It’s a myth that you need years of producing experience and thousands of dollars in high-priced equipment to make your track sound professional. With the right music production tips, you can take a boring track and make it sound amazing.
Fabio from Noize is here to explain how. In this tutorial, Fabio will show you five tips that he’s picked up from years of studio experience.
Why would we give away our production secrets? Because gatekeeping is for losers, and we want to help you shine.
Tip #1: Automate Cut-Off on Your Synthesizers
Every synthesizer should have a filter. These filters are usually low-pass filters that cut out the high frequencies. This is pretty easy to do in all digital audio workstations (DAWs) but there’s an easier way to trigger automation in Logic Pro.
To set this up in Logic, scroll up to Mix and hit “Autoselect Automation Parameter in Read Mode.” Enabling this means any parameter you select with a synthesizer or effect on that channel automatically opens up that track lane for automation.
As you can see in this example, we’re gradually opening up the cut-off, revealing some of those high frequencies. By opening up the cut-off, we bring more of those high frequencies to the fore, which builds tension before the drop.
Tip #2: Automate Your Decay
The next technique in our music production tips, we’ll use a hat we created using white noise from a synthesizer. It sounds decent, but it could be a lot more interesting. To make it more compelling, we’re automating the decay, which makes the hat sound longer, almost like a riser.
Again, this helps with the build-up and shift in energy, which keeps the listener on the edge of their seat.
Tip #3: Filter, Delay, and Reverb
Like the first tip, we’re opening up the cut-off for a synthesizer and building up those high frequencies to increase the tension and intensity of the sound.
But we can do more. We’re also adding the Endless Smile plugin by Dada Life, which is essentially a filter, delay, and reverb plugin. That makes it easier to dial in effects. Using this plugin creates a contrast between the synthesizer in the drop and the breakdown.
By making the sound more spacious, we’re spreading out the focus. That way, when the track comes back in dry, the sound is much more focused and direct, which is more engaging for the listener.
Tip #4: Automate Depth and Rate
If automating reverb and delay seems obvious, here’s a production tip that’s very popular in electronic music right now.
Let’s start with some dry chords. Next, we’ll use the Logic Pro free plugin Tremelo to automate two things: depth and rate.
By automating the depth, we’re controlling how much effect the Tremelo is having. Then we’ll automate the rate, which is the speed at which the Tremelo moves. This is a great way of adding a bit of movement to your sound because it’s unsynchronized, which adds fluidity to the signal.
(Mixing note: We’ve taken the phase off so it’s not panning from left to right; it’s ducking up and down in volume.)
Tip #5: Vocal Delay
When it comes to vocals, it’s easy to throw on a delay or echo and call it a day. It can sound cool, but it’s also easy for it to get messy.
To clean it up, we want to isolate the echo on the end of the vocal phrase. To do that, we’ll automate a send but with more than just a delay.
To create a more refined sound, we’re using
- the EchoBoy Jr. at a half note delay,
- the Little AlterBoy with the format reduced to make the delay sound deeper and darker,
- some reverb to spread and thin out the delay, and give it a bit of ambience,
- and finally we’ll throw in some trusty sidechain.
Now, as the delay is playing it’s also getting deeper in tone. That’s because we’re also automating the format on the delay channel.
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So there you have it: 5 different music production tips—mostly about automation—that are guaranteed to stop your tracks from sounding boring.
You can use these tips in transitions, throughout choruses, breakdowns, and anywhere you feel that needs a change of rhythm, movement, or focus.
And don’t forget: When you’re done turning boring tracks into absolute bangers, upload them to Boombox so you can share them with friends, collaborators, and labels. Sign up for free here.