Hi all,
I’ll be using this platform primarily to fulfil the requirements of my blog commitments through SAE but also as a ePortfolio. I’ll be sharing my thoughts on what I’m learning and reviewing my own work from the years passed to where I am at now.
Please visit the Portfolio section to listen to a small selection of my more recent work.
If you want to leave comments on any of my posts please feel free to do so, criticism is invited!
Matt
I only discovered how fulfilling remixing could be in the past couple years. In the past I would strain myself trying to come up with new and interesting melodies and chords and I didn’t have a hope of writing any lyrics or singing them. When I happened upon some vocal acapellas I thought this to be a great opportunity, a test of my own creativity and force me to think outside the box and ironically, become more original. One of the first tracks I ever remixed was Somethings Gotta Hold On Me by Etta James, this same sample would be made internationally famous once more by Avicii with his track Levels. I drew my inspiration for picking this vocal stem in the first place however, from Pretty Lights, the remix and sampling master. I heard the track Finally Moving featuring this vocal and immediately attached my self to it. This was one of the first moments I acknowledged remixing as a legitimate art form and not just taking someone else’s work and labelling it yours.
In contrast to the original it is an extremely different track and by pure coincidence and luck it spawned so many other great tracks.
Here is the original by Etta James.
I usually start a remix by tackling the chords. If the original track was in a major scale I would then usually want to take it in a minor direction which is a little easier to arrange if you have your basic music theory. once that was sorted I then start the heavy lifting on the vocals and drum tracks, changing the flow and adding effects to make it shine and fit within the production. From that point it usually becomes a blur of VST instruments and plugins until its all finished up.
Here is my remix of the vocal, this was done quite some time ago and my skills as an engineer and producer were well below were they are today. It’s far from the best sounding track but it’s something.
That’s all for this week. As usually thank you for reading and see you next time.
Matt
For this weeks blog I’m going to be checking out Chet Faker. Nick Murphy, AKA Chet Faker is an Australian electronic artist and producer who hails from Melbourne. Nick is known for his powerful and soulful vocals and experimental writing style. I’ve been fascinated by Nick’s signature sound upon hearing his retake of the classic hip-hop track, “No Diggity”. This initial interaction opened my eyes to the possibilities of effects and in particular, reverb. In most cases reverb is often overused which can over crowd and “muddy” up an otherwise clean mix, Nick however has mastered this balancing act to achieve to create amazing soundscapes with immense space.
I’ve been trying to reproduce the track Release Your Problems from Nicks most recent album Built On Glass and have done so pretty successfully given my limitations. One thing I noticed immediately when referencing the track against my own was the huge amount of reverb. I had to boost my FX bus by close to 10dB in order to get a sound that was similar to Nick’s. The track has a lot of frequency build up in the low-mids but just under the limit of what I would call “muddy”. It’s super clean, defined and is done purposely to create that space. Clever use of delay is also used. A “Dub” style triplet delay really creates interest for the listener in what would be an otherwise empty phrase.
It’s been very difficult trying to find solid information regarding Nick’s production process so the only way i could learn about how he created the song was to do it myself. This was the first track I really utilised a reference mix to check my work against. I can say without doubt that it helped me a lot and I won’t “play it by ear” when it comes to producing from this point forward.
I’ve still got a lot to learn about using effects in a mix, especially for creative purposes as apposed to treating a problem. I’m always learning and producing and building upon my basic knowledge and small projects like this has been really important to my development. I plan on releasing the cover in the coming weeks and really look forward to hearing your feedback on how it compares. Next week I’ll be looking at the art of remixing, something I myself have dabbled in so I look forward to sharing my process on it. Thanks for reading as always, please watch the clip above and see you next time.
Matt
This week I’ve been taking a look at different ways producers tackle drums within a mix. I’ve stayed within the confines of OWSLA (label) and found some pretty interesting processes.
I’ll start by outlining the way that I like to get my drum sound. I will generally use one shot samples of kicks, hats, snares, claps and cymbals and drop them onto a grid. When I’m happy with an arrangement i’ll usually consolidate out a 4 or 8 bar section then duplicate that section and add embellishments or variation later to suit. I’ll talk about processing in next weeks blog as that will deal with effects and processing.I haven’t really strayed to far from this process as It’s habitual for me now and the only time I use MIDI to trigger samples is when I work with a preset within a sampler such as Kontact or the Drum Racks within Ableton Live.
When it comes to some of my favourite acts its seems they work very similarly to me. Koan Sound, Phonat, Kill The Noise and Skrillex all use the same principles when building their main rhythm sections; single shot samples loaded onto the timeline as opposed to within some sort of sampler or drum rack. I know that I do this because it allows me more freedom when it comes to processing and i can only assume that the same reasons apply here as I could not find any relevent information regarding why they choose this method.
I do appreciate and understand the concept of using a drum rack to essential build your own drum kits but i just never put it into practice until recently. During class I have endeavoured to continue using drum racks but I have this unrelenting urge to scrap the plugins and get back to dealing with audio clips. I guess having started out using Roland Cakewalk and Sony Acid studio as my DAW’s I grew accustomed to importing audio samples or recording my own drum sounds before drums racks within a DAW became more prevalent.
I’ll leave it there for now but take a look at the video above. Koan Sound have the funkiest groove and really tight drum programming I’ve heard, especially when it comes to electronic music producers. If you know anything similar please link it in the comments section as I’m always keen to hear more sounds.
As always thanks for reading and come back for next weeks blog where I’ll be discussing Effects & Processing.
Matt
For this weeks post I’ll be discussing how Phonat achieves his signature synth sound. I’ve read many different interviews and watched more video that feature Phonat to try and source some details about the software or hardware that he uses in production to further my understanding of how he achieves his sound. I did not find as find as much information as I had expected but I’m satisfied that it will be enough to outline the production process.
Phonat states openly that he does not play an Instrument and only knows some basic chords when playing the piano. When it comes to starting a new track he will lay down some of those basic chords to a click and then “draw in” or program the MIDI information using Cubase (Cubase is his DAW preference).
He only uses softsynths as he feels that through the sampling process most of the fat, warm analogue information is lost and MIDI allows him to play and create his on capabilities.
I found it very difficult to find any information regarding what softsynths he uses aside from Polysix for a bass synth on the track Love Hits The Fan. Phonat did speak very specifically about the processing applied to his synth sounds and mentions a lot of different plugins. The plugin list includes: CamelPhat, Yamaha Multiband Compressor, Sonalksis Compressor, Izotope Ozone 3, PSP Vintage Warmer. These are all considered mastering or dynamic processors and I really wanted to find more on time based effects like reverbs and delays, unfortunately I couldn’t source and information. He does go on to mention that He uses reverb to add space instead of adding reverb, which to me is really important when it comes to creating atmosphere and depth. Phonat’s music has been described many times as soundscapes for this reason.
I’ve used this same reverb philosophy for my own productions with some success and also failures. It is a difficult balancing act and when there is so much choice for what type of reverb you want today it makes it harder. I’m going to be looking into some of the plugins mentioned and have a closer listen to them as they may be the missing pieces I’ve been looking for (I’m looking to get as close as possible to Phonat’s sound).
I’m going to leave it there for today for synthesis but next week I’ll b talking drum sequencing. I may be writing again about Phonat again depending on what information is available but if not I will highlight another of OWSLA’s many great electronic music producers.
Thank you for reading, watch the clip above and feel free to comment.
So this track was the first ever track i released to the public and it was named ‘Velcro’. It did not get a very large reception and to be honest it didn’t really deserve one. I made this around three and a half years ago. I just acquired a sample library of some fairly decent drum sounds and really wanted to try them out as part of a mix. This was really my first effort into Production and I’m glad I gave it a go.
It is difficult to look back on the production as I didn’t keep the project, only the Mp3 but i do remember I did not apply any compression or equalisation and I placed a limiter on the Master as I had no clue about how to mix. Today is a different story, I’ve begun to open my ears and think about how to EQ and compress before even considering my effects which I never would have done previously.
It is good to look back at how I used to “sound”, to see how I’ve grown as a musician. My creativity has definetely wained due to a more clinical approach to producing but I am becoming increasingly more confident with the clarity and cleanliness of my tracks.
Matt
mattemoore 