Getting in the Groove – 6 Tips for Programming Realistic Drums
It's a great time to be a music producer. You can produce full songs with nothing more than your laptop and a DAW. While getting good drum sounds is easier than ever with more and more options expanding beyond the limitations of old drum machines, even with good drum sounds your tracks may feel like they are missing something. That something is often the groove, with your rhythm locked in so tight to the grid that your drum programming feels programmed as opposed to feeling played in by a real human being. We've got some tips below to help you spruce up your drum programming even if you aren't a good drummer yourself.
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Human After All? – 3 Ways to Humanize Your Music
The beauty of electronic music is that anybody with a laptop can be a one-person band, but far too often we are stuck in the grid and our music loses its human element. The beat is not quite locking in a rhythm so you quantize but now it's too stiff and robotic so you readjust, then requantize, then throw your computer on the ground and call it a day. If you've ever found yourself following a similar routine then we have a few tips on what to do in order to add the humanity back into your music.
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Workshop Recap – House/Techno Production Techniques with Tanya Leigh
Women Only Workshop – House/Techno Production Techniques with Tanya Leigh On July 18th, Beat Lab joined forces with The Athena Collective and hosted a free house/techno production workshop featuring special guest Tanya Leigh. Tanya Leigh has been involved in Minneapolis’s underground dance scene since 1998. She is also half of the techno DJ duo Complicit (Travis Norman is the other half). They are best known for their high-energy performances, which embrace the underground techno scene. Beyond her DJ skills, Tanya knows how to play the piano and flute. She also has a BA in music and a diploma in Audio Engineering. For the first half of the workshop, Tanya shared with us her house music production workflow in Ableton. She started by using Ableton’s 909 drum rack to build a kick loop in the session view at 125 bpm. She then duplicated the clip and layered another drum element. She …
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