4 things I learned working with the biggest sample company in the world, Splice

A couple of weeks ago, I worked with Splice for 5 days here in São Paulo, Brazil, helping them develop sample packs for Brazilian Funk.

Even though I didn’t work on these packs, the producers they invited taught, and reminded me, of important lessons that every producer should follow…

4 THOUGHTS FROM ME

1. Use your limitations to your advantage and not as an excuse.

Many producers often make songs with less gear and plugins than us, and that doesn’t stop them from pursuing their dreams and goals, and this is what the producers in the group taught me about that:

1. Stop wishing for something and just go make music. Instead of blaming your lack of something or your possible inability to finish due to the lack of that one plugin, learn how to find an alternative solution or do it without it. This will help you learn how to find other ways to solve your issues, which often can already be solved with your current tools;
2. Master your current plugins instead of buying new ones. Instead of wishing for new shiny tools, master the tools you currently have before you spend buttloads of money on new plugins during this upcoming black Friday. As a consequence, this can open up money for you to
   • Invest in knowledge, buying 1on1 sessions or courses
   • Invest in your releases, which will allow you to spend more to get your song promoted by playlists, or;
   • Invest in quality headphones/speakers;
     All three will help you way more than any other plugin;
3. Use your limitations to your advantage. Brazilian funk producers mentioned how the lack of equipment brought texture to their music, which comes from, for example, recording vocals with Whatsapp since they can’t afford good recordings. Instead of complaining that you can’t invest in vocals, for example, learn in this post how you can find vocalists without needing to pay upfront via YouTube covers, as I’ve done MANY times.
   This will train you on how to properly find, treat and process good vocalists without spending loads of money on vocalists without even knowing how to work with them.

2. Break the rules of your genre as a way to stand out.

While interviewing Brazilian Funk producer D.Silvestre (1.5 Million monthly listeners on Spotify and playing 2-3 gigs per week), he mentioned that his goal as a producer is to break the rules of his genre because “doing the same is boring and not the purpose of why artists should make music”.

For that, here are a few things he intentionally does things that would be considered different in his genre:

1. Bring a sound from a different genre to your music;
2. Use elements in ways they are not intended to, like having a percussion become a lead like what Martin Garrix did with Animals or make a lead out of a vocal like Anyma did in his remix for Lana Del Rey;
3. Bring elements from your local culture to your music, like Brazilian producer Maz bringing Portuguese vocals to electronic music;
4. Merge your music with elements from different cultures around the world, like what Brazilian producer Flakke does in his music;
5. Include elements that you recorded, even if with your phone, like foley, textures, or even your vocals, like what Canadian producer and Abstrakt’s alumni Adina Nova did in her release at Purified;
6. Use sound design to create something unique and unheard in your genre like Frost in Overtones;
7. Most importantly, to be different, dare to be different. In that case, what matters is that you persist and keep on pushing until you find something that unique and appreciated by others.

3. Find your message as an artist to level up your composition.

To authentically show your sound through your music to an audience, you need to find the message that you’re trying to send as an artist, and include that in your music. That’s what IDLIBRA mentioned during our interview, and that is crucial to your music as this is what can make fans connect with you on a deeper level.

For that, here are a few things you can do:

1. Find the things you’re already connected with. Is there anything or a place that you really like? For example, No Mana, whose music and artwork have various hints of 8-bit mentioned he loves Nintendo Games and relates a LOT to Pixel Art, which is where he draws a lot of inspiration from;
2. Find your sound through experimentation. In addition to finding what you are connected to, you can also experiment a lot, especially with sound design, and develop a sound that is uniquely yours, but also relatable to the things you’re connected with.
   For that, find a sound that you like and incorporate it into as much music as you can. It can be as simple as how you make your chords, or also as crazy as the melodic techno “Anyma shots” found in Running;
3. Discover your message through Mind Mapping. As mentioned in this post, write down what three to four words/feelings/moods you want to be associated with, and dive deeper into these words transforming them into elements that you can implement in your song or branding.

4. Bring back the urge to produce you had when you started making music.

When D.Silvestre got credits as a gift from Splice, he went home after the studio and produced from 12am to 5am just searching through samples and making songs. Doesn’t that remind you of your old days as well? Of course, life is different now, and time is likely more limited, right?

But, how can you bring back the urge to produce:

1. Get a shiny new plugin or hardware to play with. I know, I just mentioned that you shouldn’t spend your money on plugins and gear, but sometimes that can be a GREAT motivation booster to your music, sometimes even breaking out of a creative rut, especially if this new toy adds
   • A new functionality to your stack, or
   • A new workflow to your music;
2. Learn a new skill. A great way to get your motivation back is by learning a new skill, especially one that was holding you back for a long time. For that, you can either go to our YouTube channel, get a 1-on-1 session with a producer, or follow a course at Production Music Live on something you’re not so skilled at;
3. Discover your message and your unique sound. In addition to being helpful to your music, finding your message and your sound will make your productions so much more enjoyable since it can put you in a state of flow that is amazing for creativity and productivity, and you can see a lot more about how to regain the fun with your music in our last post.

3 QUICK TIPS FOR YOU

What else did I learn that you can apply to your music?

1. Jam just for fun with your DAW.
Sometimes, just jamming and having fun with music, your DAW, and a MIDI device, like a keyboard or a sampler like Push or Maschine, not really thinking about making a song for release, but just about making an 8-bar loop the best that it can be really fun. In addition, you can later deconstruct this and build a song with the elements you have;

2. Record yourself.
As mentioned in topic 2, your music becomes a lot more personal when you start including your own recorded foleys, vocals, or samples in your tunes. Pick a recorder, and any recorder works, and start recording what you can;

3. Worry about the problems later.
Often we don’t use a vocal from an original song or a sample because we don’t want to start something that is not going to be released, but that is the wrong mindset. Pick whatever sample or song you like, use it in your songs, and then worry about clearing these samples or just replacing them once you have something going.