The Source has been a consistent center point for studio science and the ever-growing catalogue of tutorials has really helped to connect the bedroom with the dancefloor. This sentiment is to be taken up a notch with the news of The Source 2.0 being unveiled. We caught up with co-founder Michael James who is in the hot seat for the next edition…
It’s been a while since your last video, what nuggets do you have for us today?
Yes, it has! I did the first one and since then I wanted to let other artists showcase their skills and talents. Today, as we’re launching The Source website I thought it made sense that I stepped back up and shared some knowledge. The tutorial is focused around an FX chain I’ve created in Ableton for maximising your drum sounds and helping them to sit out in the mix, it’s a free download and you can grab a copy at musicfromthesource.com.
What other elements does this technique work on?
Literally anything. It can be used on all sorts of elements too, it’s not just for drums but with the frequency shifting capabilities it wouldn’t work so well on tuned elements as you’d be detuning them and it might sound a bit out of key. For drums, spoken words, and little FX it works great.
Have you copywritten the Michael James Maximiser yet?
Hahaha, no! It’s basically a small FX ‘plugin’ built in Ableton using Macros and already existing Ableton plugins. All the stuff inside the Maximiser is available to all Ableton users already, but it’s the way that I’ve built it that needs some technical ability and understanding. People who download it will be able to open it in Ableton and see how it works by opening up the chains and seeing what goes on ‘under the hood’.
What are your plans for the track in the video?
Well, I actually just made the track specifically for the video, I was only planning on making some drums, but I wanted to let people know how it would sound with some more elements so I added a few extra parts. I might finish it off, I’m going to be launching my own label soon, so you never know, it could end up on there…
A little bird tell us that you are launching a new website? Tell us all about it?
I’ve been running The Source for almost a year now and we’ve gained 4.5k followers which is great, but the Instagram account only allows us to share so much. The Instagram channel will continue the same, I already have the next couple of videos from artists ready to go and there are a few others that are creating their videos at the moment. Rich NxT has been working really hard over the last couple of months getting the site ready and we’re finally at a stage where we’re really happy with what we’ve got and excited to share it with everyone!
The website will just run alongside the Instagram page offering more content and some nice things for our followers to get involved in, we already have plans for sample packs (the first one is from Rich NxT and is available on the website now), group classes with limited spaces (I’m running the first one and you can also book that on the website now), competitions, giveaways, and longer tutorials from some of the great artists we’re working with. The website is free to join, but we just need somewhere that we can host all this extra content!
Can you tell us who you have coming up on The Source?
It’s a surprise, but the next two tutorials we have lined up are super creative and I really enjoyed watching them. They both use some interesting techniques I’ve personally never considered before and that’s one of the main reasons I started this whole project! It’s a really great thing to see that there are so many different ways to make a great track, and I think it’s really important for up-and-coming producers to understand that there isn’t really a right or wrong way to do things. Music is art at the end of the day, it’s all about expressing yourself!
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