Monthly Archives: September 2012

Production Techniques

One of the Best- (and Worst-) Kept Secrets in Electronic Music Production

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If you have listened to professional EDM and then attempted to make it yourself, you may have noticed that while professional mixes “bounce” and create that urge to jump and dance, yours sounds flat and uninteresting. No matter how hard you try and fidget with your mixing board to get the right levels and just the right amount of reverb, it just doesn’t sound… Good.

For the longest time I had searched for this answer and never realized that it was right in front of me.

So now you ask, “what is this ‘secret’ production technique that almost all professional producers use?”

Well, once I found out the answer, I couldn’t believe that I had skipped over this technique so many times even after reading and hearing about it from fellow producers. This is why I call it the best AND worst kept secret in EDM production: because so many people have heard about it, yet few actually use and perfect it.

So, once again, what is this “secret?”

The answer to the “secret” is:

Sidechain.

Compression.

Let that sink in for a moment.

Now, you may or may not have heard of this technique, but if you have and didn’t explore its potential, you made the same mistake I did: creating flat, uninteresting mixes that didn’t seem to go anywhere, constantly making me frustrated and more irritated as I went.

Once I took into account this so-called “sidechain compression” and started to use it, I couldn’t believe how much clearer and fuller my mixes seemed to be. My song actually jumped and made me want to… Dance!

So, you may be wondering how you can go about and create this using FL Studio. There are a few ways to go about using sidechain compression, some easy, some hard. I am planning on making a video by the end of this weekend to show you how to create and manipulate sidechain compression. By the time you have finished the video, you should be able to effectively use sidechain compression and create tighter mixes.

Oh, and another thing: Using sidechain compression helps A LOT with creating final mixes (which I will elaborate on in a later post).

After learning the basics of sidechain compression, start to use it in your songs and soon enough, you’ll be able to create songs that will make the crowd jump instead of standing there flat-footed.

So, are you ready to use the best- and worst-kept secret in EDM?

Production Techniques, YouTube Videos on Music Production

FL Studio First Time Tutorial

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As my first post explaining how to use FL Studio, I decided to use a video that I made a few months ago explaining the many different aspects and functions of FL Studio to the first-time user. I have decided that most of this forum will be video-based because it is much easier to show how something is done and follow it rather than read it and have to guess on what to do.

The video has much of the information that you will need to get started on this DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) and successfully use it. Leave comments for any suggestions and hopefully in a few days I’ll be able to make another video on FL Studio.

Production Techniques

Beginning in Electronic Music Production

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When people think about producing music, many people imagine a few people in a studio singing and playing guitars while a sound engineer sits behind a mixer and listens to the music. While this is still quite common in today’s world, many people have started to convert to home studios, cutting out the record company’s involvement. Many artists have switched over from using fancy analog equipment to digital equipment, most commonly computers.

This is why I have come along, to help guide you through the process of producing music from the idea all the way to mastering and selling your music (or putting out an EP on Youtube, whichever you choose). I will teach you many techniques to use while producing music on FL Studio and how to create professional mixes and songs. I have only been producing for two years now, so I am still learning to this day about techniques that can be used in music production.

The main focus will be on trance and electronic music, as that is the area I have the most expertise in. By the time that you have finished reading this completed blog, you will be able to create many different electronic styles and professionally render your songs to send them to the record companies and start your journey to becoming a successful musician.