There seems to be a misconception by some that watching these tutorials will automatically make you good enough to get tracks signed and become a superstar, but the reality is it comes down to years of work and ear training. Watching tutorials like this should just add to your knowledge base. I think people are expecting too much from 5 hours of videos. I mean do you really expect to be as good as Gordan Ramsey by watching a video of him, watching tutorials doesn't make you a good chef or producer over night, practice and a bit of talent does, you still have to put the work in.
There are no huge "secrets". Give those Michelin chefs some random 5 ingredients and they will cook something delicious. Even if they show you "exactly" how to do it, you won't be able to reproduce it by yourself. They can taste something and instantly know that it needs a dot of salt, lemon, honey or whatever to balance the flavour. The trick is not primarily WHAT to use, its how to use and how much. No one can really teach you talent and creativity. A great chef, painter, musician or whatever don't follow some secret rules, they use their talent and gut feeling. How else did people manage to make music before there were sonic academy, youtube or even internet...?! They had to be creative and experiment a lot. When I started out there were no tutorials. We just grabbed some different compressors or whatever, tried numerous settings, compared to other tracks etc... Trial and error, erase and rewind, and if you possess some talent and creativity you'll get great results.
The true secret lies beyond the recipe...
Absolutely great course - thanks for putting this together.
Looking forward to more UT tutorials. I wonder if you can get a hold of Illitheas, Arctic Moon, Simon O'Shine, Tranzlift, or my fave: Andy Blueman?
Excellent tutorials, James!
One major suggestion for Chris Agnelli and Phil Johnston at Sonic Academy though. I know that you folks are trying to sell your plugins, but it would be really helpful if the tracks that require ANA were bounced out as WAV files for those of us who are subscribers to Sonic Academy but don't own ANA.
Otherwise we reach a point with these tutorials (and others on this site) where we need to try to recreate the sounds in our own synths. However, you've also removed nearly all of the sound design discussion from these tutorials as well. This leaves the subscriber who doesn't own ANA to try to recreate the sounds strictly by ear - not the easiest thing in the world, even for someone who is a seasoned sound designer, let alone a beginner to the craft.
Personally, I'd rather see the sound design discussion added back in, but short of that happening, please bounce the individual ANA tracks to WAV files and include those in the download. Thanks!
Great course, loved it, lots of good information here. I would have likes to have seen the SSL compressor on the kick and bass bus in video 5. I understand why you don't use the built in one, and I also understand why it's difficult to whip out a $250 plugin for a training video, but I still need to know how it's done. If the SSL compressor is how you glue it together and make the sound more professional, then I want to see it. I know that info is available elsewhere, but I want to know how James Dymond does it. I don't get the full picture if outside plugins are forbidden. Still though, great information, thanks again!
The SSL have turning knobs with fixed values. Leave out the highest and lowest values, and there aren't that many settings left to try. Just google or look at youtube how some of the top engineers use it for glueing stuff together. Dial in some fair attack and release settings and adjust the threshold so that the reduction amount is somewhere between 1-3 dB, and you'll use it exactly like the pros...
One of the best Sonic Academy tutorial :D Nice !
Moro, what the in the world is modern trance? Are you talking about that garbage Armin is releasing on Armada now a days, or that progressive crap Anjuna is pioneering? That's not even trance. The old guard of trance like Tiesto, AVB, A&B, Cosmic Gate, Ferry Corsten, and Markus Shulz have long moved on to "bigger and better things" (selling out to mindless American's like my friends). There are however, some trance acts that are still keeping it real like Solarstone with his Pure thing, JOC with Subculture, Aly & Fila with FSOE, and the legendary Thrillseekers and Binary Finary just to name a few. There are also some really talented new trance artist like James Dymond, Standerwick, Reorder, Sneijder, Tranceye, Adam Ellis, and Cold Rush. There's also that whole tech trance thing that Bryan Kearny and Simon Patterson are doing. And how can I forget Will Atkinson and John Askew. My friend trance is more than just beatport.
Also, a good tutorial has to pick something to focus on. It would be great to have James do a breakdown of one of his top tracks and go through how he built it.
^^^ Word. Trance (from the good ol' days) seems to be all but forgotten. A shame, really
1. A producer will never reveal his whole arsenal of tricks
2. Your question..what makes a good melody, bassline, chord progression is flawed. that's creativity you cannot teach.
3. It takes years to become good and that is why the best are there for a reason. You work hard enough you will figure it all out yourself and find a way
What a great tutorial. Exactly what I was hoping for. Lots of great tips about arrangement and EQing/layering. The best part was that none of the plugins used were external (except for ANA and Kick, which is awesome because those are becoming standard for tutorials around here and work regardless of which DAW is used), so I didn't need to worry about finding a VST or VSTi for a similar effect. The track created was fantastic, and is a good survey into the more uplifting/harder trance sound (As opposed to the 128 BPM Trouse stuff). Was hoping to get a little insight into the mastering process, but other than that this was really awesome.
Don't listen to him Phil, he clearly has no idea what he's talking about and is in it for the money, not the art or profession.
Man, this is such a great tutorial (I think the best one on SA for trance). James is great at explaining why he chooses to do things, not just /to/ do them (EQing things in a certain way for example) and really good content on arrangement.
Thanks!
Not sure why everyone is complaining about this. I am doing this tutorial using ableton and I have already learned LOADS of stuff just off the kick/bass bussing etc. Only thing I cant seem to figure out how to do in ableton is routing a bus into another bus to be in turn sent to the master. As far as I know ableton bussing is done with groups. I tried to do with sends and returns but couldn't get around the double bussing sort of thing. However, it appears to be minor and I can only duplicate the effects on the buses to make up for it (if that makes sense). If anybody knows how to solve this please help!!
Awesome tutorial so far I cant wait to finish it
Great video, there’ s definately plenty of tips to take away and incorporate in your projects irrespective of what DAW you use.
Nice one!
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Great video really enjoyed the series!!! Nice side-chain techniques and ideas
Where’s the sub bass preset? That seems to have been skipped?
Thanks!
P.s. Can’t wait to see you play at Wax format in Glasgow!