Category: Produce

  • Album Histories Monthly: Blondie – ‘Parallel Lines’

    Album Histories Monthly: Blondie – ‘Parallel Lines’

    Welcome back to our new series on Flypaper, Album Histories Monthly, which brings you the story of a single album each month, in the month that it was originally released. Last month, we covered New Order’s influential Substance 1987. This month:  Blondie – Parallel Lines Release Date: September 23, 1978 “I remember how struck I was by Debbie and her presence…

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  • Master the Fundamentals of Mixing with Top Sound Engineers

    Master the Fundamentals of Mixing with Top Sound Engineers

    New course announcement! You asked, and we delivered. We’re really excited to announce the arrival of our most ambitious course to date: Faders Up: Modern Mix Techniques. This course features interviews with nine of the top sound engineers working today teaching the ins and outs of creating top-quality DIY mixes of your music — engineers…

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  • Quick Tracks Nº 4: Write a Groove Using the Lydian Mode

    Quick Tracks Nº 4: Write a Groove Using the Lydian Mode

    Welcome back to the dance floor, Quick Trackers! Once a month, we hook you up with a short production or songwriting challenge, aimed at helping to up your musicianship. To respond to the challenge, just email us, leave a comment, or post to social media with the hashtag #quicktracks and tag us @learntosoundfly. …And we’re back! This week, we challenge you…

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  • Trap Rap Has Been Around for a Minute Now – So Why Does It Keep Working?

    Trap Rap Has Been Around for a Minute Now – So Why Does It Keep Working?

    + Learn the nuances of producing beats, arranging tracks, and creative sampling, drawing on the rich history and influence of hip-hop in Soundfly’s acclaimed online course, The Art of Hip-Hop Production.  If you walk down the street of any major city and open your ears to the cars driving by, there’s a good chance that the music roaring out…

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  • Beyoncé’s ‘Lemonade’ Accidentally Pressed with Punk Rock, and 8 Other Vinyl Mishaps

    Beyoncé’s ‘Lemonade’ Accidentally Pressed with Punk Rock, and 8 Other Vinyl Mishaps

    + Welcome to Soundfly! We help curious musicians meet their goals with creative online courses. Whatever you want to learn, whenever you need to learn it. Subscribe now to start learning on the ’Fly. For audiophiles, there’s nothing quite like unwrapping the packaging after purchasing new vinyl, setting the record down onto the turntable, carefully placing the stylus at its outer edge,…

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  • WTF Is VR and Spatial Audio? Mixing for 360 Audio

    WTF Is VR and Spatial Audio? Mixing for 360 Audio

    The term “virtual reality” always reminds me of some cheesy ’80s or ’90s movie that involved chunky headsets and dreamed of a future with flying cars and household robots doing everyday chores. The actual reality is that we have self-driving cars (thanks, Tesla), household robots to whom we can ask questions, (“Alexa, stream Total Recall”), and…

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  • Photay on Being Terrified by ‘Flight of the Bumblebee’ and How to Mess with Song Form

    Photay on Being Terrified by ‘Flight of the Bumblebee’ and How to Mess with Song Form

    Welcome back to Soundfly’s new interview series, Incorrect Music, curated by guitarist, singer, and composer Lora-Faye Åshuvud (of the band Arthur Moon). In this series, we present intimate conversations with artists who are striving to push the boundaries of their process and craft. On his latest release, Onism, Photay’s Evan Shornstein combines his study of West African…

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  • Boring but Useful: How to Prep a Mix in Ableton Live

    Boring but Useful: How to Prep a Mix in Ableton Live

    + Master the tools and techniques of producing pro-level electronic music and audio in Ableton Live with Soundfly’s course, Intro to Music Production in Ableton Live. One of the dullest parts of production, but one of the most important for properly finishing a track, is preparing to mix it. If and when people think of music production…

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  • Mastering: Decoding the ‘What’ and ‘Why’ of It All

    Mastering: Decoding the ‘What’ and ‘Why’ of It All

    + Pursue your mixing or audio production goals with a Soundfly Mentor like Andrea! Soundfly offers four-week mentorship sessions with a pro, customized to you. Get in touch to learn more. Your music has been carefully recorded and painstakingly mixed, but there’s still one more step before it’s ready for the listening public: mastering. Mastering is the bridge…

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  • Using Effects to Transform the Sonic Contours of Your Electronic Drum Pad

    Using Effects to Transform the Sonic Contours of Your Electronic Drum Pad

    Musicians today use audio effects for literally everything. Guitarists, keyboardists, vocalists, saxophonists, you name it. Effects play a huge role in defining your personal sound to achieve the exact, desired impact no matter what instrument or genre you play. Yet, in my experience, drummers tend to be wariest of using effects processing in a live setting.…

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