So interesting question then: what's the least amount of tracks you've used in a project? 🤔 OXI One ► bit.ly/3PId2Qx Become a Patron ► venustheory.com/buckaroonie-babez

i just want to share with you that today i landed my first job in music after three years since i started. having gone through all ups and downs of creating art, i have to say that it's so satisfying in the end when you feel like it's heading to something tangible. it's partly thanks to people like you who keep feeding those of us behind the screen with valuable information and your positive perspective. so, thanks for that.

Couple of weeks ago I decided to make an entire album in 2 weeks. Raced through it cranking out tunes with no time to fiddle obsessively with details and: I actually ended up really pleased with the end result. Most of the neurotic polishing I normally do is close to being a waste of time

You don't write songs, you discover them! - Venus Theory❣️

"you don't write songs, you just kind of discover them" Venus theory -22 This might be one of the best and most true quotes i have heard from any musician. I usually say "all music is good music in someones ears" wich i feel have a bit of the same feeling to it.

I find it useful to remember that a good chunk of the best rock and pop songs were made by a drummer, two guitars and singer.

I watch a fair bit of music production side of youtube, you are top-tier at content production, as well as being a very talented artist. Your aesthetic presentation of the information definitely helps sell the information in the video.

I've forced myself to do all my writing in Reason. Once I have the song where I like it so much I cannot possible fuss with it anymore, I then export it as stems and import that into Logic. This forces me to only mix and engineer in Logic and not keep 2nd guessing my writing decisions. This might seem silly, but I've had songs that have taken me over a year because I get into the loop of writing, mixing, writing, mixing, engineering, re-writing, etc. and getting nowhere. Thanks for this video, it's very reassuring!

Superb advice, and very insightful. As someone who started messing around with electronica back in the mid 80s, - after getting into the London hip-hop scene, and then later the Acid and breakbeat scenes, - I often find it alarming at just how many people spend way too much time trying to make a sound fit via corrective plugin usage, or layering, instead of getting the sound correct at source. Most of the early, and now often classic, Detroit techno, Acid, UK Breakbeat, etc was created on a compact mixer, usually either a Mackie or Soundcraft, with simple eq cuts performed on said desk, maybe some graphic eq, cheap DBX and Drawmer compressors, maybe an Alesis Quadraverb, some pedals, and a Lexicon PCM, if very lucky. The closest thing I had to a computer was my Akai ASQ-10, the MPC60ii and an S-950. I'm no great musician, and have only ever approached my creative outlet as a form of aural therapy, that said, I still don't personally understand the over reliance on plugins and in the box production. What made the older electronica so appealing, even to this very day, was the punk approach to production and sound design, with whatever cheap tools and instruments "we" could lay our hands on, - artists back then weren't trying to pigeon-hole themselves to a particular genre, and they sure as hell weren't trying to sound the same as everyone else... - it was all about originality, and that seems to have been missed by many new up and coming artists, and personally I feel working in the box makes it harder to come up with a unique sound. love to ALL, feel no hate Currently listening to, Atsushi Izumi - Vendigris, Houzan Archives Filmmaker - The Love Market, Latex and Leather ep Autumn's - Your Words, Slow Release I Speak Machine - War

"Coffee doesn't need hot sauce" -- I feel like this is a challenge!

Combining morning coffee with hot sauce sounds like a great idea to a) get up for work without any thought of sleep left b) spending most of your companies time on the toilet

Yeah it’s like, I love squarepusher. I noticed the other day my favorite track is the one that’s most chill and simple. UFOs over leytonstone

"you don't write songs, you just kind of discover them" made me instant sub great video thanks

99.9999% of people will never notice stuff like eq tweaks or half the things musician/producers fret over. The OXI One looks very cool. Having an interface that helps you flow and express with both hardware and software is definitely the ideal. Mouse clicking and complicated interfaces/menu diving is a vibe/workflow killer. Music interfaces are a labyrinth that can gobble people up for years. Just wanna make music. I’ve thought maybe the Deluge is the ultimate machine for this kind of thing, but I don’t know how easy it can map to stuff in your DAW, and vice versa. Maybe the OXI One is as good or better in this respect. The OXI One looks to have wonderful sequencing capabilities that would help creatively. The benefit of the Deluge over something like the OXI One is it’s internal synth engines, and it’s portability. You don’t need anything else. You can also do sampling through its microphone. Its sequencing capabilities are insane, but I guess that can be a downside if you want to limit yourself. It’s very tactile, but the shortcuts take time to learn into muscle memory.

Venus Theory: "check out how i keep it simple in this production now!" *extensively processes multiple iterations of noise and pads just to get some background vibe* cool workflow tho. i feel that! :)

Thanks for video! I also get into same workflow with "external" sequencers recently, but I use iPad as my sequencer. Tons of fun with a myriads different sequencers on iOS, and probably this is a lot cheap option than dedicated hardware sequencer, but of course its working only within apple ecosystem. Totally agree also with mindset where less=better, at least most of the time.

One of the things I often find myself doing is that after I made something I like, I decide to give it some clean up getting rid of ugly bit by ugly bit. Then by the end of it, I bypass all that clean up and it sounds much richer than after all that attention. What I often find what happens is that in some attempt to be perfect I kill most of the character of a sound.

I LOVE THIS GUY LOOOL- just found this page and have been binge watching it like crazy

You really have a little slice of heaven up in that attic. If I had a studio like that my wife wouldn't see me downstairs for day's 😁

excellent video. I am 5 years into taking music production seriously and you nailed it. A lot of times I just catch myself studying meter's and forgetting I am making something "emotional". and even if it sound's "bad" because of my technically immaturity, I tell myself to remember the days of a fostex 4 track and cassette tape. and like record collectors and punk fans, sometimes the mistakes become part of the feel and don't beat yourself up so much. If "the man" is gonna hire you and make you a rockstar, "he" is gonna run all the stuff thru their technicians and mastering engineers anyway.

It is a vicious cycle. The more doesn’t always mean better. Great video! Thanks man!

This first part of this video is the funniest dang thing I have ever seen about production! Well-written and delivered with perfect timing!

An old producer group I was in used to do something called THTS. Two hour track sundays. We'd pick a theme and start a timer and get to hear all the results. It was great.

Thank you for this. I was a synth clinician probably before you were born, and this issue of feeling the need to polish a vibe into oblivion unless there's a deadline. Beds and flying logos, particularly live, doesn't allow that sort of mindset. Now is now as opposed to "what if I..." Knob wanking isn't really producing. However, hot sauce DOES go with coffee. As does smoked jalapeno dust. Like EQ, in reasonable quantities. As soon as everyone realizes reverb and delay are instruments there will be world peace.

Basic translation: you start with a sound you like. The rest is history, too detailed to recall but enjoyable to listen to. That is a great performance tool/instrument you're demonstrating.

True. Each song is different. Sometimes a song can only take very little time. Other songs might need more finessing and time to develop. Listen to engineers Phil Tans Story about the neptunes Drop it like its hot. That song was, mixed remixed, Many things were deleted, then at some point, Chad adds this synth, then it was mixed again at another studio 5 months later.... There was so much work put into that song, yet its a simple song w/o many instruments at all.

I really dig the style of this track! Those chords aren't that complicated but sound very lovely.

One of the best burgers I've ever had was from a place in Colorado called Doug's Day Diner. It's called the "Black Betty" and has green chilis, peanut butter, and homemade blackberry jam. I never thought such a thing would taste good, but it was heavenly.

The new career for many musicians is content creators. Venus Theory has a talent that is unique to him. His voice is his voice, his videos are equally as enjoyable as his music, maybe more so. Many people are creating music but few can produce great content.

This man deserves more subscribers

This was perfect for me right now - just seeing how you start and each step you go through teaches volumes! Of course it's not possible to show every single step without a VERY long video ;) but I thought the balance between too much not enough detail was perfect! Loved this so much! Thank you

Nice. I make synthpop type stuff and I always feel when I'm trying to make things too complicated to just go back to the drums. I like using the Roland 808 and creating beats in its sequencer than outputing the midi and working with the drums of my choice.

GarageBand on a MacBook, or even better an iPad,.is great for this. After four instruments, the lines are so squashed together that one cannot see them properly should any more are added. Thank you so much for your channel/programmes. I thoroughly enjoy your theory pieces and have learned such a lot, especially about modes and scales. aAso, you yourself have a very engaging personality and are very entertaining to listen to, so dry and sardonic. Love, light and Peace, Bob McGowan.

"You don't write songs, you discover them" - couldn't agree more.

Only recently I started writing my music in a "basic" sequencer. God, that helps sooo much to just focus on writing. If it sounds good in there Ill bring it over to my DAW.

My process is pretty much the same as this. Sampling anything interesting, and mutating it beyond recognition into something cool.

@1:25 I'm British, but used to live in Taiwan. That was when I discovered restaurants doing burgers with peanut butter. Also some with thin apple slices. I actually really like it! Well worth a try!🤣😂

Thank you for this video! I often find myself in a similar spiral especially when it comes to things like mixing and EQing. It's just so dang easy to fall down the rabbit hole of what is the "correct" way to do things. The Oxi is a really cool piece of hardware- I really like the vibe you made with it!

Great video. I think it's important to love the process and not worry too much about the end result right away. A combination of choosing the genre, key & the right sounds early can really do wonders for finishing tracks quickly with most of the work already done.

i love Boris Brjecha's minimal stuff ..so clean !!

This is some cool stuff man, thanks for sharing. I personally think simplicity is the best recipe when it comes to production, there isn't a need for a complicated approach in most situations.

I love this channel, not just because of the great tips you have but just because you make me want to make music. Great video!

One of the best things about electronic music is how you can just inspire yourself while your making something through its vibe. I often find myself making a base patch for say a pad or something in vcv rack which then evolves into a full song just from me trying to make other voices which work well with said pad i made.

I've been putting off watching this because I'm in mega-denial about my proclivity for over-working a project and getting bummed about the time I've spent on some infinitesimal aspect of a needlessly complex patch idea or something. As soon as I saw your framing of the video, I was immediately relieved about my own tendencies to 'over-render' sound design ideas. I'm so glad I watched this. Great work!

you should check out the Art of Noise from the 80's, I was massively into them. Have you noticed tracks sound amazing right at the end when there is minimal elements?

Please don’t ever delete your videos I might need these for references. Great content man

Definitely. One of the reasons I started doing so many LIVE's is because it seemed to be the only time I could produce. Ironically, I recently reduced my LIVE schedule, and just finished a minimalist beat...great timing. Nice work. Your last LIVE was awesome!

"You don't write songs, you discover them"...I so connect with that. Reminds me of I think Michelangelo who I think said something about how he would discover the sculpture in the marble, not turn the marble into a sculpture. Something like that. Anyway, poorly paraphrased and probably not accurate at all but you get the idea.

...that's why i'm in love with the 80ies...yah boring ! nah.. the for me "real" the minimal/dark/cold wave 80ies :) ...there are such so minimalistic songs which hooks you, till today, in seconds to the dancefloor with the concentrate universal zeitgeist of a style of music and time... a big thanks to veronica vasicka here...she did so much to dig out these pearls... from big hits like "mussolini" to "push" to the thousands more unknown ones.. "you discover them !" really like your approach ! PS: martin dupont is going back on tour first time since 1987.. they are part this silent heroes of a musical zeitgeist which is still so fresh.

This is lovely, very Carbon Based Lifeforms in sound and arrangement structure

I love that kind of workflow...less is often more!

brother, your vids have really helped me out of this creative block ive been dealing with. Been psyching myself out a lot thinking I just lost it after getting sober but you helpin me get back into things again. Thanks!

This video made me genuinely excited

This! this!! this over-complication of things and little alignment with simplicity. I do a lot of Oracle work to deal with um everything, and i have received this message in regards to having trouble finishing tracks recently. its a form of self sabotage, this weird constant tweaking one-upping oneself is a real losing battle

I really want an OXI One... you lucky basket! 🙂

juicy coloring work Cam! Very good and important idea of the video

I think you'd kinda nail the chill kinda dubstep that some of the Deep Medi guys like Silkie made. It's pretty fun too, you get to use sounds from dub, reggae, jungle, lounge, jazz, soul and more, it all sounds at home.

I did a music production course two years ago and the chap who runs it excels at adding lots of things to a piece, but then he really knows how to find the "holes" that need just a little thing, too. I... haven't got to that point. I put something together and it might have 6 sounds (including drums and bass) and I can't find anything else to add. And that works with adding things to sounds, too - most of my mixing is just balancing levels! Sometimes I make music with my Synthstrom Deluge and a few times I've simply recorded what I've put together and I can't fault it. Much less "mastering" than when I create in the DAW - and it still sounds great. Mixing as I create is a powerful skill. Really interesting to see you show us where you are still learning how to make music.

Thank you for the peace and inspiration. God bless you on your journey. 🙂🙏🏼❤️

What's our golden rule? If it sounds good, it is good ☺ Thanks for mentioning Motions and Echoes, found it on spotify and LOVE it! Edit: After letting the entire thing play through twice, I had to save it to my "Tranquila" playlist. Absolutely beautiful. Keep em coming :3

"Sound check style" is probably the best style

Best intro EVER! Had me in hysterics, of course never been there myself 🤦‍♂️😂

cool texture idea: frying pan noise with a stereo mic. did that in my lofi piano track, gave me a mood.

That whole intro bit about the EQ'ing on the drumtrack really made me sit back and go "damn" so thank you for that.

I love addition by subtraction. You don't always need a beat switch or a key change or a new melody.

idk how you hit the nail on the head every time but youre saying stuff no one is saying and its all so true 🙏

My first released track was just me coming home from work, pouring a drink. Then making a simple 303 pattern and spending the next hour playing with cutoff and resonance hands-on while recording the automation in Ableton. Then came some weeks of fine tuning and adding the rest, but the basic flow of the track was already there so it was so easy to add things to. What you made here really gave me a Carbon Based Lifeforms kinda feeling. I really need to explore the use of probability more.

That OXI is a powerhouse!!

it's a perfect ad integration! 👍

phantastic music, can listen for hours

it's a privilege to see and hear your compositions and how you do it The truth seems to be that indeed, even with cutbacks, there is still quite a LOT going on and a lot of Tech is involved... i completely agree with you about "addition by subtraction" as a brilliant technique........there is also "painting with silence" where you superimpose your set of tracks "overlaid" onto a previous similar pattern set ..........(this is in a visual sense Sir) ...... .......i quite literally mean painting with "Silence brush strokes" into your visual representation of your 4 tracks".........but it's done AFTER you have already carried out several "superimposing steps" of patterns over similar earlier patterns..........(thus revealing which areas you want to brush stroke) THere is "photo sounder" tool which offers this superimposing and layering approach. But quite honestly, from your video , you actually seem quite competent to be able to do the above approaches from a purely "track" and "sound point of view".........which is likely down to your experience....... anyway, i feel you are right about this minimalist "get something Done" approach. i believe many people work this way upon discovering it after a lot of personal experience......... Thanks V.

Another great video and ponder lesson from the V dude :) Thanks for the info and entertainment! H.N.Year!

Good golly, your storytelling ability is off the chain!

I have a hybrid workflow as well. But in the end, all that matters is the song.

I agree with your first tip so much. I get into processing and it becomes a session unto itself. SO counter productive. If your not making a kick dominant bassline a kick is just a friggen transient. Give it some room to breath and move on!

I love the carbon based lifeforms vibe

This is fascinating, I’ve never even thought of writing music this way. Sounds beautiful to my ears,

I hope some of the people who stick up tutorials on Y Tube watch this. Far too many subscribe to the more is more school of EM production. Ludicrous...Keep posting. You are one of few who talk sense. Well done.

Cool, I'm using the Polyend Seq to basically do the same thing. I do connect different sequences for a song, but in each sequence, there are no more than 8 tracks playing. With drums, this often isn't enough which is why I sample my drums into a 1010 blackbox and then launch that sample via MIDI from the Seq, compressing like 6 tracks of bass drums, snares, hi hats etc. into a single drum track. But so far, this has always been more than enough. Also if you listen to jazz or electronic or pop music on the radio, there's never more than 4-5 instruments at the same time, often you only hear one voice and one guitar and it's still a cool song. So don't overdo it, you're perfectly right with that 😉

You are blessed with a great voice.

My channel is 99% TR8S and Circuit... and that means I finish a lot of music and I have a lot of fun. Worth a try 😉

peanut butter in savoury african dishes is a thing. also Southeast Asian satay meat skewers (chicken, pork, beef, lamb) in are dipped in a spicy peanut sauce. but yes not quite peanut butter in a burger.

i often get frustrated with all those "lets make this song" videos and they go "add this, add that"... I am like... Noooo.... Don't add, take away. It's the same way with EQ, people tend to add bands, and often forget about 'subtracting' them. I always prefered the 'less is more approach'. Unless I am in the mode of creating a complete orchestra (that's a different mode).

Black coffee with a few drops of Tabasco is actually pretty great.

A true master can do so much with so very little.

I'm going to remember that kitchen remark, good one haha.

thank you Venus! this was inspiring and its so true, addition by subtraction can really be a great way to give songs life and change the trajectory of the journey

That song is so captivating I love it

@Cameron, I am a composer, musician, producer and engineer. In no particular order. But in engineering, we can all learn from Elon Musk. "Fail early and fail often". DO NOT GET TOO ATTACHED TO AN IDEA. After all, it is just an idea. It could be a really bad idea. Rule of thumb: rapidly put together ten ideas and be prepared to throw out nine of them. That works in engineering, and it works in the other disciplines too. Hope this message finds you in good health and prosperity.

Sounds good… gonna put it in my yoga playlist once it’s on Spotify.

Thanks for the feature and for this lovely tune!

That is one powerful tool!! I gotta get me one. Thanks for the morning enlightenment. ☕🙏

Complexity is simple things strung together.

Yup, very inspiring, thank you !

Last year I discovered Andrew Huang, this year's discovery is this channel. Amazing stuff. And even more funnier than Huang. :)

Highly respect you Cameron

Cool concept Cameron! I think im going to try this way or making music!

I really dig it. The underlying pad is super duper and I appreciate you breaking it all down. If I could tweak one thing, I think the acid synth track feels a bit too "non-committal". I think it either wants to be low passed a little bit more to better vibe with that muted-lofi feel, or it needs more of that acid-bite-filter-resonance to better stand out. Anyway, exploding fist bump my dude, good stuff.

Someday I'll totally understand the first minute of this video. Thanks for a great vlog!

You are always so helpful and unique in the instruction vibe you present