'Produce music that people want to hear, not for yourself' that's why we are stuck listening to shitty big room, you should make music that you enjoy because that's a true expression of you as an artist.

I'm not a EDM producer or DJ but I find these sessions really useful. And some of the stuff he pointed out can be applied to any music genre, I think. Props to Point Blank for these!

Incredible production skills, def knows what he's doing

MakJ carries himself well through this Masterclass. One of the best vids on youtube.

Mak and his Mac

Hold on, need to clear something here: at 2:09 MAKJ says "...Henry Fong who is the other collaborator on this song, he sent me a melody and it was very basic, he sent it over SoundCloud about 7 months ago.... blablabla..." 3:20 somewhere MAKJ says "after that we came up with the top line" *melody startst to play* (NOTE THIS PART) Looking at it, Encore was released in December 2013. As I went through my sample library I found a piece of music called "EDM Lead Line vol 1 (3) MIX.wav" from the sample pack "Shockwave EDM Lead Line Vol 1". Reference: sounds.beatport.com/pack/edm-lead-line-vol-1/5897 The sample pack was released at around May 2013, roughly 7 months before Encore was released The melody that MAKJ claims that he "came up with" sounds exactly the same as the melody in the sample pack. At around 20:13 he says "it's Henry Fong sound, and MAKJ sound". WRONG! It's Henry Fong sound, MAKJ sound, and a shockwave sample. MAKJ should not claim that he "came up with the melody", because he did NOT! Props for the track in general though, at least they made a whole track. After all, Shockwave made the sample pack for anyone to use, but artists like this that lie to their fans that love them for being "original", thats just wrong. It's alright as long as artist don't claim that they come up with something that they haven't come up with.

best 40 mins I've invested on youtube

YES!!! I've been waiting to see a tutorial from MAK on how he does his tracks. Been watching him for a while now and he's rising to the top quickly. Congrats man can't wait to see you play again soon

Please do more vids with mainstream electro/progressive producers like this!!

only 5 minutes in but this guy really knows his stuff

MAKJ only cuts with an EQ. He never boosts cuz that's what the volume knob is for. Be like MAKJ

MAKJ one of my favorite & most inspiring producers. Even 4 years old but still as good as ever! 🙏🏼

MAKJ's hair scares me.

I know I'm a little late to the party, but I am really pleased to have finally found a quality Logic Pro Tutorial for EDM, most of them are awful, this is brilliant

Producing for you self will only get you so far... 1:18 Thats so untrue.

a drinking game: everytime MAKJ says excactly: you have to take a shot!

cool breakdown, great to see as a singer/songwriter/producer. really clear and articulate, thanks to MAKJ for speaking so honestly and openly, and to PB for sharing this interview sesh!

Thanks Mackenzie for going out of your way to give back to us

I am sure that he will develop good in the future because of how he talks about what he is doing, creativity and those little things which you only made when you are interested in, like this "1 big room kick before the rocky kick comes" and this little plugin around 21min. Why he uses Nexus sounds also well-considered to me!

I learned a lot from this! MAKJ makes stuff sound really good and it's pretty cool that he shares some of his tricks.

Hey, I'm still learning how to produce professional music and I find this session absolutely useful! And it's brilliant how Makj told about his techniques to produce! This helped me a lot!

I liked the tip of the engagement kick to begin the drop ! fucking genius , because I really listened a lot to that track before watching this

Thanks MacKenzie Johnson for the massive value on this one!

some great tips in this one thanks :)

If somebody is searching for the preset: It is form Audioboost Elektro Dreams Nexus XP!

great video !!! a very good breakdown of his track..he really wanted to shows us how he did this track! if you watch this before reading the comments of youtubers with no songs out ..you'll be better off!

I disagree with his EQ boosting statement. Turning it up means your turning up everything. with boosting specific ranges (say upper mids) you can get precieved loudness. The whole big room lead sound is very mid rich (extreme highs cut, extreme lows cut).

Really enjoyed this session. I like the advice of not putting too many things into one track. Over the years, I've been guilty of cluttering a track with every idea that came up ... then I was left with a mud puddle of sound. No real clarity or definition to the music because of just overloading it. Thanks!

Hahahah about 1h ago i watched another video with Makj and some guy wrote in comment that Makj said he NEVER boost in eq and i clicked on this video on 18.35 min randomly and heard exactly that sentence, so its funny for me

I learned so much from this video! Thanks MAKJ! You have been an inspiration of mine since you blew up.

"Producing for yourself only can get you so far." Oh boy...if he only knew.

Bloody good advice from this guy from beginning to end.

This guy definitely knows what he's doing, awesome stuff!

There's one weird thing about the track of MAKJ featuring Hardwell. something like 2 months before it went live, i had already heard on youtube and it was under MAKJ's name only. Also, the frequencie/key chart, the way he uses it is pretty neat. I've seen producers a couple times that didn't even know notes actually had particular frequencies.

Amazing Session! he went deep into detail which some producers just rush through i think he also went to a producing school in los angeles called icon collective that must have helped out a lot !

Great tips from MAKJ, he seems like a super cool guy !

Fair play this guy knows what he's on about

Wow this is one of the most informative sessions I've watched. So many great tips

am i the only one who notice the host's "yea yea yea"??? he said like 500 "yea"s over this video

awesome thanks Point blank and MAKJ, great vid and tips!

MacKenzie Johnson How/where did you first learn to produce EDM so in depth? In other words, how did you learn everything you know now? You have a very strong understanding of the music theory behind all of your songs.

Nice! Mackenzie you're on your way. Talented guy

Makj making music that people want to hear on their boats ... lol

I've got some questions for you guys : - at 5.52 how did he make to cut the kick this way (the curve) ? - at 11.16 in the track "EPIC BUILD SLOW", how did he get the automation curved ? - and what is the green symbol next to the solo and mute button ? Could you please help me :)

thanks makj, really motivating dude. norcal represent

I produce Trance, Electro, House (EDM) even some bigroom tracks. i may not be well known as a producer but i do agree with allot he is saying. he is right about many things. people should look past what he makes and listen to what he is saying because what he is saying can apply to many genres of music :) The most important tools is your eq, compression and reverb units when it comes to overall mixing and an acoustic treated room to do it in. everything else is just instruments, arrangement, automation and effects, but its the way its used is what separates any producer from another.

Thanx a million MAKJ!! Thanx for taking the time to show us your work & your methods this was really cool to watch! You seem like an even nicer dude too :) I was stoked to see you picked that track too it's one of my favs! I've been thinking of getting into producing for a while now & I've recently started doing some research so every bit helps. The hardest part is what program to choose though, there's so many programs available. Is one better than the other for beginners? I was thinking Ableton originally but then I started thinking FL Studio & now watching Logic Pro I dunno what to do. Is there a particular program best for beginners? I also wonder about mountains of plugins that you need to buy & how much that would all cost.

Awesome! Please do a Masterclass with some guys who do progressive house like alesso, third party, nicky romero!

this guy knows "exactly" what he's doing

Thanks for explaining the track! Insightful

one of best most informative iv seen to date and iv watched a lot FL would have been better but still good

Thanks for the knowledge Makj. Good job.

Great Video! Thanks for sharing! -Bpm Supreme Record Pool

this is divine tutorial, already got morphex on the dl.....

Nice video !!! Thanks MakJ ! Saw you at Sound Empire in Barrie. Come again sometime !! Come to VELD !

Thank you MAKJ!

Very Smart and Sympathetic guy

Amazing stuff MAKJ!!

Stop complaining guys. Near the beginning of the video, he points out he got into this type of sounds for its likeability and selling ability. "Producing for yourself can only get you so far." What he means is for him to get a paycheck, he needs to put his own style into the same genre (as generic as it may be.)

Awesome session!

Do one of these interviewing Madeon!!!

+point blank music school your videos are awesome !!! they are very helpful!! thank you very much!! they help me to create better music!! thanks

ahh the populist idea that you should produce are for people to appreciate, and not what you think is actually great, Deadmau5 believes the opposite of the populist EDM trends but I kinda like him more.

thanks PB

this track is soooo genius *_*

super great video . Makj you are a discovery for me .

So Inspiring,great Makj!

Can someone please tell me which Nexus pack has that LD Lightstrike?

hes a fucking genius man i will not lie

Thanks guys for the masterclassss! the guys who mention a software change is really what works for you, it is the artist and not the tool. crack on with what works for you.

Well I wouldn't say all producers are all about the kick, Matisse & Sadko are more about the synth layering than anything else...In fact their kick is usually only to aid the ride cymbal.

I really wish there was a school for fl studio that offered professional courses for it.

Super awesome video MakJ

he sounds like a bit of a sell out saying to make music that other people will like instead of making music you like. What's the point in sharing music if it's not something you like yourself?

Fucking great interview! Makj is a great man and his music is gold! Thanks for this great video!

We need moar of this

Nice guy. Great interview.

Thanks mak

I don't like his comment about not producing for yourself…. But, I guess it works… Music is different for me though.

This kind of production is everything that's wrong with the current scene summed up.

what did he use to tweak the "get your hands up" to make it sound completely different to his voice

I am very surprised how into detail he got in his music. Not many top 10 beatport dj's do that anymore.

One question, should you, if needed, add or remove the key of the track? I got confused please respond

Exactly

This dude discovered electronic music in a club in China lol

Amazing Video

Such a great video.

I love you man, you have your own style and that's really amazing, and you love Truly mexican tacos, carnitas and stuff like that. Someone knows if he's coming to Mexico this year ? Stay Awesome MAKJ

Great stuff.

so awesome!

geezer!

very nice video quality. may I ask what camera u are using to capture this footage. will appreciate a response. Thanks KC

It's called counterpoint in traditional music theory

Anyone knows what preset/plugin is the "BASS_1" ?? Thanks

how did he get his UI to look like that

his hair looks like a slice of ham

looking at pros producers that uses logic, I noticed that the 80% of them are still using logic pro 9 instead of X... I don't got why. Maybe to use 32 bit 3rd party plug-ins, but nowadays there are programms to convert them to 64. So why?

oh my jesus somebody please link me to a free nexus download i need it so badly

GO LOGIC PRO!!!

so in wich pack can i find the LD _ Lightstreak preset for nexus ? looked for it for houuurrrs