Making Music

Bounce MIDI to AUDIO. - its good practice committing to ideas - it enables you to see your ideas in a new light - Better stability in your DAW

COLOR CODE! - It keeps project organised - Its nice on the eyes/mind

SIDECHAIN COMPRESS before playing in parts. Bass and instruments.

OFFSET claps. - This stops claps getting lost in the mix

PRACTICE WORKING FAST. Learn your DAW shortcuts

give your song a NARRATIVE/Set the tone. -using samples, like vocal samples

Theres no relation between TIME spent and QUALITY of music. -The same applies to how many tracks there is in a song

FOCUS on IMPORTANT rhythmic/melodic ideas early on. Dont waste time layering sounds

Fix from SOURCE whenever possible. KEEP processing clean & calculated REMOVE silences for a cleaner mix

THINK: in terms of ENERGY, RHYTHM, VIBE, EMOTION. NOT: punchy, clean, analog, mono

Only EQ/COMPRESS when needed.

when you see a SPECTRUM ANALYSER, think in terms of OCTAVES

BOUNCE REVERB to AUDIO. then you can filter/ precisely control it

SYNCOPATION IS KEY TO DANCE MUSIC. Syncopate a vox sample and synth or kick

USE WHITE NOISE to fill empty space subtly

MONO is LOUDER, so use it when you can.

ALWAYS START your track with an interesting IDEA

AUTOMATION - Name your automation channels. E.G filter sweeps

Create TEMPLATES in your daw. Work from these rather than blank projects. Speeds up the creative process when laying down new ideas.

DRUMS SIDECHAIN EVERYTHING to KICK DRUM Test KICK and SNARE on multiple sources make the KICK the loudest peak in the song (makes mastering alot easier)

BASS SUB BASS should sit 1-2 octaves below root note. No reverb on bass Length of kick decides room for bass

LEADS group layers turn off individual track fx use 1 compressor/ reverb on whole group delay>reverb>saturation

VOCAL SAMPLES make more SYNTHS/FX from VOX SAMPLES. - humans love human voice.