Music Production / Composition / Audio Engineering

Gear

Fixing ground loop hum in the studio

Have you ever heard that annoying buzz coming out of your speakers? I certainly have been listening to that same

Melvin Rijlaarsdam 24 augustus 2019

Music Production

How to remake a track

Have you ever wondered how that one track you absolutely love was made? A producer won’t give away his secrets

Melvin Rijlaarsdam 19 juli 2019

Music Production

Create your own kickdrum

Making the perfect kickdrum always seemed like an impossible task to me. How do professional producers create kicks that sound

Melvin Rijlaarsdam 13 juli 2019

Music Production

Top 18 Music Production Blogs

Since I learned a lot from music production blogs, I decided to make a short list of music production blogs that produce good quality content. […]

Melvin Rijlaarsdam 30 november 2018

Songwriting

Everybody listens to different kinds of music. Just like some people love to eat sushi when others can’t stand it, there are people who love your music when others hate it. Giving feedback to other people’s music can quickly escalate into an argument about why that kind of music fights with your own musical taste. There is an art in giving feedback as much as there is an art in creating the music itself. […]

Melvin Rijlaarsdam 22 november 2018

Computer

Backup Your Backup

It has been stated millions of times before but I will say it again. Backup the backup of your backup. If a digital file isn’t backed up 3 times, it doesn’t exist! A hard disk doesn’t care if you have important files to deliver to your client this afternoon. A hard disk will crash eventually and all your work is gone. […]

Melvin Rijlaarsdam 15 november 2018

Uploading a DJ Mix to Youtube

After Google, YouTube is the most used search engine in the entire world. If you have music laying around that you love, it makes sense to share it online with billions of people. Uploading content of which you own all the rights is never a problem. When you want to share your fresh DJ mix online, though, it becomes a bit more difficult. […]

Melvin Rijlaarsdam 8 november 2018

Music Production

10 Deep House Songs Analyzed by Structure

Recently I started getting into deep house music. I’ve always liked deep house music, especially the more melodic kind. A problem I ran into with my own music, however, is that I began with great sounds and melodic ideas, but I didn’t know how to finish the track. It was time for me to study a bunch of tracks in terms of structure. […]

Melvin Rijlaarsdam 1 november 2018

Music Production

Finding Your Own Sound

A lot of artists have a certain sound. Something which differentiates them from the rest. Having your own unique sound doesn’t mean you need to work in only one genre. Your own unique sound will shine through anything you do. It is in your blood, your experience, personal interests, and your view of this world. […]

Melvin Rijlaarsdam 18 oktober 2018

Mixing

Why do I need a mix template

Almost all of the great mix engineers in this world use a mix template. I wanted to make one myself for a long time but I couldn’t get my head around it at first. If you are just starting out with mixing music, the thought of creating a go-to mix template can be daunting. […]

Melvin Rijlaarsdam 11 oktober 2018

Songwriting

Get started writing songs on guitar

You have been playing guitar for a while now and wonder how your favorite artists come up with all these wonderful tunes. After fiddling around with licks, scales, and chords you start to feel the urge to start writing songs yourself. Writing songs on guitar isn’t all that hard, you probably already have the skills to get started. […]

Melvin Rijlaarsdam 4 oktober 2018

Music Production

Keeping Your Listeners Interested

The last couple of weeks I took a closer look at electronic music, specifically house music. While house music has numerous sub-genres, all longer forms of house music ranging from 4 to 9 minutes, actually have a way of keeping the listeners interested. […]

Melvin Rijlaarsdam 27 september 2018

Mixing

Stock Plugins or Third Party Plugins

Each DAW is bundled with a huge amount of different audio processing plugins. With all these plugins at hand, why are people still buying third-party plugins? Don’t they have enough tools to play around with already? […]

Melvin Rijlaarsdam 20 september 2018

Computer

How much RAM for music production?

A returning question I see on various music production groups every week is: ‘How much RAM do I need for music production?’. There is nothing wrong with this question, the problem is the answer that is given. […]

Melvin Rijlaarsdam 13 september 2018

Beginner

Electronic Music Production for Beginners

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to produce electronic music that could unite people from all across the globe? Music that touches people, makes them dance and forget all the struggles that life throws at them? Well, why not try it for yourself? […]

Melvin Rijlaarsdam 6 september 2018

Music Production

One Synth One Song

The holiday season is a period of two months where I have the time to learn new things. It is also a period where I wrap up all the tasks left on my to-do list. Updating software and setting up automated backup solutions are two examples. […]

Melvin Rijlaarsdam 5 juli 2018

Music Production

Procrastinating Decisions

It is never wise to procrastinate decisions. This applies not only to writing new songs but also during recording, production and even mixing. A well-known phrase is: ‘we will fix it in the mix’. Shifting a decision to another moment may not seem disastrous. But often when mixing, problems come to light that actually had to be solved during the recording session. […]

Melvin Rijlaarsdam 21 juni 2018

Music Production

The electronic music producer

In previous articles, I talked about coaching music producers and producer/engineers. Today I want to talk about the electronic music producer. […]

Melvin Rijlaarsdam 14 juni 2018

Gear

The benefits of hardware synthesizers

Back in the day when computers were nothing more than glorified calculators. Which they still are today, by the way, only a bit more powerful. Music producer and musicians had to use hardware devices to create sounds. I am talking about hardware synthesizers, samplers and effect units. […]

Melvin Rijlaarsdam 7 juni 2018

Recording

Recording with outboard gear

You might think it would be a waste of time and money to invest in outboard gear while we have access to an unlimited amount of powerful software plugins. The differences between plugins and hardware are getting smaller. But there are more practical uses of outboard gear that I want to talk about in this article. […]

Melvin Rijlaarsdam 31 mei 2018