If there's a track that you love the sound of, and would love to learn how they did it, then spend some time trying to copy exactly what you hear.  Without sampling from the original, program the beats the same and try to work your sound design to match.  You will be amazed what you can learn by doing this. This will work both your sound design and sequencing muscles.  Then, when you go to make something original, you will be much stronger. Check out the below videos.  In the first example, I re-programmed the techno classic "Energy Flash" using my own 909 sounds and really...

I am going to be posting a series of these, beginning today with EQing a bass drum.  I’d love your feedback so I can help you become better mixers.  If you have anything that you’d like some focus on, please comment below or message me.  This EQ technique can be applied to any track. What you are essentially doing is boosting a frequency and sweeping around looking for things that sound bad and need to be attenuated (lowered), or you can be listening for areas that sound good and benefit from boosting.  As you become more experienced, you will learn better start...

  Today I was listening to a reference track of an older mix of a song that I considered finished.  Normally, after a song is mixed, mastered and totally "done", I rarely go back and hear previous versions.  What's the point?  In this case the reference was an MP3, a lower quality than I have been hearing.  I noticed some harshness to the mix and it I thought that maybe that's a result of the MP3 compression.  It occurred to me that a large percentage of our consumers, fans, and friends get their music from us in these lower quality formats through iTunes, email, ...

Hey Indaba Family.  Welcome to a new year.  Like most of you, I have set up some big goals and resolutions for the new year.  Personally I plan on making a beat every day, living healthier, and working on my scratching & piano skills (among other things).  I have 4 beats in the bag already and it feels great.  I started exercising a few weeks ago to get a jump start on the new year and that's going well too.  Maybe I'll have more energy and focus in the studio from this.  I recently joined Q-Bert's Scratch University and I also am checking out the dope vi...

Thanks to my man DJ Pauly Rafelle for designing the cover to the next Vinyl Life single "Like This" which will feature remixes from Indaba members AJ Wells and Do1 R . Check it out:     This will be available worldwide December 15th. Very excited about this! New tutorials coming next week - stay tuned...  

I never promote plugins. But this deserves some attention. This is an inexpensive (10.69 Euros) emulation of an old electronic music studio, pre-synthesizers. Like the Raymond Scott days. Download Berna HERE

I am a long time vinyl collector and DJ.  It is my preferred medium for spinning.  Maybe it's how I grew up doing this.  Maybe I just simply prefer the way it sounds, feels, and the large artwork.  When CDs came along, it definitely lightened the load and also made it possible for us to play remixes and original productions that were never going to make it to wax.  But we all knew that spinning CDs, while convenient, was never as fun as the real thing.  With the recent introduction of Serato and Traktor, we can now control digital files with a vinyl record.  ...

Sorry to repeat myself, but you all did a great job. So great in fact that I needed another day to pick a winner.  I would like to make the following comments: Alex Wells - Dude, you're only 18? This mix is brilliant. My only slight criticism is the vox are too dry during verses. Do1 R - Great job. Its instrumentation reminds me of tracks by Smash Mechanics , Phaze's other project.  The drops are all on point - they make the arrangement interesting.  The vocals did slide a bit toward the end. This track was definitely a finalist for me. Can I get a WAV? I will def spin this when...

Yes, this is a difficult decision.  I will take my time and go thru all of them.  I appreciate everyone who particiapated and all of your hard work.  Stay tuned.  Peace from NYC.    

Have you ever heard about circuit bending?  This hobby/art/way of making very interesting sounds has been around for a while and has gained lots of popularity in recent years.  The web is full of resources on this topic and now there are even some very informative books out there, most notably Circuit-Bending: Build Your Own Alien Instruments by pioneer Reed Ghazala , the man who coined the term.  In short, circuit bending is the modifying of electronic devices in the interest of making sounds that the manufacturer did not intend.  It can be as simple as a wire that connect...