Mike Monday

Inspiration On Demand

The Most Important Question You Will Ever Ask Yourself

‘Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?’

‘That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,’ said the Cat.

‘I don’t much care where’ said Alice.

‘Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,’ said the Cat.

– Lewis Carroll, “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”

If you’re engaging in any activity, in fact if you intend to engage in life at all, the first question to ask yourself is:

“What do I want?”

This might seem obvious, but when I’m coaching music producers it never ceases to amaze me how many of them have never asked this question. Have you?

I’m sure you know what you don’t want. I bet you know what you think you should want. And you’ll know what other people want from you.

But do you know for sure what you want?

Because if you don’t, how will you work out how to get it?

A Free Music Production pdf

This free music production pdf has the most important lessons I’ve learnt from 17 years of writing and producing well over 250 pieces of commercially released electronic music.

And if you like what you’ve been reading on this site, then you’re going to love it. It’s called “7 Steps  Every Music Producer Needs To Take”.

It comes with a series of free training videos and together they’ll reveal the most important steps you must take to make mountains of music, in record time with devastating results.

To get  the “7 Steps Every Music Producer Needs To Take” music production pdf (and the free videos) delivered to your inbox just enter your name and email address on the right…

The World’s Best Espresso (And What It’s Taught Me About Focus)

While on tour in Australia I’ve been staying near a coffee shop in Sydney which sells the best espresso I’ve ever had. And I’ve had a lot.

Apart from a couple of pastries and a few speciality teas all they do is coffee. When you walk past the regularly used roasting machine (called Betsy) which has pride of place in the shopfront window, you just know that this establishment is about one thing – the best possible coffee.

And how does this singular focus impact on their business?

Well, even though I’ve visited at many different times of the day, I’ve waited in a small queue every time for my little pot of black gold. And I’ve been happy to. In fact I’ve become an evangelist for the place, despite the plethora of other coffee shops in the vicinity which offer many more products than “just” coffee.

So what’s this little coffee shop taught me?

Do one thing to the very best of your ability. If you focus on it and nothing else until you can do it no better, they will come.

And they will love you for it.

The Biggest Mistake Music Producers Make With Their Bass End

I’ve been asked how to make fat basses by a lot or people. And I get the impression that they want a step by step guide on what synth or vst plugin to use and how to compress and EQ it.

But that would be misleading.

I’ve used as many methods to produce fat bass sounds as I’ve made tracks. What works in one situation won’t work in another.

So I’m not going to give you a step by step anything.

Instead I want you to focus on something else. If your bass isn’t working as well as you’d like, you’re almost certainly looking in the wrong place for the solution. Instead of obsessing about the bass itself, listen to what’s going on around it.

Find it and forget it

No matter what level you’re at or what gear you’re using you will already have more than enough to make an awesome bass sound.

(Hint – its hard to beat a simple sine wave.)

So play with what you’ve got and when you find a bass sound you like, leave it. You don’t have to love it, it’s not your girlfriend.

Give it room

Now listen to what else is playing.

You might have a kick drum, lo tom or some other bassy noise playing in the same frequency range. At best this will make your bass less effective. At worst it’s going to clash. So what do you do about it?

First off forget about the bass sound. You like it remember?

Twiddling allowed here

Change the kick sound. Take out that tom. Or use EQ to roll off a little bass end from each. Tweak or change whatever might interfere with your bass until it shines through.

I know it’s sometimes hard to let go of that part or sound you really love, but do you want your bass to sound amazing or not?

Make sure that the track still works when that huge fat bass sound (that you’ve lovingly done nothing to) isn’t playing. With enough time you’ll be able to find something that doesn’t interfere with the bass and still do it’s job.

When you’re happy record what you’ve done and check it on different speakers. Then and only then go and tweak your bass sound if it needs it. But I bet it doesn’t.

Learn from the master

If you don’t believe me let’s hear it from all round top banana and undisputed king of bass Justin Martin.

Here’s his awesome remix of my album track “Grace”:

So what do we learn from this badboy?

  • The kick has virtually no low bottom end on it. He makes up for that by either choosing or eq-ing a kick with enough lo-mid thwack (technical term) to do it’s job of keeping your ass wiggling.
  • Even though he uses 3 or 4 different bass-end sounds none of them play together.
  • The bass stuff isn’t constant. He brings it in and out a lot. There’s no bass at all until 1m30secs. This creates contrast and makes the bass so much more powerful when it does hit you in your trousers (pants for my North American friends).

Ok, if you insist…

I said I wasn’t going to give you a step by step anything, but I can tell you really want one.

So here’s my 3 step technique for how to make your bass sound fat:

  1. Find a bass sound you like
  2. Give it room to breath
  3. Done

Are You Scared of Making Mistakes?

No one likes making mistakes. But are you scared of them? Maybe so scared that you’ll deny making one?

Don’t be scared. Because a mistake is your best chance to learn.

Accept responsibility for a mistake. Work out why or how you made it. And you’ll be highly unlikely to make it again. And don’t let your fear of mistakes stop you.

Expect mistakes. Don’t be afraid of them. Learn.

“A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.” – George Bernard Shaw