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How to become a mastering engineer?

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Every now and then I am asked, “How could I become a mastering/mixing engineer?”, “What school could I attend to land a mastering position?” and I hear “That might be a nice job to have”.

Here’s my two cents.

The very first thing you are going to need is huge truckloads of passion for the craft. It’s a very long road to the point where you can start working with others’ songs and charging for that.
Most people who end up doing that are peeps who have been messing with music production or engineering for a good while and they realize they’re decent at it and they also like it a lot (the amount of ppl who have said to me, “How the hell can you do that? I’d get sick of that in a heartbeat!”….) Continue reading How to become a mastering engineer? →

Ableton Live “versus” Pro Tools

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Live / Pro Tools

 

LATER EDIT: I dropped using Pro Tools for good and am now doing everything in Ableton Live.

Having been an Ableton Live user for so many years,  I recently gave Pro Tools a shot. Why? I had heard a lot of good about it in terms of its editing and mixing capabilities; that’s my job and that’s what I do a lot on my freetime as well, so I wanted to check PT out.
I ended up liking it, and prior to writing this, I put an order in, which means I’ll definitely be using it alongside Live.
I felt it might be interesting to jot down points about the differences Continue reading Ableton Live “versus” Pro Tools →

Multiband gating with Live 9 multiband dynamics

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After the video on Ozone 5 multiband gating that I did recently, I got some questions as to whether that could be done with the plugins in Ableton Live. Answer is: yes, check out its Multiband Dynamics plugin and play with its “B” (below) module, set ratios as low as you can and mess with the threshold.

Breakbeat basics: how to reverse loop drums with any sampler

After the last video, I received plenty of questions as to how to do reverse looping with your sampler if it doesn’t have that function? (e.g., Maschine still doesn’t have it, Ableton Simpler doesn’t have it).
I did a video on an old trusted method of mine that’s been providing me with seamless breakbeats for a long time now even if all my samplers don’t have a reverse loop ability.
Doing this with Ableton Live and its handy integration with 3rd party audio editors, but this can be done with any daw.