Akara Etteh

Of course you know me- I'm a fat, middle-aged white guy. Open your eyes, I am everywhere...
That aside, I have roots in Los Angeles, lived in the Bay Area for years and have been in Japan for ten. Thanks for listening, I really appreciate it. I'll be checking you out soon.

Hey Akara - thanks for commenting on our session. We LOVE tlc so we take that as a compliment :)
We're just looking for total creativity - if you want to remix the song, use a vocal sample for your own song, etc etc.
Remixes would be pretty cool from you, as you've been a DJ and have done remixes in the past. Let us know what you think!

XOXO, menya

Thanks Akara. Some of these still need some work but it's not from lack of trying. I would love to have a listen to some of your work. Talk with you soon.

Thanks man!

I did Gumdrop Forest with Edirol actually, but I'm saving up for EWQL, I've heard some demos and it's pretty sick!

I do have a real problem finishing tracks :)
I start out loving them and then I get this new melody/style I want to do and eventually end up with tons of unfinished tracks. Haha.

It's awesome that you get to work with music everyday, it shows, your sound is very professional! I'd love to hear some more stuff, I'll drop my email in a msg.
I'll also check out the session, would love to work on it!

Cheers!

Awesome tracks dude!

Good Luck for the Judges Vote Bro !!! ;-)

Hey man just checked out a lot of your instrumentals and left comments. Great style bro; look forward to collabing sometime your style of beats fits how I rhyme. Not to mention that you stand out well off on your own. If I were to point you in a direction I'd just tell you to rebel against society and it's chains xD Got new tracks posted up and remixed last night btw check it out if you want

thanks for the praise on my remix. good luck to you man - JSTN NYLS

I couldn't think of a good name when i joined here at Indaba so I went with my real. But I like it a little more anonymous.. ;o The name is also a tribute to a anime series I grew up watching, which has acted as a great inspiration and motivation for learning music. So thats about it. ;o

yeh man thats funky a good effort man,i cudnt do it due to files fuckin up on my laptop,ah well there will be more i guess,cant believe how many people entered,were some really good tracks,take it easy AK,mal

yeh man thats funky a good effort man,i cudnt do it due to files fuckin up on my laptop,ah well there will be more i guess,cant believe how many people entered,were some really good tracks,take it easy AK,mal

Hey man, Thanks for the love on our comments like a week and a half ago! just saw it when I was updating our profile! haha!
Ur remix is pretty kick ass! keep it up man!

That would be cool, you have a great voice!
I'm taking a mental note for future use..;)

Thanks a lot man. I'll definitely upload some stuff soon, I just made the account right before I submitted my remix track. I'll let you know when I do, and I'll definitely check out your tunes!

thanx for the comments akara mate!thers sumthin about ur songs thats totally original,gotta say i dont feel some but others are sick ,,that 4 feet under for example is really nice,slow laid back and smooth,good stuff man,mal

Thanks for the encouraging words! In your Vocal House Medley, is that your voice? Nice! Maybe we can work on some harmony together sometime.

Thanx for the comments and great job on your N.A.S.A track!;o

Hey I read some thing on your session where you said “you like to work at max volume”.

You actually should be working at (well I usually go -6db) around -6dbs or -3 at least so that there’s space for all the sounds to go around, otherwise if everything is just loud then it gets mushy and the dynamics are ruined.
That’s part of how to get ur instruments and sounds to stand out and be heard instead of everything just squashing into a muddy song.

after you render the song at -6dbs itll be softer than usual obviously, but itll have some good dynamics happening, and then that's where mastering comes in, so you just master it to be a little louder but trying to keep the dynamics still.
thats what i usually do anyway

Umm and I guess EQing as well… on beyond measure I wanted a pounding yet crispy kick so I lowered some of the low-mid to mid frequencies so the deep bass of the kick could be the ‘pound’ and the high punch could be the ‘crisp’ umm and the bass can slot into the frequencies which I lowered so that it doesn’t override the kick’s ‘deep bass pound’.. if u get what I mean hahah..
and then you can just play around with all the other instruments to fit them into the song... usually cut out most of the bass on the leads and stuff well you probably kno this stuff already but yeah

and on Beyond Measure... i don't want to finish a song just for the sake of finishing it,
like i wana be inspired or whatever and finish it with imagination but i just dont feel it with beyond measure at the moment.. so maybe when i think of something ill finish lol

anyway hope that helped, if you wana kno anythin else just ask :)

HEY thanks for the coments on my songs
umm you left a coment asking "what is your method to get that crisp sound that still hits hard"
on my song Beyond Measure (which i've stopped trying to make btw lol... just couldn't get any more ideas)
umm do you mean the big pounding kicks that are crisp sounding?

Hey Akara: Thanks for the positive comments. I listened to your mixes and they sound pretty fine to me. It's a whole different style, so the one I did was all about the drum track source being crispy clean to start with. The guitar I tracked in was straight through a Digitech RP 250 box using a dirty plexi drive fx with a strat.
But I don't think you are hurtin' too much for advice, you got it down. The only thing I'd say is to focus on what you know should sound better, then mute most of the other stems so you can concentrate on the one you want to fix. Play with EQ, play with compression, play with whatever until that one track sounds like what you hear in your head, then add back in the other stems to find if anything else is stomping on it and give it its own space in the spread so it comes out.
Again, it's a whole different piece than what I played with, but push on it until it feels right to you. Thanks again for listening.

Paul

hey thanks 4 the feedback on ''I NEED 2 KNOW''. BUT, i have no idea what ur talking about. i 'm just learning this engineering craft . lol . learning on the fly. soooooooooo,if u have a free moment , i would appreciate it tremendously if u could explain as if ur talking 2 some 1 who doesnt have a clue. ''LOLOLOL''. which i dont. will b doing voices over , timing is off im rushing the lead vocals. if u get a free min. peace.

thanks for the comment. YEah the kick on volta I purposely designed the kicks and made it hit hard like that. and as for the guitar , nah I don't play but I can whip up some nice sounds from it. the only midi that was quantized where the drums. every thing els was on the fly .

Yes, Akara, everybody in California ONLY have professional pictures on their facebooks and myspaces and indabas and everything else you can think of. But no man, it just so happens that an uncle of mine is a professional photographer. It's all free and what not but I think we have a fair deal going on. He takes pictures of me and I put them up so I can promote his work. Ken Lew is his name, though I don't think you'll be using him any time soon since we're half the world away, yes? haha.

Anyway, dance music. Good good. I've been considering doing some dance tracks myself. As well as getting into more R&B and Hip Hop tracks again.

I'm glad you like Only in Europe. It's one of my newer tracks. I use EWQL (East West Quantum Leap) Symphonic Orchestra. That's a great program in itself but making it sound more realistic takes patience... tweaking with the dynamics and what not. It's tedious work.

I'm glad you can hear that LOTR/Zimmer sound. Zimmer is one of my main influences. Beautiful music. Joe Hisaishi is also good. I'll link you a song at the end of this.

Yeah man, I'd be glad to listen to your songs and help you out. It'd be great if you'd do the same as well. I wouldn't mind some constructive criticism.

I'll send you my email through a message.

Here's that link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcCypY8IUl4

It's by Joe Hisaishi. It's a beautiful piece.

Hey Akara, how is everything going? Why the lack of tracks? I'd like to hear more of your stuff. I hope i can hear some more of your music soon. Let me know alright?

Oh yeah, and I have some new tracks up. The first 4 are the newest. Check em out when you've got the time.

Thank you, I'm always open to any and all collaboration.
best,
Bobak

Hey Akara, thanks man. Really appreciate that. I had a chance to listen to your beats. I like your list of favorite artists. I have the same list but it's missing a few good ones including Mos Def.

Anyway, good luck in voting!

I'm glad you like the Music Instinct theme....thanks for stopping thru...I'm gonna head over to your myspace now and check you out...yea..maybe we will have the opportunity to collab on something...peace..