kev-on-music

Music Making Tips - Tip 4 - Set a Clear Goal Before Starting a Track

2015-11-30T12:48:00.001+01:00

When asked how they start a track many music makers will reply that they are going to create a beat first, then add a baseline and will grow it from there. However, what's not being said is that this approach can lead straight to getting stuck in a 8-bar loop for forever. Just check how many articles are written about breaking out of the loop. Unfortunately, breaking out of the loop is only tackling the consequence rather the cause. Set yourself a clear goal before beginning a tune to avoid that kind of situation in the first place. The most common goal or a "mission statement" I will set for myself is "I am going to make a vocal track using an acapella". You can call it a remix or remake project.

Acapellas will give you guidelines for your song key, arrangement, and structure. An acapella in itself is a song meaning that it will most likely have intro, verse, bridge, and chorus. Find an acapella you love (the most difficult part) . Next, identify its key, a dedicated software like KeyFinder can help here. Now add it to your DAW and go creative!

Try adding or recording different beats to it. Try different baselines, synths. Play them in key with your acapella until you're happy with the harmony. You will discover that lyrics have a massive impact on your sound selection too. In a sense, the acapella is going to determine what sounds to choose for you. Your synths may suddenly come alive when you have tweaked them to accompany the human voice. You can choose to use just certain phrases or slices of the vocal if that's enough for you to keep going with the track.

As soon as you you're done with the instrumentation for one part of the acapella, move on to the next, and so on until you've made music for the entire acapella. At some point, you can even remove the vocals altogether and leave it instrumental.

One of the best sources for noncommercial acapella's on the attribution license is ccmixter.org. By the way, you will achieve the same if you use own vocals and lyrics. Maybe it's a taste thing but songs with a human element always sound better than one's with just synths, especially if it's virtual synths.

Have you got any music making tips to share? Please share them in the comments section!

Music Making Tips - Tip 3 - Vary Your Sound

2015-11-19T11:23:00.000+01:00

One of the common reasons for so called "writer's block" in music making are relentless attempts to squeeze juice out of the same instruments and samples over and over. Sounds familiar? Damn yeah!

Say, you have made a couple of tracks that you are really happy with using Ableton's Operator as your main synth. You've made solid baselines and amazing keys and lead harmonies. It all sounded oh so great. Now you want to fire up your DAW and repeat that rewarding experience of making music with the same synth again. However, it just does not sound good anymore! No matter which presets or tweaks you apply it will sound dull and tedious.

Why is that? The answer lies within the human body. After many days or weeks working with that sound your ears are so used to its character that no matter what you do it will sound boring. Your ears are plain simple tired of it and need time to reboot. It's the moment you have to stop torturing yourself.

Instead, start spending time looking for new instruments and samples. I am not advocating for spending tons on new VST's, samples, or hardware. Not at all, sometimes small investments make a huge difference. If you research it well you may end up spending as little as 30 euros and get yourself fully busy with the sounds, synths or effects you bought for the coming month. More often than not professional makers of virtual instruments and effects like Waves, FabFilter, Arturia and many many others offer huge discounts on their top line products.

You can also get products that have fantastic reviews from less known brands. All you need to do is take your time off making music and do some research on the Internet. If you're into hardware you could look into getting used stuff. You'll be amazed at how many people are willing to get rid of their hardware for cheap. Alternately, just look around in your DAW. Are there any instruments you didn't explore yet? Even if you come out with nothing you have already won because you've given your ears time to rest.

Lastly, listen to other peoples music, different styles and genres. Go to live music concerts, watch videos about your favorite artists talking about their lives, workflow, and sources for their inspiration.

Have you got any music making tips to share? Please share them in the comments section!

Music Making Tips - Tip 2 - Seperate Creative Process from Production

2015-11-17T11:41:00.000+01:00

Many music makers including myself are going to create and produce music all in the same stage. This is wrong! When you are recording sound you should be least concerned with the audio effects such as compressors, equalizers, saturators, chorus etc.

First and foremost, in the creative stage you will be laying down your musical ideas in the form of musical phrases, hooks, loops, and different sections of the song (intro, chorus, bridge). At this point you are going for the harmony that keeps you inspired and focused. The longer you manage to stay in that state of mind the more musical material you will be able to record.

Should you stop over adjusting equalizers or compressors at this stage you will risk of shifting your focus from laying down the sounds to the infinite tweaking of parameters. When creating music it's totally fine to have a default set of audio effects pre-added to the tracks that you are going to record, say, a compressor with the default parameters, equalizer with a slight cut at 30 Hz (mostly likely you will cut there anyway), some reverb and delay on sends to create a feel for space.

As soon as you feel you have recorded enough musical material to produce, move on to the technical part of the song creation process. Start building your effects chains, adjust parameters to taste. Save your project, revisit, tweak again until it sounds as you wanted it to sound.

Have you got any music making tips to share? Please share them in the comments section!

Music Making Tips - Tip 1 - Record Audio Instead of MIDI

2015-11-17T08:52:00.001+01:00

Editing, editing, and re-editing can be damaging your creative process. It mostly happens when you're recording your clips in MIDI thinking that "OK! if I can't get it down right the first time I will fix it by editing the notes." It may work like this for a few clips but in the end it gets so tedious and tiring. Before too long you're stuck editing and all you have is a single 8-bar loop. What's more, you no longer want to trust or master your performance.

My music making tip here is to record your clips as audio so that you can't edit them even if you wanted to. If it sounds bad, just re-record and commit to it! By not being able to go back and edit you will find yourself moving forward recording new instruments, phrases, and scenes. It takes some patience and practice but once you're there you don't want to work with MIDI again. Surely, it's not the rule to rule them all. You may keep your beat sequences and samplers in MIDI.

Have you got any music making tips to share? Please share them in the comments section!

Find me on Twitter for more music making tips!

2014-02-11T15:38:00.001+01:00

Tweets by @kevkondro

Second live for your APC40 using MIDI remote scripts

2013-11-06T11:13:00.001+01:00

I have got one of these. And it is my go-to tool for my live performances, DJ mixes, and productions in Ableton. What APC40 is capable of as the out of the box product we know pretty good but there is a lot more to it. Uncover the hidden uses by using Remote MIDI Scripting with your APC40. Here is a series of the articles by AskAudioMag explaining that:

Extending the use of your Akai APC40 in Ableton Live, Part 1 of 2
Extending the use of your Akai APC40 in Ableton Live, Part 2 of 2

Some examples of the application of the MIDI remote scripts below:

DJ Template Pro: Walkthrough from Will Marshall on Vimeo.
Good luck customizing your APC40!

How to remix - Daft Punk - Get Lucky remix in Ableton

2013-10-21T16:38:00.003+02:00

Ever wondered how do I remix my favorite track when I do not have any stems (the parts of the song recorded as separate audio tracks)? Well, here is your answer. Check the video by Sadowick below showing how to begin a dance remix of the track when only the master track is available. Basically, it is a lot cutting, eq'ing, sampling, and filtering. The tips are applicable to any DAW.

Track foundation from recorded samples

2013-10-17T14:54:00.003+02:00

This video by Point Blank tutor Ski Oakenfull goes to show how you can make music in Ableton without any soft synths or hardware just using the samples you record, find on the internet, or buy. The below technique offers your samples a second life wherein you treat your samples as the instruments. It is also very inspiring to discover that the sounds around you are just about all you need to make music. From percussion to chords.

Live Jam with Waldorf Rocket, lots of gear and a vocoder

2013-08-20T09:47:00.000+02:00

Quality gear, interesting sound, and a clear composition. I guess that's what makes a track good!

Rheyne - Live Jam #81 (live looping with Ableton Live)

2013-08-08T15:15:00.003+02:00

Getting back to blogging with this fine live jam by Rheyne with Ableton running at the heart of it all. It's just as great aesthetically as is musically. There's a nice collection of gear used too. Equipment:

Moog Prodigy
Fender Rhodes w/ MXR Wylde Overdrive
Novation Launchpad
iPads running Nave and Lemur
M-Audio Oxygen25
iPod Touch running Sunrizer w/ iConnectMIDI
KMI QuNeo and QuNexus
DSI MoPho keyboard (yellow)
Akai APC20
DJTT MIDI Fighter 3D
PreSonus 1818VSL
MacBook Pro running Ableton Live
Lighting
5x Chauvet Slim Par 56 LED
2x American DJ Mega 50 RGB

Enjoy! You will find more live jams like this visiting his Vimeo page.

kevkondro.com dedicated music site

2013-07-16T16:59:00.002+02:00

I have finally decided to create a completely new site dedicated to my music. I will keep blogging on Kev on Music as I always have, posting music making tips, audio tutorials, and music vids but will not post any of my music here from now on. The new tracks, mixes, and ableton livesets will only be featured on kevkondro.com The decision behind such move is to enable people find kevkondro tunes fast and easy.

I did feel that something truly dedicated to just my creative work was missing. I needed a sort of musician portfolio, an easier way for people to approach me at what I do. Well, the wait is over. Check out the new site.

PS. As a "bonus" there you will find the two new tracks that I have made recently.

Deconstructing - Justice vs Simian - We Are Your Friends - Ableton Tutorial

2013-07-10T10:18:00.001+02:00

Loving to see one of my all time favorite tracks getting deconstructed by Ski Oakenfull of Pointblank music college in London. Ski deciphers the key signature, chord progression, and the scale of the track. He gives a clear explanation of the tonic the note which is the most natural and comfortable across the whole track. If you can find that note it will likely mean that that's the key of the track. The scale of this track is A minor.

kevkondro Liveset-B

2013-06-11T09:51:00.002+02:00

This liveset is recorded some 5 months ago. At the time I used APC20 to perform it. All samples are downloaded either from ccmixter.org (especially acapellas) or freesound.org. It's amazing what a wealth of interesting sounds you can find there. I am reposting this set because I start appreciating it more and more as time goes by.

Chord progression generator Autochords.com

2013-06-04T16:27:00.002+02:00

Yet another chord progression generator to get you started. At a glance, I like Autochords because unlike other software, this tool is limiting the infinity of parameters you have to deal with while setting chords and scales to just a few ones. Too much choice is often counter-productive in music making.

You will be able to generate a progression based on the several different parameters such as feel, key, natural or sharp, and scale. Or just click Randomize button which will generate a random chord progression for you. Play it on your keyboard to see if it gets you moving. ~~If you do not know know how to pencil or play some chords in the progression, then you will need to look them up using tools such as this or this.~~ If you do not know how to play these chords, just hover your mouse over a name of the chord and a popup will appear that will show the notes of the chord.

An interesting fact about this tool is that it is programmed based on the Music Theory Cheat Sheet (see below image), which provides an overview of the most popular chord progressions found in popular music.

Check more posts on the topic of MIDI, Chords, and Scales.

Transforming Vocal Samples into Lead Synths (audiotuts repost)

2013-05-23T10:55:00.003+02:00

I am reposting this handy tutorial by Audiotuts contributor Mo Volans. He gives the tips on how to use vocal samples to create an epic lead sound. He's using Kontakt in Logic but I am sure you can accomplish the same effect by using a built-in sampler in any good DAW.

Instrument EQ Table and Tips by Loopblog

2013-05-17T16:10:00.000+02:00

Audio equalization is one of the most difficult subjects to master in music making. No wonder that many home studio musicians get stuck with it ruining their mixes or decide to ignore it. I've been there too. In fact, I still don't know how to EQ properly.

Luckily, we have the Internet! The EQ Tips Table – EQ Ranges For A Better Mix blog post series by loopblog.net gives us an overview of the frequency ranges in which the sound of the different instruments sits. They also explain what effect cutting or boosting these frequencies may have on the sound or the whole mix. If you see that your EQ skills take you no where, use this information to guide you while eq'ing your mix.

Part 1
To understand EQ and its intricacies you need hands-on experience, but to help you get started, here’s a table of general uses and the different ranges that EQ can affect. As every sound is different these are very general guidelines but we hope you find this set of EQ tips useful.

Kick Drum
Any apparent muddiness can be rolled off around 300Hz. Try a small boost around 5-7kHz to add some high end.

50-100Hz ~ Adds bottom to the sound
100-250Hz ~ Adds roundness
250-800Hz ~ Muddiness Area
5-8kHz ~ Adds high end presence
8-12kHz ~ Adds Hiss

Snare
Try a small boost around 60-120Hz if the sound is a little too wimpy. Try boosting around 6kHz for that ‘snappy’ sound.

100-250Hz ~ Fills out the sound
6-8kHz ~ Adds presence

Hi hats or cymbals
Any apparent muddiness can be rolled off around 300Hz. To add some brightness try a small boost around 3kHz.

250-800Hz ~ Muddiness area
1-6kHz ~ Adds presence
6-8kHz ~ Adds clarity
8-12kHz ~ Adds brightness

Bass
Try boosting around 60Hz to add more body. Any apparent muddiness can be rolled off around 300Hz. If more presence is needed, boost around 6kHz.

50-100Hz ~ Adds bottom end
100-250Hz ~ Adds roundness
250-800Hz ~ Muddiness Area
800-1kHz ~ Adds beef to small speakers
1-6kHz ~ Adds presence
6-8kHz ~ Adds high-end presence
8-12kHz ~ Adds hiss

Vocals
This is a difficult one, as it depends on the mic used to record the vocal. However…Apply either cut or boost around 300hz, depending on the mic and song.Apply a very small boost around 6kHz to add some clarity.

100-250Hz ~ Adds ‘up-frontness’
250-800Hz ~ Muddiness area
1-6kHz ~ Adds presence
6-8kHz ~ Adds sibilance and clarity
8-12kHz ~ Adds brightness

Piano
Any apparent muddiness can be rolled off around 300Hz. Apply a very small boost around 6kHz to add some clarity.

50-100Hz ~ Adds bottom
100-250Hz ~ Adds roundness
250-1kHz ~ Muddiness area
1-6kHz ~ Adds presence
6-8Khz ~ Adds clarity
8-12kHz ~ Adds hiss

Electric guitars
Again this depends on the mix and the recording. Apply either cut or boost around 300hz, depending on the song and sound. Try boosting around 3kHz to add some edge to the sound, or cut to add some transparency. Try boosting around 6kHz to add presence. Try boosting around 10kHz to add brightness.

100-250Hz ~ Adds body
250-800Hz ~ Muddiness area
1-6Khz ~ Cuts through the mix
6-8kHz ~ Adds clarity
8=12kHz ~ Adds hiss

Acoustic guitar
Any apparent muddiness can be rolled off between 100-300Hz. Apply small amounts of cut around 1-3kHz to push the image higher. Apply small amounts of boost around 5kHz to add some presence.

100-250Hz ~ Adds body
6-8kHz ~ Adds clarity
8-12kHz ~ Adds brightness

Strings
These depend entirely on the mix and the sound used.

50-100Hz ~ Adds bottom end
100-250Hz ~ Adds body
250-800Hz ~ Muddiness area
1-6hHz ~ Sounds crunchy
6-8kHz ~ Adds clarity
8-12kHz ~ Adds brightness

Part 2
Here’s part two of Silas Holmes’ post on EQ and frequency ranges. This sort of re-states some of what was in his first EQ tips post, but is more broad and relates to frequency ranges in general instead of specific instruments. Used together, these should be a real help in getting started with your mixes.

50Hz

Increase to add more fullness to lowest frequency instruments like foot, toms, and the bass.
Reduce to decrease the “boom” of the bass and will increase overtones and the recognition of bass line in the mix. This is most often used on bass lines in Rap and R&B.

100Hz

Increase to add a harder bass sound to lowest frequency instruments.
Increase to add fullness to guitars, snare.
Increase to add warmth to piano and horns.
Reduce to remove boom on guitars & increase clarity.

200Hz

Increase to add fullness to vocals.
Increase to add fullness to snare and guitar (harder sound).
Reduce to decrease muddiness of vocals or mid-range instruments. 4. Reduce to decrease gong sound of cymbals.

400Hz

Increase to add clarity to bass lines especially when speakers are at low volume.
Reduce to decrease “cardboard” sound of lower drums (foot and toms).
Reduce to decrease ambiance on cymbals.

800Hz

Increase for clarity and “punch” of bass.
Reduce to remove “cheap” sound of guitars.

1.5KHz

Increase for “clarity” and “pluck” of bass.
Reduce to remove dullness of guitars.

3KHz

Increase for more “pluck” of bass.
Increase for more attack of electric / acoustic guitar.
Increase for more attack on low piano parts.
Increase for more clarity / hardness on voice.
Reduce to increase breathy, soft sound on background vocals.
Reduce to disguise out-of-tune vocals / guitars

5KHz

Increase for vocal presence.
Increase low frequency drum attack (foot/toms).
Increase for more “finger sound” on bass.
Increase attack of piano, acoustic guitar and brightness on guitars.
Reduce to make background parts more distant.
Reduce to soften “thin” guitar.

7KHz

Increase to add attack on low frequency drums (more metallic sound).
Increase to add attack to percussion instruments.
Increase on dull singer.
Increase for more “finger sound” on acoustic bass.
Reduce to decrease “s” sound on singers.
Increase to add sharpness to synthesizers, rock guitars, acoustic guitar and piano.

10KHz

Increase to brighten vocals.
Increase for “light brightness” in acoustic guitar and piano.
Increase for hardness on cymbals.
Reduce to decrease “s” sound on singers.

15KHz

Increase to brighten vocals (breath sound).
Increase to brighten cymbals, string instruments and flutes.
Increase to make sampled synthesizer sound more real.

kevkondro Song-E (live)

2013-05-16T12:19:00.000+02:00

Last couple of days I have putting this track together which I performed and recorded live in Ableton Live 8 yesterday. Used APC40. Some samples recorded from Korg Kaossilator.

Song from scractch, arrangement tips, and Ableton Push tutorial

2013-05-07T11:52:00.000+02:00

Ski Oakenfull, a tutor at Point Blank music school gives a video tutorial series on Ableton Push / Ableton 9. You will get valuable tips on how to compose a song from scratch, which instruments you lay down first, which ones later. In the second part of the video series the actual arrangement of recorded clips is done in Ableton. Even if you're not Ableton user, the information provided especially in the Part 1 is applicable in any DAW.

Part 1 - Ableton Push Challenge with Ski Oakenfull

In this video a song gets created from scratch in Ableton. Different instrument clips are recorded with vocals on top. The sexy sounding vocals are performed by Viv May. All is done in Push, using no computer mouse at all.

Part 2 - Ski's Ableton Push Challenge: Arranging the track

In the second part of the series this groovy house tune gets arranged. The recorded clips in the arrangement view are placed back onto the session view so that the whole track can be re-recorded seamlessly back into arrangement view scene by scene for the final editing.

Nine Inch Nails I'm Afraid of Americans live from on stage Toronto

2013-05-03T15:15:00.000+02:00

Weekend tune right there ladies and gentlemen! Insane synth solo by Trent.

Arrangement tips for Ableton users

2013-04-27T11:21:00.001+02:00

One of the biggest challenges in making music is arrangement. Often you will come up with an 8 or 16 bar loop fast but get hopelessly stuck afterwards. The author of this video offers a solution. Check it out!

Klangkarussell Sonnentanz Cover by Dirty Garbage TanktopDrummers R

2013-03-26T14:32:00.001+01:00

The ones who know Sonnentanz track have got to see this!!! An awesome cover using mostly percussion and xylophones. The original Klangkarussell Sonnentanz music video below.

"X" Monitor stands new gear alert!

2013-03-13T14:31:00.002+01:00

Yesterday I have finally received the new monitor stands I bought. It's a major improvement if you consider that my previous monitor stands were a pair of shoe boxes. I find these stands really flexible. Originally, these are the keyboard stands but as you can see it perfectly fits the small monitors I have. The product name is Quiklok QL-322 monitor X-standard. It can support a weight up to 45 kg per stand. Next, need a stand for a computer monitor!

NAMM 2013: Panel discussion: Past, present and future of MIDI

2013-03-06T17:46:00.000+01:00

A panel discussion about the evolution, current situation, and the future of MIDI by renowned people in the industry.

DMK: "Everything Counts"

2013-03-05T12:33:00.001+01:00

Haha that's a team work! Love the kick drum.

Groove Armada - Glastonbury Festival 2010 live

2013-02-27T13:50:00.000+01:00

Groove Armada - Glastonbury Festival 2010 live from darkox on Vimeo. GA fans going to like this one! A concert video from Glastonbury Festival 2010 also featuring tracks from their Black Light album. Lots of lasers too!