Music Production

A sample library is just a structured collection of audio files on your machine — loops, one-shots, and multi-sampled instruments — kept somewhere you … Read more

The short version: keep three copies of every session, on two different kinds of storage, with one copy somewhere physically off-site. That is the … Read more

Mix it. Do not master it. That single distinction decides whether an artist hears a competitive beat or a demo that loses to every … Read more

Learning how to arrange a beat for an artist comes down to three moves: map the section lengths off a reference track, build the … Read more

Here is the short version: hip hop chord progressions are usually one to four chords, almost always in a minor key, and they exist … Read more

To leave space for vocals in a beat you have to open room in three places at once: the level of the instrumental, the … Read more

A beat switch is a deliberate mid-song change in instrumentation, rhythm, tempo, key, or production style. Learning how to make a beat switch that … Read more

Time stretching changes the length of an audio sample without changing its pitch. A 2-second drum break can be made to fill four bars, … Read more

To make a drum break from a sample, you isolate the drum section of a record, find its tempo by ear, slice it into … Read more

To quantize without losing feel, stop working at 100 percent strength by default. Choose the smallest grid that fits the part, pull quantize strength … Read more