It’s quite different if you aim to be a professional producer. You need to know the production, sound design, acoustics, arrangements, composition, and mixing – and that’s just the basics to make a high-quality track. Then there is more: you need to know the industry, know how to market yourself, bring the music to the audience, negotiate, plan the budget, understand the contracts, organize yourself, play DJ sets and do many, many more things. After years in my music career, I know a little bit about that.<\/p>\n
To summarize, to do something professionally, you have to know more related disciplines, understand the market, and work hard. A lot. And if you generalize even more, for a hobby, the process is important, while for a profession the result is important. I think that’s the main difference.<\/p>\n
In a hobby it’s the process, in a profession it’s the result<\/p>\n
I want to end with an important point: You don’t have to become a professional. Don’t have to build a career. Cooking a meal for loved ones or making music for yourself is fine. If you enjoy the process, just enjoy it.<\/p>\n", "date_published": "2021-04-15T21:00:00+01:00", "date_modified": "2023-06-18T09:18:03+01:00", "tags": [ "Advice", "Music Industry", "Production" ], "_date_published_rfc2822": "Thu, 15 Apr 2021 21:00:00 +0100", "_rss_guid_is_permalink": "false", "_rss_guid": "721", "_rss_enclosures": [], "_e2_data": { "is_favourite": true, "links_required": [], "og_images": [] } }, { "id": "709", "url": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/all\/dark-entity-making-of\/", "title": "Making of Dark Entity", "content_html": "
On April 12, Dark Entity will be released — a new track that we’ve made together with Kirill Enlusion<\/a>. Not only the result is interesting, but also the path we took. With Kirill’s permission, I am sharing the process of creating the track (and even two!) with dozens of iterations, controversial moments, and behind-the-scenes details.<\/p>\n It all began when on September 23, 2020, I offered Kirill to make a track together. In the best traditions of producer humour, I asked: “Collab, bro?”, which almost made him choke :-)<\/p>\n And this was the first sketch I sent:<\/p>\n Kirill approved it and really felt the melody. Needless to say, nothing will be left of it at the end. But that’s for later, and for now, we got to work.<\/p>\n I’m figuring out how this lead would look in a sort of Techno’ish environment and sketch out a basic arrangement:<\/p>\n I listen to it again and realize it’s too “cheesy”, and too melodic. I tell Kirill that I want something darker. He agrees and sends me this new lead:<\/p>\n I approve, he continues:<\/p>\n I like the rhythmic elements, but the vibe as a whole isn’t working. I want it to be darker. So I remove almost everything and made a foundation from scratch:<\/p>\n Kirill likes it. That’s it, we stick with this one as the core. On the next step, Kirill is trying different pads and melodies and also improving the low end along the way:<\/p>\n As I listen to it, I think it’s too melodic. I would have liked the pads more as a texture rather than a melody.<\/p>\n Kirill builds the intro<\/span>, adds stabs <\/span> and changes pads<\/span>:<\/p>\n Then he continues and adds a breakdown<\/span>:<\/p>\n And then he adds Sasha’esq arps<\/span>, BXR-style snares in the drop<\/span> and put it all together:<\/p>\n By this time, it was the middle of October. At the same time, I was finishing off my new studio<\/a>, so I was extremely busy. Then the move, the hustle and bustle, and soon enough it turns out to be Winter already!<\/p>\n On December 11, burning with an embarrassment of such delay, I returned to the track. I listen carefully to the last version and realize that the stabs<\/span>, the pads<\/span> and the lead<\/span> don’t work for me. I like the breakdown<\/span>, overall, but to me it misses some emotional character, some big moment.<\/p>\n So I decide to keep the core, but almost completely redone the leads and the pads, and removed a lot of things to give the track more “air” — in particular, at the build-up in the first half of the track<\/span>. I also extend the breakdown and add some unexpected musical moments<\/span>. Well, and some more little things.<\/p>\n Comparing before and after:<\/p>\n I have to give Kirill credit that he didn’t tell me to screw off, but he agreed that this was a step in the right direction, even though I had cut out a lot of his past iterations. Let’s keep working!<\/p>\n In the last Kirill’s iteration there was a second breakdown (↑)<\/span>, which I wanted to diversify in some way.<\/p>\n Trying something crazy:<\/p>\n Kirill: “Crazy lead? Hold my beer!”, and sends his version:<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/pictures\/dark-entity-ableton-overview.jpg\")
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