Since I posted my second album production announcement followed by “the album is complete” videos, people keep asking me when it will be released, why it took me so long to make it, how I’ll call it, what inspired me, and more questions.

Come closer my friends, make yourself comfortable and grab a cup of tea as I’m going to answer these questions and share some thoughts behind the creation of the album.

Why album

In this fast-paced world, singles and EPs are the most common release formats. Well, no surprise: consisting of only one or two tracks, artists can make several such releases per year and keep the buzz going. I’ve released a couple of singles this year too.

Albums, on the other hand, are counter-productive on that matter: they take much more time and effort to make, both physically and mentally. But I guess I’m an old-fashioned guy because albums are very special to me, it’s like an exam, a milestone that showcases an artist’s progress.

My debut album titled “Chronicles Of The Universe” was released in 2014, two years later after the very first release. It’s a musical story dedicated to our Solar System with each track representing a planet, and this album summed up my current taste and skills at the time.

Chronicles Of The Universe
JOOF Recordings, 2014

So around October 2015, having numerous releases after the first album, I thought it’s time to make a new album.

The first step is always the hardest

In the new album, I wanted to create a more tech-driven, robotic, and futuristic feel. Being always fascinated by science fiction, I came to my favourite novels, films, and concept arts in searching for inspiration:

Some inspiration for the album

So I started to work on the first track which later will be called “The Dream Of Electric Sheep”. Here is what one of the first drafts sounded like:

It was shit. Seriously, it has a poor sound design, lack of drive, and not satisfied quality. Perhaps, for someone, it would be okay, but I didn’t wish to agree on just “okay”. I replaced the main lead, but still, it wasn’t good enough:

Don’t do shit

It was so disappointing so I was about to abandon this idea entirely. I realized that I wasn’t ready yet — I wanted to make something fresh whilst my current skills held me back. But then something interesting happened.

The unexpected side of help

Now we have to go back in time for the three months before I started working on the album. On August 2015, I launched the advice section where I answer the questions people send me.

Advice series

Turned out, the advice blog that is supposed to help other people helped a lot me too.

Every time I answer a question, it forces me to dig deeper, to learn something new. Because knowing things is not the same as understand things and being able to clearly explain it to the others. To my own surprise, throughout the past year, I’ve learned a lot of new things about sound design, mixdown, and other aspects of production simply by helping other people. How cool is that?

Going back to “The Dream Of Electric Sheep”, here is how it sounds now:

Back on track

Slowly but surely, the album progressed pretty well. But despite that I’ve improved my sound quality, one thing keep bothered me: the musical parts.

At some point, I just opened all my drafts, played it back, and realized that some of the tracks I’ve made were too cheesy. To give an example, here is another track from the new album, it called “Machinery”:

I asked myself: “Does it match the concept of a technological, aggressive, and futuristic sound like I wanted to make it in the first place?” Clearly, the answers were “no”.

I had to take a break to figure out where should I go musically. One month later, that track turned into this:

Yet still, having all those aggressive and futuristic sounds, I wanted also to have some atmospheric and euphoric build-ups. That’s how “Arrival” was born:

That’s it, folks, I hope I answered your questions.

In electronic music, making remixes is a common practice. It helps to build a relationship between the producers, gives extra exposure, and brings extra variety.

As a producer and A&R manager, I’ve seen a lot of remix packs, and each 9 of 10 were totally messed: bad file names, mixed file formats, no additional info. Like this:

Remix pack is a folder containing all necessary files for another musician in order to make a remix

Imagine fifty files with names that make no sense... such chaos!

It makes it much harder for remixers to figure out what these files are, and sometimes even may kill a desire to make the remix in the first place.

Producers! Please spend an extra five minutes preparing your remix pack properly. Here are a few simple tips to do so:

1. Put an original version of the track in the folder.
2. Add a short info file containing the track’s tempo, key, and your contact details.
3. Include MIDI files for all or at least some melodic parts.
4. Put audio and MIDI files into folders separate folders.
5. Name files properly:

That’s it, simple and effective. Trust me, remixers will appreciate it.

Patrick Chen sharing insights about Psytrance scene

Behind the Scenes: FM Booking. Some interesting insights from Patrick Chen: “In Psy scene, per an artist, DJ, or producer, the average price rate is about €2000 per gig. Nevertheless, prices can oscillate hugely. [...] price range can be from €500 up to €10 000 or €12 000, it all depends on the artist popularity. The most popular countries in Psy scene at this moment are Switzerland, France, Australia, Germany, Portugal, Israel. [...] There is something very important that an artist should have always: unique style”.

And what to do about it

This is a great question with no simple answer. Such overall mental exhaustion is definitely an issue, especially for bedroom producers who trying to breakthrough. Let’s try to find out the reasons for this fatigue and what we can do about it.

Why it happens

Back in the days, a music band would need a drummer, vocalist, and guitar player just to write a song. Then they’d need a recording studio and engineer to record and mix the song, and a mastering engineer to prepare it for release.

Now you can program drums, chop vocals, synthesize leads, record, arrange, mix, and master all by yourself within a DAW. And even share it with the audience right away just within a few clicks. Music producers are now one-man’s orchestra; it certainly has some benefits yet gives a double-edged effect.

As a modern music producer, you expected to have all of these skills and knowledge by default:

• Digital audio fundamentals, music theory basic, synthesis, sound design, drums programming, DAW, MIDI, processing devices, routing, arrangement, structure, plugins, mixing and psycho-acoustic model, mastering basics, Djing, performance

We all know that having just great music alone won’t make you a career. To get an audience and do the business side of things, most likely you do the following:

• Post at least on four major social networks, manage your website, run a podcast and record guest mixes, write blogs and guest articles, send newsletters, negotiate with labels, negotiate with booking agents, deal with the press, bloggers, reviewers; plan ahead your promo campaigns

Besides, we’re living in a fast-paced world, gear and technologies are changing very rapidly. To keep yourself up-to-date, you probably:

• Read magazines, articles, blogs, and newsletters; attend seminars, tech fairs shows; follow tastemakers on social media; study online courses; learn about management, marketing, and even laws

Sometimes I feel like a Swiss army knife, doing everything

The lists go on. And that’s taking into account that most bedroom producers have full-time jobs to pay the bills, so realistically there are only a few hours a day available for all of these activities!

But before you start to pity yourself, thinking to quit this tough, unfair, and overcomplicated music industry for the sake of some ‘easier’ profession, think of the following.

You don’t have to be great

Yes, the music business is tough, confusing, and complicated, that’s for sure. But in reality, the reason for your mental exhaustion is not the profession you chose, it’s because you are trying to achieve something great.

Being great at something is extremely tough not only in music: ask any successful designer, lawyer, developer, scientist, surgeon, entrepreneur. It requires full commitment to what you doing regardless of what it is, whether you make music, write code, or run a business.

But the point is — you don’t have to. You don’t have to be great, being ‘normal’ is just as fine. Look around, there are plenty of mediocre workers (95% I’d say) in every shop, in every service profession, and many of those are happy people!

Even in music, ask yourself why you are doing this in the first place. Perhaps, just making music is what you need, without trying to climb to the top of the hill? Remember: you don’t have to. It’s your call, your life.

However, if you have serious ambitions in music as a career, then prepare for some sacrifices. There is no easy way. Here is what John 00 Fleming writes about it:

“This career comes at a heavy price, the sacrifice being the social aspect of my personal life. My life clashes with the regular World. [...] I spend most weekends in airports, hotels and clubs. The last thing I want to do if I manage to grab a sneaky week off is fly abroad and spend my time in yet another hotel. I associate airports and hotels with going to work. There’s no way I can relax in either of those places, my heads go into work/DJ mode. So family holidays are out the question, as they wait all year for that annual vacation abroad.”

Cut the unnecessary

I don’t know a magic trick that would suddenly make your music producer’s life easier, and I doubt there are any shortcuts. But I use a technique I call ‘cut the unnecessary’ which helps me to keep focused on what’s really important.

Every time you dig into new fancy plugins or read a review of a new DJ controller, ask yourself — “does it help me to progress toward my goals?”. Is it something you really need at the moment or is your tired brain just needs some procrastination?

Re-energizing for music production after 9-6 work

We all are content consumers, we absorb new information through social networks and news media all the time. But sometimes (or most of the time?) this information gives nothing but a feeling of doing or learning something new whilst in reality, it’s ‘junk food’. It’s like if you would eat potato chips thinking you’re getting a protein.

Sometimes it’s good to have an informational ‘diet’ for your mind. If you cut the unnecessary, it might turn out that things are a little bit easier than you thought.

Recap

I know this blog might be confusing, so let me highlight three main points I was trying to say:

1. The music business is tough and complicated. There is no shortcut to success in any profession.
2. You don’t have to be great, being ‘normal’ is just fine as long as you are happy with it.
3. Focus on what really helps your progression.

On cover image: an illustration of Renton, a character of Irvine Welsh’s novel “Trainspotting” played by Ewan McGregor. His famous “Choose life” narration sums it up nicely.

It depends on the deal you had with the label. Generally speaking, a typical record label deal implies transferring reproduction and exploitation rights to the label, which means they can use your music pretty much anything they like.

The problem is that most contracts are written in a too complex lawyer’s language, which only they can understand. Such contracts are difficult to read even for native English speakers, for non-natives it’s an even worse nightmare.

To non-native speakers: learn English

To give an example of what kind of rights you grant to the label with signing a contract, here are a few highlights in a typical contract and its “translation” to the human language:

Few highlights of a typical label agreement. This is just a single page out of 13, the list of rights given to the label is far beyond that. Click to zoom-in or open in a new tab

Now answering your question — yes, the label can re-release your music on other labels, unless the opposite is clearly specified. And they no need to ask for the artist permission or consent because you already gave it when signed the contract.

For example, back in 2015 I had an EP on Digital Om Productions called “Thru The Stars”. A few months later, the A-side track also appeared on a VA compilation released by Yellow Sunshine Explosion. To make it happen, YSE had to contact Digital Om to get permission and pay for it. As you can see, this is purely label-to-label communication without artists being involved.

Thru The Stars, Digital Om Productions

This process is called “sub-licensing”, and it’s absolutely normal. The good news is that you as an artist should also receive some extra fee for this, usually $100 per track. So my advice is to don’t panic, just wait for the next royalty statement from your label and see if it includes the sub-licensing.

The truth about music sales

And read the contract carefully next time, don’t hesitate to ask your label to clarify if something confuses you.

Alex, there is no tried-and-true way of making such build-ups, it’s a matter of your overall skills, creativity, and hours of hard work.

Let’s try to make some short build-up here. I’ve pre-made some simple arrangement, it’s two 16-Bars long sections with a 1-Bar long break which we gonna fill. Here’s how it looks and sounds like:

Initial basic arrangement

Usually, I use a specific colour for each group of instruments, but in this particular case I greyed-out everything but the drum fills which we’ll start making in a bit, so you could clearly see what’s going on in the project.

Organizing music project

And before we get started, don’t forget that electronic dance progresses in 16-Bars sections, and you have to make these break within the 16-Bars section, not outside of it.

Criteria of professional production. Part 3. DJ-friendly arrangement

I’m gonna start off with some simple tom sound just to define the rhythmic pattern. This pattern could be anything you’re up to, I’ve decided to make it like this:

Rhythm structure basics

Making a rhythmic pattern with tom sample

Nothing fancy so far, but that’s okay, we’ve got the structure. Now I going to replace the first two tom hits with a kick drum, and also swap the sixth tom hit with another tom sample::

Adding two more sound sources

Now the first three tom hits sound too repetitive, let’s put on different octaves to get some variations. I’ll also replace the last tom for a big snare hit:

Same pattern played by different sounds

Notice that this is the exact same pattern as it was on step 1, just played by different sounds. Now let’s add some pre-build-up sounds to make the break more sense. I’m going to add a simple noise sweep sounds, a few kick drums right before the break, and also I’ll filter-up the main kick and bass. This is what I mean:

Adding some pre-build-up samples

Nice, but I feel that overall the break sounds very “dry”. Let’s add some tonal reversed atmospheric effects, I’ve written about it a couple of weeks ago. I’ll also add a couple of “zap” hits to give it extra texture. It sounds like this:

Making atmospheric effects

Making the break more “wet” and texture

We’re pretty much done, but I feel we can add few more tweaks: a snare fill prior to the break and some extra effects. Here’s overall view on what we’ve done:

Adding a finishing touch

Obviously, you can tweak it as long as you like almost infinitely, but I think it’s good enough to stop on this as I’m pretty satisfied with the outcome. Scroll up and back down to listen where we started and what we came up to.

So, that’s it, this is how I do such kind of build-ups. Remember that it’s not “the proper” way of doing this, it’s just one of millions of possible ways which I personally use. Feel the groove and be creative to do yours.

Timothy, I can’t speak how other producers do their atmospheric effects, I can only tell how I do this. It’s also hard to say how to make some sound without knowing exactly what kind of sound do you mean by ‘atmospheric effects’, so I’ll go over general idea.

In my opinion, two things are crucial for making effects: knowing how to use audio processing devices and creativity. If you know how to use reverb, delay, gate, compressor, phaser, vocoder etc, you can turn pretty much anything into an effect.

Here are a few examples of how I do atmospheric effects in my production.

Reversed ‘woosh’ with gate

A simple detuned chord stab:

Adjusting ADSR envelopes and adding a long reverb:

Then I reverse it and add some gate:

Making a reversed and gated “woosh” effect

Rolling texture

Now something different, with more texture. I’ll start with some simple saw wave stab with a bandpass filter:

Then I turn on the arpeggio to add some rolling pattern, and also add some long delay to keep this roll going longer:

This already sounds good to me, but we can make it more interesting by adding a high-pass filter and a pinch of metallic flavor:

Making a rolling texture with reverb, delay, panning, filtering, and ‘metallic’ flavour

Pitch-shifted gate pad

For this example I’ll take some ordinary string:

We can achieve some interesting pitch-shifted effect simply by modulation Pitch-bend wheel on top of some extra reverb:

Let’s make this effect more driving by adding gate:

Making an atmospheric pitch-shifted gate effect

Background atmo lead

Now let’s try to change some ordinary lead into a smooth background atmospheric effect:

Tweak the synth a bit, add reverb, filter automation, and auto pan as a ‘sidechain’ effect, and we’ll get this:

Just to put into perspective:

Making a background atmospheric lead

This is it, that’s how I usually do effects. This is not a ‘how-to’ guide, but rather just one of the way of making it, approach.

Some of these examples are taken from my forthcoming album

Zaps and squelches you’ve mentioned have a slightly different approach, it’s more about synthesis rather than processing and maybe I’ll go over it next time.