In today’s music industry, you have to shout louder to be heard above the noise. Once upon a time, music production was so expensive that it was common practice for songwriters and artists to cobble together basic sounding demos via any means they could, and send cassette tapes of these to record companies and publishers … Read More
Month: May 2018
How To Produce A Record Like…. Adele
Breaking down the production of Adele’s smash hit Send My Love. In this video, I run through my recreated version of Adele’s Send My Love track by track, showing you how everything has been layered up, and how such a big sound has been created from comparatively few instruments. Eagle-eyed (eared?) viewers will notice the … Read More
How To Make Money From Music
Despite the horrible press that accompanied the birth of Spotify and the decline of major labels, life has actually never been better for an independent musician looking to stand on their own two feet. While its true that sales of physical media (CDs, vinyl, erm… cassettes??) have dropped since their peak in the 90s, the … Read More
Vocal Arrangement For Beginners
Or, how to turn a nice tune into a work of art. One of the things that really makes a professionally produced record stand out from a run-of-the-mill demo is the vocal arrangement. While there are always exceptions to any rule, in general a modern pop or R&B record will have some combination of the … Read More
10 Essential Vocal Production Tricks
Top tips to help your vocals stand out from the crowd. In any mainstream pop track, the vocal is the most important element – it’s the thing that your listeners will immediately connect with, and it’s the reason your artist gets out of bed in the morning. In today’s world of electronic sound beds, … Read More
Producing vs. Beatmaking
Addressing one of the most common misconceptions in modern music making. With the advent of music technology and the resulting boom in bedroom beatmakers from all corners of the internet, the term “producer” seems to have become corrupted into a synonym for beat maker. What’s a producer? Historically, a record producer rarely played … Read More