Archive for the ‘Audio engineering’ Category
Looking back, Looking forward
Looking back, Looking forward
New City
2011 was a heck of a year for me. A lot happened.. some good, some bad. I won’t bore you with all the details, but I’ll tell you some major stuff.
The most significant change was that for the first time in my life I moved out of California. It was time for a change & my relationship couldn’t handle the strain of a long distance situation any longer. Also catching a roommate on camera going through your stuff & stealing from you is a pretty big wake up call that it’s time to go.
I now reside in Iowa City, Iowa and am finding it to be really nice even though the climate change definitely takes some getting used to. This city is small but it’s more hip than you would expect. They have a great college station here & nearly every show has something interesting to offer. The one thing I miss is good mexican food, but thankfully I’m teaching myself to cook a mean burrito from scratch.
In making this move I had to conquer a pretty huge fear that I haven’t really shared with many people. 1 day on my way to DJ a friends’s wedding I had a major panic attack while driving on the freeway. Since that day, it’s been a pretty serious battle. Driving across the country was a pretty huge step even though the highways were pretty mild compared to southern California. I still haven’t quite kicked this, but I’m getting there.
I also went from living with roommates to having my own place. I’ve found this to really help me focus on music without being interrupted. It’s surprising how much more you can accomplish when you don’t have to stop what you’re doing to handle a roommate situation (and towards the end, there were many). I’ve carried new habits into the new year that are giving my great results as well.
The “Fall Through’s”
Like we all do, I had some “definitely gonna happen” scenarios fall through. I was supposed to work with a band that I won’t mention who were interested in bringing me aboard as a producer & Ableton tech guy for both the studio & the road. We had several conversations that seemed pretty definite but they ended up feeling a bit out of their comfort zone & decided to focus their budget more on upgrading the image & show as opposed to the music. At the end of the day, it likely would have been a mismatch for me to devote too much time to this project & put the rest of my work on hold, so there is really no harm.
I also had some highly anticipated affiliate partnerships fall flat this year. It’s possible things might rise from the ashes in 2012, but I’m not holding my breath. I won’t turn my back on integrity. It’s just not worth it. I live cheaply & thus sleep more soundly knowing I haven’t sold my soul for money. By delivering something of value consistently, the money will come anyway (what a concept huh?)
The main reason I mention this at all, is that I want you all to know that shit happens to all of us. For me, more things have fallen through than I can count, but i’m still here focusing on what’s important. I don’t let it stop me from going for that next thing…and the next. Remember that life will give you as many opportunities as you’re ready for, it doesn’t just knock once.
Blogs of 2011
I developed new habits over the year that have really stuck as well. I made a point to write more regularly during the last half of the year & I think I delivered some pretty good value. If you’ve missed any of my blog posts, here are what I’d consider to be my top posts (in no particular order).
Ableton 101: The Most Ableton Tips Packed into 1 Video
Most important Habit for Finishing Songs
Extracting Chains in Ableton’s Drum Racks for great drum programming options
The New Year
In the new year I took on another music making experiment by challenging myself to write a song completely from the contents of a short porn video clip without it just sounding like re-edited porn. This was right after creating a song out of loops you guys submitted. I documented the whole process at this link below (don’t worry, it’s PG-13 at it’s worst). I ended up with an interesting Minimal Techno vibe:
http://www.musicsoftwaretraining.com/blog/2012/01/07/song-made-from-sampling-a-porno-clip/
Not wanting to lose my momentum of completing tunes, I took on a remix for a friend & am really happy with the results. You can check it out Here. I rarely use my voice in songs, but I think the addition worked well with the tune.
Picking up the guitar again
Directly after that, I contacted some members of an old band of mine Negative Image about banging out a 4 song E.P. It’ll be the first time since ’96 that I’ve written music primarily as a guitarist. Making rock music still seems to come to me pretty easily & I’ve have a number of song ideas bouncing through my head for years. If this E.P. ends up being fun, I could imagine making more.
The way I am approaching this is by making some demos with some raw guitar tracks, drums (mainly drums loops sampled from another song & edited slightly) & then making a bassline by playing the part on guitar & dropping it an octave in Ableton. Then I record some rough vocals to give the singer an idea of how I picture things going. Once I get the vocal takes back, I can share the results with the other guys to lay in proper bass, re-do the guitar & drums.
I find this approach to be more efficient than trying to get everything perfect from the start, I like to present a rough draft to make sure everyone agrees the song idea is worthy of taking to the next level. Another advantage I find is when I’m not worried about “tone” or perfection, guitar riffs, leads, vocal ideas & harmonies come so quickly that the songs largely write themselves. When I’m just doing what’s easy & adding layers, the collection of these parts create a depth & richness that tends to have a better vibe then sitting there trying to impress yourself. It’s also nice to have a whole EP demo done in a week or so, to listen back to with the other bands members to get further ideas. If all goes well, which I expect it to, I’ll share the results.
I’m also considering making a video collection specifically for Bands. I’ve been asked by guitar based music makers how to approach non-electronic music in Ableton. I’d love your feedback if you are in a band & have questions regarding how to accomplish things in Ableton.
Rebranding
Finally, I plan to do another electronic side project making a minimal techno E.P. (or at least my own version of what I think minimal techno is). The reason for not putting it under my current production names (innerstate, Jason Timothy) is that I already have a reputation for making progressive house, so it will be harder to get signed to labels of a different style than what I’m known for if I keep the same name. Better to clean the slate and start fresh. This is basically an experiment of rebranding myself. After I’ve made 4 songs I’m proud of, I’ll go through the process of shopping it to labels. I know I’ll have to start with the small labels & build a reputation there before I can expect the bigger ones to take an interest. Fair enough, I can work toward the end goal patiently.
What IS the end goal you might ask? I’d like to be traveling as a producer/DJ playing properly equipped & promoted gigs & the door is simply not open anymore for DJ’s who don’t produce. If your name alone can’t sell tickets, it doesn’t matter how great you are. Luckily, I love making music as much as DJing, so this shouldn’t be an issue. If you run a club or know someone who does (nationally or internationally), get in touch.
To wrap this up, I plan this year to be pretty damn productive & I’m really excited. As opposed to resolutions, I’ve opted to create new lifestyle habits. Most importantly, making music everyday. Some days you win, some you lose, but if you don’t set aside the time & space, you can’t ever expect any magic to happen.
Happy Music Making,
Jason
P.S. – Don’t forget to comment & tweet (down below) & “like” (up above). All your feedback & support is appreciated.
I recommend the sites below:
Logic Courses
Reason Courses
Song Made From Sampling a Porno Clip
Song Made From Sampling a Porno Clip
With all this rambling on I do about finishing songs & avoiding distractions, I take on this doozie of a challenge.
Can I actually create a song completely made from only manipulated sounds from a porn? No synths, no drum samples. Only the source audio from a 6 minute video. Can I keep my focus while listening to all these erotic (and ridiculous) sounds & complete something, without it sounding like I just made a song full of grunts, moans & dick sucking?
This was my experiment & it really tested my music skills as well as my focus skills. Typically watching porn is something you do to distract yourself. I decided to make it my work in this experiemnt.
The most difficult part was selecting, editing & processing the samples into something usable. I think I’ve proved that you can make drums, bass and melodies out of literally anything. I have to laugh, because I know what that snare drum is 
From there it was a matter of constructing parts that worked together & didn’t sound completely stupid, creating a few scenes to make sense of a song structure & arrange something that still sounded like me. I was surprised how good things sounded considering the source video was of low quality & had a lot of background noise.
Below are all the videos documenting my process and a download of the completed song. I am adding the whole Ableton songfile & HD videos as a bonus for my Remix Walkthrough Collection. If you’ve purchased it in the past, this is a free addition.
I hope you make it through this collection without getting too distracted. If I can keep focus through this, you’ve got zero excuse to not finish your own tunes!
Happy music making!
Jason
If this video series helped or inspired you & you would like to “buy me a beer” for the work that went into this, I always appreciate donations.
Another blog coming soon (pun intended)
P.S. – Don’t forget to comment & tweet (down below) & “like” (up above). All your feedback & support is appreciated.
I recommend the sites below:
Logic Courses
Reason Courses
12 ways to triple your productivity & make more music
12 ways to triple your productivity & make more music
Whether you are gearing up for a new year & reflecting on the accomplishments of last year or your catching yourself in the middle of the calendar year with less productivity than you would like, I want to share some techniques that should really help to step up your game.
In all honesty, I’m naturally a pretty lazy guy. At times I sleep too much, fill up my time with nonsense and completely close off to creative endeavors. All that I have accomplished has been in the face of heavy motivational challenges. Believe me when I say that if you are running into motivations issues, I’ve certainly been there.
These tips below are discoveries I have made to battle my own laziness, fatigue & creative anxiety. I have found that when I follow these guidelines & resist bad habits, I’m not only far more productive, but I have a much greater sense of peace & relaxation overall. Give it a shot!
1. Warm up – Just like you would with a workout, it’s really difficult to dive right in to creative work from whatever you were doing previously. You’ll likely resist because it will just feel wrong to you. You’ll feel that there is something else important that needs to be done even if you can’t pinpoint what that is. When you already have non-productive momentum, it’s hard to turn that boat around.
Take a break first. Take a 15 minutes walk or do some light exercise. You want to create a gap between what you were doing before & what you are attempting to do creatively. You need a bit of time to clean the slate, so your head isn’t filled up with a bunch of crap.
2. Don’t check email or social sites - This one is a tough habit to break but it’s one you are really going to need to commit to if you are planning to be more productive. Social sites & email make it far too easy to convince yourself that you need to stay unproductive just incase something happens. Maybe someone will “like” your post, comment or picture or maybe you’ve started a debate with some idiot on YouTube & need to set him straight.
Face it, it’s all bullshit & if you keep at it, you’re life is going to waste away. The thing that is really sad about this is that the brain gets a rush of adrenaline every time you get a notification, even if it’s something stupid & this is how you get a feeling of accomplishment for doing nothing. Then when it comes to doing “real” work you feel like your plate has already been filled & you have no room for any more “productivity”. Days turn into months…then years. Stop it!
If you really want to get WAY more done, cut your social network checking to 2-3 times a day and only after you’ve put in some real creative work.
3. Identify your creative blind spots – We all have them. They are the things that stop us from completing songs. It’s those things we naturally aren’t good at. For me, it’s been sound design & song arrangement. I can make 32 bar loops for days but after that I start itching to check my email & then all is lost. We’ll solve this issue with my next tip.
4. Steal then replace - If you are running into a similar issue to what was just mentioned, my suggestion is to just nick that sound, or song structure from something you already know works. Don’t try to reinvent the wheel. Steal it first & move on. You can always replace it later, but the goal is to not get stuck & slow down (or worse, stop). I nick sounds or song structures all the time. It really helps me with my confidence knowing that what I am “borrowing” is already something that works. I don’t have to second guess. Often, for me, my own voice will eventually peek through & I’ll abandon my borrowed templates or sounds & go it alone once again. Keep practicing this habit & you’ll find it gets easier & easier. Soon you’ll have the confidence to push through without getting stuck or needing to snag a sound or template. (By the way, if sampling is your style, carry on. I’m a big fan of those who do it well)
5. Set a timer – This tip alone has been a saving grace for me. I typically start with setting a 15 minute timer to warm up for the task ahead. I try to avoid doing anything that can suck me in to further mindless activity. I make sure what I am doing is relaxing and isn’t actually going to take longer than I’ve set the timer for.
Once the timer goes off, it’s time to commit to making music (or writing this blog) & set the timer once again. This time I set it to 30 minutes & make a commitment to stay off the internet, not responding to texts or phone calls & making sure people in my house don’t interrupt me.
The reason this works so well is because even if you really don’t want to create, you can tell yourself “It’s only 30 minutes, then I can choose to do something else if I want”. Once the timer goes off I can decide if I want to recommit to another 30 minutes, take a 15 minute break & come back, or call it a day. I typically will recommit, however, if I get stuck, I give myself 15 minutes to search for inspiration.
Sometimes I’ll break songwriting down to different tasks. This way I can actually see progress happening every time I recommit. For the most recent project I did as of writing this, I was creating a song from a bunch of random loops sent to me by my lovely readers. It was tricky to get my head around how I was going to construct a song out of all the pieces so I started committing to small tasks:
- Edit & effect each loop for my own purpuses
- Create scenes (in Ableton) of different possible sections or “movements” for this song.
- Find a song structure to “borrow” and map it out using locator tags.
- Construct a 32 bar intro
- Record scenes into different sections of my song template
- Bridge the gap between each section for a transparent sound that also makes sense.
- Create an Outro
- Final mixing tweaks & rendering a Mixdown
6. 1 task at a time - This simple tip gets overlooked far too often, especially in this age of A.d.d. & multitasking. I can say however, with very few exceptions that taking on 1 thing at a time until its completed is really the fastest & most productive way.
The alternative will leave you with several unfinished tasks that you worked on up to the point where things got difficult. Then you’ll find yourself completely unmotivated to finish any of these tasks because you haven’t built up the discipline to work through the tough parts. Had you committed to 1 task at a time you would have worked through the roadblocks that sets you apart from your peers & competitors. You will also have built the momentum to take on your next task.
Lets take this blog for example. If I didn’t commit myself, I’d have nothing but unfinished posts in my drafts. Same with music. I know this because I used to have a serious habit of leaving songs unfinished and going long periods without sharing any new music. Lately I have been remedying this & you can definitely expect to hear more out of me in the future.
At times I might be in the middle of one song when another song idea jumps in my head. When that happens I’ll usually set aside a small amount of time to document the idea so it’s not forgotten but I’ll set a timer so I don’t get off track from my main focus.
Give this a serious try & I dare you to tell me you aren’t far more productive.
7. Write down your creative tasks the night before – This really helps your brain prepare to for the tasks of the following day & do some problem solving while you sleep. You may have the issue that I’ve often had where making music just doesn’t seem like what you should be doing when you haven’t been in the habit for a while. Its really similar to trying to motivate yourself to start exercising when you’re out of shape. Writing down a few tasks to complete the night before helps to solve this as well as making the process go more smoothly.
8. Pretend you know how – There is no issue with learning techniques from experts. I can definitely say I have learned some things I probably would have never come across myself, but had I not explored things on my own, I would have never become more than an imitator. Instead of spending hours upon hours scouring the internet, books & magazines to solve all of your challenges, try believing in your own abilities & resourcefulness. The more you do this, the better you get at it. Soon you’ll find that you aren’t simply an expert at imitating but you’ll be coming up with innovative ideas & further refining your own sound. You’ll be surprised how much you actually do know.
9. Blueprint first, details later – Don’t get caught up for hours trying to perfect that snare drum when you don’t even have a song structure yet. You’ll likely need to further tweak it later anyway. Instead focus on the broad strokes. Work on the essential musical elements & then a basic song structure before agonizing over whether something sounds better 1/2 a db louder or quieter. Havening a basic sketch complete makes it much easier to see the big picture while dialing in the little details.
10. Start creating before setting other tasks – If your goal is to make (and finish) music you can be proud of instead of going another year with very little creative output, making music should be on your “essential” list. If you prioritize other tasks during your free time, you have little chance of your music taking center stage. If you simply can’t do this most of the time, at least make music a top priority 1 day out of the week. If you can’t make time now, when do you expect your schedule will open up? trust me, it won’t!
11. Take breaks often - If you are on a roll, go with it. Being in the flow is a very enjoyable experience & there is no reason to disrupt that. It’s more common, however, to lose steam on a project within 90 minutes than it is to find yourself in marathon mode. Make sure to give yourself a short break every 1.5-2 hours. This is supposed to be pleasant after all. Plus your ears need a break too or they won’t be reliable. A break is a small reward for a job well done. Knowing you’ll get a break soon will push you to work harder & stay focused. Those of you who’ve read The Shining should know that “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”. Don’t be Jack.
12. Commit publicly – There is not much better motivation than having your peers expecting something you have promised to deliver. If you aren’t willing to make this promise publicly, then maybe you don’t have enough belief in yourself to get past the roadblocks that make most people quit.
I personally use this technique to take on challenges that scare me because I know that otherwise, the likelihood of me accomplishing these tasks is pretty slim. I used this technique to create my 30 Day Ableton Music Production Journal as well as my Collective Loop Project. I allowed myself to be embarrassed publicly to make certain fear does’t rule my life.
I hope you find a way to put some or all of these tips to use & that you enjoy a far more creative & productive future.
Happy music making,
Jason
P.S. – Don’t forget to comment & tweet (down below) & “like” (up above). All your feedback & support is appreciated.
Interested in Learning Logic or Reason?
I recommend the sites below:
Logic Courses
Reason Courses
Collective Ableton Loop Project: Song Completed
Collective Ableton Loop Project: Song Completed
After quite a rough road of sorting out random loops sent in from my blog readers & twitter followers, I’ve finally completed the process of turning it into a song. The greatest challenge was editing & processing each loop in a way that not only made the parts work together, but also sounded like something I might write.
The next step was creating scenes in Ableton to make sense of which loops worked together & which didn’t. This way I was able to create different “movements” for the song. The best approach I found for creating scenes was to start playing individual clips & adding part 1 by 1 until things sounded good. Then I would use the shortcut Command/Shift/I to get ableton to collect all the paying loops into their own scene. Each of these scenes had a different mood, so it became my job to figure out how to best transition form one scene to another.
I dragged another song into Ableton’s arrange window and added locators at different sections of the song to give me a head start on how to structure the song. Once I got a few minutes into the track, I was able to abandon this structure & rely on my own arrangement instincts. Copy, Paste & duplicate were friends through this process.
I used simple delays and volume fades to introduce or cut certain elements throughout the song. I even used EQ & delay on the master track in a few locations. As the song was already pretty complex, I wasn’t too interested in doing anything too crazy effect-wise.
Below are links to all 5 videos documenting my overall writing process. Although nothing is perfect, I’m pretty happy with the results. There is also a link to download the full songfile with all the samples & loops so you can either reverse engineer what I’ve done or use the raw loops to build your own track from scratch. This is completely free but if you find my work helpful, donations are appreciated.
Enjoy!
happy music making!
Jason
P.S. – Don’t forget to comment & tweet (down below) & “like” (up above). All your feedback & support is appreciated.
Interested in Learning Logic or Reason?
I recommend the sites below:
Logic Courses
Reason Courses
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