I’ve been a little quiet on here recently, but that’s mainly due to a renewed focus on production. So, here’s my latest – ‘The Mack’, which includes a tasty sample from Sir Mixalot…
This week, I’ve been experimenting with the EVOC20 Logic vocoder, mastering and, for the first time ever, some harmonies. From my own mouth. Sorry.
For those interested, this track features elements of ‘I Can’t Wait’ by ‘New Shooz’.
Another quick, non-technical production tip, for anyone that cares to take notice of this section of my blog.
Anyone who makes music will know the eternal frustration that comes from listening to the same eight bars of a melody or bass line 300 times in a row. Those poor people living with bedroom producers will also be keenly aware of how hugely irritating this practice can be.
It’s easy to loose sight of what you’re doing or trying to achieve if you over-listen. Whilst it might seem necessary to loop those eight bars and jam over the top in an effort to inject a new lease of life into your first verse, it can also be very counterproductive.
Like many people, I’m always working on two or three tracks at any one time. As soon as I start to get frustrated with something, I’ll save it, bring up another project and move on. Leaving it to settle, even if only for a couple of hours, can work wonders. When you come back to it, it’ll sound fresh and you’ll instantly be inspired to add to it*.
Quite often, I’ll bounce a rough mix, or even just the basic outline of a track to MP3 and stick it on my iPod. Then, using the ‘I’m just going out to walk the dog’ excuse, I’ll get some fresh air and have a listen. It’s incredible how different a track can sound when you take it out of the studio. Just remember to make a mental note (particularly if you are dog walking) of any changes you need to make on your return.
Try it. Walk away from what you’re doing. Like a good bolognese, music needs some time to settle. Daft analogy, but true. Sort of.
*Very occasionally, it’ll sound like dog shit. In this case, consign it to your trash can – you were right in the first place.
A post I wrote a little while ago on YouTube and its benefits when it comes to learning the piano has sparked a lot of interest. I’m not surprised; there is so much content on there for the beginner and pro alike – I can’t recommend it highly enough.
I recently purchased a Fender Squire Strat for my studio. This was partly to add a bit more flair and scope to my productions but, at the back of my mind, I’ve always harboured an ambition I’ve had since a kid to learn the thing for real.
Being an essentially lazy person, the Yamaha electric I received for Christmas when I was around 12-years-old very quickly found its place in the corner of my bedroom where it quietly gathered dust for about ten years before I eventually sold it to a builder. Poor thing. Not much of a life.
However, things are different now. Aside from being older and realising that, with the gradual ebbing away of time, I had better get on and do things sooner rather than later, YouTube, the internet and my iPhone are already making the learning process far more appealing.
Last night, having not had my guitar more than a couple of hours, I was delicately picking away at some BB King blues riffs, thanks to YouTube. At the same time, I downloaded a chord finder App for my iPhone and used it to suss out some of the chords referred to in the video.
This simply wasn’t possible when I was a lad. You had two choices: buy some books and teach yourself (unappealing, too much effort) or book lessons (cost-implications, far too school-like, too much effort). I now have pretty much everything I need to grasp a basic, playable understanding of both the guitar and piano.
I’m sure (and hope) this doesn’t spell the end for music teachers, as nothing can replace one-to-one tuition, but for someone who simply wants to feel more comfortable picking up a guitar or sitting at a piano, you can’t beat it.
It’s crossed my mind recently that, whilst I’m not exactly Quincy Jones, I have spent a large amount of my free time making music. Along the way I’ve developed some good and (more commonly) some bad habits.
Anyone that makes music will be aware of the little idiosyncratic techniques picked up through trial and error and how much they come to be relied upon for every track produced.
I’ve got plenty. Most will be very specific to the way I work, some you may find useful. So, I’ll try and keep these tips semi regular.
I’ll start with mistakes. Without fail, every track I’ve written has at least one mistake in it somewhere (some may argue it lasts the duration of the song). Whether it be a reverb tail that never quite goes away, a midi note out of place or some screwed up automation, it’ll more likely make than break the production, in my opinion.
So, the first tip is a simple one. Leave those mistakes in. If, like me, you’re not a fan of razor-precision computer music and like a bit of feel and humanity, you can do a lot worse than leave those errors in.
And don’t worry, they’ll happen naturally, so it’s the one thing you won’t have to put any effort in to!
Very nearly got bored enough to drop this half way through production. Stuck with it though… the end result is somewhat underwhelming, but ear chewing gum nonetheless.
One of my biggest mistakes recently was to follow several producer/DJ types on Twitter. Every day, I’m bombarded with tweets informing me that, having woken up at a leisurely 9am, they’re going to ‘have a shower, grab some breakfast and head off to the studio for the day’.
I’m struggling to think of anything else I’d rather do for a living. I really am. Making music and being paid for doing so is about as good as it can get, as far as I’m concerned.
I love my current job, don’t get me wrong, and I’m one of the silent minority who enjoys coming to work; I don’t see it as a chore. That isn’t a disclaimer in case my boss is reading, either.
What depresses me slightly is the path the majority of these guys have taken to musical nirvana, as it is uncomfortably close to my past.
Like me, they have a parent who is a musician. Like me, they took the opportunity to bash around on said parent’s kit. Like me, they fell in love with midi and software such as Cubase at an early age. Like me, they spent an inordinate amount of their youth producing music for themselves.
Unlike me, they kept this up and went on to make a handsome living out of it.
In my late teens I made a very conscious (although difficult) decision to pursue a path in IT rather than music. The latter seemed a little too unattainable, if I’m honest, although that’s code for ‘I was too lazy to bother’. If I’d applied myself, I could have gone to university to study some form of music technology degree, or finance a college course off my own back. Instead, I ended up maintaining a computer network at a window and door component business in Daventry. Rock and roll.
Had I chosen my other path, there would have been significant differences in my personal life, which is worth bearing in mind. It’s unlikely I’d have met my girlfriend and I’d have a somewhat limited social life, as have the likes of Funkagenda, Dave Spoon and Chris Lake. So, perhaps I shouldn’t complain…
Makes you wonder what might have been though, doesn’t it…
Something to hopefully cool you down this warm August evening (unless you’re reading this in December, which is quite possible):
Includes a nice dab of Omnisphere for any gear heads listening…
So, firstly, I’ve slipped up. NaBloPoMo started off fantastically. I managed fifteen posts in as many days and most of them, I think, were not complete drivel. A couple of ‘album fillers’, maybe, but at least I kept it up.
Then, inexplicably, I failed to post anything last Thursday. I knew I hadn’t. It wasn’t a case of forgetting. It was a conscious choice. I just couldn’t be arsed.
So I tried and failed. I’m not entirely sure of the benefit of getting myself listed on NaBloPoMo’s website, as it seemed to provide very little in the way of referrals. None, in fact. The visitor numbers certainly crept up but I have a feeling that was more to do with this site suddenly becoming more active due to the increased concentration of new posts.
Anyway, onto the topic of this post. Anyone that cares to follow this blog (if you do, please let me know, I’d love to hear from you) will be aware that I am embarking on the no doubt long and frustrating journey of learning the piano proper. Having tinkered for over ten years in my home studio, I am now pretty desperate to learn the instrument properly. It’s an instrument I’m instantly familiar and comfortable with, yet completely clueless about. That ambiguous last sentence will hopefully make sense to people in a similar position to myself.
Last night I had my first piano lesson. I’d been debating about what I wanted to get out of this over the last few weeks and had come to the conclusion that I must learn to read music. Theory is, generally speaking, as dull as Eastenders, regardless of the subject. But when you think about it, it’s an essential element of anything you wish to learn properly. Sure, there are some pretty big names in music who profess to being unable to read sheet music (namely Paul McCartney) but that shouldn’t be reason for us all to declare it a pointless waste of time.
Once you can read music, you can pick up pretty much any score and play it, unhindered. And that’s where I want to get. I’ll be better than one of the Beatles! Awesome!
I’ve already taught myself a couple of ‘real’ songs and going so far back to the basics was at first a little unnerving. Very unnerving, if I’m honest. Suddenly, I was faced with treble clefs, bass clefs, crotchets and quavers. The latter I have only ever associated with a form of crisp-based snack, so adjusting myself to this new way of playing the piano was like being thrown in at the deep end. I relished it, though, even if it did feel a little bit like my first day at school.
For any aspiring pianists reading this in the Northampton area, please feel free to get in touch by clicking the ‘Contact’ button at the top of this page and I’ll happily pass on the details of my tutor. Although I’ve only had one lesson so far, I instantly got on with him and his relaxed, no hassle approach certainly made me feel at ease. It’s a wonderful skill to have as a teacher and one I simply can’t relate to. I would end up smashing the key cover on someone’s flailing hands after their second poor attempt at Silent Night.
