You know you want to be here in this picture, listening to the crowd shout your name. They anxiously await the moment for you to press the play button. As you do, the crowd screams and yells in excitement while the lights and people dance to the song…
If you want to make it here, you have to work for it; there’s no “shortcut” you can take. But as you expand your skills and fan base, you will, one day, be ready to make this picture a reality.
Cheers!
In the world of electronic music, we know that the best kind of music is one kind of volume: LOUD. But, if you want your music to have depth and volume differences without clipping, then you may want to use a technique called compression.
Compression is a subject that I am not all too familiar with, but am educating myself (as well as you) through a program that I have discovered. I have been learning all about the different areas of a compressor and how to use it effectively.
From what I have learned about compression, it is a form of volume control. When the sound you are trying to make gets too competitive with the other instruments or is too quiet, you can use compression to bring its volume down or up. By doing this, you can create mixes that don’t cause ear fatigue and have substance to them. It is much simpler than you may think.
In a compressor, there are different knobs that affect how the instrument sounds and how the compressor works. The six different types of knobs on a fruity multiband compressor are: threshold, ratio, knee, attack, release, and gain. They each have a different purpose and significantly affect your mix in different ways. If you don’t know how to use a compressor, it can create a mess out of your mix.
There are a few different types of compressors to use in FL Studio, and in order to use them effectively, you must figure out where to use them and what your taste is in sound. The best way to learn how to use something is to learn how to use it yourself.
So go on and try out a compressor in your mix and see how much of a difference it can make in creating a sound you like.
Cheers!
As you may have noticed, (or not noticed), I haven’t put up any videos on sidechain compression or mixing. This is because of my computer.
For some reason, my computer doesn’t like me. It’s probably jealous because I’m so good at making music. That must be it. (Not.)
Anyways, when I went to record my videos, I realized that the screen recorder that I use needed to download some new plugins in order for it to work. Needless to say, my computer won’t download them.
So, I am temporarily taking a new approach to teach you about production techniques in FL Studio without videos. Should be very interesting.
Hopefully I can get my videos up and running again soon.
Cheers!
In the world of producing music, there is nothing more satisfying than creating a good, clean-sounding mix. It helps exponentially to create a tight mix because it makes mastering (this will be left for another day) a track that much easier (plus it sounds AMAZING).
Now before we get into all of the technical jargon and techniques to use for mixing, I’d like to share a story with you about my plight with mixing in my early producing days.
When I first started to create Trance music, the only type of mixing I knew was DJs scratching and tearing up the dance floors with their mixing boards. I searched for nearly two years, browsing through websites dedicated to music production, only to find nothing. After countless websites searched, one of my producer friends told me about mixing. He told me that mixing was not only related to producing, but that it relied on mixing.
What I mean is, if you want a good song, you have to be able to mix well.
So, how can you start off mixing well? First off, you have to be able to identify all the mixing tools and how exactly to use a mixing board. I am in the process of planning a video explaining how to get started in mixing on FL Studio so that you can use these tools. After utilizing these tools, listen to your track go from a muddy wasteland to a colorful, contrasting work of art.
In the meantime, take a look at this website for some mixing tips you can use to get started before I post the video. Another great video to take a look at is this video, where a blond man with messy hair teaches you how to mix a better bass in your music.
Cheers!
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?
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.
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.