How to create Drum Loops & your own Sample Packs from other Apple Loops and samples inside of Logic Pro X. You can still use these techniques in other DAW’s as well.
How To Make Pop with an awesome track ‘Get Gone’ featuring Stella Jones on vocals. Starting with a blank template in Cubase, Austin builds this song from the ground up with a simple but catchy chord progression followed by synth pad and lead sound design using multiple layers and percussive elements to get the initial feel and groove. Always keeping the vocalist in mind, Austin continues to build the track with wide variety and interest using further sound design, automation of filters and effects so there is plenty for the vocalist to work from. Once the instrumental is completed we get a fascinating insight into the production process as Austin chats with Stella Jones discussing how they collaborate, even though they are in different locations highlighting the pros and cons and giving a ton of tips and tricks on how to make this sort of artist relationship work. Finally, we bring in the vocals and process the stems adding some dope techniques to help them shine before mixing and mastering to complete the song.
Most DAW’s will have equivalent stock plugins that can recreate the sounds produced, so whatever your budget you can follow along. In this 7 hour course, we first lay down the kick and bass backbone before adding ambient textures and effects, driving percussion and awesome layered lead lines. As the track and CPU level grows we commit to rendering to audio and organise the different elements before arranging with extensive use of automation to build up to drops and an arpeggiated breakdown creating a track full of texture, risers, sweeps and impacts. Always tweaking and editing to improve, we finish off with a mixdown and then export the stems to complete a master and finalise the track.
This week we welcome back downtempo and ambient multi-instrumentalist, for an all-new course in Ableton 10 on how to make his track Weekend. In this three hour course, we learn how to build this ethereal yet powerful and epic track from scratch. Starting with the analog lead chords with it’s flowing arpeggio and automated sidechain using Ableton’s utility plugin, we move on to building the sub and kick before layering further melodic textures using WNTER’s signature time-stretching and resampling techniques. Just by using a handful of simple samples, we create epic pad and string sections drenched in reverb and finish off with arranging all the elements we’ve created before mixing down the song and carrying out a basic master so it’s ready to be released.
Following on from his Tech Tips on pop vocals for a brand new course where we get to check out how to make his new single REDRUM – a sinister, hard-hitting, lyrical track that skilfully merges pop, hip-hop and RnB. Over these 17 videos, we get to watch as Austin recreates his song from scratch. Starting with the initial chord structure, a dark theme emerges that helps with both eery sound design and vengeful lyric writing for the hook. We build a basic rhythm before layering synths and percussion to help structure and arrange the track’s progression. We flesh out each of the different sections by layering further synths, atmospheres and effects to create a dope and varied instrumental, which in turn gives us a track to work from to finalise the lyrics. Austin then moves on to a detailed look at how to process the vocal stacks before we carry out the mixdown, adding ear candy, automation and tweaks, to complete the track.
Welcomes the Berlin based Irish music maker Chymera to the helm for this truly deep and wonderful ‘How To Make Melodic Techno’ course. Chymera’s productions often fit comfortably between house and techno, and range from deeper cuts to more dancefloor focussed tracks, but always with a keen sense of melody. He has released various diverse and respected labels as Ovum, NRK, Delsin, Cocoon, and Connoisseur who released his 2012 album ‘Death By Misadventure. As an added bonus he has uploaded 100 samples from his Oberhiem Matrix 1000 in the resources for you to use in your own productions. So enjoy this journey into the deep.
Starting with a template, we build different grooves in the session view before adding bass lines, the all important jazz style chords, sampled pads, sax and vocals, so we have a variety of loops to choose from. We then build a selection of different scenes so we can record them live into the arrangement view before going more in-depth to edit and tweak our arrangement into a more structured song. Finally we add automation to create interest and help with transitions, before mixing down the track and carrying out a self-master so it’s ready for the club. Packed full of tips and tricks from a certified Ableton instructor, we guarantee you’ll pick up some new techniques to take your skillz to the next level with this one! Enjoy!
