By Daniel Rothmann – danielrothmann.com

Introduction

So, you’ve made it this far. If you’ve read my previous articles in the EGE series you should have a pretty good overview of how electronic music actually works. In addition, you should also be able to put together some pretty cool beats for your tracks! So, what’s missing? You guessed it: Synthesizers. Electronic music is all about synthesizers. You may be wondering how the heck these things work, right? I can understand that many people are intrigued by synthesizers; all those knobs and buttons can certainly seem very confusing! In this article, I’m going to give you a basic overview of how the common synthesizer works and what important parameters you need to know of in order to produce the sounds you want.

Choosing your synthesizer

Before we can get tweaking, we need a synthesizer to work with. Depending on which DAW (if you don’t know what this means, read EGE#1 – Getting Started) you have chosen for yourself, you may already have one or two basic synths included in the package. Or maybe you already own a hardware synth that you’d like to explore. I highly recommend that you start by using a simple synthesizer like Reason’s Subtractor or Togu Audio Line’s VST synth, TAL-Elek7ro. Both are what you call “subtractive” synthesizers. You can always get a more powerful synth later – You don’t have much gain of the power if you don’t know how to use it, right? I’m going to be using the TAL-Elek7ro synthesizer for the later tutorial since it is free and available for both PC and Mac.

Basic schematics of subtractive synthesis

There are several ways of synthesizing sounds with machines – Subtractive synthesis (also sometimes called “analogue”) is one of them. Subtractive synthesizers work by producing a harmonically rich sound (a periodically repeated waveform) and then subtracting elements of the sound, actually removing harmonics to achieve the sound you want. I don’t want to get into technical talk, but I will give a short introduction to the various elements of this technique:

Preset tweaking – The essential parameters

I’m going to quickly go through the parameters you need to know in order to begin tweaking your sounds. Choose a random preset on your synthesizer and try changing these parameters:

The oscillator:

• Waveform
  This parameter will change the raw oscillator sound that you’re working with. The waveform defines the basic sonic characteristics of the sound. TAL-Elek7ro doesn’t actually have a parameter labeled “waveform”; it has four buttons with different symbols illustrating the waveform.
• Semi/Pitch
  This one is pretty self-explanatory. Try it out.

The filter:

• Cutoff
  The cutoff parameter defines the frequency where harmonics are cut off (duh) the waveform, either above or below. If you’re unsure what his means, try it out, and you’ll notice immediately.
• Resonance
  By raising the resonance, you put additional emphasis on the cutoff frequency, making for some cool filter sweep effects. Also sometimes called “Q” or “Emphasis”.

The amplifier envelope (ADSR):

• Attack
  Defines the time the sound takes to go from no volume to full volume. A big attack value would result in a long “fade in”, while a small value would make the sound punch in very quickly.
• Decay
  The time taken for the sound to decay from full volume (when the attack reaches its maximum) to the sustain volume.
• Sustain
  Sustain defines the volume of the sound after the decay – If trying to emulate a flute sound, you would use a high sustain value, while trying to emulate a piano, you would use no sustain.
• Release
  The amount of time taken for the sound to “fade out” when you let go of the note on your keyboard.

Let’s get designing!

So, now that you have all the synthesizer fundamentals in place, all there is left is to start working with it. The best advice I can give you, is to start by fooling around, trying out all the essential parameters. Then, when you’ve developed a sense of how these things work and how they each affect the sound, try to imagine what kind of sound you would like to make, and imagine what characterizes that sound. Can you emulate the desired sound using the essential parameters? There is no way you can memorize how every cool synthesizer sound is made, so the best thing is to learn how the synth works and make it work for you to produce any sound you want, maybe even a sound nobody has ever heard before!

Tutorial: Creating a synthesized bass

Here’s a short tutorial to help you improve your sound designing skills. We’re going to be making a house bass/lead sound from scratch using the TAL-Elek7ro VST synthesizer. This is what we’re going to be making: House Bass

1. Load up TAL-Elek7ro. If it is not already set, choose the “BS Startup” preset.

2. Let’s start by setting the oscillators. The sound we’re trying to make is made up of 3 oscillators; The fundamental note, the octave below and the major 3^rd. To get the rich and fat sound, we’re going to use the saw waveform for all oscillators. Let’s start by turning SYNC off, and turn the sub oscillator (also called “OSC 3”) down a bit:

3. Now, we’re going to turn up the second oscillator. We want this oscillator to play the major 3^rd above oscillator 1, to give it that house feel. Adjust the “SEMI” knob until you find the major 3^rd.

4. Let’s move on to the filter. For starters, we have to choose our filter type. Let’s take “BassLine 18 dB” since we’re going to be making a bass sound.

5. The first thing I’ll do is to take down the cutoff value and raise the resonance value. It sounds a bit dull at the moment so we’re going to add some movement using the envelope below. Raise the “CONTOUR” amount, and you’ll begin to notice a difference.

6. Let’s set the filter envelope. At the moment, it is just quick attack, quick decay, full sustain and some release. You shouldn’t actually be able to hear a difference in cutoff movement at the moment, but you’ll notice the sound is brighter when contour is raised. What you’ll want to do is to lower the sustain and raise decay, and you’ll notice the sound is becoming more punchy and percussive.

7. Increase the amplifier envelope release time (we were working with the filter envelope before) and decrease the filter release time and adjust the cutoff until you like the sound.

8. As our final touch, let’s add some velocity control to the cutoff (VCF) to make the sound more expressive. This means, that when we play the notes harder, the cutoff will increase. This may require that you decrease the cutoff.

9. That’s a pretty cool sound, isn’t it? Congratulations, you have significantly increased your sound designing skills!

That’s all for now, hope to see you again soon!

“Planning ahead pushes you toward victory” – Sun Tzu

In the life of a sound-tech, you’ve got your mixers, your cables and your mics. You’ve got your patching, plugging and playing to do and if I told you it’s a lot like chess you’d probably just point a microphone in my face and say “Does this look like a Rook to you?”.

In chess you have to be able to think more than one move at a time. It’s a game of cunning strategy and if you don’t think one step ahead of your opponent he will Sun Tzu you and you will lose the game. Working with audio is similar. You have to think ahead and keep everything in mind. Signal flow doesn’t start and end with you plugging in a cable, or adjusting the gain levels.

You have to think things through right to the end or feedback will win the game and taint your reputation. As Sun Tzu said: “Estimating completely creates victory”.

Thinking ahead and keeping all the factors in mind greatly reduces the “troubleshooting brainstorm” that goes on when something doesn’t work.

It also enhances you ability to think quickly on your feet, getting the show or the recording back on track in no time.

A couple of things:

Where does the signal go?

How many stages does the microphone go through before it hits the desk? Are there outboard effects involved that can affect the sound in some way? Check all of the following:

• power source
• mixer
• plugs
• snake
• monitor mixer
• splits
• microphones etc, etc.

Be aware of the monitors.

If you are controlling the monitors from the FOH (Front of House, the portion of the building that is open to the public), will the monitors be sensitive to you tweaking the gain knob? Be aware of post/pre fader buttons as well. Also, when you have many bands playing, you go through a lot of monitor settings. A good way to store this is with a trusty digital camera. That way, you set all the monitor settings just the way you left them in the sound-check and everything goes smoothly.

Think things through.

When packing for a gig you have to go through everything and make sure you have everything you need. This means writing things down! I don’t know how many times I’ve forgotten that necessary XLR/MiniRCA cable that was desperately needed for the show. Make a list and go through it dilligently.

Have a plan

You have to think about every instrument and have a contingency plan if things go wrong. Extra DI boxes, extra mics, a couple of extra cables. Keep everything in mind and think like a grandmaster.

So there are quite a few things you have to think about before hitting record or giving a thumbs up sign. And before you set up for a new gig or a recording, take some inspiration from the grandmasters of chess and always plan a few moves ahead.

What do you guys think? I’d appreciate all your suggestions in the comments.

by Björgvin Benediktsson

There is considerable tact involved when dealing with an artist. Whether it be in a hectic live setting where everything is running late or recording sultry vocals in a cozy recording studio. If some of the below statements offend you engineer/artists remember that I also whine when my vocals sound bad.

The artist is always late

When I started mixing live concerts, underground bands were notorious for always being late. When I said the soundcheck would start at five, this usually meant the first bands showed up at around six. After a while I got used to this as I could use the empty time to set up and linecheck at a relaxed pace. It’s amazing what you can do in an hour if there is no stress involved.

So when the artists finally showed up I had everything set up perfectly without having to show up early to get everything done.

If you find yourselves in this kind of situation, take advantage of it.

Don’t get annoyed at the primadonna attitude of the artist, the artist will always be a special species and you will always have to treat him that way. But don’t let them get in the way of your job.

If you have free time because of the tardiness of an artist:

• Use the extra time to line check,
• Gaffertape the cables to the floor
• Make sure the microphones are correctly positioned
• Mark your mixer well so you can work fast when the soundcheck starts.
• Any other thing you say that can be beneficial to the concert at hand.

The artist is always right

What I mean by this is that you should always do what the artists wants. Because in the end, it’s their concert or record and if they want it a certain way for them to be happy, make them happy. This could spiral out into pretty hard to swallow actions, like making the guitar sound terrible or putting things to the front that you think don’t belong there.

But if the artist is happy with what he ends up with, he will tell people about it in a positive way, and he will talk about you. And word of mouth travels far, and goes a long way in landing you that next gig.

Think about the artist’s needs

When mixing live concerts, you are basically working in the service industry, serving the artist’s needs. I’m not saying you should jump through hoops to get what he wants. But there are certain things you should be aware of when servingthe artist:

• You should always be up to speed to the artists needs.
• Try to make him comfortable on stage.
• Bring extra cables, chairs to sit on, whatever that relates to your job.
• The rule is: Make him comfortable and the gig will run smoothly.

If they complain do whatever to make them happy.

This one relates directly to the previous one. If they aren’t happy, you won’t get the desired performance out of them. Try to do whatever you can if they complain. Most of the time it’s about the monitor sound. A good tip is to sound-check the stage sound first. That way, if the monitors are spot on and the artist is happy, then you can concentrate on the FOH sound without having to go back and forth because the artist is always complaining he can’t hear his instrument. Being efficient reduces sound-check time and gives you more time if things go wrong.

If they ask for something impossible, and they won’t listen to reason, just say yes and then deal with it your own way.

There once was this girl singing with a band and they were rehearsing songs for an upcoming concert. The bass-player told me that she was struggling with some songs and asked that they lowered the key. The bass-player told her that they would do so and then played the song again in the same key. When asked, the girl responded that it felt much better and she could really grab those high notes now. So, when in an impossible situation, just say yes and do whatever sounds best.

Although some of these thoughts are a bit extreme and shouldn’t be taken seriously, sometimes these situations manifest themselves and you are forced to take appropriate measures. Given that my experience is mainly from mixing live concerts, a lot of these tidbits are taken from there.

There are probably thousands of stories out there regarding artist/engineer conflicts. If you have any related stories or similar things to tell, please do so in the comments.

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Download this tutorial as a PDF

Listen to these tracks to see what you will be creating in this tutorial:

Layered Bass:

Layered Chord Synth:

By Daniel Rothmann (T7)

Introduction

At some point in your career of music-making you might encounter the problem that your synthesizers just aren’t sufficient for creating sounds big or fat enough for your tracks. This could, for example, be a really heavy bass or a big lead synth. Luckily, there is a technique of achieving these sounds. That technique is layering.

What layering is all about is pretty obvious, yet many electronic producers fail to apply it to its full potential. In essence, layering is “stacking” synths on top of each other, having them produce different sounds to more precisely achieve output in the areas of spectrum you desire. Let’s say, for instance, you want to produce a really heavy bass sound. This could consist of a sub-bass (clean sinus waves at low frequencies); a middle consisting of distorted saw waves with some filter modulation and possibly a 3^rd synth playing high octaves to the middle waves. Very few synths come with more than 2-3 oscillators (the oscillator is the component of a subtractive synthesizer that produce raw waves from which sound is built), and in this particular case, we will need 5-6 or more. That is why we will need to layer our synthesizers to produce the sound we’re looking for.

Method

Layering can be achieved in a number of ways: The first, and (possibly) most obvious, is to put 2-3 keyboard players next to each other, playing the same melody on different synthesizers. Naturally, this is a very imprecise and probably inefficient method of achieving the sound you want.

Fortunately, the modern day computer has made an unlimited number of totally synchronized keyboard players and an almost unlimited number of synthesizers available for us. The most basic way to layer synths on a computer audio sequencer is to simply create a number of different tracks with different synths on them and insert the same melody on each track. This can consume some time though, and thus we have virtual instruments that can contain (or combine) several synthe­sizers on the same track. This makes us able to play all our different synths via the same keyboard and adjust parameters on all of them by turning one knob. This can be particularly useful when you want to make modulations to the filter cutoff, creating a sweep effect. In order for the effect to be achieved, all filter cutoff knobs must be turned at the same time.

I’m going to show you an example of how you can utilize smart layering in Propellerheads Reason using Reasons Combinator component when producing a big bass sound. This is possible in many audio sequencers – Ableton Live sports the Instrument Rack which has similar features.

Build a big bass using Reason’s Combinator

For this tutorial you will need to have a copy of Propellerheads Reason 3 (or newer). I am going to show you, step by step, how to program a big bass sound using Combinator. You will also need to have some basic knowledge on how to operate Reason and how to program synthesizers.

1. First of all, open up Reason and create a Combinator
2. As you can see, Combinator opens with an initial patch with no containing instruments. This is okay. We’ll start by clicking in the black void inside the Combinator and create a line mixer. I have also composed a small melody in the sequencer to preview my sound.
   
3. Create your first Subtractor. We’ll program it to serve as the sub, setting the two oscillators as sinus, in the octave you wish. Try to set the octave appropriate to the melody you have created, so that it is as deep as possible without being inaudible. Name this synth “sub”.
   
4. Now, create the next synth. We’ll call this one “middle” and we’re going to make it pro­duce a harsher sound using saw waves. I made a slightly detuned sound, ranging in 2 octaves. I added fuzz distortion (Scream 4) and some EQ to take some bass away (it was interfering with the sub). Notice that the melody plays back on both synths at once.
   
5. I’ve continued the process and created 2 additional synths: Square L and R. These are basi­cally the same (except that slightly detuned from each other). They add a bit more power to the middle spectrum. Square L is panned left and Square R is panned right.
   
6. As you can see, I’ve made a few changes to the levels on the mixer in order to get the balance I want.
   
7. Here comes the cool part! We’re going to program the knobs on the Combinator so that we can modulate some of the parameters the synthesizers have in common. First off, let’s make a frequency knob. Untoggle the “show devices” button, and press the “show pro­grammer” button. Here you’ll see an overview of the instruments. Aren’t you happy you named all your synths now?
8. Click the device number 3, named “Middle”. Now, on the right where it says “modulation routing”, press “target” where it says rotary 1 and choose “filter freq”. You have now as­signed rotary 1 (knob 1) to modulate the filter of you middle synth! If you want, you can name the rotary “frequency”.
9. Now do the same thing for Square L and R, assigning their filter freq to rotary 1. Please note that if you have followed my synth programming precisely, you will need to assign ro­tary 1 to “filter2 freq” since I have assigned a notch filter on filter 1 and a regular low-pass on filter 2. We want to modulate the regular low-pass filter.
   
10. Now do the same thing over again, but this time, assign “filter res” to rotary 2 on the respective synths.
11. Save you preset! Congratulations, you have created a huge bass sound in 10 simple steps! In total we needed 8 oscillators for our sound, which is why we had to use layering.

Produce a “chord synth” using Ableton Live 7’s Instrument Rack

Inspired by Kraftwerk’s “Tour De France Etape 1“, I’m going to demonstrate how to build a layered preset that produces big chords from a small amount of input notes. It basically consists of 4 oscillators; 2 square waves with a 7 semitone interval between them, and 2 “resonated noise waves” panned to each side respectively, to generate some depth in the chord.

1. Open up Ableton Live and create a new MIDI channel. From your Live Device browser, drag an “Instrument Rack” to the channel.
2. Drag an “Analog” device into the Instrument Rack where it says “Drop MIDI effects, audio…”.
3. We’re going to program a patch consisting of 2 square waves – the first one will play the actual note we’re pressing on our keyboard or sequencer, and the other one will play a note displaced by 7 semitones (a perfect fifth). I’m going to program mine to have a fast attack, long decay and no sustain. Furthermore, I’ll assign a filter envelope so that the sound will slowly “close itself” as it decays into silence.
   
4. At this point, we want to add another Analog synth to play our “resonated noise” sound. Press the “Show/Hide Chain List”. From here you can get an overview of all the instruments featured in your Instrument Rack. At the moment we only have the one Analog synthesizer we added.
   
5. Add another Analog synthesizer. This part of the patch is a bit trickier to program. Basically what I want to do, is make two noise oscillators panned to each side (left and right). I want to put a powerful resonant filter on them, and have the keyboard key decide the filter frequency. This means that the Analog synth will produce a resonant tone that follows the key that is played through the Live sequencer.
   
6. I’ve turned down the volume on the resonant noise synth to make the patch sound more balanced. Now, put in some simple chords to listen to your patch. I’ve chosen a | Cm | Gm | B^b | Fm | chord progression.
   

7. Now that the patch itself is in order, let’s assign some macros. You can do this very easily. Press the “Show/Hide Macro Controls” button on the left.  All you have to do is right click on a the parameter you want to assign to a macro button and choose “Map to macro…”. I’ve chosen to map my primary synth’s filter frequency to macro 1, the volume of the noise oscillators to macro 2 and some LFO Filter modulation controls to macro 3+4.
       
8. Now you can untoggle the “Show/Hide Chain List” and the “Show/Hide Devices” and have fun with your new combinated synth patch with easily accessible macro controls. If you would like to save your new preset, all you need to do is drag it up inside your instruments list (under Instrument Rack).
   

The tip of the iceberg

Please note that the features I’ve demonstrated in these tutorials are just the tip of the iceberg – there are many other useful elements of the layering devices to be discovered, including key zones, velocity zones and map modes.

It’s a rainy day, perfect for holing yourself up in your room to work on a new song—and if you’re like most of the music-making world, that means firing up your Mac or PC, connecting your MIDI keyboard, hunching your neck and shoulders, and playing endlessly with your virtual drum machines, pianos, and saxophones.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Computer power has liberated home music producers in too many ways to list in this short article. Pair up some modest multi-tracking software with a basic six-hundred dollar PC and you can create sonic wonders. But this very blessing can be a curse. How would “My Life in the Bush of Ghosts” sound if Eno and Byrne recorded it today? It would sure be easier for them. Maybe too easy. Without limitations to overcome, artists get lazy and bored.

I’m suggesting that you step outside of the box—the box being the virtual world where your instruments live, where your tracks are recorded, where your project is mixed and mastered. Aren’t you a little tired of editing those wave forms? Remember that old Tascam 4-track cassette recorder buried in your closet? Dig it out. Get out some real cables, by God. Your hardware misses you.

Or how about a sampler? Right—you already have one. Maybe it’s the NNXT that lives in Reason 4.

Why not get a hardware sampler with some real knobs on it? I’m a big fan of the Roland SP-404. It might sound crazy, but getting away from your computer screen can really help your project. A hardware sampler forces you to make edits with your ears instead of your eyes. Maybe that boring loop will come to life if you feed it into some hardware and tweak it away from the screen. Maybe even run it through some outboard effects. What ever happened to that old chorus pedal that you got for Christmas back in high school? Dig it out and give it a new 9-volt. Make some room on the kitchen table. Set up some real, physical audio gadgets and make some noise. You’ll feel like a kid again, I promise.

When you live inside of the box, you start to forget about the great big world outside. It’s easy. Your virtual guitars sound almost like the real thing. Why bother hooking up your six-string and playing the part live…it won’t sound as clean anyway.

That’s just the point, my friend. Maybe that computer is a little too clean. It might be sucking the life right out of your music.

Hear me out. The box will always be there. One of the most glorious things about the DAW is its non-destructive editing power. You can always go back. But for now, on a rainy day like today, why not dig out the old stuff…send that computer-generated drum loop back in time onto cassette tape…slow it down and make it grimy. Turn off the dbx noise reduction and let it crackle and burn. Ahhh, that’s just the spice your song was craving.

Now you can send your work back into the box. In the same way that travel changes a person, travel changes your sound. Sending your audio out into the real world will change it in subtle ways that you could never dream up in your DAW.

What William Faulkner said about writing applies equally to sound. “You’ve got to kill your darlings.” If you find yourself too in love with a sound, chances are good that you should kill it. Or at least maim it a little.

So take that perfectly clean loop that you love so much and kick it out into the real world. Don’t coddle it. Let it see that life is hard. You might love it even more when it comes back home.

1. As I’ve written about before, the most common thing that prevents amateurs from getting a full sound is not filling the “box” that is volume, panning, and frequency. The typical dilemma is this: as more sounds are layered together, the audio may start to clip. And so, you turn the gain down on the each channel of the mixer so it doesn’t clip. But then, it sounds quiet. In order to fix this, you need to learn about compression and mixing. If used properly, compression reduces the variations between one audio channel’s highest and lowest gain levels throughout the track, which allows you to turn the volume up without clipping.
2. Muddy sound:

   When too many frequencies are overlapping in a mix, the result is “muddy”. To prevent mud, you must consciously keep in mind what range of frequencies you are adding with each new part. Inevitably, frequencies will overlap, no matter what instruments you choose. For example, two bassy sounds on top of each other will interfere, resulting in weird phasing issues. If you want to use two instruments that use up the same frequency spectrum, you’ll want to carve out the highs on one and carve out the lows on the other (through the use of EQ, you will eliminate too many overlapping frequencies and clear up your mix) The end result should be consist of many different parts that all cover different ranges of frequencies, which all add up to a full, clear sound.

3. Presets:

   This topic seems to stir up a lot of controversy in the electronic music community. Using presets, whether it is for beats, basslines, lead synths, or effects, can easily lead to an amateur sounding track. Let’s see how this happens:

   • A lot of VST instrument plugins have presets that sound very good on their own, but when thrown together with other presets, they clash. A lot of these presets are full sounding, filling up a lot of low and high end. Unless you carve out the clashing frequencies using EQ, you will get a muffled, muddy sound when throwing presets together.
   • Other producers will hear your tracks and recognize the preset sounds and laugh at you. I can personally say that I have lost respect for some of my favorite artists after I found out which presets or samples they used. Now that the internet is such an important tool for electronic musicians, samples found for free online have been popping up in popular electronic music for years now. The best way to overcome this pitfall and to find your own unique style is to record your own sounds and create your own presets. At the very least, you can take presets and tweak them for a few minutes to make something new.

   We can create original tracks by recording our own samples and taking the time to learn how to program a synth. I find myself dividing music-making time into at least two different tasks: patch programming and sequencing. Programming can consist of long hours in front of a synth, twisting knobs and fine-tuning the sound to perfection. It may seem boring to some people, but one of the keys to succeeding in your music is to be original and find your own sound. Taking the time to create your sounds from scratch can make the difference between a boring tune into an awesome tune.

4. Cheap reverb
   • If you don’t have enough money to purchase a really high end artificial reverb, just don’t use much reverb. If you do, tone it down so you can’t really notice when it’s there. The key to knowing if you’ve got it right is when your average listener will notice when you take the reverb away, but they won’t notice it when it’s there, because it doesn’t stick out at you. Tracks that are drenched in cheap reverb almost always sound amateur.
   • If you want real reverb, consider using the site tank-fx, which takes your file that you send to it online and plays it back in a huge reverb silo, where it is recorded and sent back to you. This is the only way to get real reverb with nothing but a computer and the internet
5. Using anything that sounds like “MIDI”

   You know what I’m talking about. Listen to the before and after of a trance track [from Rick Snoman's Dance Music Manual] that uses default midi presets:

   Before:

   After:

   Notice the difference. The first one sounds like it came directly from a computer’s MIDI bank synthesizer presets, and the second one sounds like it was crafted by a talented producer. Notice the differences and you will see what I mean when I say don’t use anything that sounds like “MIDI”. A lot of older sampler units equally cheesy and otherwise unusable sounds. Why use artificial reproductions of a sound that already exists if you can use a synthesizer to create a completely new sound that’s never been heard before?

6. Overall low volume, “weak” sounding

   This is a sign that the track is unmastered. These days, a lot of producers are mastering their own music with software such as Wave Arts PowerSuite, izotope Ozone, PSP Vintage Warmer, Waves MaxxVolume, Sony’s Wave Hammer, etc. Though digital plugins can really improve the overall loudness of your track, using them can never match the skill of a seasoned mastering engineer with an arsenal of expensive outboard mastering equipment. However, most of us can’t afford to hire a professional to master our music. So the least we can do is boost the loudness of our track with the skillful use of mastering plugins on the final mix of a track.

7. A beat that isn’t “tight” or “solid” sounding

   I’ve heard tracks where people used their midi 16-pad drum trigger to play beats on their tracks, but they never quantize the resulting performance. This problem is amplified when the latency on your audio interface adds a delay from when you hit the pad to when the drum makes a sound. I’m not saying that you should quantize everything, unless you are going for a mechanical, computerized drum track. In order to retain the human feel, you should only quantize to 75%-90%. Also, sometimes you may need to quantize certain groups of midi notes on their own, apart from the whole drum truck. You’ll need to do this when you have triplet notes, for example. Some quantize menus will have “1/16 + 1/16 T”, which means it will quantize to the nearest 16th note or the nearest 16th triplet note. If you have this option, you can apply quantization to the whole track

8. Looping too much
   

   Unless you are producing minimal techno or something, the repetitive overuse of loops in your tracks can lead to a stale, uninteresting track. Another common abuse is taking one sample and using it throughout the track, over, and over, and over again (minus drum samples, of course it will be the same samples), I’m referring to something such as when you sample a clip from a movie and then keep playing it throughout your track. If you want to use the same sample over and over, at least transform it or shape it somehow so we get some variation to keep things interesting. Slice it, dice it, pitch it, reverse it, flange it, phase it, you name it. Just PLEASE do me a favor and don’t repeat yourself without good reason.

9. Misuse of compression/EQ

   So by now, you’ve probably heard of compression and EQ, two tools that are used to sculpt sound. EQ seems straightforward enough, but you should always check which frequency you are modifying, and make sure that you aren’t just randomly turning knobs. To avoid this, use a spectral analysis plugin to view which frequencies your track is using. FL Studio has a decent spectrum analyzer included. Use it in conjunction with EQ to make sure you can see what you’re doing. EDIT: However, you should always use your ears to confirm what you’re seeing on the spectral analyzer, so it doesn’t become a crutch. Real pro’s only need to use their ears. (via this suggestion). And as for compression, it’s understandable why you would not understand which settings to use. Unless you develop your hearing to discern the minute differences when you twiddle with compressor knobs, you won’t really hear what you’re doing. And then it’s easy to use the wrong setting. To avoid this, check common recommendations for whichever instrument/part you’re using. For example, the bass part is usually a 2:1 through 5:1 compression ratio. Ultimately, it’s up to the producer to decide how much or how little compression to use, but if misused, compression can kill the dynamics of a track or just make it sound really bad. Don’t use a compressor/limiter just for its own sake. Use it when you need to keep a high-dynamics sound under control (to prevent clipping, for example).

10. Autotune abuse

    Some of you may think this program is the best thing since sliced bread. Please see HomeTracked’s post about Autotune Abuse to hear some examples of what I’m talking about. Even though the big studios abuse this program, and it’s easy to see why. It turns an amateur singer into a perfectly tuned singing machine. Anyone can sing now! Then the logic continues, “why should I learn to sing if I have autotune?”. Then it becomes a crutch, and demonstrates that you are an amateur. Not to mention it’s overdone. Cher was the first pop star to use it, so you know you should avoid it if you’re into making REAL electronic music.

via www.filmmusicmag.com

There is one basic fact about the film and television music industry that drives much of what you will read in this guide: it is a very, very competitive business and there are many more songs and instrumental music pieces than there are openings and places to use them in film and television. In Los Angeles on any given day, hundreds, maybe thousands of people are marketing their music for film and television productions. This guide is designed to show you how you can successfully compete in this industry, whether you live in Los Angeles, New York, or in a small country town far removed from the major music cities.

Location, Location, Location! The tried but true real estate mantra is definitely applicable to the film and television music business. A simple fact: being in LA or NY can make it easier to compete for work. While film and television shooting locations can be found worldwide, the infrastructure for post production, which includes music, is still centered in Los Angeles. Although this is changing rapidly as cheap digital editing equipment becomes available in other cities, in film work, the city that the director resides in can also be a major factor in underscore work.

It’s useful to note that song placement is much less location-oriented than score composing. Score composing requires a weeks-long cycle where it can be very helpful if the director and composer are in close physical proximity so demos can be heard. Song placement is much more easily done from locations outside of LA since once the director or music supervisor decide they want to use a song, the physical location of the songwriter is not that important.

That much being said, if you’re in LA or New York, make the most of it and seek out personal relationships with people in the business. Film directors, television producers, and music supervisors are among the most important people you can meet in terms of getting your music into film and television projects. By putting a face with a name,” you can increase the chances of your music being heard.

If you’re not in LA or New York, then you may have to work a bit harder to get “noticed” and get your music listened to. In this case, it may be valuable to position yourself as a newcomer, with fresh and interesting music for film and television productions. Especially if you’re looking for work as a score composer, it’s vital that directors be able to communicate with you as easily as if you were located next door. Make sure your email, fax, and voicemail services are in place and indicate a professional presence. Some composers who live outside of LA have toll free numbers or “rent” LA phone numbers through an answering service in the 310, 213 or 818 area codes to make local communications easy for clients and prospects. In no way is it recommended that you avoid being honest about the fact that you live out of town, but it may be advisable to establish whatever kind of local presence that you can, especially given today’s communications technology possibilities.

1. The Direct Approach: Filmmakers
   • Use as many resources as you can to locate projects that you believe your music would
     be well-suited for.
   • Once you’ve identified projects that you’re interested in, find the right people to approach
     for those projects. Hint: Dig deep to find out who the real decision makers may be for music
   • Examine your existing network of friends, acquaintances, and professional relationships
     to determine if there are any existing relationships that may be helpful when introducing
     yourself to your prospects.
   • Approach your targets with knowledge about their current and past projects, express a
     high degree of informed interest in their current project (the one you’ve targeted) and
     request permission to submit your music.
   • Follow up with those who you send your music to and determine their response to you
     and your music.
2. Music Supervisors
   • Identify a project that you’re interested in. You can use any of the usual sources for
     this, including the entertainment trade magazines (Hollywood Reporter, Variety) or
     any number of online sources that keep databases of projects in process.
   • Call the production company and find out if there is a Music Supervisor attached to the project. Usually this information is fairly easy to get, but occasionally you may have to do some “digging” and contact multiple people from the production company to determine the music supervisor situation. Hint: production company phone numbers are located in the trade magazines, but a handy book that lists many of them that can be very useful is the Hollywood Creative Directory
   • If there is no Music Supervisor attached to the project, you may want to contact the director, or wait until the project has advanced to the point that there is a Music Supervisor attached or the director is ready to listen to music.
   • Once you do get the name of the Music Supervisor, locate their phone number if you don’t already have it from the production company, and call the Music Supervisor. The key data to get is: what type of music are they looking for production “X”? Getting this may be a simple as introducing yourself, then noting that you are aware that they’re working on production “X,” and then asking if they’re looking for music and if so, for what type.
   • If you have music that’s appropriate, ask politely if you could submit it to the Music Supervisor. Be very polite, but firm. A key element is to be positive and enthusiastic about how you can fulfill their need. However, make sure your enthusiasm is seen as being directed towards filling their need, not about how “great” your music is”
   • If you are having trouble getting permission to send your music in connection with a specific project, you may want to try the “mentor” approach. It’s not as direct and businesslike as a direct submission for a project, but it’s been known to work in some cases. It consists of a change in tactics; if they won’t let you submit on a project, then ask them if they would at least be willing to listen to your music and share with you their thoughts about the music once they’ve heard it. You can
     emphasize how much you value their opinion, with their “years of experience,” etc.
3. Music Editors
   • When a Music Editor is working on a project, he/she often has to work long hours and doesn’t have a lot of time for meeting new folks. Therefore, consider using a “relationship” approach rather than approaching a Music Editor for a specific project as you might do with a Music Supervisor.
   • Get a list of Music Editors (again, the Film & TV Music Guide available at the Film Music Store at www.filmmusicstore.com can be helpful here) and choose an Ten Ways To Get Your Music Into Film and Television Productions assortment of them to begin with. Call first, and ask if you could send them some samples of your music. If this works, great. If not, you might want to try sending postcards to them first at the conclusion of each project you do perhaps monthly. The postcards might say something as simple as “Composer Joe Smith has just completed the score for GOING HOME for the CBS Television Network” or something like that. Then, try calling the Music Editors after they’ve received a few postcards and may be familiar with your name.
   • Once you have struck up a relationship with a Music Editor, find ways to send more
     and more of your material always send it on CD so it’s ready to be used in a temp
     track, and always mark the CDs with your name and phone number.
4. Work Your Network
   • Working your network means utilizing relationships and acquaintances you already have to work your way into a film or television project. The key piece of data you should remember here is that there are many, many different doors into a film project. Some are obvious, like getting to know the director or music supervisor. But other ways are much less obvious, like
     getting to know the 3rd Assistant Director who happens to be a friend of the guy you play racquetball with once a month”
   • To successfully work your network, you need to assess everyone you know who might know someone (who might know someone) in the “business” the entertainment business, that is. Use your existing relationships and acquaintances to get an introduction to someone working on the film you want to get your music into even if that “someone” is a grip (grip a
     worker who helps with physical labor on the set). You never know when that grip might be having lunch with the director or assistant director and mention this “great composer” he knows, and you know what happens after that”
5. Film Editors: A film’s editor is the person who edits (or “cuts”) the film for the director. Why are you
   interested in this person? Simple:
   1. The editor is the person who works most closely with the director for most of the post
      production process. The filmmaker will look to the editor for references and
      suggestions, and editors can certainly be involved in suggesting composers and
      songwriters.
   2. The editor can be the person who creates the temp music track on some films (see #3 Music Editors for more information on temp tracks). For the same reasons as listed in the Music Editor section, it’s great to be known and liked by film editors.
   3. The editor is usually hired long before music is ever considered. Getting introduced to a project early on can mean a huge difference for a composer or songwriter, as early music needs can be handled and there is all that much more time to build the relationships you want with the music supervisor and director.
6. Studio Music Executives
   1. Find out who the executives are many industry guides list these people. Develop a “target list” of execs you want to know your name. Consider including those who work with the big studios and those who work with smaller studios select a nice cross-section.
   2. Use the relationship approach try calling the exec and introducing yourself, then ask if you could send along a demo to acquaint him/her with your music. Usually, they’ll say “yes,” but whether they will actually listen to the demo is another question. The important result of this step is to get a “yes” to your request to send them a demo package.
   3. Send the demo package, and make sure to write on the outside of the envelope: REQUESTED MATERIALS. This will help the package not get dumped at the mailroom as “unsolicited” as many packages are, unfortunately!
   4. Follow up with a call in 10 days to 2 weeks and see if the exec has been able to listen to your materials. If not, try back in another 10 days or so, and thank the exec for his/her time. Don’t push too hard at this step….

Download the PDF to read the whole article!

Conscious use of space: just like any good graphic designer will tell you, space is important. In design, space comes in the form of white space, which is one of the most important elements in creating aesthetic compositions. The same thing applies for music. Allow your listeners to breathe, so to speak. You give them space and they will appreciate it.

Conscious use of effects: One of my favorite things to add to any synth is a series of effects and processors that polish the sound and make it pop out of the track. Delays are great for filling in empty space that you’ve created between elements in the track. Try adding a 3/16th delay to any sound and then adjust the feedback to your liking. This will create a sound that repeats every third sixteenth note, and will gradually fade out. But do not overdo it! If you have a lot of feedback, only play a note every so often so that you can still retain that space that is so important. Also, if you’re going to add effects such as phasers, flangers, distortion, etc., make sure that not all of the instruments in your track are layered with these kinds of effects. The purpose should be to make a particular sound stand out from the rest to create contrast.

Automation: To keep me interested as a listener, you need to develop movement in your song. Movement requires changes along time. The best way to achieve this is to automate knobs and sliders in your software sequencer. When you’re tweaking knobs on a synth or sampler and you find that turning a certain knob sounds cool, hit record and then record those knob movements in real time. Go back over the song and repeat the process as necessary to create a multi-faceted track with lots of movement.

So, let’s take a look at a good track to demonstrate these ideas:

Shen – Main Springs

Notice how the waveform of this audio clip has lots of peaks and valleys. This is how you can tell that there is space between all of the elements. Each element in the track has gaps between hits, which allows the listener to fully appreciate the timbre of each layer of sound. The bass, gated synths, and percussion all are interspersed with blank space. Now let’s deconstruct this song clip to find out what makes it sound like it does:

1. All percussion elements have short decays so they sound snappy. You can achieve this sound in any program by reducing the attack, sustain and release to zero on the envelope of all drum sounds. Then set the decay to something very short. Experiment with the decay value and notice how you can turn open drum sounds into snappy, short drum sounds. Short decays give the track space because there is silence inbetween all of the percussion elements
2. Everything is micro-edited. Each layer is filled with all sorts of 1/64th note edits. This is actually pretty easy to accomplish in any software sequencer. Just set the grid of your sequencer to 1/64th and start drawing a series of many 1/64th notes in a row and then making their velocities ascend or descend. Or open up your volume automation track on any synth and draw alternating low and high bars when you are snapped to the grid. It takes patience to create outstanding microedits. You need to loop a section over and over while adjusting it in real-time so that you can see and hear what you’re doing. It may take a long time to create just a few bars, but the end result is worth it. Once you have created a nice beat or automation track, you can copy and paste it and make minor modifications to each copy. This will help reduce the amount of time you will have to spend on detailed tiny edits.
3. Contrast is created between short sounds and long sounds. Listen closely and you will hear a synth with a short attack and a long decay, it begins right when the first kick drum hits. This long decay and sparse melody (there are only 5 notes in this clip) sit nicely on top of the 64th notes. It is pleasant to listen to stacked layers of sound when they contrast in rhythmic scale (from 64th notes to whole notes) as well as in the amplitude envelope (short decay vs. long decay)

Shulman – OMG



1. The first sound we hear is a thick pad, a lush sound with a long attack and release. Next, a stab-like synth jumps out at us. It’s difficult to say exactly how this was made, but you can tell that the filter on it has been automated so that there is a ‘filter sweep’ sound to it. Filter sweeps on the synths help bring them to life. To achieve this, edit the volume automation and use a pencil or line tool to create sweeps. Draw mountains and valleys on the filter cutoff automation track. Then add a little resonance to the filter to emphasize the cutoff. Additionally, this synth has a tape delay with a long feedback time, and with a Low-Pass filter (LP) on it. Notice how there is a large contrast between the original sound and the delayed signal that has been toned down with the filter. This creates contrast between the dry and the wet signal
2. Next we have a very synthetic pluck synth. It sounds like it was created with physical modeling, which actually emulates the physics of a string. I’m betting that this was a preset from Carbon 2, a synth available in Native Instrument’s Reaktor. There is a nice reverb and grain delay on it that gives it a sense of space while also chopping up the that pluck into granules and varying their spacing.
3. Next we have a nice cymbal buildup that leads into a beat and a bassline. This cymbal effect can be created by taking a sample of any sort of crash cymbal and reversing it. Then when it’s imported into your sequencer, the end of the sample (the loudest part) should be aligned directly or just shy of the beginning of the beat. In this particular track, it’s more of a crescendo and decrescendo rather than a crescendo and a dropoff. Reversing samples is a great technique for introducing new passages. Try reversing any sort of “hit” type of sound and it will give you a good reverse hit.
4. Other than good mastering and mixing, there are a few things that make the drums and bass sound really good in this track. First is the odd time signature if anybody here can figure it out, leave a comment and I’ll give you a cookie. Second, that filtered pad in the background swells in and out with a long attack and release on the amplitude envelope. This filter leaves plenty of space for the drums and bass, as well as the percussion. It is rich and warm sounding because many oscillators were combined and then the high frequencies were faded out with the filter.
5. Notice how the bassline is a simple alternation between two notes, and each pluck of the bassline has a long release time. This drives the song along with the drums, but it’s not complicated or in-your-face.

Well, that’s it for now. I hope this post has inspired you to listen to your favorite music and pick it apart until you can figure out how they did it! This will not only increase your production skills, but also inspire you to come up with your own techniques as well. And please feel free to share any of your own tips through the comment area.

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