Music arranging techniques are a topic I've been asked about most in the last few weeks. For many people, this is the part of music-making that causes issues. And rightfully so; arranging is all about storytelling. In past posts, I've said that even though your sound and production might be...
Given the quantity of hours of mixing I do regularly, I work on lot of projects from a wide variety of clients. I also have to do a lot of "cleaning up" before I get to work on the actual mixing of a song. I wanted to share with you...
When it comes to mixing and mastering, my work involves to listening to many, many songs. Some are great, while others need more love, but from the numerous songs I hear daily I can pinpoint one important thing that makes a song stand out the most: arrangements. I believe your...
Creating movement in electronic music One of the most misunderstood concepts in electronic music is movement. By movement, I am referring to the way that each sound constantly evolves throughout a song. I was once talking with someone who is very into modular synthesizers and he was saying that he cannot...
The 2-minute Soundcloud preview method, as I call it, is about creating tracks previews that are 2 minutes long. Why that length? If you look at most track previews labels and artists are sharing online, they're about 2 minutes in length. This unofficial standard got popular during the early days of...
Lately I've been working on a live set, and I realized that I have a personal checklist I use to see if I covered everything to help me decide if a particular song is finished; from little details to bigger things, sometimes it's easy to overlook important factors. Just like...
Since the very beginning, I can remember many times I’ve questioned my abilities as a music producer. Feeling stuck on a project or coping with negative feedback from a track I was proud of left me wondering if I was starring down the path of a musical dead end. Sometimes...
I can’t tell you how many times I've been asked that question, and asked myself the same thing - is my song good? With experience releasing my own records and working on amazing projects that inspire me nearly every day, I know what I like in a song to call it...
I’m really excited to share a killer new exercise with you that I know will help you become really creative and productive. I’m using this exercise in my own productions and it’s a little like the Bonsai Method I wrote about in my last post. The key focus of this...
I want to tackle a huge, big-time topic of much discussion and effort among many music producers - finishing your projects. Like many of my friends, readers of this blog, and clients of mine, finishing your music is really important to you. Yet, we all have loads and loads of...
Have your productions become a bit predictable lately? To stand out as an artist/producer you have to create music that is unique. So much of electronic is structured around a repeating 4/4 pattern, which means it’s really important to create surprising sounds and unique arrangements that keep your track interesting....
By far one of the biggest topics I've covered in my coaching in the last year has been how to turn loops into full songs. A lot of producers get a thrill out of making a loop. But they often get stuck there, as if a psychological block of some kind were stopping them...
In Conversations with Clients, we bring you an honest and unfiltered look at Pheek's services, straight from the mouths of those who know -- and want you to know too! For this second piece in our series, I spoke with Luis Rivera (artist name LRb), a minimal techno producer based in Puebla, Mexico. ♦ ♦ ♦ Hi Luis,...
Isaac Prieto is a Detroit-based DJ and producer and the co-founder of vinyl label Detroit Vinyl Room. He was also a client of Pheek’s, who helped Isaac with song finalization, mixdown and mastering. I spoke with Isaac to gain some insights into his journey as a DJ and producer and his experience working with Pheek. Note:...
A lot of you might already know what ghost producing is, and you might even have some pretty strong feelings about it. For those who aren't familiar with the term: Ghost producing is having your track made from scratch, with your instructions, by another producer. What you might be more surprised to find out, though, is that many producers...
In this post, I will discuss the advantages of having someone else take a look at your unfinished tracks. Time to finish those sleeping projects Have you ever watched those renovation shows where an expert takes over a messy apartment and gives it a complete makeover? I know that for myself and most people I...
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