A couple of years back, I stopped mixing in Live. This started as a workaround for performance problems I was encountering, but turned out to have a great creative benefit as well. People are sometimes surprised to hear that my studio life isn’t entirely Live-centric. Well, for a number of years it was. When Live 7 […]
Live 9 Power! LA Release Event – June 13
It’s a fact: when you’re writing a book, you just don’t get out very much. That’s why I’m extra excited to leave the house and link up with the Los Angeles Ableton community to talk about making music, sign a few books, and have some free beer. Please come down and say hi! RSVP required. […]
Remixes of Govinda and Mr Jennings
While plugging away on the next Hobotech and Tiny Machines releases, I took some time out to do remixes for Govinda and Mr. Jennings. Both tracks were a lot of fun to do. In each case, I decided not to worry about how they would fit into a particular dancefloor context and just made music! […]
USING PUSH TO STEP SEQUENCE BASSLINES AND LEADS
After folks spend some time step sequencing drums with Push, they usually do a little chicken dancing and fist pumping. Once they get that out of their systems, however, a troubling question arises: “how do I do this with melodic parts?” The answer, strictly speaking, is: you can’t. However, the better answer is: with science! […]
Welcome to Hobo Technologies!
Look out people, here it comes. Like a steam engine pulling cars full of circuit bent robots and their secret hobo masters, it’s racing towards you with news from the Large Hobo Collider, and the undiscovered novels of Utah Phillips K. Dick. Like a backwoods hoe-down emitting inexplicable bursts of light and invisible waves of […]
LISTEN TO THE STEREO STUFF
As I’ve mentioned in prior tips, the Utility device can be used to remove all of the mono information from a signal so you can hear the purely stereo information. Just set Width to 200%: Something I like to do is listen to my reference tracks at 200% just to get a sense of how […]
MIX LOW, pt. 2
I’m not a digital audio expert, but I read up on it a fair amount and do my best to understand it. I’ve come to the conclusion that headroom is a valuable resource at every point in the mix. This means I’m keeping an eye not just on the master fader but also on the […]
COMPRESSOR: THE INSERT A SIGNAL ANYWHERE-ERIZER
We’re still talking about mastering here, but this tip includes a cool technique that you may find other uses for.. When I’ve inserted my mastering chain into the mix, I sometimes like to use Spectrum to have a look at the difference between my mix and the track I’m referencing. This presents an interesting problem. […]
MASTER IN THE MIX, pt. 2
As I’ve mentioned a couple of times, I find that applying mastering processing to a nearly completed mix can help draw attention to flaws in the mix. In particular, I sometimes find peaks in individual tracks, overly dense sections of the mix, or errant low frequencies that sound fine until I try to squash the […]
MASTER IN THE MIX?
There are two different techniques for applying mastering processing to a mix: in the Master track of the Set you’re mixing in or in a separate Set just used for mastering. The conventional approach is, of course, to complete the mix then master it separately. However, there are always variations. If I’m doing a quick […]
