Music Production Podcast

As you work and toil over your music, there comes a point when a song is finished. But how do you KNOW your track is finished? You can always add or change things. You can try new sounds or alter the arrangement. But how do you know where to stop? In this episode, we explore the topic from both a philosophical and practical position. We ask questions about what makes a song complete and then go th...

As you are making music, it can help to consider what your listeners will be doing as they listen. You can also think about the 13 musical emotions and which ones you want to evoke with your music. All of this can help us finish and release an album, EP, or single this month, during the Finish February Challenge! Listen on iTunes or Stitcher or Google Play or Spotify ; watch on YouTube Show Notes:...

Jamuary is over! And if you participated, you probably have lots of ideas to work off of. Even if you didn't participate, I'm sure you have a lot of unfinished ideas anyway. Finish February is a challenge to finish some of that music and release it. It can be a single, EP, or full album. The point is to finish some music and get it out to the world! Listen on iTunes or Stitcher or Google Play or S...

Derek Sivers is a musician, writer, and entrepreneur. He started CDBaby in 1998, offering independent musicians (including me!) a way to sell their music online. 10 years later, he sold it, donating most of the money to music education. Derek wrote "Anything You Want" explaining lessons he learned from the adventure.  Derek is a graduate of Berklee College of Music, and in this episode he shares s...

By participating in the #Jamuary2020 challenge to make and share a new piece of music each day, it's become extremely clear how important it is to find ways to focus while working.  In this episode, I talk about some important lessons I'm learning during Jamuary and offer some practical ways you can find focus while working on your music. Listen on iTunes or Stitcher or Google Play or Spotify ; wa...

You will inevitably come across days that you just don't feel like making music. The thing that differentiates a professional from an amateur is the amateur does it when he/she feels like it; the professional does it no matter what. If you can make music on the days you are tired, uninspired, and lacking motivation, you can do it any time! Listen on iTunes or Stitcher or Google Play or Spotify ; w...

Roger Linn is a Grammy award winning electronic musical instrument designer, whose instruments have had a major influence on the music industry. He designed the first drum machine with samples. His MPC60 revolutionized the sampling and hip hop community. Today, his LinnStrument is ushering in a new generation of expressive electronic musicianship.  It was an honor to speak with the legendary Roger...

Happy New Year! It's the start of a new decade and a perfect time to do a little self-reflection. In this episode, we talk about some big picture stuff and how it relates to our music making. Listen on iTunes or Stitcher or Google Play or Spotify ; watch on YouTube Show Notes: Death of a Salesman - Film version starring Dustin Hoffman. Music Production Club - Get a steady flow of new music product...

Jamuary is a challenge to make a piece of music every day for the month of January, and to share it online.  In this episode, I talk about the Jamuary Challenge, what it takes to participate (not much), and what the benefits will be.  Listen on iTunes or Stitcher or Google Play or Spotify ; watch on YouTube Show Notes: Cuckoo on the Music Production Podcast Podcast about Jamuary The Music Producti...

Producing music is essentially a series of making decisions. It's important to make commitments to our decisions in order to move forward.  In this episode, I argue that in order to move forward with your music, you must commit early and often. Looking back and questioning our decisions is sure to lead to dissatisfaction in our music.  Listen on iTunes or Stitcher or Google Play or Spotify ; watch...

John Ivers is a composer, sound designer, and works as head of sound design for BandLab. BandLab is a free social music creation platform.  John and I had a great conversation covering a range of topics. We discuss his role at BandLad and how the platform can bring in first time producers and offer helpful services to more experienced users. John talks in detail about sound design and how interfac...

Like it or not, artificial intelligence and machine learning is changing the music industry. It could threaten jobs and eliminate the need for humans in the music making process. So what can we do? Double down on our humanity. After a few episode with people using AI and machine learning in the music industry, I have some thoughts on what we can do to avoid becoming obsolete in a changing world. ...

Happy Thanksgiving! Today's show is all about gratitude. We talk about how being thankful for what we have and feeling satisfied in decisions we make can help us make better music and live better lives. The conversation is based on a few books and mediations I've come across recently, as well as some real life experiences that have affected the way I see things. We talk about how those experiences...

Jonathan Bailey is Izotope's Chief Technology Officer. Izotope is known for their high quality audio plug-ins that make use of cutting edge technologies such as artificial intelligence and plug-in that communicate. Jonathan and I had a great conversation about the technology behind Izotope's plug-ins, as well as the company's overall vision and philosophy. Jonathan goes into what the future of mus...

Kristoffer Lislegaard is an electronic musician, producer, and sound artist from Norway, and one half of the duo, Sgrow. Sgrow's music contains beautiful soundscapes, beats, and vocals. They've just released a new album called Circumstance II . It was great to talk with Kristoffer again. He has some really helpful ideas on completing music, working within limitations, and live performance. Kristof...

Paul Zgordan works for Mubert, a company that develops tools for making music created by artificial intelligence. Mubert creates algorithmically generated music using samples uploaded by users. Mubert's generative music is targeted towards businesses that need music for their products (apps, spas, video games).  Paul and I discuss Mubert in detail, from its technology and how it is being used. We...

Hazel Savage is the CEO and co-founder of Musiio, a company that uses artificial intelligence to automatically analyze and tag music to make it more discoverable. Hazel is a life-long musician and music technologist, working for companies like Shazaam, Pandora, and Universal.  Hazel and I talked at length about Musiio and its potential to influence the music industry. We also get into what makes m...

David Marston and Phil Celeste are musicians, producers, and long-time collaborators who just finished a new track called "Airwaves." Phil (aka Life on Planets) and David have managed to make their partnership work over barriers of time and distance, and have had successful releases both together and separately. Phil, David, and I had a nice conversation about music production and collaboration. W...

Julie Covello, aka DJ Shakey, is a DJ, producer, performer, and founder of Warper Party. It's hard to overstate how important Julie's role in the shaping of live electronic music has been. Warper Party is a monthly live electronic music event that has been running since 2005. So much of what modern live electronic music has become has roots in the community Julie has helped build.  In this episode...

William Kage is a video game programmer and music producer, who produces music in the style of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System sound card. William built SixEngine, a web-based 16-bit video game engine. William releases music in the style of the SNES and is working on a new 16-bit RPG called Otosan. William and I had a great conversation about his work and the challenges of writing within r...

It's very exciting when a new update comes out for your computer. There are new features and tools that may make things much easier, smoother, and faster. However, if you rely on your computer to make music, an update can break that system. Instead of enjoying new features and workflows, you will be stuck trying to figure out why nothing works.  And if you are on a working machine, ask yourself wh...

Ben Burnes is a producer, live streamer, and game programmer. He releases unique sample packs and is very active in the music production community. Ben is known for not only sharing his work and projects, but also creating projects and collaborating with the community to make them come to life.  Note! In the episode we mention Ben's Two Hour Album Challenge. At the time of our talk, we didn't expe...

Drew Vespers is a musician, producer, and founder of Warp Academy, an Ableton Certified Trainer Center in Canada. Warp Academy is one of the leading producers of high quality online music production education. His tutorials have helped thousands of musicians (including myself!) grow and develop into successful artists. Drew's music combines elements of rock, jazz, hip hop, and electronic bass musi...

Jörgen Kjellgren is a prolific ambient producer from Sweden. Since May 2018, Jörgen has release 9 EPs. He has developed a working method that uses restrictions to encourage creativity. In this episode, Jörgen shares how discipline and restrictions has allowed him to become a prolific producer. Jörgen shares his thoughts on progressing ideas into finished piece of music and how the Japanese concept...

I recently had a hard drive fail and I have lost years of music, photos, and other stuff. It might be gone forever.  This episode is a public service announcement and reminder to back up your files and back up your back ups! Your digital work is irreplaceable. Today, I share a few ideas on how to back up your work, and also think about how to handle this loss on a psychological level. Listen on iT...