When you look at the music electronica producers and artists create, you often find it’s the same genre of music. Of course, most times it’s because that’s the music they want to target, but that’s not the only reason. Creating music in different genres is not a straight-forward process like it would seem. Many times, in order to create music in a certain genre, there are keys, or secrets, that have to be discovered.
People attribute musicians and producers that can create music in multiple genres to being broadly skilled as opposed to those who only stick to one or two very similar genres. But what I’ve found is that it’s really about unlocking certain secrets to a genre rather than skill itself.
Here’s a trick I’ve developed over the years when using Reason. When you’re browsing different instrument sounds and you’re trying to compare and choose the best sound, instead of trying to remember which sounds are the best, instead write notes (text) while auditioning sounds. But don’t bother doing this in a note pad or on a piece of paper, do it directly in the rack. How? You do it with the free ReMark Rack Divider (Propellerhead Shop link) by Selig Audio.
Taking Notes While Auditioning Sounds & FXs
When auditioning sounds, many times I’ll come across a patch, device or effect that I think is okay, but feel that I can find something much better. After 10, 20 or 50 different things later, I realize the thing I had before was probably the best thing. Yet, in trying to go back to find it, I end up not finding it and just giving up.
I love the add-on device to Reason called Synchronous. But I should start by saying I don’t use many add-ons for Reason. I feel Reason pretty much added everything people could want with version 5 (when you had to buy both Reason and Record that then turned into what I called “Super Reason”). When you have the Combinator, the Spider Audio / CV Splitters / Mergers, the rack mixer and now the virtual SSL mixer console and the ability to edit and place audio directly in the sequencer, you pretty much have everything you need.
The Combinator is so powerful, there isn’t need for much else. But that’s for another, future topic. Because of how much Reason can do currently, there isn’t much need for 99% of the new, outside devices to be bought. But Synchronous is a little different. Here’s the intro video.
The issue; you want to bring existing audio (reference audio, such as an existing song) into Reason for comparison. The Flower Audio’s Loudness Meter device (shown in the photos) can be used for referencing, but it’s used to switch from the audio in your setup versus your reference audio; you can’t compare the two side-by-side.
The issue with trying to do normal referencing is that the sound source will appear under your mastering suite, getting extra mastering effects placed on top. Simply turning the fader levels of your reference channel down doesn’t do the trick as you’ll get lower levels that are still being colored (altered) by your mastering suite setup. Some people may be trying to craft a certain sound, like I do, by referencing existing music and comparing it to your sound (such as choosing a certain kick drum by comparing it to reference material).
Most people have come under the impression that, if they aren’t making profits off of a song, using uncleared samples is fine. It’s not.
Myth #1: “I’m Not Selling My Songs So I’m Safe”
This couldn’t be further from the truth. This myth, combined with misinformation about what a Creative Commons license is (more on that below) is one of the most propagated myths out there in the music industry.
This myth tries to rely on money; if there’s no money made from illegal sampling, then there’s no money to go after. But that’s not actually how real life works. A rights holder can base a claim around damages, not just sales of their protected work. If you think lawyers won’t go after people who don’t have much money, or doesn’t have many assets, or is under the age of 18 or even someone who lives in another country, think again. If the music industry is willing to sue 12 year old girls for downloading music, what do you think they’ll do to you? Don’t think money they’re asking for could be that much? If they tried to sue Jammie Thomas-Rasset $220,000 for downloading only 24 songs, picture the price tag they can dream up for “illegal sampling”.
The way music promotion articles would lead you to believe, “music lovers” are just itching to hear new music! But that couldn’t be further from the truth.
You’re Promoting Music To People At The Worst Times
Where are new artists typically? They’re on SoundCloud, they’re on Twitter, they’re on Facebook. These are all great platforms. But the problem is that you’re in front of people when they’re not trying to find new music.
Take Twitter. Even if a new person somehow ends up finding a tweet you posted about your music by accident, they’re at work or at home about to overcook dinner. Even if they see your link, click it and listen to your music, they’re probably gonna’ be like “That’s cool… but I really should get back to Twitter to see what Martha Stewart ate for lunch.” and forget all about you. The “conversion rate” (converting people who see or hear your music into someone who adds or follows your music) is so comically low for this very reason. You’re basically interrupting them. They’re not looking for new music on Twitter.
During the auditioning phase of audio mastering, listening from different sources is important. But so is listening from a distance and at low volumes.
Listening from a distance allows you to hear the dynamics of your song in different ways. It also allows you to hear how the most powerful dynamics interact in non-ideal circumstances. You may find your highs are cutting through the mix too much. Or that vocals are getting lost or are dominating the music. Or that the sub-bass is drowning out everything in its path.
When you listen to my music, it has a certain lo-fi quality to it because I’m employing complex processes to make it sound that way. It’s created from scratch but, sadly, nearly all songs out there out there in my genre of music is “pieced together” from samples; most of which are stolen (“licensed”) from songs from the 70’s and 80’s.
What Music Sampler People Are
Don’t confuse “music sampler” hardware with music sampler people. We’ll start with Daft Punk. One More Time was sampled off of Eddie Johns – More Spell On You. They took the song, added some elements and called it their own.
