Sometimes, it’s not about knowing what to do, but instead what you shouldn’t do. In today’s DIY music scene, there’s no shortage of unsolicited advice online. While a good chunk of it is helpful, entire threads are dedicated to terrible production advice that runs rampant on the internet.
Imagine this – you sit down in front of your computer, eager and motivated to make music. You fire up your DAW, throw on your headphones, and the music flows out of you like art out of Picasso. But when it comes time to add a little extra flair, you freeze up. A medley of effects stands before you, and using the wrong ones will turn your glorious new masterpiece into an unpleasant cacophony.
What gives shoegaze music its characteristic dreamlike sound? It’s due almost as much to its production as it is to its instrumentation and songwriting. But music production has changed significantly since the first shoegaze artists emerged (in the 1980s, by most accounts).
Music streaming services have completely changed the way we listen to and discover music. We’ve grown from having a limited selection of albums and songs at our local record shop to having the world’s musical discography at our fingertips. It’s very impressive.
There’s no shortage of mixing advice on the internet. With that in mind, it can be challenging to parse through what advice is beneficial versus harmful. Luckily, we were given this free master class by David Gibson. David Gibson’s “The Art of Mixing” is packed with all of mixing’s essentials in one surprisingly entertaining video.
Last year I decided I wanted to bump up my production output. I couldn’t play any gigs (thanks, COVID), so why not write more music? I set myself the challenge of writing 20 tracks in 20 days. Full, finished tracks. Not little squiggles of ideas.
One of the best parts about being a musician in today’s day and age is the presence of free resources. Sample libraries are no exception, and we were overjoyed when we found out a user sampled a wonderfully retro 1982 Casiotone MT-45.
The 808 has come a long way, from the original Roland TR-808’s from the ’80s to the endless selection of 808’s you hear across many genres in modern music. Whether you’re listening to music through a streaming service or the radio, the 808 can’t be missing when it comes to rap & hip-hop.
So you’ve finished recording your song – finally! After hours of painstakingly re-writing your lyrics, summoning up your best performance, and deftly displaying mad production skills, your opus is ready to be unleashed on the world!But wait just a moment; how will your song sound next to tracks by other artists? Will it sit nicely in that Spotify playlist, or will it be conspicuously limp compared to the other tunes? My friend, this is where mastering comes into play.
It might seem quite obvious, but if there is one pedal every guitarist needs to own, it is an overdrive pedal. Many guitarists own three or more overdrive pedals, as they generally have unique tones and can be ordered in different ways to create exciting sounds.
Reverb is undoubtedly one of the most important aspects of music production and audio as a whole. It commonly gets played off as a simple effect to add to your tracks, but, in reality, it’s what provides the intriguing depth within a song, enveloping listeners. Reverb isn’t as simple as it may seem, and it’s essential to understand what exactly reverb is. This article will guide you through 10 crucial steps to utilizing reverb and how it affects your production.
Have you ever been to a movie theater and felt the roar of a plane flying above you? How about the hair standing up on the back of your neck as you hear the killer’s footsteps behind you? Or maybe you’ve gotten chills while listening to your favorite band in the car as the drums and percussion dance around your vehicle.
Is your refrigerator running? No, this isn’t a poorly-delivered April fools joke. Your fridge is one of many real-world examples of noise right in your own home. But why are there so many kinds of noise, and how do you differentiate between them? Continue reading to learn about the wonderful world of noise!
I have to ‘fess up; it was only recently that I started learning about Timbaland’s massive output of work and his influence on pop music over the last couple of decades. I mean, I knew who he was. I was aware that the Timbaland name was associated with some big hits. But his work and my musical orbit never really crossed paths in any meaningful way.
One of the most long-held debates surrounding electronic music production is whether using loops is cheating. After all, using loops is undoubtedly more efficient than recording an instrumental from scratch. Below, we’ll dive into the debate so that you can determine if these tools are a good fit for your production style.
Have you ever listened to a song and thought to yourself, “this is the best kick drum sound I have ever heard?” When Led Zeppelin and the engineer Andy John recorded “When The Levee Breaks,” they did so in a cavernous setting using a set of Beyerdynamic M160 ribbon microphones which they positioned from the stairwell overlooking Bonham’s drums. That was 1971.
Audio phase is one of those phenomena that can be tricky to wrap your head around. Once you’ve got a grip on it, though, you’ll be able to take your productions to a whole new level. In other words, it pays to know about phase. Let’s dig into this concept further and explore its implications in the studio.
Drum beats make up the foundation of many different styles of music. Rhythm can say a lot about music’s culture and emotion and is often a particular musical style’s defining quality. With so many different styles out there, it can be challenging to find the right kind of drum pattern for what you’re trying to produce.
It’s a no-brainer that “Rockstar” was an immediate hit and Post Malone is well known for his charting abilities. We’re going to break down some crucial elements from the instrumental production and what made it such a resonating hit with music listeners worldwide. With a BPM of 160, it’s sure to keep you moving to the tempo but, the key also influences how catchy the track is.
Mixing can be the most intimidating part of a producer/engineer’s career. A song is like a well-crafted machine with hundreds of small moving parts that make it whole. In most cases, you can avoid being overwhelmed by a mix down with the proper preparation.
Nowadays, many people like to imagine the music production process in multiple stages. While arranging, tracking, mixing, and mastering are all parts of the job with specific sets of considerations, there are a few blurred lines regardless of if you are working on a DAW or a hardware setup.
Yes, I’m going to let a bunny show us the basics of audio. Trust me, this will make sense in a second.In 2012, Tape Op Magazine, a publication all about recording music, published an issue with an interesting cover. It included what looks like a doodle of a bunny for each type of basic audio format and sound effect. So there’s a bunny drawing for mono, stereo, delay, modulation, harmony, dissonance, reverb, distortion, compression, limiter, sustain, crossfade, digital, analog, and lo-fi.
