Category: Produce

  • What Is Granular Synthesis?

    What Is Granular Synthesis?

    + Learning about synthesis? Soundfly’s got a definitive new online course called Advanced Synths and Patch Design For Producers! Preview for free and subscribe for access.  When it comes to sampling and Ableton, there are an overwhelming number of methods for turning almost any recorded sound into a functional musical tabula rasa. From simply dragging and dropping a…

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  • The Beginner’s Guide to Setting Up a Home Studio: Picking the Right Computer

    The Beginner’s Guide to Setting Up a Home Studio: Picking the Right Computer

    If you’re tired of spending your hard-earned cash on hiring other people to record your demos, the logical next step is to set up your own recording studio at home. If that sounds daunting, it really shouldn’t. You can do so much with so little these days, and as time goes on, you can expand your gear…

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  • A Guide to Best Practices for Seamless Audio Collaboration in Your DAW

    A Guide to Best Practices for Seamless Audio Collaboration in Your DAW

    As DAW and recording technology gets ever better, musicians can collaborate in ways they’ve never imagined… which leads to a whole new host of problems.

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  • How to Approach Album Track Order in the Digital Age

    How to Approach Album Track Order in the Digital Age

    Back in the days of vinyl LPs, musicians spent a lot of time thinking about album track order. When Capitol Records released the early Beatles albums in America, for example, John Lennon was appalled at how the record label had changed the track order from what the band had originally intended. Nowadays, however, with the…

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  • Every Single Thing You Need to Play the Synth Bass Part from Bruno Mars’ “24k Magic”

    Every Single Thing You Need to Play the Synth Bass Part from Bruno Mars’ “24k Magic”

    Bruno Mars has made a career off tribute after tribute to artists and sounds of the past. While his success is undeniable, his approach to utilizing classic sounds and stylings is often touted as merely that of a copycat. Still, he always manages to deliver party beats with a clever contemporary twist and a wink of…

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  • How to Create the Iconic Synth Sounds in “Gin and Juice” from Scratch

    How to Create the Iconic Synth Sounds in “Gin and Juice” from Scratch

    Here’s something I know you’re going to dig! Throughout our free Demystifying Synths series of courses, we explore how to recreate the iconic keyboard sounds from tons of our favorite songs. You may have read our recent in-depth article on how to create that unmistakeable keyboard sound from Radiohead’s song “Everything in Its Right Place” off of Kid A, through…

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  • 7 Unsung Nintendo Soundtracks That Chiptune Fans Need to Hear

    7 Unsung Nintendo Soundtracks That Chiptune Fans Need to Hear

    Everyone has a favorite classic Nintendo Entertainment System soundtrack. Who could forget the much-celebrated “Tetris” theme, the driving Dr. Wily song from “Mega Man 2,” or the epic Moon-level music from “Ducktales?” Heck, someone even wrote a whole book analyzing Koji Kondo’s legendary original “Super Mario Bros.” soundtrack! But for a system that boasts more…

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  • 606–909: The Legendary Roland Drum Machine Series

    606–909: The Legendary Roland Drum Machine Series

    Ah, that classic beat, marching ever onward, familiar as the beat of our own hearts. But the beats we’re so consumed with, the sounds that so commonly drive our daily lives, are not only not the sound of a beating heart (a robot heart, maybe), they’re not organic sounds at all. Yes, yes, whether you like it or…

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  • A Short History of the Nearly Obsolete 1/8 Inch Headphone Jack

    A Short History of the Nearly Obsolete 1/8 Inch Headphone Jack

    Last week, Apple announced the release of the iPhone 7, among other new products and partnerships. The phone features innovative additions such as water resistant technology, dual lens cameras for professional quality photo and video, and sleek new design tweaks to the screen and phone body. Yet you’ve probably heard that something very noticeable will be missing from the new…

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  • 8 Artists Making Brilliant Exploratory Music Using Modular Synths

    8 Artists Making Brilliant Exploratory Music Using Modular Synths

    + Learning about synthesis? Soundfly’s got a definitive new online course called Advanced Synths and Patch Design For Producers! Preview for free and subscribe for access.  My love of synthesis is well documented here on Flypaper. There’s just so much to explore, from digital to analog, computer-based to modular. Today, we’re going to take a look at modular synthesis as…

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Ryan Lott: Designing Sample-Based Instruments