Here’s a place to put any tutorial videos and advice that might be useful within the realms of music production. So if you’ve come across any videos on youtube or links to educational websites about the production of music that you’ve found really helpful and would like to recommend, feel free to post them here. Don’t forget to leave a short description of the link unless it’s self-explanatory.
Also, if you’re looking for tutorials on a particular topic to do with music production (i.e. compression techniques, how to clean up a muddy track, etc.) you can post your requests here and someone might know a helpful link, or give help directly.
I came across this during a rabbit-hole session on youtube today. I grew up on Massive Attack. Blue Lines blew my mind when that album came out. This is a great tutorial about how the track Unfinished Sympathy is constructed and how you could re-make that iconic track using today’s technology.
A great channel for Reaper and FabFilter users with most of the concepts applicable to other DAWs, plugins and hardware too. Dan has such a great way of explaining things and is extremely knowledgable, with decades of experience. I recommend this channel to anyone; from the seasoned pro using Pro Tools and outboard gear, to the beginner getting started with the free DAW that came bundled with their midi keyboard.
For a while I’ve been experimenting and discussing with colleagues bout the pros and cons of whether mastering directly in the mixing session or exporting a hi res bounce and master in an independent project. Personally, I’m going the latter way lately. I used to do that in WaveLab but my version is super outdated now and the license is quite expensive for the use I’d really give it.
What about you? Here’s a brief, not much in depth, considerations guide:
Interesting video. I’ve always used Sound Forge for mastering because it was the software we had at college back in 1998. It was Sonic Foundry’s version 3.0 I think. I picked up the Magix version fairly recently along with Spectralayers and I’m happy with it. I find those two really useful for “tweaking” my field recordings too. (Don’t tell my clients that though! As far as they are concerned, I record everything perfectly the first time around! ) I’ve kind of stuck with what I started with in terms of software I guess. We used Cubase VST 3.5 for arranging and scoring, and ProTools (version 4, I think) combined with a Yamaha 02R mixer and two ADAT machines to record our songs. Such a clunky old setup, but it seemed so hi-tech at the time.
This video makes me want to buy Ozone. Looks great, although I think if I was to master in my mixing session on the master bus in Cubase, I’d never finish the damn thing! Mixing takes me forever as it is!
Ozone is great, I use it in to master in the same project nowadays, I believe it saves me time, because otherwise I always end up going back and forth bouncing new mixes with tiny tweaks. But if your computer can’t handle it, it is definitely not worth it. For me long mixing sessions never work, I need to do smaller sessions, preferably on low volumes and have longer breaks from the mix. As for never finishing mixes, very relatable. A mix is just like art, never really finished only abandoned…!
Here is a great website with hundreds of useful tutorials which are categorised so it’s easy to find what you’re looking for. Also, they have reviews of loads of different gear, software, plugins and sample libraries, plus some really interesting articles featuring interviews with some great creators. Take a look:
Without meaning to state the obvious, I just wanted to mention this legendary music recording magazine. I’ve been reading it since the late ‘80s. My dad used to buy it every other month. (he would alternate between SOS and Future Music Magazine, which at the time I preferred because they scored their reviews! ) It took us through the golden age of digital synthesis and I’ve got this awesome memory of going to a shop called "Eddie Moors’ Music" with the old man so he could buy the Korg Wavestation after we read about how awesome that machine was. I was totally blown away by the sounds. That tenor sax was so realistic at the time, and the evolving waveforms were just ! We had it hooked up to an old Yamaha CX5MII MSX computer and we would sequence and arrange using this great little step sequencing software called FM Music Composer II.
I guess we’re living through the golden age of realistic sampled sounds and software synthesis at the moment, but what is more exciting to me is that we also seem to be living in the second golden age of analogue synthesis, which I think really hit home for me when Yamaha gave back the rights to the name Sequential to Dave Smith to put on his amazing new machines. Such a classy thing to do.
Well, back to the topic: Sound on Sound magazine is such a phenomenal resource for inspiration, they have amazing articles about the world’s top producers and artists, definitely worth a read and most of their content is available for free online. It’s my no.1 go-to for music-related information.
I guess I don’t really mind if this thread goes off topic slightly, so if anyone has any stories about how or what inspired you to get into music, please do share them here, I’d love to hear them.
) I’ve kind of stuck with what I started with in terms of software I guess. We used Cubase VST 3.5 for arranging and scoring, and ProTools (version 4, I think) combined with a Yamaha 02R mixer and two ADAT machines to record our songs. Such a clunky old setup, but it seemed so hi-tech at the time.
) It took us through the golden age of digital synthesis and I’ve got this awesome memory of going to a shop called "Eddie Moors’ Music" with the old man so he could buy the Korg Wavestation after we read about how awesome that machine was. I was totally blown away by the sounds. That tenor sax was so realistic at the time, and the evolving waveforms were just 
! We had it hooked up to an old 