Mastering for Electronic Music

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Tag: workflow

  • Simplifying Studio Setup

    This week I decided to take on a project that I had been putting off for some time. I completely rearranged the analog side of my production setup. In the process I ended up downsizing the setup and making changes to my workflows.

    I already produced the first track with this new setup. I documented that process in two videos for the Patreon crew. 

    They are available to watch via these links: 

    Making of “True Reverie” – Part 1

    Making of “True Reverie” – Part 2

    Very happy with how it’s sounding!

    I thought I’d share a few words about how my outboard setup is looking like now and what benefits I’m seeing from this change.

    I removed my 32 channel Midas Venice 320 console from the setup and went for a smaller, 16 channel Soundcraft 200SR which I had not been using for a while due to its smaller channel count and lack of direct outs.

    While not as versatile, the Soundcraft offers me a more focused workflow. There’s a lot to be said about that in the world of endless possibilities that we live & work in now.

    The SR200 is about 40 years old (late 70’s/early 80’s). It sounds smooth and open. It has a wonderful broad 4 band tone shaping EQ and 4 AUX sends on each channel. It’s in great condition. It feels like new and is a joy to use. It’s obviously been well cared for, but it’s clearly also built to last. 

    I removed more than 10 pieces of gear from my setup, streamlining everything and making it much easier to keep track of things.

    The Soundcraft hosts all my remaining equipment. It also has 3 stereo pairs dedicated for DAW summing (corresponding to the 3 mix groups I normally use in my projects).

    Besides the Prism Sound Titan audio interface, my outboard music production setup now consists of only three instruments and four effects.

    • AKAI Force, which works as a sampler & MIDI sequencer as well as the MIDI hub between the DAW and the outboard. Via a group in the mixing console I can easily send anything into the inputs of the Force for sampling.
    • Elektron Analog Rytm, which I love using for drums but also as a bass synth and for experimenting with samples.
    • Korg Opsix, which has nice hands on controls for playing live with FM and other types of synthesis. I can use the Force or Analog Rytm to sequence it, or sequence from the DAW. The Opsix also doubles as the MIDI keyboard in my setup (update July 2023 – since buying the OPx-4 synth for my Akai Force, I am now selling the Opsix as well).

    Additionally I have four vintage digital effects hooked up on the AUX channels of the  mixer:

    • Two Alesis Midiverb 3’s chained in series. These can create a variety of interesting time based effects and it often produces some very unpredictable but awesome results. These can also be driven into distortion and I do it a lot.
    • An Alesis Microverb 3 which I mainly use for delay and gated reverbs. Due to its single function knob interface it’s super quick to work with and find a sound that works without looking.
    • A Yamaha R1000 reverb from 1983. I actually use this more as a distortion box, just running signal through it dry very hot – sometimes spicing that with a little bit of that grungy reverb. Sounds great.

    That is everything.

    I now have less things to maintain and much fewer cables to deal with making it easy to keep things clean. The ergonomics are also a lot better as everything is within easy reach.

    Additionally, the acoustics have improved because I can stay in the sweet spot more when working and there’s less surface area near the listening position causing reflections.

    Of course, making these changes also meant that I had to make some tough choices about what workflows to exclude. But I’ve learned that pushing myself into the corner and setting some limits is usually a good thing for creativity.

    Overall it’s a much better music making and recording experience for me now. It’s a good feeling to have less to maintain and more space to work in. Plus I have thousands of EUR worth of unused gear to sell now! 

    What could you do to simplify your setup?

  • Simple Tools

    When working on music, I often prefer using simple tools. Things that are focused on doing one thing really well.

    This is something I’ve only started to learn and understand better in the past couple of years.

    These days we have a lot of magnificently complex tools. Tools that sounds great and offer endless options and possibilities. They often look very attractive on the surface. Because with all those features they will do so much more for us, right?

    Tools like that are usually not my first choice when making music.

    Why?

    First, because I am easily distracted. Using simple tools helps me stay on track and focus on the task at hand.

    Second, complex tools tend to take more time to handle and manage. If I’m using a lot of tools like that, it adds up.

    I design and develop my music making process with intention — asking myself questions like: What kind of workflow are my choices contributing towards? Am I making things easier or harder? Am I building momentum and consistency?

    I don’t think everything can or should be dumbed down. It’s about choosing the methods and tools that are right for each moment.

    I often draw for more complex tools for things like problem solving or mastering.

    But option overload is real. It’s clearly one of the biggest problems of our time.

    When making music I want to tap into the flow state. That allows me to move forward fast. Maintaining the momentum is very important.

    The more I can simplify my process, the better it gets.

  • Remembering to Listen

    What’s the difference between making good or bad mixing decisions?

    For many, it’s the difference between looking and listening.

    As modern music makers, we are constantly being lured into a world that shouldn’t be our priority.

    We’re visual creatures by nature. It’s instinctive to judge the world based on what we see. This poses a challenge in music making, which has become increasingly visual over the years. Focusing on looking makes it harder to listen.

    There’s only a certain capacity in our brain to process sensory information. If a large part of that capacity is used up processing visual inputs, there’s less available for processing what we hear.

    I’m not a brain scientist, but the assumption is easy to validate. Close your eyes and listen without looking. It instantly becomes easier to notice things, right?

    The modern music making environment has its perks — and its downfalls. It’s a blessing and a curse. I’m not here to turn back time, though.

    But is there something we could do to help us listen better? I can think of a few things.

    1. Focus on listening by using tools that offer less visual cues, like interactive EQ curves and spectrum graphs.

    2. Invest in tools with great UI design — they’ll guide you and get you the info you need quickly. Result: Less time spent looking, more listening.

    3. Use more outboard equipment and instruments. Get away from the computer screen — even for a bit — it always helps.

    4. Use controllers that enable you to work without looking so much. Even if it slows down your workflow, it buys you time to listen better and make smarter decisions.

    5. Use visual metering tools to help confirm what you are hearing or spot potential problems — but don’t rely on them exclusively.

    6. Take moments to listen without looking at the DAW. Close your eyes or just look elsewhere. Take a pause and listen to it in another room/outside/on your phone speaker, etc

    Remembering to listen properly when everyone else is focused on looking can be your competitive advantage!

  • Making Good Buying Decisions


    A lot of audio plugin companies base their business around big discount campaigns. You can get things for really cheap sometimes but before you go on a buying rampage, I wanted to share with you how I make buying decisions when it comes to plugins and audio tools.

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  • My Best Practice Backup Strategy for Small Business

    Updated: 2022-03-17

    Click, click, click… Ever experienced the panic when your hard drive starts making that sound? I have. And of course I didn’t have a proper backup strategy in place.

    For a long time I had trouble keeping up with making backups. Finally I figured out the solution: I needed to automate it.

    It’s been 8 years now since that day. Things have worked out really well since I decided to implement a proper backup strategy for my small business.

    Data Backup Strategy – The Risks

    Beyond the day to day aspects of running a small business, my entire life’s work sits on my hard drives. It would be terrible to lose that.

    There are several types of risks I wanted to protect my data against.

    Hard drive failure

    I’ve had several hard drives fail in the past. It’s crucial to understand that all mechanical drives will fail at some point. It’s only a question of when. Even brand new drives as well as SSD ones can fail.

    Ransomware attack / hacking

    Even though I think I’m pretty well aware and protected against such things, it makes sense to prepare against ransomware, malware and hacking.

    I will mention here that as part of my ransomware backup strategy, I’m also using Nord VPN which hides my traffic and provides protection against threats.

    Physical disasters

    These would include things like fires, power surges and flooding. I’m doing what I reasonably can to prevent these things, but again – you never know.

    Theft

    Unfortunately, computers are prime targets for theft and burglaries. While I am taking measures to not become an easy target, you can never rule out the possibility of crime.

    Requirements

    Besides covering the risks mentioned above, there are three main requirements I wanted my backup strategy to meet.

    1. Fully automatic backups

    In the past I’ve dealt with backups manually. Eventually I realised it’s busywork that I could easily automate.

    Not only that. An automated backup process is far superior in frequency and consistency.

    Everything backup related needs to be automated and require little to no maintenance. It relieves me from having to remember to do it manually. One less thing to worry about.

    2. Off-site backup copy

    The only way to cover for physical disasters or theft is to have a second backup off-site. This is where cloud backup comes in.

    3. Version history

    What if I accidentally deleted something? My automated backup system would mirror that change.

    Or maybe at some point I want to return to an earlier version of a project or a file?

    I needed a solution that incorporates version history.

    The 3-2-1 Backup Strategy

    I decided to implement the 3-2-1 backup strategy. Many think it’s the best backup strategy for small business and personal use alike, because it’s straightforward and affordable but still covers a lot of ground.

    The idea is to have three copies of your data:

    1. The primary data (your computer and drives)
    2. A local backup (stored on a separate device to your primary copy)
    3. An off-site backup

    The 3-2-1 method is a best practice backup strategy that is widely recommended. It’s not perfect, but it gets you a long way with a very modest investment. It’s a good option for small business backup strategy.

    I ended up with a data backup strategy that consists of two components:

    1. A cloud backup with version history of my computer and all external drives. For this I chose Backblaze.
    2. A bootable clone of my system drive. I went with Get Backup Pro for this.

    1. Cloud backup with version history

    I researched lots of different options for cloud backup. I ended up choosing Backblaze. Their service is one of the cheapest but still has great features for a cloud backup strategy.

    Backup strategy - Backblaze
    Backblaze is super straightforward to use.

    Backblaze features in a nutshell:

    • Unlimited storage space and bandwidth. You can back up your computer and all your external drives without worrying about limits or extra costs.
    • 30 days version history by default, extendable to 1 year or forever.
    • Fully automatic. You can set up scheduling as well, but I prefer to have it continuously update changed files into the cloud.
    • Free and easy file recovery.
    • Affordable.

    If you need a more advanced solution, there’s Backblaze Business. With it you can do Veeam, NAS, server and computer backups with centrally managed admin and extended version history.

    I have now been using Backblaze for 8 years without any issues. It gives me great peace of mind. I don’t have to think about it at all – it just works and my backups are always up to date.

    You can read my full article about Backblaze here.

    2. A bootable clone backup

    I always have projects to work on and deadlines to meet. I don’t want to risk any downtime.

    A bootable clone backup ensures that if my main drive fails, I can simply boot up from the clone and continue working.

    I decided to use the Get Backup Pro software to create a clone of my main drive. Get Backup Pro comes with the Setapp software bundle which I’m already using for all kinds of tasks in my small business (check it out, it’s pretty great). If you wanted to buy it separately, it’s $19.99.

    Backup strategy - Get Backup Pro
    Get Backup Pro interface. You can set up many different types of backup tasks.

    The initial creation of the clone takes some time. After that, the daily backing up happens quickly. Get Backup Pro uses incremental backups (it only updates what has changed).

    Your data backup strategy?

    I’m quite happy with this backup solution. It protects me against ransomware, physical disasters, theft as well as my own mistakes.

    The combination of Backblaze and Get Backup Pro is very cost effective (not to mention I get the 200+ other apps that come with Get Backup Pro in Setapp).

    For additional security, I’m using Nord VPN to hide my traffic and threat protection.

    You don’t have to adapt this strategy as it is. Whether you’re just looking for a cloud backup strategy or a comprehensive backup strategy for a small business, you can consider these elements as a part of your solution.

    How are you dealing with backups?  Any tips, ideas or further thoughts? Let me know in the comments.

  • What Sample Rate and Bit Depth Should I Use?

    I often get questions about what is the best sample rate and bit depth to use. So let me break it down in a simple way.

    This article is updated in October 2021.

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