Anatomy of a Piece – Composing

How does a piece of music get written, mixed and make it to the world? Well there are many ways that people write music but here is how I did it this time. I use Propellerheads Reason so any devices I refer to specifically are from Reason. As much as possible I keep to the … Continue reading Anatomy of a Piece – Composing

Mastering – the Final Fantasy

Mastering is always a hot topic in the Forums. Everyone is struggling at the last gate to make their piece meaty, beaty, big and bouncy. Most people come at it straight on, whack a Limiter on the end and proceed to turn it up past 11. It doesn't work out. You know me, I like … Continue reading Mastering – the Final Fantasy

Mixing in Mono

Have I gone crazy as I just told you all how to mix in stereo and create stereo where there was none? No not at all. If you read the article on creating stereo I give several warnings about mush and mono compatibility. Reality is that not everyone is going to hear your mix in … Continue reading Mixing in Mono

Mixing in Stere-ereo – conclusion

In part one we started to look at stereo in a mix and the idea of width and panning to create the illusion of space and depth in our imaginary song space. We finished just as the band had all pissed off to the pub to get blotto (and the girls pregnant). At this point … Continue reading Mixing in Stere-ereo – conclusion

Re-Voicing and Arranging Music – an example

This is the third article in my series on writing and arranging a piece of music. We covered simple note choice and then song structure. I was considering walking through one of my pieces then this gem came along and it is even better as you get to see a before and after. Billy McBride … Continue reading Re-Voicing and Arranging Music – an example

Signal Routing and simple Logic

I know that many of you may be nodding off just from the title alone. There is no glory in wires, no swagger in logic. You can't smell the bling. Aah but there you would be wrong. If you went into a knife fight without a knife, you'd lose. Yes I hear you up the … Continue reading Signal Routing and simple Logic

Arranging a Piece of Music – simple Theory

This is a follow-up to my first article on songwriting theory. To be honest I wasn't really going to write another of these as there are far better qualified people than me in these matters but it seems I got a few readers and requests so after some thinking I figured I'd follow up (at … Continue reading Arranging a Piece of Music – simple Theory

Reason Synths – Quick Comparison

Propellerheads Reason was launched in 2000 off the back of the ReBirth studio. Reason gained a strong following and has built on that over the years. While some rant about lack of VST integration, many die-hard users (like myself) have been happier not to have the clutter that VST brings. In a closed environment, Reason's … Continue reading Reason Synths – Quick Comparison

Writing a Piece of Music – simple Theory

I was going to make my next article on stereo-widening in my mixing series but this came up and I think it is a more fundamental issue. Conversation in Forum: Me: "For a first piece it seems complex and that is tripping you up. Finish this best you can as it is definitely worth that … Continue reading Writing a Piece of Music – simple Theory

Mixing in Stere-ereo

In my my last post in this series I talked about how mixing bass isn't always the way you think it should be at first. Tricky stuff physics. BUT never fear because Physics is actually a very logical and predictable fellow so we can fool him into doing our bidding. In this post we will … Continue reading Mixing in Stere-ereo