Category: Mindset

TRUTH: Every single sound we hear can be reproduced using layers and layers of nothing but sine waves.

Incredibly time-consuming? Maybe. But it CAN be done.

On the other hand, many music producers start with pre-made samples, and adjust them to fit the needs of their tracks.

I appreciate that sample manipulation is in no way “easy” – it’s as much of an art as building sounds from scratch. BUT I believe it skips the fundamental stages of sound design, which is needed to achieve mastery.

Get the fundamentals down and the level of everything you do will rise.

Michael Jordan

Continue reading “Start Simple, Silly”

Full disclosure: This one will likely be a rambler. But in the second half, I’ll tell you about what’s going on in my music life, so that’s cool, right??

And if not, there’s always Uncle YouTube to keep you occupied.

Continue reading “It’s Good For Me (Sometimes), Is It Good For You?”

I’ve been musing a lot about the beliefs we hold lately. I’m tempted to call it existentialism, except I’m not confident enough in my understanding of the word to use it, yet.

It all started with a conversation I had recently with a friend on free will.

We are both determinists (i.e. free will doesn’t exist), so the main argument centred around whether it mattered if it existed or not.

Continue reading “Your Beliefs Are What Matters”

I noticed something yesterday. Each time I return to an aspect of music production, there’s a discomfort that arises and pushes me to stay with it until I’ve learned something (or several somethings) new.

It’s funny, because it really doesn’t feel like it’s up to me. Take the kick drum, one of the most frustrating instruments I’ve ever tried to mix.

Trying to get that damn thing to sound just right is like trying to compose music – while not waking a sleeping lion.

So I watch some videos, I learn a few more tricks on how to add more transient, or compression, or whatever, and play with my new tools until the kick sounds more serviceable to my admittedly green-ish ears.

Fast forward to the next song, and suddenly those tools no longer measure up. There’s some new elusive quality I wasn’t picking up on before, which I now need more tools to decipher…

You get the idea. Or do you?

Continue reading “Get Bored With Yourself”

Lately I’ve been fighting back and forth with a company around whether or not I authorized certain charges to my account. I won’t go into details here – let’s just say that doing your own research on a company before giving your credit info is ALWAYS a good idea.

The frequent phone calls and emails with various disagreeable persons is frustrating for its own sake of course, but more so because it makes focusing on everything else harder. I don’t want to be seething while working on music or watching tv with my wife, but sometimes that’s just how things go.

Recently though, I came across some useful info on the less-pleasant emotions, and how we might manage them.

Continue reading “Riding the Emotional Rollercoaster”

Before I share this, I just want to say that I do not have a Philosophy major, nor do I think I am reinventing the wheel. Nevertheless, here’s some thoughts I have. Make of them what you will.

March 4, 2021

Just finished reading about René Descartes, from a book <REDACTED> lent me. I was excited to learn more about Mr. ‘I think, therefore I am’, largely because another book – placing more emphasis on the emotional side of learning – suggested that Descartes had actually just given voice to our most fundamental misunderstanding; believing we are our thoughts, rather than our feelings. But now I’m wondering, what if we are both?

Continue reading “I Feel, Therefore I Am”

Let’s talk about ‘translatability’.

Translatability is a measure of how well music sounds, or ‘translates’, across multiple devices. Different speakers, headphones, PA systems, etc. bring out different frequencies of sound in your mix, so it’s important to make sure it sounds good on as many of them as possible.

It’s also a decent metaphor (I think) for how well what the artist hears translates to the general public.

Continue reading “‘Authentic’ is Overrated”

It’s another high anxiety day again.

These things happen. Some days I wake up and my heart is pulsing harder than usual, making me too wired and too tired at the same time. Sometimes it’s like a stone is lodged deep in my windpipe, making breathing a struggle.

It’s often tempting to take the day off, stay in bed, and focus on self-comfort. But reality doesn’t always allow that luxury, and it rarely helps anyway.

I’m not sure how other people who feel anxiety, feel it – is it different for each person? Does it change every time? For me, it often acts as a compass, pointing at the scariest thing in my life right now.

And addressing that thing, of course, is the only way to truly let the anxiety go.

Continue reading “Following the Fear”

Just watched a movie called XOXO, which managed to encompass both my worst fears AND biggest hopes as a DJ.

Continue reading “TL;DR – Don’t Trust What the Media Tells You (And Other Things)”