Often the difference between an unfinished and finished arrangement can be something as simple as adding some FX with a delay to help with transitions and keep things interesting. Make yourself a rack of FX hits and go to town.
This is a practise that I have been meaning to start doing for years. I had heard such great things and now I have finally joined in I can attest to its usefulness. Making your own sample pack from the highlights of your past tracks is a sure fire way to recycle great ideas in a way that you simply wouldn't in any other circumstance. Each track you write is full with great loop, FX hits and drum samples that you have crafted to make your own. Don't do them the disservice of chucking them away after one use!
This is an essential mix down technique for absolutely everyone to get their heads around. It's very simple and incredibly effective. You use a frequency analyser to pin point the nasty resonant frequencies and then use a notch filter to remove them. Smooth mixes here we come!
One of the biggest differences between professional and amateur sounding drums is the use of layering multiple samples to make one sound. In this tutorial I will give you some examples of how you might use a variety of sounds to create an interesting, thick and punchy drum loop.
In the second part of the How To Finish A Track series I explain how I use the Session View and Capture And Insert Scene command in Ableton to create my arrangements.
This is how I build the template that I start all my tracks with. I guarantee it will make your life a million percent easier and will help you stay in a flow state when you're writing your music. ------------------ - Start by inserting a ‘Drum Rack’ and calling it Kicks - Search through your samples and find a variety of different kick sounds. Drum racks can take .adg files as well so you could add in the 808 kick pre made sampler in Ableton for example. - Add those to your kicks drum rack by dragging the samples onto...
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