BEAT SPOT

Index

!LLMIND Jamie XX Riva Starr

Alison Wonderland Kill The Noise Rob Swire
Armin Van Buuren Kompany Rudimental
Avicii KSHMR SBTRKT
Axwell Laurent Garnier Scott Storch
Boi-1da London On Da Track Seth Troxler
Bonobo Luciano Skrillex
Burial Madeon Solomun
Chocolate Puma Mark Knight Tame Impala
Chris Lake Max Martin Trent Reznor
Chromeo Metro Boomin Umek
Dada Life Mick Guzaski Virtual Riot
deadmau5 Mike Dean XXXY
Digitalism Mike Will Made It
Diplo Modeselektor
Enrico Sangiuliano Nicky Romero
Flume Nina Kraviz
Flying Lotus Noah 40 Shebib
Four Tet Noisia
Friction Parov Stelar
George Martin Paul Van Dyk
Gold Panda Pharrell Williams
Grey Richie Hawtin
Gui Boratto Rick Rubin
James Jones Rinzen

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Introduction

WELCOME!
First of all, let us thank you for downloading this ebook.
It’s an extraordinary feeling to know that we’re delivering and spreading know-
ledge to producers all across the globe, without any boundaries. This a fantastic
time to be alive and to be a musician.

HOW AND WHY WE MADE THIS EBOOK?

We took inspiration from Tim Ferriss’ Tools of titans. It’s a book with advice from
the very top players of medicine, science, music, and arts.
You can learn a lot from the best. If they are very good at what they do, there is
a reason, and it’s not magic.
So we started to search and collect the very best and rarest advice. After weeks
of searching and watching videos on the most in-depth web, we filtered and or-
dered the very best information. From top producers of all the kinds of genres,
you could think of.
While making this ebook, we felt the instant magic inspiration by reading all this
advice...we hope that you can have the exact same feeling as we did.

ONE LAST THING BEFORE MOVING ON.

It’s very important for us to have a feedback and that’s why we read all the com-
ments and emails every week.
We always strive to improve our content, so if you have any tip for us, feel free
to reach us out at [email protected]

Have a nice reading,

Marco & Giulio

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!LLMIND

DON’T LOOK FOR A MANAGER

Time and time again, the question is asked: “How do I get a manager?” It’s the
equivalent of asking, “How do you become a super producer?” You just can’t an-
swer that question in one sitting.

Most successful hip-hop producers have either been “sought out” or “approa-
ched” by a manager - most likely due to the already climbing establishment of the
producer him/herself - or have built a sensible, working, free-flowing relationship
with an individual - who sometimes could be a longtime friend, mutual friend,
business partner, etc. - organically.

There’s no book, no list, and no website that lists “managers” to sign up with. It
just doesn’t work that way. Unfortunately, a lot of people think it does.

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Alison Wonderland

TRY TO GET ACCESS TO STEMS

“I found that having access to stems was really important because you can learn
how individual sounds are layered.
When I first got into production I didn’t have that and started begging people for
remixes so I could look into their process.
Then, when I released Run, I put the stems out because I wanted people to use
those sounds to see how my songs were built.

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Armin Van Buuren

AGE DOESN’T MATTER

Let’s cut right to the chase here. It doesn’t matter how old you are. Really, it do-
esn’t. The past edition of the Armada Talent Experience saw seventy attendees,
ranging from 8 till 31 years old.
And we hear you thinking: “I’m (way) older than 31, so that means I don’t have
a shot, right?”

WRONG! Talent is not measured in age, nor is it measured in the amount of wrin-
kles that adorn your face. True, you might not become the next big thing in tee-
nage superstar land if you’ve been around for ages, but that doesn’t mean that
your music is doomed to remain unheard.
If your music is good enough, it WILL be discovered. It’s just a matter of hard
work, persistence, and patience. If you never give up, you’ll never fail.

LESS IS MORE
Less is more… It sounds like a quote from some all-knowing, all-powerful guru
with a majestic, white beard. But what does it really mean? We’ll take a bit of our

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Armin Van Buuren

own demo-drop experience to explain.

One of the things we encounter often in demo submissions is a complete and

utter wall of sound. We understand that you want to make your track sound big
and powerful, but adding excessive amounts of extra sounds to your song is not
how you should go about.

The reason why has a lot to do with balancing your mix.

Every sound in your track should have its own place in the mix and should add
something to the track in general. But when you add too many sounds to make
it sound big, they will clog up your mix and overpower the sounds residing in the
same part of the frequency spectrum. Not to mention the phase problems that
will almost certainly arise.

It is not the quantity of sounds that make a record sound huge. It’s how you give
each of your sounds a place in your track and how you enhance the important
parts of your song. Try to boost the important frequencies of your key sounds
instead of adding tons of other synths on top.

Play around with panning your different layers, make use of their specific traits
(e.g. the punch of synth A, the warmth of synth B, and the sparkling overtones of
synth C), and take away one or two sounds to see if they even make a difference
at all or just blur the overall stereo image.

Less is more if you know how to use your ‘Less’.

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Avicii

GET A GRASP OF CHORDS

“The cool thing today, is that anyone can learn how to make a track. It’s not about
your finger skills on an instrument, but your skill in the programs and knowledge
of what makes a good track, putting it together and getting to grips with chords
and scales in that way.”

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Axwell

TAKE AWAY LOW END

One thing that i usually add at the end of a bass chain is a mid/side EQ. Why?
‘Because i want to remove the lows from the sides only with a low cut, to get a
more centered and focused bass.

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Boi-1da

SAMPLING
“If you like money...you might not wanna sample in your beats, sample clearance
is very expensive.”

DON’T FOLLOW TRENDS

“If you want to be a successful producer, you gotta bring something to the table
that’s not already on the table.”

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Bonobo

DON’T LET YOUR MUSIC BE DEFINED BY GENRE LABELS

“I grew up listening to folk music with my dad, psychedelic stuff with my mum,
the likes of My Bloody Valentine and Spiritualized in my teens, Dinosaur Jr., hip-
hop, jazz, loads of weird shit from charity shops…
“I suppose the music I make has been influenced by all of that - a compilation of
those sounds. What do I call it? Does it really matter?”

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Burial

MUSIC>GENRE
“I like making tunes that maybe help people get lost in…As soon as you say you’re
going to make a certain genre of tune, then you’re restricting things…and that’s
always been a bit wrong to me. You can’t let a type of music you care about just
become another sample-pack or genre…or it will get globally fucked over.”

PLAY WITH CONTRASTS

“I like putting uplifting elements in something that’s moody as fuck. Make them
appear for a moment, and then take them away. That’s the sound I love…like
embers in the tune…little glowing bits of vocals…they appear for a second, then
fade away and you’re left with an empty, sort of air-duct sound…something that’s
eerie and empty. Like you’re waiting just inside a newsagent in the rain…a little
sanctuary, then you walk out in it. I love that.”

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Chocolate Puma

SAMPLING
“Gay Country & Western from the ‘50s, awesome tapes from Africa, Disco from
the early eighties, Russian Horror New Wave, Dutch Folk songs – you can find it
all on music blogs.
“You really have to take your time to find the cool blogs, but once you’ve found
the real gems, they’re a great daily source for all your sample needs. Of course
we’re not promoting copyright infringement, but a cowbell played by a German
hippie does sound way cooler than the Logic percussion.”

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Chris Lake

A FUN EXERCISE
I did tracks starting with 4 sounds only, put them into a sampler, looping them
and mangling trying to make the most out of them. It’s a fun exercise to do every
now and then, ‘cause it focuses to push your boundaries.

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Chromeo

BE PREPARED TO INVEST YOUR OWN MONEY

“Everything in the studio is ours, y’know. I win a dollar and I reinvest it in those
synths. I save $5,000 a month from not living in New York and that gets reinve-
sted in the studio too.”

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Dada Life

DRUM & BASS BUSSING

To get the drums and the bass sit together in a mix we use a drum bus, where we
send kick,snare and some percussions (not the hats or cymbals). We throw on a
compressor, to gel them together and a saturator to even out unwanted peaks.

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deadmau5

DON’T LIMIT YOURSELF

“I like to consider myself an all-rounder and I’m not trying to be King of the Scene
or anything. I’d like to do everything from writing film scores to producing pop
albums.”

DON’T RELY ON IMAGE

“[The mouse head] is not the most vital thing. I mean, I think the music should
speak for itself. I’d like to think I wouldn’t get booed off stage if I chose not to
wear the head - I did gigs prior to having the head made and never had any pro-
blems. I’m aware though that, as a gimmick, it can create its own little monster
as a brand.”

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Digitalism

DELEGATE MIXING
When we started to collaborate with other people, and they taken the duty of
mixing we realized that it was a blessing, then we tried again to go mixing our
stuff but for us it’s so annoying.
You can spend weeks mixing something, but you know, it’s good to give it away
to someone and then get it back “ok it’s done” and then move on.

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Diplo

TREATING VOCALS
For vocalists, I nearly always use the Pultec EQP 1-A and the 1176 Compressor.
The Pultec, especially, has a great ability to boost up the shine or fresh quality of
a vocal, and the 1176 keeps it in place.

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Enrico Sangiuliano

WRITER’S BLOCK
I learned to not be worry about it. Instead of staying in the studio and knock my
head on the wall i prefer to go out with my friends. The more creatively i’ll spend
my time around, the more ideas i will get. Next session is gonna be better.

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Flume

RANDOMIZE MIDI
I like to experiment with new ways of doing things. At the moment, for example
i’m really interested into getting the computer to randomize stuff and record it,
for 20 minutes straight. So random notes and random sequences, and then, i’ll
go back, listen to that and cut out the bits that do makes sense.

TURN CREATIVITY ON
It’s always interesting to figure out how your brain works. I feel like the first time
you start writing music you just write it because you feel like writing, then it may
become “like a job” and then it becomes like “serious” and you’ve got this “ben-
chmark” for yourself. You should just do it for fun, but now when i write i feel it
has to be to a certain level of quality, but back in the days i didn’t feel like this.
You have to figure out how your own brain works and how to get it to be creative
when you want it, like turning it on and off.

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Flying Lotus

INSPIRATION
“It’s okay to not be working all the time, and to be gentle on yourself when you’re
not. When it feels like you’re losing that inspiration—or you’re in a rut, not ma-
king stuff, and your head gets all weird—be gentle on yourself. Just ease into
things naturally. But you still have to ease into it, you still have to sit in the chair.
You can’t just expect things to happen, but do it gently.”

INSPIRATION
“It’s okay to not be working all the time, and to be gentle on yourself when you’re
not. When it feels like you’re losing that inspiration—or you’re in a rut, not ma-
king stuff, and your head gets all weird—be gentle on yourself. Just ease into
things naturally. But you still have to ease into it, you still have to sit in the chair.
You can’t just expect things to happen, but do it gently.”

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Four Tet

EQ CAREFULLY
I try to not EQ out too much of the spectrum on individual tracks. Of course, this
depends on the sounds and samples you are working with having desirable fre-
quencies in them to begin with, but being careful about what you remove from
your sound is very important to me.

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Friction

CRITICAL FEEDBACK
“Be hard on yourself and what you’re making. Whether it’s experimental or com-
mercial, whatever it is, make sure it’s the best you can make it. Get feedback
from people who will be honest with you. You don’t want people just saying:
‘Yeah, I like that.’ Critical feedback is important! Hone what you’re doing and get
better.”

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George Martin

KEEP AN OPEN MIND.

“I just think a budding record producer should keep an open mind always, exami-
ne every kind of music, and appraise the good in everything, rather than channel
himself too much in one direction.”

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Gold Panda

HAVING A STUDIO
“I don’t have a studio. I just make it in my room, next to by bed. I really like that.
I like there to be a window and light. I couldn’t work in a studio. I’d hate it, and
the tracks — well, I’ve tried, and it just doesn’t work.
I’m not really a person who’s into the studio thing. I like it to be a living room
with a studio in the corner. I can just go and get a cup of tea or watch a bit of TV
when I’m doing something.”

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Grey

SOUND DESIGN
Sound design is super important obviously, but we try to make sure that it’s
always in support of a good song. I don’t like adding random shit for no reason –
everything has a purpose.

Since neither of us really understand synthesis, we’ve just learned other ways to
get interesting sounds, mainly by manipulating weird sounds we find online or
record ourselves. For instance, if you cut up a lion growling and process the hell
out of it, the end product will sound way cooler than any synth in my opinion.

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Gui Boratto

DON’T SOLO
Most people usually solo things when equalising. I never solo a track when EQing.
I’m also a grid freak.

AUDIO>MIDI
When I create something in MIDI Ialways record and transform them into audio,
to have total control of time and to have other options such as EQs, dynamics
and effects.

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James Jones

TAKE CARE OF YOUR BODY

I learned a long time ago, that if you want to do this music thing in an effective
way, you have to take care of your body. Especially if you also plan to travel a lot.
When i need to take breaks from everything i take them. A few months off, where
i’m exercising, this heals my body and the mind. Trust, me in the past i wasn’t
like that, at all!

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JAMIE XX

WRITING FIRST
I’ve never really been like a gear-head. For me, that’s usually the last part of the
process. It’s always been about melody and things that make me feel something,
rather than playing with something till it sounds perfect; I can do all that after
I’ve come up with everything that I want to fit into a track. So I get the creative
stuff out of the way before I focus more on the sounds and the gear aspect.

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Kill The Noise

GROOVE IS KEY
The most important part of dance music is the groove, the feel, and movement
of the track. You appreciate those noises much more when they are used in a
musical kind of way.
I find that people who are fixated on trying to create certain textures of sounds
don’t spend enough time focusing on writing great songs.

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Kompany

WRITER’S BLOCK
This is always a tough subject for me because whenever I think I have writer’s
block figured out, it’ll adapt and find a new way to stump me.
Lately, what has been working for me is watching other producers’ streams, or a
YouTube tutorial for a new plugin I’m interested in.
Seeing other artists mess around with stuff can sometimes give me ideas for re-
ally cool techniques to try out. Once I get into that mindset, I’m usually pretty
fluid with my writing process.

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KSHMR

MAKING TRACKS LOUD

“F*ck your dignity, throw a multiband on everything and make it sound exciting.”
Mixing is a game of compromises and tradeoffs.
Audio engineers can (and do) argue until they are blue in the face about loudness
targets, but make no mistake: in electronic dance music, if you want your tracks
to be loud, you’re going to have to compromise dynamic range.

STEREO IMAGE
There’s definitely a lot of imaging stuff going on. The stereo field is actually one
case where I’ll do really extreme things. Like on a drop, I might cut all side in-
formation at the transient of each and every kick. It’s an LFO effect, similar to
sidechaining: you’re cutting all the side information, so the kick is mono.

In terms of getting things really wide, my new thing is trying to avoid the Haas
effect as much as possible. Instead of taking one sound and putting it all around
you, try to take a multitude of sounds and give them their own position.
Not only does that make it more interesting, you also get a better mix because

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KSHMR

you’re not phasing things out: you have things that are localized.

MAKING SOUNDS ALIVE

It’s beneficial to think like a real player does. Players don’t just go note to note.
Sure, you can make everything perfect, quantized to grid.
But real players, they bend. There’s inflictions in-between, and that’s what makes
it feel real — the imperfections.

You’ve got to find creative ways to make it sound like a human is behind it all. And
that’s what gets lost in a lot of dance music. The synths may not be struggling to
get to the next note; they just pop up there – but that’s not what humans do. A
real human player has to sort of struggle between each note. I think pitch-ben-
ding does that real well. Anytime you can sort of strain it, you just hit a human
chord.

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Laurent Garnier

LISTEN TO DIFFERENT GENRES

There’s no good or bad generes. There are amazing and shitty tunes everywhere,
i’m just looking for what satisfies me. I hate eating the same stuff. You don’t eat
chicken everyday. The same goes for music.
I will not listen every day just to house and techno at one point you’ll get bored,
so you’ll listen to hip hop or jazz or whatever. Have the curiosity to explore diffe-
rent types of music.

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London On Da Track

WORKFLOW
I start with the piano and play a couple of chords, and go through sounds and see
what sounds different. I always like a little sample of me recording myself, so I go
in and record myself and play chords around what I just did. And then maybe I
add some strings. I do the melody first always—it’s always the melody first, then
I do drums.

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Luciano

TEAM WITH FRIENDS AND FAMILY

I had back when i started, this 2 tracks ready and i wanted to release them on a
label. My sister at that time was studying graphic design, so i thought why you
don’t make an artwork for the release? So she did the logo and the artwork.
Then from that artwork we runned and started our own label!

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Madeon

AVOID REDUNDANCY
There’s no need to have two simultaneous chorded instruments with loud highs.
Dynamic is also a huge asset to the crispiness of my sounds, having snappy, fast
decaying highs on rhythmical elements can go a long way.

MASTERING TIP
A little bit of controlled clipping sounds way better than a bad limiting.y.

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Mark Knight

QUALITY = TIME
“Too many tracks nowadays sound like they have been made in a day. In this time
of throwaway music, too many producers have adopted this ideal and used it as
there mantra for making music, why?
“Most of my tracks take weeks, even months of road testing and refining to get
the finished article. If you want to write a record that you’ll still be pulling out and
playing in five years, here are some simple tips.

“After a day in the studio always bounce down the track at whatever stage you
are at and listen to it on your way home. You hear it in a completely different way
– as a piece of music rather than an arrangement on the screen. It’s best to do
this straight after the session as you’re still hearing the detail.

“Go in the next day and work through your list without listening back.
Try ‘road testing’. If you’re in a position to play a record out you should take as
many opportunities as you can before committing to the master, refining all the
way. If you’re not, make a mix tape and insert the track in the mix where you

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Mark Knight

would perceive it being played out.

“Does it match up to the track you’re aspiring to? When working on your final
master always look at the record and think, ‘Can I get another 10% out of this?
Could the drop have more drama? Is the mix down the best it can be? Is the ar-
rangement completely on-the-money?’

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Max Martin

MELODIC BALANCE
If the chords change a lot over the course of a song, it’s better to stay within the
same melodic structure. Once again, it’s all about the balance. Another theory is
that you can also sing the chorus melody as a verse. For instance, take “I Wanna
Be Your Lover” with Prince. The verse and chorus of that song are exactly the
same. But as a listener, you don’t really notice since the energy of the chorus is
completely different compared to the verse. Once the chorus comes, you feel like
you’ve heard it before. And you have! You’ve heard it in the verse. It automati-
cally creates a sense of familiarity. Prince does this a lot. “Let’s Go Crazy,” same
thing. I’ve used this trick a few times myself. In “Do You Know (What It Takes)”
with Robyn, for instance.

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Metro Boomin

MEANER SNARE
If you want to have a more hard hitting snare, try to pitch it down a few semito-
nes.

808S
I want to talk about how important it is you know keeping your 808s and certain
keys of course you have know whatever key you want but the 808 is basically an
instrument itself so it’s better for you to keep it in key with the rest of your beat
it flows better it sounds better and it doesn’t sound out of place.

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Mick Guzaski

UNDERSTANDING MIXES
One way to really understand mixing is to be involved from the beginning of a
project — not just the mixing part. Start out doing entire projects from beginning
to end — from moving mics around and tracking, on through the final mix.
You will be a much better mixer if you know how and why things are recorded
a certain way. Go into the room and listen to how the drums and guitars really
sound. Don’t just stay behind the glass.

MIXING
Try and make your mixes something that you, yourself enjoy listening to. Also, it
helps to be open minded. Every project is different, so don’t try and twist a mix
into something that it doesn’t want to be. These days, I’m not thinking about how
a record is going to sound on somebody’s radio speaker or ear buds, or that it has
to fit a certain mold musically — I spent many years doing that and it wasn’t fun,
at least for me. I enjoy making mixes that I would be proud to play for people in
hopes that they would enjoy it. I don’t like making things that are squashed and
twisted all over the place in order to fit into some kind of specific genre.

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Mike Dean

GETTING VOCALS RIGHT

When i think that the vocal sounds right i usually send it to parallel compression
bus. Then on the vocal insert compressor i usually raise the gain by 3/4 dBs.

LUFS
Learning about LUFS really changed my life.I talked about it for 1 year then really
started using them while mixing. They really help to find a balance.

LEARNING MUSIC THEORY

I’ve taken piano lessons for 14 years.It taught me my music theory which tran-
slates to frequencies, so mixing. When i do drums i know by ear how to make sit
musically well 808 and kicks.

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Mike Will Made It

THE NEXT BEAT

I don’t say I’m gonna make a beat for anybody. I’m gonna make a beat that’s
harder than the last. How different can it get? How out the box can I go on this
beat? How can I smoke the last beat?
How can I make the bass hit harder? How can I make it so that when I play it
people will say, Oh my goodness? So now it takes a couple days to knock them
out. Once the record gets done I pretty much have an idea of who I’m taking it
to and what style would work on the beat.

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MODESELEKTOR

FAVOURITE SOFT SYNTH

Our favourite soft synthesizer is probably RAZOR by Native Instruments. We did
so much productions with it and it has amazing cool sounds. Check it out.

MASTER COMPRESSOR
It’s very tempting to put a compressor on the master while working, but we ne-
ver do that. For the first moment it may sound good but then when you take the
export to a mastering studio, they send you back home, ‘cause they want the
stereo mix clean and uncompressed.

RECORD AUDIO
Recording stuff through analog synths and gear, makes you pick decisions qui-
cker. You record it and then the original source is gone. That’s why we finish
tracks. Having the possibility to recall things in daw in every moment sometimes
makes things more complicated. It’s more like “okay, fuck it. It’s done. Let’s go
to the next track.”

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Nicky Romero

BE DRIVEN
“The most important thing is the drive and discipline to get somewhere. You need
to have the drive because you’re going to go through a lot of disappointment -
unfair people, people not keeping their word. But the most important thing is that
you stick to the music.
“I want to be the best producer in the world - if it’s not going to happen that’s OK,
but I still have that goal.”

LISTEN TO YOUR PEERS

“Listen carefully to other tracks, why did they do certain things? Why did they put
that drop there and that breakdown there? Think about it. How did they do that
kick? What kind of kick is it?
“Keep listening and compare your music to other people’s music, that’s really
important. You don’t have to get Logic to sound professional - Avicii and Afrojack
both use FL Studio and they’re two of the most successful young DJs around. If
you know your software and you know your hardware, you can reach anything.”

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Nina Kraviz

ACCEPT FAILURE
While i was a dentist, in Moscow, in the night i was also doing journalism and
interviews to DJs. Then i tried to be a DJ (i was collecting records since i was a
little girl). After practicing, my first gig happened. I played 3 really hard tracks,
and i cleared the dance floor completely. After those 3 records there was just me,
i swear! I took some time to improve. I think it’s very important when you fail at
something to just stop learn from it and come back, even if you’re let down.

IMPERFECTION IS BEAUTIFUL
I’m not perfect, nothing is perfect. And when it’s perfect it’s boring. I like when
something is not going right completely, like a 2 or 3% of imperfection. I don’t
like when everything sounds so clean, sterile and perfectly engineered.

VISUALIZE YOUR GOALS

When i was young, i carried around inside me, this subconscious idea that at
some point i could probably be a musician and stand behind the decks and deliver
something that i feel.

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Noah 40 Shebib

MAKING MUSIC
My room is built around Komplete Kontrol and Maschine because that’s what this
room is for. You come here to create music.
You can come into this place and literally bring your laptop, and I plug in two
cables nd all of a sudden boom: you’re hooked up to Maschine, to Komplete Kon-
trol, to all the screens, to all the keyboards, and to the console.

I built this from the standpoint of a producer.

One of my things about making music is it being easy.
Some of the most amazing music I’ve made…People have come into the studio,
sat down, and in the first ten minutes,they do this, they do that. And I’m like,

“Cool! We’re done!”

And they look at me like, “What?” And I’m like “No that’s it.”
“We did it. Trust me, this is all we need.
I’ll turn this into something really special.”
Those are the most amazing pieces of music I’ve ever made.

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Noah 40 Shebib

WORKING FOR THE ARTIST

I’m notorious for this lo-fi underwater sound.

People usually assume it’s a low-pass filter. And I’m just rolling off the top end.
But for the most part I’m actually degrading the sample rate. So I’m removing
those frequencies from the top end. They’re not even getting sampled in the first
place.
They don’t even exist.

When you would take out that pristine high-end and lower the sample rate, it
would become a little more authentic almost. Different. Like it was sampled or
taken from somewhere. And the most important reason was, back to what I was
talking about focusing on the artist versus focusing on myself as the producer.

So instead of focusing on my music, I was carving out an entire space in the fre-
quencies so the artist occupies the top end completely, almost exclusively, and
the music sits in the bottom end.
In a way that nobody would do it. Anybody would say: ‘Absolutely not, you cannot
do that.’
‘That is against the rules, I’m sorry.’
‘We will not release this song. It sounds horrible. Where’s all the top end?’
It was just me and Drake wanting to do something different. To make a sound
that we felt was unique. And it really resonated with people.

A SAMPLER AS A STARTING POINT

I have so much around me. I have so many resources, so many tools, so many
sounds, so many options.
It can become very overwhelming. And that’s actually where Maschine really
helps because it’s like a starting point that is very well organized, and basic from
the sense of its workflow.
I know where to start. I can get going. I don’t need to think too much about all
the other things in the room. And then I can build off it.
I use it a lot. Whether it be at the beginning of my process or at the end.
For instance on 30 for 30, which is a record put out on the Drake and Future
project, at the very end of the project, I felt like it needed a little something more
in that record.
So I pulled out Maschine, locked it up, and tap tap tap, done.
So it’s a great closer for me but also is the starting point for me as well. I’ll just
open it with the metronome. So that click is driving the real tempo of the session,
and I’ll create some keys around that.

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Noisia

RULES FOR ACHIEVING CRYSTAL CLEAR SOUND

“There aren’t many rules but I can think of two things that I do adhere to; a. The
lower the frequency the more power it requires in your master bus so cut out any
bass not needed. b. Try to bring out the thing that the track is saying. It might
take a while to figure out what this is exactly, but once you do you can focus your
whole mixing process around that as opposed to following standard rules. For
example, a squelchy bass sound needs to be forward in a groove-based minimal
tune, but if you’re using the same sound in a melodic tune, mix it differently.”

HOW TO CREATE A LOUD MIX

“The most important thing is to pick your elements. There’s no point just randomly
throwing all kinds of sounds together and then trying to blow everything up. You
have to deal with the limitations you have within the spectrum and stereo field.
For individual elements it’s good to check what frequencies are not necessary for
this particular sound to work in your mix, so you can EQ them out. Another im-
portant factor is something people don’t always consider: arrangement, both on
a micro and macro level.

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Noisia

“Besides having a loud mix, the way your track is structured can suggest it’s lou-
der or quieter too. For example, if you have a lot of bass right towards the end of
your build-up, the drop isn’t going to sound as bass-heavy as it would when you’d
have none or a little low end right before it.

But then you also should consider the fact that some frequencies are perceived
louder, so you don’t want to just have loud mid and high frequencies in your build,
’cause the overall impact of the drop will be less. Everything relies on context.
Also, we use a limiter on our master buss from the get-go on almost all tracks.
This is a tool to keep your mix in control during the process of writing the tune.”

GET YOUR LOOPS RIGHT

“It might sound obvious, but if you have a sick bass sound, you can easily make it
sound pretty worthless by adding a crappy drum loop. Work on a loop as a whole,
and make all the elements sound right together.”

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Parov Stelar

EXPLORE DIFFERENT REVENUE STREAMS

“In the past, artists used to make money from CDs and records, but not any
more. So, I have to make money from somewhere else; I have to pay my bills
and feed my family.
“We have rules and we try to keep what we do as ethical as possible. We don’t
take money from religious or political organisations. If we don’t like the product
or the people we’re dealing with, we don’t sign the contract.
“On the one hand, people don’t want to pay for music. They say they want to
download it for free because music belongs to everyone. But, at the same time,
they criticise you for making money from somewhere else.
“They say it’s not cool! Any musician who uses his music in a TV show or on an ad
is going to get criticised, but we have to face the fact that the music industry has
changed massively in the last five years, and, as artists, we have to change, too.”

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Paul Van Dyk

KEEP AN OPEN MIND

“The sounds that you use to make a song - whether they’re presets or you’ve
programmed them yourself - are part of a larger piece of music. If a preset sound
works, why change it?
“The only problem I’ve found over the years is that some presets can overpower
a song. That definitely used to be the case in the hardware days. You’d go into
a music shop and flick through the presets going, ‘Wow! Incredible! I must have
this synth!’. Then, you get back to the studio and realise that the presets are all
so full of effects that they’re too big to sit with the rest of the music - they destroy
everything else in the song.
“In that instance, of course you look for an alternative, but I’m not going to chan-
ge a sound just because it’s a ‘preset’. That seems a bit snobby!”

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Pharrel Williams

HAVING DIFFERENT PEOPLE AROUND

I surround myself with people who recognize that they are different, and they’re
unafraid of that and don’t mind shaking hands with the next different person.
Most anything I do I do because it involves someone I can learn from. Someti-
mes you just gotta put your pride aside and be quiet so that you can absorb not
only what a person is saying but how they are saying it–their energy, their body
language. It’s all for a reason.

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Richie Hawtin

PASSION & INTEGRITY

If you don’t have a passion or a beliving you’re not gonna be part of any of this.
You can be an artist, and have all the passion in the world but at some point you’ll
need a structure. Otherwise you’ll be relevant for just a couple of years. Depeche
Mode and all this guys i looked at didn’t get to the point where they are just with
having fun. They had integrity and work ethic, ‘cause they wanted to stay.

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Rick Rubin

YOU CAN’T PREDICT EVERYTHING

You could do a computer rendering of exactly what the best-sounding recording
studio would be, and you could build it, and it still might not sound like anything.
I mean, there are weird rooms that’ve been there for a long time, and a lot of
people have recorded in them. Sound City is a good example. It was not very well
designed, acoustically. But it sounded good!

GIVE ARTISTS CONFIDENCE

When producing Damien Rice, I would try to help him finish or just help him get
out of his own way. Sometimes I’d say “I don’t think this line is good enough.”
But, in this case, he wrote a lot of things that were really good and he just never
felt confident enough about them, so it was more about empowering him.

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Rinzen

DISCIPLINE
The most important thing is discipline. I show up at the studio every single day
if I can. Usually around the same time. This keeps me in a solid creative routine
and helps ward off writer’s block.

LIVING A HEALTHY LIFESTYLE

Maybe that sounds trite, but I think eating well and exercising enhances my cre-
ativity. Not to mention, it gives me way more energy when I’m in the studio.

VISION
It’s crucial having a strong vision for my art. Staying motivated is a constant batt-
le in this line of work. But if you can create a compelling vision of what you want
to achieve or create, it becomes a lot easier to work hard every day to get there.

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Riva Starr

MIX WITH MULTIPLE REFERENCES

“I used to have small Yamaha NS10s as well, because you really want to have
three to four different references. I even put the signal into my Mac and listen to
the mix from those speakers, because most of the kids nowadays either listen on
small, shitty headphones or laptop speakers.”

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Rob Swire

TEMPLATE PROJECT
I just have 8 FX sends set up in my default project...mostly for short reverbs,
delays n stuff. Nothing special really.

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Rudimental

MIXING
The top end is easy, to be honest; it’s the midrange that’s the hard part. Once we
get the vocals, snares and guitars sounding good, and we’ve got a good mix, the
bass comes later, which might be opposite to the way a lot of people work, but I
guess I come from my live-engineering background.

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SBTRKT

LEARN FROM YOUR PEERS

The way I started out was very much learning from my peers or the people I re-
spected as artists. That was my first step. If I could create something like another
artist then that would give me the knowledge to go beyond that. I think if you le-
arn the most about all the things you love in music and learning everything about
them, then tearing that rule book up, and starting from scratch and taking unique
parts from all those little worlds and different influences.

LEARN SOUND DESIGN

If you sit at an analog synthesizer and you learn all of its functions and you know
how to create the difference between a nice, surreal pad and a crunchy bassline,
with a few turns of a few knobs, then you’re gonna be able to create any world
you can imagine. It’s very much your own ears and the way you approach that.

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Scott Storch

GETTING INSPIRED BY SOUNDS

I like to just start off scrolling sounds. I open up a few channels searching for a
couple of different vibes by
just scroll through a couple sounds, find a cool piano and throw some RC20 retro
color on it. You know that’s what it is.
For me it’s all about the sonics.You could play the same part you know if it’s just
a generic sound or something that you’ve used before it’s not gonna sound even
interesting to yourself so that’s what makes it exciting is the texture.

CHOOSING STRINGS
When I choose a string sound I like something that’s versatile, we get something
that can do long legato notes and then also do stabs on it and and you know get
it out like what I want to play and then not have to just be using a staccato string
sometimes I want something that can be the whole symphony at once.

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Seth Throxler

DON’T JUST MIMIC OTHER MUSIC

“I’ve read tons o tutorials and they gave me so many of my own tools on how to
be a producer. It’s invaluable, but at the same time, some of the focus is on, ‘this
is the new hit song - this is how you can do it’, which is amazing because you can
use it in your own way. But so many people don’t use it in their own way and just
try to mimic music, which creates trends.
“People need to take time to get involved in the scene and the culture then make
some music from that. Or just believe in yourself and make some music; figure
out what comes out of you.”

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Skrillex

ACCEPT REALITY
It’s okay to know that something sounds good, but don’t convince yourself that
things are good when they’re not.

POSITIVE PEOPLE
Keep GOOD/POSITIVE people around you.. You are the company you keep. If you
surround yourself with with creative, hungry, and productive people, it will make
you have to step up your game... if youre around lazy people who complain then
you’ll never grow as a person.. keep good people close!

THE IDEA COUNTS

At the end of the day it’s not so much the editing style that matters, it’s more
about having a real cool, concrete idea. Even if it’s a whole line of bits and crazy
parts, it still has to stick with you and have... almost like a phrase.”

PROCESSING VOCALS
Im using lots of stuff! Depends on the sound, song... there’s no right way. But

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Skrillex

WAVs CLA vocal is nice to throw on to get that pop sound... I use melodyne alot
for tuning, getting weirder sounds.

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Solomun

START YOUR OWN LABEL

Nowadays it’s not so easy to be signed by labels, but you have also the chance
to do your own label. Behind 1 label can be 1 or two persons who run it. There’s
always a crowd outside who will like your songs.

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Tame Impala

CHORD PROGRESSIONS
I don’t know any hardcore music theory, but I’ve picked up some things along
the way. Like when I hear something pretty or a chord change makes me feel
a certain way, I find myself NEEDING to know why that made me feel that way.
And then i keep asking questions (sometimes needlessly) like why does a major
7th chord feel so melancholy? what is it about it? But at the end of the day you
know what, music theory is based around what makes us feel good, so as long as
it feels good it’s correct!

THE GEAR IS NOT YOUR MUSIC

I’m not sure if it’s obvious but I would say don’t let existing “standards” or recor-
ding practices get in the way of your flow. Find out what works for you, there are
literally no rules. I’ve done some hilariously unprofessional stuff. the lead guitar
in the Apocalypse Dreams breakdown is me plugging my guitar straight into the
macbook “line in”.
But i was in the moment and inspired and I didn’t have an interface with me and I
don’t regret it! In the end... professional.... unprofessional... what the difference?

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Tame Impala

If it sounds good and feels good no ones going to question your methods except
gear snobs who RELY on the elitism of their equipment to feel good about what
they do.

TREAT GEAR BADLY

Don’t be afraid to treat gear badly. I don’t mean throw it on the floor but use it in
ways that weren’t intended. thats when interesting stuff starts happening. that’s
how distortion was born right?

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Trent Reznor

WORKFLOW
In terms of effects and whatnot, I’ve always looked at an effect, or a pedal box,
or a new synth, or an interesting plug-in… All of them have songs inside them
somewhere that can inspire me into do something.
I haven’t done this in a while, but it’s always a fun trip to go to the synth shop or
the effects shop and come back with a box full of pedals and things, and just start
experimenting, and generally that inspires me into parts, which leads to songs
often or things like that.
So I’m more inspired by that than I would be sitting down at a piano, probably
the way real songwriters work, thinking about melodies. I like to start with sound,
and space and a kind of texture, and then adapt that into something that feels,
if I’m writing a song, that becomes “song-ish.” So effects are a pretty big part of
that, or having a good grasp on how I can achieve what I’m hearing in my head.

LIMITATIONS ARE GOOD

I’ll say, on the new record, Hesitation Marks, if not every song, almost every
song, was me just with the headphones on, working in Maschine, as in composi-

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Trent Reznor

tional environment.
And I just found that to be fun, and I liked the limitation that everything was in
Maschine; I liked the fact that it could be easily automated with fingers on knobs,
and you don’t have to spend time assigning stuff.
And I liked the fact that it felt pattern based. But just that was a kind of template
to work from. I didn’t feel exhausted when the record was finished, and I could
have kept going. And probably we’ll do the next thing I do in the same capacity,
’cause it just felt right.
And the combination of what a Maschine as a kind of compositional tool, on top
of the effects I added became something that I didn’t miss being in a full studio,
you know? And sometimes having a limited work environment makes me work in
a way that pushes me into something I wouldn’t do if I’m sitting in a studio and
I can reach for my favorite things that are within arms length.

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Umek

SAMPLE SELECTION
When i start a project, i select a wide range of drum samples. Then i’ll start to
audtion them together in a loop, switching hats, kicks and snares. Every time i
choose one, i’ll delete the others, so in the end the selection becomes smaller and
smaller, ‘till i find the perfect (to my ears) set.

DETAILS COUNT
It’s a set of small details that also makes my tracks good. Like the stereo image,
panning, arrangement, synth patches, every little tweak counts. Whenever i’m
hearing a track with great details, i think “man this guy put effort into making this
break sound good”. A lot of people tell me “oh Techno shouldn’t be overproduced”
but i disagree with that.

SIDECHAIN HI-HATS
One trick that i use very often is to sidechain a little bit the hats and shakers to
the kickdrum to get more space in the mix down.

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Virtual Riot

HAVING A STRONG THEME

I personally think important theme for your song is important almost rather than
really like detailed and perfect mixdown. If you have a good idea that can be
worth so much more.

GET A GRASP OF THEORY

I personally think you don’t need to be able to play an instrument to be good at
producing but some music theory knowledge can definitely help you.

There’s great producers and songwriters much much more successful than me
that barely know what scale or key they’re in when they’re writing but their intu-
ition is just amazing so having a feel for what sounds good can be really helpful
but if you don’t have like a genius like intuition it can really help you to know what
scale you in to pick all the right notes.

Sometimes especially for musicians it is rather easy to tell if a person that knows
music theory has written a song or if a person that is just going what using a sca-

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Virtual Riot

ler has written a song because there’s like a bit of a difference there.
I don’t know what it is exactly that the tension between the chords the arrange-
ment so if there’s if you have any way of learning a little bit about music theory
that is definitely money well spent.

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XXXY

DON’T FORCE YOURSELF

“I used to go through long periods when I was unable to make music, now I have
realised that if things aren’t going well I just have to stop and do something else;
go for a bike ride, read a book or have a mix. “Whenever I sat in my studio and
forced myself to work on music I made terrible music and ended up frustrating
myself and pushing myself deeper into ruts.”

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