In 2012 the boat people DJ’s (France) approached me to produce a track for them. This track titled “Destiny” is a combination of down tempo house meets nu disco. The process was a lot of fun, essentially they came to me with some concepts about what they were looking for and I then went straight away into the studio to put the elements together. I was aiming for something along the lines of a nu disco feel but also wanted to keep some traditional “frenchy” house elements in there without sounding to predicable. Through extensive experimentation with various synths and sounds I finally came up with a edgy distorted synth riff heard when the track takes a sudden break off at 4:20. This intense and spacy breakdown vibe is in my opinion what truly gives the track something fresh for the listeners.

The incredible vocals on the track are done by Mo’Sean and are spars but very soulful and powerful. Because the crew is located in France and I’m in Toronto, they recorded all of the vocals over there and sent me the finished stems to finalize the track.

Overall I am very happy with the way everything turned out and I hope to continue developing unique sounds for these guys in the future.

Check out The Boat People DJ’s - Destiny Feat. Mo’SEAN

Sub Level Music offers online consultation and track review services to other artists, producers and engineers. Unlike Typical mp3 review services, this service is more of a production demonstration. Send us the stems of your music and we will provide suggestions along with example production and or mixing techniques needed to help take your music to the next level (an mp3 example or edit of the changes made will be sent to your inbox so that you will be able to hear and understand what went into achieving the sound) We will also send you detailed notes behind the changes made such as the tools, settings, tricks and effects used during the demonstration.

The process is simple… 

1. Send me an email with a high quality mp3 of your music (preferably 320 kbps)
2. I will send you an invoice for payment (Email Money Transfers or PayPal accepted.
3. If necessary I will request to have you send the stems of your music (which will allow me to have a in depth look at your project and provide example mixing techniques)
4. l schedule in studio time which is when I will be listening to and reviewing your music. This is when I will be applying example production and mixing techniques to your track and writing detailed notes about the changes made along with any final suggestions.

To inquire about rates and service email: info@sublevelmusic.com

This post is directed at the importance of capturing inspiration and ideas. If you haven’t noticed yet start becoming mindful of that cool riff you might be humming in the shower or that infectious rhythm that keeps looping around in your head. These could be the very core ideas which fuel your next musical projects. Yes we all like to sit in front of our computers for hours programming drums and messing with synths, tweaking parameters etc and that’s all great stuff as well but if your at all like me, you probably have tons of small little interesting quirky sounds racing around inside your head just itching to become a living breathing piece of music. I started to truly value this way of working when I taught myself that once you have an idea and are successful at capturing that idea on your phone or sequencer etc, the rest of the work comes down to sound selection, arrangement and mixing essentially more left brain creativity vs the thought intensive right brain process or creation which is where the initial ideas come from in the first place. For example it’s 10 am, I’m brewing some coffee and cooking breakfast and out of nowhere this melody hits me and that leads to a cool drum pattern which then leads to all kinds of builds and drops. This is all going on in my head. Forget coffee and breakfast for a moment, I quickly go for the most convent medium to record with… My phone, ableton whatever is easiest to get to and I capture whats going on in my head and I make sure I do my best to record it. 3 maybe 4 minutes go by and guess what? I have just finished laying out the drums, melody, bass riff, effects etc for what might eventually be my next tune. Now that i have this idea captured on my phone i won’t forget it and can get back to it the next time I hit the studio. Now if I had ignored this sound in my head, I probably would of ended up playing around with some samples and sounds never really getting anywhere but instead, the next time I hit the studio I can simply reference my voice clip or rough idea  and start building up the track as I vision it to be. Once that’s done, I’ll step away, come back to it a day later or even sooner and focus on making every sound work properly. My point? Ideas can go along way in fact I believe in some cases a great idea is 80% of the track and the other 20% is sound selection and mixing. of courses  with this split I am referring to the value of a great idea captured not physical time spent working on the idea to make it completely finished. Here’s how I view the difference…

Value of musical idea = 80% music idea, 20% technical work.

Physical work (time) to finish musical idea = 80% technical work, 20% music idea.

There is an ongoing misunderstanding that I find a lot of new producers make and that is they assume the mastering guy will “fix” or “change” the way there tracks sound. And when I say change I don’t mean sonically however after reading this post you will understand how each and every musical element in your track will essentially effect the way your master sounds in the end. The assumption is usually a client will send over a reference or two of a big track at the current moment and want it mastered to sound just like that track. And even though I always recommend that clients send me reference material as a sonic guide, its equally as important to note that unless you spend a lot of time initially making the track sound exactly as you want it to sound or to sound like a particular reference, your track will almost never sound “exactly” the same. In fact this is equally the case during mixing as well but I will save that for another post.

Different composition,arrangement, drum selection, sound selection all make up your own unique sonic sound so understanding this concept is important during the writing, production and recording stages which in the end do play a big role in how the final master will sound. So take the time to choose your sounds carefully and make sure every element gels nicely together as one before the final stages. When you take the time to make your overall production sound as close to a finished master as possible, chances are after you get your track back from mastering, its going to sound even better! remember bad sound in = bad sound out.

Related articles…

How to prepare your music for mastering

Preparing your files for sub level music mixing services

Mixing v.s. Mastering

In 2010 I co produced and engineered “Questions” produced by Jinx & Kullins (Joe De Simone & Ernie Arrizza) feat. Grenville (G Pinto) on Violin. Late 2012 Jinx & Kullins teamed up to do a remix of this song. Check out both videos to hear the original version and remix!

Questions Remix

Questions Original