Wednesday 26 June 2013

10 Quick Music Production Tips

10 Quick Music Production Tips

Here are 10 Quick Music Production tips by me, Joey Martinez.

I had this idea right? I had this idea to share some quick producer tips with you all and I thought yeah that will make me popular and people will be like, "Thanks for sharing your wisdom with us, Wise One...." And then I realised everyone who seems to be making music has become some sort of teacher or music producer Guru which makes me feel like I wasted 3 Years at Uni studying Music Technology was wasted hahaha.
These are quite vague because it's only text however I do aim to get some tutorials upon The Tube soon but hopefully these can help you when making beats in the meantime ;) 

1.) Stay out the red! Self explanatory really, whats out for clipping else your music will sound all nastey and distorted.

2.) Roll off the low end frequencies (40-100 Hz) of your bass. You'll still feel them but these frequencies will not be muddying up the mix nor will your track sound too bassy on a large system (hopefully in a club).

3.)  Don't be afraid to use samples. By all means chop them up, reverse them, side-chain them, pan them, mash them up (what ever that means), do what you want with them and be creative - just don't be afraid to use them.... how else are you going to fill that space between the kick and bass? Plus producers get paid good dosh to make sample packs so well worth using them.

4.) Get somebody else's advice/feedback on your track. You'll be surprised by what a fresh set of ears can hear. Feedback is the breakfast of champions too ;)

5.) Take breaks from the Studio (bedroom set up/laptop/music station etc....). See above. Leave it a day or two after you have finished a track and go back to it with fresh ears. Your ears get tired like your body does at the gym and when you go back to your track after not hearing for a while you'll pick up on sounds that were not there before and you might surprise yourself too - it might sound better ;)

6.) Have fun. You love music right? Your making music because you love music not because you hate it. It should not be a chore. If its becoming a chore - STOP! You won't be getting the right results until you have fun! Trust me - when I'm making websites, videos etc and making music, I don't enjoy it because I'm bored with making websites and messing about with HTML code, the ideas don't flow and it's all because I am not in the right mind set. 

7.) Listen to other music. Listening to other music and especially from other genres soothes my soul and gives me great inspiration. Sometimes I hear 30 secs of a song and that is enough to make me stop what I'm doing and launch up Ableton. 

8.) Create your own sound. Sounds obvious right? Just google 'How to Sound like.... SHM or Nicky Romero or Hardwell etc" These people have their sound. Hardwell sounds like Hardwell because he is Hardwell and so on. Part of the reason why the Swedish House Mafia were so successfully was because they created their own sound. Nobody else did it. By all means research how to make the typically SHM synth but try not re-write one of their tracks like I say as that sound has been done and why would you want to sound like someone else? Be your own sound

9.) Use a frequency analyser. It'll show you an visual picture if you like of the overall sound of your track. A good frequency analyser will show you nasty frequencies that the human ear cannot hear but will become present on a larger system i.e club speakers so then you'll be able cut these frequencies out.

10.) Last but not least. If you are tempted to turn up the monitors. Turn them down. Your ears will thank you later.

These are just a few music production techniques and are quite self explanatory but if there is anything that you do not understand or would like more info on please get in touch with me and I'll be happy to help.

I check my emails everyday: joeymartinez@djjoeymartinez.com

I'm quite active on Facebook: DJ Joey Martinez

And I have the Twitter App on my phone too: @DJJoeyMartinez

Also please let me know if there is anything that you would like to learn and I'll break it down as much as I can, simplify it and make it fun to understand. 

Also my new track titled "Part of A Movement" is out now and available to download from the best music download sites in the world.

BUY & DOWNLOAD FROM:

BEATPORT   










Monday 24 June 2013

Part of A Movement

My second release on the Spanish based label run by JJ Mullor 'Part of A Movement' is out Wednesday 26th June, 2013.

Includes vocal and Instrumental version.

Available to download from all good music websites....

Support the artist. Support the industry.


Tuesday 18 June 2013

Random Thought....

I know I don't take advantage and make use of this wonderful free blog service as much as I should. Mostly because I think 'erghh who will want to know what I'm thinking?"
But after thinking about what Twitter is and what it does I thought I should do this more.
And there is no character limit here either. So from now I shall be using this as a Twogger (I'll be merging my posts that I would put on Twitter and putting them on here and sometimes elaborating more).

So here is one for you. One tiny thought, that I think about and that troubles me.

DJs/Producers/Sound engineers may agree with me on this, when it comes to making music - for me I find the most difficult part when arranging a song is the transitions between build up and break down and vice versa. Now I'm not showing off here but I think the most simplest of minds can create a 4/8/16 bar musically loop but to create a 6 min track and successful blend an intro/breakdown/build up/ breakdown/outro successfully is a skill. 

Getting the right amount of white noise, the right amount of snare hits, thinking do you/don't you create a drumroll with those kick drums so it sounds like a cheesey 90s hit, zaps/no zaps. I'm always thinking am I using too many effects - could this be the new film score for star wars or will people get that i making 'progressive house?'

I think creating the transitions between parts of the track is the most difficult part. You have to make that what is coming next doesn't confuse the listener and that it remains at the same level. You have weld music together - it really is engineering.

Sure, you can say that a DJ does that when he seamlessly mixes to music together but we have technology now that can beat match for you. A sad but true fact. (I can hear the shouts at the back "Bring Back Vinyl", *tapping my chest* "I'm with you brother!") Any who I digress.....

But we don't have software that creates transitions in music do we?

So there you go, you have just learned something about me. The most challenging part about making music, for me, is creating those transitions so that the music makes sense.

I have lost count at how many time I have started a track and not finished it because it doesn't flow well and because the transitions aren't right.

Maybe I should make minimal techno where the elements don't change much and not much happens and everything just rolls?......