DAY 1 – Creating the song – It’s all about communication
Our goal in the first day is learning how to work as a writing/production team for achieving today’s sound – using technology as a vehicle for the creative process.
We will kickoff with a mutual introduction, telling each other a little about ourselves and how we work and then move on to playing some music and talking about song directions, styles and what are the key elements in today’s top charting hits. Grabbing guitars, keyboards and percussion instruments we will start throwing together musical ideas and jam, making a beat and recording some riffs – forming the main framework of a song.
At the same time, the topline writer will work on ideas for melodies and lyrics, which we will all participate and contribute to.
From here, we will start enhancing the arrangement, programming drums using samples and online libraries in the process.
DAY 2 – Searching for magic – Production
The 2nd day will be all about the production process and how we advance from the song’s initial groove towards a finished Mix-Ready track.
We’ll use analogue synthesizers, samplers and guitars as creative tools and learn how to make them work together. After lunch, we will focus on vocals, choosing microphones, preamps and talk about studio vocal production and recording techniques as well as editing, comping and tuning the lead vocal track and backing vocal stacks.
DAY 3 – Delivering the goods – Mixing & Mastering
The day starts with the mix setup. We will pay a lot of attention to mix-prep and learn about the main processes taking place in a mix. We will discuss drum triggering, Equalization & Compression, Side-chaining, De-Essing and transient processing as our tools and understand the strengths of each one. I will stress the importance of Mixing the Beat – drums/bass placement and how they form the foundation of a healthy mix. Our goal is to make the lows tight and heavy while ensuring the entire mix sounds clear, punchy and crisp. After we explore reverbs and delays and how to use them on vocals we will print the mix and have it ready for mastering, remixes and live performance by exporting all required stems.
Mastering is the final chapter in our story and we will discuss the different loudness standards for streaming platforms. We will learn how to make our song stand out from the crowd and sound ready for the world.