If you've been plugged into the bass scene for a while, you've probably crossed paths with ADVM BOMB. Based out of San Diego, he’s been cooking up heavy-hitting tracks for 12 years now, dropping huge releases on massive labels like Buygore, Captivation Records, and Panda Funk. He’s also caught the ears of major heavyweights, pulling in support from acts like The Chainsmokers, NGHTMRE, and Slander. We caught up with ADVM BOMB and spoiler alert: he keeps things completely real. We got to chat with him about his self-taught journey, why he still swears by stock plugins, and why he thinks the internet’s brutally honest feedback is actually a producer's best friend.
I’ve been producing music for 12 years and I like to think I’m completely self taught. I used to watch YouTube tutorials, shoot around ideas with other producers, etc.
However, I have a problem of not taking advice with a grain of salt and ended up messing up my productions for years by “overusing” advice, using unnecessary plug ins, using necessary plug ins in unnecessary ways, etc.
So in a way it’s “self taught” but also taking all these nuggets I’ve picked up over the years and applying them in ways I found fit for my music using trial and error.
FL Studio, gang!! Personally, dealing with Windows OS for years trained my brain to be comfortable with dealing with “windows”; opening and closing necessary and unnecessary tabs, rather than to have each and everything accessible on one page.
Some find the multiple windows to be clunky and Ableton workflow to be more accessible because everything is just “right there”, but personally it’s not appealing to me.
This might be a weird one but I’d say my truck(!) Giving my latest mix the car test is the best, in my opinion. Also I’d say my PC, I spent a majority of my production life using inadequate PCs/laptops that would sound like literal airports because those fans were just going CRAZY and would take forever to load projects/plugins and playback would be super inconsistent because the CPU would be running at max at all times.
Honestly, I love my stock FL Studio plugins. It’s funny how we start with stock, think we suck because we’re using stock, and then buy these expensive plugins just to end up going back to stock 😭
However, here are some of the best third party plug ins are completely free or cheap:
I've got a bad habit of starting with the drop first, so I’ll start there. However, I always make sure every track I make has a theme so I’ll sometimes start with that, or incorporate the theme into a drop that already has been started.
I write the drop with a limiter on and make just tiny mix adjustments just so I can get an idea of how it sounds
I’ll make probably eight bars and then stop to organize everything by color before grouping them into categories in the playlist, mixer, etc (drums, basses/synths, FX, vocals) and then mix that eight bar section and then proceed to the intro.
Once intro, breakdown, build section, and drop are done, I pretty much already have the building blocks to finish the track so I’ll do that and then give the whole thing one last mix/master and that’s it.
Nothing beats trial and error, even if that means your first tracks are kinda.. not good lol. If you don’t want to go through that then just leave those tracks unreleased but personally I loved showing my progression and wouldn’t go back to change a thing.
There was a mixdown tutorial by I think Internet Money. It basically taught me how to do all the gain staging outside the mixer and then use the mixer for only tiny adjustments and obviously after FX and that helped my workflow/mixdowns build into what they are today.
What works for someone else’s music WILL NOT WORK FOR YOURS! Music production is not super straight forward and what gives producers their “sound” is how they approach a DAW. Not sound designing a purely unique sound that’s yours but rather the steps you take to make that finished track.
I structure my life around my music production so nothing really gets in the way. This means all my duties are done by the time I sit in the chair; outside distractions will make you very unproductive.
Use your ears, not your eyes. Those meters are guides, not rules, so know how to effectively break these rules.
Also sample/waveform/frequency/key selection is EVERYTHING if you want to make your track LOUD! Don’t fight making a sound loud if it literally doesn’t have the capacity to even get there. Switch it out or start over.
Some people may tune out after I say this... but I do use AI for mixdown advice. I use it to pull together all the useful information that may take hours if you were to look for it on your own. AI is your friend and if you use it correctly, then NO it does not take away from your creativity.
Another bad habit of mine is receiving feedback AFTER the track is out. Honestly, that’s where you will get the best feedback. People that care about you and your music will avoid hurting your feelings, so they’ll sugar coat things. The internet doesn’t sugar coat! If something is wrong they’ll point it out FAST. I don’t correct the mistakes however, I use the information to get better for my future projects.
An oldie but goodie is my track DAB w/ WKND BAES (no longer active) it was my first track to hit well over one million streams and I got a nice little check to go along with it. I love it because it opened many doors and I was able to play it at all my biggest shows. Also it’s not Dubstep but Twerk/Trap. I love that I was able to be different in a world where heavy aggressive music is king.
Through RepostExchange, I was able to meet so many great producers, IRL and URL (as I like to say), that inspired me to be a better producer.
Top left to right: Ozone, Yamaha HS monitors.
Bottom left to right: OTT, FL Studio, Serum 2.
Connect with ADVM BOMB on SoundCloud, Instagram, and Threads.
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This interview has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.