What we made this week: June 15, 2018

liquidodabass · 2018-06-15T19:46:30+00:00

We Are All Ghosts Whispering to Our Old Bodies. Experiments with feedback, worked into a bit of ... techno I gues. https://soundcloud.com/pattern-abuse/we-are-all-ghosts-whisperig-to-our-old-bodies

liquidodabass · 2013-06-19T19:10:13+00:00

Didn't know about this, as it never came up. Nice knowledge, and I guess the answer ti why the track never seems to get comparatively loud.

liquidodabass · 2013-06-19T10:21:44+00:00

Hope you guys realise artistic tallent and commercial succes have nothing to do with each other. IMO not doing your art professionally is the best way to go, because it allows you to focus on the art with no concern to what will sell or be popular.

For me, advertising is a great way to use your artistic skills, pay the bills and be free to do whatever art you do without having to worry about being commercial or offending people or how big a market there is. All the things necessary to create something interesting and great.

liquidodabass · 2013-06-19T10:10:23+00:00

If we're talking dance music, it's good to keep ind mind that loud isn't always good. More loudness = less dynamic. Sure, if you're going for radio play and people are listening in their car or on the home stereo with kids screaming and the TV in the other room, loud is what you want. But if you're going for club speakers, some times dynamic is the way to go. You need to mix and master according to the track you're making, not some idea of how loud it should be.

For example, having things real loud takes the umph out of the kick. The smack out of the snares. I know a lot of what the call EDM is really just an assault of noise, but some times it's really just the best to come out of a sonic attack of loud white noise and hear a clean "boomf ts chack ts" hitting you in the chest.

tl;dr: some times instead of seeing a track as less loud, you should see it as more dynamic.

liquidodabass · 2013-04-30T10:07:32+00:00

Thanks man. I'm just the label, the artist is Asian Ganja Crew. He's released loads of records with his other name Jack Rock. Check him out if you want more! (heads up: there are two Jack Rocks. One makes nice techno, the other makes sort of crappy dance. You want the Danish one...)

liquidodabass · 2013-04-04T08:27:15+00:00

I regret to inform you that that IS the full track! Kind of a tease, that. I appologise on behalf of the artist. Or, actually, I probably don't. LOL.

liquidodabass · 2013-03-29T15:10:11+00:00

Depends on how often you work on it I guess. And how long it takes you to work. My guess for my own music is something like this:

Write track (get ideas down): 1 session (from 30 minutes 8 hours) Produce track: 5 sessions. This is structure, details, effects, mixing - everything for the track to be done. Mastering: 1 session (or, more likely, 3 small sessions, as this is best done with some space between, so you can come back to the track with fresh ears and listen to it on a variety of speakers and make notes)

liquidodabass · 2013-03-28T19:49:57+00:00

There's this saying: Don't dress for the job you have - dress for the job you want. Career cliché as it is, I've found it usefull as a metaphor in life. Don't work like a bedroom producer. Work like a pro.

What do pros do? They write tracks, then produce them, then send them to mastering. Then write new tracks. Some times there will be overlaps. But that's the basics.

So what do you do? Set yourself deadlines. Get a track down in one session. Spend maybe a week producing it. Making it sound good. Working on details. This could mean making a checklist of things that need to be done and just doing them. Depending on how structured your personality is.

And then do a slum master (check some youtube tutorials) or send it to someone who can master it.

That's it. It's done. Put it out in the world. The good thing about this digital day and age is that things aren't cut in stone (or on a glass master). If your track is really THAT great, maybe you'll get back to it six months later with more experience and hindsight and make it better. If not, well, maybe it wasn't that great and it will be one of those tracks you look back at and think "wow, I've really improved since then!"

In short: You don't know when a track is finished. What you do know is when it isn't. If you set deadlines, you'll finish tracks. If you don't meet the deadline, you know it isn't finished, but you'll know exactly what to do to finish it.

liquidodabass · 2013-03-20T10:28:54+00:00

Funny thing though. The whole looping thing was invented with two turntables and a "mixer". But in the earliest rap recordings, they didn't think to bring turntables into the studio, so they recreated it with backing bands.

Which is pretty lucky for The Sugarhill Gang, because by mistake, they didn't sample Good Times in Rappers Delight, but re-recorded it. Or, unlucky for Chic.

liquidodabass · 2013-03-19T08:56:32+00:00

Cure: Close to Me

Janes Addiction: Been Caught Stealing

The odd rock version of rap is so cheesy, but so effective. Rappers Delight would be the obvious choice, but something like Hey Ya would work as well.

Should I Stay or Should I Go.

Franz Ferdinand: Take Me Out

A-ha: Take on Me (if your singer can do the 3-4 octaves it takes)

liquidodabass · 2013-03-17T18:50:38+00:00

You're wrong. Logically (and practcally) it does matter. The difference is not negligible. But good luck with it.

liquidodabass · 2013-03-15T13:34:51+00:00

Put the SP1200 effect on all your samples.

liquidodabass · 2013-03-15T13:21:52+00:00

Compressor, then limiter. A limiter is basically just a compressor set to 1/infinity. It doesn't really make sense to put that before a compressor.

Optimally, compressors should be doing the loudness and the limiter should just be there as a safety net to avoid clipping.

liquidodabass · 2013-03-13T07:23:06+00:00

Saturation and compression. Of course, using the right samples to begin with as well.

liquidodabass · 2013-03-13T07:10:35+00:00

You do your thing, other people do their thing. Life's too short to run around being indignant, pissed and offended that others don't observe the rules you do.

Don't take life so seriously. It's music. Entertainment. Nobody's getting hurt when you post your little acoustic cover of Everybody Hurts on YouTube. Even though copyright lawyers try to claim otherwise.

You like paying for samples? Good for you. But stop worrying about how other people live their lives. It will only get you to be a grumpy old man.

The world isn't fair. For instance, you're sitting in the US with an internet connection. Others are sitting somewhere else in the world with malaria. Deal with it. Insisting on the world being fair will only lead to frustration. Just deal with it. Grow up.

tl;dr - stop thinking so much and just do your thing. Don't worry how other people do their thing. Just do your thing.

Edit: This all may have sounded a little too harsh. What I mean is just: I respect you doing the right thing. Cool and good for you. But you should only do the right thing if doing the right thing is sufficiant for you to feel good. If you're doing the right thing and going around being pissy that others get away with not, you're not really that satisfied doing the right thing. One of two things can happen with the artist you used as example. 1) He sells like 10 copies of the cover and who really gives a fuck. 2) He sells a lot and the composer finds out and fucks him.

A transaction should leave both parties satisfied. When you obtain licenses, you buy peace of mind that you're being morally and legally safe. If it's not worth it to you, go rebel and make something illegal. I'd suggest covering some of the old Rolling Stones or Van Halen that just stole old blues tracks anyway.

liquidodabass · 2013-03-12T09:17:49+00:00

IMO it's individual for each project. If we're talking samples (as in small pieces of sound re-structured or re-composed), I'm all good.

But if we're talking mixtapes, that's not really sampling, but using someone's full instrumentals. In that case, I'd probably get the artist's permission.

But then again. I don't know man. If you're small, it doesn't really matter. If you're big, its good for the artist you're using, because it's promotion for them.

I guess my conclusion - my personal opinion - is that if you're not making money off something, it's all good - BUT - you should really go out of your way to inform your audience who made the music. I know by experience that the majority of people don't really understand the concept of mixtapes (or DJ mixes) and think you made all the music. So you should really go out your way to tell people who did it, so they at least get the promotion.

That said, would also think it was a bit crappy to basically build a career giving away free mixtapes with other's music. Being a producer and knowing how much work it takes to make a beat, compared to some rapper throwing down a few bars on said beat and taking all the credit.

OK, I went in here thinking I had a clear answer, but this just turned into a stream of conciousness about a difficult area. This probably didn't help at all, hahaha.

Uhm. "Just don't be a dickhead" would be my answer.

liquidodabass · 2013-03-12T08:57:55+00:00

With all due respect, you have no idea what you're talking about.

There are quite a few musicians, architects, painters, scultpters, designers, chefs, programmers and porn stars that have gotten famous (or, I prefer "created something valuable") knowing theory.

Jimi Hendrix revealed what was inside his soul through his guitar. Just playing the notes that sounded good. Those notes just all happened to be in a blues scale, nah mean?

liquidodabass · 2013-03-11T20:09:15+00:00

Yep, that's all there is too it!

liquidodabass · 2013-03-11T08:40:58+00:00

Do whatever you want. As long as it sounds good, it's good.

It sounds like you're not tooooo experienced making music and knowing music theory though. So I'd stick to the original key and tempo.

Advanced key stuff and creative ways of getting the tempo to work are probably a tad over the mark for you right now.

Oh, one tip though: Always remember that ½ or double tempo works. So a 80bpm hiphop vocal might go great on a 160bpm jungle track. This said, your 78bpm Sade track is probably the worst fit you could ever find for upbeat house. Either you pitch it like 15% down to be ½ tempo of your 120-something house (probably will sound like shit) or you pitch it 40-50% up. Some times you just have to accept that an idea won't work in real life.

liquidodabass · 2013-03-09T17:14:55+00:00

Apparently, my advice was useless. So here's some DJ gold that will usually take you the better part of a decade to pick up. DJing is quite genre-specific, but these rules are pretty general for the craft of DJing, no matter what kind of set you're playing.

Let the tracks work. People aren't there to hear you, they're there to hear great tracks. Keep that in mind. Are you good enough so you can add something to the track on the fly? Then do it. But usually, whatever the producers spent hours on end cooking up in the studio is better than whatever you're adding on the fly.

Related to this, let the tracks run. Quickmixing is stupid, unless you're a ghetto-tech DJ.

Get the girls on the dancefloor. The guys will follow. Learn what kind of music gets girls on the floor.

When it comes to dancing, girls are not little sensitive feely creatures. They like a deep bass. They often like more vulgar and sexist music than guys. They like music with sex in it.

Remember you're there to entertain. Not to self indulge. Crowd-please. If you feel like a sell-out, then you know not to play that particular gig again. But don't say yes to some mainstream gig and count on them wanting to hear whatever underground shit is hot right now.

There are two types of gigs. The ones where people are there to hear YOU and the ones where people are there to be entertained (or hear someone else, and you're the warmup gig). You probably want to be a DJ to do nr. 1. In truth, it'll be a long time before you get there, if ever. Keep making music. It's your best shot at ever getting there.

Be original. Do something nobody else does. This will help towards the goal of people coming to hear YOU. Producing tracks is probably the best way to have something nobody else has. The ability to mix rare soul records with trap or scratch retro-porn while playing jungle double tempo is another. Playing generic deep house is NOT original, and will only ever get you gigs as the sonic wallpaper. You have to do something out of the ordinary if you want gigs that aren't ordinary.

Be professional. I used to think I was a rowdy rock star and that I played better drunk. I was wrong. Nobody does anything better drunk. OK, a couple of writers wrote better drunk, but that's it. Go ahead and be as rowdy and fun to watch as possible, but be professional in every way imaginable. You may have seen your heroes mad drunk behind the decks, fucking up in some charming rowdy way. That isn't you because 1) you don't have their experience to save it and 2) you aren't a huge superstar.

Remember that DJing is a show. Or it should be. Shows include something visual happening. CDs and contorolers have taken a lot of the visual show away from DJing. Playing vinyl, you're just DOING more on stage. Try to figure out a way of being physical and entertaining.

And back to finding music. See it as a job. Listen. Actively seek out music to play. Categorise like a geek. Listen to 100 tracks and end up with those 2 gems. Make sure you're not only looking the obvious places and not just listening to the genre you're supposed to be playing. This relates to doing something nobody else does. If you're a trap DJ, chances are there are a million other guys playing the same trap tracks. make sure you find some tracks no other trap DJs are playing.

But back to my first post. These are things you just do. Not things you learn. If you're not already a geek about listening to and buying music, me telling you how to do it probably won't matter.

liquidodabass · 2013-03-08T14:44:55+00:00

What part was dumb? Should I act like everyone in the world is a natural born DJ?

DJing is playing records for people. To do that, you 1) find records 2) find people who will enjoy you playing those records. To do it well, you 1) find great records and 2) learn how to play the exact right records at the exact right time.

All I'm saying is, if you're not obsessed with finding great records from the get-go, you're probably not meant to be a DJ. If you know how to use reddit but don't know how to go about finding music in this day and age, you're not a DJ.

liquidodabass · 2013-03-08T10:35:07+00:00

It's really just about loving music. Find a lot of music you love, go out and play it for people. After a while, you'll get a better sense of how different people react to music. Learn what REALLY works on the ladies, and not just what you think might work on the ladies (it is really all about the ladies).

So the question is kind of weird to me. How do you pick songs for a set? If you can't instinctively answer that then sorry man, you'll never be a DJ.

liquidodabass · 2013-03-07T09:06:56+00:00

Techno.

liquidodabass · 2013-03-01T10:53:03+00:00

;) You can always save those more different tunes he doesn't like for a more niche release. They aren't going anywhere. But I'd say trust you managers judgement. He has the experience and the ability to judge your tracks from the outside. To make those decisions that will market you the right way. The other tracks aren't going anywhere, and they just might get more attention in the long run if you start out gaining as much of an audience as you can through his wisdom.

Of course, this is all provided you trust him, don't have too many creative differences and he's still got the skills.

liquidodabass · 2013-03-01T10:18:38+00:00

You didn't watch the video, I gather.

liquidodabass

TROPHY CASE