some roadsigns on your path, so follow them.
E.g., to me, realizing that I’m good at mixing music was a decent realization, and following that lead in good things and my living (the move wasn’t easy or quick, but worth it).
I graduated from the university in 2009 (I majored in English and got an official English teacher’s degree on the side and did some translation studies on the side) but I never had the passion to follow that road (one reason being the teacher life made my creative flower wither). I was doing a bit of teaching here and there for some time, but at one point, for whatever reason, I wasn’t getting any more teaching bookings while I would’ve wanted and needed them, but at the same time, my mastering bookings started to happen properly. Coincidence? I think not. A sign on the road to follow? You bet.
You must understand that all good things take time. No thing that is rewarding and fulfilling comes easy. Or if it does, some serious groundwork relating to it has been done.
E.g., all artists that you see who are doing OK with what they do (earning from what they do, gaining some exposure, selling their stuff etc.) have been doing it for a while. This even applies to those who are small operators: even they have been doing it for a while. Most artists you see out there making some moves have dedicated themselves to their craft for years: anywhere from 5 years to 20+ years. So don’t get discouraged – give it time. Even some new artists whose first releases you’ve just heard have often been doing it for at least five years.
In the world of artists, entrepreneurs, freelancers, Youtubers, etc., most of the time it’s a marathon and not a sprint that gains you something. Not even a good quick sprint (a release on a good label, one big client job, lots of plays for one song/video etc.) guarantees you long-term success, while being patient and stubborn and sticking to what you do kind of does. Remember this mindstate and philosophy early on if you want to advance.
Won’t put the name out there, but it’s been nothing short of crazy seeing a client I’ve been mixing and mastering the longest for (ca. around 60+ songs over the years) become a big artist that travels worldwide doing DJ gigs and releases music on big labels – and when he started, he was a full-time accountant, and all his music stuff was small stuff he was doing for fun. Persistence goes a long way.
Do art from the heart and stay stubborn. When you do this, you’ll make it for yourself first and foremost. And when you do that, you can be a total buddha with your art: once you’re happy with it, no praise or criticism will shake you, and no success or hardships will throw you off your path.
Every single artist making at least a little bit of living from what they are good at is a stubborn person with a burning passion inside of them. This, in the end, allows them to “make it”.
Ignore them. They only serve means for a popularity contest. And if you’re not in it for popularity, stats shouldn’t mean much to you – they can be very discouraging at worst. I could name several great full-time artists who have been making it for 2-3 decades, fully making their living by doing what they do, whose stats on socials are super low – and some are not there at all!
Work for respect, not for attention
These days especially, the modern media and its social tools are built for popularity and attention, while there’s nothing out there to measure respect. Attention can be gained quickly, while respect takes years. After years of hard work, no-one will take respect away from you, while attention can wane overnight. Don’t mix these two, and keep asking yourself which one you’re working for.
In the music scene/world, you have to earn your stripes. You need to climb that ladder to earn that respect. There’s literally no shortcut to that. You need to put in work to cement your position, and that’ll take years.
This is why music makes some drop out: it does take time and that good old hard work. It’s not a game for the impatient ones looking for overnight success.
Respect those who have been doing it longer than you and put in the work and stay in your own lane.
In early 2000, I started making DNB as my main focus, and I really started putting time on drums. It took a lot of time and effort (often still does), especially as back then with my tools (old sampler and floppies), it took way more work and time, but it was worth it, and if you’ve heard my D&B, you may know what I mean.
Some of my early stuff was too concentrated on drums, and hence maybe a bit boring, but being a bit obsessed with drums for a while helped me to become good at that. Sometimes having a burning passion for one thing can help, and it can even become your “thing”.
You can learn a lot from yourself and about yourself by doing your thing regularly.
For example, at the moment of writing this, I have a good flow with making music, and some of my last songs or at least some sections in them are a bit different from my “norm”, and when you do a lot of art, you tend to try out different things – whereas if you only do things on a Sunday, you may stick to your comfort zone to keep it “nice” and comfortable.
Making a lot of music/art makes you explore your own creativity, and you’ll end up exploring new paths.
What it’ll also give you is your own style. That you cannot buy or learn online: your own style will take quite a bit of work, and that takes time, but that’ll be such a dope thing that you can be proud of.
This is relating to the previous point. If you never challenge yourself musically, you will never evolve. If you always only do what you feel you’re good at and what’s easy for you, chances are your output won’t be very interesting in terms of variation. Some will love it, some won’t give your art a whole lot of chance as they’ll find all of it boring.
Example: if you always make abstract music with little melodic content, try making something that has some melodic content for a change: add some chords, strings, or even a piano – and do it in a style that supports your style – and you might see your inspiration enjoy a boost and you’ll find some new paths to travel.
I just read an interview with Dego McFarlane (of Tek 9 for example) and he said he doesn’t have a fixed order in his workflow when creating music, as that leads to formulas. I feel this is good and once again supports variety in your music and keeps it interesting. Habits die hard and they don’t always work in your favor.
When I had the period of always starting with drums, it made my music more drum-centered, naturally, but if I start with melodic content, the song always ends up more melodic.
This is a big load of bullshit from people who cannot mix and/or produce well. It's almost like saying "Those running shoes will make you lose less weight than some other shoes". I can only imagine how bad this is for those who haven’t been music for very long and who cannot mix well.
A bad carpenter will always blame his tools. The most common DAW is see blamed, still, is Ableton Live, for whatever reason; I think it’s one of those things where you see something for a long enough time and you start to repeat it (just like “A premaster should peak around -6 dB” which you always see people say when someone asks for a suitable premaster level, yet you don’t find one person to explain it).
I’ve seen a 60+ page thread on DAW sound superiority on Gearslutz with not one audio example. Take it from me: if your DAW sounds bad, you can only blame yourself and you gotta work on your mixing and production (and I can help you with that if need be).
And hey, to add some weight here: I do 100% of my mixing and mastering work inside Ableton Live. I handle hundreds of songs per year to a global client base, and not one person says it doesn’t sound good. Let this be your takeaway.
You can easily test this: run an audio file out of DAW A and then DAW B.
Insert them both on audio tracks on a DAW, and invert the polarity of one of them, and if you get full silence, it means they sound exactly the same.
Learn one DAW well, and just get some music done. While…
…if they inspire you. The human mind gets bored easily and it benefits from a change. It’s OK to use different tools/DAWs if it helps you make more music. But if it all slows you down because you spend time on learning them, drop it. If you’re thinking of getting a new DAW just because your fave producer is endorsing it, don’t do it.
Remember that…
…and not your tools. Sure enough you’ll see pics of big studios and they look good, and they’ll help you acquire some attention, but remember the respect aspect – they won’t help you with that.
However, as an art creator, do remember that it’s 0.1% of people, if that, that like what you do because of whatever you are using to make what you make.
Gearlust and all that can be fine if it drives your creativity, but at the end of the day, absolutely no-one (other than nerds and some like-minded people) will care what you’re using. Cool gear looks cool in pics but will take you nowhere as an artist per se, and it certainly won’t help you sell music. Musical tools are only that: tools. The moment your music becomes a file that people can listen to, the tools lose their meaning.
…other than whatever makes you make some! I wanted to expand on the the topic of having lots of tools, because I do admit I have several samplers, but I have them for reasons having to do with 1) sound 2) workflow and 3) change. And somewhere there is a bit of a collector angle, too, but still, my main goal is to express myself as an artist and create as much of the end product as possible – not to own tools for the sake of owning tools. I have zero pride about owning some sh*t while I do have pride about having created a nice discography!
So, I don’t claim to know or master one right way of making music and I don’t always start with the same sampler or software – that’s the point here. Also, what works for one may not work for you, so you need to find out what works for you the best, and sure enough, along the years, I’ve tried many ways, and that’s important; that’s my main point.
With buying gear, novelty only goes so far but…
In an Aphex Twin interview he says, “I think I HAVE to be learning something when making tracks, even if it’s something very small. If there’s no learning involved, I wouldn’t get excited enough to do anything.”
So this is where novelty can help, whether it be a new piece of gear, a new plugin, a new technique etc. I find this is very effective, and often leads to ideas, and it’s ideas that songs start with. For example you have a delay plugin you bought some time ago, but you haven’t learned it fully. Start learning it, create a cool loop using it, and hey, soon you’ll have an idea you like. This is how it often works for me.
In all honesty, I pretty much never sit down and think I need to make a song. I’d find that quite intimidating. I always “dabble with stuff” and that leads to ideas, and sure enough it’s those ideas that get me all stoked to try and build a song around it.
With Ableton Live, I save lots of “clips” in the User Lib Clips folder (often it’s chords, bass sounds etc) and go thru the Clips folder content later on and see what I like.
To be able to make songs, you need to be able to have fun and create ideas. What’s the basis of this?
So you see that trying out new things may lead into ideas, and dabbling with stuff definitely leads into ideas. But what makes you dabble with stuff? Motivation. It’s the driving force beneath the surface. You need to have that motivation, or else you won’t be working towards the building blocks you need for songs.
Ask yourself often enough, “Is what I’m doing right now taking me closer to my goal?” and you may find yourself dabbling with stuff, and then you’ll get songs. If you lose the motivation, you’ll lose the hunger.
“How?” you may ask. Try to imagine your future horizon - how should it look? Ask yourself the classic question of where you’d like to be in one year from now (in terms of discography/releases etc) and you may find yourself giving your DAW or music gear more time instead of that Playstation. Ask yourself something along the lines of “If I saw my past year as a recorded video, would I be happy seeing myself do what I’ve done?” and that may work as a motivational nudge: it’s never too late to start giving your craft more love.
Set goals for yourself. I admit, I get the least stuff done when I have no goals in terms of release format etc., but when I get the idea to do an EP, that, immediately, is an energy spark, and I start getting thoughts like it’ll need this track and that style track etc. I’ll also add that while goals are important, stress-free “dabbling” is equally important.
People’s lives follow different paths. Things happen at different times. Life is no math where you can predict or prove an equation to success by looking at how and when it happened to someone else. Comparing yourself to others is a surefire path to misery (been there way, way too many times until I finally let go of all of that, and it was massively liberating). The sooner you stop comparing and start fully focusing on what you do, the better and happier you’ll do it.
It may sound funny, but I guarantee it works. Once you reach a decent drive, it’ll feed itself. Don’t mess with a 100 loops: start finishing songs, as that’s an important skillset of its own. It’s like a plant you’ll water and it’ll start to grow. I promise. I cannot explain it better than this, but simply, finishing songs does promote finishing even more songs (while the opposite is playing with loops and not putting in the work and leaving the comfort zone, all of which may contribute a heavy feeling of “I can’t get anything done”).
It’ll wear it out for you and make you lose perspective, Even some promising stuff will “wear out” over time and you start getting too bored with it. Especially with music, looping stuff while not doing anything to it can be a real killer of the novelty that’s your best friend in getting the song forward. Ideally, only work on your art when you enough energy for it. Sure enough, after a full workday, finding energy for your craft may feel heavy – and I know this all too well, trust me – but then again, working on things in small, effective sessions will take things forward.
There, I said it. And I mean it. There's many things in life that are about “delayed gratification”, and it takes a certain personality to be able to make it.
Someone once said something along the lines of “All artists want to have that finished art, but they wouldn’t always like to work for it”. I fully agree. It’s like going out to exercise when you’re a bit tired and the weather sucks: you’d want the benefit, but not the work it takes.
There are moments when I hate it or at least dislike it.
Dabbling with stuff in a DAW is fun, while keeping up a coherent, productive career, running the big picture always isn’t.
An example from last weekend: I’ve been sending songs to a great label, trying to get my EP done. There was a song that took me a while and once I sent it, I felt, “Effing finally, and that’s a wrap”. Then, I got some suggestions for changes. I hate it, while I can totally appreciate how other people feel about a song. So, of course I wanted to make the changes as well as I could. Had planned on having the Saturday as a day of doing nothing, but I spent the first four hours glued to my chair, making those changes. Not enjoyable, but takes me closer to where the music should be so it can be released. Today, I’ll be working on a better intro for a song I’m already sick of, so it can be released and played by DJs.
I admit there are times when I’d just love to be spending hours and hours on Playstation fun, but on a deeper level, I want something more: to advance my career.
Sheesh, often times finishing a song that’s maybe 65% done is the toughest damn thing. It’s then that I’d often much rather give my Playstation some love and it takes that actual desire that makes you work on the song when you rrrreally don’t want to, and the novelty and fun aspect is fully gone. But you have to accept it that being a person that finishes stuff means that you need to be ready to deal with that non-fun part of it. How much do you want it? Ask yourself that often enough.
This is for myself especially. I make most of my living doing mixing and mastering for clients, and I make my music in the very same space. It’s paramount that I go out after the workday if I want to switch on my creative brain after work. Sometimes it can be tough (weather etc.) but it works every time. I’ve definitely heard of artists saying they get bored when they sit inside all day in the vicinity of their music gear while they’d like to make music.
Go out and come back refreshed.
Do your own thing.
I’ve always, always done just that. I have not done one song during my career that’d follow the then current trends, and I won’t do that. I haven’t made one song to please anyone other than myself either. I’m glad to say my discography doesn’t have much music that’d sound dated in a “That style went out” sense as I never followed trends.
Also, don’t listen to your fans too much. If you make a song that gets popular, you know people will be expecting that from you, and you will hear about it. Repeating that can be a mistake. Your fans will always be behind where you are musically anyway.
Stick to your guns, work on your progress, and that’s what people will notice. See Aphex Twin for example.
This is one of the things I’d go tell my younger self if I had a time machine and I could.
My main thing for sure is DNB/jungle, and I’ve learned that that is what people love and possibly expect the most: it gets the best reactions. Now don’t get me wrong: I love doing it, and always will, but I’d love to go back with a time machine and do a bit more this and that (e.g., house) earlier on so the people following me would’ve learned early on that I keep it varied and they wouldn’t place me in a mould.
There was once this pretty well-known label in the DNB world that wanted me to have a fresh start, but under a different name, as they felt Fanu was too much about DNB to many. That project never went too far, possibly as I always felt a bit crap about having to change the name for that project.
I’ve been “fixing” this being-in-a-mould situation later on for sure, but I wish I had kept my output more colorful earlier.
If you make music and seem to be faced with question, “Should I stick to this style or keep it varied?” let producers like Luke Vibert answer that question with their discography. Amazing, varied discography, with a large fanbase. A total “lifer” who makes what he wants, and it seems he definitely has a paying career around it.
You can’t grind with art all the time. It’s fine not to be fully energized to create art all the time. Don’t feel blue about it. Things often go in cycles: you’ll get a lot done in a month, but the next month may be slower.
An old classic. And I fully agree. If you have this motivation inside of you to make music/art, you will sometimes “force” yourself to make some and learn how to do that. Inspiration is something that you can spark and ignite quite often when/if it’s needed, but don’t expect it to just happen on a Sunday when you’re all well-rested and everything is fine in the kingdom.
Doing a remix you’ll get paid for might actually be a good example of this: you may not be immediately inspired after hearing the samples you’ll get, but you’ll have to find a way to make it happen (if you want to make a good remix and get paid, that is).
To make decent music, you will have to make some poor shit every now and then. Happens to every artist. There are times when I’m hungry for it, but can’t seem to come up with anything that sounds good. You learn that making that shit is an inevitable part of the process. Just accept it. And delete the shit and make some better shit.
Sometimes I allow myself to start lots of songs within a certain period (without even trying to make them into full songs), but it has to be followed by a period of doing the work, i.e., making them into songs. I find this works well: you’ll have a very nice period of stress-free inspiration orgy, and you can do that every day if you wish.
In my freelancer/entrepreneur career, I’ve always aimed to do exceptional work. Sometimes you may have to run uphill a bit and use more time on a project than you initially planned, but it’ll be worth it. Word goes around in good and in bad. Especially in a field where word-of-mouth is primarily what gains you work, this is everything. Don’t be lazy, and don’t send out half-assed work, as it won’t do you any good. Always aim to do as good as you can, even if it means taking a bit more time / telling the client you’ll take a bit longer.
Also, treat every client equally; as an audio engineer, this is my motto. Whether it be a big label/artist or a newbie, they all get the same respect and quality from me: there's no difference in how serious I'm about treating a song.
In a way this has to do with the previous point, but it also applies to artist life.
There’s a ton of “competition” and saturation out there, and I’ve never thought personally that releasing music for the sake of just staying on people’s radars does you any good. And there’s a lot of that.
E.g., two meaningful EPs a year is better, IMHO, than lots of singles just for the sake of not being “forgotten”. We’ve all seen people on music groups discuss artists that have kind of “lost it” after some classic works of theirs…and that may be as they started feeling the pressure of having to release music.
I’ll add that there are also artists that release music often and all of it is good.
My point is, don't start panicking if you haven't released something for a while.
Another thing where I could’ve done better. I still kind of suck at it and don’t do much of it – not because I’m an introvert or anything, as I’m the opposite, but mostly I’m too busy with my stuff and don’t have a ton of energy left over after it all.
But I’ll say networking helps with things: people (and/or other artists) will start to share and support your stuff, they’ll consider you for events/remixes/jobs etc. It’s almost like, there are people who know you’re good etc. but once they get a bit of personal contact from you, that’s when they somehow appreciate you more.
When I was a student and had way more time, all I did was make music and hang out on AIM etc. all day, and I feel those contacts did earn me something.
Applies to freelance stuff, DJing, audio engineering…
These days, I still ask a new client to either pay me the job in advance in full (as an audio engineer, I pretty much don’t “fail” so I feel OK doing it, seeing it’s very standard anyways) as it’s a sign of commitment. TBH every now and then I still get all kinds of people asking me for stuff, and over the years you develop a hunch about who’s trying to get a freebie.
It’s OK to ask for a deposit / advance payment. Every freelancer knows this.
This applies to Djing, too. I learned early on that trusting people every time is not always good, and certain amount of healthy cynicism saves you from some gray hair, as it filters out the ones that lack commitment.
As a DJ, it sucks hearing “Well, we didn’t get as many people as we were expecting, so can I take the price down?” and while I understand it, we’ve agreed on a price, I’ve shown up, done my job, and am entitled to get paid what we agreed on…and these’d get avoided to an extent if you got paid in advance (under the condition that if you don’t show up, you pay it back of course).
There was this one time in Moscow when I learned it the hard way. After the event (that was not successful due to zero promo, I heard), as the promoter takes me to the taxi, he says, “I don’t have money on me now but could get it if you really want it now, or I can pay you in the morning when we meet if that’s OK” and I said payment in the morning is OK. Did I get paid in the morning? No. Did the promoter show up or pick up my call? No. Went thru days of hassling and semi-threatening the guy to get paid. No-one wants that kind of energy in their life.
Get paid at least something in advance and that’s where the commitment will show.
A thing where I could’ve done better when I was younger: keep in touch with labels that released my music and develop a relationship.
When I was young, I did a ton of shopping around with my music, releasing on so many different labels, label after a label – instead of really developing a relationship with one.
I don’t mean I was a prick or anything, but I only realised later on I didn’t express much post-release gratitude or go back to the labels to plan further stuff.
Then again, the same goes mostly for artists whose music I’ve released (can’t say many have come back to me to discuss further stuff) so I guess I get it.
Working closely with a label can be very fruitful: I love it if label can engage in a conversation with the artist and express some wishes, do a bit of planning, or even push the artist to try different things etc.
Synergy in working with labels can be a great thing, and the communication should ideally go both ways.
Sure enough I’ve made some mistakes. We’re human, and unless you live under a rock, you will end up offending some people, no matter how well you present yourself.
With two labels, it happened (different times) that they had tentatively signed some tracks of mine.
In one case, I started feeling a track wasn’t stylistically fitting for that particular project and wanted to take it elsewhere. I presented that as a suggestion, but things blew up and escalated quickly and went to shit. Tried explaining it, but no explaining was helping. I wasn’t being a dickhead, and couldn’t relate to the almost hostile vibes I got from the label, but at the same time I had to understand them: they were stoked about the song, had some passion for it, and my suggested move was a major downer. Never heard from them again in spite of me trying to get back and be all polite (I’m always polite) and discuss it.
Another time, similar scenario, I literally started feeling the songs just were not good enough for the planned vinyl release (I felt they were “OK” songs at best) and suggested just throwing them out (I kind of felt almost bad for a label spending money on them), and it went similarly…another bridge burned, while it was not intended.
This sounds obvious. But in my career, I’ve managed to get my music on four labels that I massively respect: Subtitles, Ninja Tune, Redefinition Records, and Metalheadz.
They all represent a sound that resonates in me. Crazy or not, but in various points in time, I took it my goal to get my music on those labels.
Not one of those cases was easy, I’ll say, but having it as my plan to get music on those labels massively fuelled my inspiration and motivation. Can’t even say I tweaked my style that much to be fitting (I couldn’t do that; my art means too much to me to do that), but it can be a massive drive when you promise yourself that one day, a label you love will release your music. Allow this to motivate you.
Fact of life. You just have to accept it.
No matter how good you are, there will be people who will fail to see that good in you.
You’ll find this to be true in music scenes, business, client relationships etc.
E.g., you may try to offering your music to labels, your services to potential clients, your performances to promoters, and you’ll just have to learn to accept the fact that to a quite a lot people, you are nothing regardless of your experience.
Also, semi-related: never take haters personally. If they’re anything, they’re signs that you’re doing well and/or that they’re not. Not one person busy enough with or happy about what they’re doing has time or energy to be “hating”. Also, not one hater hates “downwards” if you know what I mean.
While you will undoubtedly meet people on your path that will not treat you right or who will fail to respect you, always treat everyone with respect. Try to aim at an impeccable “track record” in treating people and your reputation. The word gets around in good and in bad, and your words and actions will also be presented out of context.
It seems to be the truth, sadly, that there is a bit of back-stabbing and talking shit behind people’s back happening in the music scene, and the longer you stay at it, the higher the chance that you’ll hear some nasty shit about yourself. Don’t fret. Some can’t stand your success and actions. Mind your own business and keep going.
Having said that, I'll add and say that it's an inevitable fact that for us all, there'll be at least that one somebody who will be saying shit things about us.
Esp. in client stuff, dealing with promoters, etc., a certain amount of healthy cynicism is good.
Or, to put in another way, don’t be too friendly or gullible.
There’ll be a lot of people who’d like to use you.
E.g. in audio engineering, I still get a bit of this – e.g., people asking for “previews” without clearly any intention of paying. Job orders where I’m told the money will come from somewhere a bit later, but I could start already. Promoters who’ll say they’ll hopefully pay you after a gig and then you’ll hear after the show there is no money. Sadly I’ve seen all this, but learned, fortunately.
Healthy cynicism doesn’t mean that you have to let it show for everyone, but know your worth and what signs you have to see early on to see mutual respect and commitment.
In all honesty, getting that music/art done after a heavy day of work can be tough sometimes, and, to quote an acquaintance, to work the “Excel side of the brain” all day can be an enemy of trying to wake up the creative side.
It can be good to take some time off sometimes just to chill and wake up that flower of creativity and to have it grow.
To me, that’s often difficult, because, luckily, I’m booked most of the time and in my position, it can be hard to reach a state of no work in the queue, but 2-3 times a year I take 1-2 weeks fully off and just immerse myself in that creation zone, which, interestingly enough, helps with keeping that creative mindset more awake once you return to work.
Point here is that if you only deal with work, work, work, that creative flower may start withering, and you’ll need to give it some water and sunlight (a bit of time off) to get it all perky again.
I’ve always said that a few good friends is much more meaningful than having tons of friends and a vast social circle. Especially when you’re a creative being who’s really deep in what he/she does, it seems that it inevitably shapes the circle of people that are close to you. This is fine and natural. At a somewhat early age I realized that being this creative type of person started to shape my lifestyle a bit: I literally remember some times when I was young and I started saying to my closest friends that I wasn’t going out as much anymore, as I had to be working on my music more. You need to be making those decisions sometimes.
Fun fact about the very first song of mine that was picked up by Goldie for Metalheadz: the song was half-done, I was a bit unsure about it, and wasn’t sure if I wanted to finish it, as I hadn’t been able to give it as much time as I would’ve wanted to feel good and cohesive about it. The weekend was approaching, and I was invited to an event with free beer. I said I can’t go, as I should sit down and get the song made, and I admit when I said that, I felt like a nerd. Well, I spent that Saturday by myself, making that song work, and soon it was picked up by Goldie. Didn’t regret that decision.
Also, it’s OK to leave those people behind who don’t seem to understand you; fact is, not everybody will understand or appreciate what or who you are. You will need to be resonating on the right wavelength with the people that are in your circle, as that supports what you do. Drop those who seem to be questioning what you are doing.
Those close to you are the least impressed by your art. Don’t expect big praise from your close musical “colleagues”: to them, you’re a homie and just a dude (just like it should be), but expecting either big praise or grave criticism from friends is a mistake. They won’t be as struck by the best tune you’ve done as your fans will be, and they also don’t want to give you much feedback as they don’t want to hurt your feelings.
Obvious, maybe bland, but true. You owe nothing to what you were yesterday. Or a year ago.
Applies to art, life events, etc. You can be “reborn” every day and start anew.
You can only learn from the past, so don’t drag it with you or let it weigh you down. You don’t have to forget what was in the past: it’s enough that you accept it.
If there’s one single thing, a connecting thread running throughout most of my life, this is the one. Applies most definitely to labels, promoters, clients, jobs, assignments, relationships etc.
Over time and through experience, you will develop a hunch for these things.
And even without acknowledging those, your heart will know what’s best for you.
For example, some label stuff that’s ended a bit shit was always something that made me feel uneasy, so the gut feeling was there all the time and I should’ve trusted it.
2021-03-21 08:37:37 +0000 UTC View Post
Alright fam!
Another exclusive video, showing you how you can:
1) Create a beat whose elements vary in terms of level automatically and also in terms of probability, so as the end result, not all notes play every time, and when they do, their level varies, so even by doing a short loop you can create a beat that keeps changing.
2) Randomize sample playback using Sampler + midi note velocity randomization AND another technique using Sampler + LFO. Sample randomization for one single note has never been super straightforward or obvious with Ableton Live, so I wanted to show you these two similar techniques. So you keep play one note, and the sample keeps changing randomly.
Download video here – please do not share, but feel free to let ppl know of my Patreon. This video is not public anywhere other than for my Patrons.
2021-03-05 10:22:31 +0000 UTC View Post
Alrighty! Let's get the mixing month on.
In this video, I'm showing you how you can compress your drums for added punch using any standard compressor out there. Let me know how it goes!
(Embedding a Dropbox video doesn't seem to work, so DOWNLOAD from a direct link to my Dropbox video file)
Note: this is Patreon exclusive, so the video is not publicly shared.
Even if you technically can, please don't share the video, but do let friends know about my service if you find this info useful (I haven't figured out how to password-protect files in a quick, convenient way that only Patreon users could access it, so I'm trusting ya'll)
MORE EXCLUSIVES TO COME!
Also hit me up about topics you want to see.
The single most helpful tip I'd give my younger self in terms of mixing, if I could, would be that not all sounds have to play at the same level thru the whole song. My style, esp. in DNB, has often been very "full" – often closer to a "busy a wall of noise" thing rather than minimal. I was always trying to make everything fit, and I never thought of level automation earlier on. Things got a bit busy every now and then.
Make use of level automation to often fit sounds better in your song. An example: let's say in your intro, you have a guitar. It can play pretty loud there as there won't be much "competition" there. Later on you'll add a sax and vocal, and maybe a piano. Things get busier, and it starts to seem a bit "hectic", and all of a sudden it's not as roomy as it was. One thing that can help a lot is simply dipping a sound (or two) that's not in the main role by, say, 2 dB as things get busier. Like that intro guitar can become a lesser operator in the background as the song proceeds, and maybe once again in the outro, it can get a bigger role. Maybe you'll want to lessen its reverb when things get busier, too, so it fits there nice and dry. Or then again, maybe you'll do it the other way around: it's more subtle in the intro, but in chrous, we want more energy, so give it a bit more level, and maybe reverb.
In the music we hear, we may not be aware of this on a conscious level, but it does happen, and a few tactical level tweaks can help a lot of in terms of both energy and how things fit. A "level hierachy" is a good thing there.
A quick master level thought: sometimes when I mix stuff like tech house etc for clients, I may emphasize the master level by 1–1.5 dB in the drop, and automate it back to where it was within 2-8 bars or so – this type of level automation once again deals with energy. You don't even realize it's happening, but it has a nice impact.
(BTW, will do a post about tricks for drops, too, so watch out)
Level automation is your friend! In Ableton Live, I use Utility for this (pic).
PS: There is a video of me using Pro-Q3 for this type of work, frequency-specific – this I do a whole lot in mixing, too.
2021-02-27 08:11:38 +0000 UTC View Post
Ableton Live 11 allows for 16 macros.
Here's an EQ 8 rack I wanted to share. Basically it has controls for low, mids, and highs, as well as HP and LP filter controls and master gain.
The pic shows them:
• frequency controls, gain controls, and on/off controls for lows, mids, and highs
• overall gain control (-+ 5 dB)
• HP and LP filters (off by default, but turns on as you turn it clockwise or counterclockwise)
2021-02-22 12:28:10 +0000 UTC View Post
(I wrote this in response to a thread on Reddit about how a producer was feeling jealous towards some of his friends who are now enjoying decent success while they haven't been in the game as long. Thought I'd share! This is a public post, so feel free to share this.)
People's lives go different paths, and things happen at different times. One cannot and shouldn't compare the time it takes a person to break through and reach success to the time it takes some other person.
Success often comes at times you don't expect, and in ways you might not expect.
Allow me to use myself as an example. Also, please don't read this at any cocky tone – only here to encourage you with an example from real life.
I started making music in 1992 (I'll be 41 next month). I got my first vinyl release roughly 10+ years after I had started. A few years after that, I got a really decent release, which lead in me having a fairly nice DJ career for over 3 years and I went around the world (that did go on for several years after that but way less steam). Music sales and DJing paid for my living; was a student at the time. Kept making music all the time.
I had to take a break from music in 2009 to concentrate on finishing my uni studies: they were dragging a bit (I wasn't mega far from graduating, and had already done my master's thesis for example, but some stuff I needed to wrap up) as I was always travelling for gigs a bit too much while I should've concentrated on my studies.
I always felt that this whole year I took off of music to graduate kind of took me off the music radar, because as I tried to get back to the DJing thing after I graduated (which I do not regret!), it didn't happen, as i felt my momentum had lost some steam, and demand was really low.
Fast forward a little bit, was doing a bit of teaching, as I got a degree for that, and all this time I had been making music, but my music thing wasn't nearly as much in demand as it was at some point, while I did see of my contemporaries and old musical friends "make it" in the producer / DJ field: they were seen in relevant media and now doing all the gig life, while my stuff didn't seem to ever make it – and I can say it was hurting me, a lot, as I was thinking of how much work I had put in.
Often, more than once, I came very close to quitting and I took some time off of music…I was comparing myself to others and didn't see the logic. I had been working longer than many of those who were enjoying success. I can admit now that I was feeling very bitter at times.
Anyways, I took a break – just to realize that music had given so much to me already in my life and always been a big part of me (started producing when I was 12) that no way I'd let it go…I'd continue to make music for fun…and this, shedding off all the external BS helped so much at that point.
BTW, I didn't continue teaching full-time (I did one year at a very respected school), as something inside of me said I need to stay on that musical path. I only did some one-off teaching gigs to cover my rent and food. For a while I wasn't making much, but I was able to put as much time into music and audio as possible.
A bit after that, I realized I had so much experience and ear in that field that I started thinking, I mix and master so much of my own music that I might try and offer that to others, and started putting even more emphasis on being great at that. And that really started snowballing once I put it out there.
Now, approx 10 years after that moment, I'm a self-employed full-time mixing and mastering engineer that runs his own little business and makes an OK living doing that. And sure enough I do a bit of Patreon stuff on the side, helping people out, and that goes well. My expertise currently pays for my living, and it's nicer than my initial (and maybe naive) hopes of success. I'm also Ableton Certified, and that coupled with my teacher's degree + 29 years experience in electronic music is a good look and makes me a credible music production tutor, and I get jobs on that front, too. I'll say that wasn't initially in my plans of "success" either when I was younger, and back then, I didn't even see how the teacher qualification would help me in the field of music (tuition).
Also, all the music I always made and released (even when I thought it all was going slow and I was feeling desperate) now also earns me some music sales and also a bit of streaming money, which feels good.
Everything I was doing was kind of contributing to where I'm now – I was just sticking to my guns and doing what I thought I did best, which I've seen often seen as advice, and put forward as advice myself.
Well, what's my final point?
Success comes to those who put the work in, and it often comes at times you don't expect, and in ways you might not initially expect.
Did I ever plan on doing what I do now when I was younger? No way.
Is it better than what I was dreaming of? Much, much better.
Am I glad I didn't quit when I was thinking I wasn't going anywhere with the music stuff? Of course.
The times when I was comparing myself were the worst times in my career in terms of productivity, happiness etc.
I say once more, I'm not saying any of this to brag: been putting work in for 29 years, and it's paying off now.
And I've now also made it to a record label I also dreamed of joining…I was listening to their music in the mid-90s, even hyped by their record covers.
Joining the label happened approx 25 years after I started making music…so, not too soon, but some good things come slow and they take a bit of patience. I guess the good things never really happen overnight, right?
Yo, happy Valentine's and stuff!
Without any further ado and foreplay (lol), let's get down to business 😏
Here's downloads for ya'll:
1) Drums of the new FatGyver album that came out Feb 12 – download here (24-bit wav)
2) mp3s of the album – download (while the drums will stay up, I can't guarantee this link will work for longer than a month – if link is dead, hit me up)
Thanks for all your patronage :-)
-Janne 🥁 ❤️
I have a long list of these, so I thought I'd start a new "series" and keep dropping these frequently.
Not necessarily in the order of importance, but important stuff all the same.
Tip #1: never listen to an unfinished song just for fun – you'll get bored of it, and that boredom can be a killer when it comes to productivity.
When I was younger, I often put a loop on just to feel it and get a vibe and maybe even let it loop on the background while I was drinking my morning coffee or whatever, maybe in hopes of getting ideas but not when I was ready to work on the song.
This is a mistake – if you're not ready to work on it.
I often got bored of the songs, even with some promising ones, and it's a real drag when you're losing the zest you had for it: you think, wasn't this a pretty good one, and now I'm either kind of bored of it or it sucks, and I can't tell?
What happens kind of easily to me at least is I kind of hear the song in my mind if I hear it a lot, and even that can wear it out.
I literally try to avoid getting bored of a song at all costs these days and want to keep the energy I have for it, and it's helped so, so much.
It's been a big help for productivity that I literally never, ever listen to an unfinished song for fun: when I do, I'm sitting in front of my DAW/gear, ready to work on it immediately.
Novelty is a massive driving force in getting the song forward, so do not waste it!
There's nothing better than clicking play in your DAW and feeling, ahhhh, this is actually pretty good, and I want to work on it so much…and then you do!
When I was a youngster, I may have listened to the song before going to work or school or something, and that just wears off the novelty.
These days, what happens quite often is, I don't even necessarily fully remember how a good song I've got in the works sounds, but I can remember it's promising (I keep a list of all unfinished songs and even ideas – I'm a huge notepad nerd!) …and then getting to work on it is like getting to eat when you're really hungry!
I can promise this works, and I wish I had realized this earlier.
PS: New FatGyver EP drum tracks dropping for download tomorrow!
You know the classic shaker (tambourine) part in the very classic Think break by Lyn Collins? It can give your mix a lot of great energy. You're hard-pressed to find one that's equally good.
However, some years ago, I found one and have been using it a lot since. Its high freqs are even better.
Funny or not, last night when I went to bed, I thought, I might let my dear Patrons have it.
It's slightly edited by me. If you don't like the kind of loud accented hit, just compress it (short attack, short release, high ratio).
Here it is – download it and ENJOY!
Please don't share, but feel free to let others know how to get it if you like it :-)
2021-02-07 12:16:24 +0000 UTC View Post
Lemme show you how to have your sinewave bass CUT thru the mix!
Some producers that I mix for use simple sinewaves, and it's my job to make it more audible.
This is how! And add a tracking EQ to the mix, and you're golden. You'll keep the soft vibe but add a bit of the stuff that helps the bass to be heard from small speakers.
2021-02-01 14:24:35 +0000 UTC View Post…the drumloops of my forthcoming instrumental hip hop EP.
It drops on Feb 12, and a few days after that, I'll put 10 drumloops up for all download tiers (all tiers but the lowest one).
So, hold tight!
2021-01-28 14:52:59 +0000 UTC View Post
As we know, there’s more people than ever making music out there, and lots of them have some sort of artistic aspirations. By that, I mean actually putting the music out there (and possibly even charging money for it): after all, is art even art unless it’s being experienced by some?
It’s a bit of a jungle out there, with so many options, and it sure can feel overwhelming even thinking of all the options out there.
So here’s my thoughts on the topic: this is definitely more of a “You should consider these” instead of “Do these and you will succeed” post.
I’ll try to keep it ”relatively short” instead of creating a megaguide, heh.
This is not an exhaustive guide. If I set out to do that, it’d become a 50-page strategy guide, and that is not my goal at all.
These points are based on my own experience,so I won’t try and give advice relating to something I have no experience of. Those who know me know that I make my living with several things relating to my expertise: audio engineering, music tuition, Patreon, Ableton expertise, music sales, etc., so they all contribute to my business.
And also, this is not a guide on how to reach stardom…sorry. Just some helpful pointers to get you started, and maybe these will raise some thoughts and ideas.
(By the way, unlike many other posts on my Patreon, this is a public one, so if you feel there’s useful stuff in here, feel free to share this post with your friends. Even I can use a bit of sharing sometimes. I talk about that in this post, too. One thing you can do to help to any artist is share their content)
This is kind of obvious, but…when you start to put the music out, make sure it’s good. This applies to releasing music and also sending it to labels.
If it’s poor, people may easily put you into a “won’t check this guy out in the future” bracket, and you don’t want there.
Obviously, early on, you’re going to be critical, as you have heard tons of great music for a big part of your life, and it takes you time to get where the music sounds so good to you that you want to put it out there and have others hear it too, but I just want to emphasize strongly that this is a very important consideration in the beginning, because it can be hard to fix this later on, as not everyone gives you a second chance.
What is good enough? Something that you’re genuinely happy with.
Unless you want to release it yourself, you usually want to get on a label. I won’t actually say much about this in post, as I’ll focus more on what you can do on your own. All I’ll say is, have the music tight, and don’t send out those lazy emails/msgs that sound like they’re going out to tons of people and where even you yourself don’t believe in it (this’d be something along the lines “yo here’s my songs, check them out”).
If you’ve never spoken to the label before, you might want to say, when approaching them with your music, why it is that you’re contacting that exact label and why your music might be a good fit. You know, make it personal somehow, as that works so much better than that lazy generic message that’s just thrown out.
Target the labels that represent your sound – otherwise why even send it out…you’d be wasting your time.
The "cons" of working with a record label may be that they may own your music and get a part of its sales, but then again, they should help you in terms of putting the music and you out there. An ideal label would work with you an in a way for you, developing you as an artist, discussing and planning your releases etc., but sadly, there are many labels that won't do this.
So, there are reasons to consider releasing your music out there.
Now this is more the thing I want to talk about: releasing things yourself and developing YOU.
Labels are definitely good when/if they can offer you something you cannot achieve yourself (good promotional reach, status, etc.) but we all can use some decent tools to get stuff out there and develop ourselves in the field of releasing music / being an artist.
One thing I want to suggest highly: Bandcamp. And here come the reasons.
• It promotes a healthy way of consuming music: buying it. I’ll actually largely skip everything related to how kind of f**ked and difficult the not-paying-you-directly music industry has become in some ways (while it seems to attract some young artists like flypaper, still), as you’re probably aware of some of that, and I want to leave all negativity out.
A thing to consider when you’re putting yourself out there is what options you’ll offer for getting your music, and I’d say if you start to promote a platform where your music has a price, this vibe will stick to your followers, especially those who really want to support you (e.g, imho a fiver for a decent EP is something any working adult can do). At least I can say this to be true, and I’ve always promoted Bandcamp first / over other services, and I’m happy to say that a lot of those who follow my music seem to be fine paying for it (another reason for this may be that many of my followers are adults with jobs and they also grew up in a similar music-consuming culture where I did: paying for music was/is the "standard" way to get the music and also support the artist you like).
• When someone buys your music, they’ll automatically get release notifications when you release on BC in the future. Handy!
• If you give out music for free via BC, you can ask the customer to pay with their email address if they enter zero price. This means they’ll willingly give you their email for direct marketing. You can then use Mailchimp, for example, to inform those people about your future releases (Mailchimp is free as long as your list has less than 2 thousand names, so it’ll be free for long, and even when it goes over 2K, it's easy to cull out inactive members).
• You can do free releases where the price is zero but you’ll still let the customer pay if they can (you’d be surprised how many actually do).
• This is a very solid place for your discography (e.g., if you don't have a website), and it’s easy to use. Fans will easily see a good overview of what you have released, and the interface for playing music and buying it is effortless. You can also stream the music you’ve bought with an app.
• Via Bandcamp, you can also contact your fans with their dedicated messaging system, so you can do a heads-up about forthcoming stuff etc.
• Bandcamp offers whole discography purchases as well as monthly/yearly subscriptions (you can only offer either, but not both).
Doesn’t that sound pretty good? In all honesty, even buying a few beers with the money that your art earned you is a good feeling!
I won’t have a ton to say about this, but there are several services (such as CDbaby) that offer services for getting your music out there to digital stores and streaming services (Spotify etc). They usually take a cut/fee, and the stores you’ll use will take a cut, too. I'm lucky to work with a good, long-time UK distro for getting my music to stores (while I run my Bandcamp myself), who of course take their cut – and this is fine.
There are services, too, that will pitch your music to Spotify playlists, but the few times I’ve done a quick math on the ratio of what it costs/earns you, I'd say there isn’t much to be earned with those figures, so those plays alone won’t necessarily leave you with much profit, if any.
One thing I’d strongly underline: do NOT become an artist that ONLY releases on Spotify. Big or small, it makes zero sense. You’d basically not offer a direct support channel for your fans, and you’d potentially leave a lot of money on the table.
Every now and then, I even get some mixing/mastering clients that say they will only release via Spotify, and let me tell you, I’d love to get my friendly lecture on…but in my role as an engineer there, that is not my job.
(BTW, I'm definitely not anti-Spotify per se, but especially for new and small artists, I wouldn't recommend it as their primary platform IF getting some beer money is in their plans)
Yeah, it’ll take promotion – unless you get lucky and some big player/artist/DJ/media takes a liking on you and does you a favor and posts your stuff. However, this is not super likely, so don’t count too much on that. The fact is you probably won’t be the next Aphex Twin who could only mildly tease about some stuff online, and then everybody’d be sharing it – ain’t gonna happen. Wouldn't we all love to "only make music" though.
Where to promote? Socials. Most people do this. Everybody uses social media, and that is both a pro and a con. Most of us have friends/followers/etc that will react to the content.
Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. This is where you curate your content. Especially these days I’m seeing more and more artists use their actual personal FB page for posting about their music, as it still seems to reach people, and it’s a nice and direct way for the fans to reach you, too.
Facebook business pages are going badly downhill, and if you’re not paying for the posts, their spread is very minimal, and often even paying doesn’t do the trick, I feel.
Some socials work better for music than others: e.g., Twitter (at least for me) is the worst platform for posting about music…or the interaction for those posts is often super low, while a witty thought or a joke works way better – but there, it's about finding the good middle ground and slipping your promo in.
Don’t be too proud and cool: just put the stuff out there and ask people to share, and you’d be surprised how many will react and help a bit, especially early in your career.
I’d say picture and video posts seem to do well, but I’d advise keeping the content relevant. I’m seeing many artists that, imho, are kind of wasting their chance by posting mundane stuff like their beers, shoes, cats, meals, and all that – and personally, I can’t follow stuff like that, as I lose interest easily and end up thinking why I should know you’re eating a cake right now. Having said that, there is of course a decent ratio of music posts and basic stuff. It’s OK to show you’re a human being, but I feel that a certain “profiling” goes a long way. If you post regularly about studio stuff, for example, at least in my book it emphasizes a vibe that music is your thing.
Then, there’s also the way of posting tons of memes, which will undoubtedly gain attention and “likes” easily, but a good question is whether it’ll underline you being a music-maker that should be kept an eye on – or a person who’s hungry for attention – and whether that'll help you at all when it comes to letting people know your music is out today (obv, the funny cat and dog posts will always gain more attention, and you just gotta accept it).
Send the music out to DJs – if your music is something that DJs usually play and if you know of DJs that play your kind of stuff, that is. Having a DJ play your song in a mix may gain you some exposure, and in a way it gives you some credibility; even some big producers seem to post on their socials about getting their songs played by good DJs for clout.
Just reach out to the DJs; often this works thru socials. Just hit them up and ask for their contact for promos and if they want music. Not everyone displays that on their profile, but some will reply and give you an email.
Also, it sure isn't wrong or uncommon to ask others for DJ/label contacts.
Network!
If there’s one universal truth out there that applies to the field of music, it’s that networking can bring good results. Get in touch with like-minded people and share stuff and have a chat with them. I don’t mean spamming them with your links, but establishing some actual human connections with relevant like-minded peeps.
Even this will help in the long run, because those who seem to genuinely like you as a human being are more likely to, for example, support your stuff or share it on the web.
Also, many gigs seem to happen on the basis of knowing the right people (as opposed to people you don’t know just getting in touch with you to book you – this does happen, too, of course, especially in the more professional world).
Today’s web offers tons of different ways to be out there and gain attention in a good, organic way, to support your musical releases and also reinforce what you do. Here’s a few options.
• Give out song stems for remixing. You’d be surprised how many will want to download the stems when they like the song – just to get free samples. Most of them will not get back to you with a remix, but in the end, they will have downloaded your content, and this helps in you.
• Relevant video content on Youtube. If you’re naturally good at DAW stuff / production / mixing / basslines etc., consider doing something that your followers (and those who don’t know you yet) would find interesting and useful, and this may gain you new followers. Music production and things relating to it are something that music-makers will always be drawn to. Also, detailed videos on how you made a song can be helpful and interesting – here is a recent one I made. Youtube is slow in terms of gaining followers, but whatever helps to support your doings in an organic way is worth doing, imho.
• Tips etc on Instagram. Plenty of producers and even companies are giving out short, easy-to-digest music production tips on IG. I’m often surprised how some mega obvious content (like "boost your snare here") gets a ton of likes – that’s how it often works these days, so make use of it.
• Sample packs. Trust me, producers especially love these. Whether you want to charge for it or just give it out (via Bandcamp or such to build a mailing list), that’s up to you, but packs of good samples are probably more popular than ever right now. Create a pack with samples from your EP, for example – this, once again, would promote your release.
• Engage in conversations on music groups/forums. While this may not be the main way to anything, still, helping people out on music forums/groups/Reddit etc does sometimes drive people your way. I’ve provided tons and tons of help on forums and groups over the years (DOA forum, Ableton forum, FB groups, my own FB wall, Gearslutz, etc.), and I know it’s helped to establish myself as a person that’s generally liked and trusted in the field of music and audio (while I, of course, have some haters, too, that in general do pop out at some point when you’re out there in the public). In general, I feel people are drawn to and appreciate a person who gives out good advice (while, it has to be said, the downside of this is that it will attract many ppl asking for free assistance – that is actually one reason I started my Patreon, to be honest!)
•Give it time. Obvious, but that’s the way it is. All the bigger artists, too, that you like and who are at least seemingly succeeding have been doing it for a long time – often longer than we realize. They’ve done a lot of the basic groundwork for a long time, keeping it humble, doing it for the love – and that’s a healthy basis for doing it in the first place.
•Humility. The whole game of trying to get somewhere, anywhere, does take some humility and often some blind faith. You have to understand that you’re out there with hundreds or thousands of others, many of whom have been doing it way longer than you. Stay in your lane. To most people, your stuff won’t matter, and that is fine. A lot people will fail to appreciate you, no matter how good or interesting you are. Never compare: people’s paths are different, with way different branches in their tree of development and progress.
• Just be yourself. Just like in life in general, those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind. So even in the artist game, I feel it’s best to just be yourself. E.g., I’ve never been able to do the “cool artist” game, no way – just can’t do it. I’m just a dude who’s always been stoked about music, beats, audio stuff, etc., and I don’t find myself “cool” at all, so in the artist game I don’t try to do that. And I’ve found most ppl like it (while it’s ruffled some haters, too, haha, who find what I do cringe-worthy, but hey, those ppl are always there, mostly unhappy with what they do, so just ignore. Nobody who's happy and busy with what they are and do has time or energy to hate on others).
• Faith. There sure are moments when it feels that things are not going anywhere, and that is normal. I, too, have moments when business slows down for a second and I often get a bit worried, but that usually means there’s a lot of stuff dropping, and it’s all just around the corner. And often the good things happen when you’re not exactly expecting them, while it’s often when you really want things and expect good things to come that things are going slow.
• Focus. Where you put your focus, time, and energy is where you’ll see results. So, don’t go necessarily making a truckload of Youtube videos if you want to keep your main focus in music.
Well, that is it for now – hope some of that may help you or give you some ideas.
All thoughts are welcome, so do drop a comment if you feel like it, and feel free to share the post.
If you need help with music production, getting your music mixed and/or mastered, some feedback on your music, help with DAW/plugin stuff – feel free to get in touch.
More info on me and my services here.
Now ya'll stay safe and productive out there!
-Janne
Oi friends!
Here's the video on how to do this.
I've been wanting to make that classic angry Reese bass for a while, but I've wanted to do something that's not exactly like all other Reeses – I want a bit of an edge to it with some chances for nice tonal variation.
DOWNLOAD v1 HERE (Live 10 compatible)
EDIT: v2 download HERE, as seen in the video: a rack version for Live 11 with macro controls for Warp + Fold oscillator effects AND Unison activated.
Hi friends.
Here is a video about a Metalheadz song of mine, “Baretta”.
It was the first song of mine that Goldie picked. It came out on my Black Label EP on Metalheadz Platinum.
I’m running you through the song in Ableton Live, showing the sounds I used, talking about the song sections, sound choices, song structure choices, what makes a good Headz tune in my opinion, how this song happened – also why it got picked up at exactly the right time for me etc.
Hope this helps some Headz-minded musicmakers out there.
2021-01-08 13:52:24 +0000 UTC View PostTime to see how it’s gone Patreon-wise this year (if you only want to see what's lined up for my Patreon, scroll down halfway).
In a nutshell: I've managed to put out quite a lot of content this year: videos, tips, sample downloads, etc. and at least personally I'm quite happy with that.
And I want to chew on Patreonism a bit and look into the horizon.
It’ll be a lengthy post, so grab a brew!
Well, I started my Patreon this year – in May.
Why?
For years and years, I was posting about music stuff on FB and I used to have thousands of “friends” that had requested me as a friend (I barely added anyone myself – initially I was there for a few friends and my family).
Interaction was great, but what it also brought was people asking for help on those matters.
Whenever I tried suggesting a fee for my services, I often got, “Ah, ok, I’ll look it up then” or “I thought you’d help for free”.
I never thought I should necessarily help anyone for absolutely free, now having made music for nearly 30 years, and I did get a teacher’s degree from the university as well as a certification from Ableton. I guess there is a reason that out of all people in the world, they chose to ask me, but to them, my expertise had no value – on Facebook. Can’t say FB has much of a monetization vibe in it, does it.
I’ve been posting about music stuff for years and years (and helped people with it all): tips, thoughts, plugin recommendations, videos. So in that regard I’ve changed nothing: I just took it all to Patreon, which actually promotes donating to the person whose content you like, or also technically paying for the help tier.
I understand if this “money talk” appears crass or blunt, but I just want to put it out there for others, too, to encourage them, if they’re doing a similar thing (I know most Certified Trainers at least have ppl asking them for Ableton help). A lot of producers are doing it now.
Anyways, I kicked off in May, and at the moment of writing this, I have 80+ Patrons, so the progress is very encouraging. At the beginning I said I'd give it a shot and see.
And I want to thank anyone who has supported me to any extent so far.
What I can promise is to keep it up to the same extent. Will be doing at least one video every month, and posting smaller tips and tricks and thoughts as I go, too (not every tip needs a video, and videos always do take some time). I've been doing this (posting this stuff) for years so I know I can do it.
I'll be doing even more exclusive stuff: about to start a Vimeo account so I can password-protect some videos, and only those eligible for videos will get the password.
I'll do public stuff, too (to an extent I feel it's necessary for growth).
What else? I'm thinking of adding a mastering tier – or maybe include that in Production Tier 2. That'd include mastering one song per month and giving a few quick comments on the production. I've also been asked to sample sounds with some of my old samplers (SP 1200, MPC 60, Akai s900) that give you this amazing lo-fi vibe and I've been thinking that could be included in both production tiers.
What I’d love to hear from you is any comments, thoughts, wishes on forthcoming content, criticism – everything is welcome, and I can take it, hehe! Wishes about content especially would be very welcome.
I’ll paste below some of the stuff that will be coming in 2021. This is a bit of a copy+paste thing from my notepad, so they're not in any actual order, and some may appear a bit vague, but let that be part of the intrigue, ha…brace yourself!
• Metalheadz tunes [several videos]: how I made them and what I think it's important for Metalheadz (I get asked this)
• Hip hop mixing
• RX8 rebalance work: take a beat and take out its elements
• Removing bells from the classic Mardi Gras drumloop
• How to tell exactly how long to make the attack in compressing drums?
• Sound from nothing: filter/noise
• Kick boost tip from a FatGyver song
• benefits of filtering before distortion
• EQing common frequencies
• Ableton: Wavetable Reese…how to + share a preset
• Using reference songs: how to + useful reference song list
• Compression types
• Useful ableton defaults
• Psychological protip
• Ableton: midi "step recording"
• Lauryn Hill break processing challenge
• Oneshot drums
• Filterizor EQ check: EQ and see up to 8 tracks at the same time
• More useful free plugins
• Mixing Tips – part 2
• Addictive Drums, session 2
• Addictive Drums midi files and kit presets
• Ableton Live: how to do a kick sine layer
• Kicks pack
• More song stems for Patrons
• Make music only using Ableton Packs
• Why I like Ableton Live [video or a post]
• 40 protips from a 40-year old
• How to set up an efficient mastering project in live [video]
• Is louder better?
• Tips for working with a mastering engineer
• Usual processing in my songs [video]
• Why I like making music with an MPC [video or a post]
…and waaay more! There's way more in the list, but hey, if you actually made it this far without falling asleep, I salute you!
Anyways, maybe this is enough…bottom line is, I'm very excited to push this thing, so thanks to everybody for the ride so far.
Enjoy 2021, and let's hope it'll be dope!
PS: Got any new year's resolutions for music-making? Let me know!
-Janne
Wanted to share this quickie – I know it may obvious to some, but I didn't think of this until quite late in my productions.
1) Group the devices on the track (this creates a "rack")
2) Automate the rack to be on only when it's being used.
I do this heavily (sorry for the ironic pun!) these days, and as I use lots of different instruments and plugins in a project, I've found this can keep the project lighter – because devices are only on when actually needed!
PS: This kind of applies to Ableton Live's native plugins automatically: when there's no processing, they don't consume CPU. That's why they feel so light!
Wanted to see if you agree and if you've been feeling this during your holidays. I took all Dec off work to wrap up music stuff; been nicely able to reconnect with my creative self.
One old truth relating to creativity: the more you work, the more restricted your creativity will be.
Creativity truly benefits from a free mind.
This is not to say that we shouldn't work for / earn our living, because we should. And I absolutely, totally appreciate and love my jobs and position (mixing and mastering engineer and music production "helper"/tutor), as those positions truly didn't come easy (nearly a lifelong thing in a way), so don't take this the wrong way.
But there's just no way around the old fact that only once your mind is fully free, it can start creating with full steam.
Agree, oh dear studio rats?
PS: An end-of-the-year post dropping SOON.
And a list of forthcoming content will come soon too!
Let's take a look at Ableton Live 11's take lanes feature!
2020-12-19 10:58:12 +0000 UTC View Post
OK guys, something to KICK off the weekend (pun very much intended). Was mixing a song of mine, pulled this old trick out of the bag and happened to think, "Have I ever shared this method with my Patreon kru?" and I realized, no, I have not, so here we go!
This will work. And most of us have the tools needed for this.
This is an old, tried and tested method, afaik by Bob Power.
This is one from the archives.
Was mixing a track for John Summit in 2017 (we still work together).
Just wanted to let you know!
"Open plugin window" is mappable on Live 11.
E.g., I can now open the GUI of SPAN, which I use a lot, to a key. And another click closes it.
So useful.
This is actually a bit of a biggie to me, as I want to check SPAN often and close it conveniently.
Gotta love Live!
Topic says it all.
I'm making this a public post, so anyone can join.
I'm totally feeling festive on my holidays, and will be glad to answer some Qs relating to what I do: making music, mixing it, samples, sounds, mastering…nerdery!
May be slightly slow as I'll be sipping on my holiday brewskis 24/7 but will try to reply all Qs – unless they're huuuuge like "How to make good music that sells?", ha!
2020-12-09 18:01:15 +0000 UTC View Post
The level of sub bass is something I'm often asked about.
While I seldom teach numbers, this time I'll do, as this is easy and useful.
I'm using the free SPAN analyzer by Voxengo a lot, here as well.
See the pic above.
On top left, you'll see the frequency, determined by the horizontal location of your cursor.
On top right, you'll see the amplitude of that frequency, determined by vertical location of your cursor. So I'm keeping my cursor where the sub bass is peaking (see the cross above the loudest lowest peak: that's where I'm keeping my cursor).
So the sub bass is happening around 46.8 Hz, and its amplitude is -31.4 dB.
Now, I don't know what that amplitude is based on, but that doesn't matter.
On bottom left, you'll see that the song is hitting -6.6 RMS (you have to switch Metering to DBFS+3 to get an actual RMS reading).
In bass music, let's say around from -6 to -5 RMS is a decent ballpark loudness figure for your song.
The dead simple takeaway and a great "rule" based on seeing as well as mixing and mastering hundreds and hundreds of bass music songs is this:
When your song has been limited to commercial loudness, the amplitude of your sub in SPAN should be hitting around -30 on its amplitude meter (top right).
This is a ballpark figure: some songs have a bit more (usually this takes a more minimal song), some less (sometimes songs that are really busy, like my DNB often is).
Also, if your bass has a lot of harmonics above the sub, sometimes a little less feels good, and hitting that -30 line may feel a tad much, so adjust accordingly – your ears will be the final judge.
Also, an ideal frequency for your sub bass is around 45-60 Hz.
Lower than that, and some systems will fail to play it, and higher than that, and it's not so weighty anymore.
Have it hit around this range early on when designing the song/bass, and you'll avoid many problems later on.
That's it, really. If you've never done it before, do take some time looking at some trusted songs with great mixes/masters, and you will find this to be true – I can guarantee it.
So if you ever feel unsure about your sub loudness, getting it to this ballpark means you can't be far off.
MOAR BASS! You remember, I said recently I'd give you some basses in December, right?
Well, here you go! Some goodies from my personal collection. Some of these I've used quite a bit! These are definitely quite "Fanu-style".
All except one are "one-shots"; there's one that's long where I was playing with some bass synth, trying to get different tones out of it.
DOWNLOAD and preview (if you want): https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ut3fdh4qq2yrgex/AACnGy-OE1c4s8C9QJgs9Hw7a?dl=0
Hope you like! If you come up with something dope using my samples, do link me :-)
More content coming, so stay tuuuuned!