Category: Produce

  • 10 Rediscovered Minimalist Masterpieces from Japan, Thanks to YouTube

    10 Rediscovered Minimalist Masterpieces from Japan, Thanks to YouTube

    + Learning about synthesis? Soundfly’s got a definitive new course called Advanced Synths and Patch Design! Preview for free and subscribe for access. Without the internet around to provide an unbroken timeline of artistic events to a potentially endless landscape of wandering eyes, records that couldn’t achieve access to a viable fanbase in the 1980s have mostly, inevitably…

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  • 6 More Rising Artists on Soundfly Right Now

    6 More Rising Artists on Soundfly Right Now

    It’s only May, but we’re already pretty sure that 2017 is going to be our favorite year ever! This year, Soundfly has nearly doubled our repertoire of available courses and partnered with some of the world’s best instructors. But best of all, we’ve been continually inspired and excited by the work that student artists have shared with us.…

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  • How to Use Polyrhythms to Create a Perfect Beat

    How to Use Polyrhythms to Create a Perfect Beat

    We’ve all felt it before: four-on-the-floor fatigue. That feeling when you’ve listened to too much music with the same square beat. 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4… Don’t get me wrong — I’m a technohead, so 4/4 is my jam. Lots of music is built on 4/4 rhythm for a reason: It’s familiar and easy to dance to. Sometimes you might…

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  • Scrap the Backing Track – How I Create Live Improvisations Using an Ableton Push

    Scrap the Backing Track – How I Create Live Improvisations Using an Ableton Push

    + Master the processes and techniques for programming professional-grade electronic drum beats in Ableton Live with Soundfly’s acclaimed online course. By Dan Freeman In 2013, I had the fortune of receiving one of the first ever Ableton Push sequencers before the model went to market. I was chosen to be the Certified Trainer who demoed the…

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  • Waves of Change: How to Make a Bigger Impact with a Benefit Compilation Album

    Waves of Change: How to Make a Bigger Impact with a Benefit Compilation Album

    Late on the evening of November 9, 2016, I felt what many politically left Americans felt: an overwhelming sense of despair and hopelessness that left me emotionally paralyzed. Soon after the initial shock of the moment had passed, I realized that reading friends’ enraged social media posts and stewing in my own misery wasn’t going…

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  • Introducing Our 5 Favorite Synths from NAMM and Superbooth This Year

    Introducing Our 5 Favorite Synths from NAMM and Superbooth This Year

    Let’s face it: It’s basically impossible to keep up with the pace of trade shows through the late winter and early spring. Between the flurry of announcements about monitors, synths, modules, mixing desks, and the endless stream of video demos pouring out, merely paying attention can feel overwhelming, let alone taking meticulous notes on what’s…

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  • These 10 Super Helpful Key Commands in Ableton Live Will Change Your Life

    These 10 Super Helpful Key Commands in Ableton Live Will Change Your Life

    + 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. There’s no other way to put it: computers have become a central component of all recorded music, as well as most composed music. Especially when taking on more projects with tighter deadlines,…

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  • 14 of the Most Commonly Confused Terms in Music and Audio

    14 of the Most Commonly Confused Terms in Music and Audio

    Once upon a time, remixing a song meant actually redoing the mix. Many vintage consoles (some Neve 80-series, for example) have a button labeled “remix” that changes a few functions on the desk to optimize it for mixing rather than recording. But sometime in the late 20th century, the word “remix” began to take on a new meaning:…

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  • These Four Classic Covers Can Tell Us Everything About What Makes Great Album Art

    These Four Classic Covers Can Tell Us Everything About What Makes Great Album Art

    Four albums top my all-time favorite records list. They’re some of my favorite albums musically, but their impact and significance to me and other listeners run deeper than that. After spending so many cumulative hours engaging deeply with these works, I realized that these four great covers can teach us everything we need to know about…

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  • How Kendrick Lamar Achieves Mainstream Appeal with a Complex, Innovative Approach

    How Kendrick Lamar Achieves Mainstream Appeal with a Complex, Innovative Approach

    + 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.  One of Kendrick Lamar’s greatest benedictions as an artist is his ability to connect, which, on the surface, seems strange, because his stories are so…

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Ryan Lott: Designing Sample-Based Instruments