Hey, ,guys, Will from EDM Tips. So, in this lesson I'm going to show you how to actually finish your
music. Now, one of the most common problems that producers ask me about is how they can actually
get their music finished once they've come up with an idea; because if you're anything like me, you
might have a hard drive full of eight or sixteen bar loops that sound really cool and they're really
fun to make but actually taking those ideas out into a fully finished five or six minute track
can be a real struggle for a lot of us. So, I'm going to share with you 12 techniques that you
can put into practice today and you're going to start finishing your music in no time at all. If
you find this video useful, please, subscribe to my channel, hit that like button and you can also
download my free track finishing checklist below this video. You just need to follow it through, tick
everything off, and by the end you'll have yourself a fully finished track. This checklist is the exact
strategy that I've developed over 25 years of producing music and it's helped me finish hundreds
of tracks, some of which have been supported by some of the world's biggest DJs so you can use
these techniques for your own music too. Okay, without further ado let's hop into the first
of these 12 track finishing strategies. So, first let's touch upon why it's actually important to be
finishing your music because most music producers love coming up with the ideas but finishing those
tracks is quite difficult and frustrating. Now, this lesson is all about finishing music but if you
do want me to make one on how to generate ideas, let me know in the comments below and I'll make
it happen. Now, finishing music is really important for a couple of reasons: one, if you never actually
finish music, you'll never actually release music, so you can't really call yourself a music producer;
and the second is every track that you finish your skills are going to improve because you'd have
finished yet another bass line, another drum sequence, you had another melody, yet another chord
progression - and all of this compounds over time, so the more tracks you finish the better you get at
all of these skills. Now, a great story I've heard that illustrates this is that there was a teacher
with a class full of students and they were split into two groups: one group could spend a whole year
trying to perfect this vase that they were making out of clay and the other group could make as many
vases as they want within that year. Now, at the end of that year which group do you think had
the better vase? The one group that had spent the whole year perfecting this one vase or the other
group that had spent the whole year creating and finishing multiple vases? Of course, when you put
it like that, it's obviously the second group, right? Now, I may have got that story slightly wrong but
it should illustrate the point. It's also worth noting that finishing music is a skill unto itself,
so not only will your other production techniques improve, your skill at finishing tracks is going
to improve as well. So, let's move on to powerful technique number two and that is using a reference
track in the same genre that you're producing to map out the arrangement; but not only are you
mapping out the arrangement by listening to this reference music, you'll also pick up clues about
what your music should and shouldn't include. Now, as to how many elements your music should have, it
really depends on the genre that you are producing or writing; but listening to a reference track is
going to be the best way that you can determine what you should and shouldn't be including in your
music. I'll give you a clue, though, it's probably less than you think but a very common mistake
for most producers is to actually overcomplicate their music and listening to a reference track is
gonna help you avoid doing that. Okay, technique number three and this is super important and
this is something that I need for myself because I don't have very much willpower but this is having
strict deadlines and having real world stakes (not the tasty kind) attached to those deadlines. So, for
me, personally, if a record label has a release date or another producer is relying me to get
some music to him or her, then having someone else depending on me finishing that track by that time
is the number one way that I know I'm gonna get that track finished, by hook or by crook. And if
you don't have external deadlines like that, then you need to learn how to set them for yourself
and have real world stakes to hold them accountable. For example, if you say I'm going to
finish this track by the end of the week and if I do, I'm going to buy myself a new game or I'm going
to take myself out for a meal with my mates, and if you don't finish it, then you can't do those things.
That's an example of how you can set real world stakes to hold your own feet to the fire. It's
uncomfortable and sometimes stresses you out but the truth of the matter is most producers never
finish music because it is stressful to do that. Sometimes the idea generation is great fun but
it's the five percent of producers that actually train themselves to have the discipline to finish
the tracks to get their music released and then ultimately enjoy all of the benefits that doing
that work brings them.Okay, number four and this is to separate out your sessions. It can be very
overwhelming if you open a blank DAW, you know, you've got to do the mixing, the mastering, the
idea generation, and the arrangement and it can be, as I say, overwhelming so something that you can
do to avoid that is plan in advance what you're going to do in each session. So, for me, personally,
I'll try and generate an 8 or 16 bar loop in the first session, then I'll have a break, the next
session is going to be developing those sounds, and then bringing that out into a full arrangement as
quickly as possible. Only then will I move into the mixing and then finally the mastering stage
of the production process and having the different stages of production delineated in this way just
makes each process a bit more manageable. The other benefit is that each of these different stages
of music production actually involve a slightly different mindset. So, if I'm doing idea generation,
it might be late at night, maybe I've had a beer or so but if I'm doing the arrangement or the mixing,
I'm going to be doing it in the morning with a fresh head, a clear head, and i've got a slightly
different mindset. So, powerful technique number five is to remove distractions and treat each
session as you would a job. Now, again, this can sound a bit boring and it needs some discipline
but if you leave your phone outside of the room, close down any other apps you've got running, and
refer to the deadline you've set yourself, and treat your session as you would a job, and that's
a great mindset to get into when it comes to actually getting that track arranged into a full
track. Now, number six kind of ties into a couple of the previous points we've already touched upon
but it's basically limiting your time in the loop. Now, writing music in a loop is really important
and it's the way I do it - I'll loop a 8 or 16 bar loop until I've got something sounding pretty good
but it's very easy to then get stuck in that loop, listening to it over and over and over until you
get sick to the back teeth of it. So, at that point you can either use the reference track technique
to map out the structure as quickly as possible or there is something else you can try as well,
which takes me to technique number seven and that is to use the session view in Ableton Live. If you
use Ableton to jam out a few different ideas for arrangement, perhaps you're triggering one loop,
with another loop, you're layering different clips on top of each other, to find something
that sounds good and you can record that all into the arrangement view as well. Most of it
might be rubbish but you could stumble across a couple of really nice arrangement patterns
that seem to work really well. You can just save those and then build the rest of the arrangement
from those points outwards. Number eight is to use inspiration playlists. Now, if you've been writing
a track and you don't know where to go, perhaps you don't know what to add to your loop, if you've got
your favorite two or three most recent tracks in your playlist, like if you're using Apple music or
Spotify, whatever it is, listening to those tracks will give you inspiration on perhaps different
production techniques you can use, different arrangement techniques you can use, and it can just
jolt a couple of things in your mind that'll get things cooking again but don't be afraid to delve
into someone else's music because as David Bowie said: "The only arts that he views is that he can
steal from", so don't be afraid of taking ideas from other music producers because there is no true
originality, everything is based on an inspiration from something else. So, embrace that mindset and
don't get hell-bent on being completely original. The next technique is to set up your DAW template
in a way that you can work quickly and efficiently, and that's got some of your favorite things
already programmed in, so you don't need to repeat yourself time and time again. Something really
simple but something that I use and it saves me hours and hours every week. Number 10 is building
out favourites folders. So, I've got favourites folders of my favorite samples, also my favorite
processing chains, and instrument chains. So, if I've spent hours and hours making something that sounds
really cool, I don't want to have to repeat that whole process the next time because it's going
to break my flow and I want to be producing as quickly as possible, so then I can get my
tracks and ideas finished as quickly as possible. So, favorite folders are so, so important, as well as
saving out those instrument chains, and any other process that you're doing time and time again
that you could actually automate to a degree. Okay, so we've got our rough idea mapped out, we've taken
it from loop, we've used our template technique, and we've taken it out into a full arrangement,
but how do we know what else needs to be done to it? Well, there's a couple of techniques I've
got here. One is to turn the monitor off whilst I'm listening through to the track and that's because
I don't want to be visually anticipating what's coming, I want to be putting myself in the mindset
of a listener, so someone who's just hearing it, and I'm going to take a post-it note like this,
and I'm going to make a note of everything that I can hear jumping out that needs changing. And I
like to do this with completely fresh ears, so if I've come up with the arrangement the day before,
I will then come and listen to it. On the first time I listen to that's when I make the notes
because my ears have had a rest, they're gonna pick things up that I wouldn't have noticed
the day before because I was so used to working on the track, which takes me to technique number
twelve. One of the most important and ultimately what's going to make the difference between you
just having a bunch of loops on your hard drive or actually finishing and releasing tracks, and here
it is: once you've written through your notes, go through them in order and change everything you
need to. Now, this might sound obvious but this is where people give up because guess what?! It gets
boring, because when you've done that then you give it a day off, then you rest for a day, you listen to
to your track again and again you take notes, and then you have to work through those points, ticking
them off and doing them as you go. This could take several hours and this is the number one reason
people never finish their music. They simply get caught up with the fun of generating ideas but
never actually force themselves to sit down and finish it but I tell you - this is a key habit to
develop, and having deadlines, and everything else that we've talked about today are gonna help you
hold your own feet to the fire and actually get your music released out into the world. So, there
you have it, guys. I really hope you've enjoyed this video today, don't forget, you can download
my track finishing checklist completely free below this video and if you found it useful, please, smash
subscribe, hit the like button, and i'll catch you for another tutorial very shortly. If you feel you
need the accountability that so many of us does, check out my Accelerator program below this video.
We've helped have students get signed to some of the world's biggest labels by using some of
the techniques that I've talked about today and also giving weekly feedback, which helps people,
help point things out that they may have missed and show them exactly what to do to fix those
problems. Anyway, thanks again for watching. Until next time, cheers and happy producing!