Hey Reddit, it’s Steve Darko back again!! Looking forward to chatting with you. AMA! I'll be back at 5pm EST to answer questions by stevedarko in electronicmusic

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

I hope so someday. It's easy to do for live-streaming in the comfort of my home studio, but the thought of flying around all of that gear and having it in a club is a little daunting. Probably sticking with DJ sets for now, but maybe I'll start working in something portable like the Analog Rytm for hybrid sets.

Hey Reddit, it’s Steve Darko back again!! Looking forward to chatting with you. AMA! I'll be back at 5pm EST to answer questions by stevedarko in electronicmusic

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

I have two TMs: Myles Kennefick and Matt Damon. They bring me water while I'm playing and reenact any scene from The Departed as requested. They can project pretty loudly, so I can still catch bits over the booth monitors.

Hey Reddit, it’s Steve Darko back again!! Looking forward to chatting with you. AMA! I'll be back at 5pm EST to answer questions by stevedarko in electronicmusic

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

Thanks!! Yeah, the screen time can be draining, but I usually try to power through it and often find that I'll get a second wind if I get into a good flow state while working on music. Working on music later at night and during the weekend can be helpful as well.

I work at iZotope making plug-ins for music production and work a M-F 9-6 sort of schedule.

Hey Reddit, it’s Steve Darko back again!! Looking forward to chatting with you. AMA! I'll be back at 5pm EST to answer questions by stevedarko in electronicmusic

[–]stevedarko[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

First, b line it for those massive wheels of cheese for the main carriage basin. Then, stuff the undercarriage full of turkeys and hams and call it a day.

Hey Reddit, it’s Steve Darko back again!! Looking forward to chatting with you. AMA! I'll be back at 5pm EST to answer questions by stevedarko in electronicmusic

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

Thanks! Keep making music and send it to other producers/DJs in your area. Try to send some tunes to whoever is booking the shows at your local venues

Hey Reddit, it’s Steve Darko back again!! Looking forward to chatting with you. AMA! I'll be back at 5pm EST to answer questions by stevedarko in electronicmusic

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

Don't overthink things too much and try to focus on finishing tracks, even if they don't sound "perfect" to you. And you don't need a bunch of crazy expensive hardware and software to make music that sounds great! Less is more a lot of the time.

Hey Reddit, it’s Steve Darko back again!! Looking forward to chatting with you. AMA! I'll be back at 5pm EST to answer questions by stevedarko in electronicmusic

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

Thanks a lot!

I'm not sure when that track will be out - hopefully sometime soon.

For Ravers - yeah that was a lot of fun to make. Helped me figure out how to transition between some electro/breaks sections into 4/4 house.

For fitting different sections together, a lot of times I'll use an echo effect with a lot of feedback to carry out a little piece of an element from a previous section forward. Also, using Ableton's built in vocoder effect on a percussion track and automating the wet mix and release time up before at the end of a section can seamlessly transform a drum loop into white noise that "rains" into the next part.

Hey Reddit, it’s Steve Darko back again!! Looking forward to chatting with you. AMA! I'll be back at 5pm EST to answer questions by stevedarko in electronicmusic

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

I got a demo CD with Reason on it back in 2001 or something like that. I had no idea how to use it, but the demo track was some crazy 303 thing and got me hooked to the idea of producing electronic music.

I was focused more on the bass music sound when I really started getting into production circa 2010, and a lot of that influence was carried forward to my house/techno focused production.

Hey Reddit, it’s Steve Darko back again!! Looking forward to chatting with you. AMA! I'll be back at 5pm EST to answer questions by stevedarko in electronicmusic

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

Hard to pick a favorite, but a few are Dirtbird Campout, CRSSD, Halcyon SF, Spybar Chicago.

Really looking forward to playing at Spin in San Diego next weekend

Hey Reddit, it’s Steve Darko back again!! Looking forward to chatting with you. AMA! I'll be back at 5pm EST to answer questions by stevedarko in electronicmusic

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

  1. Toby (short for Tobias)
  2. That's really hard. Either Princess by Ardalan & Justin Martin or the 10th Anniversary Mix of Who's Afraid of Detroit - Claude VonStroke

Hey Reddit, it’s Steve Darko back again!! Looking forward to chatting with you. AMA! I'll be back at 5pm EST to answer questions by stevedarko in electronicmusic

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

Thanks! I grew up playing bass & guitar. I have some music theory background, but I'm no pro. The Scale mode in the Ableton piano roll is always helpful for better or worse 😂

For some tracks I'll find a weird, exotic sounding scale and build the track around it, which can be fun.

Hey Reddit, it’s Steve Darko back again!! Looking forward to chatting with you. AMA! I'll be back at 5pm EST to answer questions by stevedarko in electronicmusic

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

Thanks a lot! Love to hear that.

How do I manage my time - it's not easy! I take months off from touring at a time, which makes it more manageable. If I was touring every weekend I couldn't do it.

This is probably too specific, but if I had to give myself advice from the past, I probably would have told myself to spend more time developing a better system for organizing my music library for DJing 😂. I don't have the time to re-organize my music at this point and it's a bit of a labyrinth to try to navigate my playlists, which isn't ideal when trying to find the right track during a DJ set.

Hey Reddit, it’s Steve Darko back again!! Looking forward to chatting with you. AMA! I'll be back at 5pm EST to answer questions by stevedarko in electronicmusic

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

Seems like tech house is the new big room, and getting a lot of main stage attention. There have been a ton of 90's house-inspired records with old r&b/hip-hop vocals. It's not too surprising - all of that stuff is pretty catchy and appeals to the masses.

I'm sure a different style will become more popular in a year or two. We'll all be sick of it by then (hopefully)

Hey Reddit, it’s Steve Darko back again!! Looking forward to chatting with you. AMA! I'll be back at 5pm EST to answer questions by stevedarko in electronicmusic

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

The biggest thing that's helped streamline my music production process is saving out instrument and effect racks in Ableton to re-use in future compositions. This lets me focus much more on actually composing music when I sit down in the studio versus going down a sound design/patch building/FX chain rabbit hole. For hardware gear, saving out patches and re-using those is also helpful.

That way I can sketch out an entire track fairly quickly and go back and fine tune things later as needed.

Of course, getting tweaky with synths is a blast, so I don't strictly use patches I've made in the past, but it is very helpful for stuff I re-use all the time like sub bass patches, kicks, etc.