Are you a creative consumer or producer?

Let’s face it. We’ve all become information junkies. We constantly feed our faces with new tricks and new toys. We are constantly looking for the next thing. The new synth, that new effect, the new, well… anything.

Here’s the problem folks, it’s slowing you down from the real goal. If you aren’t finishing songs, soundtracks or projects, now you have your culprit.

In an attempt to become more productive you read blogs, watch videos and buy whatever seems to give you more power than you already have. The problem is that the appetite is never quenched. I’m of course referring to myself as well. I’ll use information gathering as an excuse to not create and then I’ll convince myself that without this new tool I can’t create. You end up in a constant cycle of upgrading instead of finding a consistant workflow.

Have you become an addicted consumer instead of a creative producer?

Now I am all about new technology, no doubt about it. I am also all about finding new information that I can put to use, but that is where the flaw is. We watch the videos, we read the blogs, we download the new plugin but we are pulling in more information than we can possibly put to use?

A change in thinking

If this behavior is going to stop we need to accept that too much information works against you. It gives you too many choices. It also takes away your sense of discovery when you are in a creative mode. By the time you have a situation that would benefit from a certain technique, you may already be bored by it or paranoid that this trick isn’t modern enough or is overused.

I think this behavior happens with a lot of musicians (something I’ve already stated that I am not). The reason for this is that many musicians learn how to play before they just start playing. They learn all the rules and they learn all the chords. By the time they actually start making music, they are trying to reach outside their current level of skill because they are bored to tears of all the things they have already learned. They restrict themselves from many of the basics in search of that magic, but rarely find it.

When I started playing guitar I tried learning from a chord book but tossed it after only a few days. I had learned a few basic bar chords and I was off and running. I had confidence in simplicity and wasn’t afraid to do something just because it’s easy. Luckily for me, I was drawn to bands that used simplicity to their favor. If I had something in my head that I couldn’t play, then and only then would I hunt for a new skill, technique or expand my chord knowledge. This gave me the ability to feel the magic of every new discovery and tool. I didn’t feel forced to grow any more than my natural pace. I rarely heard a song and had to rush home to learn how it was played. I was just doing my own thing and developing my own sound.

Now I find myself getting into the trap of information gathering. I’m constantly working on skills that I’ll never put to use. another downside is that I rarely have the exciting feeling of discovery when I finally use a new trick. Being a blogger and a producer (and a DJ), it’s easy for me to get caught up with what is new, but I feel it would be more beneficial to myself and my readers if I put to use each new thing I learn or each new tool I access before hunting for the next thing. I also think it’s going to be important to wait for a problem before I go hunting for a solution.

Ask yourself, is this a tool I am going to use today? Does the project I am currently working on require this tool or information to complete it? Does filling my head with this new information make me more productive now or less productive? What information and tools do you have right now that you still haven’t put to use? Might it be more beneficial to implement some of those one at a time? Maybe you would benefit by removing several tools to open up some space to new ones.

Just because a tool is great for someone else and has them super excited doesn’t mean it’s going to work that way for you. Realize your addiction might be to someone’s excitement and  not necessarily the information being presented. Another trap is trying to fit this new tool or idea into your work. This can be frustrating and slow you down because in your head you may be thinking “this is supposed to be amazing, what am I doing wrong”?, when the real issue is that it’s not a match for your way of creating.

A challenge

Make a deal with yourself. If you spend 30 minutes learning a new trick, you’ve got to spend at least 30 minutes putting it to use. If the skill requires more time, decide whether you will dump the new trick or take the time to perfect it. Don’t make the mistake of putting this on the backburner while hunting for new information or tools.

I hope this brings you closer to a very productive 2010.

To your continued joy and productivity in your creative works!

happy music making,

Jason

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Follow me: http://twitter.com/AbletonVids

Website: http://www.musicsoftwaretraining.com

A minimalist approach to songwriting

A common situation many people fall victim to is that the more tools that you use for your songwriting, the more that can potentially go wrong. This is not to say that tools can not be incredible time savers, but they can also be huge time wasters as well. What I want to share with you is a new way of thinking when it comes to writing and completing songs.

Preparation

How long does it take you to “prepare” to make a track?

Do you plan this out beforehand or do you just fumble around for the right sample, plugin in, effect, synth, or synth preset during the songwriting process?

Besides all the sounds and effects, how many controllers are you setting up (or attempting to set up)?

Are you struggling with getting hardware up and running in order to simplify your songwriting process?

Are you working with a midi controller or 2? How often does it speed up your songwriting process rather than just giving you a prettier button to push to do pretty much the same thing?

I’m not trying to talk you out of using hardware or software tools, but rather warning you against trying to make everything “look” pretty and “professional” before you get started. This is a mistake myself and many other producers have run up against. Hopefully it will start to break this cycle for those who read and share this blog.

Remember: This is your songwriting time, this isn’t your “sound design, muck around with effects you’ve never used, try to get this damn controller working because everyone says how badass it is” time.

All that stuff needs to be set aside for another time, a time that isn’t devoted to writing and completing songs.

A DJ’ing Analogy

Think in terms of a DJ on stage, with a crowd ready for a great show…

Does a DJ get on stage and then start trying to learn new tools?

Does he think “wow, I think i’m going to read the manual on this new effects unit I just bought”.

Does a DJ think “wow, this is a perfect time to listen to all those tracks I bought on beatport to see what is worth playing”?

Does s/he decide that now is the best time to warp those songs in Ableton?

Of course not!

A proper DJ presents a set using the tools and the songs already familiar to him/her. Even though there are 1000’s of great tools available for DJ’s, common sense tells us that regardless of how amazing some tool might be, it will only take away from the performance to use tools that are unfamiliar to you and probably get you some strange “what the hell is this guy doing?” kind of looks.

This is exactly the way you should look at songwriting….

Only look to tools you are familiar with

Although there are a TON of choices out there (and probably on your hard drive), your best results are dependant on using the tools that are tried and trusted to you. This is not the time to learn a new skill. This is a time to put the skills you have already learned to use.

This one habit will help to build your production vocabulary and also force you to put to use what you know instead of filling your head with more techniques that you aren’t likely to use.

Another huge benefit is that when you hit a roadblock, you have just been shown exactly what it is you need to learn next!

Don’t bother reading manuals or watching videos that you don’t plan on putting to use right now. Why fill your head with information that is likely to be useless to you in this moment? Doesn’t it make more sense to only gather new information when you have run into a problem that needs solving?

This is powerful for 2 reasons:

1. Your focus stays on your music and it’s completion

2. When you learn a new technique that you put to use right away, you get this great feeling of discovery. For you, this is a new world you have opened up. You haven’t let it sit in your head and get stale.

How to get started…

Have a direction

This might seem obvious, but I can’t even count how many times I’ve convinced myself to just “go with the flow”. This, although it can create some magical moments and happy accidents, it’s usually a bad idea when you are in “song completion” mode. Going with the flow is much more of a sound design type mentality. A practice of open minded improvisation. Believe me when I say that this is a powerful way to get inspiring nuggets that can become songs, but a mind in that mode tends to want to continue on that path instead of actually finishing anything. If you do this type of thing during your songwriting time, make sure to set a time limit (i’d say 15 minutes at a time), and make sure you are using a tool you are familiar with. You don’t want to get caught up trying to teach yourself a new skill when you should be using the skills you have to finish songs.

Repeat after me:

“I know enough right now to finish a song”.

Now believe it..

Your “to learn” list

You may not be perfect, and it’s possible your song can suffer on a technical level because of it, but those are technical things that can always be revisited. A song can always be revised, but there is nothing quite like listening back to something you’ve done from start to finish and thinking ” I made this”. When you find limitations in your song, take note and put it on the list of “things to learn”. Keep this list to 3 things tops and make sure to tackle those and put them to use before you add anything new to your list. This should become a sacred practice. Use what you learn as soon as possible. If you don’t plan on putting a new technique to use, take it off your list. “This is really cool” is a completely different list, so don’t get hung up on that. It only stands to overwhelm you with choices and lower your confidence in the tried and true techniques you already know.

Take inventory

What works right now?

I’m talking about things that don’t need to come out of the box and be set up. Once again, What is working right now? What tools are you already comfortable with? If you are an ace at using Ableton’s Impulse, don’t jump onto Drum Racks or Sampler. Yes, those tools are amazing, but they aren’t going to be amazing for you until you’ve learned them. Put it on your “to learn” list and use those new skills on your next project.

During my last remix project, I bypassed all my controllers because they weren’t making my life any easier with completing the track. I even bypassed my studio monitors because my sound card was acting up on me. This just left me, my laptop and a pair of good headphones. I wasn’t even using an asio driver (low latency driver for pc). Although this wasn’t the idea situation, it was liberating to solve technical issues by simply not using what wasn’t working. I worked at using my limitations to my advantage by cutting myself off from too many choices and forcing myself to get to the business of completing my remix.

What do you have that works right now? Use what you’ve got and keep working until you simply have no more workarounds. Only at that point should you take a break from writing and teach yourself the 1 new technique or tool you need to move beyond your roadblock. I guarantee that this new tool or technique will become part of your vocabulary of production resources instead of just idly sitting inside your head filling up space.

Visualize

I can’t stress this enough. Give yourself the time to get a rough idea of what you are attempting to accomplish. Find some songs that you’ll want to use as references for the mood and arrangement you are looking for. Even if you have a 16 bar loop that you are happy with, being able to reference a completed song will serve to keep you on track and get you past several roadblocks.

If you don’t have any direction, then you are simply sound designing and experimenting. You aren’t songwriting. I am not denying the incredibly importance of experimentation, but rather attempting to keep you from losing focus and ending up with another unfinished idea that will never be heard or enjoyed by others.

Minimize your choices

Once you have a direction and know the basic sound and mood you are going for, it’s time to prepare the tools for the job.

Ask yourself “what is the fastest and easiest way to get the results I want”. Limit yourself to a couple reverbs and delays. Also have your drumkits, swells, reverse cymbals and “go to” fx sounds all ready to go (I personally lose a lot of time by not preparing this stuff ahead of time.. trust me on this one). Layout and name your tracks ahead of time with words that will give you direction (drums, bass, strings, melody, percussion etc..). Only use the tools you are already familiar with. Want to learn a new synth or plugin? Put it on your “to learn” list and take the time to learn it after your current songwriting session.. For now, only use what you know. You can bring your new skills into your next session.

Presets

For many, the word preset is a bad word. I don’t see this as the case. Presets are your friends, not your enemy. There are literally thousands of presets available to you and your own tastes dictate which ones you will gravitate towards.

There is an unlimited amount variations in classical music composers even though they are building their pieces from the same template f sounds. Don’t get caught up on the idea of every sound having to be home brewed. Think of all the great original music constructed from sampling other people’s music exclusively. Or think of how a great DJ takes the works of other producers and combines it together in a way that creates a new experience. In essence, the artist is working with already made presets. Of course you are free to make your own effects and synth presets on your off time, and I highly encourage that, but you want to have some “go to” sounds at your disposal for quick access. You shouldn’t have to mess around with a sound for too long before it sounds “right” to you for your project. You can always come back later to modify your work or introduce a new technique that you previously didn’t have available to you but whenever you are in songwriting mode, use what you know. Ableton makes some fantastic instrument and effects racks that give you a wide variety of results that you can make your own with some simple knob twisting. Don’t overlook those resources for sounds and effects. Take some time to explore these during your off time and you may discover they have solved some of your challenges for you.

As you build your own custom sounds, make sure to save these to your presets for quick access in other projects. A great way to build up some custom presets is to simply name and save all the sounds you use in your other finished and unfinished song ideas. You already know that these sounds are attractive to you, otherwise you wouldn’t have used them in the first place. This can really come in handy and start you building your own “sound”.

It’s completely ok to have your own formula for songwriting. You will always expand and evolve but you’ll be building from your past knowledge. Don’t abandon your current skill sets just because you saw somebody do something really cool on You Tube, instead pick up a couple of tricks that you can incorporate into what you are already doing. By holding to your own identity, you won’t run the risk of becoming a copycat artist that is always jumping on bandwagons but never developing your own personality.

The path of least resistance

Songwriting itself is already a path of a lot of resistance. It takes quite a bit of determination to complete something you started. Completing a song forces you to own your creative decisions and the best decisions you can make are educated ones. Let your past experience guide your current creative flow and let your current roadblocks drive you to new solutions, tools and techniques. Always aim for the solution that doesn’t slow you down. Completing songs is a skill above and beyond all others. You will likely find that many of the guys with the coolest and craziest techniques lack the ability to actually finish something. Don’t get caught up in thinking there is anything more you need to know in order to finish a song right now. Like with any skill, you will improve with consistent repetition and fine adjustments.

Happy Music Making,

Jason

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Follow me: http://twitter.com/AbletonVids

Website: http://www.musicsoftwaretraining.com

Fighting frequencies and a 29 band sidechain compressor

One of the most frustrating subjects for someone who is new to mixing music (or even intermediate), is how to deal with fighting frequencies. Fighting frequencies occur when you have 2 or more parts in a song fighting for the same frequency range. This causes one or both or those parts to lose their clarity, punch and impact. Some common examples are Kick drum and Bass, Guitars and vocals but conflict can happen pretty much with anything. Without properly addressing the problem you aren’t likely to end up with a professional sounding mixdown.

When you run into this issue you’ve only got a few choices:

1. Ditch one of the parts

2. Find the most important frequencies of each of the fighting instruments and attenuate the eq on the other instrument. For example, you may have guitars that really shine at  2.5khz and a Vocal that really needs the 1.5-2khz range to sound clean and clear. In this case you would lower the guitar EQ at  2.5khz and lower the guitar at around 2.5khz. Since these frequencies are being filled by other instruments, they most likely won’t be missed.

3. Another trick is to use a sidechain compressor. A sidechain compressor for example will lower the overall volume of the guitar when the Vocals come in and ramp the volume back up when there aren’t vocals.

This can be effective but runs the risk of becoming noticeable in an unpleasant way. In electronic music, that pumping sound is very common and can really bring a dull track to life if used intelligently but in other styles, you don’t want it to be noticable.

Basically the biggest issue with sidechain compression is that it pushes the overall volume down instead of just the clashing frequencies. Too much sidechain and you push away an important instrument and risk creating that pumping sound. Not enough sidechain compression and you don’t affect the instrument enough to correct your fighting frequency issues.

I wanted to be able to have complete control over the exact frequency range I wanted to sidechain. This would leave all the EQ’s that compliment the song alone and make the sidechain effect much more transparent.

As an experiment, I created a type of parametric sidechain EQ.  I basically found the EQ’s on a hardware parametric EQ and mimicked that ending up with 29 bands. Each band would have it’s own sidechain compressor available. This gave me the ability to sidechain more than one frequency from more than one instrument.

So far, in testing this experimental effect out, it didn’t hog as much cpu as expected. The main reason for this is that only the compressors that get used are active, all the others remain off.

Below I have a video dealing with using EQ to work out fighting frequencies and a 2nd video showing my 29 band sidechain compressor in use. I’m not sure how practical this will end up being, but it’ll be fun testing the results in different projects. If you want to try it, I’ll have a link to download it.

Ableton Spectrum and Fighting Frequencies

29 Band Sidechain compressor Vid

29 Band Sidechain FX rack

Happy Music Making,

Jason

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Follow me: http://twitter.com/AbletonVids

Website: http://www.musicsoftwaretraining.com

Ableton and Serato announce The Bridge

We have been waiting for this announcement for quite some time and it is finally here! Get ready for an exciting time for DJ’s and producers from all walks of life.  Though the details are still a bit fuzzy, the reaction from those that have seen it has been full of excitement and anticipation.

Here is the information we have thusfar:

• The Bridge will be free for all registered users of both full versions of Ableton 8 and Serato
• The Bridge is by directional, meaning you’ll be able to work within either Ableton 8 or Serato.
• Turntable control on multitracks from inside Ableton
• Serato sets can be recorded as multitracks into Ableton for further editing and tweaking
• Ableton songfiles can now be dragged into Serato and Serato files can be dragged into Ableton
• Ableton FX will be available inside Serato
• There is said to be a “Mixtape” feature that many are raving about
• A release date has not yet been announced

Let Ableton and Serato Explain further:

http://www.ableton.com/thebridge

http://www.serato.com/thebridge

More details as they come…..

Happy Music Making,

Jason

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Follow me: http://twitter.com/AbletonVids

Website: http://www.musicsoftwaretraining.com