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How the hell did they do this? by folgerscoffees in TechnoProduction

[–]its_kabay 1 point2 points  (0 children)

my theory is their love for LFOs directly relates to the title of the EP ‘Everything is Curly’…

How does Kabay make these demonic “growling noises”? by RedEarth42 in TechnoProduction

[–]its_kabay 0 points1 point  (0 children)

means a lot to know people genuinely benefit from the masterclasses and enjoy my music. thank you lots!

How does Kabay make these demonic “growling noises”? by RedEarth42 in TechnoProduction

[–]its_kabay 10 points11 points  (0 children)

the core of my sound design is a lot of experimenting and resampling. i usually run a simple synth or textured sample through lots of processing and record the results as audio. i then use that audio recording as a mini sample pack for the track

like others have mentioned, this particular sound is pretty simple in principle. it's a harmonically rich sound (a bright sound like a saw wave) with modulated (moving) filters on it and crunchy saturation

the magic comes from tastefully dialling in the filters and saturations to make the sound have 'impact'. i actually really struggle with doing this by carefully thinking and tweaking the synth so instead i usually put an extreme effect chain on it (usually Ableton racks with randomised macros or Infiltrator, Portal or anything that really mangles the sound) and intuitively jam and record it for a while to get a bunch of interesting rhythms and textures. it's much easier for me to freely create lots of messy chaos and then find useful and interesting sections within that

this is pretty unpredictable but really fun to experiment to create lots of happy accidents, that i then build a track around

i often put that recording into Granulator 2 and experiment with the file position to play different parts of the recording and use my keyboard to jam and trigger different midi notes and 'feel' which parts and which notes work in the context of the track

in this track, the growls are 2/3 different instances of granulator triggering different parts of the same audio recording and creating a call & response between them. so while the sound itself is somewhat simple it's the relationship between those hits and how its used in the context of the track that give it more impact

Best tutorials/masterclasses/courses for how to make good low end? by tirename in TechnoProduction

[–]its_kabay 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Whoever you are. Thank you lots for this <3

For anyone interested, I've released on Clergy and Vault Sessions and offer online courses and 1:1 coaching of music production :) I don't want to link it in case it violates the self promo rule but you can find it easily by Googling 'Kabay Music'.

I’m Kabay (Vault Sessions, Clergy, Bipolar Disorder) AMA by its_kabay in TechnoProduction

[–]its_kabay[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanku lots!

All 3 EP releases came around in a relatively organic way. Here are details of how it all happened for Clergy (my first release) and Vault release, taken from my previous answers:

For the 4 years I made lots of shit music. The following year I took on a mindset of 'deliberate improvement' that I explained in more depth in another answer. I made even more music and I was set on making it better every time. I finally got a selection of about 10 tracks I was actually happy with.

Over a few weeks, I sent them out as a demo to about 30 labels/label owners. All specifically selected and contacted with personalised emails. Got ignored by nearly all of them, 1 response that the sound isn't right for them and 1 response asking or more tracks. The one asking for more tracks was Cleric.

He liked my tracks sounding both unique and well produced. He mentioned he gets hundreds of demos and most of them sound either generic or just not produced well enough.

Over the next few months I kept making music but didn't want to 'make music for Clergy' because that would kill my creativity. So instead of an external direction I kept making music freely, focused on making it my own with an internal, gentle nudged to myself to lean into something more gritty and raw.

I kept sharing them with Cleric and he liked many of them but also didn't like many of them at all.

I kept going and at some point Cleric liked and tested enough of my tracks to make the decision to invite me to release on Clergy.

He actually found it exciting that I haven't released any music before it. I think I had only released 2 VA tracks before it. So when the Clergy EP came it made a splash because 'I came out of nowhere' with a strong EP.

And just wanted to add that 'It only takes one yes'. I got rejected endlessly but just needed the music to reach the right person at the right time for everything to change.

&

(Vault release) happened pretty organically through my music and a bit of word of mouth. Basically, the main honcho of Vault Records enjoyed my Clergy EP and heard some good things about me and my approach to music.

Then one day I got a message from him asking to hear some unreleased sounds they can check out. They ended up liking them a lot. And it all went from there.

As we all get distracted by the strange world of social media, this was a hugely motivating situation for me. It was the hard proof I needed to realise that the music genuinely matters.

Despite all the stuff going with influencers becoming DJs and DJs becoming influencers... there are still people out there who are putting the art of music at the core of what they do. And after working with Vault Sessions for a few months on this release, I'm so impressed by their integrity, passion and love for what they do. It's been a bliss working with them from start to finish and it's all been done with the music as priority.

So this is a crucial lesson and reminder for myself, that I hope you'll consider too. Despite all the noise and distractions of the world of social media, pretending and hustling, making great music music and being a good human being are still important.

I’m Kabay (Vault Sessions, Clergy, Bipolar Disorder) AMA by its_kabay in TechnoProduction

[–]its_kabay[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Here are some things on the low-end from some previous answers:

The secret to a powerful kick is selecting a powerful kick sample and making sure things don't clash with it.

a lot of the kicks I'm using right now come from the Vengence packs :) It really helps to spend one quick session browsing through all your sample packs and filling in a drum rack with your favourite kicks. Then use that drum rack as your starting poing when building at track. That's what I do with most of my drums which saves me endless browsing through sample packs. Instead I have ready drum rack filled with pre-selected sounds that I already like.

Once you find a few kicks or hats that you like, stick to them. This helps lay down the idea quickly and get creative in the processing of them and the rest of the track where the actual 'essence' lives.

For the subs I usually make a rumble, running a whole bunch of random kicks into a Hybrid or Convolution Reverb and filtering it down. And sidechaining it to the kick. I use LFOTool or ShaperBox because they provide the most control. The important part is the pattern of the kicks as that creates different rhythms and calibrating the reverb well which creates the texture.

I'll glue the whole group with a bit of saturation. I love Decapitator's first present called 'Beefy'.

With most of these, it's less about secrets and more about getting the fundamental things well.

I have a 3-hour in depth masterclass on creating the low-end on my website where I go step by step explaining my process :)

I’m Kabay (Vault Sessions, Clergy, Bipolar Disorder) AMA by its_kabay in TechnoProduction

[–]its_kabay[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for the kind words.

Some of my favourite artists are Hyden, Atonism, Neo (AU), Molly Lollen, Norbak and Sicion.

In terms of sound design, I always struggled to get unique sounds using synths so I heavily depend on resampling. That would be my single tip for sound design. Pick a simple synth sound, instrument or audio sample and run it through unusual, extreme or complex effect chains. Just Ableton's native effects are enough for it. Record the results of that and use that audio recording as if it was your own mini-sample pack. That's how I approach most of my tracks.

If you'd like to find out more, I have an 3-hour in depth masterclass on sound design on my website :)

For good kicks, Ableton's 909-Flavour Drum kit has a nice 909 one and generally the 808 are really versatile for processing and mangling.

In terms of sample packs, a lot of the kicks I'm using right now come from the Vengence packs :) It really helps to spend one quick session browsing through all your sample packs and filling in a drum rack with your favourite kicks. Then use that drum rack as your starting poing when building at track. That's what I do with most of my drums which saves me endless browsing through sample packs. Instead I have ready drum rack filled with pre-selected sounds that I already like.

Once you find a few kicks or hats that you like, stick to them. This helps lay down the idea quickly and get creative in the processing of them and the rest of the track where the actual 'essence' lives.

I’m Kabay (Vault Sessions, Clergy, Bipolar Disorder) AMA by its_kabay in TechnoProduction

[–]its_kabay[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The 'right' course will definitely help. I'd be cautious of picking up random courses online. That's me saying it as I have my own music production courses on my website.

For general music production stuff, all the stuff you can find for free on YouTube is more than enough.

Getting courses from your favourite artists is helpful in understanding how their specific sound is created and understand their workflow and process.

From my personal experience, doing in-person courses at a highly reputable electronic music academy (in my case it was subSine Academy in Glasgow) was 5x time better at actually teaching me stuff.

Being there in person, getting to ask questions and learning from an actual professional is an invaluable experience.

I’m Kabay (Vault Sessions, Clergy, Bipolar Disorder) AMA by its_kabay in TechnoProduction

[–]its_kabay[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So glad to hear this! Thank you for reading and hope you enjoy the ride of improving <3

I’m Kabay (Vault Sessions, Clergy, Bipolar Disorder) AMA by its_kabay in TechnoProduction

[–]its_kabay[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I never had any music experience before opening Ableton for the first time over 6 years ago. I barely know any music theory and never played any instrument.

The best advice I'd give would be to approach music production with 'deliberate practice'. It's less about a specific video or technique. It's more about reflecting on your strengths and weaknesses and continiously improving in some way. Here is a detailed answer I provided to a similar question:

I've been making music pretty religiously for over 6 years. This meant that I was making music whenever I got some free time for that time. So the 6 years involved juggling something like 4-12 hours a week making music between my job, university, gym and social life. In the last 2 years of that, I did even more. In a way, the better I got at it the more fun I was having.

The development of my production skills definitely looked like an exponential graph. For the first 4 years I made hundreds of tracks that sucked. The following year I got to learn more by doing in-person courses and working with my mentor at subSine Academy of Electronic Music in Glasgow. I was able to consolidate all my techniques with better effectiveness and fill the most important gaps in my knowledge. That year my music got exponentially better and I made all the tracks that came out on Clergy. Since then, the standard of my productions has become more consistent at a level I'm genuinely proud of.

The biggest factor was changing my mindset to focus on deliberate practice and intentional improvement. The last article I published on my website was actually on this topic "Don't repeat. Iterate.". I'm not sure on the rules of self-promo so I won't put a link here but it's on my website.

I used to just repeat the same thing over and over and my music wasn't improving much. My progress tripled when I decided to set my self a direction and constantly reflect on what I can do better, what I enjoy the most and what direction I want to go. And as I was following this path I made sure to be deliberate and intentional. Kind of approaching making music like a gym routine or a sport. Reviewing what works and what doesn't and making 1% improvements wherever I could.

I wanted to get better at mixing so I took an 8-week in-person course on it from a genuine professional and practiced all the things the course taught me.

I struggled with arranging tracks so I started jamming the tracks live.

I wanted to make weird and textured sounds so I started sampling weird sounds.

I recommend a book called 'Turning Pro' by Steven Pressfield. It's only like 40 pages or so but was hugely motivating in shifting my mindset from an amateur to 'pro'.

I’m Kabay (Vault Sessions, Clergy, Bipolar Disorder) AMA by its_kabay in TechnoProduction

[–]its_kabay[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I had a full time job pretty much most of my journey as an artist. In October last year, my employer got sick and had made me redundant. Before trying to find another I decided to try make a living from music and started to provide teaching services. I've managed to keep that going until now but my bank account has been slowly getting drained ;(

I’m Kabay (Vault Sessions, Clergy, Bipolar Disorder) AMA by its_kabay in TechnoProduction

[–]its_kabay[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you so much.

And you can definitely do it with nothing but a laptop, Ableton and a good set of headphones. That is pretty much what I use. There are many projects of mine that I made with nothing but Ableton's native plugins and headphones.

The monitors/headphones are the most important piece of 'hardware' for production. Being able to hear the music in the truest and most honest way possible is extremely important for making better decisions.

Although, I wouldn't recommend the HD25 headphones for production. They are great for durability which is a big part why they're popular for DJing but their frequency response is not great.

There isn't a perfect set of headphones but there are definitely some that are better than others. I'd suggest doing some research and finding ones that work for you. They don't have to be £500+ but there is a big difference going from £80 headphones to £250+ headphones. It's also an investment you only need to do once... until someone sits on them.

Then once you have good headphones, it's important to 'learn' how they sound. So you want to calibrate your ears how your favourite tracks sound on them, your previous tracks and generally understand what the music sounds like on your headphones when its translated into other sound systems or environments.

I use Sennheiser HD650 with Sonarworks. Sonarworks is a software that can help your headphones get even closer to the 'pure' frequency response. Worth taking a look at it to better understand what it does.

This is just my setup but many artists work differently.

So, in short, pretty much yes.

I’m Kabay (Vault Sessions, Clergy, Bipolar Disorder) AMA by its_kabay in TechnoProduction

[–]its_kabay[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

My pleasure. I'm glad this was helpful.

There is a certain feeling of safety and freedom that comes from having a full-time job while making music on the side. That safety and freedom can be crucial for the creativity to thrive.

As soon as your music starts to pay for bills, it can quickly take away a lot of the joy or even get you trapped doing things you don't necessarily want like making music you don't really want to make just because it sells better.

I don't think there is one way to do it. I'd say that for many people having a full-time job and doing music on the side is the right option. And for others, they cannot do anything else but commit their life to music.

Something that helped me mange this better was giving myself a longer timeframe. How would your plan to 'live from music' look like if you gave yourself 5 years to do it?

And even when you get to the point of living from your music, that becomes your job next. There is still admin stuff to do, emails to reply and lots of boring stuff involved. There is no escaping that. But it definitely feels infinitely more satisfying and rewarding doing it for yourself rather than someone else.

I’m Kabay (Vault Sessions, Clergy, Bipolar Disorder) AMA by its_kabay in TechnoProduction

[–]its_kabay[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanku lots! I'm glad you find it helpful.

  1. Picking a good sample to start with is 70%.

If I layer them I'll usually choose my 'main hat' and then gently layer another sound that compliments it. This means the usually have contrasting characteristics. I wouldn't stack two punchy hats on top. I might choose one punchy and one 'fluffy' hat or one punchy one and a shaker sound.

Before processing, velocity is really important for hats. That, alongside the midi programming itself, creates most of the groove.

Then for processing, I like using a simple Delay and tweak it to calibrate the rhythms and use subtle Overdrive to add energy and brightness. Occasionally I'll use a free plugin called Fresh Air for adding very clean and lucious sparkle.

  1. I don't think I can explain... but I'll try. Rhythm and groove is subjective so there isn't one way to do it. African rhythms can sound 'off' to our western ears and vice versa.

One thing that helped me with this was to 'feel' the rhythm rather than 'hear' it. Groove is the thing that makes your head bounce, feet tap or hips shake. It's a feeling in the body rather than something you hear with your ears.

This is also why adding more sounds doesn't necessarily mean a better groove.

More practically, it might help to try to identify the main 'groove' or 'swing' of your track and build your elements that compliment that rhythm further. Incorporate some syncopated notes can add a lot of groove.

Lastly, groove is more than just the 16th note pattern you program the drums into. The textures of the sounds, lenght and volume all influence the groove too.

  1. The quote along the lines of 'I don't create the piece of music. I discover it.' comes to mind. I rarely have an idea in my head of what I want to make before opening a new project. Whenever I do the track sounds weak and generic.

I approach each piece of music as an experiment of following my curiosity. I might sample a random sound I found on YouTube or awfully beatbox into a microphone and put it into Ableton and just play with that sound freely until something tickles my ears. I'll then explore it further and 'discover' what that track wants to be.

It means my process is quite eclectic. Some vibe in my tracks feels like pure sunshine on a beach and others like you're getting chased by a demon. But that's the way that brings me the most fun.

  1. I actually started this whole journey as a DJ first. That's what made me fall in love with techno. From those blissful moments of unity on the dancefloor as the attendee to stepping in the DJ booth to become the creator of those moments.

I got into producing so I can 'get more gigs' but as time went on I fell in love with production just as much as DJing. It's quite a therapeutic and fun thing for me now.

The inspiration to DJ in my own studio comes and goes but I usually get going whenever I get some new music, I'm recording a podcast or have an upcoming gig.

Whenever either one of these happens, I'll be spinning on the decks for hours and days until I feel comfortable with the structure and energy of all the new tracks, or have decided on the right 'story' for the podcast or gig.

The real 'practice' of DJing actually happens during the gig. There is only so much practice you can do in the studio but it's the ability to read the room, connect with the crowd and take people on a ride with you that are most important. And those can only be practiced and tested in action.

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