2009 Wrap up & Plans for 2010

Well it’s been a good year and I’d like to share some of the highs and lows of the last 12 months as well as some of my plans for the next year. Be warned that this Blog is more in the personal development department than it is musical. Feel free to skip this if it doesn’t interest you…

Successes:

Some of the successes have come in the health department. I’ve gone to a mostly organic vegetarian diet with the excepton that i still eat fish and I eat turkey once a year (I’m sure you can guess which day).

Through the year I struggled to wake up before 11am. I would literally feel sick if I woke up much earlier. I realized that for me, waking up earlier required more than a simple habit shift. It actually required me to change several habits.
For one I traded in my meditation time for cardio. Now I walk up a place in town called Mount Rubidioux which is about a 3 mile walk.  I find it’s a great way to get my heart rate up and get me moving.

Although I don’t want to completely give up meditation as a habit, I found that although pleasant, it was about the laziest healthy thing I could do for myself when I really needed to put my body into motion. Getting into motion earlier in the morning set the tone for accomplishing things through the rst of the day.

Another important component to waking up earlier is having a light meal for dinner instead of a heavier meal. so now I end my day with something like cantaloupe or something easily digestible. I’m not saying that I suggest you take this step yourself, but it works well for me and when I slip up and have a heavier meal (like the sweet potato and spaghetti squash I had last night), I have a much harder time getting up easily.

Unfortunately for the last year, I’ve suffered from some pretty severe stomach/digestion problems. This often leaves me with a burning in my stomach, sharp pains in my sides or back, or heavy bloating. Not too pleasant when you are trying to be productive and creative.   In fact this is much of the reason for ALOT of false starts throughout the year.

Anyway, regular walking, lite eating at nite,  sleeping before midnite and getting up before 9am has been pretty doable. It’s tough though on the nites that I DJ til 2am, and those mornings I find myself up at around 9:30. My goal is to be able to wake up fresh and alert at 7am so I’ll be inching away at that.

I’ve also stopped drinking alcohol completely as I realized I must be allergic to it somehow. Out of everything that effects my stomach, this is by far the worst. A 3rd of a beer will set my stomach off for up to a week, so although it was fun drinking (mostly) responsibly all these years, it’s a practice my body no longer allows for.

I bought a blender/jiucer (yes, it’s the one Montel Williams sells on infomercials) and that has been a huge shift in the way I eat. My first meal is almost always a fruit smoothie.

A typical smoothie has: 2-3 bananas, 1 apple, 1 pear, strawberries, 1 orange, a couple kale leaves, hemp seed protien powder, and yogurt. Sometimes I use coconut milk other times just water or almond milk. This might seem like a lot of food to you, but you’ll be surprised how much you can drink before you feel satisfied and full. Often times I’ll also make a veggie juice later in the afternoon or as a last meal. This could include, pomegranate, carrot, celery, cucumber, spinach, beet, orange and ginger.

For me, eating as healthy as possible is a must to maintain a certain level of energy throughout the day. One bad meal can set me off for days of discomfort, pain and fatigue. If my level of activity appears to be sporadic, this would most likely be the culprit.

Another habit that I’ve started is Dream Logging and Journaling. This has a greater benefit than I would have expected when it comes to peace of mind. Although I don’t bother attempting to interpret my dreams, making it a point to remember them and write them down allows me to access the creative side of my brain that is normally shut off when we are awake. Think of it a bit like this:

Our brain works on frequencies and we have certain frequencies when we are awake and certain ones when we are asleep (and of course a wide range of frequencies inbetween). When we make that shift from asleep to awake, we shift frequencies, much like you would change a radio station.  The reason you can’t remember your dreams is because they are located in a frequency range that is no longer accessible unless you have trained your mind to find that frequency in your waking hours.

Journaling is basically writing for a certain amount of time about anything that comes to mind. It could be like a diary, or it can be about your goals or daily frustrations, or it can be a fictional story. What I find is that when you start Journaling, it’s similar to starting to meditate. It’s like the brain needs to take the time to defrag and organize before you start getting the benefits. Just like cleaning a dirty room, it’s often going to get worse before it gets better.

With my experience of waking up and writing for 15 minutes, I found myself doing a lot of complaining and a lot of time talking about the things i wanted and sometimes an action plan.  Sometimes I would simply write that i didn’t have much of anything to say. After 2-3 weeks of consistently writing first thing in the morning, I started to notice that I no longer felt like complaining, that i wanted to use the time more creatively and that I felt more relaxed and sometimes even inspired. I find it very beneficial clearing out the crap in my brain before moving on through the rest of the day. It’s also a great way to shut down the critic in your head since there is no wrong way to Journal except to not write. I plan to use this technique more in my songwriting as well.

2009 failures:

This year I have made several attempts at new habits that did not stick. Either I wasn’t really devoted to it, I got sidetracked or was just plain lazy.

100 push ups – Inspired by another blog that I read, I attempted to build myself up to being able to do 100 pushups via HundredPushups.com. I attempted this twice and both times only lasted a couple of weeks before I got distracted and broke the cycle.  It was a decent goal, but obviously not that important to me.

Qi Gong - I also experimented with Qi Gong excercises which is basically a way of moving energy throughout your body and clearing out blockages.  I enjoyed it a lot, but it seemed to be too much of a commitment, so I just do it every so often.  I’m a pretty skinny guy, so I’m not really under any pressure to get myself in shape. The benefits I am looking for are more in the mental clarity department.  I’ll probably return to this once or twice a week.

Plans for 2010:

Live PA shows – 2009 saw no Live performances outside of my local gigs. 2010 will be much more active in the Performance department. Myself and my production partner Frank Prosnik are planning several Live PA gigs in the Los Angeles area and beyond as Innerstate.

I took a pay cut by taking off Saturdays at my local gig so I can pursue weekends out of town and also focus more on music production and more video tutorials.

To be more specific, I’d like to have a new track every month throughout the year. Due to how picky I am about my output and how slow I tend to be in the songwriting department, I would be comfortable with at least 6 solid tunes completed.

As far as video tutorials, I am going to dive deeper into DJ’ing, performance videos and also plan to put myself at risk by doing a video journal of me making tunes start to finish. You will get to look at all the trials, errors, swear words and false starts.  It’s really going to force me to see a track to the end in a public forum. I plan to explore several different techniques as well so that I am broadening my songwriting horizons. I see this as a great oppurtunity to grow as an artist and to also help others beyond their own creative fears.

Iphone Ap – This has been a goal of mine for quite a while and it appears I’ve finally run into the right people to make it a reality. Soon you’ll be able to watch all my tutorial videos straight from your Iphone or Ipod touch! Stay tuned.

From PC to Mac – Ok so I have but working on a Macbook all year but I am still tied to a lot of my PC only software and plugins via Bootcamp (Sound Forge, Fruity Loops and loads of effect plugins).

I’m hoping that with the help of our community here that I’ll be doing  100% of my live performances on Mac. I still doubt I will give up the PC completely in the studio but I’d like it to be 75% Mac. I’m open to learn all your Mac production tips, so send away.

Image-Line – A couple of months ago I started experimenting with Image-Line’s Deckadance as a plugin inside of Ableton. It works in a similar fashion to Tracktor or Serato so you now aren’t trapped into one master tempo in Ableton. Being that I play a club that it not very house music friendly, I find my tempo’s all over the place. This meant that I would have to exit Ableton to do most of my gig’s. Deckadance has mostly solved that problem and given you the best of both worlds.
I made a video on how to set it up in Ableton that the owners of Image-Line (also famous for FL Studio) saw and liked a lot. Since then they’ve kindly hooked me up with a lot of their software and I’ve been road testing Deckadance and reporting back.

Thusfar it’s a bit buggy but the potential is pretty awesome. It will read nearly all timecode CD’s and also has it’s own “absolute” timecode that you can download from inside the program itself. It also will work with nearly all 3rd party plugin’s, so you can get really experimental.
Keep a lookout for more Deckadance tutorials as well as some FL studio tutorials as I plan to use both a pretty good amount in 2010.

Other Plans -

I’d love to tell you about other 2010 plans but it would be jumping the gun a bit, so for now I’ll just keep you posted as things develop. Rest assured that I plan to keep this blog interesting and give you several more options to learn and develop your skills in Ableton and beyond.

Until next year… Happy Music Making

Jason

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Website: http://www.musicsoftwaretraining.com

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10 Newbie mistakes in Ableton

Here are some common newbie mistakes people make when writing in Ableton. This isn’t all Ableton specific as some tips apply to music production in general. It also isn’t in any specific order and doesn’t necessarily assume to be the Top 10 of newbie mistakes. These are just some mistakes I’ve seen people make over the years and are certainly some mistakes I have made as well. If you are new to Ableton or cumputer music production, these should be of some assistance.

1. Assuming Ableton’s auto-warping will warp your songs perfectly :

This is a fairly common but huge mistake when working with Ableton. Although Ableton is excellent at warping loops without much trouble (as long as the loop is already seamless), a full song is a different animal altogether.

I suppose it can be pretty misleading to see an option called “Auto-warp” and wonder why your songs aren’t syncing up to tempo perfectly. While the auto-warp function does do a lot of the work for you, it’s your job to fine tune it so that every thing is 100% on. Learning this process  is the single most important thing you need to master if you want to unleash 95% of Ableton’s true capabilities.

Here’s are a few videos to get you started.

For Ableton 8:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waLeq8-2UBo

For previous versions of Ableton:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JddbTkyKVTE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AbfMe5Tklo

2. Recording parts on the same track in both arrange and session window:

A common mistake for people who are new to Ableton is assuming that the session window (the window with all the boxes for clips and scenes. Also home to the mixer) and the arrangement window (the window the most resembles other audio recording software) are separate entities.

For example you will have a clip on audio 1 in your session window but audio 1 in your arrange window is empty.  If you are new to Ableton it is easy to assume that it’s fine to record on that track in the arrange window but that would be a big mistake. You will quickly find that one of your parts is no longer playing.This is simply because you have put 2 parts on the same track at the same time.

Once you understand how the session and arrange windows are intertwined, it will make complete sense what is happening. The simple rule to follow is:

1 instrument per track.

Think of each clip in a track (audio or midi) as representing what 1 instrument will be doing in different sections of your song. For example, one clip might be for the intro, the next for the verses, another for your bridge and another still for a chorus.

If you have ever programmed a drum machine, clips are similar to patterns on your drum machine. When you want to chain those patterns together to make your complete song, you would do that in the arrange window.

If you are recording something start to finish (like a full vocal take), you would also want to record in the arrange window. The important thing to remember is that at the end of the day, everything will need to go into the arrange window before you mixdown (render) your song. If you are arranging your instruments from loops or recording separate parts of your song to arrange later (like with drums) you would most benefit from starting in the session window and then chaining those parts together in the arrange window.

*As a sidenote, some would argue that you can do everything in the arrange window, and I wouldn’t disagree, but i’d suggest you learn the basics of both windows and then decide what works best for you.

Here is a video that might make the concept a little easier for you:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZBVeNGU6_U

3. Too many loops or parts fighting for the same frequencies:

If you are building your songs with loops and samples, a common mistake is to think that the more loops you add, the more full and complex your song will sound. You are only half right though. It’s true that more layers can give your song more complexity and depth, but the downside is it can easily make your composition sound muddy, off pitch or just plain not right. Keep an eye on your fighting frequencies when choosing your loops. A good way to finding these conflicting frequencies is to use a spectrum analyser. Ableton 8 has one built right in, but if you are using an older version of Ableton, you can use one of this free plugin.

BS – Spectrum Vst

4. Not removing needless frequencies – Keeping on the subject of your EQ’s and frequencies, it’s really important to keep in mind what is the most important part of a an instrument and cut out the frequencies that aren’t needed. You won’t want 2 or 3 parts all playing a deep, heavy kick drum. You’ll need to choose which one has the best lows, and remove the low end from the other loops. Same with your hi frequencies. You’ll want to make sure your hihats are coming through clean by removing the highs from your othertracks. For snare and percussion in your mid frequencies, you may need to attenuate certain frequencies so that each part has it’s own space and doesn’t sound muddy. In most cases, you’ll find that popular music doesn’t have too much going on in any given frequency. Everything is balanced and that is what you want. The goal of this blog isn’t to tell you exactly how to dial in all of your EQ’s but rather to point you to where you should look if your songs aren’t sounding as good as you had hoped.

This video might give you the basic idea:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGFzYh_C7to

You can also read this Blog

5. Not arranging your songs in multiples of 4 :

Now I know that there are many other time signatures than 4/4 time but I just want to give  some basic tips here for people struggling with producing songs.  If you are struggling, it’s probably best that you learn to write in 4/4 timing before getting into complex time signatures.

That said, it’s very important in popular music and club music that you create your parts on multiple of 4 bars. For example, if you have a verse that goes 7 bars instead of 8 and then you jump into a chorus, it’s most likely going to sound all wrong. This multiple of 4 predictability in music seems very natural. Don’t try to get too tricky until you’ve successfully got this down. Once you know how things are “supposed” to sound, you can tweak the timing to create more tension successfully.

6. Doing your songwriting and sound design in the same session:

I’ve written a whole blog on this subject if you want to get deeper into this, but basically, you don’t want to be fumbling around trying to get THAT sound when you have a melody or bassline in your head. In the time it takes to create this amazing sound in your head, you will likely have lost the original idea that inspired you. It’s best to work fast with a template of sounds or presets that you have found to work for you and touch things up after the rough idea is saved.

7. Adding parts to compensate for bad sounding parts:

Each part in your song should be able to stand on it’s own. It shouldn’t sound crappy when you solo it. Of course I know that sometimes it takes a couple layers to get that certain Bass sound. It’s totally ok and even encouraged to layer your sounds but at the end of the day those sounds need to all stand together as 1 Bass or 1 Stab sound or whatever.

If you find yourself adding melody on top of melody in an attempt to make something sound “right”, you might be better off redoing your melody.

Make sure your drums, bass, pads, melodies and vocals all sound great on their own. You aren’t going to make good tracks by burying so-so parts deep in your mix. If you can break your song down to 6-8 elements, it will keep you focused on if you are adding too much stuff. You may end up with 40+ tracks in your song, but you definitely don’t want all those elements playing at the same time.

If you have 3 different melodies, you should only have one out front at any given time. Even complex songs should come across sounding fairly simple and there should be empty space between the parts. Put on a CD and listen to how many elements are going on at any given time. Notice how each sound has it’s space to come across clearly.

The less you have going on in your song, the bigger each sound is able to be. That’s why with a 3 piece band like Nirvana, each instrument can sound so big.

Regardless of the style of music, we are all limited to a certain frequency range. When you have parts fighting for the same frequency, both parts are bound to have to sacrifice something in order to fit into the mix.

Another way to look at building a song is to ask “What frequency am I going to fill in now?”, then you want to use a spectrum analyzer to find what works in that range. If you have 2 parts you like but they are taking up the same frequencies, perhaps you can take one up or down and octave so it has it’s own range. Once you have filled up your full spectrum you can see how strong each element is before adding any extra layers.

8. Too many options:

Having too many choices with instruments and plugin’s without having made yourself a “go to” collection can become a huge time and energy waster. It’s far better to have a few “go to” plugin’s and instruments that you know really well than it is to have 100′s that you aren’t familiar with. Using unfamiliar software can really slow you down and give you below par results.

Find 4 or 5 synths (or even less), 2 compressors, 2 or 3 reverbs, a couple delays etc.. Then take some time to find out what each one is really good at and build some “go to” presets. This will make things much easy and you’ll be getting the sound you are looking for much more quickly.

It’s fine to have lots of plugins in your arsenal but it’s best to find out what each one does before you start your songwriting process. Believe me when I say that I am writing this for myself as much as for you!

Before the days of free plugin’s and fast computers, we pretty much had to make due with whatever equipment we had. Given those limitations, it’s easiest to get to the process of making music instead of trying to fiddle with every toy in the toy store.

Another thing that you’ll find is that when you get comfortable using certain equipment, those limitations become your sound and gives you some consistency. Get your “go to” collection started asap.

9. Not making a template:

Templates are a saving grace when it comes to songwriting. When you have a setup that works with your favorite effects settings or your send/returns, drumkits, synths etc take the time to save it as a template songfile or to drag it to your presets for later use. This will save you loads of time trying to figure out how to get that certain sound you had before.

Fumbling through presets and setup takes time and can easily distract you from your goal: To get your ideas down while you are inspired.

Templates give you a basic setup with all your “go to” stuff included. You can even make different templates for different styles of music. Having several options will allow you to be ready to go regardless of what creative mood you are in.

10. Using low quality samples:

Using low quality samples with the intention to “fix it in the mix” is another big mistake. Now I’m all for lo-if and I’ve been known to use less than optimal quality sounds to great effect, but you need to make sure it works for your track and that you aren’t building your track off a bunch of lo quality sounds.

If you have to doctor it up with tons of effects and eq to make it sound decent, you should probably use a higher quality sound that has most of the tone you are looking for from the get go. For example, a kick drum that doesn’t have good low end from the start is never going to sound deep,punchy and professional.

Using a lower quality sound might not seem like it will make a noticeable difference, but just wait until you have a whole song full of these sounds and the overall quality will become pretty apparent to you.

Using mp3 quality is something I wouldn’t recommend. Generally speaking 16bit 44.1 should be the minimum you accept. If your computer can handle 24 bit recording at 96kbps you will likely hear a difference, just keep an eye on your hard drive usage. I personally stick to 16bit for most of my work and I get good results.

I hope this has been helpful for you.  Feel free to email me your newbie mistakes and I’ll consider updating this Blog to perhaps 15 newbie mistakes.

Happy music making,

Jason

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

Website: http://www.musicsoftwaretraining.com

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