DAVE SPOON'S PRODUCTION TIPS
Posted on Fri 26 August 2011 in entries
Remixer, producer and house supremo Dave Spoon lets us in on some of his top production tips…
STUDIO SECRETS
Hi, I’m Dave Spoon, general music nerd, producer for Wretch32, remixer of Madonna, Dizzee Rascal and others, and cultivator of a few of my own house hits, both solo and with Pete Tong no less. Enough showing off though, that’s not important right now. You’re reading this as I get ready to share some of my innermost studio secrets… the kind of stuff I get asked all the time that I genuinely don’t mind sharing. It might be a bass drum trick, hardware wiring or dealing with remix parts. Actually it will be all those things and more to assist you or at least give an insight into how I make my noises.
Whatever it is you personally do, always take everything in, from these kind of tips to the next weird geeky TV documentary on how an 80's album was made. I always take everything in whether I use it or not, so always be open-minded and collect ideas and advice, whatever your ‘thing’ may be.
BASS DRUMS
Some are tight, others subby or loose, but I genuinely find layering two samples together is the best way to get more control. As you can see in the screengrab below, I use the tight, super-short snappiness from a kick sample to give me my attack, and the sub of an 808 (or similar sound) to provide the weight.
If you then trigger both at the same time, you’ll be able to tune the subbiness to match the key of your track while leaving the attack unaffected and exactly how you want it! You can also adjust the release of the subby kick to get that how you need it too. Boom!
REMIXING
It’s easy to get carried away when you receive a folder full of stems (parts) from whoever you’re remixing. You can often recreate the arrangement and see what they did, which is good to learn but it can be time-consuming.
As soon as you’ve learnt the tempo of the original track, use your favourite smooth warping tool to get the parts into your new tempo. Re-export all the stems at a few BPMs above and below your choice tempo so that you have options to change mid-way through if needed. Just use what you think you need to start; the other stems will be at hand if you need them but the more space you have to work your own sound into, the better.
SIDECHAIN
A sidechain is always useful for adding that pumping 4/4 feel to a track using the bass drum signal, but it's also useful for vocals and more.
Recently I had a string part clashing with a vocal. There are other ways to sort this (e.g. with EQ and automation), but I tried sidechaining a compressor over the strings from the vocal track, which dipped them slightly to let the vocal shine through at the right times. Nice.
DRUM LOOPS
Pre-made loops are OK to use. There are so many out there, but for me the most satisfying way to use them is to recycle, chop and splice the hell out of them to put your own unique stamp on your drum track. Aside from the obvious things to do here, I find using a noisegate interesting. Adjusting the threshold and release over a drum loop can give a completely new feel to it. If the loop has a lot going on dynamically you can get some great results. Go on, give it a go!
OUTBOARD LATENCY
Soundcards can be funny things at times. Mine likes to run a few milliseconds behind when running my synths and drumboxes, so I often have my Autoload set up with a minus delay on those tracks to get things tight again from the start. I did this by initially playing a very snappy sound, quantised at 4/4 against the sequencer’s metronome. It took a few goes until I was satisfied, but the setting that worked for me was -1/96, which meant all my outboard devices needed the same setting. Trivial, but it happens and there’s nothing worse than out-of-sync MIDI gear.
TURN IT DOWN!
I often find myself jumping up and down in the studio with the music blaring like I’m in a club. Good fun but it’s no good for your ears or for your mix. I also only use my sub speakers in the studio when I’ve finished most of the writing process as bass can be an inaccurate distraction.
Whilst finishing a track for Wretch32’s album recently, I found a couple of things clipping. Annoying when there’s volume automation on every track and you can’t turn them down again easily! In this case I used a Gain plug-in and set it to -10db on every channel on the end of all the processors and effects, not before. Also, don’t put the Gain plug-ins on your buses as that will make those sounds dip to -20!
With a good limiter over the mix everything can be tidily pulled back up to 0db with no clipping.
TESTING 1, 2, 3...
Test your mixes in as many different ways as possible. In the car, the stereo at home, maybe the tape player in your Nan’s greenhouse… it doesn’t matter where but what does matter is that you have the best mix possible and hearing it as many ways as you can is very important. If you’re a touring DJ like me, you’re lucky as you can test your tracks on some of the best systems in the world, but they can be deceiving. Also there’s nothing wrong with A/B-ing your music against something that hits the mark already. I have four or five reference tracks that are priceless!
WE RECOMMEND
The eagle-eyed among you will have noticed that Dave's main DAW of choice is Logic, the full version of which will give you hours of freakin' tweakin' fun.
You may also want to check out Logic Express.
Dave's also a fan of Propellerhead's Reason and the new V6 comes with all the recording features of its old sister program, Record.
• Universal Audio UAD-2 Satellite Duo
If you're after some serious plug-in power, this DSP accelerator card is bundled with the Analogue Classics and gives you access to the full range of powered plug-ins too.
Talking of drums, this is an amazing weapon to add to your arsenal for all manner of beats and hits at just over £400!
Find out how your track or mix would sound on all kinds of monitor set-ups with this cool sub-£100 gadget!
