Hi friend,

this week I delivered the pre-masters for a 4 tracks vinyl release 🙂

I will tell you more about the label and about why I am so happy to release music with them in a future email.

For now I want to share with you the reason why crafting a good mix became, in 90% of the cases, easy for me.

For sure 12 years into music production helped, but believe me if I tell you that 3 years ago I was completely unsatisfied with most of my mixes.

I have been testing all the mixing techniques and all of the plug-ins I came across in these 12 years.

Experimentation is good, but applying with eye closes every mixing technique you see on You Tube videos, probably won’t help.

Your track isn’t like the others, there is not a universally valid technique. But there are for sure universally valid concepts.

Knowing how compression works, how to separate sounds and frequencies, how to set volumes: this will help you to get better mixes and to understand how to apply any mixing technique to your specific case.

But there is one thing that made everything else in the mixing process easier.

Sound selection.

Once I started to take the time to find good sound libraries, to refine my ear and understand which sounds are good and which not, everything got easier.

At this point my mixes are simply done by setting the volumes and compressing or saturating very few channels that really need it.

Now, in this email ,I can’t teach you how to know if a sound is good or not.

But I can share some of my favorite libraries, which I think have a great quality:

1. Goldbaby samples: I love this company. All sounds are recorded in a professional studio, sometimes processed through analog gear but no digital overprocessing at all. I have most of their packs. They also have plenty of free packs!
2. Samples from Mars: number 2 in my favorite this NYC studio crafts exceptional samples from pretty much every existing hardware. Once or twice per year they do a MEGA SALE in which you can basically steal their whole collection.
3. 90’s Sample CDs: this is not a brand but it’s a category of sounds that were released during the 90’s and 2000’s on CDs. Few brands that made history are Zero-G, Best Service, Spectrasonics legacy packs. Go back to older packs in the list, or experiment with new ones. Or simple Google “90’s sample CDs” and thank me later.

Speaking of samples, on my website you can find all of my Patreon (from myself and from guests) and non-Patreon packs. Go have a look if you’d like 🙂

Want to learn more about music production?

Are you looking for likeminded friends to share your passion with?

Go check our Minimal Improvements community on Patreon!

FROM THE WEB

1 – Another video from Jon Makes Beats

What can I say, it’s good stuff. Watch his latest here.

2 – Goldbaby Free Samples

Goldbaby Samples has a free section on its website with demos of most of their packs. These free pack contains from 50 to 150 samples, so not bad at all, considering they are high quality samples. Check here.

MUSIC OF THE WEEK

Here I share what I’ve been listening to lately both from the house music world and from every other genre.

I will keep feeding this section of my newsletter, with the hope you enjoy it.

1 – HOUSE/MINIMAL HOUSE MUSIC

Priori is an all round producer and he’s one of my favorites at the moment. This song is meaningful to me, it gives me chills everytime. (Spotify link)

2 – OTHER GENRES

My friends are mostly not into house music. But still, they have a great music taste. Here is my latest discovery from our trip to Portugal. (Spotify link)

Always be curious towards new music, you never know where inspiration comes from.