Category: Tips & Tricks

In this video, we discuss the Universal Audio LA-2A compressor plug in collection. I go over all of the various units UA has to offer in the bundle and give some examples of what they sound like and their differences.

The LA-2A is on of my favorite compressors and I use it in almost every music production. They are fast, easy to use and intuitive. Although you don’t get much control like a normal compressor they have a distinct color and character t0 them that cannot be replaced.

Continue reading “UAD LA-2A Compressor Plug In Collection Explained”

In this video, I’m going to show you how I recently did a radio show for Pitch the Tempo using Ableton Live. The mix was planned out and completely mixed in Ableton Live mimicking elements of how I would DJ the music. By doing the show this way I was able to save a ton of time and make the project efficient, while still giving me a high-quality result.

Some might knock this stating it’s not live or its cheating. I’ve done all of it, multi-tracked mixtapes, live mixtapes and this just makes it easier. If you can’t do the mix live then it could be considered cheating. But these days with my busy schedule deadlines need to be met when projects are due. Anything that can help me speed up and make things more efficient is a handy time-saver, so if you’re curious, check out how I used Ableton Live to create this radio show and mimic my DJ playing.

Continue reading “An Ableton Live DJ Mix Tutorial”

I used to make a ton of DJ edits for club play. I would shorten songs up, re-arrange them and make them better suited for DJs to play and get in and out of songs quickly once the digital DJ era became a big thing. I was already a Pro Tools wizard so it was easy for me to use.

Today I share how you can use some of the amazing editing tools inside Pro Tools to create your own edits. I use a trick that I came up with for this edit as well that I have never done before so check out this video! Learning how to make your own DJ edits has never been so easy.

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In this video, I discuss what backups are and why they are important. If you’re not backing up your data then you could be setting yourself up for a massive data loss.

Losing your music is the worst feeling ever, so if you need an explanation on what backups are and why they are important then make sure to watch this video. I go over different storage mediums you can use to backup your data as well as a program that I use religiously. I explain my process to backing up daily and I can safely say I have never lost my music data (although I have lost some pictures before and I learned NEVER to let that happen again!). Don’t let that be you with your music or your clients music!

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In this video I discuss the Ableton Live Utility plug in. This plug in is a very handy tool if you get to know how to use it. I go over some my my advanced tips while using this plug in so if you’re an Ableton user this is not one you want to miss!

Ableton’s Utility does exactly what the name implies. The amount of applications and usability are tremendous, especially if you get creative. You can use it to simply mono your sounds, mono your low end, control width, eliminate a side, flip audio phase, and even automate volume, pan or mutes. Not sure how all this works, then check the video out to learn more!

Continue reading “Ableton Live Utility – Ableton Live 11 Tutorial”

Want some unique tips to using Little Alter Boy? This plug-in is a great plug-in for pitch shifting and audio manipulation. I use this tool for a variety of features. It’s simple, easy to use, relatively inexpensive, and a great tool for vocals and instruments.

It can help get things pitched properly to your production. Or help things sit in the mix. Want to alter a voice to change the tone, how about alter pitch and add drive and character to an instrument or synth? The possibilities are endless. In this video I go over the basics of the alter boy plug-in and some unique tips and tricks I use weekly in my music productions.

I share three tips of mine that I use all the time on vocals with this unique plug in. Using formats or pitch adjustments can alter the sonic characteristics of a sound. Another tactic is to layer the alter boy, and the link button makes the pitch shifting and formant knob do some wacky stuff. It’s pretty nifty what this thing can do!

Continue reading “Using Little Alter Boy – Little Alter Boy Soundtoys”

In part three on our series in creating acapella’s we show you how to make an acepella from any song using A.I. We’ve personally never used online artificial intelligence to create an acapella so we thought we would give it a shot.

Starting out by using Google and searching for the term ‘extract vocals’ we came across the Acapella Extractor. This service is free for up to two songs daily and has an instrumental version as well called Remove Vocals.

If you’re looking for a cheap alternative to the expensive RX7 or RX8 from Izotope and do not have the instrumental this might be the way to go to create your acapella.

Continue reading “How to Make an Acapella from Any Song Using A.I.”

In part two of our series on creating acapella’s we show you how to use Izotope’s RX7 and RX8’s music rebalancing tool to craft an acapella out of a song. It works pretty good most of the time, and there’s a fair chance you’ll get a usable acapella by using this method!

Before the only method to isolate vocals was by using phase cancellation. This used to never be possible and with today’s technology it use, so why not take advantage of it. If you’re looking for a tool to isolate vocals from any song then look no further.

Continue reading “Isolate Vocals Using Izotope RX8 and RX7”