Forum Activity for @simon-unsigned

HELLO 4AM REMIX COMP!

Announcements

Yay! Another great Producertech Remix Comp

So the question/challenge for me is do I work in 3/4 for the first time ever or try and convert the stems to 4/4 (if that's at all possible?) - Decisions, decisions...

But I have decided that I'm going to limit myself to just work with the stems and the little bit of hardware I've got - I'll only be using Ableton as a multi-track & mixing desk

Right, this year, I'm finally making an album!

General Producer Chat

I'll be following this one with great interest - good luck! Is the Arab Trap track going on there? I've set myself a similar target but kind of the opposite; I want to release 4 separate tracks under 4 different aliases in 4 completely different styles - I bet you'll release your album before I finish my 4 tracks

Anyone want to make a track in 35 days?

Collaborative Space

so nothing new to report as I've not managed to get any time working on the track this week. So I've just told myself to think of it as hitting the pause button for a week.

Lesson learnt - Despite being busy with other things, I can't keep telling myself I don't have the time to work on music - I do, but need to be more self-disciplined to commit the time, even if it's just a 15 or 30 minute session.

Ear Training

General Producer Chat

Good question and a quick one for me to answer - I don't have any! But it's definitely something I could benefit from doing, so I'd be interested to see other people's answers

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