Music Production Podcast

I just finished reading Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell and The Practicing Mind by Thomas Sterner. Both books contain wisdom and insight that can help us with music production. In this episode, I discuss some of the important lessons I learned from the books, such as hard work surpasses talent and genius, we need to reframe the way we look at goals, and no one makes it alone. Listen on iTunes or Stit...

Anthony Clint Jr., or just Clint, is seasoned producer and musician, creating hip hop, jazz, pop, and neo-soul. He's found quite a bit of success in music licensing. His work has been placed in film and on TV networks like MTV, VH-1, NBC, Fox Sports and more. Clint has been generously sharing his knowledge and experience with fellow producers on his site Clint Productions. Clint and I had a nice c...

Mikas is the creator of We Make Dance Music, a site where producers can release and purchase DAW templates, sounds, and stems. He is an audio engineer and producer who founded the label Progressive Groove Records. Mikas has over 20 years of DJing and producing experience under his belt. I enjoyed speaking with Mikas very much. He exudes a motivation and drive for making music and the community aro...

Sometimes we learn our biggest lessons when things don't go right. Failure can be our best teacher, and we grow when we take risks. Last week, I performed at the Long Island Retro Gaming Expo. It's a huge event where people gather to celebrate and play their favorite retro video games. I performed on Saturday night. This episode of the podcast is all about the lessons I learned, some of them the h...

Ari Herstand is a musician, blogger, and author. In December 2016, he released How to Make It in the New Music Business . The book is currently high on the Amazon charts for music business books and is used in university classrooms. Ari takes his experiences, successes, and failures and turned them into one of the most informative books you can get on creating a career in today's music business. I...

Madeleine Bloom runs the site Sonic Bloom for "all things Ableton Live, Push, and Max for Live," and the site is truly a treasure trove for tutorials, downloads, and more. The site grew out of her experience as Ableton tech support, and makes for an interesting story of the unpredictable path life often gives us. Madeleine's music is a beautiful combination of the organic and the electronic. It's...

Peter Nyboer works for Sensel, a company that produces the Morph, a multi-touch, pressure sensitive USB and Bluetooth controller. The Morph is used for music producers, artists, gamers, and developers. It features easily swappable overlays for those many different applications. Peter also worked for Livid Instruments, makers of custom MIDI controllers and instruments. Peter and I discussed the Mor...

Cristofer Odqvist is an audio engineer, sound designer, and the author of Making Sound: Creative Music Production Tips and Philosophies . Making Sound is a valuable resource for producers because it gives actual techniques you can put to work in your projects. Behind each technique are philosophical ideas and guidelines which will further guide your work in the future. In this episode of the Music...

Alessio Santini is the founder and lead developer of K-Devices. K-Devices specializes in music creation devices for Max for Live and iOS. Their slogan is "colorize your sound" and they focus on devices that have smart user interfaces, are easy to use, and have light CPU usage. Recently K-Device released their second batch of OOG, or Out of Grid, Max for Live devices. This series specializes in add...

Tim Webb has gone to great lengths to bring us the latest and greatest in iOS music making news. His site Discchord.com covers all the latest releases, updates, and relevant YouTube walkthroughs, jams, and reviews of music making software for iPhone and iPad. In a refreshing blast of honesty, Tim is not afraid to tell you what apps suck and are not worth your time. He has been a faithful supporter...

Christopher Postill runs the web site Sounds Like an Earful, where he offers music for podcasters, video makers, and anyone that needs professional quality music for their creative projects. Christopher runs a podcast editing business and works as a graphic and web designer. Christopher's work interests me because he is taking his passion for music making and sound editing and turned it into a suc...

Matthew Fecher is a music software developer and part of the AudioKit Pro team. AudioKit Pro provides free and open-source audio software for developers to use in their apps and software. He and an enormous team of developers and collaborators just released Synth One, a free and open-source iOS synthesizer. I had a chance to talk with Matthew about the release of Synth One and the entire AudioKit...

How do we take an 8 bar loop and turn it into a finished song? It's probably the question people ask me most. As my students at Berklee are putting the finishing touches on their final project, it has been a major point of discussion. Then I received an email from a listener named Ed, who was seeking some advice on how to finish tracks. In this episode, I discuss the issues we all face in finishin...

Do you really need that new piece of gear? The truth is, probably not. Our modern day smart phones have more music making power than state of the art studios from just a few decades ago. In this episode, we talk about gear lust and how it gets in the way of our creative process. Plus I offer a few challenges you can give yourself to overcome the urge to buy new gear, accomplish goals, and perhaps...

Vincent Musolino is a physicist and the author of How Audio Works. In the book, Vincent gives important information about how sound originates from the instrument, is recorded by the microphone, converted to digital in the DAW, and then back to analog when it leaves the speakers. It's a very musician friendly guide to a very technical subject. It's a great book for anyone interested in understandi...

Dan Carr runs the site ReverbMachine , which is one my favorite new discoveries. On the site, Dan dissects and recreates the synthesizer patches used on popular songs by artists such as Tame Impala, Kanye West, Beach House, Nine Inch Nails, and more. At the end of each post you can download the presets and project files he creates. It's a powerful tool for learning how to program synthesizers and...

Isaac Cotec is a musician, producer, and Ableton Certified Trainer. He makes music as Subaqueous and runs a website and YouTube channel about all things music production and Ableton Live. This summer he will run his 3rd Audio Grove Music Retreat. I first met Isaac in 2013 when we were going for our Ableton certification. Since then, I've followed his work closely and collaborated with him on a few...

You might not think that telling people they suck at producing is a good way to win over fans, but Underbelly has managed to take that approach and build a community of eager producers around it. His YouTube channel, You Suck at Producing, is growing at a hyper pace thanks to his powerful lessons and hilarious sense of humor. Underbelly packages important lessons in concise videos laced with a lig...

Recently, Dan from pATCHES asked me write a musical manifesto for his site. I was just finishing Samuel Adoquei's Origin of Inspiration: Seven Short Essays for Creative People . The book had struck me in a powerful way, so I wrote my manifesto based on 3 lessons I took from the book. This episode is my reading of that manifesto over some ambient music made from my Wind Chimes instruments and Isoto...

This podcast was inspired by a student question. He asked "How do I get inspired to make music?" It's a great question, but I think it contains some underlying beliefs that need to be addressed. In this episode I encourage you to hunt for inspiration. To make yourself inspired. If you wait for inspiration, you'll never get anything done. Listen on iTunes  or Stitcher  or Google Play Show Notes: Th...

Emilio Guarino is a bassist, music producer, and author of Make It: A Guide For Recent Music Graduates . His music ranges from orchestral to jazz and electronic. In his book, Make It, Emilio picks up where music school left off and offers practical tactics and insights one can use to begin a career as a musician. It was really nice talking to Emilio about his experiences in the academic music worl...

Ethan Hein teaches music technology NYU and Montclair State University. His blog covers all kinds of related topics on music theory and technology. Ethan's work is a must for anyone looking to go deep into studying music and the culture surrounding it. Ethan and I had a great conversation about creating music, overcoming obstacles, and finding meaning in one's work. I really enjoy how Ethan is abl...

John Holt runs The Audio Journey, which teaches music production, especially for beginners. Though he covers some of the most basic concepts in entering music production, he also covers some more complex ideas and problems most producers face when it comes to advancing and finishing tracks. It's pretty obvious that John and I read a lot of the same books, listen to the same podcasts, and subscribe...

Tom Frampton is a producer, mixing and mastering engineer, author, and plugin designer. Never Get Stuck Again is his new book that gives producers a road map of the production process and practical and technical tips and techniques to navigate that map. His website Mastering the Mix, has great production tips and is where he offers his extremely helpful plugins.  Tom and I had a great conversation...

It has been one year since this podcast began. Happy Birthday, Music Production Podcast! In this episode, we discuss where we would be in a year if we started something new today. Whether it is a couple of small steps or something dramatic, add it up over the course of 365 days and the effects will likely be huge. We also talk about building the habit of always doing your best. It applies to life...