Don't be a Robot: The Importance of the Human Factor in Electronic Drum Loops

The Deli Magazine

My feeling as a music producer is that in Electronic Music today there is WAAAY too much to-the-beat quantization. For the uninitiated, “quantizing” is the process of aligning the hits of a musical phrase to the song tempo and its subdivisions (quarters, eights of a note etc). Sure, there are plenty of people out there who are happy to dance to the strict “uhmp-tz-uhmps” embedded in the majority of dance tracks. But why not try to feed the crowd something that’s even more contagious in setting booties in motion?

The syncopation found in funk, hip hop and Afrobeat drumming makes those genres so much more compelling to dance to, and with today’s technologies, you don’t really need a human drummer to emulate that.

My advice to the up-and-coming EDM producer is to initially work on drum loops separately from the tracks. Make a selection of drum hits and existing loops that you like, and create combinations of them, slowly building your own library and paying particular attention to how slight delays on the various beats and backbeats affect the way the drum pattern “feels.”

It’s always good to keep the first hit (normally a kick) perfectly quantized to the first beat to keep the rhythm consistent, but you can experiment with pretty much any other tempo subdivision – and don’t forget about the triplet option, which can introduce a completely unexpected element.

Most modern sequencers allow you to lay down the samples on a grid, zoom in, cut and move the elements around, while some let you use and create quantizing templates that can automatically apply a more or less noticeable syncopation to your loops. In the EDM genre, nailing a drum loop is already a big step towards a dance-floor hit, and syncopation is an element no electronic producer should overlook.

Habits, Thoughts, and Tips from 12 Highly Skilled Producers

Sam Matla - EDMProd

As music producers, we each develop our own set of processes when it comes to creating what we create. We might have developed something unique in terms of workflow, an alternative approach to sound design, or ways to keep the inspiration flowing constantly.

Everyone has different thoughts and ideas; thoughts and ideas we can all learn from. I reached out to 12 highly skilled producers asking them about their habits and what’s involved in the creative process for them.

1. Adam Szabo

Adam Szabo is an electronic music producer and sound designer signed to Enhanced Music who releases at a quality level like no other. Here’s what he has to say…

Before finishing a track, I give it a test run. I’ll put it on my MP3 player and listen to it when I walk or run. This way I can get a feel for it without concentrating on it too much and I might discover problems with it that I might have missed during sessions in the studio.

Often we can get caught up in the visuals of the track, or the environment we produce in. It can be helpful to get out of the studio and listen to your music in a different setting.

I think Adam’s shared something incredibly valuable here.

2. Perverse

Perverse are a dubstep duo straight out of my home country, New Zealand. They’ve had releases on various labels such as Bassweight, Tribe 12, OG Recordings, and many more. Here’s a quick tip from them:

Don’t get stuck in the habit of using the same samples/plug-ins. While it may sound like you have a “theme” or “sound”, what you’re really doing is limiting yourself and not progressing.

Using different sounds and plug-ins allows us to break creative frontiers and learn, with that said – don’t go overboard. You do not need 100 synths. A producer’s style doesn’t come from the plugins he’s using, but rather their personal taste in music. It’s a combination of compositional technique, sound design, sample selection, and more.

3. Mikael Wills

Mikael Wills is an electronic music producer, label manager, DJ, and vocalist also from New Zealand! He’s made appearances on EDMProd before in the form of an interview and guest post. 

If you’ve got an idea but you want to apply another idea to the mix you’re working on to see what it’s like, save the old idea as “version 1″ before going ahead and destructively transforming it to try and fit the new idea.

Versioning is really important in production, because we’re humans, and humans make mistakes. Hitting Ctrl + S is easy, but you’re always overwriting the old file. If you’re making a big change – then save as a new version! You’ll thank yourself the next day when you realize that what you changed/added really wasn’t that good.

There have been many times where I’ve been making a synth (especially FM) and thought it could be better. I’d then spend a while messing with it only to realize it sounded worse than before. Always save/version what you have.

Again, re-iterating the importance of versioning on a micro-level.

Read Mikael’s article on ignore pressure and focusing on the important. 

4. Distantt

Distantt is a young and incredibly talented producer who shows diversity and skill. He shares one of his habits…

A big habit of mine is remaking. Whenever I have spare time, I like to sit down and take a considerable amount of time remaking songs I enjoy. It’s good practice for getting new sounds and figuring out how to do different kinds of mixes.

If there’s one thing you remember from reading this article, it should be this. Remaking is eye-opening, it makes you listen to music critically and analyze everything that’s going on. It’s also a good way to keep improving when you’re lacking original ideas.

5. Wrechiski

Wrechiski is one of my favorite producers. Listen to his song “Aquamarine” and you’ll find out why.

A habit I have is working with different styles. This helps me A LOT with workflow and the study of sound design and mixing as it allows me to know of and create different kinds of sounds and arrangements.

Regardless of whether you’re a trance producer or techno producer, branching out and trying out different styles can be an enjoyable learning experience.

6. River Accorsi

River Accorsi is a bass music producer with an extreme talent for sound design. Here are two tips from him:

Organize your sample library and know where all your best sounds are.

If you’re a newsletter subscriber, then you may have got a recent weekly tip stating how important it is to organize your sample library. It helps immensely with workflow and feels a lot nicer in general. Don’t put it off for too long!

It’s better to know your tools inside out and have a select few tools rather than all the plugins in the world.

If you’re constantly hoarding more and more plugins, you’ll spread yourself thin. You won’t have time to learn the plugins, find their hidden characteristics, their weaknesses and strong points. Focus on a few and learn them inside and out.

7. Alex H

Alex H is a progressive house producer from Australia. He’s recently released a beautiful EP on Progressive House Worldwide which I encourage you to check out.

I always upload my edits to Soundcloud as people like to hear my ideas. It also helps keep my profile active.

There’s a little controversy surrounding this. Should you upload unfinished work? Or should you wait until it’s finished?

I personally love seeing artists upload their WIPs, it’s nice to see the difference between the conceptual ideas, and the finished product. From the creator’s perspective, I think it can also be helpful. If you get good feedback on an edit or WIP, then you’ll feel more inclined to finish it.

8. Hazem Beltagui

Hazem Beltagui is a trance and progressive music producer as well as label owner and A & R manager at Fractal Digital Recordings. Here are two habits that he has:

I keep hitting Ctrl + S every minute or so.

Simple? Yes. But there’s nothing worse than losing your hard work, get into the habit of saving frequently, but remember to save as a new version if you’re making a big change.

I tend to mute/unmute the kick in session view to see if it has the impact I’m looking for

This is really cool habit and something I’ll be trying out more. In electronic dance music particularly, the kick needs to be the driving force. If it isn’t right, your song won’t be either.

9. Axis

Axis is a talented producer signed to Enhanced. If you’re a regular on the Anjuna forums you will have seen him helping out other producers and sharing some knowledge. Here’s his long list of tips!

Organize your samples and synth presets (either factory or self-made). Scrolling through hundreds of sounds when you’re working on a track can kill inspiration, especially considering that most of the sounds included in sample packs are useless anyway. Audition and choose the best sounds and organize them. Do this regularly and keep your library compact.

A huge sample and preset library is pointless if only 5% of it is usable.

Keep your project organized. It’s easier to work on a project where all parts are color-coded and where you don’t have a huge number of muted channels/regions scattered around taking up space.

This is a killer tip. Most of you know how important organization is, and the impact it has on workflow, but if you don’t – then start doing it! Color code and properly name all your tracks.

Add arrangement structure early. Copying arrangement markers from a released track is a good start, and it can be changed later. Having a rough arrangement layout right from the start can help with finishing tracks.

Don’t stay in the 8-bar loop trap for too long. Arrangement is something that should be sorted first and foremost, I’m sure many would agree.

Challenge yourself by re-creating sounds from released tracks. There are sounds that work and sounds that don’t work. It’s very important to learn how to make sounds that do work, and A/B comparison with released tracks is essential. The same principle applies to mixing.

One thing you learn from analysing other’s work is the chemistry between synths, basses, and everything else. You quickly pick up on sounds that don’t work together in your own productions. Using released tracks as a reference is also incredibly helpful.

Read: Getting the Most out of Your Reference Tracks

Bounce everything to audio. Working with audio is easier and it frees up CPU and RAM. It also stops you from getting stuck tweaking MIDI and allows you to move forward with the track.

Some people do prefer to work with MIDI, but there are major benefits to working with audio. If you’re someone who spends hours tweaking a filter cutoff – then bouncing to audio might solve a few problems for you.

Optimize your workflow. Learn hot keys, create custom ones, etc. The faster you work, the higher the chances are that you won’t get bored with your track before you finish it.

10. Tygris

Tygris is a talented producer residing in Australia with killer tracks. Here’s his tip.

Always try to experiment with new sounds and using different ways of processing sounds even if you don’t know what you’re doing. You’ll eventually learn something new that nobody else knows but you and it’ll help sculpt a new sound.

Originality is something a lot of us strive for. Where does it come from? Experimentation. Break the rules.

11. Fractal

Fractal can’t be confined to one genre, so I won’t bother. He’s done exceptionally well in the world of electronic music and doesn’t take it lightly. Here’s what he has to say:

Whenever you become “stuck”, try seeing your piece as an arrangement of cement, that – importantly – has not yet hardened. Don’t be afraid to erase and change what’s already there in order to make room for what could be. Destruction is imperative for creation.

Read that again.

Destruction is imperative for creation.

We often become scared to erase something we’ve worked hard on. We justify it by thinking that it’s just our ears tricking it, when in most cases – it just doesn’t sound good. Don’t be timid, chop and change confidently.

Your ability to be productive in front of your DAW is heavily reliant on your state of mind. A peaceful, open mind allows a developing piece of music to be heard as it is – an ever-expanding canvas of infinite possibilities, remarkably similar to the universe itself. Upon pressing play, instead of hearing what it is, the expanded mind is able to hear the endless masterful symphonies of the sacred creative consciousness unravel before it, and thus is able to transcribe these visions of sound over time (with an accuracy based on skill leve). Meditation is great for this, and peaceful ambient music can really help you achieve deeper mind states fast. Minimizing external light sources and keeping your eyes closed are also great tricks when you don’t have access to exceptionally inspiring environments. Have faith in your own creative intuition, and you’ll never be “stuck” again. 

Just take that in.

You might think it’s a load of philosophical crap, but the fact is that creativity relies so heavily upon your state of mind that if the latter is suffering, the former will too.

12. Naden

Naden is another name you may have seen on EDMProd before. He did an awesome interview a while back. Here are some things he does.

Keep making more and more music. I make a lot of projects in between songs to rake out ideas I like the most and then use them in one track. Also, when I feel the beat and have something going, I try to finish it in that same sitting. There’s a huge chance I won’t finish it if I stop while “in the zone.”

Naden mentions two things here. The importance of quantity and putting time into your craft, and the state of flow. Both are important, and one is less controllable than the other.

The more work you create, the better you’ll become. That’s obvious.

As for the “the zone”, it comes at the best and worse of times. I’ve written an article about it, but the most important thing you should know is that if you do find yourself in the zone – you should see it through till the end!

What would you add to this list? Do you have any habits of your own that you think are unique?

“Do you wanna know how much money I make?” - Nick Thayer

Nick ThayerIn The Mix

Yesterday, versatile Australian beats and bass producer (and OWSLA-man) Nick Thayer published to his Tumblr something you don’t see that often: A comprehensive breakdown of just how much money he makes from releasing an album and going on tour.

It’s a fascinating look at the financial challenges facing artists, so we asked Thayer for permission to run it as an opinion piece. If you want a convincing argument as to why you should buy that album rather than torrenting it, read on. If you’re an aspiring producer, look away now.

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I wanted to take a second to break some numbers down for you. I’m doing this to be transparent. To let you know what the life of a producer/DJ looks like from the financial end. People often think there’s a huge amount of money in this scene. There is, but it is very concentrated and in the hands of very, VERY few people. The vast majority are on similar numbers to me, running on fumes most of the time to make this thing work. We do it because we LOVE THE ABSOLUTE SHIT out of writing music, playing music and sharing music.

Let’s start with a release.
Here’s the TOTAL sales breakdown for my Like Boom EP (March 2012). This is sales across all platforms (iTunes/Beatport/etc.). Bear in mind this EP was the #2 overall release for thirteen weeks on Beatport so you can assume it was a comparative success.

Like Boom: 2600
Facepalm: 2932
Totalitaria: 1125
Haters Gonna Hate: 652
Top Of The World: 710
What Props Ya Got: 614
Rise Up: 658
Like Boom – Nick Thayer Remix: 1953
Facepalm – Remix: 969
What Props – Remix: 509

So that’s 12,722 total sales.

For the sake of making this as simple as possible, let’s be generous and call these sales $2 each (most are a bit less). Then let’s split 50% (give or take) for whatever site you sell through, meaning the site takes $1 and there’s $1 left. Most labels these days run on a profit share arrangement which means you split what’s left of that down the middle too. Let’s also allow for any writing splits where other artists have been involved, adding vocals etc. So here we have total income that gets to me after the site, the label and the other artists involved have all taken their cut.

Like Boom (50% to sample clearance, 25% share to three vocalists): $162.5
Facepalm: $1467
Totalitaria: $562.5
Haters Gonna Hate (50% to vocalist): $326
Top Of The World (50% to vocalist): $177.5
What Props Ya Got (30% to vocalist): $158
Rise Up: $329
Like Boom – Nick Thayer Remix (50% to sample clearance, 25% share to three vocalists): $122
Facepalm Remix (50% to remixer): $242
What Props Remix (50% to remixer): $127

So that’s a total income from the EP of $3673.50. (I’m not going to include Spotify or YouTube here as they total less than the price of a beer overall).

At this point you pay your management 15% of what you have. Mastering comes in at approximately $150-$200 per track, so that’s $1500 total. Artwork is $1000 for anything half decent that’s usable across all platforms. A decent publicity campaign is about $300-$500. There’s a myriad of other smaller costs involved too. Some labels will cover these costs up front but it will be a ‘recoupable advance’ meaning you have to pay them back before they give you any money so it’s the same as fronting the money yourself.

So you can see at the end that this EP, which probably represented a year of work, actually ended up COSTING me money (though not a lot) to release. If somebody said to you ‘put your heart and soul into this project for a year and at the end give us some money for the privilege of having us listen to it’, what would YOU do?

What about touring?
At this point people usually say ‘well you make a lot of money from gigs right?’ Well, not really. Around six months after this EP came out, so in late 2012 – enough time to potentially see the benefits – in the US I was earning between $1000 and $1500 for a show. That might sound like a lot of money, but that is TOTAL.

Let’s say I did a run of nine shows across three weeks (Thursday, Friday, Saturday nights for weeks) at $1250. That’s $11,250. That’s A LOT right? Well. Right off the bat the booking agent will take 15%. As an Australian in the US I pay 30% up front on tax too (this is reclaimable but Australia has a reciprocal tax agreement with the US so it comes out of the amount of tax I owe here in Australia). So that’s down to $6200 straight away. Then I have to pay for travel. Let’s say return flights from Australia ($1500 economy fare) plus travel in between shows ($200 per flight if lucky) and we’re down to $2687. You can usually get the club to pay for a hotel on the night of your show, but that’s it. So that leaves maybe ten nights where you are covering it at $100 a night if you can find it. Often they will be much more expensive so you survive by sleeping on couches in friends’ places every second night. That’s $1687 left. Now pay management 15% and we’re at around $1434. Then there is food to pay for ‘cause you can’t live on bar snacks for three weeks. At $30 per day (that’s $10 for breakfast, lunch and dinner) for three weeks is around $600 and at that point all you’re left with is around $800 for three weeks’ work, which is not exactly a fortune.

So what?
This is not a sob story. This is me saying to you please, PLEASE support artists you like in any way you can think of.

Buy the whole EP when they release it instead of just one song. You would not believe the difference this can make. Even buying two songs instead of one helps chart positions, which creates exposure, which means more people listen and the cycle repeats itself.

Share the links to their music on your Facebook or Twitter or re-post them on Soundcloud or wherever you can. Promoters keep an eye out for whoever is being talked about the most across social media so instead of bugging your favourite artist to come to your town talk about them as much as you can and bug the promoters to bring them.

I want to say now THANK YOU for every single person who has supported me in any of these ways: who has bought my music, shown their friends, stuck stickers on things, come to a show or whatever. THANK YOU.

Some points of clarification from my post yesterday.

Seeing as my post has been picked up and has had a much wider reach than I expected I want to clarify some points:

Artwork costs being $1000/other EP expenses
It has been commented that this is a lot. What I said is that this is artwork ‘usable across ALL platforms’. That is, usable as a digital album picture, a sticker, an ad mat, tour art (vectorised and layered to make for easy adaptation) and more. I also paid for the original photo. I believe in paying people properly for their work.

Label deals/splits etc.
It has also been commented that labels will split costs on a 50/50 deal. Without going into the specifics of this contract, I paid for the art up front. The mastering expense (I just looked up a statement) was $1700 and was split with the label, so yes, that does alter my maths a little. I only tried to provide a rough guide anyway.

I also mentioned other expenses. These include things such as vocal sessions and lawyers (for sample clearance and for record contracts). These came directly out of my pocket (the track with the sample was completed including clearance before the label was in the picture and a label is not going to pay for your lawyer to sort out a contract with them).

Travel expenses
It has also been commented that venues should be paying for travel. The deals my US agent (AM Only) works on for me are all-in deals. They do not include flight shares. This is not the case for me worldwide (in Australia and NZ travel is certainly added on top of the fee), but I wanted to use a REAL tour to highlight the situation.

I wrote this post as a way of being transparent. I spend money on things I think are important to my art, in this case the costs of mastering and artwork fall into that category. I now do all my own mastering.

I will also say that yes, there are other streams of income for artists I didn’t include. There is publishing (which is like a lottery and can vary from $5 to $5000 a year for apparently no reason), there are performance royalties (APRA in Australia) that again seem to operate largely on an arbitrary base. There are remixes, session work, mixdowns and the like too. My point was to isolate one EP and one associated tour.

Once again I want to state that I LOVE what I do. And I want to thank everyone who has ever supported me, bought my music, booked me for a show or let me stay on their couch.

Via Nick Thayer’s Tumblr Like Boom.