Forum Activity for @simon-unsigned

Anyone want to make a track in 35 days?

Collaborative Space

The aim of week 4 is to just carry on with the same workflow and reach a point where the structure of the track is fully finished, so all the little fx, transitions and the automations are in place. And you should start to listen back to the reference tracks more as you start mixing the track.

The main workflow steps are:
- Work on the track
- Export the audio
- Take a break
- Listen to the audio and make a note of things to work on in your next session

If you've created a rough mix as you go, it will be just a case of moving it along.

Or you might want to take a step back and reset a few things or try a technique such as setting levels to pink noise.

By the end of week 4 you should have a finished track that is mixed so you can export it and compare to your reference tracks (ideally gain matched) on as many different systems as you can.
updated by @simon-unsigned: 03/21/22 12:57:23PM

Anyone want to make a track in 35 days?

Collaborative Space

Nightmare week! worked on a really good session, tweaked quite a few elements and was really happy with how it was sounding then... Ableton froze and crashed! I'm not sure why but I didn't even get the option to recover my set after rebooting. Hasn't crashed in ages so I guess I was due one, but gutted the recover set didn't work.

So lesson learnt - hit CTRL+S every 15 minutes! I made a note of all the things I could remember doing and tried to re-do it in my next session, but it just didn't sound as good as I remember from the previous session (might just have been a psychologic thing?).

But anyway, still trying to make up for lost time, I think I'm about a week behind where I should be now and onto week 4...

Anyone want to make a track in 35 days?

Collaborative Space

Thought it was about time I posted an audio file of the work in progress - think I still need to take one or two elements out, but I'm (relatively) happy with the parts I've got in there. Arrangement is just in broad blocks for now and my next focus is on a rough mix and starting to finalise the arrangement sections and think about transitions.

https://community.producertech.com/simon-unsigned/uploaded_audio/222/35days-track

New track Aurora

Let us hear you!

Like it! and yes, definitely up near the top of the banging end of the Techno spectrum! Just from my personal taste and it's possibly a bit of cliche, but I think it could benefit from a bigger build-up with more tension and a release when the kick comes back in @2:45

What's your top 10 Albums?

General Producer Chat

Saw this Tweet the other day from Simon Shackleton discussing whether EPs are still relevant

https://twitter.com/S_K_Shackleton/status/1500012350660919303?s=20&t=Xl64OeymXSAqSBtol1KDXg

And it got me thinking one stage further back in time - who here remembers Albums?

I know that vinyl is creating a bit of a comeback and Adele made a stand recently, but it definitely feels like the 'Golden Age' of when an artist would package up a batch of songs onto a piece of vinyl, tape or metallic plastic and release it for us to buy and listen to in a single sitting, is now becoming a thing of the past.

Personally I think that's a shame and seeing as I'm a bit of a Nick Hornby-like nerd, it made me think about what my all-time top 10 favourite albums might be. So I came up with a list and the only rule I applied was I wasn't allowed to pick any various artist compilations or greatest hits albums, they had to be albums released by a band or artist as a distinct collection of work.

Here's my list, which could have easily been a different set of 10 on any other given day, as I did switch a few out; Daft Punk and Leftfield didn't make the cut and when I'm feeling a bit more nostalgic for my childhood, Rio by Duran Duran might get added in.

I wanted to pick albums where I felt nearly every track stood out in some way and every one contributed to making the album what it is as a listening experience.

So here goes, in no particular order...

Massive Attack - Blue Lines
The KLF - Chill Out
Public Enemy - It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back
Seal - Seal
Jean-Michel Jarre - Oxygene
Phil Collins - Face Value
Royksopp - Melody AM
Moby - Play
Kraftwerk - Man Machine
Air - Moon Safari


Would be really interesting to see other people's top 10s...

Anyone want to make a track in 35 days?

Collaborative Space

Here's the plan for this week:

Week 3 – Finish writing the track

The overall aim this week is to take the basic track you have from the end of week 2, listen to it over several sessions and decide if anything isn’t working and needs tweaking, replacing or just removing.

This is the middle week and the real filling in the sandwich! It’s now that you start committing to your ideas to make up your final track, finalising sound design, adding all the little ear candy parts and start thinking about transitions, automation and the overall mix.

Make a start by working on the items you identified in your list at the end of week 2. Then repeat the following process, as often as you can or is needed.

At the end of every day or session:
1. Export the audio, take a break then listen to it away from your studio/DAW, on a different set of speakers

2. Also listen to it alongside your reference tracks

3. Make notes on what you want to add/remove/change:
Write down how long you think you should commit to making each change in minutes
Try to estimate in 5 min chunks and no single item should take longer than 25 minutes

4. Before your next session, go through the list a pick one or more item to work on where the total time you have estimated is no longer than 25 mins.

5. If you’re planning on working on the track for more than 30 mins, then repeat the process grouping the tasks into chunks of 25 minutes

6. Start your session, set a timer for 25 minutes and start working on the first batch of items

7. When the 25 minutes is up, stop and take a 5 minute break away from your DAW and other music/sound to reset your brain and ears

8. If you didn’t finish, start your timer again and work on them for another 25 mins

9. If you’ve still not finished, try and improve your estimations

10. Take another 5 minute break and then work on the next batch of tasks

11. At the end of the session, loop back up to point 1 above by exporting the audio and repeat…

All the above steps can be tweaked to work in a way that might suit you better.

At the end of week 3 your track should be pretty much finished in terms of composition and also starting to sound more like a finished track. Specially you should have;

- Finished all track elements including transitions & fx

- Laid out the final arrangement

- Started to add insert and send/return effects and making some basic mix decisions/adjustments

Anyone want to make a track in 35 days?

Collaborative Space

So my Week 2 didn't quite go to plan. Due to a mix of work and family commitments, I managed to get very little time working on the track, so didn't make as much progress as I would have liked. Plus, on one of my longer sessions, I ended up down a rabbit hole trying to get the hi hats working 'better' which is the type of thing I was telling myself I needed to stop doing!

So lesson learnt, I've told myself not to do it again

Now onto Week 3 to try and make up some time...

Anyone want to make a track in 35 days?

Collaborative Space

Here's the framework for the rest of week 2:

Part 2 (Days 3 to 7): Complete and finalise all your parts and combine them into the arrangement sections.

Finish creating all the main elements that will go into your track. If you’ve only got them all running in a loop, lay them out into the different sections of your arrangement map.

Now the parts are working within the different arrangement sections, consider whether any parts aren’t working and replace them if needed. It’s best to make these decisions as early as possible and commit to your parts and arrangement before progressing further with the track.

Work on the minor elements; fills and stabs etc so you’ve got all the content laid out across the whole arrangement.

Make any sound design tweaks you think are needed and start to make some fundamental mix decisions and basic eq adjustments – the track should be starting to gel together and you should have a clear idea how it’s going to sound as a finished track.

If there are any major mix automation/transition sections e.g. filter/EQ sweeps, you should start putting the basic elements of these in now, but not aiming to have the finished result yet.

Depending on your progress, carry out the following steps either right at the end of the week or if the track is starting to take shape sooner you can do the following process multiple times between sessions:
- Export the track as an audio file
- Transfer the file onto a phone/cloud drive; somewhere you can listen to it away from your DAW and on a different set of speakers/headphones
- After a break (ideally the next day), listen to the audio file (important to do this away from your DAW) with a notebook and make a list of anything obvious you want to improve
- Ideally your notes should be specific and actionable e.g.
- Tune or replace the snare sound so it fits with the rest of the drums
- Add some shuffle to the hi hat pattern
- Layer an additional sub bass sound into the bassline
- Change the pad chords at the end of 8 bars to create more tension

At the end of week 2 you should have…
- A complete track with all your parts laid out across the arrangement timeline
- Basic mix/eq settings on some of the tracks
- An audio export of the track so far
- Written notes of areas that you need to work on

Anyone want to make a track in 35 days?

Collaborative Space

I've made a start by jamming out a rough 1 bar bassline that I like the sound of and then auditioned vocal samples from the free members pack of Future House Acapellas. There's some really great sounding and usable stuff in there that I've cut into a few pieces to fit in around my bassline - so that was good timing.

Drums-wise it's all pretty formulaic tech-house stuff and I've pulled together;

- 3 kick drum samples that I'll be layering (credit: Simon Shackleton)
- 3 claps that I'll also layer
- 3 different hat loops that I've cut and spliced into a groove
- 2 shaker loops that also edited to combine into a new groove
- Snare
- Cowbell
- 3 different Conga loops that I've edited and will audition/decide on one once I've got the drums into a solid groove

I've also got a couple of pluck stabs and a riser sound

Next steps are to;
- Work on the drums a bit more to get them to gel as a single groove/shuffle
- Find another melodic/percussive sound
- Start to lay out all the parts into the main arrangement sections to see how it starts to flow

Anyone want to make a track in 35 days?

Collaborative Space

So on to Week 2 and when the fun starts (deconstructing the reference track was a bit tedious).

Again, it's broken down into 2 parts;

Part 1 (Days 1 to 2): Create your main parts

- Focus on drums, bass, chords and/or key elements and create at least half of all elements, but create as many as you have time for with a focus on the core parts.

- Create the basic rhythms or harmony/melody ideas – start with the parts that feel most obvious at this stage, where you have the most inspiration and carry on from there.

- You can either work along with your parts laid out across your arrangement map or just build everything within an 8/16/32 bar loop.

- As soon as you can, decide or work out the key of the track.