Teach 1 Tuesday
Teach 1 Tuesday
The Harmonic Canvas: How Sound Selection Shapes Music Production
Ever wondered why some songs just resonate with you more than others? Could it be the lyrics or is it the distinct signature sound woven into every chord? Grasp a deep understanding of music production in this Teach One Tuesday Podcast episode, where we explore the art of picking sounds during the recording phase and how they influence your overall project.
Drawing from my journey as an artist, songwriter and music producer, we'll dissect how different sounds and instruments become significantly associated with specific genres. Whether you're a songwriter or a producer, this episode is a gold mine of insights into creating music that resonates. Kindly remember to check out my class - a toolkit designed for musicians, songwriters and creatives, and join us as we equip ourselves with the essential skills. Also, stay tuned for my upcoming record 'Kingdom Radio' in 2024 to get a firsthand experience of my sound selection process. Let's embark on this enlightening journey through music production together!
The Toolkit for musicianship mastery: http://bit.ly/3k5v9Vi
Youtube Channel: https://youtube.com/@thetonikingexperience7645
2nd YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/@secretsunlockedwithtonikin8764
Rare Keys Production- https://rarekeysproduction.com
Toni King link: http://www.linktr.ee/toni.king
Rare Keys Production Consultation services: https://mystore1545.samcart.com/products/music-production-consultation-services
The Toni King Experience
All right, welcome back everyone to another great episode of Teach One Tuesday Podcast. Before we get into that great subject we're gonna get into today, let's get into that theme music, family Music. All right, all right, let's get into it today. Let's get into it before I get into my, my subject for today, and I'll just go ahead and tell you what it is. We're still talking about projects, but I'm gonna be talking about, you know, really getting into the recording phase and we're gonna talk about picking sounds. Before I get Into that, let's get into some things first.
Speaker 1:My to my class, a toolkit for musicianship mastery is available for you right now, calling all my musicians, my creatives. These are the tools that you need to be successful as a musician, as a songwriter, at a basic level. I'm revealing those skills, so please go and check it out, tell others about it. This class is for you. My channel, my YouTube channel, the Tony King experience. Please go like and subscribe, hit that bell, learn something new and amazing that would change your life. Let's grow that channel as well. There's my business rare keys, production and music school. All right, and we are. That is for you know, those that are looking for production services. You know I'm talking about mixing, the mastering, I'm talking about this. I just added a new part of that, a consulting part, where I get together 101 the creators and singers or whoever and we come up with a plan for you. We come up with whatever, whatever tools you may need, I'm there to share, to help you along, if you're stuck, so that services there for you. All right, there's a. There's a link tree link there for you. If you want to know more about who I am. There's a link there for you. And Peace. Be looking out for the record that's going to be coming out next year 2024, kingdom radio, kingdom radio, and that's what sparked these last about four or five episodes.
Speaker 1:I'm talking about my process as an artist, as a songwriter, as a music producer. I'm sharing these things and I'm taking you through the process along with me as I go. Alright, so let's get into it. Family. We're talking about picking sounds. We're talking about picking sounds and this is crucial.
Speaker 1:Some of you will relate to this because you are a producer as well. Some of you use this is where you hand your music off to someone who was able to flush out your music. No problem, you can still learn from this, and so what I want to say first is that know what genre that you're in. Obviously you should know that Before you know what, even before you start writing your songs, start putting your music together, you should know what genre you're in. With this country, gospel, you know, jazz, whatever it is. Know what genre you're in because there's a certain, there are certain sounds to go along with that. Or you know, there's some people I'm not gonna get at today, but there's some people who who like the fusion sound. They put different things together. But that's not what I'm talking about today. I'm talking about a specific genre, sounds that go that specific thing. All right. So know what genre you're in.
Speaker 1:Secondly, you know, pay attention to obviously, what, what sounds go along with that. Are you? Are you, if you're more of country, you're going with the more acoustic sound. Also, jazz more of an acoustic sound, things of that nature. Or a singer-songwriter more of an acoustic sound, when you start getting more into R&B, pop, when you start getting to the simps and things of that nature, all right. So, just in general, know what sounds you know go along with that particular Drama. What did they normally use? Of course, they're creating things all the time, but at a basic level, know what sounds are being used as very, very important. As far as the kick is concerned, as far as you know a guitar, you know, as far as keys, what was simps are they using what? What sounds are being used Around that? This is so, so, so important. And it even goes further when you start getting into the mix and the mastering or, let's just say, mixing face. When you start getting into that, there's certain things that go along with that, certain things you would use for a pop vocal you would not use.
Speaker 1:If you're talking about, especially if you're talking about jazz, they may put some. They may put, you know, a little bit of a verb on there. You're not going to have any. You know a pitch correction on there. You're not going to have anything like that. For the most part, I don't think so. At least I haven't heard any records. Acoustic records, jazz records are doing that. Certain things is going to be different practices depending on what genre you're in, all right.
Speaker 1:So think about what it is you want to go along with this, and you can also think about creating your own sounds, all right. Now, obviously, I'm talking about even gospel, gospel, r&b, of course, pop, you know. Think about go through your sounds, go through what they have. What do you like is usually what you like is going to stick out, and this takes some time as well. Or, if you're not producing it or putting it together, then talk to your producer and sit with them, go over what it is, what sounds you want, you think you want to use. You know, as they're going through sounds, be there with them or call them on the phone, facetime each other, whatever you need to do so that you can be on one accord as far as what sounds you want to use.
Speaker 1:Now, what you also could do is use a template, a song that you like. Obviously, and you want to. You want your song to be close to that. Now, of course, you don't want your song to be exactly that, but you want your song to be close to that particular style. That's another way that you can do it. So, if it's a Justin Timberlake song, if it's a Missy Elliott song, if it's a Rihanna song, a Beyoncé song, what is it, what sounds are they using, and can you duplicate that? Or can your producer duplicate that or recreate that or get something close to it, and that's a cool way to do it. That's really how it was done as well.
Speaker 1:With the mixing and mastering process, you get what's called references and you look at, you listen for different things how they're using reverb, how they're using compression, how they're panning, how they're using automation. This is what we do. We listen to whatever references a client may give us and we go according to that. You may not get exactly that, but that's the example and I want you to do the same thing.
Speaker 1:As far as now, laying down tracks, sounds, laying down things, what is it that you want your music to sound like? Another way you can look at this is do I want my song to be complex? This is what I mean by that. Do you want a lot of sounds? Do you want a lot of stuff going on or do you just want something simple? You want something simple going on. You have a pad, you have a simple percussion Sometimes you may have hi-hat, sometimes you may not and just a simple bass line.
Speaker 1:You can have a very simple track, but then what I would do as an artist, what I would want to do is, if I have a very simple track, I want to make sure that my vocals, my lead vocals and my backups are popping. I don't think I want a laid-back track and a laid-back vocal. I don't think I would want that, at least for me, not unless I heard it that way. Then I would do that. But for the most part, if I got a chill track, then I'm going to want to make sure that I am being intentional about my vocal choices as far as my lead vocal is concerned and what atlaves are surrounding that lead vocal.
Speaker 1:And then as far as your BGVs, what are you doing? Two-part harmony, three-part harmony. Do you have two different things going on at one time, meaning you have a unison line and then you have a unison line this is the chorus I'm talking about. You have a unison line that they're singing, but you also have little harmony parts that are happening. So for me, the contrast is what's going to make? In my opinion, is going to make it really pop.
Speaker 1:And of course, it goes to the next level with the mixing process. And I keep mentioning that because you can have a pop and song, you can have a great hook, you can have a great track, great vocals, great BGVs. I mean it's fire. But if you're a mixing engineer, it doesn't really know how to take that song to the next level. All that stuff you did won't matter. It'll be a nice song that was mixed very poorly and you'll have people and your friends that say, oh, that's nice, but it's not really going to do what you want it to do. So all these things need to be in place.
Speaker 1:But today I just want to specifically talk about sounds. Now, they have so many plugins. If you're worried about that, you have so many plugins you can use. I use complete for sounds. But there's so much stuff out here, family, there's so much stuff out here. Shop around them with you know, for different sounds, where they got kicks, they got guitars, they got packs of stuff. Now, bundles is what I meant to say. You have bundles that you can buy all the sounds that you need. Also, for mixing and mastering. They also have a lot of software. I use isotope. I actually use quite a few things, but I use isotope and some other things for mixing and mastering process. That makes it a lot easier. Fuse with AI, of course. You know AI is completely taken over.
Speaker 1:So I wanted to drop this nugget because that's the next part. So before that, you're writing your lyrics, you're writing your verse, your chorus, you're writing your bridge, you're writing, you're thinking about what you wanna do for the backups and then, next step, you want to start laying this stuff down and I want you to have the sounds that match what's in your head, or match a song that you listen to, or get as close as you can to that, or you could just completely create your own sound, which is fantastic. Create your own sounds, which is a great thing. And so I want you thinking about all these things, right, thinking about all these things and I'll do another episode because I'm still in my process, of course and I wanna do some research for you guys and just look up some plugins and things that you can get for sounds. Obviously, if you, you know, I know, for logic and I'm sure, with other dolls, you have sounds that come with that. You have sounds that come with logic and I'm sure they come with other dolls out there. But if you want some more sounds, you got all kinds of stuff in, and complete is one of them that I use.
Speaker 1:I'm trying to think of some more while I'm on this episode, but I'll do some research in the next episode. I'm gonna mention several that you can purchase, but don't think you have to break the bank. You can start very small and you can. You know, start there and use those sounds and really what's more important is how you use them, how you use EQ and compression and verb and echo and all these different things. Really, how you use them is really more important than sometimes the sounds themselves and also automation in a track. I know this lesson, this is that lesson, but this episode's a little long, but I wanna get all this stuff out to you because I think all this stuff is very, very, very important. All right, so thank you so much for checking this out, man. But before we go, do me a favor, I'm gonna go to the description In this episode.
Speaker 1:You can also find these on my YouTube channel, again, my class, the Toolkit for Musicianship Mastery. For all my musicians creatives, I lay out the skills and the necessary things you need to scale your musicianship and also to take your music career to the next level. So go check it out. My channel, the Tony King Experience, is there for you. Go like and subscribe, hit that bell, learn something new that will change your life. It's geared. It's a music channel. I talk about all kinds of amazing things. Go check it out.
Speaker 1:Obviously, you're listening to my podcast, but do me a favor, family, go and tell other people about the Teach One Tuesday podcast and how we're elevating people here. Next, my business, rare Keys Production and Music School, geared towards helping my creatives, my musicians, being there for you, even if that just means having a consultation with me and we can sit and talk about what direction you wanna go in and how I can help you in different ways melody, harmony, plugins, whatever it may be. I'm here for you to help you take your music to the next level. And there's a link true link there for you If you wanna learn more about me and who I am, if you want to hear my music, it is all there, all right. Well, thanks so much for checking this out. I hope you're having a wonderful day. If you're not having a wonderful day, you could change that by your mind. So thanks so much for tuning in. I'll see you next time.