Forum Activity for @deltadio

Req: Progressive House + Deep House + Melodic House + Melodic Techno course(s)

Member Content Requests

Rather quiet on the forum. I propose the PT community should include a new section where we can suggest and discuss 'bangers'. The format should be something like: tell us about a track you particularly like, what is it about this track that blows your mind, are there sound-design, arrangement, composition facets etc. that stand out? Is there a how-did-they-do-it question you would like PT to solve? Obviously there should be a link to a publicly accessible version of the song and in your 'advocacy' you should rise above the mere assertion that you dig that song.

This idea of mine got started with the Max Freegrant banger I introduced in this discussion thread and today I rediscovered another lil Melodic House banger MEDUZA - Tell It To My Heart (Live Performance Video) ft. Hozier that  has spawned many a remix [remix 1] [remix 2] [remix 3]  (and quite a few more). I find it invigorating to share and discuss music like this and I am sure the process could broaden my musical horizon, listening and enjoying tracks that I otherwise (probably) wouldn't have stumbled upon. Even not sharing the enthusiasm someone has about a track could be helpful in shaping one's own predilection and style etc.

Any Output fans here? What about that new 'AI Pack Generator'? What about 'Arcade'?

DAW or Software Questions

Has any of you taken that (free for now) "pack generator" for a spin?

https://coproducer.output.com/pack-generator

it produces downloadable packs with samples and stems based upon your prompt.

And what about "Output Arcade"? A flagship that never sailed/left the harbor, or a clever little secret weapon?

Req: Progressive House + Deep House + Melodic House + Melodic Techno course(s)

Member Content Requests

Thx 4 that fb @ptmembership. I have now started to watch "Simon Shackleton's Melodic Deep Tech House and Techno Production [Pt. 1]", I'll make sure I won't drop out at  that layered kick treatment it begins with... 

As a PT member I perhaps should feel a little bit stupid not knowing about the wealth of resources on PT but this seems to be a theme among many a member. It would suggest the site could benefit by offering more structure, more themes and pathways (or a better sort of membership clientele of course). 

Gabriel Ananda set sounds nice, I could quibble about some choices and those chatty interludes but I now follow him on SoundCloud, but he'd better stop chatting or I'm out! I am soooo over the (even when unintended or peripheral) 'radio format', chat + music + chat, in fact I can't endure it all any longer, seems that the insane proliferation of social media has made this sort of commentary/opinion entirely redundant and worthless (yes, that would include my own!)

The format of a pretty woman* dj-ing in a panoramic outdoor setting (without an audience except for a few drones) is arguably quite ludicrous, and having them spin from  a converted bedroom or a windy rooftop is not making things necessarily better. Still, they were my gateway to Melodic Techno/Progressive House & such. Subtract the visual elements from those vids and you often have a very nice audio set. Some haters would say even their playlists are AI/App generated but esp. because some of these YT DJs are legitimate producers and/or bona fide DJs I'd like them to give the benefit of the doubt (and no matter what: these playlists are pretty good). I already mentioned two of them, but I might as well mention a few others because the aggregate of their sets chart the Meltech/ProgHouse territory quite well:

1. Nora en Pure  (the ice-queen of them all)
2. Sara Kraz  (my new favorite with some interesting musical choices)
3. Korolova  (one of the A-brands,DJ + Producer)
4. Miss Monique  (one of the A-brands,DJ + Producer)
5. DeepMe 
6. ARi (aka Metasin? Also accomplished singer)  
7. Mila Rubio  

* the male equivalent does exist, feel free to share your faves!

updated by @deltadio: 02/10/24 07:32:35AM

Self Releasing Music

General Producer Chat

Nice. Lots of interesting bits already to check out in this discussion.

DistroKid --> Beatport

 As for DistroKid --> Beatport @simon-unsigned already suggested there will be an extra charge "You can also release on Beatport through them (for an additional charge) and it will appear as a release on the Distrokid label."

There is a Distrokid URL, that seems to deal with 'distribution as an album' and I don't see the subject of 'label' being covered, it's my understanding you can specify a 'label' with every upload you do on DistroKid, whether this label information is retained at the BeatPort end, I don't know.

This is the Album bit: "DistroKid offers distribution to Beatport as an Album Extra for all DistroKid releases in the electronic genre. Beatport distribution costs $9.99/month for unlimited distribution for all of your artists."

This here the URL to the webpage:

https://support.distrokid.com/hc/en-us/articles/360015641853-Can-DistroKid-Send-My-Music-to-Beatport

On that same page a bit of information how BeatPort is losing the plot with yet another (in this case awfully named) platform: "BeatSource":

"Please note that Beatport recently stopped accepting Electronic (Hip Hop) and Electronic (Reggae/Dancehall) releases because they are moving them over to Beatsource. If your releases fall under these subgenres, reach out to us and we can help you out with the next steps for getting your releases to Beatsource instead"

Music Marketing

I stumbled upon a nice collection of short Music Marketing videos.  Music Marketing which is one of the next steps we would have to consider making after the initial publishing, and for which most of us don't have an appetite (at all). I'd guess there are hundreds or thousands more like these on YT, but this guy seems to cover many angles (and shortcuts!) and is easy to follow:

https://www.youtube.com/@AdrianBarrin/videos

Req: Progressive House + Deep House + Melodic House + Melodic Techno course(s)

Member Content Requests

A few kindred (sub)genres worth mentioning:

• Deep Techno
• Melodic Tech-House
• Melodic Deep House
• Melodic Progressive House

Very likely that I missed numerous others 'melodic' or 'prog' subgenres...

Req: Progressive House + Deep House + Melodic House + Melodic Techno course(s)

Member Content Requests

There is a whole parallel universe out there with Melodic Techno and Progressive/Deep/Melodic House, lots of dance events with DJs dedicated to these (conflated) music genres (although mostly defined and cleverly marketed as Progressive House) and plenty of YouTube starlets (like [both Ukrainian] Korolova and Miss Monique) who combine (some) music production with DJing doing gigs and sets all over the globe.

I need to stress that (as you know) Progressive House as a genre is very broad, it often used to have (slightly grating) Big Room influences but the current dominant trend is more mellow, soulful ... like: 

Listen for instance to this sweet lil banger from the Ukrainian producer 'Max Freegrant' (=Kysil Maxim) [YouTube Channel] who has an insane track catalogue with quite a few Beatport bops:

Max Freegrant & Slow Fish - Remedy (Extended Mix) [YouTube] [Alt1]

Surely there are plenty of courses out there? No, not really. Even less when you exclude the now quite dated Big Room infected tutorials.

How to assess music courses and tutorials?

General Producer Chat

Almost forgot:

25 Type of DAW (... don't say logic, pro tools, cubase or I'm out...)

26 Plugins/software featured (yawn, don't say you are mainly going to use fancy new plugins that I don't have and am loath to buy having already a kazillion vsts that I hardly ever touched but paid in full)

Many of the mentioned list items can be squeezed into a table on top of the review with for example a star rating (max 5 stars) but could benefit from a (slightly) more detailed discussion in the review itself

How to assess music courses and tutorials?

General Producer Chat

You guessed it still faffing about and procrastinating and not making good on my new years' resolution of sitting out/participating in lots of courses, but here is my final feint before I delve in: How to assess music courses and tutorials?

AI, we already talked about it, but I use more and more, also for delightful 'graphic art' and giggly text writing, I am a convert & fanboy fo' sho'. but I get to terms with the negative aspects by for instance always heavily editing AI texts  to the tune of my voice and thoughts. AI art on the platform I use has to  be declared as such.

I asked Bing AI (who reduced my verbose and detailed query to a search string 'dance music production tutorials and courses online quality relevance assessment') and it came up with a surprisingly (?) decent initial list (AI cheated a bit and also included stuff valid for any [online] course). Who has something to add to this list? See my own suggestions after list item 20:

[sorry for the white space, too much garbage html riding along]

I would add these:

21. Reputation/stability of platform, e.g. I paid for courses but they are not online any longer because the website has disappeared.

22 Fun factor: is the course enjoyable, is the instructor engaging?

23. Quality of video, images and audio (some instructors apparently don't know too much about recording commentary and voice-overs etc.), kid you not! Not all screen capture software  is equal and video editing can be a bit harder than you think.

24 Quality of streaming and website accessibility 

'Course relevance' (item 15) has of course a subjective dimension but it also needs to weigh 'is the course relevant for today's music' (is it on trend etc.) but you could argue any (old) course could be relevant for today's music if you make it so and/or contains transferable/applicable techniques...

updated by @deltadio: 01/23/24 11:46:35AM

Self Releasing Music

General Producer Chat

DIY record label,eh?. Although at some point I was charmed by this idea, I now ask myself: "why bother?". A DIY label for just publishing your own music is a tad bit sad, like the average 'self-published novel' and the pallet of unsold books withering away in a dusty room (comedy gold only if your name is Alan Partridge and it happens to be an autobiography with very few interested in reading it but you make pulping it into an event). It gets a bit more exciting when talented musicians flock together at that label and bring out works of substance with perhaps an overarching style signature but that probably is a bit of a pipe-dream unless you are an established 'brand' yourself and the market wasn't about to be transformed by AI. As @Petter already suggests: 'murky waters' indeed, even one unlicensed sample could bring your fledgling label to its knees with astronomical legal costs, and having a stable of artists and trying to keep business going probably would likely sap all your energy and resources and ultimately seeing it all evaporate in bitter arguments about money and percentages...(as it will always do!)

The higher tiers of say "Distrokid" already contain the possibility of one or more labels under which you can have 2 ('Musician Plus') or 5-100 artists ('Ultimate'). That Distrokid label acts as a 'white-label' so it at least on the surface won't appear as a Distrokid thingie. Obviously most music buyers and streamers don't give a fig about all this. To make a label a label is having the artists, great music AND a slick PR/Promo/Sales/Marketing/Booking apparatus, a very tall order if you are going to do this by you, yourself and the person you call "I"

Distrokid and similar companies already have all the hookups to all the main music platforms with pretty much transparent costs/revenue schemes, I am pretty sure you won't beat them at this game. And if you can't beat 'em ...

Now I don't want to burst anybody's bubble and if an indy label and its mystique is your life's ambition go for it. I vaguely remember I have seen video tuts and several e.books on that topic, probably all outdated by today's streaming market.

Having said all this, it would be nice if ProducerTech would give us a bit more tools to the 'métier' of being a music producer: like collabs, sample clearance, how to obtain remix rights, stems; how to promote, how to sell etc. What are you expect to bring to a live performance. What are  typical pitfalls in the industry. Legal counsel: where, what, how, how much? How to set up a (small) music festival or event?

updated by @deltadio: 01/22/24 10:32:44PM

Musical New Years Resolutions

General Producer Chat

Thank you @samuelclouston and @smillington for your encouraging feedback. This week I kinda proved to myself I do have the endurance to watch tutorials for hours on end on most days of the week but it was for non-musical subjects, i.e. Python and Unreal Engine. I did mix in a little LoopCloud (edit mode) playtime and a smitten of MinTech tutorial. I've got to find the optimal mix of all these activities but the fact that, surprisingly, I am able to switch to (a sustained) learning mode is already a huge breakthrough for me. The Python and Unreal Engine btw I do in order to make my own music videos. Ever since I learned the word/concept GESAMTKUNSTWERK I am fascinated by it, imagine that you have musical, lyrical, videography  and animation talents (and what not) that come together in a medium like 'music video'. Obviously, it is at the lower (or lowest) end of the Gesamtkunstwerk spectrum but I still like to arrive at that point some day, in a not to distant future... The end result probably won't blow anybody's mind but it will be something I set out to do and then after putting a lot of work in managed to bring about, to create... Warms the cockles of the heart even just thinking about it!

As for little bits of music to share in order to learn, I'll definitely give it a go (in humble appreciation) once a musical piece can pass my own brutal QC, the fact that media on the Producer Tech Community are accessible to non-members world wide is not particularly alluring to me.