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