Music Production Podcast

This podcast was inspired by a student question. He asked "How do I get inspired to make music?" It's a great question, but I think it contains some underlying beliefs that need to be addressed. In this episode I encourage you to hunt for inspiration. To make yourself inspired. If you wait for inspiration, you'll never get anything done. Listen on iTunes or Stitcher or Google Play Show Notes: The AfroDJMac Music Production Club - Get new production tools in your inbox every month. The War of Art - Steven Pressfield's life changing book on making great art. DiViNCi - Some powerful lessons on creativity and productivity from DiViNCi's talk on the Music Production Podcast. No Such Thing As Writer's Block - I meant to mention this in the episode but forgot :( Great take on a common excuse!

Emilio Guarino is a bassist, music producer, and author of Make It: A Guide For Recent Music Graduates. His music ranges from orchestral to jazz and electronic. In his book, Make It, Emilio picks up where music school left off and offers practical tactics and insights one can use to begin a career as a musician. It was really nice talking to Emilio about his experiences in the academic music world and how he has managed to bridge that world with the day to day life of a working musician. In this conversation, we talked about what it means to "make it," and the practices and philosophies one must embrace to find success in music. Listen on iTunes or Stitcher or Google Play Show Notes: Official Website - The hub for Emilio's work. Make It - This book is not only covers the philosophical and practical path to finding success as a musician, but it just as easily serves as a metaphor for any creative endeavor. Chromatic Endpin - An angled endpin Emilio designed for upright bassists. Instagram - Follow Emilio visually. You've Never Hear Miles Davis' "Bitches Brew" - An NPR review of the classic album. Akimbo - Seth Godin's new podcast.   Visit the Music Production Podcast webpage! If you enjoy the show, please leave a review!

Ethan Hein teaches music technology NYU and Montclair State University. His blog covers all kinds of related topics on music theory and technology. Ethan's work is a must for anyone looking to go deep into studying music and the culture surrounding it. Ethan and I had a great conversation about creating music, overcoming obstacles, and finding meaning in one's work. I really enjoy how Ethan is able to tie together concepts and illuminate new ways of understanding what music means and how it impacts us and reflects the state of our world.  Listen on iTunes or Stitcher or Google Play Show Notes: Ethan Hein Blog- Tons of great writings on all things making music. NYC Ableton Live User Group- Full video of an advanced user group meeting, featuring Ethan Hein, Ben Casey, Thomas Piper, and AfroDJMac. Disquiet- The work of Mark Weindenbaum, where you can find the weekly Junto Project Ethan spoke about. 33 1/3- A series of books about albums. Music Technology Syllabus- Ethan's syllabus for his Music Tech course at New York University.

John Holt runs The Audio Journey, which teaches music production, especially for beginners. Though he covers some of the most basic concepts in entering music production, he also covers some more complex ideas and problems most producers face when it comes to advancing and finishing tracks. It's pretty obvious that John and I read a lot of the same books, listen to the same podcasts, and subscribe to a lot of the same philosophies. There's a lot of "yes! I love that book too!" moments. The result is a pretty extensive set of show notes to go along with this episode. We had a really nice conversation exploring some of the common problems producers of all levels face, and shared our different solutions with each other.  Listen on iTunes or Stitcher or Google Play Show Notes: The Audio Journey The Audio Journey YouTube Channel The Audio Journey Instagram The Audio Journey Facebook The Audio Journey Twitter Gary Vaynerchuk - for regular and swift motivational kicks in the @$$. Keith Mills - Ableton Certified Trainer and founder of Quantize Courses. Growth vs. Fixed Mindset - a great article about Carol Dweck's work on Brain Pickings. Impact Theory - Videos on unlocking human potential. Calm - an app for meditation. 10% Happier - Meditation without the "woo-woo" by Dan Harris. Man's Search for Meaning - a powerful work by Viktor Frankl Ryan Holiday - Author of The Obstacle is the Way and Ego is the Enemy. Tim Ferriss - Author of the Four Hour Work Week and host of the Tim Ferriss Show Stop Trying to Make Money Online - "The first step in making money online is to stop trying to make money online."

Tom Frampton is a producer, mixing and mastering engineer, author, and plugin designer. Never Get Stuck Again is his new book that gives producers a road map of the production process and practical and technical tips and techniques to navigate that map. His website Mastering the Mix, has great production tips and is where he offers his extremely helpful plugins.  Tom and I had a great conversation about problems in the production process and how to overcome them, as well as his own plugins and book. Lots of great insights in here! Tom is graciously offering listeners of this podcast a free 15-day trial of all of his plugins, plus a free chapter of Never Get Stuck Again. Click here to get it! Listen on iTunes or Stitcher or Google Play Show Notes: Mastering the Mix - Tom's web page, featuring a helpful blog, his book, and some great plugins. Levels - A plugin that is taking track analysis to the next level! Expose - A plugin that will show potential problems within your mix. Reference - A plugin that allows you to compare you track to other tracks, and highlight the differences between yours and the reference. Never Get Stuck Again - Tom's new book, packed with practical and technical help to finish music. Decoding the Mix - Tom analyzes the top streaming song of 2017 19 Time Savers -  A great list of ways to save time and energy in the studio.  Special Offer - Get a free trial of all three of Tom's plugins, plus a free chapter of Never Get Stuck Again.

It has been one year since this podcast began. Happy Birthday, Music Production Podcast! In this episode, we discuss where we would be in a year if we started something new today. Whether it is a couple of small steps or something dramatic, add it up over the course of 365 days and the effects will likely be huge. We also talk about building the habit of always doing your best. It applies to life and to music making. Thanks for listening and inspiring me to keep making episodes! Listen on iTunes or Stitcher or Google Play Show Notes: AfroDJMac Music Production Club - a new download every month to help you make music. 12 Rules for Life by Jordan Peterson - lots of great, practical life advice, that applies to making music.

Rozalind MacPhail is a flutist and producer who blends effected flute, electronics, voice, omnichord and silent film. MacPhail creates music for film and live performance and has released several albums of original work. She explores new ways to combine image and sound, in works that speak honestly of place, person and the human experience. Rozalind recently took home an East Coast Music Award for Electronic Recording of the Year and MusicNL’s Female Artist of the Year. MacPhail is sponsored by Gemeinhardt Musical Instruments I had a great conversation with Rozalind about her work as a flutist and electronic musician. We discussed everything from the technology, philosophy, and technical approach Rozalind uses in her music. Show Notes: Official Website: The hub for Rozalind's work. Bandcamp - Rozalind's releases. SoundCloud - More of Rozalind's music. YouTube - See some of Rozalind's Audio/Visual work. Facebook Twitter Instagram Gemeinhardt Flutes The RPM Challenge - Make an album during February. Robert Dick - World Renowned Flutist The Surrender Experiment by Michael Singer "The Invitation" by Oriah Mountain Dreamer

Eshan Khadaroo is a professional session drummer, producer, and educator. He producers tutorials and online music production courses on his site Push4Life. By applying his deep understanding of drumming, Eshan offers musicians and producers a unique approach to finger drumming and electronic music production. My conversation with Eshan ranged from all kinds of interesting topics. We explored his background and the wisdom he gained touring with Cirque du Soleil and a variety of touring bands. Many philosophical topics that apply to making music and beyond came up. It was a diverse and stimulating conversation that I think will provide us all with a deeper understanding of the pursuit of creative endeavors. Show Notes: Listen on iTunes or Stitcher or Google Play Special Offers! Expires March 8, 2018! Eshan is generously offering a 20% discount to listeners of the Music Production Podcast on two of his course: Ableton Push 2 Composition Course and Finger Drumming Bootcamp Just use the code: AFRO at checkout. About Eshan - Eshan assembled a nice YouTube playlist about his work Push4Life - Stay up to date with Eshan's work Instagram - Eshan's Instagram photos Facebook - Connect with Eshan on FB YouTube - a wealth of tutorials and videos by Eshan Music Sound and Silence - Eshan's new podcast Session Drumming - Eshan's work as a session drummer Melodics Course - Check out Eshan's finger drumming course on Melodics Agile Software Development Scrum    

Let's continue our #FinishFebruary2018 work! In today's episode, we talk about a couple of techniques we can use to move forward with our tracks. I'd still characterize these steps as the planning phase, but I think taking these extra steps will focus our work in the future, which will ultimately save us time. It's very easy to get lost in making music without any direction; these two steps will help focus our work.  Listen on iTunes or Stitcher or Google Play Support the Podcast on Patreon Show Notes: Warp 10 - A full and free video course on all of the updates in Ableton Live 10. Google Spreadsheet: Use this spreadsheet to categorize your jams and organize your thoughts on each one. My Spreadsheet - Here's what I did with my spreadsheet. I still want to add a few tracks from the previous year that will fit in with some of the jams from #Jamuary2018. My Jamuary 2018 Tracks - YouTube playlist of all 31 jams. Making Music - A guide to beginning, progressing, and finishing tracks, by Dennis DeSantis. About 1/3 of the book is available here for free. Freytag's Pyramid - Plot diagram.

Laura Escudé is a producer, performer, and live show designer. She performs electronic music as Alluxe, creating music that borrows from the classical and modern world. Her company, Electronic Creatives, is the brains behind some of music's largest live performance acts. Clients include, Kanye West, The Weeknd, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Herbie Hancock. She recently just ran a successive retreat for live musical performance and physical wellness. After her trip to the Grammys supervising Logic's performance, Laura sat down to have conversation about live performance, touring, and taking the time to take care of yourself.  Listen on iTunes or Stitcher or Google Play Support the Podcast on Patreon Show Notes: LauraEscude.com: Laura's official website. Alluxe: Laura's music Electronic Creatives: Laura's company, providing state of the art music performance services. Alluxe on Spotify Transmute Retreat: Music performance and wellness retreat.