In The Studio with Dytone | RepostExchange

In the studio with Dytone

Jaz from the RepostExchange Team

How long have you been producing music and how did you learn?

I have been producing music for roughly eight years. It started after being a huge fan of 90's house music, and gradually hearing more and more electronic music making it into the charts. This came from members of my family always playing it around the house when I was younger. This ignited the curiosity in 12-year-old me, making me curious as to how electronic music was made.

I originally started just broadening my knowledge of genres within EDM which started my venture into the production of big room and progressive house (a lot different to what I make now). However, from there I started incorporating the music I listened to on a daily basis into my music, using YouTube tutorials to learn how to structure music and analysing the elements in my favourite tracks. Then over the years, it all came together to help develop my own sound and style.

What DAW(s) do you use and why?

I mainly use FL Studio for my productions. However, I also use Logic Pro from time to time, as I like the stock plugins and use it for my studies at university. FL was the first DAW I really learnt to use and have always stuck by it. After learning how to produce within it I never had a reason to change. I find FL very easy to navigate and keeps my workflow very efficient (especially when you know the DAW in depth).

What are your favourite pieces of gear and why?

It's very basic, but my AKAI LPK25 midi keyboard has always been a very key part of my production process. Having this to hand makes the process of coming up with chords or melodies so easy. The small size of it also makes it easily portable for producing on the go!

What are your favourite software plugins and why?

My top three favourite plugins would have to be – Sylenth1, Serum and Massive.

Sylenth1 – I know this plugin inside out. It was the first-ever plugin I brought when starting out producing. The simple design allows you to create amazing sounds so easily. The sound banks that come with it are really cool too, there are also some great ones out there you can buy. Great for pluck and key sounds.
Serum – A very powerful plugin. I have never really had the time to figure out the full capacity of this plugin, as there are so many possibilities with it. Features I particularly like and use a lot are the wavetable oscillators and the FX tab. As I don't know this plugin's features too well, I tend to take presets and manipulate them using these tools to create new, original sounds.
Massive – I feel as if Massive has become an industry standard for electronic music. This was also one of the first plugins I got. I'm a huge fan of all the Native Instruments' software. Again, it has a simple design which helps to create some great sounds. I tend to use Massive for bass sounds.

How would you summarise your approach/workflow when creating a track?

It can vary with every single track so there's never a set way I work. It's all down to how my creativity flows at the time.

Although, a lot of the time to help spark some ideas for a new track I tend to browse through Splice for fresh samples or vocals. This helps me a lot, as even one small sample can set off an idea for a whole track. A preference of mine is working under toplines. A great vocal can really help spark ideas for chords. And I feel once I have found some great chords and a smooth rhythm, I can focus on sound design, drums and arrangement.

If I'm out and about, and an idea comes to mind, I find it very helpful to simply hum it into my phone. This works really well as it can be frustrating losing a great idea just because you're not in the studio. I have so many awful sounding voice notes on my phone!

What resources do you use to improve your craft?

Back when I started producing, and even now I use a lot of YouTube tutorials. There are a lot more available now than there was eight years ago. There are a lot of great sources for production tips and advice on YouTube for free. So definitely make use of that. Some of my personal favourites are Point Blank Music School's YouTube channel, Future Music Mag's channel and Jonas Aden's too. There's a lot of great advice from industry professionals.

I also currently study music production at a specialist music university in Birmingham, UK. This has helped me a lot over the past few years to learn first-hand how the professionals work and get an insight into their experience producing, as well as making use of equipment that may be out of budget when starting out. Studying production at a college or university is something I would definitely recommend!

What is the last YouTube tutorial you watched that you would recommend to other Re-Ex Members?

I would have to say this Jonas Aden video. A lot of his videos are great but this one has probably been the most helpful to me personally.

What knowledge or advice do you wish you'd learned earlier?

One main piece of advice I wish I had taken into account a long time ago is how important organisation is. Ranging from the arrangement of samples and soundbanks to having a mixer template set up in your DAW. As well as saved mixer racks. This helps so much with your workflow, as everything is already set up for you. All you need to worry about it the music.

What challenges related to making music do you face and how do you overcome them?

A lot of the time I experience writers/producer's block. This can be very frustrating when I have deadlines to be meeting. However, from experience I've found personally, the way around it is to take small breaks from producing and go out and socialise with some friends, family or girlfriend. This helps to clear your mind and give your ears and brain a rest. Another helpful way to get around it is to make remixes or bootlegs. This helps spark up creativity as you already have a small foundation for a track such as chords, vocals or any other stems. This helps to ignite your creative side again.

Can you share any killer tips or techniques?

As mentioned before, organisation is important!

If your leads or plucks aren't popping enough in the mix of your track, I find adding either white noise with a short plucky decay time or a bitcrusher with low volume helps to push the high end and really gives your leads a crisper sound.

Also, EQing and levelling is a huge thing people seems to look past when mixing. I've seen a lot of producers use a lot of fancy mixing techniques with top of the range plugins. However, I think levelling and EQing is the main key to a great sounding mix. I always cut anything that isn't bass (apart from the kick) at around 150Hz. This gives plenty of room for the bass and sub and avoids a messy low end. I also cut my bass at around 90-100Hz, giving all that low-end space to the sub. I also always keep my sub in mono.

Do you use any online tools to assist with the production process?

A huge tool I use for my productions is Splice. It's a godsend for samples and presets. It always helps to freshen up your sample collection to keep your sounds interesting. So, Splice is a huge help.

Do you try and get feedback or suggestions to improve your music? If so, how?

Over the years I've been part of several Facebook groups, which includes producers like myself and allows us to network and collaborate with each other. From this, I've managed to build up a group of great supportive friends. We all share our music with each other, get feedback and support each other's releases. I think getting feedback from a fellow producer is a great thing to do. Getting an opinion from another can be very helpful as sometimes listening to your own track over and over again can give you a false interpretation of how your track is really sounding.

Which track are you most proud of and why?

I would have to say my track Everything ft. Amber Louise which was released back in 2018 on Break It Down Music. This is the first track I released after not putting out a song for around two years after I decided to take a break from releasing and decided to focus on my production skills more to improve my tracks overall. 'Everything' is one track I'm hugely proud of after it got a lot of support from great artists and networks such as Selected and House Nation. Not to mention it being my first original track to hit over one million streams on Spotify. I find that crazy!

Has RepostExchange affected the way you make music? If so, how?

I think RepostExchange is a great service to use when posting tracks to Soundcloud. I've used it in the past when releasing bootlegs as SoundCloud exclusives and have found it very easy to promote my tracks to wide audiences. It hasn't changed the way I make music but has definitely changed the way I promote it via Soundcloud.