Making an eight-bar groove with cool riffs and funky drums is actually pretty easy once you get the hang of it. I mean, think about it... How many "brilliant ideas" do you have on your hard drive that would be huge Beatport hits if you just took the time to finish them? Yeah, like I said, it's the groove that's easy. The
work is all in the arrangement of the track. Great music with a crap arrangement just isn't compelling.
It's the story, stupid.
Let's face it, crafting an arrangement is a massive, time-consuming chore. Some producers really get into it and focus, but others - like me, actually - find this part of the process a gigantic pain in the ass. I just wanna make neat sounds and wiggly grooves.
Well, short grooves are great if you want to carve out a future making loop libraries. The world needs those too. But if you want to be an "ah-tist" you'll have to buckle down and get to work. So here are a few things to think about as you create your masterpieces.
For Keyboard, I queried some household names like Alan Wilder (Depeche Mode) and Wolfgang Gartner, a bunch of Beatport gods like Josh Gabriel, Jaytech, Boom Jinx, Richard Dinsdale, Patch Park and former students of mine, Tritonal. Dan Kurtz from Dragonette and veteran sound designer/remixer, Josh Harris also make appearances.
It's the story, stupid.
During that time, I wrote a comprehensive set of tutorials on subtractive synthesis - the underlying technology behind 99.9% of analog synths - as well as sampling, effects, tips for getting the most out of Reason's Thor, and a smattering of production master classes with techniques from some of the top EDM producers.
When it comes to Ableton Live, Jon Margulies knows his shit. Period.
