808 SICARIO®

"I'm not trained at all in any kind of theory or any kind of music. A lot of stuff I know is really self taught. I find out a lot of people who create music, the ones that don't have a great understanding of the theory they're usually the most creative. The guys that learn all the theory and all that, they're overthinking the music a lot of times. You just need to have a great ear." - T-minus

What many people are calling “sampling” today, taking the recording of a whole verse or chorus of a previous hit song or any song or sounds that inspires you and adding some detail like rapped lyrics with hard 808 drums and bass. Nothing is created, everything is transformed.  We observe, absorb, and transform things that attract our attention, either positively due simply to their existence or negatively because they bother us. The latter creates a gap, and in order to solve such “issue,” we get an idea (which no one knows how it happens). But we end up thinking of a solution, something that innovates or gives a new perspective to same situation.

Figure out what you’re most passionate about in life and what you’re good at. And the mixture between those two and then you should give it your all, all the time."

-AVICII

"Building the business aspect of things has never been my job but obviously been along for the ride - what im most greatful for and what I think is a very important factor for any brand is not compromising its integrity, for artists especially. Releasing songs they can stand behind fully and not compromising their sound for anyone other than themselves, picking the shows and interviews they think promotes their brand the best way etc."

What is Mixing: is a question prone to getting big scary answers with lots of layers of technicalities and pseudo-rules.

Very simply mixing in music is the act of Balancing the parts of the Arrangement so that they best portray the Story of the material.

As an example, if we take a song with drums, bass, guitars, piano and a singer: the most important part of that Balance has to be the lyrics that the singer is delivering (or why have a singer at all). The words and their delivery are the key to the song. Sure, people will seem to react to the drums & bass or a chunky guitar riff, but words and the message they emote, are the secret sauce of any track.

Melody is next. We are driven to singable tunes so keep melodic parts clear in the mix. Guitars & piano can be rhythmic, melodic or a bit of both. Decide which part each line or section is and mix accordingly.

Rhythm often seems the only reason people want to make music but it is the main reason that musos get stuck in their compositions and then in getting exposure.

Your Drums and Bass are there to enhance the natural rhythm of the lyric & melodies. If you put them on top of everything then you may think the mix is great (lead Kick Drum anyone lol) but the listener will not be so impressed as the Balance of the parts is wrong.

As a guide, the style of the material will influence the sort of Balance you look for.

A Folk Ballad will be very strong on Vocal & Melody but light on drums etc. A Rock Ballad will be similar but rhythmic elements will be stronger, but never so as to obscure the Lyrics.

A Disco song will push rhythmic elements forward but not to the exclusion of the lyric and melodies as even though the dancers seem keyed to the beat, they are really driven by the emotion of the mood of the vision of the song. An Indie Shoegaze track often buries the vocal a bit inside of swirling chordal movement but after a listen or two the lyric should still be clear.

Metal is mixed a lot like Disco!

What is Mixing: is a question prone to getting big scary answers with lots of layers of technicalities and pseudo-rules.

Very simply mixing in music is the act of Balancing the parts of the Arrangement so that they best portray the Story of the material.

As an example, if we take a song with drums, bass, guitars, piano and a singer: the most important part of that Balance has to be the lyrics that the singer is delivering (or why have a singer at all). The words and their delivery are the key to the song. Sure, people will seem to react to the drums & bass or a chunky guitar riff, but words and the message they emote, are the secret sauce of any track.

Melody is next. We are driven to singable tunes so keep melodic parts clear in the mix. Guitars & piano can be rhythmic, melodic or a bit of both. Decide which part each line or section is and mix accordingly.

Rhythm often seems the only reason people want to make music but it is the main reason that musos get stuck in their compositions and then in getting exposure.

Your Drums and Bass are there to enhance the natural rhythm of the lyric & melodies. If you put them on top of everything then you may think the mix is great (lead Kick Drum anyone lol) but the listener will not be so impressed as the Balance of the parts is wrong.

As a guide, the style of the material will influence the sort of Balance you look for.

A Folk Ballad will be very strong on Vocal & Melody but light on drums etc. A Rock Ballad will be similar but rhythmic elements will be stronger, but never so as to obscure the Lyrics.

A Disco song will push rhythmic elements forward but not to the exclusion of the lyric and melodies as even though the dancers seem keyed to the beat, they are really driven by the emotion of the mood of the vision of the song. An Indie Shoegaze track often buries the vocal a bit inside of swirling chordal movement but after a listen or two the lyric should still be clear.

Metal is mixed a lot like Disco!

Figure out what you’re most passionate about in life and what you’re good at. And the mixture between those two and then you should give it your all, all the time."

-AVICII

"Building the business aspect of things has never been my job but obviously been along for the ride - what im most greatful for and what I think is a very important factor for any brand is not compromising its integrity, for artists especially. Releasing songs they can stand behind fully and not compromising their sound for anyone other than themselves, picking the shows and interviews they think promotes their brand the best way etc."

What many people are calling “sampling” today, taking the recording of a whole verse or chorus of a previous hit song or any song or sounds that inspires you and adding some detail like rapped lyrics with hard 808 drums and bass. Nothing is created, everything is transformed.  We observe, absorb, and transform things that attract our attention, either positively due simply to their existence or negatively because they bother us. The latter creates a gap, and in order to solve such “issue,” we get an idea (which no one knows how it happens). But we end up thinking of a solution, something that innovates or gives a new perspective to same situation.

"I'm not trained at all in any kind of theory or any kind of music. A lot of stuff I know is really self taught. I find out a lot of people who create music, the ones that don't have a great understanding of the theory they're usually the most creative. The guys that learn all the theory and all that, they're overthinking the music a lot of times. You just need to have a great ear." - T-minus

Layering in music means when several sounds are stacked upon each other with a simple end goal of making it sound fatter and fuller.. aka “professional”.. strictly layering means stacking similar yet slightly different sounds together and get a unique sound. Here it is important that it is the minor differences in the samples that creates a beautiful layered sound.

Layering also presents some challenges but with a little understanding of sound in digital domain . you can do wonders.. while you can layer anything and everything.. you need to be aware of pitfalls of over layering

Layering kicks - one of the most dangerous things yet most satisfying if done correctly..

In FL step sequencer.. you need similar sounding kicks played at same intervals. However here the key is to avoid overlapping frequencies of different kicks. Here comes the fun.. each kick needs to ideally cover a different spectrum. There has to be a kick for lower for middle and high end (click) part of the kick. The problem here is there could be phasing issues in case of frequency overlapping.. watch out for that .. else the kick would come out thinner instead of making it fat.. you should try reversing polarities in that case.

Layering snares - layering techniques would be similar to that of the kick. However to get the best out try spreading the samples across Mili seconds. Some of the snare samples could be triggered a bit early and some delayed.. this is how the 80s snare (Modern Talking) was made which sounded rounder and fuller.. Phil Collins also used to layer the snares with gated reverbs which gave a unique sound and was used in almost all records made for almost 15 years in the 80s -90s

3. Layering Vocals - one of my favourite technique. Here 2–3 vocals takes are layered exactly upon each other - especially for a female voice which otherwise sounds too weak.. while no 2 takes are the same. The difference in the takes, is what adds fattiness.. however it is very important to layer vocals as exactly as possible.. there are plugins like vocalign which help in alignment of 2 different recordings. Adobe Audition has a built in feature “Speech Alignment” which is the best way to achieve to different sounding vocals - to get timed perfectly reducing need for micro editing. You can further add spice by panning stereo regions for different vocal tracks on stacking

Layering Synthesizers - Synths are based on principles of layering.. here you have multiple oscillators going though various envelops and filters for getting that unique sound. Now people layer multiple of those sounds to even layer those “layers” with effects.. sounds amazing yet beware of phasing issues.

Layering of percussion - same logic.. not too much to worry on phasing.. but ensure to maintain micro distances between triggers of each sound in FL studio..

I can go on and on to tell you that layering is nothing but two different sounds playing the same melody / chords / rhythm with micro differences.. but just don't layer because someone told you it is cool. You should be sure what you are looking for.. while no harm in experimenting. Try using other techniques involving chorus effect /compression / saturation to fatten up your tracks

It all depends on your vision of how to make your sound cooler and not following a formula.. because there exists no formula.

There are two voices in your head—one whispers in one ear and the other in the other ear.

Voice one is called Writer. The other voice is called Editor. Block happens when Editor gets the upper hand over Writer. Writer writes and editor says, “That’s sure shit. Where did you ever come up with that load of crap?” Writer freezes as Editor keeps it up. The hand freezes. “Who are you fooling with that drivel?”

Melody is a horizontal element in music. This means that a melody can be heard as a succession of related notes as opposed to harmony which can be heard instantly as simultaneously played notes. The succession of related notes means that the notes need to form a somewhat coherent musical line in order to be perceived as a melody. For example if every consecutive note was played by different instrument, or in extreme high and low pitches, people couldn’t easily perceive those notes as a melody.

In many genres of music, the whole pieces usually rely on melodies and they are what makes people remember and categorize the pieces.

Songs in popular music tend to be based on a vocal melody, which is then reinforced with chordal and rhythmical accompaniment. This type of music is called homophonic because there’s only one melody to follow.

On the contrary, pieces in classical music are often polyphonic i.e. they contain many independent melodies. In fact, one can see that the rise of polyphonic music during the Middle Ages provided a kick-start to the music which evolved into classical music during the following centuries. Application of polyphonic (also called contrapuntal in Baroque [1600–1750] music and onward) composition methods were very advanced in the Baroque and J. S. Bach is considered one of the most skillful composers using these methods. He is particularly famous for his fugues, which are compositions filled with purely polyphonic melodies.

The techniques of treating melodies in music are so various and they require so much different things to consider, that I can’t provide a comprehensive guide in a single post. However, I can recommend a book of composition methods in classical music: Harmony and Voice Leading by Edward Aldwell & Carl Schachter. For popular music there is Melody in Songwriting by Jack Perricone.