We’re going to keep this one nice and simple.
We all know and love Noize London, our resident audio engineer and distinguished producer extraordinaire. So we’re going right for his top 16 music production tips.
Noize London has always had a unique touch, blending traditional techniques with innovative approaches. Over the years, he’s curated a set of methods that not only streamline the production process but also enhance the overall quality of the sound.
Whether it’s his meticulous ear for detail or his knack for working with interesting plugins, there’s always something to learn from his expertise. So without further ado, let’s learn a thing or two.
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The Magic Hour
Essentially, that first hour of making music is typically the most productive and enjoyable. After an hour or two, you may start to see your inspiration and productivity start to decline unfortunately. This is also the time when you usually start to overthink things.
In other words, it’s important to get into the habit of making music quickly. But don’t rush it either.
When Inspiration Strikes
It’s beneficial to have a template already set up of your favorite instruments. That way you’re ready to roll whenever the inspiration strikes you. As soon as you hear a tune in your head, your instruments are right there for you with no waiting.
Hats are Boring
In the video example, you’ll see that every other note has been reduced in velocity. Basically, we have a louder note and a quieter one. It has a different feel to it, and that feel is much, much better.
Give it a Push
On most DAWs, but particularly with Logic, adding Swing will affect the division (the “and and”). The more you increase the Swing, the “lazier” it sounds. So go ahead and push it a little, just not too much.
Delay Them!
This is another thing we love to do with the hats. Delay them, but with a plugin so that you can immediately see how it’s being affected on the channel. Try increasing the sample delay a little too much, and then back it off until it sounds just right. Try giving it a bit of delay without it going out of sync too much with the beat.
Synth Hats
What we love about synth hats is the added level of control that you don’t necessarily have with MIDI. You can create a white noise release if you like, making the release really long. Plus many more unique options, so get creative!
Shoutout to ZenWorld for more Music Production Tips
This is a music production tip that we learned recently from ZenWorld. We took a vinyl crackle sample and put a Gate on it so that it can be triggered by a Closed Hat. So the Noise Gate is on the vinyl crackle. You’ll then go to Instrument, and then Closed Hat.
This means that every time the hat plays, the Gate is going to open or “reveal” the vinyl crackle. So we basically took a boring hat and gave it an interesting variation.
Pitch Modulate Your Snares
We’ll put on 2000s from the Vinyl plugin, and then turn Warp up to pitch up and down. It’s subtle, but it works. Feel free to add a bit of bitcrusher (Lo-fi) too!
Loops Are Not Boring
Here we’re using the Swollen Pad preset in Sagittarius mode within Valhalla Supermassive. Using the marquee tool, the sound should start to open up at the end of the phrase. It adds a nice rhythm since it’s a Delay essentially and breaks up the sound a bit. Some think loops are boring, but not if you know what you’re doing.
Lock the Mix
This is for Valhalla. If you click on the Mix dial, it will lock it in while you flip through all the available presets. There ya go.
Hmmm (Part 1)
The track we have in our example feels a bit slow. Humming out a rough sketch of a melody, we’re adding in some Diva synth notes. From here we can create all kinds of variations as well.
Phrase Variations
This is basically just a variation of the phrase we came up with in the last example. It helps to hum it (if you can) to see if it first makes sense in your head.
Ohhhh Let’s Go!
Another variation on the same phrase, but with some triplets added in. Trust us, it really makes a difference.
“It Doesn’t Make Me Want To Dance”
We’re making dance music after all. Some people may forget that. Here we have another variation on the same phrase, but with a couple extra notes to give it more of a dance-y feel.
That Was Lucky
Now we’ll add some chords, even if it’s just two basic chords in a track like in our example. Here we’re trying out an inverted chord plus a few others. Keep experimenting, since you’re bound to find something great (even if it’s pure luck).
Vibes
Here we want the Attack to be sustained. In our example, the Sustain is at 100 under the Amplifier. Increase the Attack and zero out the Envelope. Play a little with the Cutoff and you’ll quickly see how it affects the overall sound. Pretty cool vibe, eh?
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And there we have it! These tips are sure to help you achieve not only greater creativity but enhanced productivity as well. Let these sink in, and be sure to check out our YouTube channel for even more priceless knowledge.