FIRST: After much joy and suffering, my new track #SteamPoweredKnight is ready to ride! Check it out below:
SECOND: Uncle Youtube, you and I need to have a talk.
Continue reading “What Makes a Good Instructional Youtube Video”Category: Tricks, Tips and Shortcuts
Benchpress Your MIND
I’ve been taking up daily guided meditations lately, through this helpful app called Brightmind – the first 8 sessions are free, check them out!
One thing I really like about the Brightmind approach is they keep it simple, while organizing their meditations around various approaches, like reducing stress, improving sleep quality – important stuff like that.
As someone with ADD, I’m often frustrated with the typical sit-still-and-focus-on-your-breath strategy. But the directional approach really works for me.. And maybe for you too?
Continue reading “Benchpress Your MIND”If You Think You Hear It, It’s Enough
Never make your most important decisions when you are in your worst moods.
Robert H. Schuller
I try to get my most creative work done first.
Later in the day, when I start getting tired, and/or my mood tips towards the melancholy, I tend to focus on broader strokes – making small arrangement changes, a fader here, a riser there.
But the process of making something new, or of fine-tuning a sound at the edge of my ability, is something I think we can only do when we are in a state of positivity and mental clarity. You might say it’s mood-dependent.
Continue reading “If You Think You Hear It, It’s Enough”A Few Things I Learned From Blake La Grange
So I jumped in on a mastering workshop today, through MusicianOnAMission – love their material, take a look – taught by full-time engineer Blake La Grange.
Phew, all that name-dropping’s got me out of breath.
Anyway *eye roll*, the class seriously made me question how I’d been doing some things, but where it really blew me away was Blake’s philosophy.
Continue reading “A Few Things I Learned From Blake La Grange”If You Can’t Earn Money, Earn Knowledge
I’ve been collaborating with a couple of recording studios for a while now, and as of a couple days ago, I will (hopefully) be adding a third to the roster.
These collaborations aren’t earning me anything financially – COVID is too much of a bastard, and I’m too new at this – but it’s gaining me something that I believe will be even more valuable in the long run.
Check the title if you haven’t figured it out yet.
Continue reading “If You Can’t Earn Money, Earn Knowledge”Mixing on the Go
When I first started creating my own songs, the assumption was that arranging, mixing, and mastering a track were all discrete steps, each with its own individual goals and standards of quality.
Now that I’ve struggled through almost half a dozen songs and spoken to a number of producers in the industry, I know that’s DEFINITELY not the case.
Continue reading “Mixing on the Go”Control Your Volume!
I’ve a newfound respect for the bassline of a song. In the past, my bass consisted mainly of slapping on a low-pitched sign wave, maybe with a little distortion I didn’t know what to do with.
The result was a sound that gave some body and depth to what I was producing, but little substance otherwise. For anyone playing off laptop speakers, it was basically invisible.
Lately though, I’ve started to play with how to make the bass – and every track in my songs – more audible, no matter what kind of interface the listener is using. Basically, how to make some part of each track ‘poke out’, like an iceberg.
Beginner’s Guide to Purchasing Hardware/Software
A couple days ago, my Solitude XCS2 headphones broke. I was lying sideways on my bed, listening to some music, when the sideways pressure snapped the plastic connector for the right earpiece.
I quickly applied my masterful MacGyver skills and reattached the piece with some handy strips of cardboard and duct tape.
For SOME reason though, the headphones just weren’t as comfortable (or noise-canceling) as they were before. After some research, I settled on a snazzy pair of Shure SRH840 Professional Monitoring Headphones as a replacement.
Mid-research however, it occurred to me that others might benefit from my method of seeking and purchasing equipment that I’m relatively unfamiliar with.
Continue reading “Beginner’s Guide to Purchasing Hardware/Software”No One Knows Everything
Heck, not even everyone knows everything. But you know what I mean.
I recently started an exchange of services with a couple recording studios in the city – they teach me stuff about music, and I help them with their website, or blog writing, or whatever.
It’s a good system, I recommend it.
It also highlights something I’ve told my dance students for years, which is to learn from multiple instructors, rather than just one.
Continue reading “No One Knows Everything”Embiggening Your Sound with Stereo Widening
As I continue tweaking and twerking (am I saying that right?) my latest song, Sundown Ride, I find myself trying to ’embiggen’ the sound – making it seem to surround the listener, if possible.
The journey to get better at doing this led me on a quest to discover the secret of stereo widening. Basically I read a small collection of online articles and Reddit forums, and looked for commonalities between them that also matched up with my experiences.
If you want to really sink your teeth into this stuff, just scroll to the bottom to check out the articles. Otherwise, read on, brave soul!
Continue reading “Embiggening Your Sound with Stereo Widening”