Producing a Song without a DAW
Вставка
- Опубліковано 13 бер 2021
- Links to stream "You Are My Love"
Spotify: mdnt30.com/go/yaml-spotify
Apple Music: mdnt30.com/go/yaml-apple
Deezer: mdnt30.com/go/yaml-deezer
Amazon: mdnt30.com/go/yaml-amazon
Listen to more by me: mdnt30.com/mandelbro/
Follow me on Instagram: / mandelbro1
Special thanks to Paul Rouet, Nicolas and Camilo for helping make this video!!
OK this is the BIGGEST video I've ever made, and I couldn't be more delighted to finally share it. Make sure to leave a like and a comment, and share it with a friend if you can! I really appreciate it. All the best, guys 💛💛💛
I listened to and downloaded the short preview on Apple music and loaded it up onto Audition. The mastering is really well done. There's no multi-band-compressed brick-walling or clipping, and the waveform retains all the dynamics of your hard work and efforts. Well done.
You’re amazing. So inspiring! Thank you
Great stuff, if you don’t already, play live, solo or group, I’m not a pro but been around long enough to see the benefits, don’t stop, and keep going....
I absolutely love the song you made in this video! All that struggle made it that much better.
You should check out Viola Lee Blues from The Grateful Dead! Reason I suggest is because has that same idea of starting off nice and slow then building to this ridiculous loud and fast song over the course of 10 minutes, then right at the apex it snaps back to the original groove.
Mandelbro: i produce a song without quantizing
Old school musicians: first time?
Mandelbro: yes 🙄
@@mandelbro1 You're doing fine, carry on.
This is a ridiculous comment, and I say that as a musician who has been recording music since the early 90s using this same tape machine. First, we live it a different time. People who aren’t old farts like me have had the benefit of amazing technology that “old school musicians” only dreamed about. Why shouldn’t younger musicians work this way? And in doing so, they come to rely on some of the crutches that are available because of it. It’s awesome to see someone decide to try something new and hone his skills. But there’s also no shame in doing it the easier way, using Flex Time and auto tune. There’s no wrong way to create art. So what if this was his first time doing this. He did it with skill and he created a great song.
@@shannonpalmer
Was just a joke, i'm one of them young musician's who are using DAW's and all the awesome new tehnology.
I'm sorry if my joke offended mandelbro or someone else :))
i worked with a french girl who's technique was not to fix anything. we just hit record and played one take on every track. she called it 'cruit'
And how did it sound?
I think she meant "crut" which means raw
@@mandelbro1 I'm still waiting on him
@@LeDoritoS911 it's "cru" in french, but maybe "cruit" is a pun between "cru" (raw) and "cuit" (cooked)
@@fale.cedille I did a typo lol yeah it's written "crue"(it's a shame i'm french)
The luxury of living in an area where there is actually musicians to work with. Something I wish I had.
where you at?
Lmao I live in Nashville and got plenty of ppl to work with
@@Thermolizer Southeast Minnesota
@@prodstella lucky
@@addisonhouse420 lmao
I love how when you tell the older gentleman that you’re challenging yourself to record analog and he’s like, “oh yeah I basically spent my entire life on this technology”
he was like "chalenge??" lol
I think he meant that its challenge for him, not the engineer
If this was a TV series, i'd bing watch it in one evening. Super high level production. I can't believe you dcoument this process so well AND produced an incredible music track at the end. YOURE SO TALENTEDDDDD
I guess he got to indulge in his perfectionism on the video side of this!
Keep a straight wrist! Adam Neely has videos talking about this, basically you want to keep you left wrist straight and not bent because it helps prevent unnecessary strain and injury.
Exactly. You keep straight wrists, limp hands, and fingers ready to hit the keys with a slight curvature downwards. That's how keyboards are properly played. Once that becomes a habit, you can play any style of music well.
@@cjay2 I was actually referring to bass, but I suppose it's good advice for keys as well. It's good advice for any instrument or task, really. I've been dealing with largely unrelated wrist issues and it's a nightmare.
@@KnapfordMaster98 Hehe, I was thinking you were referring to keyboard playing! It would seem that it applies also to the electric bass. Once someone has mastered these physical abilities, they are then free to play freely as they wish in the moment, always knowing to return to the discipline that they learned to play with.
TRUTH
Yes! Also keeping aware not to apply too much pressure with the thumb on the neck
This is something I've always strived for in a recording. Doing it live in one-takes and capture every little detail that makes us different from every other artist.
Doing lots of editing = technical perfection.
Doing it in one takes = emotional perfection.
For sure! Another important difference with doing things in one takes is that you can more consistent energy building up and releasing throughout the song. If you record in little bits, even if the cuts are clean, you'll feel these slight changes in energy between sections that aren't fluid.
@@mandelbro1 Yeah exactly! There are these dynamics that is impossible to create without doing it live.
I think this is shown well in this song that you wrote. Instead of being this casual song that we hear every day, we get to hear a song that lives and breathes. Lots of hard work is put into this and its clearly heard in the song that all these small details are well captured.
It's a really good song man. Keep up the good work!
17:25 Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this ‘perfectionism-problem’ as a creator. Experienced this several time and yes, it’s frustrating!
Came here for this, spot on.
You need to fight your perfectionism. Maybe start by purposefully trying to create something really bad and just let loose. You will probably fail by having so much fun and create something awesome 🙃
I had that this morning, when i tried recording guitar from « wanna be starting something » of michael jackson.
This guitar solo completely frustrated me.. i eventually got 1 good take in 4 hours of recording,,
Result will come tomorow on my channel
holy moly yes
This is music. This is what it's all about. Sometimes I'll leave mistakes in recordings, it doesn't matter as much as you think it does. I recorded an EP with this kind of idea in mind. Minimal edits, no vocal tuning, just raw, fast, loud punk music. You just keep recording until you do it right. And my feelings towards it are similar to yours on this song. It's one of my best releases.
Please never stop making cassette tapes videos! And never stop making this funny, clever, interesting and original content! You're seriously saving me from this boring quarantine. Thanks man!
This is awesome on some many levels! I deeply relate to the "hey let's fix everything and make it 'perfect' " thing -- sweating over the dumbest of details. I'm inspired to maybe not over-do-it on my next project now!
...that said, I'd LOVE to hear a before/after comparison of this organic version vs. a more edited version.
quantizing takes so much away from the groove of most music
i knew that your name looked familiarrr!! i fckin loved im mr meeseeks back in 2018
@@madl4d_ Haha! Thank you! :)
I had that this morning, when i tried recording guitar from « wanna be starting something » of michael jackson.
This guitar solo completely frustrated me.. i eventually got 1 good take in 4 hours of recording,,
Result will come tomorow on my channel
I was introduced into music mainly through percussion before I started producing, quantize sometimes makes things sound worse. Usually 1st takes are the best, when you over think things you lose what is naturally good. Your brain naturally knows what sounds good.
Yesterday I was recording an ep in which I just jam. Literally only improvisation. And I've noticed that a lot of the time I I just keep trying to make it perfect, to layer it... hide mistakes. But the best stuff happens when you just hang loose and don't over think it. Like who cares if it's a shit recording... if you played and had fun, it might sound better than a perfect recording with no emotion, no feel... no humanity.
YES! You are absolutely right, my friend! Humans make mistakes, fuck overproduced music.
That's so true
Imagine growing up in a pre-DAW world like many of us did. We live in the golden age of music creation. You can buy amazing synths that no one could afford then, you can download massive sound libraries without collecting all of your samples yourself, you don’t have to pull your hair out trying to do everything in one take so that you didn’t drop more money in the recording studio. Your passion for recording is refreshing. Cheers!
"If you pick your collaborators right it's really easy and fun" mhmm amen
Crazy how authentic the final song feels, congrats! Great storytelling, great editing and most importantly great music. LETSGO
"trop-sty-lé"
Your willingness to dive into an almost forgotten technology and technique (analogue recording) is a gem. I lived through the jump from A to D. Watching you build your songs brings me so many memories of my younger days with former bands. Attempting to capture the essence of what we were about. You have done an incredible job, learning and growing with this technology. I have mad respect for the vulnerability you show in your videos. The challenges, the victories, the flubs and the magic. Its what makes creating music so very special. This song came out fantastic. Id be proud to have recorded this on a Tascam. Keep going my friend. Great videos indeed.
This video just appeared in my feed and I relate to you a lot when it comes to perfeccionism. I also get very frustrated when I record music and it isn't perfect. But I'm not perfect, and nobody is. And it's okay. Sometimes we need to remind ourselves that it's okay to fail in a society that demands perfection.
I am enough, and you are enough, so keep going! 💪🏾
And let me tell you, I LOVED the music and your voice! It's raw and real so.. yeah ;)
This is why I give so much credit to those artists and producers who were around during the beginning of song recording in general. They had to perfect everything from beginning to end of tracks. If one problem was heard during playback, they would re-record.
And here's a tip: tapes will be "worn out" if you record over the same part many times. the time it takes to get an unpleasant result depends on the tape you use, but in the video I realized that the maxwell type II tapes are really great and I'm going to buy some of those hahaha
Had so much pleasure to help on this ! ❤️❤️❤️
Wow. That's definitely a song you should be proud of.
I thoroughly appreciate the bit during the bass guitar section. It was real, raw, and undeniably true. We get out what we put in, and if we can't figure out how to have a positive approach to the process, if we let our own demons dictate the sessions, it makes everything infinitely more difficult to accomplish. It's something I struggle with every day.
I often half write tunes, abandon them thinking they suck only to come back 3 months later, listen to the premise and realise it was awesome. Not that I return to these abandoned projects but somehow I suppose fatigue sets in and you think the tune sucks, but really, I should step back and revisit.
I don't know who you are. I just saw this in my recommendations, and this is pretty good. The final result is beautiful.
Me too... he's a legend in the making for sure
Ain't no quantizing or auto-correction on these glorious 1960s and 1970s records!
Fair play to you, but many of those 60's and 70's records, and even before with musique concrete, relied on tape editing. It is as old as tape recording, to splice and join
has a king krule vibe to it, particularly your vocal. i fuck with it. good job bud.
I think youve unlocked something in my producer/ musical brain. After your cassette four track video I purchased a tascam cassette recorder of my own and its completely changed how I've thought about production... I've been suffering for years now with an obsession with tone and recording quality and never finish any music because I always get bogged down with the details and dont actually focus on writing. I think NO editing / quantization is KEY to making compelling music (not that polished shiz cant be good but we lose focus) Before watching the rest of the video I listened to the "your are my love track" in FULL, I am pleased to say it was a wonderful vibe. A compelling spirit that flows through the whole piece. SUPER old school sounding and not from a sound design perspective but from a spirit of the song perspective. Love it man. Super inspiring stuff.
I have a feeling that mandelbro is the person disliking his videos...
I just love your piano chords; and my best result recording drums was with 3 mics too !!
Less mics, less phase issues…
Congratulations! Keep going. Some of my favourite recordings are ones that just happened. There's one, called Hummin' (yeh it's on my channel), that started as a pre-prod scratch track, but in the end instead of redoing it properly, we shipped it with minimal messing about. Sometimes you just capture something special that transcends ideas of perfection. Yes there exists something more prefect than perfect.
Remember: music is performance. Performance should be human. Humans are not perfect, hence performance won't be perfect. I love that you did this on your 4 track cassette. There are very few edits that can be done on analog tape other than punching in and out. If one listens to each instrument isolated by itself, the imperfections can be glaring, but once blended with all the parts, the imperfections contribute to the overall groove, vibe & feel of the song. Don't be discouraged by your bass performance. I thought it sounded great. Keep it up. I really enjoy seeing your workflow and creative process.
Wow amazing video dude. I especially loved the bit about beating yourself up while recording the bass - so relatable and made me reflect on my own process too. Thank you!
This video IS LIFE!!!!!!! Thank you for sharing the whole process i enjoyed every moment like crazy and the song is FIRE!!!! It sounds INCREDIBLE and just so organically real. I have the same " beating myself up" when it comes to recording music and videos,it has been crippling for so many years and seeing you talk about it with self love was liberating .I needed to hear the right team is out there and it will be so much fun to create together! What else can i say!!! YOU ARE AN AMAZING BEING, MUSICIAN PERFORMER and i am so happy i found you .All the blessings mate love you and THANK YOU!!
I don’t have the patience to go through all that on my own stuff. I always wish I’d gone back and edited the shit out of it
14:54 Make sure your wrist is straight and your fingers are flat to the fretboard when you play, that will make your hand feel more free and you'll have less strain
Great stuff man! Incredible journey to watch. Playing to tape really forces you to give a shit about your performance and that will always lead to becoming a better player and writer. It’s great to be able to “fix it in post” but relying on that ability is not good for any of us.
One quick bass note (heh): I’d recommend thinking about reducing tension in your hands. Might have been the pressure of recording to tape, but I felt the line was coming across fairly tense and a bit hard when my ears were wanting something more relaxed and maybe a bit behind the beat
I've spent so many hours and days in studio during my young time...and sometimes it became some very frustrating moments as you experienced... But you're young, creative, relax, funny and you already understood so much things, that's terribly impressive ! Keep going dude ! I love that ;)
" i am not good enough " usualy leads to " i am gonna show myself that i am good enough " and this video proves it
I haven't liked a video or commented in probably 6 years. This is fucking awesome man. Gave me Peter Cat Recording Co. vibes. Keep up the good work!
I don’t know if you need to hear this, but from one UA-camr in specific niches to another, I see what you’re doing and I respect and love it. I love your videos on the tap recording. I’m scouting for one myself here in the states. Keep it up. What you create here is appreciated and loved. 73.
Thanks so much! Much appreciated and good luck finding a tape machine of your own 👍
As a lifelong drummer I can say I agree about recording AND playing drums. The need and artist in me are both challenged and highly engaged! It’s an obsession!
I've tried to stick to the mantra of not using loops, auto-tune and quantization as much as possible, because that's how my favorite records were made, and the results that I see from that are very rewarding. My songs would sound very similar to how they do now, and that makes me proud :)
first off the song is a real banger, bro- great work from u and the homie on drums and whomever helped with the project. thanks for documenting ur journey. there's so much to learn from this vid and i will be sharing it with my sons and many music students. i am a multi instrumentalist that also records music and it's incredibly frustrating but in the end it's our passion, so i feel u, bro. keep up the great work.
Exactly the feel that i long for, i love this type of music especially on analog media
I clicked on this and watched until the end. Was mind blown that you only have a couple thousand subs. Your video editing is crisp, you're so comfortable around a camera... just everything about this is quality.
I can’t help but remember how we used to do it, with risk of sounding like the drunk uncle at the family reunion. We played the entire track, to tape, mistakes and all, you could punch in a correction and that was it, you needed to learn the whole thing and play it well. Then of course came samplers, but they still required certain skills. I have personally taped down keys on a keyboard, to make a drone note, while playing a different instrument to the same track, using a mixer, onto a four track tape recorder. I am not trying to be nostalgic, but all the small mistakes and inconsistencies, that arise from analog recording really is what makes music come alive. If you separate old analog recordings like classic rock and pop, the tracks are filled with noises, voices and small mistakes, now that is what makes the music so personal.
This whole video is a goddamn Masterpiece. Thanks for the inspiration
18 people clearly cant fathom how incredible this is
Dude! This is an incredible video and incredible editing. Hope this keeps getting tons of views!
Just a comment for the algorithm
More people need to see this masterpiece
I'm so happy to see that I'm nkt the only one struggling with recording perfectly... or flubbing a note. I feel like I should try recording how I used to... it's raw... but it's so cool.
Probably the best video I've seen this week, I fucking loved it, the song at the end was quite amazing too
So many of today's musical acts cannot perform well live because what you hear on their releases is not lifelike at all and they don't care how fake it is. People nowadays act like heavy digital manipulation is NECESSARY if you want to sound good. Take a listen to recordings from 40, 50, 60 years ago. The best musicians sounded exactly like their releases (if not better) when performing live. What you hear there is a direct result of practice over time. So many excuses today keep people from reaching their true potential. You can't expect it to be perfect right from the start, and you can't give up when you feel less than perfectly happy. That's not how life works. If you spend your life avoiding things because they don't feel good, you're going to get NOWHERE. It's about being unsatisfied, frustrated, discouraged, all these emotions that build up, forcing you to strive to be better! That's how life works. Work to be the person you want people to think you are, instead of faking it and never putting in the actual work because you're scared it'll make you uncomfortable! This is a message to all newer artists. PRACTICE, MAKE MISTAKES, LEARN AND REPEAT!
Ah yes, this is how you make art. There is no other way.
I watched from start to end without skipping. I enjoyed, u did great job!
Ditto. Every second.
i thought this had like at least 500k views while watching, this is madly underrated dude your video quality is on point
So painfully relatable and equally inspiring. The result was incredible, but starting with an already damn good song probably didn't hurt! I gotta get in a studio and record some drums for something now
This is the most honest and beautiful way to produce music. This is translated into the listener in a real feeling!
OMG I came here for the geekyness, and came out with a life lesson
Damn that perfectionism bit in the middle is really relatable
Wise words of self love
This is great. I recently decided to go back to the boss 8 track I made my first DIY ep with, to capture the true rawness of the genre I play (80s hardcore style punk rock) which I found impossible when doing the normal editing on a daw, even if I intentionally leave in tiny inconsistencies and human elements it doesn't come out sounding natural. Of course it means a lot of re-recording tracks because of something isn't just right it's very hard to punch in and punch out and make it all flow so I just end up redoing that track or backing it up to the last full stop. It can definitely take a lot more time but nothing captures the true energy of your performance like skipping all that editing and just plugging away at it until each track is done just right so that you're happy with it and it only needs to be equalized and such.
congratulations man. It's one of the best videos and music posted on youtube. I loved. recording like this is like taking pictures and accepting that not everyone was smiling, or someone blinked. Hearing like this transports us to the moment we choose to record.
I've been watching music production videos for over two years now. This is probably the one that i enjoyed the most, and the one i most learned from. Just seeing you enjoy the whole process and let us see how you learn from it... its just awesome, i loved it.
watched half and its already on another level in comparison to your other videos, awsome!!
This a huge process. The feelling, the emotion, you can feel all in this song. Im not a english native, so when i listen a song, to me, the most important is the emotion. The sound. Don't bealive me but its somethig that you can hear it, doesn't matter if you dont understand what are saying in the song. Actually, this video just inspired me. Now, this makes me want try new things. Thanks for sharing, you are so talent and it feels good to see how you only tries the best
Saludos desde México, realmente tienes todo lo necesario para seguir creciendo con tu música, vas por un excelente camino. Nunca te rindas y sólo te deseo lo mejor
The fact this is just a fun experiment and not the norm saddens me...
Wonderful camera perspectives and incredible song!
It sounds like a live recording of a band performance. Nice
this is incredible! absolutely adore this!
Amazing work. So many people don't understand what goes into the creative process. Like, actually creating something, something that just appears in your brain out of thin air - and you will stop at nothing until you create what you envisioned. The beauty and the frustrating imperfections, take after take. That's what's so beautiful about this process, and I'm glad I was able to come along on that journey with you! You have a new fan in me, all the best, from Canada. Keep creating!
Your wrist hurting is normal if you don't play bass often, just be careful to not overplay because you can hurt yourself.
Great video man. Class wee insights throughout. Good luck
You‘re so underrated!
Subscribed & Liked
+ watched the 15 minutes of AD‘s
keep doing what your doing you‘re a really nice guy 🤘
Super inspiring! Thanks for the amazing videos
Thanks for posting this. The finished song sounded great. It was both inspiring to see you get these results and interesting to see the whole process described. As this is not a subject I find people talking about a lot. But it is very relevant for me. For me: I am pretty comfortable playing live solo but have been struggling to capture a recorded sound I like, and I find myself preferring and gravitating towards this kind of minimally edited take for the stuff I have been playing as it seems to sound more alive somehow.
Man, this is so good. I love how you take us through your process, musically, technically and mentally! Thanks for sharing and the result is awesome - love the song! 💪🏼
I can’t believe I’m just now finding your channel. This is one of the best videos I’ve ever seen. Good job man 👍 and thank you for sharing this ❤
All in this video is awesome, it's very nice to see when you are singing, i mean you really transmited that emotion you feel when you're singing. It also inspired me a lot.
Can't wait to hear the hole album!
Bravo! Thanks for the insight on your writing process.....truly inspirational
This channel is my happy place in the artist UA-cam scene
Best video I've ever seen man!
Keep it up. I love your music
dude thats awesome!! great job, that bass line is so groovy! congrats!
It sounds like it's played live and sounds great!
I also learned a lot of amazing lessons from this too, thank you so much for making this and sharing this amazing experience with us
Wow you have a quite incredible vibe in your videos, so valuable helpful and incredibly directed!
This is some of the best music related content on youtube! You are a really clever guy, I hope that you realise that. Keep the great songs/video's coming, I'm sure it will inspire many songwriters and producers.
Honestly.. this made my day. such a cool video and amazing song. I love the chords, the clavia and that voice! bravo!
It's so much fun to witness your musical and artistic development. The song grooves and also sounds dynamic and soulful.
This bass sounds sick! Great video - subbed
I subscribed because you show the frustration of the process
that's always edited out and ignored
but this was real
Awesome video! I love that you did this! I’ve also fallen into the rabbit whole of wanting to perfect everything and am trying to get out of it. This inspired me to take a step back and go about music differently. Also you sound great!
It's so good! Love it!
Loving all these inspiring videos - even ordered myself a bass guitar today, never played one but looking forward to the challenge
wow, i love everything about this even though thats not the type of music i usually like. Absolutely lovely and amazing video about your process!
You're becoming one of my favorite youtubers, I love your music!!
Stumbling across your channel these days is one of the BIGGEST discoveries for my job as a producer. Your work is truly inspiring!
Always so creative!! Enhorabuena🎊🎉
Woah, great job! 👏 It's giving me kind of a different vibe than your other songs, but I actually love it! 💕 Keep doing music cause you're amazing! And also Paul's drum playing was on point like always 👍🏻👍🏻
Holy crap, that’s a really great sound you got out of that piano! Good performance too! Thanks for sharing this!
So inspiring! Great Video!
You just won my like and subscription, I love how this motivates me to want to make crazy productions like these. Thank you for sharing this, because this will inspire me to be a better producer!