DJ Chimney Sparrow

Start Simple, Silly

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

It’s Good For Me (Sometimes), Is It Good For You?

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.

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.

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.

Your Beliefs Are What Matters

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.

Do you take one path because you unconsciously like it more, or is your choice ‘random’?

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.

Get Bored With Yourself

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?

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.

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.

Remember, there’s a lot more below the surface…

Riding the Emotional Rollercoaster

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.

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.

broken headphones — It’s like you can’t even tell!!

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.