Finding the bpm and locking the beat to the grid is the FIRST step you should take before tracking vocals in Pro Tools. Best case scenario is the Producer labeled the beat with the key and BPM, and everything lines up to the grid. This is not always the case. Here are a few techniques to make sure you’re locked in.
Fight latency, speed up your process and stay organized. Kill the gig and get requested again and again.
Released my first single ever on January 17th 2020. A melancholy tune I wrote after a hangover. Sometimes you feel low and that’s ok. Helps to say it out loud and move on.
I had a great time producing this track for my singer Noora. Like most of the stuff we worked on for her EP ‘Retrograde’ the backbone of this track comes from a guitar riff. The song is written in 6/8 time signature, which i really think goes a long way to carry the emotion of the track. Its something you can wave your lighter in the air to. Aside from the main guitar riff other instruments i used to emphasize the dreamy vibe were organ, strings, vibraphone, and brass.
Izotope Vinyl is a staple in my plugin arsenal. There's a lot of cool features I'll cover in this review but what you should know first is that ITS FREE! YES. FREE.
I had an amazing oppurtunity to visit Rio De Janeiro in January of 2017 during Carnaval with my friend Troy Sylvia after wrapping up his Melanina EP. I took every chance to hit record while I was down there and brought back some really cool stuff. I've put together a short audio narration of some of my favorite pieces below...
If you've never submitted stems from your track for mixing there are a few standards that you should adhere to in order to help facilitate the process. The following will detail generally accepted standards...
Programming hats can be a hassle, especially when trying to nail a more realistic sound. You need to focus on emulating the players form, the devil is in the details.
There's a feature inside Ableton's drum rack that can help give your hat programming that special touch. The feature I'm referring to is CHOKE CHAINS!
I'm spilling sauce today. I stumbled upon this method while trying to spice up one of my 808's. It can help give your bass patches more character, without sacrificing the clarity of your records. Essentially the trick is all about adding a small amount of reverb and distortion to your bass channel, but only on the high frequencies. Reverb on bass tracks isn't uncommon, but you should apply it in a way that doesn't make your tracks muddy. Too much build up in the low end can create some nasty phase issues.
I love incorporating old drum break samples into my productions. They can serve to give your song a much more natural feel and inspire new ideas. It can be a challenge finding one that sonically meshes with your track, and takes some tweaking to sit the frequencies in the space you want. Today I will show you a quick and easy way to isolate the transients in your drum break, allowing you to shake the dust off while still preserving the character of the sample.
