Creating music is not a technical issue. There is no recipe anyone can teach you, and there is no good way to go. Technical knowledge and sound control and recording control are essential but they are not the main thing. We’re not here to make a perfect Crossfade… and sometimes the music is just perfect when there’s that little fake … I won’t be technical in this article. It’s time to get involved in the important things:

We’re here to create magic, no less. To touch really hidden that we have no other way to reach, to get excited about something real and hope that others will get excited too. We make music to create new worlds and move within them. Only on the way there are obstacles.

And it turns out that most of what fails us is not what we have but what we have: computer, screen, plugins, mouse. That’s how music is made today. or not?

Here are eight tips to improve the quality of life, sound and music you make in your studio:

1. Listen to lots of music on your monitors!

To make good music you have to listen to a lot of good music. A broad-minded musician who knows and is versed in many genres and styles will usually produce better and more interesting results. Don’t just listen to the style of music you create, open up to as wide a range of styles as possible. For the most up-to-date music, and for the old sources. Listen to classics of all musical styles and try to understand and feel why they are so great. Listen to Pink Floyd, Bowie, Dylan, and Skrilex to Boards Of Canada and York. Listen to Metallica and Black Sabbath, and indulge in Aphex Twin and Underworld. Listen to your studio monitors, in high quality format (Wav or FLAC and not MP3) so you can know and know how really good music sounds in your studio.

2. Find your soul mate!

Today we can do everything on our own. To record, play, sing, to Max. And it feels very lonely sometimes … Music needs the mutual fertilization that happens when people meet. I especially appeal to electronic music creators among us (who are known as reclusive people): you will find the person (or people) who lifts you up. When you find it will be the best thing that has happened to your music.

3. Turn off the screen!

This week the screen burned to me. It’s not so nice to see a burnt screen, but looking at my stance without the screen at the center of things made me fantasize about a studio like I once did in the days of Four Track and the merry tape recorder, if you could just give up that flickering distraction … The eyes are the sense Our dominant, and we have no way to change it. When I make music for people on Cubeys, everyone without exception (and me of course) is watching carefully and diligently for the marker that moves on to the unknown. Really fascinating. And when we look we are less listening. Music doesn’t do with your eyes, so make it a habit: when you really want to listen to your music, turn off the screen. Amazing how it works.

Home studio without screen

Kind children, can you find out what (not) missing from the picture? My studio without a screen

4. Give up the mouse! (And work with controllers)

The mouse is probably the worst means of control when it comes to making music. Reduce your mouse usage by controlling all the important keyboard shortcuts, making it much more efficient and speeding up your work rate. But equally important, use the controllers’ in the nubs and feeds of your control keyboard to automate. In addition, I also highly recommend the Faderport-style motorized Pader for automating with Real Feel (amazing for strings and service rides). The foot controlled volume controller, drum pads or Breath Controller are all great tools to add real emotion and movement to your music.

5. Get your cellphone out of the studio already!

When you are in your studio making music you will be completely committed – give respect, time and space to yourself and the music you create. You don’t have to be available all the time. Your music needs all of you. And there is nothing worse than a perfect take interrupted with an annoying buzz. A little quiet to be here!

6. Draw less, play more!

Use keyboards to build drum rhythms and musical roles, and your drawing skills will be saved where possible to more suitable places. It is true that in certain electronic genres there is more use of painting and non-real-time work and we still need to remember that music is the art of real time. So draw less, play more. It will do your music well.

7. When making music should be fun!

Yes, that sounds obvious, but it’s not. Creating music is also a Sisyphean and difficult work that consists of paying attention to the infinite details, repeating the eight musical boxes, fatigue and frustration. So not always and not all the time, but when making music you have to get excited. Be surprised. to enjoy! A work that is all hard work without moments of happiness and transcendence is likely to be boring and meager. Make music that interests and excites you, let the hairs on your hand determine if what you’re doing is good or not.

8. Love your gear!

The equipment we work with in the studio is not just a collection of technical accessories. These are tools, but they have a soul in them. Choose equipment that turns you on. Choose monitors that move you. Do you like red? Make sure it is the color of your guitar. Sounds silly and irrational but hey, This is Love! This is also why plugins will never replace the real thing, who can love software? (And that means a guy who builds plugins for a living). If you make electronic music, buy at least one ferris synthesizer sitting next to you in the studio.

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Music does not do with the eyes nor with the mouse. Music is made with the heart, ears, hands, stomach, and sometimes (sorry girls) with the eggs. Music doesn’t do with the computer, music makes real people play real musical instruments.

Moments of creation land on us, we can’t make them come. Just allow them to arrive. B