I am currently preparing 12 x 3 hour sessions on Electronic Music Production (EMP) for Academy of Sound Engineering (using Ableton Live, but suitable for all major software) Each session will comprise demonstration/tutorial, theory/history, practice session, and time for one on one guidance. It is meant to be suitable for all skill levels - beginners, DJs, intermediates, etc. - if you already produce, I will endeavour to provide you tips that you hadn’t yet learnt. 1. Editing - Stereo and multitrack From Walter Gibbons to Danny Krivit, the DJ Edit is the cornerstone of EMP, it’s where the DJ-As-Producer culture begins Whether it’s a simple stereo re-edit, taking parts and repeating while chopping other bits out, or a full-blown multi-track edit with new drums and new instrumentation that borders on a fully-fledged remix, the edit is the perfect place to begin, in fact, it is the only place to begin. So let’s edit something. 2. Sampling (and Ableton Clips) In session 1 I avoid something very obvious, which is starting with Ableton Clips, which are unique to Ableton and I don’t want the course to lock people in to one piece of software - instead, we started with editing and pushed it to it’s creative limits. But in the end, there has to be at least one session where we deal with the unique and very powerful tools that Ableton have given us. Sample culture is as fundamental to dance music as anything could be. None of the genres that could be loosely identified as some kind of electronica would exist were it not for sample culture. Impossible to avoid if you are dealing with Ableton, clips are the heart of what makes Ableton unique. So in our introduction to using samples, we look at the specific ways we can come up with unique music ideas using Ableton’s extremely powerful clips. Often times I have thrown samples together as Ableton clips, and used different clip envelopes to twist and change how they sound, as a way to generate ideas for new compositions. And there is nothing like it in any other software. And what you can do with them is only limited by your own imagination. We will also look briefly at the legal and contractual obligations when sampling. Anyway, before they arrest us, let’s indulge in some creative thievery 3. Beatmaking (samples / synths, midi/audio, hits/loops) Beatmaking, is of such importance to these genres that producers dont call their instrumentals intrumentals, they call them beats, irrespective of melodic and harmonic elements. Hip-hop producers are famous for their “beat tapes”, which are not tapes of beats at all, rather, they are instrumental backing tracks. Hip-hop, house, and drum and bass alike, which emerged in the days before the computer-based DAW reigned quite as supremely as today. Today we do the very same thing we just tend to do it straight on the computer. This session looks at sampling beats (loops and hits), synthesizing and shaping noise into electronic drum sounds, even recording from scratch beats, plus a few other beatmaking sciences, such as slicing applications, the tradition of applying groove (swing), etc. Of course it doesn’t have to be hip-hop but the aim of this session is to lead to the making of beat 1 of your beat tape. Whether its 2 bars or 2 minutes. (PS, what’s a bar?). It might be that the resulting beat, is something that applies to the edit exercise from session one, turning what started as an edit, into a full blown remix. 4. (More on) synthesis (and more on midi vs audio) Session 3 on beatmaking anready introduced the practice of synthesis, by way of having to use drum synths. This session will expand on that, dealing with basses, leads, pads, arps etc. Wave forms, analog/subtractive, FM, modelling, sample-based - and just so everyone new is clear, it might be worth some people having a refresher on midi and audio. So let’s lay down some original instruments (albeit synthesized ones), and let’s start work on either an original track, or a remix of something. 5. EQ: Production (Creative) and Mixing (Bracket) applications A more in-depth session on the spectrum - from an EMP perspective, this means looking at key frequencies for common sounds, such typical issues of kick drum competing with synth bass, knowing what your lead is, what is “boxiness”, the congested low-mid, taming problem vocals and overly resonant sources in general, how to give every stem its own space in the mix spectrum. From our previous sessions we have beats, and all these instruments and noises, so now lets make them all sound better together. 6. Effects It wouldn’t be EMP if there weren’t effects, and in the 21st century, these effects become extremely complex. But no matter how much things change, the big two are always going to be delay and reverb, and we need to know why send and why insert. This session also looks at the history and concept of mixing effects as a form of instrumentation and then how to set up more creative and advanced chains for unique configurations, and yes of course we include chorus and flange and a dozen other even more crazy ways to mangle your music. 7. Arranging + The DJ’s half hour guide to music theory One of the hardest stages for the burgeoning EMP producer to go through, is getting over the arrangement hurdle. You have a looping 4 bars with a bassline, loads of drums, a little melody, and a few chords, but how do you turn it into a song? Arrangement obviously. Jazz and 70 year old musicals, have “ABA”, pop music has verse bridge chorus, Electronic dance music has start-middle-end where middle is made up of both or either of the aforementioned or any other kind of structure that it happens to want to pursue, IE, you can do whatever you want. The main and most important thing is that things must change - those changes can by tiny or they can be huge, they can be verses to choruses, they can be changes in key, they can be tempo, instrumentation, EQ or simply changes in dynamics (see next session), so long as there are changes, you’ll be good to go. Not knowing where to start can stop you from trying, so the old tip, start anywhere is still the most useful. This session considers a dozen of the most common types of change, to experiment with. Sometimes you can’t know in advance what arrangement will work best, until you try it. Once you’ve tried a few times, you’ll have your first masterpiece. In conjunction with this overview of arrangement, a brief intro to music theory from a DJ and producers perspective will be covered. Music theory and musicology is an endless study that can take up your whole life, and youre not going to leave this class knowing everything you need, but you will leave knowing the things that can allow you to to on to learn everything you need. Many of the best producers in the world do happen to be musicians and composers and song writers, the likes of Quincy Jones spring immediately to mind, but not everyone is or has been, especially not in electronic music. By and large, music theory is merely a shorthand that allows you to communicate with people that share that shorthand. The more you can learn though the better equipped you are to deal with fellow music makers, never mind the opening of creative ideas for yourself. So what can I tell you in half an hour that you really need to know? Lets find out. 8. Dynamics - production (creative), and mix applications Dynamics, in a nutshell, relates to changing levels over time - no music production course, beginner or otherwise would be complete without looking at dynamics and the usual tools for handling dynamics such as (multiband) compressors (and sidechains), gates, maximizers, and more simply, riding the faders, or automating volume envelopes. Pushing dynamics tools to unexpected extremes can result in new aesthetics, such as the french style of disco house compression that emerged in the late nineties, or using sidechained gates, or transient controls, for rhythmic effects. More typically we need to use these tools subtly. After the last session students should have a finished arrangement of something that just needs some spit and polish, so as we reach the two thirds way point, we fire back up the arrangement in question, and see what if anything can have it’s dynamics improved. 9. Recording At some point you have to add “air” to all this computer noise, you have to add the “analog”, by plugging in a mic, or plugging in a jack lead and pressing record. It might be to record a rapper, a singer, a musician, percussion, animal noises from a game drive, city traffic, or leaves in the breeze. Recording comes up with its own sets of challenges - types of microphone, how to place and position those microphones, types of audio interface, dealing with acoustic spaces, reverbs, resonant frequencies, hums and rumbles, even how to deal with personalities of performers in order to get the best out of them. We will look at the most common cases and things to watch out for, and we will discuss the specific ideas of things the students want to record. 10. Live performance Ableton Live is called Live for a reason. So as we get closer to the end of the course, and our students first masterpieces, let’s spend some time looking at the technical side of performing that masterpiece on the road and in the club. And if you don’t want to use Ableton, what are the alternatives and how do they work. 11. The final mix By now students have taken ideas from start to finish, or almost… there are one or two more things to be aware of as you look to finish up the track and ready it for release. We revisit the issue of mixing, which is not at all the same process as producing, even though we do pre-mix while we produce. Here we get to polish any remaining dynamics issues, go over the gain staging, finesse our (linear phase) EQing, check for phase issues, check the overall EQ profile, A-B between reference material - and of course we do all this in an environment that we have suitably prepared so as to be revealing for any problems in the mix. Nor should mixing be confused with mastering - if the mix was done properly, then mastering should concern sonic profiling of a collection of tracks, dithering, and loudness, and probably shouldn’t be done by us the producers - but we will look at it nonetheless. The second half of this class will be with Nick Matzukis, addressing the contractual aspects of commercially releasing your final mastered works to the world 12. Practical Our last session together, a final hands-on chance to get work done, and if anything hasn’t been done yet, or hasn’t sunk in yet, or asked yet, now is the time to get it done or ask me about it. POST: We may also look at a performance session outside of the class room where students perform the work made. I’m still working on these sessions, contents may change between now and launch date on October 5th. But it will be along these lines.
Posted on: Tue, 09 Sep 2014 08:18:38 +0000