I’ve been producing pretty much since 2001, most of the foundational learning of music production came from trial and error. Unfortunately, when I started YouTube didn’t exist yet so I would spend time listening to records and writing notes about compositions, mix and mastering.
I use a combination of DAWs. The one that people get surprised about the most I would say is that I still use a very old version of Sony Acid for my drum programming and composition. I learned the hotkeys long ago and feel like I can flesh out an idea faster in that program than any others.
With that, I use other programs and bounce the audio down to .wav for arrangement. The other programs include Ableton and FL Studio and Little Sound DJ (generally known as LSDJ).
My favourite piece of gear would have to be LSDJ used on a Nintendo Gameboy. For those unfamiliar with LSDJ; it is a tracker which uses the sound hardware of the Gameboy to produce lo-fi electronic music or chiptune. What makes it my favourite is that it's a mix of portability and nostalgia. If you have five minutes at a bus stop you can pull it out and scribble a few ideas down.
I would say my favourite plugin is Serum. It is hands down one of the most versatile and powerful soft synths I have ever used. Most of my productions nowadays consist of Serum and LSDJ.
I generally start or approach making tracks in three different ways:
Currently, I find a lot of amazing things on YouTube. I love that there are so many creators out there demystifying their craft and allowing people into their creative process. Here are a few channels and series I highly recommend:
Andrew Huang
Met them way back in the day on PureVolume in 2005 I believe. They are a mega prolific creator and tackle inspiration, creativity as well as personal growth. Their 4 artists, 1 sample series is amazing.
Eliminate
Pretty new to YouTube but his content is amazing. His channel is inspiring because he uses unlikely samples and shows you how to turn them into festival-ready EDM bangers. His personality shines through every video which I think makes his videos memorable.
Dylan Tallchief
Quality deep dives into subgenres and remakes showing you how to replicate sounds from a wide range of artists.
The last video I watched was from Finn of The Punk Rock MBA. He is a friend who I used to work with who has been doing amazing things on YouTube. He dives into marketing strategies of popular rock and metal bands from the 90s-2000s. The knowledge from the channel can be applied to any marketing, not just rock or music. Highly recommend you check this one out.
Less is more in the mixing phase, don’t drench everything in reverb, and be okay with not liking the quality of your old work, that means you have improved.
I think the biggest thing is keeping motivated. Once you finish a track (at least in my experience) I want to go and chill out and not think about working on music for a few days. I’ve found continuing to listen to music on those out of studio days, and doing the social media promotion part and even watching music documentaries really amp me up and make me eager to get back into the studio. I’d imagine it’s like the rom-com equivalent for musicians, remembering that feeling of falling in love with music and then chasing that high.
I think I learned this in a Virtual Riot or Barely Alive tutorial but it blew my mind and I had to share. The best way to make a drop more impactful is to lightly automate the volume downwards on the pre-drop and then crank it back to zero when things kick in. It seems so simple and goes against everything I’ve learned about production but really does make a difference.
Yeah, I recently started using Vocal Remover when making bootlegs. What it does is it uses machine learning to isolate different parts of any song to produce dedicated stems that you can then use in your remix. I’ve really fallen in love with it and have used it on a number of my most recent flips:
Yes, always. Having people review your music before it’s out in the world is essential. I have a small group of friends who I send files to that can peer edit my music. One of them is Slow Shudder, who you interviewed recently, so shout out to her. They tell me what worked and all the raw honest feedback I might be scared of hearing from a stranger. I know their feedback comes from a place of wanting me to do my best and that they can hear the potential in things.
It’s hard for me to pick one, so I would say my whole EP 'Next Level' that I put out in January 2020. Instead of producing one song at a time, I tackled the release with a vibe and sonic theme in mind. I believe having these stipulations for the release really made me approach sound design and my production style differently on this which I feel was the right choice.
Yes and no. For me, it has been pretty hard to gain traction on remixes which made me stray away from doing them, but knowing I have a tool like Re-Ex to help get the word out makes me more likely to make them. Overall it has affected how I promote as well as my marketing strategies on Soundcloud.
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This interview has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
