Tricks from the Pro’s 12: A Crispy Side of Vocal Chord

Production Tips

A lot of new producers are working “in the box” these days with virtually the only thing recorded being the vocals. To get the best vocal sound on a small setup, it’s important to understand how to use your equipment properly to get a vocal sound that stands up there alongside a larger studio set… Read More

Top 5 Free VST Plugins

1 audio damge fuzz

For Ableton Live (or other VST compatible DAWs) Here are 5 free VST plugins for Mac OSX (and PC). They can be used in any music production program that supports VST, but since this is a tutorial dedicated to Ableton Live, these are  of course geared towards electronic music production. 1.  Audio Damage Fuzz Plus Audio… Read More

WRITING YOUR AUDIENCE?

writing your audience 2

Many folk deem good manners redundant and the behaviour of the old and conservative. In reality, inspiring leaders and career professionals (people who are taken seriously in society and deemed ‘successful’) approach good manners as the minimum requirement when interacting with others. So what? To forge powerful and significant careers for ourselves, we must address… Read More

Tricks from the Pro’s 11: Working on African Time?

BPM 90 000

Salutations and greetings BPMings! Most modern recorded music is produced on a tempo grid. A metronome is used to make sure that every instrument is kept in time and for editing purposes helps create tight music. Deciding on what tempo a song is at, is one of the most important decisions to get right for… Read More

MPC Style Note Repeats in Ableton with Impulse and Beat Repeat

able 1

For years owners of the legendary Akai MPC series have been able to create stuttering note repeats and drum rolls with the flick of a switch. Here’s how to achieve these exact same results with a copy of Ableton Live’s Impulse Drum Machine and Beat Reapeat. Step 1. Under Ableton Live’s device browser, open the… Read More

The Business of Creativity

Business_Creativity

We live in a competitive world where there are many more people than sustainable jobs. Most of us need to work to earn an income to survive, and love it or loathe it, money is quite literally the currency of the planet and we need to earn some if we want to be a part… Read More

Working with Loops in Ableton Live: Part 2

Warp Mark

In the previous issue, we covered slicing audio loops to MIDI. In this issue I would like to cover another way of working with audio loops, using the brand new system for warping audio, making it much easier to time stretch and quantise audio parts to fit your project… Alongside this is a new system… Read More

When Am I Qualified?

SAE 1

The Oxford dictionary defines qualified as; officially recognised as a practitioner of a particular profession or activity. A qualification is deemed, a course of study that makes someone suitable for a particular job or activity. Despite these simple terms of reference, how do we know if and when we are actually qualified? The answer is… Read More

Tricks from the Pro’s 9: Speak Now or Forever

Telephone_effect

Salutations and greetings BPMings! The amount of effects used on vocals in the past is numerous, and I have written about them before. They include the famous auto-tune effect, reverse reverb, heavy delay, reverb, chorusand so on. Here are a few I haven’t touched on: The Telephone Effect: Here’s a simple classic – take an… Read More

Ableton Tutorial: Working with Loops in Ableton Live

Ableton_1

In the previous issue we covered ‘Programming Drums’ where we created a Drum Rack and with separate audio files we were able to program any desired drum pattern. Once I have achieved the basic drum groove I like to introduce a drum loop to give my drums a bed. This can be achieved with any… Read More

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