Thinking out loud...

[wub]

Kryptic Minds Production Q&A notes (circa 2007);

the mix down has to be wright. You can be the best in the world at writing music but if the mix isn't right your tunes will never sound good. Second I would say, emotion and feeling, whether its by string arrangment or the way the track is arranged it has to have feeling.


We mainly use sortware, but we do have a Virus C & Virus Ti which we use all of the time. We also have a Mackie desk, Emu sampler, Akai sampler and other outboard bits that gather dust.

We run Nuendo sequencer Kontakt sampler, and Halion sampler and a few plug ins.

We compress every sound and slightly compress the overall mix.

Q) What monitors do you use in the studio?


A) Spirit Absolute 2. They are cheap but they are a good all round monitor.

We spent along time (years) making tunes, then we started to release a few and made a bit of money. It was out board equipment software wasnt about. Every bit of money we made we brought new equipment. By the time we had a nice studio software came into fashion. So we ended up selling alot of the hardware stuff. I wish I hadnt.

We both make music full time. There has never been a loads of money in what we do. If we was to say make jump up it would appeal to alot more people then we would get more sales.

I think your own sound comes with time, its nothing more than making alot of tunes and experimenting. Both musically and production is important.

I get alot of ideas riding about on my moutain bike. Where I live there are alot of fields so its nice and peaceful, and good to get lost in your own world. I get alot of ideas that way. Leon and me could be making new breaks or sounds and ideas can come off the back of that. Its never just one thing that gves us an idea. It can be the most random thing.

We havent used the Akai in years. it all depends on what you are trying to do. There are different process's for differet things.

When we first started we had a very basic set up. And we could never get the production sounding how we wanted it to. So because of that we focused more on the wrighting of the tunes and done our best with the mix's. This is where we learned alot about frequencies. With all of the software which is about these days, I feel there is no excuse's for poorly produced tunes.

I don't think that music theory is really important, there are great producers that dont know about theory but make great music. There are different stages of music theory, for DnB you wont need to learn how to read score sheets. Learning scales could be a good help, and isnt difficult to do, grab a book from your local library.

We are fussy on cutting out any nasty frequency's which will make the mix muddy. Also panning sounds off center works well. With most noises if you cut out 500 hz by 5db it will clean the sample, which will make more room in the mix. The Wav's parametric is a good EQ for this job.

We normally have the drums -1db then mix the rest of the track to that. Once the track is mixed we select all of the channels on the mixer and drop them down by -4db, so the mix isnt driving the compresser on the master. then take the finised track into wav lab and eq and Loud max in there. Wav lab is a good place to see how your mix sounds.

Alot of the older tunes you have mentioned the drums were in stereo. We mainly use the reverb and delay in Kontakt of Halion. We also use the wav bundle efx.

We normally use th virus's for bass's and re sample into Kontakt. But the bass's in 'Dark Flower Remedy' was a sample of a reece which we sampled and twisted in Kontakt. All of our bass's have the same kind of processing.

For me personally the dark thing just went crazy, it has lost the feeling and cool edge to it. Now its all about how many drums you can fit in to a bar. How can you dance to it? How can you mix it? Don't get me wrong I love dark tunes we have made enough over the years, but what has happened to good old fashioned dark tunes like 'Imagination' by Dom & Roland thats a dark tune but it has feeling, you listen to it and it makes you feel cool. I feel I am very open to music in general but that bass drum and snare stuff, I just dont get. I said to Leon one day, if this is how the dark thing is going I dont want to be apart of it. Because to me its not dark like it used to be its just noise. Maybe im getting old. Haha. So yeah it was a conscious thing to do something else, it was either do something else or give up. I used to feel gutted when reading we was up there in the top dark producers along side this kind of music. Tracks like 'The Ruckus' a dark track but it has identity. 'Thunder' by Dom & Roland a dark track but it has identity. These are tracks that made me want to make dark tunes because they are cool. The dark stuff I hear now with as many drums in a bar as possible I cant tell one track from the next, and it doesnt make me feel cool.

I devote all of my time to music one way or another, whether it is running the labels on a day to day basis or in the studio. Leon and me have set days in the studio it works better this way, so we both think oh its Monday we are in the studio today.

We have always made music we have wanted to make.

We genarally use a different reverb for each sound. And have each sound coming through a different out. It depends on what you are putting reverb on. If you are adding reverb to say a Virus bass it can work well to turn the pre delay down. In general if you feel like you have to much reverb just turn the return down a bit. We made that noise about 2 years ago, i'm not sure what the sound was originally I would have to go back and find out, as we make alot of sounds all of the time. It sounds like velocity to filter but cant remember the core sample. maybe a time stretched shaker.

The mp3 digital world is here to stay it is the future, and there is nothing we can do about it. More people these days have CDJ's, Final Scratch etc. There are 3 things I dont like about mp3's. First thing is they are sold to cheap, by the time the download site has taken there cut, then the label takes there cut what is left for the artist? Also how do you really know how many downloads, a site has done? They could say we have had 100 downloads of your track, but really its 300 you are never going to know any different. At least if you press 2,000 Vinyl or 2,000 CD's you know how many you have sold by how many you have left over. The next thing is artwork, to me an mp3 is the most boring way to buy music. When I buy an album I like to look at the artwork and read the credits. I know on some sites you can downnload and print off the artwork but it isnt the same quility.


If Vinyl is on its way out like everyone is saying, then I would like to see more CD release as apposed to more mp3 downloads. At least with a CD its a finished product.

With breaks its always best to start with a break fatter than what you want to finish with. Again it all depends on how the break sounds in the first place. Some times we run it out board through a really old compressor and eq it on the mackie then back in to the computer, where we use the wavs 8 band parametric eq. Mainly cutting out mid at 500 hz. Also cutting out bass drum rumble and harsh top end. Then we may layer breaks to give them a differen sound.


The main thing with mix downs is to make sure everything has its own space in the mix, so there isnt to many frequency's fighting for the same space.

When eqing sounds / breaks its best to use a parametric eq, with a narrow Q point. When you have the narrow Q it is always good to boost the eq so you can hear where the nasty frequeny's are then you can cut them out.

With breaks, make sure you dont cut to much out as you can kill the life of the break.

All the mastering engineer will do is add or subtrack frequency's. If the mix is a good mix they will be able to get a loud level on Vinyl / CD. If the original mix is rubbish there isnt much the engineer can do. Its all about the producer to do get the best mix they possibly can. Pretty much all an engineer can do is EQ using a parametric EQ, and compress, using a valve compressor.

I have always found that NO one else can mix your tune for you. Only you know in your head how you want your mix to sound.

I started playing about with production when I was 18. I guess it took about 2 years to get a full release. The main problem was getting money for studio equipment. Its different these days, you can buy a PC and a few programs and off you go. With technology today you can make your tracks sound professional on a small budget.

I dont think you should worry about how old you are, or how long it is going to take you to get a release. The most important this is are you having fun making music? As soon as you start worrying about this and that you will stop having fun, and maybe stop making music all together. Just keep having fun with it, and if you get a release its a bonus.

We have a 2 PC's.

Virus C & Virus TI.

Akai 2000.

Emu 4000.

Bunch of old compressors.

Mackie Desk.

Pro 1 Synth.

Bunch of old out board stuff, we dont really use these days.

fter we have exported our finished track from Nuendo, we always import the audio file into Wavlab, this is a good way to check your mix. I find when in Nuendo its to easy to keep changing things. EQing your Audio in say Wavlab seems to give the track a finished feel. We also loudness maximize the track in Wavlab, this is also a good test to see if you have a good mix.

This is a good trick. If you have a mid range bass, you can split the channels into 3, Bass, Mid, Top. Obviously mono the bass. Then if you wish stereo the mid and top adding reverb and chorus. We used this method on 'Nothing Stays The Same'.

We are making new sounds all of the time. We dont have a set way of doing things. Sometimes we will make say some new bass's and start a tune from that. The other day we made a new break, and from that we started a tune. We have made a huge sample library which we have made over the years, so we dont need to make fresh souds every tracks.

The most important thing is to get the wright sounding break in the first place. For example I get a break with a nice bass drum and snare, and I think with a bit of EQ its going to sound nice. When EQing breaks for the first time we always do it in Wavlab, then cut it up as a Rex then import into Nuendo. We use an 8 band parametric EQ, the waves one. If its a good soundin break in the first place it shouldnt need alot of EQ. As you have mentioned over EQing can make the break sound unnatural. If I get to that point I would move on to the next break. We are only talking about + or - 3/4 db with a fine Q point.

We have always used these monitors. They are a budget monitor, but they have a very true sound. I have heard more exspensive monitors i.e the Mackie ones and I cant tell the difference. I think its what you get used to, and what may suit one person may not suit another. One monitor I really dont like tho, is the NS10 but they are industry standard.

We have a Samsung servo 260 amp, again its only a cheap amp. But we have had it for 5 years now and its still going strong.

If we are running just sounds through the mixer, we dont normaly group sounds. there isnt much point. Dont know what UV22hr is? We dont use alot of plugins, we like to use the minimum. You can waste alot of time with plugins. We put the Vintage Warmer on the master.

I think that all production needs the same amount of attention spent. For example, making new noises and giving them different proccess's takes alot of time but it is well worth doing. Once you have spent the time making your best sounds its time to arranged your tune. After you have spent all of this time on making noises and arranging, it would be a shame to not spend the time on getting the mix sounding wright. A good mix will compliment the rest of you hard work.

We use the Vintage Warmer on the master so your mix never peeks. After we have mixed the tune, we then turn down our levels by about -4db so the signal isnt driving the compressor, this gives the tune more head room.

If we have an idea of what we want to make, then [making our tracks takes] on Avarage 10 hrs. Tracks like 'Never Run away' was made in 3hrs. Our biggest tracks have been made in one day.

We have always maintained the same attitude when in the studio from day one. And that is having a laugh and enjoying what we do. I think the cross over is when people start buying your Records, thats a really good feeling to know that other people all over the world like our music. Music production is one long journey, you learn new stuff all of the time.

I think that the music keeps evolving and new sounds have come through in the past few years. Producers like Pendulum, Noisia, Phace, Subfocus, whether you like these producers or not they have brought in a fresh sound. I do feel there is much more left to do but that will come in time. For me I like alot of different styles of music, so that all gets mashed together. I really like the 96 - 2000 virus sound, so you hear noises and hits that has that same kind of texture, its not copying just using that inspiration. At the end of the day you have to have an influence and buzz to get in the studio and make music. Everyone has an influence so dont be scared to use it, just build on it and make it your own and new sounds will come from that.


The bass in 'Hide The Tears' Remix was made in the Virus C, and was run live straight into the computer. The hook its self is portmento with higher notes played over the top of the original riff to give it that hook.

The Virus kind of mid range bass noises, is mainly distortion, Lfo and EQ. When you distort a mid range bass, you adjust the filter and EQ, this gives it that sound you are looking for. Its kind of difficult to explain, its easier to show. But thats about it.
We always use the Virus's to get the core sample from, then keep re sampling.

We used to spent alot more time learning, but now we know what we want, we can make tunes faster. Some tunes we spend more time on but the best tunes are made fast. We have about 9 gig of samples.

If you go in the studio to make a track, as appossed to having a session of just making noises. Its good to have an idea of what you want to make, and an idea of what samples you want to use. I'm the same as you I get bored very easily, so keeping the flow on a track can be difficult, thats why i dont like to spend to long on a track. If it does take to long I just scrap the tune and start again. Normally the tracks you just roll out are the best ones.

If we dont get a vibe from the tune, then we just scrap it nd start again. Sometimes we can be on a roll and every tune we are pleased with, and other times we do tunes we arent into. It really depends.

The trick with the Vintage Warmer, is to turn the drive and compression down. Just use it subtle so it keeps the levels under control, you can easy over do it. Less is more.

We turn on the s2000 once a year maybe, its really good at gathering dust. Drums do sound great through the Akai. You could always tell if drums were through an Akai or an Emu. The Akai has a harder sound.

We always EQ & Maximize the tracks before we give the tunes out. The main reason for this is because in Nuendo we drop the levels on the mixer to give the mix more head room. When I mastered the 'Lost All Faith' CD I spent 3 weeks with the finished tracks. My main thing was to get the same kind of feel on each track, so there wouldnt be volume drops, or more or less stereo in the mix's. Mastering tracks for CD is a whole different ball game, which I found out when mastering the Album. Alot of our old tracks which are dark, suit the more pushed mix's, but for me overall I like to hear whats going on in the mix. I think a good mix is better than an over the top loud track which the mix isnt that good to start with. I have also found with over the top loud mix's, it puts people off who may not know anything about Drum & Bass. Its about getting more people into Drum & Bass, not putting them off.

With our breaks, we mainly use hip hop breaks or funk breaks. because they are played slower they are fatter. After we get our break we think we can work with, we EQ, compress an layer with other breaks. Alot of producers dont compress there drums as it can create spiky bits on the kick and snare. If you want to be really fussy you can cut the beginning off of your bass drum and snare which wil remove any spikes.

With the reece kind of tunes we have made, we get a really rolling break to start with, and we used to just play over the top. If we wanted any staby notes then we would just programme it in. The Ruckes remix is our fav reece tune.

We do use the Kontakt orchestral librarys, but we also have our own.

I like all of the classic classical stuff, J.S Bach, Mozart, Beethoven obviously this is strict classical. What I also like is the way Artists use classical but in a kind of modern urban style. Artists like Craig Armstrong, cinematic orchestra.

We create all of our own samples, it may be taken from a film or what ever but we always try and put our own twist on it. I'm not a fan of sample CD's

There are so many ways to create energy and tension, it depends on what excactly you are lookng for. You can create an energy feel by having a noise (a hit) efer bar or at the end of every bar. check out 'Molten Beats' or most old Virus tracks. Percussion is always good, shakers, ride break. But ontop of all that the main bass riff has to be rolling. The Orchestral thing is great for tension. The mix is always important.

I speak to Calyx & Teebee a fair bit, they are doing a remix of 'After life' I speak to Noisia now and then via aim. We have actually just signed a track to subtitles, its something we have wanted to do for a long time, but due to spending so long on 'Lost All Faith' it took a while for us to make a track. We would def like to collab with Calyx & Teebee i'm sure it will happen one day.

The Tip hop stuff we have made will feature on our next Album, and under the same name. We do record under 'Dekota' aswell. All of the different style tracks we do we are keeping for our new Album. There maybe the odd trip hop mix. But you will have to wait and see.

We used to work at night, but now we work during the day. We never used head phones to write tunes, always just had the volume lower at night.

When we started making music we used to compare our mix's with other people like Dillinja and Photek. But this isnt something we do now.

First off you must make what you enjoy, what ever the style. I think its a good thing to make different styles if thats what your into. I wish when I started out i'd released more across the board tunes like Leon and me make now. We got known for just being dark producers, which I was pretty gutted about because we make so much more. The 'Lost All Faith' Album is a small taste of the different styles we make. So my advice is, if you like different styles then it a plus point to getting signed. If the labels you are sending your tunes to are open minded it will stand in your favour.

We dont A/B our tunes as such, but I listen to them in my car. I have had the same car for 5 years so I know how things should sound. So thats a good test. Additive/subtractive EQ thats about it really. The break has to have that kind of sound in the first place. I'm can't remember the name of the 'Ocean Blue' break, i'll have to have a look.

My advice to producers who want to set up there own label, is unless you have had a string of quility releases on bigger labels there really isnt much point. In this day and age its hard for the big labels to survive. However if you can find a label which you have a good relationship with its better to become apart of a label which has already done the hard work.

The term making things flat is, when you finish your track you set all of your Eq's flat (no Eq) and pull all of the levels down on the mixer, and then you mix your track from there. Personally I like to mix the track as i'm working. For example if I have spent 1 hour eqing drums, and getting them how I want them to sound, then the last thing I want to do is set the Eq flat.

When making music we are always in the studio at the same time. The plus working together is you can bounce idea's off of each other, rather than sitting there will a loop thinking do I like this or not. Another good thing is, I may be editing in the sampler, and leon can be editing inside the computer, so you get the results faster. Leon and me have the same taste in music, so when we get in the studio we have the same idea of what we want to achieve.

We feel that there has always been, an element of labels releasing what the next person is releasing. Thats why labels like Metalheadz, Moving Shadow, Reinforced were so special in moving things forward in terms of sounds and to the public. Because they were releasing what they believed in and not thinking about sales. Most of the best music out there only sells a small amount. Now because all this talk on Vinyl dying some labels and artists are jumping onto the sound that is selling at the moment. Which we feel is a bad thing, because its not showing the diversity in the music anymore. As soon as you go in the studio with the attitude is this going to sell? Is it going to be a big tune? Already you have taken the freedom of just making music from the heart.

[wub]

Musical Flow

Musical flow is the succession of sounds (and silences) that spans the duration of a piece. It’s the way a piece unfolds for the listener; its rhythmic and melodic dance; its storyline. A piece’s musical flow cannot be reduced to a simple formula, diagram, or analytical mapping. Flow is a complex and mysterious quality, more alchemical than scientific. It is a very important part of what makes a piece work (or not), so composers owe it to themselves and their listeners to pay attention to flow, to find their personal flow and develop it.

The first thing to consider in musical flow is density: the number of musical events (notes, beats, impulses, hits) that occur in a given period of time. Unchanging density tends sooner or later to stasis. For example, if an audible percussive event occurs on every 16th of every beat, after a while the groove will become static, predictable, dull.

Changing density makes passages dynamic. If some 16ths are skipped, others accented or played very softly, others subdivided into 32nds or even 64ths (ie, a roll), the groove becomes less predictable, more engaging. Unless the goal is to induce a trance state via rote repetition, variety of density is a key factor in keeping your listeners tuned in.

Another key determinant of flow is the rate at which new material is served up. Just like unchanging density, unchanging material tends to stasis. No matter how gorgeous a beat loop might be, if it repeats long enough without any dropouts or additions, it begins to sound mechanical and dead. Build-ups are compelling because of the gradual accretion of new material, layer by layer: snare, plus hi-hat, plus kick, plus bass, plus effects, and so on. A skilful composer knows exactly when new material is needed to keep listeners creatively imbalanced; unsure of what’s coming next; interested.

Forward momentum is another key factor in musical flow, especially for high-energy genres such as dance or drum ’n’ bass. The beat must propel listeners forward in time, keep them moving internally and, in the case of dance genres, externally. Ambient, on the other hand, often works with zero or even backward momentum, in which the listener is encouraged to slow down, lose themself in contemplation, listen to the moment or perceive echoes from earlier passages in the piece.

On the global level (that of the entire piece), flow manifests through the interplay of longer sections (typically between four and 32 bars). In electronica, these sections generally include: intros and closings, build-ups, mains, dropouts, bridges and breaks. The way that a piece’s sections arise, develop and transition among each other gives way to a kind of ‘plot line’. The dramatic contour of a well-plotted piece generates a suspenseful and riveting sonic story, thus keeping listeners engaged.

No one can tell you exactly how to work the flow of your pieces. Your personal musical flow is as idiosyncratic and unique as your personal sense of melody, rhythm, timbre. Become aware of your unique flow, develop it, stay true to it – in the end, your music will love you for it!

Music is (un)filled with silence.

On the macro level this silence occurs between movements, sections, passages, phrases, and even single notes: gaps in sound-time. On the micro level it occurs within every sonic event, at the infinitesimal points when the sound waves attain zero amplitude (zero crossings).

Silence can be pure (absolute) or coloured (relative). Pure musical silence occurs when all sound generation halts: a fortissimo climax followed by a two-second pause. Coloured musical silence occurs when the sound level drops to a whisper, sometimes to the very threshold of inaudibility: a dropout where a loud passage gives sudden way to a very soft sub-bass drone.

After spending time in an anechoic chamber, Cage declared that there was no such thing as absolute silence: “I heard two sounds, one high and one low. When I described them to the engineer in charge, he informed me that the high one was my nervous system in operation, the low one my blood in circulation.”

Silence in music is normally thought of as absence. One has a block of sound and removes chunks from it, a form of subtractive synthesis. This is the sculptor’s way of composing; you chip away bits of the piece until it finds its ideal form.

To create music using the silence-as-absence approach, you begin by writing a passage (groove, melodic line, chord progression) of substantial density. You then listen, over and over, to your passage until you find where it wants to pause, hold back, stutter, breathe. Then you silence audio by reducing its volume to (near) inaudibility, or insert silences between events.

You can also regard silence as a presence in music. This is similar to additive synthesis, in that sound accrues upon silence. It is the painterly way of composing: you start with a blank canvas (silence) and add colours and shapes to it.

To create music using the silence-as-presence approach, you begin with emptiness and add sonic objects to it: single notes, phrases, loops, layers, sections, etc. In general, pieces composed this way tend to be sparser and softer than those composed using the silence as absence approach, since the starting point is pure silence. If you truly love silence, you don’t want to impose unnecessary sound on it.

Wabi-Sabi Music

The Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi is an approach to aesthetics (and life) based on impermanence: change, aging, transformation, loss, death.

Wabi expresses simplicity, austerity, modesty – all of which impart freshness of character. Sabi implies the serenity, melancholy and loneliness that comes with age. Together, in wabi-sabi, they point to a bittersweet beauty based on imperfection.

These seven Zen aesthetic principles are all manifest in wabi-sabi-hood:

• Fukinsei (asymmetry) – celebration of imperfection and irregularity.
• Kanso (simplicity) – expression of unadorned truthfulness.
• Koko (weatheredness) – steepedness in age and maturity.
• Shizen (naturalness) – artlessness characterised by the absence of pretence.
• Yugen (subtle profundity) – profundity from oblique understatement, rather than direct revelation.
• Datsuzoku (unworldliness) – transcendence of convention and personal freedom.
• Seijaku (tranquility) – stillness, the ripple-less pond.

How can you apply these seven Zen principles to music?

Well, one option is to study them to the point where your consciousness is filled to the brim with wabi-sabi-hood, then compose. It’s like Morton Feldman said: When you get into the right mood, the right state of compositional reception/transmission, you can’t make a mistake; every note you play or write is, by definition, right.

Another option is to consciously apply one or more of the principles to an existing passage or song. Such an approach calls for the translation of abstract qualities (weatheredness, subtle profundity, otherworldliness, etc) into concrete musical sounds. You can think holistically about the passage you are wabi-sabi-ing, creating the piece as an indivisible whole. Or you can also think more analytically, in terms of the classical four parameters: pitch (melody, harmony), duration (rhythm, beat, form), dynamics (envelopes, accents), and timbre (sound, texture).

Note: Translation of non-musical concepts and techniques into music is always a tricky and imprecise affair. And therein lies its potential for personal surprise and innovation. It’s a feature, not a bug.

The possibilities for turning principles into music are endless, but here are a few ideas to get you going.

• Fukinsei’s asymmetry might change a regular meter (4/4, 4/4, 4/4, 4/4) into (4/4, 4/4, 3/4, 4/4).
• Kanso’s simplicity might remove all trace of ornamentation (trills, fast runs or fills).
• Koko’s weatheredness might shift the timbre towards the aural equivalent of rugged agedness.
• Shizen’s naturalness might remove all trace of “showing off” (gaudy virtuosity).
• Yugen’s subtle profundity might strip out all but the most suggestive notes from a melody.
• Datsuzoku’s unworldliness might turn a steady metronomic grid into an ever-changing organic pulse.
• Seijaku’s tranquility might bring the volume of a piece down to a whisper and the pace to a crawl.

As always: Experiment, experiment, experiment!

[wub]

Concept

So I'm thinking, how many tracks can I crank out in an evening. I'm thinking 3 in 3hrs seems possible, 1hr per tune? Keep myself a stopclock running on my phone to remind me of how long I've got. So that's what I'm going to try and do tomorrow (Friday) night...finish work, then 3 tunes in 3hrs.

Planning

Obviously, this will require some planning. For a start, I'll need something to keep me perky. Into the fray steps the local supermarket's energy drink, a brand called Superking that is so downright rotten that it's only €0.33 a can and whatsmore I can't even find a picture of it online. Couple of cans of that should get me through things, so I'll grab myself €1 worth to keep on the safe side.

Right, stimulants sorted, what's next? Ah right, the FIRST TRACK. Should really have an idea of what I'm going to do otherwise I risk getting caught into that annoying trap of creative looping where I sit fiddling with nothing in particular and see how it develops, which is fine for my usual way of working but this is a TIME CHALLENGE godamnit so a bit more planning is needed.

Now, on the way into work this morning I was rocking the rather excellent Stones Throw Podcast #76 by Cut Chemist and the general vibe on it is funk samples, swirly bits, drum machines and lots of hiss (it's all off cassettes, you see, and you know how I love cassettes)...anyway I was digging it, the vibe was good so I reckon that's what I'm going to do for my first track.

Track 1 - FunkSwirlyDrumHiss

Not entirely sure what drum machine I'm thinking, reckon the 808/909 are a bit overdone but I have decent hits of those laying around so can use them as a 'get out' if need be...however I'm thinking something a bit different so have raided Goldbaby's Free Bits and grabbed the sample pack from the Technics DP50 to keep things interesting.

For the funk, I've recently grabbed myself a copy of My Radio Sure Sounds Good to Me by Larry Graham & Graham Central Station which is just funktastic, I mean check this track called 'POW';



I mean seriously, how fucking COOL IS THAT!!! Anyway, going to spend some time between now and tomorrow night chopping the fuck out of that so I've got a load of samples ready to go once the clock is returning. Swirly bits not too fussed about, I've got enough ambient pad knowledge to make things work if need be, and tape hiss whilst I'm probably not going to bounce to tape then back in again, I'll cheat and do some digital work on it...either using a tape plugin (not desirable but perhaps necessary given the time factor) or else bouncing at a lower bit rate then reimporting a few times and letting nature take it's course.

It's worth pointing out at this point that in addition to the aforementioned podcast, I have just sat and watched this;



And been suitably inspired to do something along the lines I've described, so it's a variety of sources I'm drawing information from today. Anyway, digression is the enemy of productivity (but paradoxically the friend of creativity) so we're onto thinking about the SECOND TRACK. Seeing as the first one is going to be crazy dirty funk, it makes sense we should have a counterpoint to this. I'm thinking techno/electro with some really cold click vibes to it.

The earlier thread today on compositional challenges has got me thinking alot about space in tracks, so some nice breathy techno with plenty of room in it sounds about right;

Track 2 - Techcloud

Ok, so inspiration wise for this I've pretty much got the drums I want for this tune already planned out in my head, I have a favourite folder of drums that suit this purposes and godamnit I'm going to use them. Thinking some sort of pads movement throughout the tune (standard) nothing too heavy on the bassline to fit in with the vibe (again with the vibe word, gotta keep the name/feel in mind when doing this).

Slight digression (HA!) at this point again...can't stress the importance enough of refining your sample library. Think of it like a garden, you can plant new things that might work, but ultimately the stuff you like and that has been there the longest needs trimming. Don't be afraid of moving things, deleting things, copying things etc...build it to the point where you know where even is and you know that everything is good. I frequently go through and listen to my samples, have mini jam sessions, see what works, then build some folder structure around those. Drums that compliment each other go together, so I can find them easily if required, and have ready built kits to mess with if I need a simple beat to accompany an idea.

Back to the second track, and inspiration for this today are these tunes;



So we're going for that deep clicky percussion bass vibe with these, floaty vocals in and out of things...feeling some pitched ethnic drums (bit cliched, but suitable for this exercise), in and out sweeps and risers throughout, that clicky drum feel. Overall I'm thinking a very floaty track for this one, lots of panning and movement effects to keep it sounding good through the headphones.

Anyways, going to stick both these tunes on my MP3 to listen to on the way home tonight for a bit more inspiration.

(Incidentally, whilst looking for that Shackleton track I came across this - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjXqxax5gF0, and I liked the vibe so much that I've used a ripping site to take the audio to chop up )

As for the THIRD TRACK, I have no idea at the moment. I guess I could leave it freeform and see what happens, or I could go patch surfing on one of my go-to instruments and see if anything hits me...but then I run the risk of it going over and above the hour with nothing to show for it. So instead, I'm thinking another sparse piece that is more ambience than beat driven. I've had a hang drum album that I picked up in Barcelona a few years back that has been sat around teasing me to do something with it, so reckon that'll be the basis.

Track 3 - HangingForm

No clue as to what will/won't work with the core sample of this one tbh, but this wouldn't be a learning exercise if it was all quite so easy, so will leave this one a bit more up to chance and see where we end up.

Ok, so here we have the 3 tracks that I'm going to attempt, a rough idea of what each one is influenced by, and a rough idea of what I want them to sound, plus relevant source material where required and a time frame.

Finishing off these tracks, rather than allocate any time during the hour to do a mini mastering session, I'm going to mixdown as I go (standard) then have an additional 20mins or so at the end of the session to do a really bodge mastering job to get them up to a decent level where I can put them up here.

Will update this post as more thoughts come to me, and with the finished products at some point once they're all done and dusted.

Updates

23/8/12 - 9:51pm - Walking to the bar now, evening of chopping funk records is done with and I need some liquor to focus. The Supercopa, Spain's version of the Charity Shield, is on and I'm going to sit with the girlfriend and sink beers, put the world to rights and bounce ideas.

Just had the notion of multiple cassette decks run through a mixer...there will be 4/6 decks, each one running a tape loop. Each loop contains a specific element, for example the drums, synths, vocals etc and all the tapes are triggered to run at the same time, outputted through the mixer and recorded that way. Individual control of the elements, the different tapes/decks would each give a different character. Could even run multiple versions of the same element on multiple decks...6 tape decks all running the same drum loop...mixed together.

Anyway, just a thought. I need a cheap 2nd hand hi-fi shop to be located near to the apartment before I can investigate fully.

24/8/12 - 9:12am - Quick update in the cold light of morning. Spent some time last night chopping the shit out of the funk record, got some amazing hits out of it, better than expected TBH, so will have another quick session on that today and will (hopefully) have a folder of ready to go sounds/samples waiting for me when I go home tonight.

Also purchased the energy drink which is nicely chilling in the fridge, apartment is tidied, washing is done etc etc...so basically no excuses/things to distract me when I turn the computer on.

24/8/12 - 11:32am - Just been watching this documentary and around the 18m50s mark there is some wonderful choir singing...thinking that maybe some choir samples might be suitable for the Third Track? Having a scour of public domain choir singing now, see if anything good comes up.

24/8/12 - 9:15pm - And here...we...go...

24/8/12 - 10:19pm - First one is down and out the way. Not what I had in mind in terms of drum programming, but as far as a serviceable track goes it'll do, if a little on the short side. Choose a guitar lick from one of the tracks off the funk album as my hook, built a drum beat around that from the DP50, then added incidental noises etc from the rest of the album samples I'd chopped.

Break was a bit on the cheating side, a case of dropping the drums then having everything come back in, cliched but useful enough. Intro is really nice though, took a couple of reversed samples, gradual filtering, bit of reverb/delay for some ambience then into the drums. Wired as hell on energy drink right now so going to give it about 20mins to rest my ears, have something to eat then get back on it for the next part.

24/8/12 - 10:43pm - Damn fine sandwich if I do say so myself. Anyways, round two...

24/8/12 - 11:56pm - Second one is down. Nowhere near a finished tune, beat programming is far more staccato than I had envisioned, but the synth melody I've got in there I'm happy with. Did som pseudo z-planing by having a gradual overlay between two filter states over the course of the project, lot of sidechaining going on to make space for things and some stop...start placements of sounds to give it space. The space itself is a little obvious in places, but that's just some fine tuning with the reverb/delay programming I've got going on.

Regarding the vocal samples, whilst some of them sit in nicely, I ran out of time tweaking the compressor so occasionally some of them get lost behind the drums for obvious reasons. However, one happy surprise was that one of the old school photography flashbulb samples from the audio rip serves as a great bit of percussion, so that's stayed in there. Another short break, maybe another energy drink, then the final one.

25/8/12 - 0:09am - Ok, back into the chair.

25/8/12 - 1:10am - Final one of the three is finished of, moreso than the others surprisingly. Was feeling pretty drained by this point, and think the piece reflects this. It's a largely drone based composition, lots of stretched samples and automation to create a bit of an unsettling feel to things. Halfway through I've added some sort of heartbeat style kick drum, not as a rhythm element but just as an overlay to the noise that is in there and the underlying tension I was feeling.

Will bounce and upload over the weekend.

27/8/12 - 8:12am - Had a listen back to what I'd done after a weekend of leaving it alone, and decided that whilst tracks 1 & 3 are passable attempts, 2 is utter garbage and against what I set out to do, so have pulled it from the experiement.

To make up for this shirking of duty on my part, I will be releasing a sample pack of cuts from that funk record. It is for educational/humour purposes only and should not be used in a commercial sense

Results

Soundcloud
Track one was a bit more 4x4 orientated that I had expected, but the main guitar sample I was using for the hook was working so it seemed a shame to deviate from that too much. Lots of reverse stretched samples here from the sample pack to give the riser/sweeps sounds going on, plenty of automation and a lot of sidechaining to give the elements space to move - one thing I did learn from this is that if you're cutting a lot of samples from the same record, often you're going to have a lot of clashing frequencies from track to track, for obvious reasons.

As promised, the sample pack I created for this off that funk record I mentioned earlier - http://www.mediafire.com/?zarzc9yzm43lrzb

Soundcloud
Track 3 is a reflection of just how low I was feeling by this point...what had started out as an ambient floaty/light piece to end the day on a high was actually a lot darker in tone than I had anticipated, a lot of which was down to my mood at the time. Again, heavy sidechaining to get the elements to flutter in and out, plenty of automation (particularly, on the filter of one of the synth patches) and I also threw in one of the drum loops from the funk sample pack, reversed and stretched out to get those artifacts going on.

Conclusion

In short, this was a lot harder than I thought it'd be. The 1hr time limit for each track was very restrictive, as is evident by track two (the one with the least prep work) not even making the cut of 'half decent' to put up. Learnt a lot about chopping and flipping samples from the first tune, and the aforementioned problem with clashing frequencies if sampling one or more tracks off the same record, something I will be aware of moving forward.

Track three was more of a relief valve by the time I reached it, though as the first 'ambient' style track I think I've ever done, it was actually quite cathartic and something I will look forward to making again. Overall, as this whole exercise is looked at, I can't recommend it enough. It forces you to think quicker and know to discard ideas faster if they're not working as opposed to try and hammer a square peg into a round hole.

Will probably be revisiting this challenge in a couple of weeks with slightly different parameters (TBD, am open to suggestions though )...next on my checklist of things to do is write a piece in non 4x4 notation for the compositional challenge, so we'll see how that works out.

Wub

[travis_baker]

wow u put more time into that then the tunes mate haha hope it goes well

[ehbes]

[wub]

Some tips I have found in my travels today;

• use good samples rather than spending aeons tweaking shit ones trying to make them sound good
• buy the best monitors you can afford
• force yourself to arrange a tune as early as possible rather than making a decent 8 bar loop and fucking about with that for hours
• Don't over compress everything - use it wisely and when needed
• Put a touch of overdrive on (almost) everything to bring out a bit of grit
• Use logic's tape delay loads
• learn to play piano, learn music theory, don't get obsessed by what software is "best" just learn the one that you like the most/have got to the minutest detail.
• dont expect youll ever make a living out of this
• Get a spectrum analyser
• buy a really good chair
• Music is mathematical. Music has rules. They have been around for hundreds of years, and they exist because they work. They are present in almost all music. Dont try to re-invent the wheel every time you start a new tune. Learn to obey the rules before attempting to break them.
• Set aside entire nights to create/find sounds so that you have a large pool of your own stuff to choose from when you begin arranging.
• Stay on top of your "house keeping" and remove unwanted frequencies from your sounds.Anything except kick and bass can be cut below 100Hz, maybe more depending on the sound.
• only buy what you need and not what you want cos it seems like a good idea at the time!
• if you ask the right questions you will improve far more quickly. use other peoples' unsolicited advice extremely selectively, like this.
• try not to agonise over what you can't do and concentrate on what you can - if it aint fun, it aint worth it and your music will reflect that.
• Ignore the rules or 'maths - (er, ghey)' until you've learnt how to write music your way - then start to worry about how to make it sound good. Or do what I do and get a professional to mix it down for you - money well spent and lots of people do it.
• remember anything goes, fuck what anyone else is doing because as steelz says you'll never make a living out of it so write stuff that you believe in.
• its got to be 'running' if you expect people to dance to it.
• talk to other people who know more about it than you do
• Make sure that they actually know what they're talking about
• don't be afraid to put your tunes up to be ripped apart- all part of the learning experience, and you can always tell yourself that other people's opinions are a load of shit anyway!
• dont smoke green when making making sounds / manipulating synths. You will spend hours making the worst noise imaginable.
• Do smoke green sometimes when mixing down to give you another perspective (or learn to meditate to music - its the same effect(!))
• Listen to your mixdown outside the room its playing from.
• listen to your mixdown on the crappest CD player you can find.
• listen to your mixdown very quiet, and very loud.
• learn one synth inside out so you can imagine a sound and then know how to make it.
• read your sequencers manual from start to finish
• limit every channel / track
• reduce more eq than boost it
• don't spend all your time on internet forums talking about making music, actually make some
• Get good headphones, good monitors, take a break every 30 mins & make a cuppa and keep those ears fresh, don't smoke too much skunk, stick to solids. Have your speakers at head height and at equal distances from yourself. Go out & do plenty of other things apart from music or breaks, it'll make u gaggin for the next session.
• Use EQ/Compression wisely, it really makes the difference.
• Buy/learn how to use a sampler instead of that stupid, noisey, acoustic drum kit that you try to play all the fucking day.
• Dont sell that electric guitar, you'll need it later!!!.
• For me arranging is still the hardest part of writing a tune, and its also the one where knowing some of the rules is really hepful ie if you're stuck, you can try some of the standard ideas out and see if they work. equally if you are having a great day, you can do something mental, but because you know why arrangements are generally a certain way, and what effect that has, you can recreate that in a different format
• listen to records that really work well and you'll figure em out. stuff like how many multiples of 8 to use in sections, where to bring in new elements, when to drop em out, how to create tension, when to have the break down, if you don't have one, how to keep interest in the track, etc
• go to wwww.mixingwithyourmind.com and buy the book
• transitions are very important. Example: If you have an 8 bar loop that you really like, but when you play it for 16 bars it starts to sound a bit boring, create a good transition: say coming in on the 7th bar, nice sweep, a drum fill, some fx, then crash it back into the 9th bar with a nice long cymbal type sound, or a delay, which drags the transition out to the 11th or 12th bar. In doing so, you've effectively doubled the length of your loop, without having to change the loop itself.
• Learn your gear backwards.
• Don't go out and buy shit loads of new gear all at once. It'll take you years to learn it all. You make great music by knowing what you have really well.
• Quality not quantity.
• Try and get just a couple of things that no one else has got so you don't sound like evryone else. You need your own sound.
• Listen to as much music as you can from all different genres! Get your influences from what you like and you enjoy listening to. Don't feel that theres a certain sound you need to create, experiment and have fun!
• Sit with a nice pair of headphones and listen to a track a few times. On a pad, draw a sound stage and write down and place every sound you hear. Every effect, panning, etc etc etc. Write down everything you notice. The more you do this, the more and more you'll notice.
• no matter how fucking awesome your tune is, there is always going to be one that is better. appreciation is subjective.
• Learn to play an instrument.The most memorable tunes are made with some degree of musical ability!
• Pretty basic stuff really but as soon as you get an early draft of your track, render it to MP3/Wav asap. The track is then easily accessible so you can play it whenever, for example add it randomly into your playlists.
• Something about doing this makes it a lot easier to pick out what is good/bad about it, especially with the monitor off. Also by listening to it out of your sequencer context, natural ideas seem to develop better.
• When you're arranging, every now and then listen to your work with the monitor (screen) turned off. You'll be amazed how much of your attention is focused on your arrange page.
• Don't use stereo spreaders. Record more than once and pan instead.
• Always use a a tray/book/CD case to skin up on or your mouse will stop working after a while.
• treat your effects like spices in cooking. just add little sprinkles don't pour the whole jar in. it'll taste nicer.
  also when you add an effect close your eyes and and tern the effect on and off again to see which sounds best. (I s'pose you could liken this to tasting your food to keep the analogy alive)
• close your eyes as much as possible, your brain directs more attention to your hearing when u do this. Ever noticed the TV gets louder when you turn of the lights?
• Make a template which includes your go to vst's & effects. Also include sends, bus's, all routing etc. Basicaly get organised from the off and you wont get in a mess.
• High pass your send effects
• When creating soundscapes or ambient try writing a sequence around 150 bpm and slow it down to maybe 20-40bpm (whatever the taste is for the day) and work around that. . its quick but works with a bit of trial and error.
• The EQ is your friend! Forget all these people who tell you you need a suite of analogue-emulating compressors and saturators and high-end reverbs to get that 'professional' sound. The most important thing you can do to get your tracks sounding pro is to learn to use an EQ. Separation, slotting and high-pass filtering are HUGELY important.
• Take an instrument track. Copy it 3-4 times [depending on if you need a sub line] and then layer it with each track having it's own EQ shelf. Then apply FX variations to each and mix and match with layering.
  a production tip for 4 on the floor patterns, after you're done sequencing your drums offset the snare by globally adjusting the track to -30 to -40 ms and the snare will snap just before the kick and will make your mix sound louder and punchier and a little cleaner.
• You need better studio monitors more than you need a high dollar synth. If you already have great studio monitors , you need more practice with what you have more than you need a high dollar synth.
• Download http://www.audiodamage.com/downloads/pr ... pid=ADF002. Seriously.
• I have found when eq'ing sounds it is best to cut rather than boost. (more natural?) Another thing I have learned is to either manually automate alot of parameters for dynamic sounds or even just route LFO's everywhere. I overlooked these simple FUNDAMENTALS for so long.
  take a fifteen minute break every 90 minutes. try not to listen to the same loop for more than 10 minutes. work at a low volume.
• If you have reverb on a send channel, the balance should be achieved with the send amount, i.e. the effect should always be 100% wet.
• If you have reverb on a rhythmic element, like a snare or a clap, time the reverb tail so that it drops down to near silent (-60dB) right before the next one hits. For example, if the song is at 120 bpm, the time between snares, assuming a kick/snare/kick/snare 4x4 pattern, is 1 second. So the reverb time on the snare should be 900-950ms. Also try adding a compressor on the reverb and sidechaining it to the kick so that it ducks out a little bit and gives your kick lots of room to breathe.
• Sending a channel to a bus with a pitch sifter inserted on it can be fun, gets cool harmony effects and such.
• keep the stages of production separate. What I mean is that: 1) arrange a tune (samples, composition, sound design, etc) 2) mixdown (levels, fx, etc) 3) master (polish, bring out qualities)
• snare --> long reverb --> compressor --> gate --> room reverb, for a sexy big snare (swap compessor / gate around for slightly differnt sound)
• try working from a feeling or unusual object. My most composed track to date was basically me trying to explain the feeling of having a bunch of open possibilities ahead of me through music. I also started that track outdoors on a summer day... so there's another tip, if it hasn't been said--work somewhere you don't normally work (especially if it relates to the track you're working on).
• dont be afraid to use your mastering plugs on your drum subgroup.
• Try running your softsynths through guitar pedals (they're Cheap!) just to give em sum analog processing, warms em up, gets rid of the digital cold "in the box" sound.
• Load up a sample and slow it down to half or a quarter time (I use house loops, FX work well too) and then modulate the volume of that track to get little snippets of the sample. You can come up with some pretty cool sounding glitchy noises this way. I also sometimes throw a beat repeater on there (Ableton) and give it some variation.
• make use of colors and markers for laying out your track.. It can help fill out the track quicker, and also reference the changing parts of the instruments.. It's also easy to try putting the different instruments/tracks variations together to see how they work as a change in your track..
• nstead of using LFOs to modulate a basses cutoff filter, assign it to a knob on your midi controller. It can give your bass modulations a nice human feel and allow you to get more creative than simply changing LFO rates. When doing super technical stuff it is usually helpful to slow the track way down, record your knob tweaks and then bring it back to tempo.
• After you've created a patch, bass, lead, rhythmic, anything, and you have saved it, just tweak the hell out of it, and use it as a jump off for another part of your production.. I took a sound design course where this was an assignment, and not only is it helpful to build you library, it also keeps things moving fairly quickly if you've hit a wall in the composition..
• limit yourself to one synth for 2 weeks everytime u open your daw.
• Try creating limitations/ "rules"/ or boundaries for your tracks. I.E.-- "I will only use samples for this track" "all my drums will be from balloon samples in this song" or whatever. Limits encourage creative thinking.
• Try using a limiter on a light to moderate setting on your drums instead of a compressor. Maybe mix with a little bit of saturation. Try the same on basses, but only a little!
• Try layering & resampling to create super badass versions of all your sounds, not just basses. Works well on pads, drum hits, everything really.
• On your uninspired days, organize your sample library, build kits and patches, etc. for use when you're feeling lit up with inspiration.
• Turn the volume down low before you mix the top end of your tracks. Helps to hear the top with less splatter.
• Think of Distortion as energy: the more distorted a sound, the more energetic. Distort some sounds more than others to create contrast and excitement.
• When Eqing, use a Narrow Q in the bass regions and a broader one in the top for a natural sound. the exception to this rule is when you're surgically taking out nasty frequencies, in which case a narrow q is better. Oh, and use a frequency analyzer to better get an idea of where there might be unwanted frequencies.
• Don't over quantize your drums unless you want to sound like a Robot. One way I like to get grooves together is by playing the drums in, then selecting them (in Live) and hitting APPLE-SHIFT-U, and applying small amounts of quantizing, until it sounds tight, but expressive.
• Build up and vary your drum parts by duplicating sections and adding variation at the end of every 2 bars. Rinse and repeat.
• When programming synths or samplers, make the instruments EXPRESSIVE, by f**king with things like velocity, key-range, etc.
• Keep your drums and bass tight, in other words, relevant to each other.
• Develop a good sample and session organizational method.
• Never work in one session file, always start a new one on a new section, new mix etc, so you can look back through the steps you took in making a track. Also, if that one file gets corrupted you're completely fucked.
• get a good cardiovascular work out a few times a week. really gets the endorphins and creativity flowing. fulflill ithe needs of the mind body and soul first and foremost then the music flow naturally. don't try to make the music fill you up, becuase it simply will not.
• Slap an LFO on your kicks to get some sick kick sounds or to "squish" the bass.
• use arpeggiators on drums. Set up a rack of drum sounds, send it a chord, and play with different arpeggiator patterns. Combine that with some volume modulation and you can have glitchy grooves with minimal effort.
• use an arp to trigger a percussive sound (or any sound) on track 1. on track 2 (whatever the sound may be ... pad, keys, yodel) sidechain a gate or compressor to the arp'd sound on track 1. automate the arp rhythms & viola! ... go nuts with some rhythmic gating. add a beat repeat to the arp (track 1) for some additional flava.
• Many synths/sequencers/drum machines have an actual "random" function. For example Ableton has the Random midi effect. I like to put Random before my drum rack, and either have it hit random sounds, or hit empty pads, creating random spaces in my drum pattern. If using an arpegiator, I like to employ the random pattern, usually more than any other patterns.
• If you're trying to get some random glitchy noises out of a drum break, put on some effects and then put a compressor after them. Set the threshold really low, then play with the attack, release, and ratio. The louder sounds like the kick and snare will start to overpower the quiet ones, but in the spaces where there's just a hihat that'll be louder. So then when you go to chop out little bits and pieces you'll have more variation in the sounds throughout the loop. If you have LFOs on your effects unsynced you'll also get the different hits with different effects settings on them.
• Mixing starts the minute you start a new track. If you start piling up different parts on top of each other in a main loop that conflict frequency-wise, and tell yourself you'll make it fit in mixing, trust me, you won't. You might be able to pull it off if you're Bob Katz, but in reality the easiest way to mix is to make sure as early as possible that the sounds don't step on each other's toes. (This has the added bonus of giving you more space to really work the samples - if you keep most of your percussion and riders in the high end you can squeeze a lot of high-mid and midrange energy out of, say, one snare sample to make it really crack.)
• Something I find helpful that I didn't even realize until about 3 months ago: USE STEREO SAMPLES! If all your drum samples (or even melodic samples for piano, EP, guitar, pad etc.) are in mono when you put together your loops you'll have a HELL of a hard time trying to get them sounding good in the stereo spectrum during mixing. It gives the whole mix a more natural, open feel and you won't have to deal with using shitty stereo expanders, or panning everything everywhere unnaturally.
• utilize busses and auxes. Good for groups, sends, triggers, sidechaining, organization, and interesting controls and routing. One example, I put a longish hall verb on one bus and a short drum room verb on another for sends. Various amounts of signal to one or both of these verbs is can keep all the tracks in a similar space but with differing depths. Also separate different percussion elements to process, then bus them together. My drums are bussed externally for processing. Some busses have no output, and only exist as triggers for sidechainning. Signals can be split into different frequency bands, bussed, processed, and bussed back together, etc...
• learn shortcut key commands for your DAW. It is amazing how much time gets saved and how much productivity increases when You can quickly zip around your project.
• keep your workspace clean, organized, and inspiring. Don't allow distracting elements into your workspace, turn off your phone, Internet, etc. Get a good chair and good lighting. Our environment is more responsible for our creativity and mood than we may realize.
• set up a sampler with a bunch of different percussion sounds. weird hits, clinks, chimes, hats....whatever. put in you percussion pattern. go to sample selector instead of key selector, split all your samples evenly in there (so no sample will play at the same time as another). then turn the samplers lfo 2 on, and map it to the sample selector. adjust lfo speed to taste.
• use the random midi effect in ableton to give a nice feel to your drums! sometimes i will take a few samples, and map them to different keyzones, or sometimes even use the velocity tool and crank up the random and map my samples by velocity. this is also a super effect way to add randomness to synths, map a bunch of cool parameters to velocity then induce that randomization.
• quit fucking around in VST/audio world. limit yourself to what you have for a while and focus on the process of creating music! read about theory, listen to some rural blues (those guys made great music with one fucking nylon string! find musical inspiration from new places. copy melodies from other songs to deconstruct how they were made. investigate.
• take out unnecessary parts of your beat. let it breathe. it s easy for me to lose site of whats important in a track when i have 102432 things going at once. make sure the main musical ideas are powerful enough alone, and use glitching/effects/etc to put the icing on the cake. audio fuckery will not be able to distract the listener from poorly composed music i've found.
• walk around the room and dance around to your shit, its fun. and it will give you a less critical ear so you have more of an open mind for possibilities rather than "problems" with the song.
• Whichever emotion you want people to experience during your music, create that emotion within yourself while you are making your tune.
• If you want people to get excited and say "Fuck yeah!," then do something that will ignite that within you first. Emotional energy you transfer into your tunes is POWERFUL. If you're melancholy then your music will reflect that too. People pick up on it at a quantum level.
• Turn up the scrolling speed of your mouse. faster mouse = faster workflow

[nowaysj]

Jesus, after reading that for a half an hour, I had to scroll, and then I had to scroll for a half an hour. Terrifying.

[Sexual_Chocolate]

wub, when you say:

Ignore the rules or 'maths - (er, ghey)' until you've learnt how to write music your way - then start to worry about how to make it sound good. Or do what I do and get a professional to mix it down for you - money well spent and lots of people do it.

do you mean get a pro to mix down the tune, or master it?
im just a little confused about why you would get another person to mix your tune for you....

(genuine question btw)

[travis_baker]

i like the one that ses buy a good chair, its the little things that count

[wub]

Jesus, after reading that for a half an hour, I had to scroll, and then I had to scroll for a half an hour. Terrifying.

Regrettably, the bullet point coding does not allow for line breaks...my apologies for the wall of text.

wub, when you say:

Ignore the rules or 'maths - (er, ghey)' until you've learnt how to write music your way - then start to worry about how to make it sound good. Or do what I do and get a professional to mix it down for you - money well spent and lots of people do it.

do you mean get a pro to mix down the tune, or master it?
im just a little confused about why you would get another person to mix your tune for you....

(genuine question btw)

Personally I wouldn't let anyone touch my mixdown. My mastering, yes of course...that is perhaps one stage of the process that requires a second set of ears to give it a proper perspective.

i like the one that ses buy a good chair, its the little things that count

I found a lovely office chair in the street my second night in Madrid which was dutifully wheeled back to the apartment. Very comfortable.

[nowaysj]

Most of my furniture has been wheeled back to my house off the street . Except my couch now, kind of caved and bought that. I'm slipping.

[OfficialDAPT]

• force yourself to arrange a tune as early as possible rather than making a decent 8 bar loop and fucking about with that for hours
• learn to play piano, learn music theory, don't get obsessed by what software is "best" just learn the one that you like the most/have got to the minutest detail.

These one's I definitely need to get better at, thanks wub for spending hours writing that huge list it helped alot.

[wub]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-19284058

Why are female record producers so rare?

Over the last few years, it seems women have dominated the music industry, from Adele to Lady Gaga, via Rihanna, who apparently can't leave the house without recording a hit single.

But the story is not being replicated on the other side of the sound desk.

While George Martin or Pharrell Williams are household names, only three women have ever been nominated for best producer at the Brits or the Grammys. None of them went home with the prize.

Recording artist Regina Spektor, promoting her album Far in 2009, admitted to the BBC she had "never even seen the names" of female producers on her record company shortlist.

"It didn't enter my mind to to look for one," she said.

"I should put out a call and say, 'Where are you?'"

She must not have found any - because when her follow-up album What We Saw From The Cheap Seats came out this year, she was the sole woman with a production credit.

"It is a sad case," says Steve Levine, chairman of the UK's Music Producer's Guild. "I've only ever worked with one female studio engineer."

"Oddly enough, there are a lot of quite powerful, high position females in record companies - my wife included - but less in the technical arena."

They do exist, however. Trina Shoemaker is one of them.

"The light bulb went off as a child," she says. "I would put albums on and I would just study their jackets.

"I didn't actually care about the musicians, I cared about how it happened. Why did it come out of the speakers like that? Why does the needle go into that groove and make music come out of those cones? And who does that?"

Inspired by The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and her headphones, she left home at 18, skipping college to go to LA. She worked as a record company receptionist and a maid in a recording studio for seven years before finally getting a job operating tape machines in New Orleans.

"My family didn't know what I was doing," she says. "They thought I was repairing stereos!"

Eventually, Shoemaker became an apprentice to Daniel Lanois, who helped shape the sound of U2 and Brian Eno, and, in 1998, was the first woman to win a Grammy for sound engineering.
Swagger

These days, Shoemaker is in constant demand as a producer. So why isn't her story more common?

"It's a renegade profession, it's an outlaw profession," says Susan Rogers - one-time studio engineer for Prince, and now an associate professor at the Berklee College Of Music in Boston.

Women who want to enter the field face "a boys' club, or a guild mentality", she says.

"You have to have a lot of swagger. A lot of swagger. If you don't, you won't be successful."

Even the successful ones face challenges, says Shoemaker.

"A producer has to turn into the person that fits in with the band," she says.

"If they're a bunch of guys and they're young and they're funny and they tell rude jokes, you have to be a woman who isn't shocked by that and can, as a matter of fact, crush them all with three words."

Sexism may be one factor, but Prof Rogers believes the problem is more basic.

"The bottom line is, women aren't interested," she says.

"Right now, I currently teach engineering and production; and I also teach psychoacoustics and music cognition. In the psychology topics, the students are half women and half men. But in production and engineering, maybe one out of every 10 students is a young woman."

In the UK the situation is the same. The Music Producers' Guild says less than 4% of its members are women. And the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts says only 6% of the students enrolled on its sound technology course are female. That figure hasn't changed for three years.

Women behind the mixing desk

• Cordell Jackson founded her own record label, Moon Records, in 1956, and produced early rock'n'roll singles
• Sylvia Robinson produced hip-hop classic Rapper's Delight, for her own Sugarhill record label
• Susan Rogers was the engineer on Prince's biggest albums, including Purple Rain and Sign O The Times. She also worked with Crosby, Stills and Nash and Barenaked Ladies
• Leanne Unger Produced and engineered seven albums for Leonard Cohen, and scores for TV shows such as The Wonder Years
• Sally "Louder" Browder emerged from the California punk scene to make records with Rocket From The Crypt and Dwight Yokam
• Trina Shoemaker, winner of three Grammys, best known for her work with Sheryl Crow, Queens Of The Stone Age and Emmylou Harris
• Ann Mincieli recording engineer and studio designer for Alicia Keys

Yet the problem seems to be restricted to rock and pop. In the theatre, in Hollywood, in radio there are dozens of female sound engineers. Roughly one-quarter of the BBC's sound mixers are women.

"There are no social barriers to a woman becoming a record producer," says Prof Rogers.

"The more stringent and insurmountable constraint is the biological one. A man can, technically speaking, reproduce on his coffee break. It doesn't take all that long, and biologically it doesn't take much of a toll. For a woman, the opposite is true.

"The typical lifestyle of a record producer is very intensive, very competitive, all-consuming. In order to be able to maintain that level of focus and attention and dedication to your craft, it has to come at the expense of reproduction."

"The women who do get into it will do really well... until they reach that point in their late 20s where they say, 'Now its time to have a family'. I tell my female students it's going to come for them. It came for me, and I opted not to have children, to not get married."

Shoemaker, a mother herself, can attest to that.

"Having a baby was a big deal, a game changer," she says. "I was 39 when I got pregnant, so I was already well established, but it did change everything. It took me out of the running for a lot of jobs."

"It's not about being the equivalent of men. It's just that I don't want to raise some weirdo son that ends up being a psycho because I was too busy making records to be a mama."

Prof Rogers says some of her colleagues have tried to artificially boost the number of girls studying production, but its a practice she fights.

"The last thing I want to see - because I have seen it - is to get young women into the programme who are less dedicated, less motivated and less capable of being good producers. All it does is make things worse for us. They do poorly, they're apathetic, they're not interested and it furthers the stereotype that women can't do this."

Still, Mr Levine hopes more women do see the light. His theory is that they could bring new dimensions to recorded music.

"If I have an observation, it's that a lot of the female engineers have a greater allegiance to the sort of passion a singer-songwriter has, and that comes out in their work.

"They're much more sensitive to the delicacies of sound balancing. I think that's quite an important role."

And Shoemaker, who can reel off the names of several female contemporaries, says she sees things improving.

"Women are entering the field in drives now. There's maybe a 20-year curve before they're fully recognised. But look at doctors - they're pretty much equal now.

"I don't know about pay scales, but if a surgeon walks in and it's a woman on her 800th cardiac surgery, I want her, not the young dude who just walked out of medical school.

"So I think about the time I retire, we'll see a very level playing field."

[wub]

Layer Cake soundtrack
Kill Bill Vol 2 soundtrack
Big mug of Spanish coffee





Seriously, listening to this and watching the sun come up over Madrid is just fucking lush right now It's a goo day to be alive. Might have to bump this onto my MP3 player and go for a wander round Madrid in a bit/

Been finding that wandering round what is still a relatively new city to me is flipping the perspective depending on what I've got on playing. Like, the other week was properly wiped out after work, didn't get out the office til like 9ish, properly shattered...had some dark DnB on, think it was Amit's Never Ending LP (worth a listen btw, go check it right now...) and the whole experience of the rush of people, pockets of humanity, me in an already dazed state, had that whole Sprawl vibe going on....

...was practically tripping me out. That moment when whatever you're experiencing melds perfectly with whatever you're listening to whilst you're experiencing it...doesn't happen all that often, at least outside of the confines of a specifically musical experience (club/concert etc) and not since I moved here. Was nice, once I'd snapped out of the urge to sit in a doorway and stare blankly at the world around me

More digression...todays challenges are;

• Record the 'drum' hits for the Compositional challenge where you have to make a track using only your voice. No microphone so going to be gettin the lo-fi effect by yelling into one of my headphones
• Attempt arrangement of said samples, depending on how it works out. No idea how to process my own voice, and what I've got planned may require a full acapella to be mixed in so we'll see.
• Manipulate the 808 sample from the other challenge and see how that works out. Not sure how many ways I can think of to manipulate an 808 right now, but it's still early and the crackle of Jumpstart hangs heavily in the air

Updates as and when things get done, maybe another sample pack, who knows...

Chucking this in here as well, full list of FL shortcuts - http://rekkerd.org/bin/FL_Studio_Keyboard_Shortcuts.png

MICHAEL BRAUER BUSS COMPRESSION ARTICLE
Fantastic article by probably the #1 engineer in the game

http://www.mbrauer.com/articles/images/page1.jpg
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http://www.mbrauer.com/articles/images/page6.jpg

[JTreeZY]

High pass your send effects

Hmm

[jrisreal]

I am aggrivated by everything right now

[wub]

http://breaksmag.com/issue-1/south-lond ... speaks-up/

South London Ordnance Speaks Up

South London Ordnance appeared on the scene around the end of last year and since then has become a household name when it comes to innovative and forward-thinking bass music.

Sorry, that sentence has become a bit stale in 2012 since it’s used to describe anyone who’s managed to stitch a 2-step, broken-beat together these days, ‘innovative and forward-thinking bass music’. It’s actually got to a point where whenever that sentence is used to describe a new producer, you can almost guarantee that the music is pretty stale too.

Stale is precisely what I’m not trying to convey when talking about S.L.O. Very much the opposite in fact. So let’s scratch that. S.L.O is the meaning of ‘new’ music in it’s purest form. That’s better. Quote me, do it. There’s nothing old about these productions. I mean it has it’s influences, sure, but there’s nothing in S.L.O’s productions that you’ve heard before. It’s so new that it’s genre-less, and because those forum lurkers haven’t invented a twatty sub-genre name for it yet.

We caught up with the freshest guy in bass in, you guessed it, South London. We were quite taken aback with how focussed and determined he is, but after a studying Law at Leeds Uni you can see where he gets it from. It made for a great discussion with loads of insightful topics covered, read on.

In the last six months you’ve just completely blown up, was there a strategy behind this?

Mm, yeah I’ve had a couple of people come up to me and say ‘I’ve been working on this for five years, and it’s taken you six months…’ or something. I usually reply look, I’m not the best producer, I just took a considered approach to marketing my music. I think the reality is, people sometimes go about making an impact in the wrong way. They think that 10,000 hits on Soundcloud is better than one message from a decent label head that says, ‘Hey, I like your stuff.’ It doesn’t matter how many hits you have on Soundcloud – I’ve always been of the opinion that if you just focus on a few labels, and just focus on your art… Then it should come together. The reason I never sent anything out before was because I never had good enough music. And even when I did start sending it out, it wasn’t very good. But, I was just lucky because a couple of people, who are very forthcoming and supportive generally, you know – people like Seb Chew, Mary Anne Hobbs… they started playing my stuff. I think that, if you go about it the right way, and not necessarily push it in people’s faces, and just make the one link that counts over the 50 links. That’s what I think, anyway.

So, how long were you producing for, before you started sending tracks out?

Probably like, three/ four months…

Is that all?

Well yeah, I’d been producing for three or four months. I’m one of those people that when I get my mind stuck on something, I can’t not have go and crack at it. I don’t think there’s a point in doing anything if you are not aiming to really get stuck in. I just enjoy it to be honest… the whole process.

Do you have a day job? I mean, sorry for being so blunt, but you’ve got graphic design and other projects going on at the same time, how do you manage your time between it all?

Yeah, well basically, I’m actually still a student at the moment – well I won’t be when this goes to print, I’m just about to finish this Wednesday. So yeah, I’ve been a student and now I’m just tying up a postgraduate course now. The plus side of that is that I had a lot of free time; I know it’s very difficult to find time when you’re doing a 9-to-5. I was very lucky to get on this course.

What do you study?

I’m doing a graduate diploma in Law. My original plan was to get into Record Label management via Media Law and you know, I know it’s something that everyone always says but I’ve always been interested in music – the industry and the kind of, mechanics behind how it works. I thought that that would be my way to slot in. But as I was saying, I started making a few tunes and I started to send them out to a few people and then when some were like, ‘would you like to release on our label?’ I was thinking ‘ah well maybe, there’s a possibility that I could make this work…’ But I stuck at the law course. Because I think that’s really important. A lot of people, when they get that first whiff they think ‘ah maybe this is going to work.’ And before you know it, you’ve given up everything to build yourself a studio and wasted all your money on studio equipment and then the label are like, ‘well yeah, we’ve done that release now, we’ll see you later.’

The thing is I think, I got my head down and it kept me sane in a sense that you have a lot of other stuff to focus on. Do music when you can, because until it becomes financially viable, it is a hobby. And that’s the thing and so, it’s taken it to this point, and I’ve worked very hard to make sure that at the end of this course I’ve got a relatively stable platform to work on.

That’s great man, really is.

What’s the strategy behind the Soundcloud presence and deleting tracks fairly quickly?

I think that the reality behind that is that… well, the thing about the internet is stuff spreads so fast… A good example is SBTRKT, or like Julio Bashmore. They put up a track and within 5 minutes it’s got 20,000 views and like it’s been all over the internet. So everybody knows about it, everyone’s heard it. On the flipside then, if you’re an unsigned artist and you make a really great tune, and then you send it to a label and say, ‘here’s the stream of it,’ with 20,000 hits – it’s like, ‘well, I’m not going to release that now…’ The hit factor has gone.

I upload tracks to let people know where I am with my production. I’m still at that stage where every time I open up Logic, I learn something new. So, I want people to know and to hear the development, it’s a good way of getting bookings, people see you’ve tracks in the bag and that they’re (hopefully) getting better!

So how did it get from the three months, then you started sending tracks out, then, now the release on 2nd Drop, how did that relationship come along because obviously that’s your debut release isn’t it?

Yeah, basically, the first people that I actually signed on a release with were actually a Dutch label called Audio Culture. So they’re the first people that I sent a couple of demos to and gave me decent positive feedback and said ‘Would you consider doing a proper EP?’

You’re still doing something with them no?

Yeah, yeah – it’s out next month actually. I had an amazing time over there.

Oh, is that how the Red Bull Studios in Amsterdam thing came about?

Yes, they very kindly flew me over and I went and did all the mix downs there. I’ve got to say, I made those tunes a long time ago so you know, the finish was very rough but the reality is, those guys in that Studio – Chad, for example – they can really polish stuff up. They know what to do.

How did they receive that, they obviously loved the track even though you were a bit like ‘I’ve moved on from that’?

Well I think the reality is, and I think that this is important about like any like creative endeavour is that ultimately it doesn’t matter about what stage you were as an artist making what you’re making. If there’s a good idea there, it’s usually always a good idea. Like good tunes are good tunes. For example, people talk about classic garage tracks – the production on some of those tracks is pretty grim, especially by today’s standards. You know what I mean, but, they’re classic tracks, the riffs are there. Those synths, those pads, it’s timeless – and that’s the thing…

The thing is – I’m not saying that my EP on Audio Culture is any way comparable to any of that, but like at the same time there were just some ideas there that were like, they’re just nice ideas. And I’m still happy with them and I’m obviously I’m proud of them and I’m really looking forward to releasing them.

With that lead time, you will have been hearing those tracks so many times, because of how long an EP may come out – when it comes to the release point, does it get boring, does it get to the point where you’re like ‘I’m actually sick of hearing this now’?

Well I think that yeah, well yeah definitely – I mean like sometimes you get six months down the line and it’s like ‘what the f*ck was I thinking?’ That is really, really not cool. I make a lot of tunes… I make a lot tunes, and I’ve got hard drives full of ideas that you flick through and you’re like ‘wow, that was terrible, I’m so glad I didn’t send that to anyone.’ Even worse is when you open an email thread and you realise you did send it to them… That’s the reason they never speak to you anymore.

That’s just the way it is though isn’t it…

Definitely. It is the way it is. On the one hand we talked about not sending too much stuff out but then there’s the other side you know. I’ve got a lot of friends that are incredibly talented and don’t send anything out, ‘it’s not ready, it’s not ready.’ You’ve got to find that balance between, sending a few tracks out and keeping stuff locked… It is literally finding that line and it’s a fine line you know. I mean, the stuff I sent out to Audio Culture – the first stuff they picked me up on, was total sh… The production… haha actually there was a tune that was supposed to be on the EP that they asked me to prepare for mastering and I actually said that ‘I can’t go back to it. I don’t know how I made those things, I can’t refine it in such a way that we can release it,’ because if I touch anything it’s like you know, if you touch a tower of cards, you pull one thing out then it’s all going to fall apart.

It’s quite nice now being at the stage that I actually know what I’m doing. So I can tinker with the tune.

You say you’re fairly fresh to producing then, how long have you actually had Logic then, six months or something?

Probably about a year now…

Did someone teach you that? Or was it all self-taught?

It was more or less self taught. It was the same kind of process that I did with Photoshop and Illustrator. You sit down, and you kind of go on Youtube tutorials… I also had a lot of friends, Marco (Last Japan) helped me a lot, my friend Will who is actually one of those people that never sends any of his tunes out. He is a fantastic engineer, he taught me pretty much everything I know. He’s a very talented artist, really knows a great deal about sampling and making beats.

What’s his artist name? Will…?

He doesn’t have one. He’s just a friend of mine…

You’ll always find that though with producers though won’t you, there always a mate or a best friend that has a knowledge that steers you in the right direction.

Yeah of course, it’s one of those things that you pick up as you go along and then you start sending your stuff to not only label heads, but to producers. I think one of the most important people I sent my music to, even though – to be honest, we don’t chat that much anymore (he’s a busy guy these days), is Mosca. He said something that has always stuck with me and that I have always remembered which was, ‘with dance music, make sure the kicks lead the track.’

I get sent so much music where like, the kick isn’t really there – you know… you’re trying to make dance music, techno music… whatever, without a decent kick?! I played at Fabric the other day, which was an amazing experience, but I played one of my new tunes, and bear in mind you’re trying to really drive a big crowd you know… It’s like, you imagine with the tracks you’re throwing water on a crowd, if it’s just a small bucket, you know it’s not going to be enough – you need to go in with a proper hose. It’s a bit like that if it’s a weak kick, in a sense that you really have to have a strong kick to get people really going. For a long time I didn’t think about that. It’s not that I didn’t realise, it’s just that I didn’t think about that enough. So now, it’s all about building from the kick.

“It’s like, imagine you’re throwing water on a small crowd, if it’s just a bucket, you know it’s not going to be enough. And it’s a bit like it’s a weak kick, in a sense that you really have to have a strong kick to get people really going.”

Is that like a natural progression, you’ve started producing music and now you’re playing out. Is it something you come back to, after you’ve come from playing out and learning from that you can see what really works in a club?

Absolutely, it’s one of those things. Recently I’ve really realised the importance of making dance floor tracks essentially quite simple. Originally one compensates for one’s poor production skills by making something overly complex. And actually the reality is that it comes back to making, well attempting to make, an interesting, memorable piece of music. Like those classic Garage tracks, you’re just looking for that really effective riff.

We were talking earlier that the most timeless and great stuff is the stuff that is simple, like for example, Neptunes stuff – Drop It Like It’s Hot.

Yeah, it’s weird you mention that track. The amount of people that have brought that up recently is really weird! But it’s true isn’t it: keep it simple. I mean that track is just white noise and an 808 drum…

I do have a lot of time for complex, engineered music – but at the same when you’re trying to play that kind of stuff out, and you know – it’s really loud you’re listening through X amount of layers of white noise because the producer’s trying to ‘create an atmosphere’… You know what I mean? You’re just trying to mix this track!

I never want a desire for simplicity, or facility to replace artistic endeavour – or to take away from certain ‘atmospheres,’ that do tend to clutter tracks. But at the same time, it is really nice when you bring in a track and it’s effective. It’s got a nice thick kick and it’s got a nice thick bass line or whatever – you know?

You know when you sit down to make something new, do you have an idea in your head? Or do just ‘jam’?

It’s really annoying. Sometimes, I sit down to make a tune with other people and they’re like ‘let’s listen to this track, let’s get some ideas going here.’ I know there’s an element of people wanting to draw influence from stuff but I don’t know, it’s not necessarily a choice but I just don’t really do that.

I just start messing around with a few synths; I know what’s pleasing to my ears. I know what I like in music right now – I like certain frequencies, I like certain noises – I like the way certain vocals are placed. Then it’s all about gathering that altogether and bringing those influences up.

More than ever these days, and I always talk about it when people ask me – it’s a bit like drawing a picture. Before I did graphic design, I was just an illustrator with a biro. So, you know when you’re drawing and you’re making marks on paper and you’re scribbling stuff out and then you’ve smudged it on the back of your hand – that’s exactly what making tunes is like.

“You know when you’re drawing and you’re making marks on paper and you’re scribbling stuff out and then you’ve smudged it on the back of your hand – that’s exactly what making tunes is like.”

Make a certain noise in Logic – bounce it out, bring it back in, affect it and cut it up – maybe like put it in time with something and that’s just how it works really. For me anyway.

Everyone has their own way!

You’re quite percussion based though aren’t you.

What I like to do is – you have a bit of percussion that works with a bit of bass and that kind of stuff, and you get them to bounce off each other. The kind of Drum n’ Bass that I used to love that I don’t listen to that much anymore is…

[interrupt] Is that your ‘teenage years’ music? Drum n’ Bass?

If we had the time I could take you to my house and just see some of the terrible vinyl that I have, it’s quite embarrassing. I was looking at some stuff this morning, I was going over to a mates’ to just play some records and I found ‘N-Trance – Set You Free’… but a dark UK Garage, Breaks sort of remix – a one-sided vinyl. It’s cheesy as fuck.

“I was looking at some stuff this morning, I was going over to a mates to just play some records, and I found ‘N-Trance – Set You Free’ but a Garage, Breaks sort of remix – a one-sided vinyl. That, that is embarrassing.”

But at the same time, it’s kind of like – it’s that stuff that actually is really resonant for me. Because it had like the floating pads and the uplifting vocals, but then it had the raw, LFO, kind of Garage, Breaks bass line. I guess, if you listen to a lot of my stuff, the Well Rounded thing – that’s what that is, basically. It’s kind of an Acid House bass line with floaty pads and it owes a lot to that kind of music…

I forgot what you actually asked me there! I just kind of rambled on!

Your identity, under South London Ordnance, is it purposeful that a lot of your photographs are always in shadow and obscured, and it’s not always obvious to exactly who you are – is that the plan or strategy to create that mystery?

It’s just one of those things, the reason is – I didn’t have that stuff. For example, I used to use this picture of a girl with a glass hat on. Which sounds weird, but if you look at the photo it’s not actually that weird – it’s just some photo that I found on the internet. I just didn’t have any press shots, I didn’t need any press shots. It’s just like all those kind of those things, when you need something – you can get it. I have friends who have thousands of pounds worth of studio equipment but have never finished a tune. I didn’t really need any press shots so I didn’t really have any.

When you start characterising your music, there’s a tendency… it’s very easy to get it wrong when you’re young like I am… I think, anyway. You just want essentially a blank slate and you want to be able to let the music, the people you send your music to and the labels that work with you – that kind of stuff to shape you as an artist. Rather than, ‘look, here I am, this is me, I’ve given everything away…’ I don’t know that’s just my own opinion, because everyone does it a different way. I just quite like that vibe really.

Do you like how that’s going for you? That’s your strategy, that you’ve planned it in a particular way, do you think it’s working for you? Are you getting the recognition that you want and have to set out to get?

To be honest, in terms of recognition… I think that I have been blessed by the people that have got in touch and who have helped me out. Everyone like, Truants who I think did my first feature, and you know to the labels – 2nd Drop, Well Rounded etc, Mary Anne Hobbs, Mosca who was the first to put a track of mine in a mix.

Oh really?

Yeah he did this mix for Mary Anne Hobbs actually, and put it in… it was called ‘Under The Radar’. And that was it, which was kind of the first bit of exposure.

Did you get hype off that?

It’s those little thing really isn’t it, you know. He name checked me in the Guardian or the Independent which was great for me.

So in terms of recognition and exposure, it’s those little things that we talked about. You know, like the one shout-out that’s from a decent person is you know, it’s worth so much. I’ve just been very lucky in that sense.

Was that the turning point of this whole process then? Was there a point where you thought, ‘this is going to really work out, I’m really getting some momentum here’?

Yeah, you could describe it as a turning point, it was nice. People were saying that I should send Mosca my stuff, he’s really good for feedback. So I did, I sent him a couple of things and some stuff he liked and some stuff he didn’t. He just sent an email to a few of us saying ‘ah yeah, your track is in this mix, it’s airing on Christmas Eve.’

Then obviously LuckyMe hit me up to do a mix, and that was really mad because that’s such an established series. That was again, a real turning point. Then slowly but surely, it all started to get a bit more momentum.

Through Mosca’s mix then, is that how you got Mary Anne Hobbs singing your praises?

Well, I just hit her up on twitter actually. ‘Hey, mosca put a track in this mix, do you mind if I send you some music?’ She was like yeah, and there were a couple of things that she liked… And she played them a few times, and you know I got some really great exposure from that.

How did you get involved with Enclave, the clothing brand then?

Yeah, Kyle from Enclave just hit me up on Twitter, ‘hey, I like your stuff’ – ‘hey Kyle, I like your stuff!’ And we just started sort of chatting really! He’s a very talented guy, he really does have a niche with his aesthetic and it’s exciting to see that. He’s very on point.

So what’s next in store for you, where’s the next release coming from?

The next release is… I’ve got a 12 inch on Well Rounded which we’re just waiting to just start putting that out, and that’s out on 2nd July. Two tracks, ‘Trojan’ and ‘Pacific’. I’m really happy with the tracks and I think they really work as a 12”. I’m really happy to be working with Ash. And I think that, personally, the tracks really fit the label. It owes a lot to Acid House, Hardcore and Techno, basically. So I’m really looking forward to that.

Then my first full EP, coming on Audio Culture… which is supposed to be my debut. But you know, such is life and Audio Culture is very prolific and a very busy label. They had a schedule to stick to. That’ll be 5 new tracks which is cool.

Then one more 12” with the label that I’m probably not supposed to announce yet. Then yeah, a couple of remixes. One on Kerri Chandler’s new label of a track called ‘Rome,’ by a producer called Kashii. Then another one for a Belgian label called Beatcave, which has just gone up today actually.

In January 2013 I’m also launching my own label, which I’m really looking forward to.

Wow, that’s planning ahead!

Oh god, no, that’s tight! I’ve been involved with labels in the past and it takes so long, because you’re always relying on people to get back to you. You know like, distribution, PR, Marketing… getting a designer in… Getting the tracks sounding exactly how you want them… Then you’ve got to get them mastered, then you’ve got to have at least six weeks lead time. You’ve got to have everything in the bag to be releasing on time.

This label project is going to be the one that I’m going to run with for this S.L.O alias. Hopefully I want it up to 10, 20 releases so you know – it’s got to be right, if it isn’t, I wont be rushing to get stuff out.

The aesthetic is so important to me, I want people to be able to go into record stores, go into BM Soho and be able to pick up the 12” and be like ‘this sounds really dope and looks really dope as well!’

Are you going to be doing all the branding for that as well then?

No, I’m not actually. I’m not doing any of the artwork because one thing I have realised that’s important is that want you everyone to stick to his or her own area of expertise. Mine, I would like to think, would be the press and as a figurehead for the label – whereas I want someone whose job it is to do graphic design.

Have you got someone lined up for that then?

Yeah, I have – but I’ll keep it under my hat for now! It’ll be really cool though, I’m really excited about it. I’ve already seen some demos of what we’re going to do and stuff. It’s really exciting; we’re releasing someone who has never had a release before.

All sounds great man, we look forward to it!

One thing I love to ask producers and DJ’s etc, is what type of music did they listen to mainly when they were 15 years old?

You can’t be embarrassed and ashamed, you have to be truthful!

When I was 15? Ah man, no I’m not embarrassed! I can be fully truthful and I have the record collection to back it up. I used to go a record store down Northcote Rd (Clapham) called IS Records… I have a lot of Breaks, like Botchit & Scarper and then like Hard Trance and Hard Techno.

[lots of laughs]

Actually when I look back at it, there’s a couple of quite relevant records in there… maybe! Also, we used to have a lodger called Alex, who lived with us, big long dreadlocks and was really into psy-trance. And he used to take me to a place called, ‘The Psychedelic Dream Temple’…

Sounds like a Mighty Boosh episode!?

[laughs] believe me it’s not made up, it’s in Camden, it’s a psy-trance record store and so as a result of that I have loads of psy-trance records! In between that then there’s everything from Fatboy Slim, who is still a massive influence to me. I don’t know why people think that’s a dirty word? Some people do, I suppose I should be here telling you I was into Detroit House since I was 12. But that kind of (Fatboy Slim) stuff, I used to love that! Used to listen to that stuff on repeat! And then I actually have a lot of grim, cheesy Defected records and a LOT of Drum n’ Bass. I was into Drum n’ Bass from about 15, to 18?

Drum n’ Bass is definitely the most popular answer…

Absolutely! Those bass lines that kind of turn on a bit of percussion, used to really do it for me. And then it moved towards – especially when I was growing up, towards the minimal stuff with the compressed snares and people like Foreign Concept and Perez and that kind of stuff… loved that sound.

It was a good time, but it’s just one of those things where the BPM doesn’t lend itself – for me anyway, to an inclusive clubbing experience. The important thing for me is that girls dance when I’m DJing. I think that’s make or break for any genre.

“The important thing for me is that girls dance, when I’m DJing. I think that’s make or break for any genre.”

That’s why dubstep and grime in the form that they had, at a point where any sort of ‘heads’ would say that they were at their best… You know, there were no girls, it was just guys in a dark room with their hoods up. And of course it was amazing, and indicative of a time… and a group of people… but there were no girls, which I think made it difficult for those sounds to progress in that original form. And so what a lot of producers seemed to do, was they took the bits that appealed to teenage girls (and perhaps some teenage guys, it would seem) and they made them really loud and really pronounced… So we get that new mid range chainsaw sound, with all the vocal breaks and trance synths. It’s obviously a different vibe from what it was, but I guess they have the girls in the party now… maybe?

So that’s important to you, getting girls dancing?

Yeah definitely, that’s why I started to really get into House and Techno because I think it is very… it’s just a unisex genre. On the other hand, for example, Cable in London – at like a Metalheadz night and Andy C is doing a 3-deck set – and I’m just reporting from literally the last time that I went… there weren’t a huge amount of women on the dance floor. And I think that everyone in Drum n’ Bass would agree? Whereas you go to a Techno or House night and there a lot of girls, and therefore by default of course a lot of guys, and it’s just a more like inclusive, less offensive atmosphere. I may have got that completely wrong though! I’m always wary of making those kind of statements, you’re always bound to piss someone off!

So when you’re DJing, where do you draw from?

Well the thing is, before I even started this project I was DJing quite a lot…

You’ve been DJing a long time then?

Yeah I started… well I’ve been mixing since I was about 12. I got a pair of belt-drive decks – y’know you could tell this story for me! Friend of a brother… My mates’ brother… Or whatever. My mates’ brother who used to mix and the rest is kind of history…

Everyone says that, and it’s just the reality! It’s how it started for most people.

I’ve always loved mixing and loads of different stuff like I say – I started out I was mixing stuff like…

Psy-trance?

[laughs] I don’t want to get known for that but yeah you know I’m not going to lie, but yeah some pretty terrible music! Then started mixing like Drum n’ Bass and things like that, I was getting quite accomplished in terms of mixing D n’B, I could touch on things like 3-decks and that kind of stuff… But at the time when I was just about to move and leave university, people like Blawan and Nightslugs and people like that were coming more to the front and everyone was getting into Funky and strains of House music or whatever but you know, well – people like me were getting into Funky! Perhaps I was a bit late… But anyway, that was much more fun to mix. You could turn up to a house party and play a combination, well… I used to play a combination of Dancehall and Bashment that was at like 130bpm, then like funky into like Blawan kind of stuff, then into a bit of like L-Vis and that seemed to work for me. But I can’t really do it these days and like, under this moniker, people know me for more straight House and Techno I think.

… but then I couldn’t possible play kick drums for an hour. There is a bit of broken beat stuff I play, a bit of Swamp/ R&S stuff and I play a lot of Tessela tunes for example and they’re all over the place! He’s one of my favourite producers for party tunes…

But your stuff is not just from one place either though, you have like House, Techno, Garage in there…

Yeh, I mean I know of producers that are very happy – they have found a formula and maybe they feel ‘this works for me and what I’m going to do is just going to make that’. I think a lot of people are like that, I think people shy away from taking risks by saying ‘this is my sound.’ I think that it’s one thing to say that ‘this is my sound’ and it’s another thing to just be really dull. I think that Mosca is a great example of the opposite of that – that’s what’s wicked about him. He takes a thing like, for example the Hypercolour thing: Deep House, Tech House. And it’s almost like he’s sat down and gone ‘I’m just gonna murk this genre.’ Like, ‘Yeah, just did the tune – got Robert Owens on it…’ Do you know what I mean? And then he said, ‘Later this year I’m releasing grime.’ And it’s like – how exciting is that?

I think that’s what 2011, 2012 is for us right now do you agree? Like we were saying earlier, the popularity of the DJ as well as the DJ/producer that never used to be the case, but because they’re bringing in every genre in their sets – people want that, it’s like producers are now almost following the DJ’s footsteps and bringing in all sorts to their music.

To use Oneman as an example, that Boiler Room set, where he brings in Lumidee and you’re like ‘I haven’t heard this in 8 years! And it’s amazing tune!’, people expect that now and there’s this excitement to see DJ’s perform – what are they going to bring out next?

That mix that you’re talking about, that’s one of my favourite mixes. That is the mix; that is it. Thing is, if you want a lesson in how to DJ – in terms of playing a crowd certainly – just study that mix (in my opinion!). And the amazing thing about it is that like – you know there’s an element of preperation, everyone who plays regularly knows their party mixes – but that set is pretty much ‘off the cuff’! It’s just the mark of a great DJ is that he just throws it together… Like didn’t he drop some prog. rock stuff? Prince into Redlight?

It’s like gamesmanship, its like ‘you think I killed it then? Listen to the next one…’

Would you say that it’s 50/50 for producing and DJing for you then? Do you love one more than the other?

Well, half of the pleasure of being asked to play out is playing my own music. And seeing people get off to your music and people asking you ‘was that tune one of yours?’ The whole point of producing for me is to get out there and play my music, and see if something that I can make, entertains people.

“The whole point of producing for me is to get out there and play my music, and see if something that I can make, entertains people.”

Sometimes it doesn’t, and sometimes it does. And when it does, it’s just really nice.

Have you ever had a moment where you’ve played something new and it’s fallen flat?

Yeah massively, the whole time! People don’t really notice, because the tunes are pretty un-memorable! If you play something that’s really badly mixed down, people aren’t exactly gonna go ‘that tune was shit’ – they just don’t comment on it!

The other week when I played the Camden Crawl, at KOKO, I played a track that I’d just mixed down that afternoon. I was like, ‘right, let’s go!’ I switched over the EQ’s and it just fell so flat, there was just no sub on it at all. It was just one of those ones where you just mix it in and mix it out super fast. No one notices….

You’re always, as the DJ, your hardest critic though aren’t though! The crowd may have a great time and say they loved it but you’d be walking away like ‘Ah, that was rubbish…’

Yeah definitely – so true!

One of the most poignant times like that for me was – I was supporting Rustie at this warehouse thing.. And we all know what Rustie’s music is like, it’s incredible.. The most euphoric, intricate but at the same time ‘up in your face’ kind of music… He finishes his set with ‘Glass Swords’, so the crowd is moshing and going crazy right and I come on and play my first tune and it’s like, ‘dum dum dum’ … Just this simple kick intro! People were looking round like, ‘is the soundsystem broken?’

‘I’m sorry! That’s my shit! It’s what I play! That’s what I do!’ Terrible tune selection on my part in retrospect, but what can you do – it’s all a learning process.

Not my finest hour either way.

What equipment do you use to DJ then?

I use Serato and CDJ’s. I learnt on turntables, and I’d use turntables out but you know… When it becomes your job… In a sense that like, you’ve got to play for an hour and make the crowd move – no questions asked – you can’t really put your faith in potentially unreliable equipment. If you’re trying to use turntables in a club, unless it’s somewhere like Fabric, or I dunno – Plastic People say… you’re risking it nine times out of ten. The turntables aren’t usually prepared to play out properly on – the venue might not even have turntables!

Unless you’re a big enough act, you just can’t have that in your rider can you? Obviously, if you are you can – like, they’re not going to say to someone like Ben UFO, ‘Sorry Ben mate, the turntables, they’re looking a bit ropey…’ He’s not going to pull out CD’s is he…

Cool, well we really appreciate this and thanks for coming down to chat!

Of course man, it’s a pleasure, I hope it sounds alright!

South London Ordnance’s EP on Audio Culture comes out September 1oth on both digitally and on 12″

He also plays Audio Culture label showcase on the 20th October

[alpz]

This is a very interesting thread to trawl through, neat ideas in here. You've got a creative mind Wub, thanks for spilling it out some. :>

[wub]

[wub]

Awesome new cut from Ras G...



And a few interviews of the big man;




Proper inspiring producer for weird electronic funky stuff, seriously check him out if you don't know...have previously discussed him here and he's in the beat digging video further back.

Ras G – Space is the Place

Pulsating kryptonite jams from outer space arriving on the radio in 22nd century Los Angeles. Welcome to the world of Ras G, someone I first became really got into when I heard his album Ras G and the African Space Programme. Sackfuls of samples and idiosyncratic, lurching beats that veered from the sublime to the terrifying, it bought to mind everyone for Terry Riley to Tackhead as well as Jamal Moss and a whole load of experimental hip-hop. A bit more digging revealed a literal universe of music of Ras’ creation and the fact that this cosmic crusader was involved with the Poo Bah record label and shop (one of L.A’s best places for experimental sounds) made him all the more intriguing. However, as Ras was quick to point out, he is actually just an employee of the shop / label – not the owner, as the internet seems to suggest.

His latest record Down 2 Earth (read our review here) explores the world of ghetto-sci-fi, dusty samples and Rastafarianism and is to be blunt, a stone cold classic. With that in mind, I seized the opportunity to find out some more in an interview about someone who I guessed to be a pretty interesting character, and whilst I expected the answers to my questions to be esoteric, I perhaps wasn’t prepared for quite how odd they would be – slightly infuriating as he refused a phone interview, but also kind of endearing – they are pretty off the page.

Hey Gregory
Gregory is my Strawman u can call me Ras

What does ghetto sci-fi mean to you?
Ghetto Sci- Fi is what I call my approach two making music because I’m still doing my music with drum machines and samplers using records, so the approach would see, rather “GHETTO” to those of the technology but theres a SCIENCE 2 how I do what I do that amazes people once they hear it, but to some its fiction because they don’t believe you can make the stuff I’m making with the tools that I have when one hears it.

You use a dizzying number of samples – do you still dig for them, or do you do “21st century digging ” on places like YouTube as well?
I do it all I record samples on my phone whatever.

What do you think makes your compositions stand apart form a lot of other sample based hip-hop jams?
I’m not sure maybe I’m thinking about so much as just doing and being it which maybe why I don’t have an ego about what it is that I do.

They are also exclusively short – do you like to work quickly?
Depends. On Down 2 Earth those are just raw hip hop beats shit I make when I’m smoking blunts vibed out off records or whatever and just start playing with my sampler. I make music how some people play video games instead of playing Tekken (I know somebodys laughing I know shit about video games) I loop up records and re arrange or just loop up my favourite parts and that usually don’t take me long.

Have you always worked under the Ras G moniker?
Yes I have.

The beat scene in L.A has really blown up in the last few years – has this changed things ( for better or worse ) for you?
It’s good hella kids are striving to be as creative as they can i am not mad at it!

What is your philosophy for making music?
Don`t think feel……

It looks like some kind of space travel will be available in our lifetimes – would you like to go or is the ‘unknown’ more interesting?
i have already been there…………..my unknown is a mystery to some.

How does your belief in Rastafari influence your music?
NIYABINGI!!!! It`s the heartbeat of life Rastafari is life ain`t no religion as portrayed Ra`s Tafari. Ras meaning head creator king, Ra meaning the Sun,Tafari meaning awe inspiring mystical youth.

You have run your label Poo Bah since 2005 – how have you found the experience?
Haha this is always a mistake I don’t own POOBAH, I’m just a employee who orders music and does record trades for the shop to the record shop and an ear at the record label.

What are your plans for the label in the future?
Two release SPACEBASE IS THE PLACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! my next LP double 10″ im excited about that release stuff of mine I play all the time that my fans get to finally get in there collection.

And what does the future hold for Ras G?
EVERYTHING AND NOTHING CREATIVITY 4 sure.

(http://www.electronicbeats.net/2011/07/ ... the-place/)

Soundcloud

Great video interview if you've got the time;

http://poobah.com/blog/ras-g-sacred-interview

And some beats;






His comments re; sample source is most interesting to me at least...doesn't matter the source only the sounds...if these are lo-fi sounds to begin with them use them.

Heard a sick Dub setup over the weekend which was this rig;

Dub night is awesome...crew setup is from what I can tell

• technics 1210
• sp-404
• blue rack install mixer (not sure make/model)
• echo unit
• fierce delay unit
• dub siren box
• 2 live vocalists

Only a 9k rig but sound is amazing.

EDIT - not a mixer, it's an Annihilator AN-4 preamp.

And the long delay/echo chamber thing they had going on was just staggering. Even needle jumps/scratches took on this ethereal texture as they reverbed round the place.

for the pre-amp;
http://www.jahtubbys.co.uk/photo/AN4-1.JPG
http://www.jahtubbys.co.uk/photo/aamp.jpg

Also a quality interview with hip-hop producer J-Zone...man gets a bit on his soapbox at times, but reading is fiyah;

http://www.strictlycassette.com/2012/08 ... -zone.html