Sub Phatty | Modular Control
Suit & Tie Guy of STG Sound Labs brought his modular synthesizer by the Moog Sound Lab and controlled four of our Sub Phatty Analog Synthesizers with his labyrinth of analog module.
iPro.DJSampler iPad App Review
Now, more than ever, there is a fine line between being a DJ and being a producer. In most of the DJ interviews I’ve watched on Youtube, the answer to the question “what’s next for your career” is often “work on my production.” Years ago, the key to getting to [...]
War of the Wubs: The Strange and Contentious History of Dubstep
While it's certainly useful and necessary to divide and classify music into discrete genres for the purpose of organization, things can sometimes go awry. This can occur because like language, music is an alive and breathing cultural phenomenon, and attempts to solidify the epitome of a particular music's style can [...]
Analog Summing Vs. In The Box Mixing
Much has been written on the benefits of analog summing vs. ‘in the box’ mixing and in many contexts, the benefits are undoubtedly there. However, the importance of analog can often be overstated, particularly if you are just starting out as a producer. What is Summing? During your mix, you [...]
The Politics of Getting Paid to Play – It’s Time to Get a Manager
As Chris Alker noted in previous Crossfadr post There is More to being a DJ Than Playing Records. A successful DJ must take on a host of other responsibilities before their actual gig to make sure people know about A) Their music; B) The event itself; let alone C) Show [...]
“It IS Real Music After All!”
A Crash Course in Electronic Music Theory + Maintaining Melodic Cohesion in "Noisy" EDM Genres As a producer of electronic dance music, especially some of the “harsher” genres, I am known for my ability to deliver some of the most noisy, and downright ungodly computer noises, often evoking a sarcastic [...]
Creative Use Of Noise Gates
Noise gates are often somewhat underused by producers of electronic music. Noise gates (or just simply, ‘gates’) were initially developed, as the name suggests, to stop unwanted noise from creeping into a mix. Imagine for example, that you are recording a drum kit live; the kick drum mic will pick [...]
Novation Launchpad iPad App
Most DJs are already familiar with Novation, the company behind the extremely popular “Dicer” midi controllers. In addition to Dicers, Novation also has a healthy offering of other midi controllers including the Launchkey, Impulse, Twitch mixer, and Launchpad. Recently, the Launchpad controller was used as inspiration for an iPad app [...]
Lossless Audio – How Important Is It?
The impending release of Neil Young’s ‘Pono’ raises many questions, both for serious consumers of music, and particularly for those of us who produce music. The veteran rocker‘s new service is slated for release this summer and it promises to offer extremely high quality 192kHz/24 bit digital audio. Compare this [...]
Advanced Liquid Dubstep Bass Tutorial II: Using Automated LFOs to create Unique, Rhythmic Synthesizer Patterns
If you saw my last tutorial, you now know how to create an alien-sounding, vulgar, authentic dubstep bass sound! Hooray! Now that we've got the basic synthesis down, it's time to turn to something that will make your tune the talk of the town and the envy of the masses: [...]