LESSONS
Taking music production lessons is the quickest way to taking your abilities to the next level. I have developed a comprehensive program that will give you all the tools you need to go from a complete beginner to having a fully functional DAW (Digital Audio Workstation). I use Ableton Live and charge $50 per hour and provide tremendous value to my students, setting them up with software and sample packs I have collected from more than 10 years of experience in digital audio production, I break down the teaching process into three main sections which I help you master.
1. FUNDAMENTALS. Including how to navigate the DAW, organize your sample library and give you an intuitive understanding of what all the native plugins do.
2. REVERSE ENGINEERING. Take you through a fully finished track and breakdown each element into its components.
3. SOUND DESIGN. I will take you through the fundamentals of sound design in Massive and Serum.
FUNDAMENTALS
I am always able to meet my students at the level they are at. However, I always go over fundamentals when working with someone to make sure nothing goes over their head. When I first began producing I didn’t have any guidance. Upon opening Ableton you are overwhelmed with the buttons, switches, knobs etc. However, after some serious trial and error I quickly discovered that there are only a core handful of functions that once understood will get you on the fast track from baffled to building beats
The first key is being able to navigate all areas of the program efficiently. I will teach you keyboard quick keys and provide you with a starter sample library that has taken me years to put together. Once you have demonstrated that you know how to navigate the program we can move onto other fundamentals.
In the beginning we will primarily be working with samples in order to build a track timeline. Getting comfortable with moving the rulers, zoom, editing and chopping samples is another key skill you’ll need in order not to get frustrated. Once, you have mastered, the basics of being able to build some four bar loops we will structure a small track to show you some of the basic effects you will need to know how to use to get your tracks to a finished level.
Compression, EQ and limiting are probably the three most used tools in dance music production. Using these effectively takes some time in order to train your ear what to look for, I will take you through the basics of how each should be used and in what situations.
With these fundamentals covered it will be much easier and less intimidating when going through the next section, where we will be dissecting a finished track showing all the production techniques used along the way.
REVERSE ENGINEERING
There are many opportunities on the net to download finished songs. Experimenting with all the effects chains and analyzing the structure and levels of each track is a sure way to get on the fast track to making your songs sound professional and polished.
While this task may sound great in theory it still can be daunting when trying to take everything you’ve learned into building something from scratch. I take my students through a finished track in an edm genre of their choice and slowly and methodically deconstruct each element from the mastering chain to the first kick drum. After the track has been broken down into its elements I take the student through building one of their own songs using the reverse engineered techniques that were just learned.
There are subtle nuances to different techniques that are used for different genres however the basic principles learned using reverse engineering are going to condense years of self-teaching into a very short time span.
After a student can deconstruct a track explaining the logic behind the plugins used on each track, it’s time to build their own. I help guide students with each step. I’m well versed in music theory and song writing so depending on your musical abilities I can bring you up to speed on basic music theory; How to build chords, phrasing, and song structure are all fundamentals that are a must to understand but fairly easy to implement quickly, given the tools and power of Ableton. The next core of any dance music production is the drums. I will teach you how to make sure your drums cut through any mix and provide you with a sample library to add to your collection or get you started. The next component of any song is usually the musical elements. I will teach you how to fill out the frequency spectrum and choose sounds and samples that keep the listener engaged. After some loops have been built that we are confident in we can break down the component parts into an intro breakdown and drop sections of the song in an arrangement lesson. There are no real rules for arranging a song but there are general guidelines that you can follow to help you get past writers block and start finishing tracks.
Perhaps the only part of the reverse engineering strategy that is a downside, is the fact that it won’t teach you how to mix. Mixing a track is a critical and perhaps the hardest skill to learn. The only way to get good at mixing tracks is to practice. It requires years of finely tuning your ear to be able to pick out unwanted frequencies and balance a track properly. I do give advice on how best to mix your songs but practice is still the best way to learn this skill.
SOUND DESIGN
1. Sound design starts with an understanding of FM synthesis and begins with your oscillators or wavetables that produce the raw base sound you start with. I teach using NI Massive and Xfer Serum.
2. Introduction to filters, envelopes and automation. The types of filters and when best to use these tools for certain types of sounds.
3. Using LFOs is the next skill to tackle for creating those truly mind bending sounds that are so prevalent in modern dance music.
4. The last key is learning the native FX and how to create lush and deep sounds that fill the entire stereo field and pop off the speakers.
I learned sound design the hard way. Simply by reverse engineering presets that came with the synths I bought. Although you can eventually learn this way it is by no means the quickest. Having an intuitive and fundamental understanding of how sounds are built and layered will make this abstract and notoriously difficult subject much more fun and easy to grasp as we progress through the more advanced techniques and start building sounds.
Once someone has a strong understanding of how all the parts of the synthesizer work in harmony to produce the finished result, I will usually send a student home with a number of easier sample sounds that they can try and replicate using a synthesizer.
Surprisingly even the best sound designers create new sounds that spawn entirely new genres simply by experimenting. The best sounds that I have created are usually the result of happy accidents. So while having a strong fundamental knowledge is paramount to good sound design, the key to getting good results is simply practice and experimentation from that point onward.
Again, I would like to reiterate that I can meet my students wherever they are at and work on whatever it is they think they are struggling with in order to get their projects to another level. Some of my students have even become better producers than me, so remember that it’s all about how much you put into it.