Yo yo! Just letting you know this isn’t an AI website as idk any AI chat that would write like this. Alright cool, let’s get into it.
So, when I first started making house music in 2010, no one making tutorials on YouTube was a touring DJ or releasing on labels. It was a lot of trial and error while digging into blogs and messaging other producers stupid questions like, “how do you make the volume of the synth go up and down like that” without knowing the word “sidechain." To add to the confusion, I had no idea if any of these people giving me advice were actually making good music or if they were in the same spot as me.
Today, we have tons of volume shaping tools and tons of tutorials online helping us quickly learn, along with AI holding our hands. Not only is the information more readily available, the tools we have today are a lot better. And, there’s a lot better people teaching others how to make house music.
Yet even now, we still see our fellow producer friends buying plugins every month thinking that specific plugin is the secret sauce they’ve been missing this whole time. Honestly though, that does happen sometimes and there are some plugins I can’t live without. But out of the 500+ plugins downloaded on my computer, I use maybe 30 of them on a regular basis?
So I’m going to help you not do that. And I’m here to help you understand what’s worth spending money on, and what’s a waste of money. Help you understand the entire process of how to become a touring DJ, learn what your best skills are within that process, lean on those strengths, and improve your weak areas.
My goal is to help simplify this complex process as best as I can, while pulling from my experience and obsession with audio for the past I don’t know how long. Do you count listening to endless hours of music or playing musical instruments growing up as “starting out?” Probably not, but you get the idea. I’m here to help as best as I can. I also want to share my failures and the things I’ve learned throughout my career to help the new generation of producers not make the same mistakes.
I also want you to listen to my music… *clears throat*
Anyways with all of that said, here’s the simplicity of a career making house music. Produce tech house song, make song sound amazing, release said song, do it again, get famous. Super easy right? In the simplest form, yes. But when we break it down *dj scratch* we get into categories like song writing, sound design, recording, mixing, mastering, getting signed, marketing, performing, business management… it’s a lot.
This website definitely won’t be all of that, and there isn’t a school that is amazing at teaching all of this honestly. But there are quite a few schools or websites or mentors or whatever that specialize in certain parts of this process.
My goal is to get you on your feet as a producer. Learn the basics of Ableton, house music, and getting to a level where you can start releasing songs on labels. From there, it’s a LOT easier to figure out the areas you’re weak at, and to find mentors or collaborators that can help you in your weak areas.
So, I want to focus on getting you started from the ground up. Explaining the basics of what to spend your money on at the beginning, the basics of drums, synthesizers, and sound design. We’ll go over song writing, recording, mixing, mastering, and shopping songs to labels and continue to get more detailed in those areas as time goes on.
From there, we can go over DJing as they heavily go hand in hand. The better of a DJ you become, the better producer you become. And the better producer you become, doesn’t always make you a better DJ. Great DJs understand how to move a dance floor and can take those principles into the studio. They understand groove, tension and release, song structure, and why certain types of songs work on the dance floor. You need both skills to make it, but I’m not here to try to overwhelm you, but to keep things simple at the beginning.
I get that I’m no Chris Lake or an artist who is heavily touring, but I’ve been to writing camps and produced for artists who are at that level. I understand how the high end level teams operate, and I’ve seen the process of how to get to that point. I want to help others not make the same mistakes I made in my 20s, and help them understand this industry before diving into it. There’s a lot to learn, and I hope that I can help others achieve their dreams, while I continue to pursue mine.