Music Production

It’s super easy to sidechain compress in Reason.  And this is the key to producing that classic, pulsing synth pad sound you hear in dance music.  You know, the synth pad that throbs in time with the kick drum.  Here’s a video on how to set this type of sound up in Reason.  Plus, I show you how to keep it going even when your song’s main kick drum drops out, so you can produce inspirational breaks in your arrangement without ever losing the pulse of the kick.

Here’s the completed combinator patch that I demonstrate in the video so you can explore how it’s put together right in your own Reason Rack.

Combinator Patch [COMING SOON]

Sorry for the absence but I’ve been busy rolling out a new book and a new Berkleemusic course that I’m very excited to tell you about. During my years of teaching for Berkleemusic I’ve seen many students struggle with a common problem, how to program and produce convincing drum beats. They might be a virtuoso instrumentalist, an amazing guitar player, a wonderful singer, or a brilliant songwriter and lyricist, but when it came to writing a convincing drum beat for their music they had no idea where to start. Literally, no idea. From what I saw, over and over again, from one term to the next, there was clearly a need for some instruction in this area.

It just so happens that I absolutely love writing and producing drum beats. I’ve been doing it since I was fifteen and bought my very first drum machine, a Roland Drumatix TR-606. (I wish I still had that thing.) When I was eighteen and saw David Frank, of The System, on stage with a bunch of Oberheim gear, jamming along with the DMX drum machine I knew what I wanted to do. By twenty-one I was in my own Oakland, Bay Area, studio writing and recording beats professionally for aspiring hip-hop artists who would walk in with a song and say, “I want to sound like this.” Talk about a great way to cut your chops. Those were the days when West Coast hip-hop was flowering, full of funky, sampled breaks and fat, Akai MPC beats. What fun! Since then I’ve gone on to record plenty of live drum sessions, write bunches of dance music cues for film and TV, and arrange orchestral percussion for film trailers.

Long story short, I’ve written a book titled, Producing Drum Beats: Writing & Mixing Killer Drum Grooves (Berklee Press, 2010). It’s a guide for aspiring music producers who want to get started programming and producing killer drum beats from scratch. If you have no idea how to begin your own drum beat, if you’re unclear about the tools and techniques you’ll need to use to produce your own convincing drum beats, this book is meant for you. Keep in mind, it’s not a drum recording handbook, I don’t discuss how to mic a drum kit, nor is it written for experienced producers who are already adept at programming and mixing their own beats. This book is for beginners and musicians who have spent years studying another instrument and suddenly realize they need to know how to produce believable drum beats in order to sell their songs.

Beyond the book’s text, it also comes with a CD that’s packed full of cool demo samples. There are drum loops and MIDI files from reputable sound developers including, Big Fish Audio, Smart Loops, KEYFAX, and even a multitrack drum recording from MultiLoops. The exclusive demo samples are worth the price of admission and I can’t thank these companies enough for allowing me to include their material.

Producing Drums Beats by Erik Hawkins

Here’s a PDF of the contents and the Introduction.
Producing Drum Beats TOC and Introduction

As if writing a book wasn’t enough of a monumental task, I’ve also authored a new Berkleemusic course based on the premise of the book. The new course is called, Programming and Producing Drum Beats. In the book I had to adhere to a page count and obviously couldn’t include multimedia and video demonstrations. In the online course I had no such restrictions and was able to build an incredibly intense and comprehensive curriculum focused entirely on producing drum beats. The course contains pages and pages of content that augment the chapters in the book, bunches of informative videos, super cool interactive workshops, and weekly assignments that will challenge you and push your skills to the next level. So, check out the book, if you like it, sign up for the course, and as Janet Jackson said, “Give me a beat!” (from the song, “Nasty”, on the album, Control, A&M Records 1986).

A few nights ago, at RSPE Audio here in L.A., I had the opportunity to hear R&B and hip-hop mix specialist Dave Pensado talk about his mixing techniques. Pensado has worked with a who’s who of name artists: Mary J Blige, Beyonce, Keyshia Cole, Christina Aguilera, Black Eyed Peas, Justin Timberlake, Destiny’s Child, Pink, Brian McKnight, Ice Cube, Warren G, Lil’ Kim, Mya, Elton John, Sting, Seal, Kelly Clarkson, and others. It was a pleasure to get an inside look into his mixing process, check out one of his Pro Tools sessions (an Aguilera song), and even ask him a few questions about parallel compression and how he uses it. (I’ll discuss what he said about parallel compression in another blog.)

While he was talking, he alluded to the fact that he had done a lot of articles where he talked about his mixing techniques. So, when I got home I googled him, and sure enough, there are some excellent articles available on the Web where he talks about most of the stuff he covered in the seminar. One of the best articles I found is from Sound On Sound, where he shares his actual plug-in settings from a couple of The Pussycat Dolls’ songs that he mixed, “Beep” featuring will.i.am, and “Buttons” featuring Snoop Dogg. The article is part of Sound On Sound’s inside track series, Secrets of the Mix Engineers: Dave Pensado. In fact, I think this is such a juicy article I don’t want to take a chance that it’ll be pulled off the Sound On Sound site so I’ve archived it as a Zip, along with all of the plug-in screen shots, and I’m attaching it to this blog. I hope you find it informative. If you do, be sure to thank Sound On Sound and Dave Pensado (he’s on Facebook).

Download the Zip: pensado_soundonsound

Now, here’s something that Pensado said in the seminar that stuck in my head. It’s not something that I’ve seen quoted in any of his articles. You know how I’m always going on about the importance of checking your mix on different speakers? I even wrote a blog awhile back on how to set up multiple monitors for checking your mixes, Setting Up Multiple Monitors for Better Mixing. Here’s what Pensado said, I think it’s excellent advice and totally hits the nail on the head.

“Probably 80% of consumers are listening to music on their computers and iPods. So, if you’re not checking your mix on ear buds you’re missing the boat.”

And, on that note, here’s the video for “Beep”, listen to it on your ear buds.