Finish More Music
  • FMM Membership
  • Video Blog
  • Podcast
  • About
  • Login
  • FMM Membership
  • Video Blog
  • Podcast
  • About
  • Login
  •  
  • 0

Archives

FMM040 – Roberto: Being True To Yourself As An Artist

This week, I have something super special for you. An exclusive interview for you that I conducted inside the Finish More Music Community with Techno DJ producer and label owner…

ROBERTO

I expect you already more than know who Roberto is, but just in case…

Roberto has an impressive discography, with production credits on the likes of Fachwerk, ARTS, Solar Phenomena and Obscura. He has also played at some of the most well respected clubs around the world, including fabric in London and both Tresor and Berghain in Berlin.

And the cherry on top! Roberto also runs his own record label ‘Fossil Archive’ where he releases some of the finest Techno weapons from himself and his close family of artists

In this episode, Roberto shares with us some massive insights in his mindset, production processes, and his workflow. This is easily one of our most popular interviews inside our community and always receives high praises from all who listen to it.

Key Takeaways:

  • How to “Power through finishing the track.”
  • The importance of taking breaks to generate new ideas.
  • Strip everything down and only using a few really good quality tools
  • “Don’t worry too much about the bad patches. Accept that they happen and that they will go away eventually.”

Resources Mentioned

  • Creative Strategies for Finishing More Music Ebook

Thank You for listening!

I really appreciate you joining me and I hope you’re enjoying the topics and taking some real value into your music sessions.

If this episode resonated with you and you feel it will have a positive impact on the people you know, please share  it  by using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this page.

To make sure you are always the first to know when a new episode lands: Subscribe here.

One of the things that helps people decide if a podcast is for them, is the review section. If you’re enjoying the episodes and feel they will add value for other music producers, please leave a 60 second review and rating. Thank you 🙂

  • 13 January, 2020
  • Podcast
  • More

FMM039 – FMM DJ Mix Series: Volume 1

This week we have something very different for you!

In this episode I’m going to play you a DJ mix created by one of our FMM members, Harvi Bhogal.

This DJ mix features music purely created by our FMM members that were submitted to our monthly members track feedback event.

This is one of our main events inside of FMM. An opportunity to share your tracks to receive high quality feedback from other members of the community. Plus we also allow all our FMM DJ’s to create a mix of their favourite tracks so everyone can hear what it is like to have their music played out by DJ’s.

The quality of music is insane and I absolutely love this mix! It’s a real journey from start to finish and is a great reflection of the talent inside of FMM and the diversity of Electronic Music in our community.

Sit back, relax and enjoy!

Resources Mentioned

  • Creative Strategies for Finishing More Music Ebook

Thank You for listening!

I really appreciate you joining me and I hope you’re enjoying the topics and taking some real value into your music sessions.

If this episode resonated with you and you feel it will have a positive impact on the people you know, please share  it  by using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this page.

To make sure you are always the first to know when a new episode lands: Subscribe here.

One of the things that helps people decide if a podcast is for them, is the review section. If you’re enjoying the episodes and feel they will add value for other music producers, please leave a 60 second review and rating. Thank you 🙂

  • 6 January, 2020
  • Podcast
  • More

Reverb Groove Tricks

Getting the groove right in your Techno tracks can be the key ingredient to making them a huge club dancefloor weapon. In this tutorial I show you some of my favourite reverb groove tips and tricks that can help drive your Techno tracks and elevate them to another level. These techniques are so quick and simple to implement and work across so many different styles of Techno. This video comes from one of our most popular video courses – Drum programming. Check it out!

Transcript

Okay so let’s dive in and check out some reverb tips and tricks. First up, I’ve drawn in a fresh pattern for us. This one’s techno style have a listen [Music].  We’ve got some fast shakers in another clip and this is standard for to the floor, three types of toms that have been pitched down and they’re just sitting on the offbeat adding a very subtle bounce, and then we’ve got soft medium, soft medium eighth note hats and then finally that syncopated clap that gives us that really strong techno feel. 

So let’s start with a clap. I’m going to give that a blast of a nice long reverb [Music], and that in its own right sounds absolutely fine. But let’s look at making that fit the groove. You don’t have to do this if you don’t want it, but this is a nice trick that works well. So set up a gate into the side chain is the dry signal, so we’re getting that clap coming in and the reason I’ve done that is we’ve got nice clean transient on the clap, and that makes it easy to sit a threshold of the gate. So when the gate opens, its going to allow that reverb through so let’s crank open the hold a little bit so you can hear it [Music]. 

Now obviously for this to work you need a nice long decay time as you heard before we added the gate. So that’s super important, and then what we’re gonna do is use the hold control to find the sweet spot of where we want the reverb to end. So because we’re using the hold we’re gonna a very sharp cutoff point because when that stops, the release is only 20 milliseconds long so it’s gonna cut off really abruptly and allow us to hear a really solid point that matches with a groove. Have a listen [Music]. So somewhere around there is working for me three hundred and thirty milliseconds and that fits the groove really nicely. Now I can start cranking open the release. I’m gonna keep this short I’m not aiming for anything natural here. If you want natural this is definitely not the technique for you, but let’s make it a little less abrupt [Music]. Perfect! And it now seems like it’s breathing in time with the music. Again we can use like the floor for a standard kind of techno tricks [Music]. So opening it up so it abandons the groove and then snapping it back so that it’s working nice and tight. What else we got, we’ve got our hats. So let’s in these two a reverb  [Music]. So they are going to reverb A and I’ve done the same thing, I’ve set up a gate. This time the sidechain is receiving the hats. So let’s bring that threshold down again I’ll crank open the hold a little bit [Music]. Now because the hats are at two different volumes I can set the gate to open only on the loudest or on both, and that will allow me to set the rhythm however I see fit [Music]. 

So there’s both and there’s one. I’m going to keep that nice and short. That seems like it’s breathing in time, let’s bring this down again but it is a bit too abrupt. So let’s bring that floor up. Now remember the floor is the volume of the reverb that’s getting through when the gate is shut so even though the gate is shut, it’s not annihilating every bit of sound. It’s just turning it down by 40 DB. So if I bring this up, then the effect of the gate is going to be that much more subtle [Music], there’s no gate at all, and there’s a little bit of pumping [Music]. Nice, so that’s working well. Last thing we got to these shakers super super busy pattern so it doesn’t make any sense to worry about gates or getting the timing right on these. Yyou can just go crazy and give these a huge blast if you like works really well in techno, lots of reverb [Music]. So that’s pretty full on. Let’s see we’re getting to see for this [Music].  I could open this up perhaps [Music], might be a little bit much. But again it’s serve our purpose our hearing clearly what’s going on. So on this one, I’ve set up a compressor sidechain coming from the kick drums we get that for to the floor pumping on this big wall of reverb [Music]. Nice, so let’s take some of these tops a bit much [Music]. And we get this really nice pumping and breathing. Now obviously it’s a bit overbearing as before. I’ve over egged this so we can hear what’s going on. Personally I’d take some of the brightness out of that reverb and gets back to a nice darker tones for techno. But using these techniques, we can get this pumping, breathing and really enhancing the groove instead of smothering it with air reverb. So gates and compressors definitely things to get a hang of for your grooves. 

Thank you for watching

I really appreciate you tuning in and I hope you’re enjoying the tutorials and taking some real value into your music sessions.

If this video resonated with you and you feel it will have a positive impact on the people you know,  please share  it  by using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this page.

To make sure you are always the first to know when a new video lands: Subscribe to the FMM Youtube channel here.

Let me know how you get on with the techniques I showed in the videos and if you have any suggestions for future tutorials, ping me a message on Instagram (@IamKeithMills)

  • 3 January, 2020
  • Video
  • More

FMM038 – Paul Lock’s Fast Rise To Success

Welcome to 2020!

To kick things off in true FMM style, I’m joined in this episode by one of the star members of the Finish More Music Community who only in the past 3 years has exploded in the deep house and NU Disco Scenes. Let’s give it up for…

PAUL LOCK!

Paul’s journey in the past three years is truly a remarkable example of what determination and grit can do.

Paul started his journey into producing a brand new genre with zero industry contacts and a ton of new skills to learn. All this while securing a new job, a new house, and the arrival of baby twins! He was way busier than most of us and yet he still managed to smash it out of the park in just three years.

In this episode, Paul shares his story, how to manage a busy schedule and come out on top with your music, how to quickly build connections in the industry, and also shares some ninja hacks on how to analyze and learn from your favorite artists.

Check this awesome episode out!

Key Takeaways:

  • Determination and Grit: Keep showing up and get it done!
  • The importance of having a clear end goal in mind
  • “Stop worrying, make the music you like.”
  • “If you know that something already works, just run with it.”
  • Find the right balance with working with labels

Resources Mentioned

  • Creative Strategies for Finishing More Music Ebook

Thank You for listening!

I really appreciate you joining me and I hope you’re enjoying the topics and taking some real value into your music sessions.

If this episode resonated with you and you feel it will have a positive impact on the people you know, please share  it  by using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this page.

To make sure you are always the first to know when a new episode lands: Subscribe here.

One of the things that helps people decide if a podcast is for them, is the review section. If you’re enjoying the episodes and feel they will add value for other music producers, please leave a 60 second review and rating. Thank you 🙂

  • 30 December, 2019
  • Podcast
  • More

Developing Riffs Part 2

Following on from last week’s free tutorial, we have part 2 on how to develop your musical riffs in your tracks when using samples and loops. In this tutorial I take our idea from last week and evolve it even further by re-pitching our sounds and creating an awesome sounding harmony for our lead riff using simple built in audio effects. If you like this video, our ‘Loop Expert’ course is fantastic for those of you who want to know how to make the most out of your sample pack library. 


Transcript

Okay let’s see what else we can do to develop a single melody line. So here was the melody again [Music], and so far we’ve pitched it up by a fifth and an octave. So on this copy, let’s take it downwards. Let’s go five semitones down [Music]. So that works really nicely but would try and be a bit more adventurous. Mentioned reversing before so let’s give that a go [Music]. That’s not too bad, you could work with that [Music]. 

Might be useful for another section. I’m not sure they go together super well. I’m going to name this one melody reverse and we’ll we’ll keep it here but I’ll turn it off. I think I’m gonna just make it a different color as well so it doesn’t get confusing. Maybe that would be something you could use in another part of the track but I’m not sure it work stacking it up as a layer. So let’s go again, this time let’s try something else. This time I’m gonna slow it right down, okay? So what we get now is this [Music]. So it’s that same loop but dragged out over double the time [Music]. Let’s see how that sounds [Music]. Much nicer, much prefer that and then finally let’s make one more version and we’re just gonna make a pad out of this can make pad light textures out of almost anything in life. So let’s fire away with this. For this one I’m gonna go the other way and we’ll make this super fast [Music], and then I’m gonna make more of a texture out of it by adding a ping pong delay [Music], and then of course that’s gonna need a nice reverb on there. Lots of lots of decay time [Music], and then we can bring the harmonic sound on that by using resonators. So we already identified earlier on that we were working in the key of C so resonators is already set up for that. Let’s go ahead and add a perfect fifth seven semitones [Music]. 

Let me try some other stuff maybe twenty four two octaves, quite a nice pad sound. What else could we add to this? I’d be thickened it up with a bit of overdrive. This will be overkill so let’s bring this down a little bit. It’s a vicious otherwise [Music]. Not sure if I’m gonna go with that and sounds a bit abrasive for the nice melody that we’ve got here… oops don’t mean to do that. Let’s have a look where were we up here somewhere. Accidentally made a year a MIDI track I think [Music]. That’s a slowed down version, perfect! Okay so final thing was gonna be a chorus but I’ve ended up accidentally bringing the cord in that’s why that got a bit messy [Music]. See how it sounds, it’s gonna need to come down a bit in volume [Music]. 

Yeah, we’ll take those two extra sure what you call these poles bands on the resonator. Let’s take those out, that’s a bit too thick, bit too much [Music]. So that works nicely, so we’ve got a whole bunch of different ideas here. Let’s see what works together [Music]. I think I’m gonna do actually is just duplicate that top one, and we’ll have this one just playing the octave up. So we get this five and let’s change this. Complex Pro is a bit more gentle in this [Music], that’s nice up. Okay so we’re worried a little bit confusing, needs naming and color coding that’s for sure. Let’s bring that pad in [Music]. So maybe that’s quite nice. This other one perhaps is a little bit more subtle. You can hear it starts to get a bit overcrowded, but whatever way you look at it we have now got a bunch of different ideas. We’ve got five different developments and things that we can add onto that loop, so you’ve got plenty of material to make a full arrangement with. Plus we’ve also got that reverse that we might be able to sneak in perhaps in a breakdown or something else and that’s all come from one loop so there’s definitely a lot of opportunity for development.

Thank you for watching

I really appreciate you tuning in and I hope you’re enjoying the tutorials and taking some real value into your music sessions.

If this video resonated with you and you feel it will have a positive impact on the people you know,  please share  it  by using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this page.

To make sure you are always the first to know when a new video lands: Subscribe to the FMM Youtube channel here.

Let me know how you get on with the techniques I showed in the videos and if you have any suggestions for future tutorials, ping me a message on Instagram (@IamKeithMills)

  • 27 December, 2019
  • Video
  • More

FMM037 – One Year, Lot’s of Big Lessons

2019 has been a massive year, not just for me on a personal level, but also for Finish More Music. From the transition out of Quantize Courses to focusing fully on FMM and building on this brand and vision, 2019 has gone above my expectations and has felt like one of the most productive years of my life!

In this final podcast of the decade, I share with you some of the biggest lessons that I’ve learned from this past year – The good, the bad, and the ugly.

To keep things interesting I have been joined again by the wonderful Mrs. M and she has taken over the show. She decided to interview me this time round so we can reflect on some of the biggest insights and breakthroughs we’ve had this year.

My hope is that sharing these insights with you around creativity, mindset and personal effectiveness will help you to grow in the same way that they’ve helped me.

Key Takeaways:

  • Let yourself evolve and learn to let go.
  • Take everything as a learning opportunity
  • Surround yourself with a system of support and accountability
  • “You’re not a creative until you ship it.”
  • “Discipline equals freedom”

Resources Mentioned

  • Creative Strategies for Finishing More Music Ebook

Thank You for listening!

I really appreciate you joining me and I hope you’re enjoying the topics and taking some real value into your music sessions.

If this episode resonated with you and you feel it will have a positive impact on the people you know, please share  it  by using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this page.

To make sure you are always the first to know when a new episode lands: Subscribe here.

One of the things that helps people decide if a podcast is for them, is the review section. If you’re enjoying the episodes and feel they will add value for other music producers, please leave a 60 second review and rating. Thank you 🙂

  • 23 December, 2019
  • Podcast
  • More

Developing Riffs Part 1

Since our ‘Black Friday’ Sale we have received a huge amount of requests to see more inside sneak peeks of our video pack courses. So as a little Christmas present to all of you, we have decided to do a few more over the holidays. This week’s video is taken from our ‘Loop Expert’ course and focuses on how to develop your musical riffs in your tracks. If you have a huge sample library (like me) and want to know how to make the most of it, this video course is just for you. 


Transcript

One big problem that we come across when we’re dealing with loops is actually developing a sound. So being able to take melody or a bassline, whatever it may be that we want to develop as the track goes on, so rather than just adding variations and making it interesting or making it our own, actually developing it how do we open up a filter on something that doesn’t have high frequencies, or how can we progress a melody and add new notes and add new layers to it. Well there are a bunch of techniques that we can use for that so I’ve selected a melody to get us started sounds like this [Music]. 

Okay, so let’s get going. I’m gonna bring this over into the arrange page. Let’s just get rid of the browser and we’ll duplicate it down just like we always do so that we’ve got an original melody and then we’re gonna get stuck in with this one. Now the first thing that you can do is create layers, so we’ve obviously got a layer on top of this but we change the pitch to make some kind of harmony. So I’m gonna dive this up to a perfect fifths. That’s seven semitones and I’m literally just gonna hit that in and I’m gonna Sollux, just want to play with a few of the warp settings. You can hear the way that this affects the sound [Music]. In here the kind of shimmering that we’re getting there [Music] and go metallic with that one. Three pitch will leave alone, we’ve got the two complex modes [Music] 

They all offer slightly different flavor so it’s worth playing back your layers and messing around until you find something that you think fits well. So let’s play them both together. I’m gonna bring the volume down on this let’s take about five DB off, we don’t want it to be too overbearing. Do without and then with [Music]. That sounds pretty cool it’s almost got a kind of reverse vibe to it. Shit gives me an idea for later actually straight away. Let’s mess around with these settings in here, let’s try [Music]. So I like this quite sort of bitey vibe that we got going on. I’m gonna take a few more DB off of it though [Music] and I’m not sure I’d want it running all the time so let’s see what happens if we cut some bits out of this [Music]. 

And then this has got delay written all over it. Don’t want a huge feedback that would be overbearing on this and let’s bring this up a touch [Music], and its available play [Music]

So that goes well [Music]. It’s a straight way we’ve got another layer that we could bring in later in our arrangement. We’ve already got a way of now progressing this sound developing it into something else. Let’s go again with this, duplicate, I’m going to bring this one underneath. So I’ll name these in a second. For this one, let’s go and we’ll go up the whole octave on the transpose this time, see how this sounds [Music]. So it’s working straight away no problem with that at all, but let’s jazz this up. Let’s move our start marker a little bit [Music]. Let’s try again [Music]. Any of these working world [Music], so I quite like that. That’s working. Let’s go any of just when we were messing with a warp mode a second ago, this one bar was kicking out sewing quite interesting. Let’s have a listen to this [Music]. 

See there’s definitely scope there to do some pretty bonkers stuff if we wanted to. I think we’ll stay here, this was quite nice [Music] and then we could add some stuff to this as well. So let’s go in and try the auto filter on this one. Just again to add some movement. So I’m gonna set this up so that just if filters up and down quite slowly [Music]. Let’s get that phase down to zero so we don’t get the ADI panning [Music]. A little bit more frequencies through. So I listen to that. Maybe try playing with the offset a little bit. It’s nice. Okay, so that actually sounds better with a filter on. I think when it’s set to around that area that’s just…. oops bring this back down a little bit [Music]. So either one of those would work really well. So we’ve got yet another layer, so I think there’s still some legs left in this sort of editing that’s for sure. So in the next video we’ll duplicate them out some more and see if we can come up some more ideas of how we could just progress from one loop and get a bunch of ideas that would make a full arrangement.

Thank you for watching

I really appreciate you tuning in and I hope you’re enjoying the tutorials and taking some real value into your music sessions.

If this video resonated with you and you feel it will have a positive impact on the people you know,  please share  it  by using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this page.

To make sure you are always the first to know when a new video lands: Subscribe to the FMM Youtube channel here.

Let me know how you get on with the techniques I showed in the videos and if you have any suggestions for future tutorials, ping me a message on Instagram (@IamKeithMills)

  • 20 December, 2019
  • Video
  • More

FMM036 – Don’t Just Set Goals, Make Them Happen!

With a new decade approaching, what better way to end this years podcasts by talking about setting goals for 2020 and how you can set a plan to achieve them

It is proven that when you set yourself goals, you are more likely to see results that can help you move forward with your music.In this podcast I am joined by my most special guest so far, who’s going to help us  effectively set our goals and foster the right mindset to follow through with them. It’s none other than my better half…

In this podcast I am joined by my most special guest so far, who’s going to help us  effectively set our goals and foster the right mindset to follow through with them. It’s none other than my better half…

ANA MILLS

Ana comes from a professional sporting background both as a tennis player and as a high performance coach. So if there’s anyone who can get us dialed in on how to set and achieve our goals, she’s the right person for the job!

Key Takeaways:

  • Set your OWN goals
  • Make goal setting a continuous habit
  • Review your goals and realign yourself with your vision
  • Divide your long term goals into manageable chunks
  • Be intentional with your goals 

Resources Mentioned

  • Creative Strategies for Finishing More Music Ebook

Thank You for listening!

I really appreciate you joining me and I hope you’re enjoying the topics and taking some real value into your music sessions.

If this episode resonated with you and you feel it will have a positive impact on the people you know, please share  it  by using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this page.

To make sure you are always the first to know when a new episode lands: Subscribe here.

One of the things that helps people decide if a podcast is for them, is the review section. If you’re enjoying the episodes and feel they will add value for other music producers, please leave a 60 second review and rating. Thank you 🙂

  • 16 December, 2019
  • Podcast
  • More

Changing Energy Using Track Delays

Ableton’s ‘Track Delays’ are often overlooked by a lot of producers as they can often be hidden inside Ableton’s GUI. However they can be a producers secret groove enhancing weapon to either make our tracks energy feel faster and more urgent, or laid back and relaxed. In this tutorial, I’ll show you a super fast hack for improving the groove in your track by simply adjusting your track delays. This technique is much easier than fiddling around adjusting the position of audio files or adjusting midi patterns!


Transcript

Okay in this tutorial, we’re going to look at a super fast hack for improving the groove in your music and if you want creating a sort of laid-back more relaxed vibe for your tracks. Now as an added bonus, we can also flip this on its head which I will show you in this tutorial as well and you can inject a bunch of energy and pace into your music. So I want to start us off straightaway by listening to the example. Track A has got a more or should say group A contains drums with a more laid-back feel; Group B identical drums in every respect but has got a more energetic feel. So let me play these for you and see if you can pick out the difference. We’ll start high energy and then we’ll go into the relaxed vibe. 

So could you hear that when I switched across we had that much more sort of groovy laid-back feel. So what’s going on here? Well in short I’ve been tweaking the track delays. Now they appear at the bottom of the session view underneath your faders. If you can’t see them you got a little D in the bottom right corner, just click that and they’ll appear. So what’s the deal with these? Well effectively what we have is a situation where every single track can have delay or can be pulled ahead of the beat so negative values, so negative delays play the sound or the pattern ahead of the beat and you’re gonna get a more urgent rushing energetic vibe as a result. If you have positive values ie actual delay then you’re gonna have the sound or pattern sitting behind the beat and it’s gonna feel a lot more laid-back and more that kind of groovy feel. So how do I go about setting this? Let’s have a look at the workflow. I’ll go in here and we’ll just get rid of these track delays at the moment. So what I tend to do is I’ll have my kick drum and usually the claps and anything else that is falling on the beat playing, so I’ve got a solid reference of the 4/4 and then I will take the other sounds and start playing around with the track delays. Now, if you put most of them so that it’s going behind the beat it’ll be relaxed obviously, most ahead of the beat it will sound faster. I do want to emphasize that you can just tweak these purely to add more groove. If you’ve got a sound that’s kind of not jelly and it feels like it’s a bit out of time, often the easy fix is just to come in and tweak the track delay a little bit. But we’re gonna go for the rushed feel. So let’s zoom in. I like to start with the offbeat hat or anything else playing on the offbeat I find that this really has a lot of impact and starts to set the tone straight away. So let’s have a listen this is it straight… 

So could you hear that? When I hit minus 11 I mean it was a big jump there sounds like it’s rushing ahead of the beat. So remember negative delay urgent energetic vibe. So what I do is it just tweak this to I find saying that I’m happy with and the up and down arrows on your keyboard make this super easy. 

That’s working well and then I’ve got some fast hats that I can start adding in and I’m just listening for how it locks into the groove. I know that I want it to be more urgent but I’m just trying to find that sweet spot where it makes sense to me. So don’t if you could hear as soon as I played that because these don’t have any of the delay on they do feel like they’re sitting quite a lot behind my offbeat hat at the moment. 

And now that’s locked in really nicely. Now you can go along and you can tweak any of the sounds, anything’s fair play I tend to leave the stuff that’s on the beat where it is until I’ve set everything else and then I might tweak it a little bit. It’s only my system you can try anything that you want. In this case, I also had this rim loop that was quite a prominent straight sound that I thought if I move that forwards and backwards will really affect the speed. 

You can really hear how that move the needle as well. Let’s leave it where it is and we could just hear the whole loop now going faster and again I’ll switch back to A just so you can hear the slowed down version, which of course is just rocking a bunch of positive track delay values. 

And there you have it I told you it was super super fast and you get a great overview at the bottom so you can see exactly what you’re doing on all the tracks at the same time, don’t have to fiddle around with start markers in audio clips moving MIDI notes around and all of that stuff. Now I’ve got one other ninja hack for you here. As you’ve seen I’ve duplicated out these sounds one nice hack is the sounds that you want to rush the beat or pull the beat back, you could save the rushing version until when you come out of your breakdown to really start picking at the energy up. It’s a nice little trick. It’s quite subtle as you can hear, it’s not mad in your face but it’s just these extra little tricks that really bring a tract to life. So I hope you like this if you did enjoy the tutorial remember to grab yourself a copy of our free ebook 101 ableton tips for house and techno producers finishmoremusic.com/101ebook. You’re gonna find the link on underneath all around this video as well that’s for sure so take care I hope you enjoyed the video until next time happy music making. 


Thank you for watching

I really appreciate you tuning in and I hope you’re enjoying the tutorials and taking some real value into your music sessions.

If this video resonated with you and you feel it will have a positive impact on the people you know,  please share  it  by using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this page.

To make sure you are always the first to know when a new video lands: Subscribe to the FMM Youtube channel here.

Let me know how you get on with the techniques I showed in the videos and if you have any suggestions for future tutorials, ping me a message on Instagram (@IamKeithMills)

  • 13 December, 2019
  • Video
  • More

FMM035 – JIMMYZKINZ : The Benefits Of Being Prolific At Finishing

If you have been following my podcasts, you will know that I firmly believe that being prolific at finishing music is the key to advancing your production skills and improving the quality of your music.

Now it is time to give you an incredible real life example of how this can be achieved….

With over a 150 releases and more than 600 tracks finished (just in 2019!) let’s give it up for an FMM Techno Legend…

James Dyer a.k.a. JIMMYZKINZ

Now you might be thinking he’s sitting on his backside all day long making music full time, but he’s not! He’s a family man, he coaches football in his spare time and he runs his own business.

So what’s his secret? Well, as you’re going to discover in this episode, James has a very specific mindset when he steps into the studio and a unique approach to the way he thinks about his music. This is backed up with a workflow, that when he shared it in our San Francisco meetup, quite frankly, blew everyone away!

I had to get him on the show to share his production insights and understand how he has mastered the art of being prolific!

Relax, sit back and enjoy this killer of a podcast!

Key Takeaways:

  • Suspend judgement – Focus on getting the sound finished
  • “Create the idea, let it play its course”
  • “You can’t control other people’s perception, so create the music you want.”
  • Find a balance in your music making – Take breaks.

Resources Mentioned

  • Creative Strategies for Finishing More Music Ebook

Thank You for listening!

I really appreciate you joining me and I hope you’re enjoying the topics and taking some real value into your music sessions.

If this episode resonated with you and you feel it will have a positive impact on the people you know, please share  it  by using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this page.

To make sure you are always the first to know when a new episode lands: Subscribe here.

One of the things that helps people decide if a podcast is for them, is the review section. If you’re enjoying the episodes and feel they will add value for other music producers, please leave a 60 second review and rating. Thank you 🙂

  • 9 December, 2019
  • Podcast
  • More

Recent Posts

  • FMM 215 – Contribution Through Art Pt 4: Mentorship, Music & Changing Lives with Kedrick Jeffries 
  • FMM 214 – Contribution Through Art Pt 3: Creativity That Changes Lives: Empowering Youth Through Music w/ Mark Turk 
  • FMM 213 – Contribution Through Art Pt2: London Elektricity: Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is 

Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Contact Us
© Copyright © 2009-2025 Finish More Music. All Rights Reserved.

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.AcceptReject Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT
Listen to the Latest Podcast Episode:
FMM 215 - Contribution Through Art Pt 4: Mentorship, Music & Changing Lives with Kedrick Jeffries
Your browser does not support the audio element.

$39

BUY NOW

This Live Set contains unique racks and inspiring stab & chord rhythms that capture the pulse and atmosphere of underground dance music.

Generate an infinite number of new ideas to get you moving forward with your tracks by manipulating the sample, midi and effects chains contained in the Live set.

This pack is awesome for super fast harmonic inspiration and can really help kick start new ideas for your music.

Compatible with Ableton Live 9 and above

$39

BUY NOW

Do you often feel that the groove in your tracks doesn’t make you want to ‘bust a move’ as much as your favourite tunes? Well we’ve got this nailed for you…

In this Live Set, we’ve rammed in over 600 analogue processed samples backed up with a huge variety of midi groove patterns. Save yourself hours of flicking through your sample library and literally write 100’s of tracks without ever having to reach for another drum sample.

Compatible with Ableton Live 9 and above

$39

BUY NOW

Do you often feel like you’re banging your head against the wall trying to create interesting and credible melodies?

In this Ableton Live set we supply you all the tools and inspiration you need to create engaging electronic melodies that fit perfectly your music.

Whether you make the darkest techno, deepest house or floating, euphoric prog, this pack is for you.

Compatible with Ableton Live 9 and above

$39

BUY NOW

This Live Set contains analogue bass sounds and patterns that capture the pulse, depth and drive of underground dance music. If you like dark, driving styles such as Techno, Tech House, Progressive and Acid House, this pack will be fantastic for you.

We will show you how to manipulate our Ableton Live set and generate an infinite number of new ideas to get you moving forward with your tracks.

Compatible with Ableton Live 9 and above

$29

BUY NOW

Learn how to combine various chords to design your own captivating progressions for your music. Modulate the provided samples to add movement, depth and interest to the harmonic foundation of your tracks.

In this Live Set we give you all the tools to generate your own pads & chords, plus we show you how to deconstruct our pre-built Ableton racks so you can learn the insider tricks for designing your own.

Compatible with Ableton Live 9 and above

$39

BUY NOW

Do you often feel that creating dark, edgy melodies is an uphill struggle and you usually end up with cheesy happy sounding riffs?…

This Ableton Live set that will give you all the tools and inspiration you need to create riffs, melodies and arps that fit perfectly with underground dance music.

Whether you make the darkest techno, deepest house or floating, euphoric prog this pack is for you.

Compatible with Ableton Live 9 and above

$39

BUY NOW

Do you often struggle to add the final finishing touches to your tracks?

Do you find yourself wasting time searching through 100’s of cheesy effects and samples?

Waste no more time and take inspiration from this Ableton Live set that will give you all the tools  you need to quickly create unique SFX patterns and transitions for your music.

Whether you make the dark techno, minimal house or floating, euphoric prog this pack is for you

Compatible with Ableton Live 9 and above

$39

BUY NOW

Do you often get frustrated when the tracks you create evolve in a completely different direction and mood than you intended? Setting the right ambience and atmosphere at the very start will help you overcome this and support you in writing the style of music that you want to make.

We’re thrilled to bring you an Ableton Live set that will instantly set you up with the perfect mood and atmosphere for your music.

Compatible with Ableton Live 9 and above

$79

BUY NOW
  • Description
  • Video List

Description

Add a killer low end to your tracks with drive, groove and movement that works seamlessly with your other sounds.

Learn how to use multiple bass sounds and layers to create interesting and dynamic bass lines that are full of life and movement.

Lessons taught in Ableton Live 9

Video List

Total hours: 3.5h

  • Taking The Most From This Course
  • Inconsistent Bass
  • Minimal Offbeat
  • Kick & Bass Tuning
  • Offbeat Prog Variations
  • Syncopated Deep Tech
  • Compressors & Groove
  • Accents & Pulse
  • Rolling Basslines
  • Pumping & Breathing
  • Glide Bass
  • Harmonics & Modulation
  • Groove Emphasis & Colour
  • Octave Movement
  • Pulsing Mod Bass
  • Melodic Bass Tricks
  • Groove Tips and Tricks
  • Chord Following
  • Melodic House Bass
  • MultiBass QandA
  • MultiBass Cycles
  • Layered Bass Lines
  • Techno Rumble Bass
  • Atmospheric Layers
  • Rhythmic Layers
  • Filtered Bass
  • Audio Edits
  • Percussive Inspiration
  • Transcribing Pro Basslines 1
  • Transcribing Pro Basslines 2
  • Random Inspiration
  • Your Next Steps

$49

BUY NOW
  • Description
  • Video List

Description

Do you often listen to your tracks and feel they lack that ‘special something’ you hear in professional productions? Chances are you need to add movement, dynamics and variation to the sounds in your mix.

Using delays is the answer! We show you how to master this effect so you can level up your tracks and turn them into ‘something special’.

Lessons taught in Ableton Live 9

Video List

Total hours: 2.5h

  • How to approach this pack
  • Delay Lines
  • Feedback Loops
  • Multiple Delay Lines
  • Filters & Mono Sums
  • Dynamic Drums
  • Super Fast Percussion
  • Enhanced Movement
  • Cross Feeds
  • Frozen Delays
  • Advanced Vocal Delays
  • Melodic Accompaniments
  • Stereo Tricks
  • Stuttered Edits
  • Re-inventing Old Sounds
  • Melodic Offsets
  • Depth Delays
  • Multi-tap Delays
  • Effected MIDI Taps
  • The Hidden Multi-Tap
  • Modular Design
  • Mono Stereo Compatibility
  • Compression For Key Sounds
  • Top Mixdown Tips
  • Your next steps

$39

BUY NOW
  • Description
  • Video List

Description

Pads, drones and textures are vital for adding the movement and depth you hear in professional productions. They glue your sounds together and provide support for your leads and melodies.

This sound design master class shows you how to quickly create your own sounds and put them to use in your music.

Lessons taught in Ableton Live 9

Video List

Total hours: 2.5h

  • How to approach this pack
  • Perfect envelopes
  • Filter movement
  • Lush pads
  • Oscillator tricks
  • Huge pads
  • Spacious pads
  • Formant filters
  • Reverse engineering
  • Mastering FM
  • Complex FM pads
  • Algorithm tricks
  • Drones and textures
  • Vocal pads
  • Complex vocal pads
  • Bell pads
  • Granular textures
  • Ambience
  • Rhythmic ambience
  • Layering tricks
  • Arrangement tricks
  • Your next steps

$89

BUY NOW
  • Description
  • Video List

Description

Learn how to create music that connects with your listener’s emotions and touches their soul. Make music people will remember and understand the theory behind creating tracks that are dark and edgy, or uplifting and euphoric.

If you’ve struggled with music theory before, this is for you.

Lessons taught in Ableton Live 9

Video List

Total hours: 4.75h

  • How to approach this pack
  • Stab definition
  • Why learn about music theory?
  • Fast scales
  • Picking the best scale for your track.
  • Exploring intervals
  • Interval progressions
  • Exploring triads
  • Inversions
  • Deep 7th’s & 9th’s
  • Quartal chords
  • Borrowed chords
  • Chord progression tips
  • Classic house chords
  • Harmony – key concepts
  • Acid stabs
  • Rich analogue synth
  • Analogue synth processing
  • Vibrato movement
  • Prog stabs routing
  • Prog stabs design
  • Colouration, drive & vibe
  • Dub stabs
  • Dub delay
  • Timbre macros
  • Tech stabs
  • Compression & movement
  • Varied chords
  • Deep vintage stabs
  • Metallic stabs
  • Unique layers
  • Workflow
  • Your next steps

$69

BUY NOW
  • Description
  • Video List

Description

Using loops offers lots of benefits to your music. You can build a track quickly and easily, inspire new ideas, achieve a professional sound and gain access to playing styles and instruments that are not available in your studio.

We teach you how to make great music using your loop library.

Lessons taught in Ableton Live 9

Video List

Total hours: 3h

  • How to approach this pack
  • Re-arranging rhythms
  • Adding variations
  • Creating slice to MIDI presets
  • Fill variations
  • Ghost variations
  • Audio editing tricks
  • Effects washes
  • Oldskool sampling
  • Poly-rhythms
  • Organic timing
  • Analogue emulation
  • Layering for movement
  • Developing riffs
  • Developing riffs – advanced
  • Building tension
  • Building energy
  • Using chords
  • Developing chords
  • EQ separation
  • Phase separation
  • Stereo separation
  • Final loop
  • Superfast drum kit
  • Loop generator
  • Cheating, it’s to easy
  • Your next steps

$69

BUY NOW
  • Description
  • Video List

Description

For those who want to write melodies that are dark and edgy, or uplifting and euphoric. Understand how to add melodic tension & release in your arrangements to keep your audience hooked. Learn a unique approach to music theory aimed purely at dance music producers.

If your melodies always sound boring and uninspiring, this pack is perfect for you!

Lessons taught in Ableton Live 9

Video List

Total hours: 2.75h

  • Making the most of this pack.
  • What is a melody
  • Lightning Scales
  • Choosing the perfect scale
  • Dark Arps
  • Powerful rhythmic changes
  • Polyrhythms
  • Dynamic Life
  • Expression
  • Fast inspiration with software
  • Chord Progression Tips
  • Riffs, Ostinatos & Loops
  • Riff Core Structure
  • Tension & Release
  • Harmonic Tension
  • Chords & Melodies
  • Melodic Movement
  • Melodic Structures
  • How to Start and Finish.
  • Repetition & Contrast
  • Peak & Balance
  • Melodic Layering
  • Putting it all together

$39

BUY NOW
  • Description
  • Video List

Description

A powerful kick is a vital ingredient in electronic music to drive your track, enhance your bass and punch through your mix. Low end is king, but it’s also one of the most difficult things to master!

We teach you the ‘must know’ tips and tricks that simply aren’t available anywhere else.

Lessons taught in Ableton Live 9

Video List

Total hours: 2.5h

  • How to approach this pack
  • Anatomy of a kick
  • Kick synthesis
  • Using an oscilloscope
  • Advanced kick synthesis
  • Saturator
  • Crafting sample dynamics
  • Adding punch
  • Bite & Colour
  • Creative warping
  • Layering methods
  • Layering – waveform editing
  • Layering – EQ & atmosphere
  • Bouncing & creating an instrument
  • Pumping compression
  • Enhancing kicks with EQ
  • Tuning kick drums
  • Sampling kicks from other producers
  • Important workflow tips
  • Your next steps

$79

BUY NOW
  • Description
  • Video List

Description

Create drum patterns full of life and variation for your latest musical masterpiece. Change energy levels to drive your music forward and seamlessly move between sections in your arrangement. Learn the insider tips and tricks that professionals use to enhance the groove in their music.

If you write music for the dance floor this pack is for you!

Lessons taught in Ableton Live 9

Video List

Total hours: 3.5h

  • Making the most of this pack
  • The rhythm framework
  • The power of accents
  • Rhythmic contour
  • Silence & contrast
  • Dynamics
  • Enhancing the groove
  • Analysing professional loops
  • Call & response programming
  • Adding life
  • House percussion analysis
  • Release & groove
  • Micro adjustments
  • Swing & groove uncovered
  • Deep & Tech hats
  • Super fast hat & perc patterns
  • Organic rhythms
  • Dusky house layer
  • Ghost notes
  • Rhythmic effects
  • Reverb settings for drums
  • Reverb tricks
  • Drum buss compression
  • Loop variation
  • Programming drum fills
  • Fast drum fill hacks
  • Snare roll tricks
  • Polyrhythms
  • Energy levels
  • Washy techno rides
  • Complimenting the bassline
  • Your next steps

<iframe src=”https://forms.monday.com/forms/embed/1fc1cf91f75c23a0b95ab5e7951c4f89?r=use1″ width=”650″ height=”500″ style=”border: 0; box-shadow: 5px 5px 56px 0px rgba(0,0,0,0.25);”></iframe>

Almost there: please complete this form and click the button to get access

Sign up below to get access to the
Finish More Music Workshop NOW

[activecampaign]

Privacy Policy: We hate SPAM and promise to keep your email address safe!

Almost there: please complete this form and click the button to get notified.

Sign up below to be the FIRST notified when the
Finish More Music Workshop begins

Privacy Policy: We hate SPAM and promise to keep your email address safe!