Don Cromwell Live - Christopher Wright (Mentor 006)

Don Cromwell Live - Christopher Wright

Icon Collective has been a dream school of mine I could never afford for a few years now, ever since I found out MAKJ studied there so anytime one of the Co-Founders of Icon does interview or show like this one, I'm in, definitely listening.

13:39 It's very obvious to us who is kind of putting in the work. I think the number one thing we look for, because if were gonna put you through our network, you're representing the collective as a whole, is really just work ethic and throwing yourself at something. We don't get into you should be doing this style of music, or you should be getting straight A's. It's really about, are you putting the time in the studio, are you there when we open, are you there when we close, and when we see that and if you have that work ethic, you're gonna be able to do something in this career. Everyone's looking for hunger, there's so many people in this industry that are trying to be famous, we don't have any interest in that, we're not looking for people who want to be famous. We're looking for artist who have a need, an absolute undeniable need to express themselves and if they don't express themselves they're gonna go insane, that's what were looking for. If we see that we're gonna put every resource we have to make that happen for anybody within the collective.

Beginners Tutorial To Music Production by Laidback Luke! (Mentor 005)

Whoa, one of my favorite DJ / Producers I aspire to be like, Laidback Luke, has been making music production tutorials. I want to catch up and watch em all but I also know that watching tutorials is not making music. So I'll just watch one.




User a limiter on Master to stop from clipping when making mash-ups.
"My favorite transparent limiter is the FabFilter Pro-L"

Metro Boomin, Zaytoven, Sonny Digital - Beatmakers Roundtable Lecture (New York 2016) (Mentor 004)

5325 Metro Boomin: Um, really just working at it man, puttin in more hours, people don't understand, I was thirteen and I started making beats and from there I was slaving, like literally slaving.  Like every single day like, I'd go to asleep making beats, I would wake up making beats, even before I went to school I'd wake up a little early to just finish some shit from yesterday.

5350 Metro Boomin: It's really about that dedication and just like if you want to be in the NBA and you in high school like, you gonna need to shoot around every day, to like you know build your skill, so its really the same thing, its just like if you do the same thing for so long after so many times like you cant help but its gonna have to progress or else what are you doing? It's gonna get better. 

Its just off how hard you're working, if it's not getting better then you're just not working hard enough, ideally. 

PRO PRESENTS: NGHTMRE Ableton Demo + Q&A @ The Loft UCSD (Mentor 003)

Reasons for Success of NGHMTRE

• Quality of Tracks
• Timing
• Consistency of Release Dates
• Assurance of Audience
• Networking
• Creating a sound or style and sticking to it

Re-brand when you find YOUR sound and tracks are WELL PRODUCED

Trust your gut when receiving feedback

Organize your project folder

MUSIC PRODUCTION

• Ableton Projects
• Collabs
• DJ Edits
• Factory Packs
• Ideas
• Live Recordings
• Mixes
• Originals
• Remixes
• Stems Mixes/Masters
• Templates

Innovation is the key to success

Production Process

• Clarify
• Simplify
• Add Character
• Sonic Treatment
• Auditing, Mixing A&B Technique

20:34 CLARIFY

In order to have a meaningful track. ALL PARTS must have a specific PURPOSE
All tracks should be driven by some force (drums or bass)

Without the main part, it would feel empty (lead melodies)

Drums should be good enough to rock out alone

STEMS

• KICKS
• Other Drums
• Lead Melody/Vocal
• "Drop Synths"
• Breakdown Pads / Accent Melodies
• FX

Organize Tracks by "Stems" within your project

26:32 Multi-band Compressor OTT (Over The Top) - Thickens things up

You can use loop sample and add your own kick/snare

SIMPLIFY

Even if your track is musically genius, if it is not presented in a simple manner, the audience will likely miss the point

Good Complex vs. Bad Complex + Examples

Good: chord progressions or layering

Bad: Multiple patterns / rhythms at once

Good: No question what the listener should be focusing on

Bad: not sure what you should be focusing on. elements are fighting for space in a mix

Arrangement

Organize into 8/16 bar sections

Intro 

Main Hook / Breakdown

Build Up

Drop / Drive

Post - Drop

Breakdown 2

Bridge

Build Up 2

Drop 2

Outro

Intro 

Verse

Chorus

Verse 2

Chorus

Bridge

Chorus

Figure out bass, melody, chord on piano

8 Bar intro no kicks or hi-hats

Duplicate piano into multiple tracks to create note for Bass, Pads, Leads

ADD CHARACTER

42:56 Vocal Chops

• find acapella (autotuned vocals will stay in key)
• pitch up or down to key of a song
• find good chops to chop out
• rearrange chops
• compress vocals + saturator + reverb 
• try different octaves

56:35 Chop reverb tails to make room for other sounds.

Organize and collect favorite samples!

Best way to make a sound big is through a Saturator because it harmonically makes it bigger, its adding to what's there.

Nothing below 120hz, let the bass kick

• Don't force sounds, always listen for what it NEEDS
• Build Ups are important, especially if you want to be played "It's easy to burst the bubble, but its not easy to build it" - Flux Pavilion 

“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.” - Ira Glass

ill.Methodology Workshop - Chapter 1 (Mentor 002)

6:34   "I'm pulling out my hair trying to learn this stuff... and it's a nightmare. I was trying to do every step of the process, at the same time, in a completely unstructured way and, I was just overthinking everything and it was hell." 

8:25    "One of the biggest mistakes I was making was I was trying to do every step of the process all at the same time, I was trying to learn, while I was trying to set up new soft synths, while I was trying to do sound design, while I was trying to mix, while I was trying to write, while I was trying to create, while I was trying to analyze, and my brain was going fifty million directions at once and nowhere at the same time."

(Those last two statements hit home)

11:31 (NIGHTTIME SESSIONS) preparatory and (DAYTIME SESSIONS)writing sessions

Basically in the NIGHTTIME (3 Hours or less) Sessions, not likely to finish a song, so don't start one.

• watch Youtube tutorials
• learn a new soft synth
• program sample multi's
• program racks for your library
• fix the wiring in your studio
• practice drumming or playing the piano, etc etc etc
• dig through your sample CD's

12:05   "Maintaining a library is so important.. a stack of sample CD's in a folder called samples is not a library, a bunch of presets that are in the native VST plug in format in your VST's is not a library."

12:22 DAYTIME SESSIONS

• Composing
• Writing
• Arranging
• Anything else that is not that (NIGHT TIME SESSIONS)

12:36 "You don't write music by thinking, You write music by doing."

Start the day with writing. Get all your thoughts out.

The Prequel. Again. Try #831x3

I'm at a point in my life where I'm making zero music a day and it's killing me inside. 

I think about it everyday. The constant thought in the back of my mind, even as I write this blog is "I should be making music instead of this" all day, everyday.  Was this my passion? I mean, I know I said it was. I thought I lived and breathed music.

I watched and listened to tons of tutorials and podcasts about music production but made zero music.
I spent tons of money on concerts and festivals I dreamed of playing but made zero music.
I went to music lectures at Pyramind, left inspired to change my life....made zero music.
I bought a computer, some new studio monitors, midi keyboard, studio headphones, audio interface and STILL made zero music.

I get distracted easy, mostly by friends, any excuse to get out of house hang out with friends, I'm there.....
not at home where my music baby making machine is at. The one thing where I feel I feed my soul a bit, like music therapy, especially when I'm trying to re-align my priorities in the pursuit of happiness. I know for fact making music daily is a step in the correct direction.

I mean Halloween is 52 days away and after seeing yesterdays escape line up announcement, 49 days til I go to Escape. So many artists I love and look up to on this lineup. There's no way I'm missing JoyRyde this time. I missed him at edc earlier this year.

 49 days til I go to escape. Thats 7 weeks away.

Somewhere someone highly recommended the ill.Methodology workshop and so I watched part 1 online

and loved it! It made me realize I had a huge workflow problem and what direction I needed to be headed in.

Soon after I came across the NGHTMRE lecture where my mind was constantly blown with golden nuggets of information.

I bought Music Habits - The Mental Game of Electronic Music Production: Finish Songs Fast, Beat Procrastinatoin and Find Your Creative Flow and devoured the first half.

After the first half I went to his website an found a Make an EP in 30 Days course and immediately signed up.I FINALLY FOUND the course I've been looking for. In the the past it was all videos watching other people make music and I'd take hand written notes that would never be seen again and followed along in Ableton so I could get some sort of hands on experience. I ended up with a bunch of shitty songs I didn't really like and/or really want to make in the first place. No offense to those songs because I did feel myself learning. Each time there'd be less questions about what the instructor was talking about because I was understanding more and then I got to the point where I understood most of the basics and wanted to hear more advanced things like sound design. That's how I thought I was gonna teach myself and I was having fun but I wanted to create and not follow along.

With the EP in 30 Days course you have a lecture of an hour or so and then he gives you homework to do. When I first got the program a little over a month ago I got to day 10 and only missed a few days. I loved the program. I love taking what I just learned and applying it. Sometimes you get a teacher that teaches you in a certain way and things just click and with this program it was clicking. Then I went to Cancun and broke the streak. I came back and a month went by without opening Ableton til yesterday where I finally did Day 11.

Between Cancun and yesterday I did discovered a Zhu documentary "52 to Zhu". It wasn't too long but at the end I felt incredibly inspired again. Basically its about him making a song a week for a year. I only found the first part, not sure if they ever made a part 2 but part 1 was motivating enough to journey down the road of making one song a week. Challenge Accepted.

If I take what I'm learning with the EP in 30 Days and try Zhu's one song a week, in one year not only will I have put in a ton of work and completed 52 songs but I'll also be learning the best possible way to learn when it comes to music production, by jumping in and doing!

Yesterday as I was watching more videos about making music but not actually making music, I watched  this deadmau5 video giving advice and he says this,

"thats so important, to just take in information, not watch tutorials and fucking how to make phat beats yo and fucking watch shitty fucking edm artists fucking jerk themselves off on future music about "and heres how you put together a beat". No fuck that, YOU GOTTA DO THAT SHIT, CAUSE THATS HOW YOU LEARN, thats how you make you, not you fucking clone the fucking clone of a clone"

It was like I kept hearing the same thing on repeat but with different words by all the producers I looked up to.

What my sound is at this moment in time I don't know.

I know I want to express myself through music and this 52 week adventure will hopefully help me find my voice and at the same time have a ton of fun doing it. There's no way I'm releasing 52 SLAPPERS.

I can't imagine myself being happy doing anything else but music and lately I feel like I'm running out of time. I need to dive in and make that 200% effort.

Today the adventure into music starts.

My daily goal is to spend at least 1 hour a day watching a mentor video and a minimum 2 hours a day making music in Ableton for a total of 3 hours a day dedicated to music. If people can take a class in college for 3 hours a day, I can dedicate AT LEAST that doing music production

My weekly goal is ONE song a WEEK.

If Zhu can do it, I can do it, si se puede.

Hopefully in 1 year I'll be able to look back at all my earlier tracks and hear some sort of progress.

For now my goals are to make 7 songs by Escape.

It's time to overcome that fear of sucking at music. I just gotta start putting in the hard work today which will lead to me never working another day in my life because I'll be doing what I love!

#1yearPlan. Then I go back to college and play life by life's rules. But in my free time, my hobby will be music and thanks to this one year dive, I'll already be well enough with music to be able to hop into Ableton and just do some creative music making, for me if no-one else. I'll do this the rest of my life, even if just for fun, for me, for my soul that craves music.

Mentor Program (Cherish U)

This is gonna be a cool way to start my Mentor Program at Cherish U. At the beginning of each session, I'm gonna spend roughly an hour watching an interview (since there's a ridiculous amounts of information on YouTube) with someone who I think may have a few nuggets of wisdom to share and write down whatever I got from it and then blog about it. There's always different ways to do the exact same thing, especially in music production.  Whatever nuggets I learned that day is what I'm gonna add to the song, no matter what it is. I'll learn and apply the same day.  As long as I remember to use Labels, I might be able to use this blog as a study guide for all the information I once thought was useful.

The Mentors - Once I've exhausted these channels, if ever, I'll find new ones.
Mon Future Music - In The Studio
Tues Dancing Astronaut - In The Studio
Wed EMC Australia
Thurs Midem
Fri IMS Ibiza
Sat Pyramind
Sun DJTT

The Life Story of deadmau5 (Mentor 001)

2:32 "Go to a fucking nightclub, meet a dj, go to a radio station, its still old school as fuck and im probably gonna sound old school as fuck but honestly connections made in person are a million billion times more valuable than a fucking spammed link, or an email, or a demo."

20:30 .."you learn things that you know, you impress yourself, like holy shit, wow, last year I didn't even know how to fucking do this thing and now I'm already learning about mixing techniques and stuff like that and accumulating like a fucking sponge, that's so important, to just take in information, not watch tutorials and fucking how to make phat beats yo and fucking watch shitty fucking edm artists fucking jerk themselves off on future music about "and here's how you put together a beat". No fuck that, you gotta do that shit, cause that's how you learn, that's how you make you, not you fucking clone the fucking clone of a clone, that's really important, that's something I can hear a mile fucking away, especially when i'm out and about scouting like who i want on my fucking label, and same goes for everyone else, and every other semi major indie label"

4/23/16 So I found this draft I wrote back in April.

I'm not gonna lie, I was gonna trade sides to Wordpress for hopefully this new chapter in my life but I couldn't figure out how to customize it how I wanted. I gave up and redid this one and it came out a lot better than I hoped. I don't completely hate it so I'm gonna roll with it.

Sometimes I sit around and wonder if 31 is too old to be an aspiring music producer. I laughed a little in my head too. When I was younger I said I'd give up in my late twenties.  I still get the itch to make music every day and it eats me alive that I don't. I feel I've procrastinated the dream too long. I've watched and read countless books and videos on making music but I'd never get my feet wet. I think I'm still afraid to suck at what I love the most knowing that everyone Sucks At First. I see friends like JRob and Sndze making and mixing music and think damn I should be practicing. They inspire me every time.

Last night I thought a lot about my future and what I want to do with it. Obviously music is my number 1 choice. Whether I'm making it or behind the scenes, I know I have to be involved somehow. Aside from that I'd really really really really love to  travel the world. Especially since I've made it to 31 with no wife and kids holding me down to one location.

Last night it came to me. If you know me, you know I'm a big dreamer, I've blogged a ton of times of things I want to do but then never do. Even writing this I'm like ugh, another blog about a time I was gonna change my life and didn't. Not this time. 

Here's the dream. 

31 Bay Area - Get in shape to travel the world, make tons of music and save as much money as possible so I can fix all the financial problems I got myself into in my late 20's.

32 LA - Move back to LA, make tons of music, save save save to travel travel travel. After settling in LA, my new focus is going to be going back to school at Santa Monica College and then do either Psychology or Marketing. I love Psychology and would consider going all the way and becoming a doctor. Marketing would be the job I could do and still somehow be involved in the music business and not hate life, I think.. either way I'll be headed in one of those directions. I have between now and the Spring '17 Semester at Santa Monica College to learn as much music production as possible. Meaning dedicating all my free time to it. Once I enroll back in college, even though school will be my new focus, I'll always have music in my spare time. Music will be for me, for the love of music. It's time to finally master my art.

Travel Itinerary

May '16 Denver (Visit Greg / Disclosure)

June '16 Las Vegas (edc)

July '16 Cancun (Family Reunion)

Feb '17 Daytona (Daytona 500)

March '17 Miami (Ultra)

June '17 Nashville (CMA Music Festival)

Jan '18 Melbourne

Sept '18 Belgium / Europe (Tomorrowland)

9/8 Update: Denver, edc, and Cancun was amazing. I didn't get to 200 but I got close. I also continued to finish zero songs.