Effective music production can be a challenge. This is where The Music Producer’s Guide comes in.
Each book is designed to demystify a music production concept, bringing professional results to your tracks.

In The Music Producer’s Guide to Compression, you will learn:

⦁ The history of dynamic range compression.
⦁ How the functions of compressors work to bring out the best in your music.
⦁ How to harness the power of different types of compression in your work.
⦁ Advanced compression techniques used by the professionals.
⦁ How to use OTT or Multiband Dynamics to bring your music to the very cutting edge.

Arming you with both theory and practice, The Music Producer’s Guide to Compression will transform your production sessions, as well as arming you with the vital and often overlooked theoretical knowledge to continue honing your skills.

USA: https://www.amazon.com/Music-Producers-Guide-Compression/dp/1999600371

UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Music-Producers-Guide-Compression/dp/1999600371/

In my time as a music producer, there is one skill that surpasses all others in terms of its use to accelerate your development as a musician. If you’re an experienced music producer, you may do it already – however, if you’re just getting started, then this, in my opinion, is the most important skill you could acquire as a music producer. It’s called active listening.

We all listen to music, often while doing work, sitting on the train or cooking food. However, this music often simply provides a background noise to the activity we’re doing. I would call this passive listening.

Active listening, on the other hand, is a different beast. To actively listen is to listen to music and hear nothing but the music, concentrating on nothing but the music you’re listening to, dissecting and reverse-engineering every layer of the music you’re hearing in order to unlock its secrets.

It’s a skill that, once practiced, will stay with you forever as a producer. It also goes hand-in-hand with your journey of development as a music producer, in that as you gain experience in music production techniques, you will better spot the techniques that other producers have used.

It is also a skill that becomes easier with practice – it might feel difficult the first time you do it, but with enough attempts you will find yourself applying elements of active listening every time you hear music.

Active listening is an essential skill for any music producer. I’m sure you’ve heard basslines in music that you’d define as “deep”, “heavy” or “dirty” – active listening will enable you to precisely identify the attributes of these and recreate them in the studio.

This article will conclude with an exercise – an active listening exercise! Even if you’re used to actively listening, you should undertake this exercise, as it’s always good to refresh your skills in this area.

Exercises – Practice

• Find a song you want to actively listen to. This could be your favourite song, or one you admire for its sound.
• Sit comfortably, wearing good-quality headphones or using studio monitors.
• Eliminate all distractions around you. Turn off your computer monitor, turn your phone over – turn your lights off and close your eyes if possible.
• Find the best-quality sound source you can – be it vinyl, CD or FLAC/WAV file.
• Play the song. Instead of enjoying it for what it is, listen to it as a set of different layers. Break them down – listen to each instrument at a time. Are you aware of all the instrument layers in the track? You may discover layers you were previously unaware were of in the track!
• Play the song again. Does the song change its narrative tone at any point? If so, how is this accomplished?
• What texture does the song have? Does the texture change at any point in the track?

This article is an excerpt from How To Program Any Synthesizer by Ashley Hewitt – available from Amazon UK here and US here.

In the late 1970s, Chicago and New York’s Black & Latino gay community’s sound was defined by Disco. Danceable, emotional and DJ-led, it was a cultural movement all in of itself. It symbolised a hedonistic escape from emotional pain and dancing the night away. A mix of funk, soul, latin and psychedelic all merged into a repetitive, syncopated, four-to-the-floor sound. It was catchy, infectious and downright attention-grabbing. As Disco took root in underground gay club culture, it exploded into the mainstream of pop music, eclipsing all other sounds.

Inevitably, Disco’s mainstream dominance made it a target. Not only did many people feel disenfranchised by Disco’s seeming glamour, but a distinct lack of choice in commercial radio stations made Disco very difficult to get away from. A rebellion against Disco was inevitable, and this rebellion played out in a number of quite vociferous cultural attacks.

A prevalent slogan that took hold at the time was “Disco Sucks” – which more than just a direct statement of dislike – it was often used as a homophobic slur aimed at Disco’s proponents, and the people who Disco represented. This culminated in Disco Demolition Night, when 50,000 people gathered in Comiskey Park in 1979 to watch a crate of Disco records be blown up by Rock DJ Steve Dahl.

Dahl was invited to a two-night doubleheader baseball game between the Chicago White Sox and the Detroit Tigers to serve as a fun form of entertainment between the games. In the event that was scheduled, Steve organized his most magnificent destruction of Disco records ever—Disco Demolition Night. The fans attending this game were told they would be admitted to the ground for the price of 98 cents and one Disco record. These records were then placed into a big crate by ushers at the ground. Between the games, the Disco records would be carted into the middle of the field and they’d be detonated safely at the command of the famous radio star.  The season had been lacklustre and the baseball teams hoped that 20,000 people would turn up, about five thousand more than normal. They were hopeful that the stunt would bring in four or five thousand, but nobody fully anticipated the amount of rage people had towards Disco.

When the gates opened to Comiskey Park, people began to pour in. At first, the teams were delighted to have the new fans. Within moments, the entire stadium was sold out. Still more people packed in by bringing Disco records as a form of payment to add to the pile. When that was stopped, others climbed the walls of the stadium or snuck in somehow. They were there to watch records get destroyed, and nobody was going to stop them. By the time that the game was underway, there were more than 50,000 people in the stadium—what’s more, the stadium wasn’t built for that. People were packed in and getting raving drunk. They were there to see not a baseball game, but a savage destruction of Disco records.

They got their fill.

Though the event started off well, the closer that they got to the detonation, the more hectic the environment became and the less control that the authorities had over the increasingly inebriated crowd. Things were getting out of control, fast. Nobody had bargained for such a rousing turnout by any means whatsoever.

Finally, the event began. A small number of people gathered in the field, mostly Steve and reporters. Explosions rocketed the field, sending shattered records flying into the air. That was all preplanned. Nobody was concerned at that point. People grew concerned when the stands lost control. People started to pour out of the stands and into the field itself. Some lobbed Disco records from the stands like frisbees. White Sox player Steve Trout recalled: “I walked out to look at centre field, and and I heard something go by me. It was an album from the upper deck and landed next to my right foot. I said ‘Holy shit, I could have been killed by The Village People”.

The authorities tried to control the masses to little success. They’d lost control. Thousands of fans stormed the field, only forced off when riot police showed up and made them evacuate and disperse. The scene marked what some historians mark as the end of the height of Disco. Though Disco held on off and on for years to come, Disco Demolition Night crippled it.

The reasons for the anti-Disco movement are myriad, and it would be unfair to suggest that racism and homophobia were the sole drivers behind it. Mainstream Disco had begun to become asinine, commercial and artificial, and music lovers without a shred of prejudice were beginning to despise it. To quote Dahl himself: “I’m worn out from defending myself as a racist homophobe for fronting Disco Demolition at Comiskey Park. This event was just a moment in time. Not racist, not anti-gay… It is important for me to have this viewed in the 1979 lens… That evening was a declaration of independence from the tyranny of sophistication.”

 Regardless, it must have been difficult to be a member of the Chicago gay community at the time – to find your culture briefly gaining acceptance in mainstream society, only for 50,000 people to blow it up in a stadium.

Disco Demolition Night was symbolic of a movement and a people being pushed back underground, whereupon DJs such as Frankie Knuckles and Larry Levan began pushing the envelope, mixing glamorous, bright Disco records with the altogether darker, pulsing electronic music sound coming from Europe, including New Wave and EBM. In addition, synthesizers and drum machines were cheap – Roland’s 303, 707, 808 and 909 could often be found for very little cost in second-hand shops due to their lack of commercial appeal. This hotbed of creativity and mix of styles culminated in the creation of House music – a music that had its roots in Chicago’s gay scene.

Inspired by the fantastic Korg Volca Bass, I’ve created a book of blank patch sheets to retain your patches for future use.

Buy it in the UK here and in the US here.