Electronic Music

Production &
Sound Design
Digital Handbook
online.berklee.edu Electronic Music Production & Sound Design Handbook

Contents
Lessons
05 Getting Savvy with Synthesizer Basics
By Loudon Stearns

33 ‘Halloween’ Theme: So Many Uses for Synth it’s Scary

By Michele Darling

78 Shaping the Sounds of Your Mix with EQ

By Jeff Baust

60 Improvising in Ableton Live

By Erin Barra

Features
23 Preserving the Art & History of Sampling
By Ashley Pointer

44 Linking Vintage Gear with Modern Tech

By Erik Hawkins

68 Killing Writer’s Block, 100 Songs at a Time

By Tavi Kaye

91 MP&E Degree Begins with Online Courses

By Talia Smith-Muller

Contents 2
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Welcome!
Whether you’re looking to jumpstart your career, realize your
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features in this handbook, and learn how Berklee Online can
help you pursue your passion and build your musical future.

All the best,

Sean Hagon
Dean of Pre-College, Online, and Professional Programs
online.berklee.edu Electronic Music Production & Sound Design Handbook

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online.berklee.edu Electronic Music Production & Sound Design Handbook

Getting Savvy with

Synthesizer Basics
By Loudon Stearns

From the Online Course

Composing and Producing Electronic Music 1
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Change is the nature of electronic music—to keep pace, the

composer must adapt and grow. If you’re already familiar with
acoustic instruments, learning about electronic music and synthesis
will require learning a lot of new skills, and a lot of new language.
However, once you pick it up, it will change the way that you think
about music. The following definitions will guide you through the
basic language of sound and synthesis that we use throughout
Composing and Producing Electronic Music 1, and help give you the
tools you need to begin thinking about shaping new sounds.

Amplitude and Frequency

Amplitude is the most basic property of sound. There are a variety
of meters we could use to analyze amplitude, but the most common
is a level meter. You will see them all over your DAW. You probably
have one on each track showing the level of the track output. When
working in your DAW, keep an eye on those level meters. You will
notice that the top of a level meter is labeled 0 decibels. Decibels
(dB) are the standard measurement of level. Decibels are a relative
measurement; a reference level must always be established. In a
DAW, the absolute maximum amplitude is defined as 0 dBfs (full
scale) and negative numbers are used going down from there.

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If your main output goes above 0 dB you will get ugly digital
distortion in your final mix, which is to be avoided at all times.
Individual tracks can exceed 0 dB, as long as you bring the level
down later it shouldn’t cause a problem. But, it is generally advisable
to keep all tracks from clipping (going above 0 dBfs—full scale,
digital maximum). To remind you that you have exceeded this
maximum level, there are often clipping indicators that stay red
if the track went over max. Clicking on them will reset the indicator.
While it may seem mundane, relative levels are the most important
thing when mixing, so get to know your level meters!

All of synthesis is described as connecting small modules. While

most synths use these same simple modules, how many they are
and the allowed connections vary greatly. Our simple synth has two
modules, an oscillator and an amplifier. The role of the oscillator
is to create the sound, and the role of the amplifier is to control the
level. The output of the oscillator goes to the input of the amplifier.
The oscillator has a frequency parameter, and the amplifier has
a level parameter. When the synth is turned on, the oscillator
generates a signal, in this case a sine wave. That signal enters the
amplifier, the sole purpose of which is to change the level of the
signal. The sound then is sent to the computer output.

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The frequency parameter changes how many sine waves happen per
second. The more waves per second, the higher and more shrill the
sound becomes. Frequency is measured in hertz (Hz); a waveform
that completes one cycle per second is a 1 Hz signal. Notice
that when changing the frequency there is no change in the level
meter, frequency and amplitude are independent controls, they
don’t impact each other. The level meter doesn’t tell us anything
about frequency; for that we will need the next sound analyzer, an
oscilloscope.

The audible range, for humans, is roughly 20 Hz up to 20,000 Hz,

to display a waveform repeating that fast we must show a tiny
amount of time. In a DAW, you would need to zoom way in to see
the individual waveforms in a sound, just a few milliseconds must
fill the entire screen. One millisecond is a thousandth of a second.
This oscilloscope is configured to show four milliseconds on the
Y axis. As frequency increases the shape squishes, there are more
repetitions per second and we perceive a higher pitch. Notice that
when amplitude is changed, the height of the waveform varies, but
the number of cycles per second (frequency) remains the same.
A waveform display in a DAW is a printed, static, version of the
oscilloscope.

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Notice what happens if the amplifier is set too high—the sine wave
goes above the digital max, and clipping occurs. We see the clipping
indicator on the level meter, and the sine wave takes on a di!erent
shape, the tops of the waveforms are “clipped” o!. This is a very
crude form of distortion that does not sound good. We see that
the shape of the sine wave has changed, as did the sound, but the
frequency did not change. The waveshape or timbre changed,
though the frequency remained the same.

Filter
A sine wave is an artificial construction that includes energy at
a single frequency. They are easy to create in a computer, but not
really found outside of electronics. Sounds in nature are more
complex; they have energy at many frequencies simultaneously.
An oscilloscope can make a sung note go through a variety of vowel
sounds. Like the earlier sine wave, it has a repeating cycle, and the
number of cycles per second remains constant, but the tonal quality
of the sound is varying. This change in waveshape is how we can
distinguish di!erent vowel sounds on the same note and di!erent
instruments playing the same note, the shapes of the waveforms are
di!erent.

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Our simple synth is more complicated now. It has sample playback

(of a single sung note), and the standard synth waveforms: sine,
saw, square, and triangle. After switching between the waveforms,
it becomes obvious how they got their names. Saw and square are
very bright, buzzy sounds. They have a powerful high end, more
powerful than any acoustic instrument. To tame that harshness,
we have added another module to our synth, a low-pass filter.
While there are many filter types, low pass (LP) is by far the most
common and most useful, because it reduces the extreme high end
of synthetic waveforms. A low-pass filter lets the lows pass through,
but blocks the highs. The main parameter on a low-pass filter is
the cuto! frequency. Above the cuto! frequency the sound is
reduced. The further above the more reduction. Actually, that is a
simplification. The cuto! frequency is the point at which the sound
has already been reduced by 3 dB.

With a complex waveform like a sawtooth, you will hear a change in

brightness when moving the cuto! frequency. The higher the cuto!
frequency, the brighter the sound. The moving, “sweeping,” of a low-
pass filter cuto! frequency is a very important sound in electronic
music. Do not underestimate its importance. Changing the cuto!
frequency of the filter has a dramatic impact on wave shape.

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A low cuto! frequency makes the wave look and sound more like
a sine wave, and a high cuto! frequency lets the brightness of the
waveform through. Notice that the changing of cuto! frequency has
had no impact on the frequency of the waveform, but it does change
the level. As the filter cuts the high end of the waveform, it reduces
the overall energy and in turn, the level meter goes down.

To get an even better picture of sound, we move to the spectrum

analyzer. On the X axis of the spectrum analyzer is frequency, and
on the Y axis is amplitude. Each of the sounds we have been using
has a series of peaks. If it is square, saw, triangle, or the sung phrase,
the peaks are spread out evenly on the spectrum analyzer. Though
the relative levels of the peaks change from waveform to waveform,
their locations do not. These peaks are known as partials, and since
all the sounds we have been using are harmonic. The partials are
organized in a harmonic series. The frequency of each partial is an
exact multiple of the lowest (fundamental) frequency.

Starting with a saw waveform and the filter at a high cuto!

frequency, we move the cuto! frequency down. The harshness of
the sound diminishes. An oscilloscope shows the sharp corners of
the waveform smooth over. A spectrum analyzer shows the upper

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partials reduce, and the level meter shows the overall energy of the
sound is going down. Now, playing the sung phrase, see that the
peaks stay relatively still on the Y axis, but as the vowel changes
the levels of the partials change. Timbre is the relative level of the
partials of a sound, also known as the spectrum of the sound.

Envelope
An acoustic, instrumental note has a shape, the shape you see in
the waveforms of recorded instruments in your DAW. A snare starts
loud and gets quieter over time. A trumpet note has an initial loud
burst then settles into a quieter state until the player stops blowing,
and the sound quickly returns to nothing.

A synthesizer includes an amplitude envelope to emulate those

natural shapes. The amplitude envelope modulates the level
parameter. The envelope creates a path for the level to travel every
time a note is pressed. There are four stages to an envelope: attack
time, decay time, sustain level, and release time. A note is
pressed, and the envelope moves to full volume over the attack time.
Then the envelope proceeds, over the decay time, to the sustain

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level where it stays until the note is released. The envelope fades to
zero over the release time.

An Important Note about Modulation

The amplifier envelope is our first introduction to modulation.

A very important concept, think of modulation as the time
dimension of synthesis; it describes how synth parameters change
over time. While working with electronic music there are many ways
parameters will change over time, so here is how we will use the
terminology throughout the course:

• Modulation: A synthesizer itself moving a parameter.

• Automation: A DAW moving a parameter.
• Control: A person moving a parameter directly.

All instrumental sounds can be placed in one of two categories,

sustaining, or non-sustaining. If energy is being added to the
instrument over the course of a note (blowing, bowing, mechanically
vibrating) then it is a sustaining instrument. If the instrument

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gets an initial burst of energy then is left to resonate and decay

(striking or plucking) then it is a non-sustaining instrument.

To emulate sustaining instrumental sounds, the sustain portion of

your amplitude envelope is non-zero. To emulate non-sustaining
instruments, the sustain portion of the amplitude envelope is zero.

Now that we have a sense of what some of these approaches will

sound like, let’s look at the wave shapes and the parameters, to get
a visual. Here are some common settings for the amp envelope:

Switch
Switch

Attack 0, Decay N/A, Sustain 100%, Release 0

Switches are on or o! with nearly instant movement. So, it takes

no time to go from zero to full volume. Attack is 0. Sustain is at 100
percent, so decay does nothing. There isn’t a di!erent level to go

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down to. On “Note o!,” the sound should stop instantly, so Release
is set to 0. Organs can be emulated with this envelope. Pro tip: To
add a little bite to the beginning of the note reduce sustain to 80
percent and set decay very short. That is good for percussive organs.

Blowing or Bowing
Blowing or Bowing

Attack 0-10% (almost 0), Decay 0-10%, Sustain 50-90%, Release 0-10%

These percentages are rough guides and will vary from synth to
synth. But when you start to blow or bow, there is an initial strong
burst of energy, and then the note settles into a steady sustaining
level. That initial energy causes the envelope to jump from 0 to full
volume quickly (the low attack time setting) then quickly down to
the sustain level (the low decay time setting). The note holds at the
sustain level—any variations in level during the sustain are added
with LFOs—until the note o!, where the instrument vibrates for a
moment, trailing o! after you’ve stopped blowing or bowing.

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Increasing attack time and decay time will soften the initial
transient. Increasing sustain will bring the note to the forefront of
your mix. Increasing release time sounds a bit like adding reverb and
can help to smooth out the lines when moving from note to note.

This envelope is the standard sustaining envelope and is adjusted

according to the actual instrument. For strings, the attack decay and
release is longer, but varies with articulation. For horns, the sustain
level is lower as the initial burst of air is quite strong, compared to
the sustaining level. Again, this varies according to playing style.

Pluck or Strike
Pluck or Strike
Note Off

Attack 0, Decay 10-80%, Sustain 0, Release same as decay

This is a non-sustaining envelope that plays out, regardless of how

long you hit the note for. It’s perfect for emulating struck or plucked

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instruments. When an instrument is struck or plucked it goes to

full volume nearly instantly, then decays based on the decay time.
Release is set similar to decay so that if the player releases the MIDI
note the envelope will continue to play out naturally. The Decay
(and release) parameters are adjusted based on the instrument.
A gong would have a very long Decay, while a marimba note would
be very short.

Envelope Trigger Mode: Some synthesizers give a variety of

modes for envelope playback, one possible mode is Trigger or One-
Shot. in this mode the envelope plays out completely, ignoring the
note o!, and is particularly useful for percussion sounds.

Keytracking and Envelope Time: Often higher notes decay

faster than lower notes in real instruments. To make that happen
on your synthesizer you would need to route keytracking to decay
and release time (negatively, because high notes need to cause
short values)—this is a common parameter on synthesizers. Some
synthesizers have a general purpose time control for the envelope,
routing keytracking to control this parameter has a similar result.

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Damped Pluck or Strike

Damped Pluck or Strike
Note Off

Attack 0, Decay 10-80%, Sustain 0, Release 0

This is very similar to the pluck or strike, but because release time is
zero when the envelope receives a note, o! it goes to zero, stopping
the sound. This is representative of a piano, when the key is pressed
a felt hammer strikes a string, and when the key is released a damper
raises up and stops the note. A similar envelope would be used to
emulate electric guitar and bass.

But if you don’t have access to your synthesizer right now while you
read this, the best way to hear a damped pluck or strike in your head
is by thinking of an analog piano. Think about how the note simply
stops sounding once you’ve taken your finger o! of the key. There is
no sustain because you’re no longer holding down the key.

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Ramp
Ramp
Note Off

Attack 0, Decay 10-30%, Sustain 0, Release 50-100%

This one emulates a reversed percussion sound. It’s great for energy
-building and transitions, but no real instrument behaves this way.

Quirk
Quirk
Note Off

Attack 0, Decay 10-30%, Sustain 0, Release 50-100%

This is a funny envelope—and not really that useful, if I’m being

honest—but interesting to try. With these settings, if you hold a

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note down for a long time, the envelope goes through its short decay
phase and you end up with a short percussive note, like a pluck.

Once you have a basic understanding of these definitions, you

will be able to move on to the low-frequency oscillator (LFO),
inserts, sends, post-fader sends, pre-fader sends, and more.
But what I recommend at all stages of your learning journey is
experimentation. Experiment with what you’ve just learned, and
then experiment with concepts that might be just out of your reach.
That way, when it’s time to learn those concepts you’ll already have
a framework.

Loudon Stearns is the author of the Berklee Online course

from which this lesson comes. Read about his favorite piece
of vintage tech gear on the next page, or learn more about
the other lessons in this course by clicking the link below.

Want to explore this course even further?

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Instructor Spotlight:

Loudon Stearns
Loudon Stearns is the program director for Live Experience Design
at Berklee NYC, a facility established in 2020 at the famed Power
Station recording studio, where students learn skills in performance
technologies, sound and lighting design, projection mapping, LED
panel technology, stage design, computer-aided design, and more.

He has authored and co-authored many Berklee Online courses,

including Composing and Producing Electronic Music 1 and 2 and four
di!erent Ableton Live courses.

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How did you first become interested in electronic music?

After finishing at Berklee, I took a deep dive into exploring
synthesizers, and in that exploration, I started to find that the
masters of synths were also amazing musicians, making this kind of
music I had never explored before. So my intro to electronic music
was through the synthesizer!

What is the most memorable electronic music concert

that you’ve been to?
I saw Amon Tobin in concert at the House of Blues with this insane
projection mapping set. … I have never been the same.

What’s your favorite vintage machine that you use?

I have an all tube Hewlett Packard sine wave generator. It was my
father’s and it sits on my desk all the time. I love it so much!

What advice do you have for someone interested in

studying electronic music production at Berklee Online?
Dive in! Make all the time. Don’t let “I don’t know how” stop you
from making anything. The beauty of Berklee Online is it forces you
to make constantly, and there is no better way to grow as an artist.

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Industry Insider

Preserving the Art &

History of Sampling
By Ashley Pointer

Chris Read is an accomplished DJ and producer. He’s also the

Head of Content at WhoSampled, where he produces much of the
site’s written, video, and audio content. WhoSampled is the leading
destination for sample-based music, covers, and remixes, housing

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the world’s most comprehensive database of music with more than

730,000 samples spanning more than 1,000 years. The UK-based
company founded in 2008 was the first to really map out music in
a way that allows you to explore its DNA.

In this Q&A, which originally appeared in Berklee Online’s Take

Note publication, he opens up about what drives this powerhouse
of a music discovery service, and breaks down the deep history of
sampling as well as the direction it’s pushing music in today.

WhoSampled is definitely a gift for us music mavens.

Who is your target audience?
People who get the most out of WhoSampled are probably die-hard
music fans who would really want to dig deep into the history of a
particular song, or do a deep dive on a catalog of a particular artist.
It’s also just a lot of fun for more casual music fans. If someone
hears something that sounds kind of familiar, but they’re not really
sure why, we’ve got the answer to that question. Maybe they’ll
discover something they didn’t know or rediscover something
they’d forgotten about.

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As a listener you don’t always know you’re listening to a

sample. Like the beginning of “Ray of Light” by Madonna,
or the guitar line from that Gotye record . . . what’s your
favorite unexpected sample?
Well, I guess within hip-hop, the stu! that people really geek out on
is stu! that was buried for years and years and then gets unearthed.
So, there’s always a buzz when a sample in a popular hip-hop record,
like a big ’90s classic that has been previously unknown for 25 years,
suddenly comes up.

But I mean, the samples that I really like are ones where the use is
very creative, but the original record is also a great record. I know
it’s maybe an obvious choice and it’s an all-time classic, but Pete
Rock and C. L. Smooth, “They Reminisce Over You.” I love the hip-
hop record and I also love the Tom Scott original and I also love the
way it’s been used. When you hear the horns, you know instantly
where it’s from. When you go listen to the Pete Rock track, you hear
the way he’s used loads of little parts of it and there’s filters of it in
the main bit.

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To the less informed, sampling can have a negative

connotation, especially in regards to artistic merit. When
do you think the general public started to accept it as a
valid artistic expression?
It’s di"cult to say, really, because I think there will always be people
who don’t like the idea of it. There will always be people who will
see the art in it. I also think it’s really di"cult to generalize, because
there’s such a broad spectrum of things, which can determine
sampling. On the extremely creative end of it, you might find a
person who only ever samples individual notes, or individual drum
hits and pairs it with something that doesn’t sound like any of the
source material, out of tons and tons of tiny fragments of other
things. That is a very di"cult thing to do. I would argue it’s just as
di"cult to do, as playing some of those instruments yourself. It’s
no less creative, because they have used sample material.

In terms of where it sits in popular music: samples in most big

records are cleared. I think people enjoy the nostalgia element of it,
if they’re familiar with the original. And if they’re not familiar with
the original, they might enjoy discovering that record for the first
time. If you ask Timmy Thomas, whether he thinks being sampled
by Drake on “Hotline Bling” was a good thing, I guarantee you he’s

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going to say, yes. Because for one thing, he got paid really nicely for
it and it gave his career a second burst. He’s in the later years of his

We hope what people enjoy from

the site is finding a pathway into
discovering new music, or new-old
music, in some cases.
- Chris Read

musical career and suddenly a song that he made 40, 50 years ago, is
kind of trending again o! the back of a Drake song. He’s an absolute
winner in that situation.

With more recent songs that are charting and hitting the
radios and more people using samples in their music, do
you notice any trends with traffic on WhoSampled?
In terms of tra"c, yeah, definitely. WhoSampled makes a big
e!ort around New Music Friday, every week. We’re looking at new
releases. We’re looking at the playlists and trying to make sure that

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we’re as up to date and comprehensive as possible. We have a Hot

Samples Chart on the front page, which essentially documents the
most visited pages in the last 24 hours. So, that’s quite a current,
accurate window into what the current popular trending and most
searched for tracks are. So, what we usually see is if one of the real
headline artists like a Kanye, or Drake, or someone, drops a new
album on Friday, tracks from that album will be dominating the Hot
Samples Chart by Saturday morning and will stay on that chart for
several weeks. Then, there’s one-o! hits. Occasionally, a viral song
that’s got a sample in it will end up on the chart for weeks, if it’s big
on TikTok, or something at the moment, which is the source behind
so many big records at the moment. They blow up on TikTok.

What inspired the conception of WhoSampled?

Just to put it in context, I wasn’t around when WhoSampled first
started. So, the site’s been around for about 13 years now and I
joined somewhere around the four- or five-year mark. So, I wasn’t
around for their sort of conception, as it were. The founder is Nadav
Poraz, and he is still our CEO, so I work closely with him. He was
just a fan of sample-based music and had done that same thing that
so many of us do, which is to be into either hip-hop, or electronic, or
dance music and make that journey of discovery. Discovering Isaac

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Hayes, or James Brown, or Sly Stone through the contemporary

music that was influenced by it, or sampled it.

So, he discovered loads of music that he already loves, through

contemporary music. He thought it’d be great if there was a resource
where you could discover those connections and actually hear the
music as well. There were other sites talking about samples and
some of them in the early days of the internet were a bit more like
lists: People trying to join the dots between a couple of songs and
posting it in lists.

So, it was really just by him and a friend as a fun project. They
added the first handful of samples themselves that they knew from
their own record collections and just started adding stu! as they
discovered it. They quickly realized that this wasn’t something one
person or two people could build on their own. So, they made it a
crowdsourced thing where anyone can submit and quickly, it just
started building. It just ran away.

What does that process of compiling the data look like?

So, anyone can sign up for a WhoSampled account and anyone could
make a submission, but it’s not like Wikipedia where whatever you

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submit gets published. When you make a submission, it goes into a

queue where it waits to be moderated by either a member of sta! or
one of our moderators. They’re kind of like super users of the site:
people who have been long-term users with a proven track record
of accuracy will also have the right to moderate incoming content.
So every item before it’s published is reviewed to check if both the
connection between the two songs is accurate and also that all the
data attached, like your release details for each track is correct, the
release year and record label and all of that sort of stu!.

We use a variety of resources online to check the data sides of

things. Most of the WhoSampled moderators are producers or beat
makers themselves. They understand the process behind it and are
able to make that call, as to whether something’s correct, or not.
But generally speaking, we’re cautious on the other side of making
sure everything is accurate. So, if something sounds like it might be
correct, but we can’t say absolutely, then that won’t get published.
Only if we can say with almost complete certainty, “This is how this
was made.” Then, we publish. WhoSampled publishes about 1,500
new pages a week, at the moment.

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1,500 a week, just new discoveries?

WhoSampled lists cover versions and remixes, as well. So, there’s an
awful lot of content coming from those categories. But it’s largely
samples and those numbers for cover versions and stu! are always
stacking up, as well. But of one type, or another, new entries around
1,500 a week.

Another great thing about having a community-based thing, is that

there’s people out there who are super passionate about all sorts of
obscure corners of the musical spectrum. There’s someone out there
who’s an expert on Polish jazz, or Turkish psych, or niche regional
hip-hop subgenres, just filling all the gaps in that particular world
that they’re passionate about. That’s what’s really cool about it.

What job do you hope WhoSampled will accomplish, for

the artist and for the listener?
I mean, fundamentally WhoSampled is a music discovery service. So,
that’s the principal thing we’re o!ering. We hope what people enjoy
from the site is finding a pathway into discovering new music, or
new-old music, in some cases.

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Do you use samples in your music?

For the most part, yes. I sample and I guess my approach is to try
and treat sampling like producing a band.

What do you look for when you use samples in your

music?
Rather than look for something that’s a complete piece of music,
I tend to look for isolated instruments in other records, which can
be used almost like a sort of toolkit. So, I like ideally to take drums
from one place and take my keys, or whatever else it is, from another
place and horns from another place and try to construct something
new out of multiple parts and layers. I like to do as much for the
challenge and the creative processes, as anything else, to try and
build things from the ground up.

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‘Halloween’ Theme:
So Many Uses for
Synth it’s Scary
By Michele Darling

From the Online Course

Synthesis, Sampling, and Sound Design in Film
Scoring: Electronic and Textural Resources
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The music from the 1978 film Halloween was revolutionary,

not just because director John Carpenter also composed the score,
but because of Carpenter’s adventurous use of early synth pads
and stabs, which helped him create one of the most powerful and
creepiest soundtracks of all time.

The late 1970s were a pivotal time for electronic music in the
soundtrack format, and music like this was previously the domain
of science fiction, but Carpenter discovered that the new electronic
sounds lent themselves well to the horror genre.

Halloween was a low-budget film, which cost around $300,000.

There weren’t enough funds to pay a film composer, let alone an
orchestra. Carpenter had a bit of previous musical experience,
so he booked a studio in LA and connected with Dan Wyman—
and eventually engineer Alan Howarth—to help him realize the
soundtrack with synthesizers. The challenge was that they had
to record the music without synchronizing it to picture since the
technology had not been invented yet. They played and recorded the
music to a click and a stopwatch, then matched it up with the film
later on the 35 mm mag stock at the film studio. It’s amazing, the
score works so well and captures the frightening vibe perfectly.

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On his website, Carpenter tells the story of composing for the film:
“[The script for] Halloween was written in approximately 10 days by
Debra Hill and myself. I screened the final cut minus sound e!ects
and music, for a young executive from 20th Century Fox. She wasn’t
scared at all. I then became determined to ‘save it with the music.’
I had composed and performed the musical scores for my first two
features, Dark Star and Assault on Precinct 13, as well as many student
films. I was the fastest and cheapest I could get.”

Carpenter has said that his biggest influences as a composer were

Ennio Morricone and Bernard Herrmann, the latter of whom is
best known for his score for Psycho, which is the film that inspired
Halloween. He says the rhythm of Halloween’s main title theme was
inspired by an exercise his father taught him on the bongos in 1961,
the beating out of 5/4 time.

“There is a point in making a movie when you experience the final

result,” he writes on his site. “For me, it’s always when I see an
interlock screening of the picture with the music. All of a sudden
a new voice is added to the raw, naked without-e!ects-or-music
footage. The movie takes on its final style, and it is on this that the
emotional total should be judged.”

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Let’s take a look at the main Halloween theme:

The main theme from the film is actually very simple yet incredibly
memorable. This could be because of its haunting dissonance or its
relentless drive. One of the techniques Carpenter uses to make us
feel unsteady is the irregular time signature. As he mentioned, the
piece is in 5/4: the syncopation is created with accents in groups of
3, 3, 2, and 2. The initial pace in the groups of three is set, but then is
suddenly changed to groups of two, making it feel as if it’s pushing
us forward and creating an unsteadiness.

Look up the opening credits of the movie. Note how the uneasiness
of the music works with the zooming in of the jack-o-lantern.
A piano plays the 10-note melody in eighth notes. The C # to F #
(Tritone) repeats three times and then the C # raises a minor 2nd
to D and returns to F # (creating a minor 6th). The entire melody
descends one half step, C to F (TT), creating a feeling of falling

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and leaving what was the original key. The chosen intervals of
tritones and minor 6ths that then descend by a minor 2nd all create
dissonance and tension just by the inherent nature of the intervals.

Whole notes (playing every 10 notes) in the low brass and layered
electronic strings play the tonic to give us an impending doom
and a slight feeling of grounding. Tucked underneath the melody
is a steady pulsing electronic rhythmic percussive sound almost
sounding like a foot keeping time played in unrelenting sixteenth
notes. All of these parts together create a suspenseful and dissonant
theme that is incredibly unsettling.

Let’s take another look at the main theme in a di!erent context.

Look up the “Speed Kills” scene online. (Warning, there are spoilers
ahead, and some legitimately scary scenes.)

The theme occurs as a car drives by the girls. Jamie Lee Curtis’
character Laurie notices the car. Her friends think it’s a friend,
but it’s really Michael Myers, the killer. As Laurie’s head turns and
watches the car pass, the pulse of the music matches the speed of
his driveby. As soon as he stops—once the girl yells at him—the
music surges in volume. Then it slowly fades as his car finally passes.

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The simplicity of this theme is highly e!ective with its steady pulse
in 5/4 time and the recognizable melody. The tick-tock clock-like
nature of the electronic percussive sound in relentless sixteenth
notes suggests Michael’s unrelenting drive to kill. It truly is what
makes this scene so frightening. There’s no gore here, but we know
the threat is imminent, and the continuous, steady, and unresolving,
music holds us in anticipation; we know this threat will continue.

Let’s take a look at another scene (this one is definitely gorier).

Again, just do a quick search online. It’s called “The Chase.” The
following music cue, “Michael Kills Judith,” occurs when Laurie
sees her murdered friend on the bed in a position representing Jesus

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dying on the cross. For context, Judith is Michael’s sister, who he

killed at the beginning of the film. It is her gravestone that we see
on top of the bed.

The mysterious three-note synth melody is immediately

recognizable as the “Michael Kills Judith” cue, establishing the fact
that Michael has already killed Laurie’s friend. The synth lead sound
is made of a triangle wave with dissonant minor 2nd layers. It’s
interesting to note that as the sound is held, you can hear a wavering
or pulsing, similar to a vibrato. This steady pulse in the synth sound
keeps time with Michael’s relentless mission, which has a terrifying
e!ect on the audience.

Notice that just after the stinger, which is meant to surprise the
viewer, a piano enters playing descending minor 2nds in steady
eighth notes. The synth pad that accompanies the piano descends in
scale with the piano, going deeper into the drama and the potential
demise of our heroine.

This is the ultimate tension in the film! The music takes us through
the terrifying ride of Michael hunting Laurie through the house until
she is temporarily safe in the house across the street with the kids.

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At about the 1:22 mark we are once again reminded of the three-note
synth motif, which references Judith’s murder from earlier in the
movie. Hearing the same musical motif makes us more fearful that
Laurie will meet the same fate.

It’s interesting to note that, when Michael attempts to stab Laurie in

this scene, the music dies out. The silence during the most intense
part of the film leaves us unsettled, as if the rug has been pulled out
from under us. We stand in silence with Laurie as we wonder if she’s
going to be alright. The music begins again when we realize she is
still alive and Michael continues to move towards her with a simple
yet steady single-note piano rhythm.

It is this sort of technique, and the courage to keep the score simple
that makes Carpenter such a master of horror music. Notice also
that many of the score sounds in Halloween came from synthesizers
but were emulating traditional instruments such as piano sounds,
harpsichord sounds, strings, brass, and bass.

Carpenter says the scoring sessions took two weeks “because that’s
all the budget would allow.”

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He dubbed the music in late July and finally saw the picture with an
audience in the fall.

“About six months later I ran into the same young executive who
had been with 20th Century Fox,” he recalls. “Now she too loved
the movie and all I had done was add music. But she really was quite
justified in her initial reaction. … My plan to ‘save it with the music’
seemed to work.”

Michele Darling is the author of the Berklee Online course

from which this lesson comes. Discover which film score she
is currently streaming on the following page, or learn more
about other lessons in this course by clicking the link below.

Want to explore this course even further?

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Instructor Spotlight:

Michele Darling
Michele Darling is the assistant chair of the Electronic Production
and Design department at Berklee College of Music. An accomplished
sound designer, composer, recording engineer, and educator, she
worked as part of an Emmy-winning production team at Sesame
Workshop, where she composed music, worked on sound design,
and recorded voice work.

At Berklee Online, she authored the grad course Synthesis, Sampling,

and Sound Design in Film Scoring: Electronic and Textural Resources.

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What piece of media do you think is a prime example

of music and visuals coming together to create a
masterpiece?
Francis Ford and Carmine Coppola’s score for Apocalypse Now is
one of my favorite classic examples.

What is your go-to soundtrack/score that you are

currently streaming most?
I’m fascinated by Ludwig Göransson’s score for Tenet. I’m spending
some time unravelling the storyline and enjoying the reverse sounds.

What do you wish you could have told yourself

early on as a composer?
You are capable. Just get out of your own way. Stop trying to force
it and let the music and visuals lead.

How do you get inspired and into the composing

mindset?
I watch the visuals several times until I start to feel emotion. When
I feel immersed in the emotion, I start to play on the keyboard and
come up with musical elements and sounds that align with the
emotion. Then I have a basis to work o! of and I can build on it.

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Tips of the Trade

Linking Vintage Gear

with Modern Tech
By Erik Hawkins

We’re in the midst of an incredible resurgence of modular, semi-

modular, and desktop synths. To name but a few: The modular synth
components by Noise Engineering and Erica Synths, the Roland
Boutique synthesizers, Korg Volca devices, and the ever-expanding

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line of Behringer models. There are also a slew of amazing vintage

synths on the market today, for pennies on the dollar of their
original price tag, that you can easily fold into your setup with an
old school MIDI connection.

Incorporate a few of these units with your modern DAW, such as

Ableton Live or Pro Tools, and you’ve got yourself an incredibly
powerful music production and sound design toolbox. You can
have the best of all worlds: analog sound at your fingertips and
comprehensive recording and audio editing control in your DAW
program.

So you’ve picked up a few of these amazing vintage and semi-

modular synths, now the next obvious question is . . . how do you
connect them all to your system? Or, more to the point, how can
they become fully integrated into your music production workflow?

For example, if you’ve got two Behringer semi-modular devices, an

analog drum machine, and a vintage synth module, how do you plug
all of these into your two-input audio interface for complete audio
and MIDI control? Let’s dive into this on the next few pages.

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The Audio Interface and

Sound Modules
Here are the devices you will need, as well as the modules I will
be using as an example.

1. A Computer

Obviously we’re going to need a computer to run Ableton Live.

2. An Audio Interface—AudioBox USB

You should ideally have a couple of inputs with trims on them for
the line inputs from our sound modules. It’s very important that
we have MIDI inputs. Yes, I’m talking about traditional old-style
MIDI inputs, with outputs on the back, specifically MIDI outputs to
control our sound modules, our external sound modules, that are
the vintage sound modules that don’t have the USB ports on them.
The Behringer semi-modulars have the USB ports, but some of the
old vintage units don’t, so we’ve got to have that MIDI to work with
the really old gear.

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3. A Drum Machine

Some old equipment that I’ve found success hooking up to new

systems include a drum machine called the Cyclone TT-606, which
is a nice little clone of the TR-606, the classic Roland analog drum
machine. I like this one a lot and it actually only has MIDI on it.

4. Synths

• Behringer PRO-1 Analog Synthesizer

• Behringer Analog Synthesizer Model D
• An old Yamaha TX7 (basically a DX7-1 in a desktop unit [MIDI])

5. Keyboard

It’s nice to have a MIDI control keyboard to play your parts in.

For the drum machine, I’ve got audio outputs going to the audio
interface, and I’ve got MIDI input going to the MIDI output on the
AudioBox. I have an input for the Model D, and another cord will be
the Model D’s audio output. As for the MIDI for the Model D, we’re
using USB. Tip: check out my video, Using Hardware Synths with
Ableton Live: https://berkonl.in/LinkingVintageGear

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Confirming Devices and

Preference Settings
The first thing you’ll want to do is make sure that the devices are
recognized by the operating system, which are USB compliant. Open
up the “Audio MIDI Setup,” and you should see the AudioBox USB,
the MIDI I/O, and the Model D.

Now in Ableton Live, you’ll want to make sure that the devices are
recognized in the preferences. In the command bar, click Live >
Preferences. Then click on the Link MIDI tab and make sure that all
of the devices are clicked “ON” under MIDI Ports and Tracks.

One other thing you’ll want to do while you’re in Preferences is

make sure that the bu!er size is set nice and low. Click the Audio
tab and look under Latency. You can get away with 512 Samples,
but really it’s external hardware devices that are generating the
sound. So the MIDI is going out to the external hardware devices,
the external hardware devices are generating the sound, and that’s
coming back into your computer where you’re monitoring it. So
you want to make sure that this is set as low as your computer can
handle. I’ve found success using 64 Samples.

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Why I’m Not Using the

External Instrument Device
I could use the External Instrument device (Instruments > External
Instrument) to control the external instruments, but I recommend
using the individual MIDI and audio tracks. This makes it easier to
record MIDI data on the MIDI track, and then record the audio on
the audio track.

Setting up the Drum and Bass

Tracks for MIDI Sequencing
Start by deleting the external instrument track and creating another
MIDI track (right-click > Insert MIDI Track). You should have four
columns. Name one track “drums” and another “model d” for your
synth bass line.

Then let’s set up the output to the drum machine, so in the green
“drums” column, under “MIDI To,” click the drop-down and select
AudioBox. The input from the drum machine (dark yellow column)
should have “input 1” selected under “Audio From” drop-down.

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For the “model d” column (light yellow), the output (or “MIDI
To”) will be going to the Model D. And the input for the Model D is
already set under “Audio From” to 2. Again, for visuals of this, see
my Using Hardware Synths with Ableton Live video on YouTube.

We’ll arm the “drums” track by clicking the small music note at the
very bottom, which should light up red. You’ll see audio coming into
channel 1, but you won’t hear it because we have to set the monitor
input. In the “2 Audio” column, click In, so that it lights up blue.

At this point, you should hear the drum machine.

Next, let’s do the same thing for “model d.” Arm the track by
clicking the small music note at the very bottom of the column,
lighting it up red. In the “4 Audio” column, click In under “Monitor”
so that it lights up blue.

Now that we know everything’s working, let’s label the two audio
tracks. Label the “2 Audio” column “DRUMS” and “4 Audio” to
“MODEL D.” Notice that I’m using all caps for the audio and
lowercase for the MIDI. This helps you to recognize what the track
is pretty quickly, whether it’s MIDI data or audio waveforms.

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MIDI Sequencing the TT-606

Analog Drums
Now, let’s record some MIDI. First, play around a bit with the
sounds available on the TT-606.

We could play several di!erent drums together on the same track,

but let’s start with a four-on-the-floor beat with the individual drum
sounds. We’ll start with a nice dance beat at 128 BPM.

Let’s turn the click on and lay down a kick drum for a few bars. Then
do the snare. You could even make a new track for the snare so you
could have more control over the details. Here are some general
examples of MIDI drum notes:

• Kick = C1 • Closed Hi-Hat = F # 1

• Snare = D1 • Open Hi-Hat = A # 1

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Now let’s work on the hi-hats. Agan, like we’ve been doing, create a
new track, rename it “hats,” and set the output to the “AudioBox.”
We have three MIDI notes to work with here: The closed hi-hat
(F # 1), pedal hi-hat (G # 1), and the open hi-hat (A # 1).

When you play all of the parts together, you’ll notice they create
some nice variety. We need to record them as audio, but first, let’s
put down some bass.

MIDI Sequencing the

Model D Bass Synth
For the Model D, let’s add one of the MIDI e!ects. Go over to the
far left “Collections” menu > click MIDI E!ects > Arpeggiator > and
select something simple like the Bach 16th notes.

Let’s take the “Bach 16th” and drag it on top of the “model d”
MIDI track. Arm the track and see how that sounds. If you like it,
develop a bass line to record. It’s always fun to create a bass line
under these circumstances, because you never know when you’re
going to chance upon something that you end up really liking.

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Recording the TT-606 Analog

Drum MIDI Sequences to Clips
Now it’s time to record these parts into audio, on clips, so that we
can later slice and dice them.

We’ll start by record-arming the drums, so you’ll want to “uncheck”

everything else, besides what you are recording—so first the “kick”
into “DRUMS.” Repeat the same process for the snare.

One nice feature of the TT is that you can play around with the
tone button to achieve your desired sound, so we can do some
modulations for the snare. If you choose to do that, label them
di!erently: “SNARE 1” and “SNARE 2.”

Now we’ll switch over to the various hi-hats, checking the

appropriate inputs, and repeating the process until you have the
parts and tuning you desire. Take your time, coming up with
parts and tuning, and just explore the possibilities until you find
something you like. That way, when you start to experiment, you’ll
be more likely to enjoy the end result.

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Recording the Model D Bass

Synth to Clips
Now let’s record the Model D, so record-arm the “model D” track
and make sure that you’ve checked your input levels. Go ahead and
record “model d 1” and “model d 2” into “MODEL D.”

So for this next one, “model d 3,” let’s mess around with some
filters, specifically the filter cuto!. So while you’re recording, go
ahead and move the knob around.

Connecting the TX7 (DX7)

and Pro-1
On the back of the TX7, connect the MIDI input to the AudioBox,
and the audio output to the AudioBox. The orange cable you see
is connecting the AudioBox to the Pro-1, which will be the lead
synth. The MIDI will be connected to the Pro-1 by USB. Again,
I encourage you to check out the video at https://berkonl.in/
LinkingVintageGear. That way it will all make sense when you
read about the “orange cable”!

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Chords and Lead Synth Tracks

for MIDI Sequencing
Start by setting up two MIDI tracks (right-click > Insert MIDI Track).
One MIDI track will be the TX7, which will be for the chords. The
other MIDI track will be the Pro-1 for the lead synth.

And we want to go MIDI to the AudioBox for the TX7 and MIDI
to the Pro-1. Let’s set up a couple of audio tracks. One will be for
the TX7 and the other will be for the Pro-1. Once we do that, let’s
start o! with some chords. We want to make sure that our monitor
input is set, and we’ve record-armed the TX7. Again, to hear what
it sounds like, (and to actually watch me as I do all of this) check
out my video, entitled Using Hardware Synths with Ableton Live on
YouTube.

Experiment with di!erent octaves, and start recording. You’ll be

able to slice and dice those chords up and make something you can
work with. That’s the best part about experimenting and recording:
you can lay something down, listen, and then go back and do it
again, keeping only the parts you really liked.

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Next, let’s try out the Pro-1 synthesizer, which would be the lead
synth. I want to make sure that we’ve set this to “in” and we’ve
armed the track. The input there needs to be set to 2.

Don’t forget to check that you’re in tune, because whenever you’re

dealing with something that is analog, there’s a chance it could be
slightly out. Luckily, Ableton Live has a tuner.

So now that we’ve got all of these parts done that we can work with,
let’s record! With a lot of this analog equipment, there’s also no
real-time controls, in terms of filters. It’s just a vintage digital synth!

So you’ll want to do a couple of takes, then grab the cuto! filter and
play around with that to see if you can find any cool sounds there.

What I’ll do next is press save and then take these tracks and drag
them over to my arrangement view, and then start editing all these
little sections together to create my song structure. And pretty soon
I will have brought a new song into the world that wouldn’t have
existed had I not plugged my old vintage gear into my newer tech
setup.

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So that’s basically how you do it. To refresh—so you don’t have to

flip back through all of the previous pages of this tutorial—here’s a
bulleted list of what we’ve covered:

• Make all the connections

• Sequence your MIDI clips
• Make edits to your quantization
• Record those clips
• Drag them into the arrangement view to arrange your song
• Mix and master to taste

And although this is my method, it’s just one way to do it. The most
important thing is to experiment and have fun. And the more you
do of that, the chances increase that you’ll find a new song that
nobody’s heard before. And that’s why it’s called synthesis!

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Instructor Spotlight:

Erik Hawkins
Erik “Hawk” Hawkins is an EDM artist, producer, composer,
remixer, label owner, and author. His music has been used by
networks and film studios, including ABC, CBS, MTV, Nickelodeon,
and New Line Cinema. He also manages his own music production
channel on YouTube, with nearly 5,000 subscribers.

At Berklee Online, he is the author and instructor of the award-

winning course Programming and Producing Drum Beats, as well as
Remixing and Producing Music with Reason.

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How did you first become interested in electronic music?

I was 15 and tired of trying to wrangle band members for practice,
so I figured it’d be easier if I just played everything myself. I found
two Radio Shack cassette decks and started recording and bouncing
takes back and forth between cassette tapes.

Who are your most influential electronic music artists?

New Order, Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails, Prince, BT, Fatboy
Slim, Ministry, and Suzanne Ciani.

What’s your favorite vintage machine that you use?

The Korg DDD-1 drum machine from 1986.

How important is it to you to stay up-to-date with the

most current software and equipment?
Pretty important, since it’s my job! But staying up to date with the
gear should never replace practicing your instrument, because the
gear isn’t going to write the music. That’s your job.

How do you stay current with software and equipment?

Mostly YouTube and my amazing Berklee Online students, who are
always cutting edge.

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Improvising in
Ableton Live
By Erin Barra

From the Online Course

Ableton Live Techniques: Non-Linear Creative
Strategies and Composition
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The idea of improvisation is something that a lot of laptop

musicians cringe at the thought of. For some of us, the whole idea
of being completely in control is what draws us to a Digital Audio
Workstation (DAW) in the first place. But in many respects, even
when it’s just us and we’ve got a distinct plan in place, much of what
we do is largely improvisational. Whether it’s the point at which
we’re picking out a melody, playing around with drum patterns,
or twisting knobs until we find just the right setting, we are in fact
improvising in those moments. Composition is improvisation, just
at a di!erent pace and through a di!erent lens.

Improvising is a state of mind; there are no hard and fast rules and
there’s no specific way to do it. The only thing that you must do
in order to have a successful improvisational session—either with
yourself or with another musician—is listen. You have to really use
your ears, take in what it is you’re hearing in the moment, and act
accordingly. That may seem simple enough, but you’d be surprised
at how di"cult some people find it to be.

On the following pages you’ll find some helpful tips about what you
need in order to improvise in Ableton Live. But keep in mind that
the main thing you need is a sense of openness to new experiences.

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Prepared Improvisation
Even though the idea of improvisation is anchored by things
happening in real time, prepping the environment you’ll be
improvising in is pivotal. The last thing you want to be doing is
auditioning drum sounds or adding new tracks on the fly, so the first
step is to prepare your live set. Here are a few things to consider:

1. What are you good at?

Each of us has a di!erent skill set. Some of us might be strong
instrumentalists, others might be more accustomed to clicking MIDI
events into sequences and coming up with very precise melodies.
Whatever it is that you’re good at, incorporating that into the
improvisational environment you’ll be building will help you to
put your best foot forward.

2. What role will Ableton Live play?

Improvising with Ableton Live in the mix isn’t necessarily the same
as improvising with other traditional instrumentalists. Ableton Live
can do so many things for you, so deciding what role the software
will play in this is an important step. You could set up the generative
functionalities so it’s improvising right along with you, or you might

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want to use it only as a place to capture what it is that you’re doing.

You are only limited by your own imagination and understanding
of the software, so consider what role Ableton Live will play in this
experience.

3. What do you need to prep in your set?

Depending on what you decide you’ll be doing in real time, you
might have a lot to do before you actually get to the improvisational
part. Things like adding tracks, choosing and loading the right
instruments, routing things properly, MIDI mapping, changing your
default settings and preferences, pulling in audio or sequencing
MIDI, or creating empty MIDI clips with follow actions. Whatever it
is that you need, you need to take care of all of this before you start.
Just as if you were a guitarist, you’d need to set up your amp, plug in,
tune up, dial in the tone, get your volume just right, and make sure
all of the settings on your e!ects pedals were set just right.

Using Link to Prepare for a

Multi-Person Improvisation
Okay, now that you’re ready to improvise, let’s figure out who’s
involved. If you do want to bring another person into the mix and

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they are also using Ableton Live or an iOS app to make music,
you might want to consider using Link. Link is technology that
will sync devices together over a local wireless network, keeping
them in time with each other. This works from one Ableton Live
session to another, as well as between a number of other apps, both
desktop and mobile, and even pieces of external hardware, such as
an MPC. Or if you’re improvising with somebody who is playing a
more traditional instrument, you’ll want to be even more careful
that you’re actively listening and engaging with the sounds they’re
creating, rather than trying to show o! all of the bells and whistles
you’ve prepared. Improvising is like a conversation: you talk and
listen.

Improvising Alone
Being the only person around when you’re improvising is a lot of
responsibility because you’re the only one making any sound, but for
some of us it can be easier to let go and feel free when it’s just us.
If you decide to go it alone, remember to be yourself and be in the
moment, and then to let yourself go and get into the music. Because
if you’re not into it, you can’t expect anybody else to be.

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What’s Next?
Just keep going and exploring where your ears guide you or your
hands fall. The goal is to get into a flow state. Many perceive music
technology as rigid and highly structured, but hopefully you’ll prove
the exact opposite to be true with your music. Whether you’re
improvising alone or with other musicians, just show up and let
the timeline keep running.

Erin Barra is the author of this course, along with Loudon

Stearns. Learn how she got started in music production on
the following pages, or learn more about the other lessons
in this course by clicking the link below.

Want to explore this course even further?

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Instructor Spotlight:

Erin Barra
Erin Barra is a songwriter, educator, producer, multi-instrumentalist,
and music technology consultant. She is a leading product specialist
for Ableton and works with artists and bands to integrate digital
technologies into their writing, production, and stage setups.
Erin has worked with Grammy winners like John Oates, George
Massenburg, Kathy Mattea, and Elliot Scheiner.

She has also authored and co-authored many Berklee Online

courses, including four Ableton Live courses.

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How did you first become interested in electronic music?

I’ve always been a fan but I got interested in making it around 2012
when I started experimenting with electronics in my live stage show.

Who are your most influential electronic music artists?

Disclosure, Daft Punk, Bon Iver, Half Waif, Moderat, James Blake.

Which electronic music subgenres are you drawn to?

I’m into all types of house: deep house, global house, ’90s house,
Italo disco, and so on.

What is the most memorable electronic music concert

that you’ve been to, and why?
I saw Disclosure at Boston Calling maybe five years ago, and I’ve
never heard music that was so loud and yet so clear in the low-end.
It was the best-sounding concert I’ve ever been to.

What advice do you have for someone interested in

studying electronic music production at Berklee Online?
Don’t get overwhelmed by everything there is to know and instead
get excited by the fact that you’ve got a lifetime of learning ahead of
you and endless discoveries pending.

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Instructor Insights

Killing Writer’s Block,

100 Songs at a Time
By Tavi Kaye

Establishing a new habit can be di"cult, but having some

accountability can make the process easier, especially when you’ve
committed to it publicly on social media. Berklee NYC program
director and Berklee Online course author Loudon Stearns wanted

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to help his students stick to the habit of songwriting, so he started

the #hundredtrackhive experiment to inspire musicians who are
struggling to create. He got his Electronic Writing and Production
students to compose a track every day—yes, every single day—
and they shared their work with each other on Instagram under
#hundredtrackhive.

“I’ve been really inspired by a lot of research into creativity that

states that quantity is more important than quality,” says Loudon,
who now heads up BerkleeNYC’s Live Experience Design program.
His findings from the #hundredtrackhive project have significantly
informed his approach with his graduate students.

“I can’t imagine any artist that hasn’t made a ton of garbage before
they made their masterpiece” he says. “Everything I know about
creativity is that the only sure thing is simply that you’ve got to
make, and when you make, you get better and that’s the whole
creative process.”

Loudon says that he was also inspired by an artist named Mike

Winkelmann, who is known professionally as BEEPLE.

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“He’s one of the richest artists on the planet now through an NFT
sale of his works,” says Loudon. “He had a job he didn’t like, and he
just wanted to be a graphic artist, so he said to himself, ‘I’m going to
make a piece of art a day and I’m going to post it online for the rest
of my life.’ It’s a matter of making every day, putting it out there,
allowing yourself to just create and publish constantly: It reduces
the need to be amazing or precious.”

The idea for #hundredtrackhive first came about as a response

to the pandemic. What was a class that only met once a week to
learn Electronic Production & Design (EPD) techniques became an
online community that shared and supported each other’s works.
Using Splice’s sample downloads and synthesizer presets helped
keep the inspiration flowing for those 100 days, and the company
was kind enough to provide Loudon’s class with a free three-month
subscription.

“I figured, ‘Okay, let’s just create a class structure where the whole
class is communicating with each other every day, giving each other
comments and good vibes through the media we’re already using,’”
says Loudon.

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Instagram ended up being a great medium for the project, due its
fast-paced nature. The fact that Loudon and his students were
sharing snippets and ideas instead of full projects made the app
seem like the right place for the experiment. Loudon also saw other
advantages to it:

“We have a natural tendency as artists to make long things, so I love

Instagram for many reasons,” he says. “One, the audio isn’t the best
quality. So it avoids getting too precious with the mix, because it’s
going to sound like shit anyway. And two, you have this one-minute

The only sure thing is simply that

you’ve got to make, and when you
make, you get better and that’s the
whole creative process.
- Loudon Stearns

limit, which means that everything should take under a minute to

work there. And you have to be visual.”

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Even before the #hundredtrackhive project, Loudon required his

students to submit a visual with their projects, which lent itself
well to Instagram and added more layers to the students’ musical
submissions. Some held a low-fi aesthetic, others strived for glitch-
art. Some posted pictures of their friends or places with funny
captions. Above all, it provided their music with a visual identity.

“Some of the students really developed a vibe of their own,” says

Loudon, noting that one student always used a white border around
everything, “and that was really striking visually.” Another student
also used white borders, but with a predilection for including visuals
of digital synth interfaces.

Aside from the music and eclectic artwork, what is also remarkable
is all the heartfelt comments his students made on the posts. There
is an apparent honesty in the comments that translates a strong
sense of community between the students. Loudon says there’s also
another major plus of doing a little bit of work a lot.

“One big benefit of making one track a day is that I’ve saved it all,”
he says. “I have a folder of all this stu! and every one of those is a
starting point now, a template. It becomes a kind of portfolio.”

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Loudon explains that if a student collaborates with an artist or

director, they can tell them to look through their examples on
Instagram for inspiration for what they are looking for. Not only
that, the student can then pull up the Ableton session and build the
project around a preexisting foundation, saving time. Plus they can
say they completed these pieces in an hour, which is pretty special.

But regardless of how fun and whimsical this sounds, these students
are creative people, and generating so many creative ideas for one
course must be pretty draining, right?

“Yeah, they do get drained, and there’s a couple of ways I dealt with
that,” says Loudon. “I made sure that the first thing we posted,
we did during the class and only took an hour on it. I’ve done this
a number of times with di!erent classes and di!erent groups of
people, and if anyone out there is trying to start this idea for their
own, the trick is to set a low bar with your first post.”

Loudon says that when he first introduced #hundredtrackhive to

students, he had them jump right in, to take away any anxiety of
preparation and expectation. He also made sure to keep it light,
so students would go easy on themselves.

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“We did it in class, so you only have an hour, which means you make
it, you post it. That sets a standard of a low bar,” he says. “Then the
other thing I did is that I made games of it every week. There’s a
tendency to sit at a blank sheet of paper and be lost in a blank sheet.
So as the professor, I would set up games like: ‘Okay, this week, it’s
all about modular synthesis, so you just make a modular synth patch
every day of this week.’ So that sets up a game to play. Or ‘This week
you have to remix someone else’s project,’ or ‘This week every piece
has to be part of a continuing story.’”

Loudon says he noticed a natural kind of arc: most of the students

are really good up until their 20th post and the quality drops o! a
little, with the lowest points happening between the 40s and 60s,
but after that there was an exciting uptick.

“To me it’s like, ‘I’m almost there!’ and it’s a marathon,” says
Loudon. “And then we all did the last one in class and we all made
our 100th post together, which was super fun.”

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Instructor Spotlight:

David Doms
David Doms is an associate professor in the Electronic Production
and Design department at Berklee College of Music. He has a long
history of teaching MIDI and music synthesis, and has composed
and produced TV and radio commercials for regional and national
broadcast, corporate video, and film. He is a published songwriter
with Warner Chappell Music and DSM.

At Berklee Online, David authored and instructs the courses

Sampling and Audio Production and Producing Music with Logic.

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Who are your most influential electronic music artists?

Aphex Twin, Jon Hopkins, Björk, Flying Lotus, Brian Eno, and
Richard Devine.

What is the most memorable electronic music concert

that you’ve been to, and why?
Suzanne Ciani at the Berklee Performance Center in 2017. She
created a masterful and inspiring extended improvisation using her
Buchla synths in quadraphonic sound.

Which emerging electronic artists should we look out for?

Floating Points, Oneohtrix Point Never, FKA twigs, FKJ, and Flume.

What’s your favorite vintage machine that you use?

Access Virus T1: This is a great hardware synth from the mid-2000s.

How do you stay current with software and equipment?

The time spent updating has to be balanced with the goal of
spending the majority of your time mastering the tools that you
already have and developing your own music. It’s good to research
the updates you are making before implementing them to see how
this will a!ect the rest of your rig.

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World-Class Courses
With Berklee Online, you have more than 200 courses to
choose from, including more than 45 courses focusing on
electronic music production and sound design, including:

• Composing and Producing Electronic Music 1 & 2 �

• Sound Design for the Electronic Musician 
• Audio/Music Production for Visual Media 
• Audio Mastering Techniques 
• Mixing and Mastering for the Electronic Musician �
• Advanced Mixing Techniques 
online.berklee.edu Electronic Music Production & Sound Design Handbook

Shaping the Sounds

of Your Mix with EQ
By Jeff Baust

From the Online Course

Mixing and Mastering for the Electronic Musician
online.berklee.edu Electronic Music Production & Sound Design Handbook

EQ is a tool that does a lot in shaping the sounds in your mix,

and using it e!ectively is a key part of mixing music.

EQ is especially important to mixing, and we use it in many ways.

We can use EQ to gently shape the sounds so that they fit better into
the mix. We can also use EQ sounds more aggressively to completely
change a sound in the mix, recasting it as something di!erent.

When it comes to mixing music, there’s really no set rule as to

where we start. Some people might start with dynamic processing,
some by adding mix automation, others might start by first adding
some reverb, and so forth. But we’re going to start with what many
people would consider a fairly common first step in mixing: working
with EQ.

The idea here is that with EQ—and also dynamics processing, which
we get into later in this course—our first step is to just shape the
sounds so that they are a little more polished and refined, and a
little more workable. It’s a good first step in mixing, because once
your sounds are in better shape, you can take your mix forward with
more involved signal processing, and add some spatial e!ects, work
with automation, and so forth.

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Why Use EQ?

First, let’s consider why we use EQ in mixing music. EQ, as you
probably know, is short for equalization. EQ is used to change the
frequency balance of a sound in your mix. It can reduce the low
frequencies in a sound, boost some midrange frequencies, notch
out a problematic resonance, or add some top end “air” to a sound.
There are many ways we use EQ in mixing. Consider the following:

To Get Tracks to Blend Together

We use EQ to help tracks blend together in a mix. A very common

example would be regarding the relationship between a kick drum
and bass track. Since both the kick and bass track could have a lot
of low-frequency energy to them, you can use EQ on each of them
to help shape them di!erently so that they complement each other
more. Similarly, you can have a great sounding vocal and a great
sounding synth track playing chords. But in the context of the mix,
the synth track has too much presence where the vocal intelligibility
lies (typically 1-4 kHz), so they can tend to fight with one another.
By adding a little EQ to reduce some of that energy in the synth
track, you can get these two parts to sit together better in the mix.

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For Balance

One of the most common uses for EQ is to help improve the overall
frequency balance of a sound you are using in a mix. You might,
for example, have a kick drum sound that is too boomy because it
has too much low end to it. Or you might have a vocal that seems
too mu#ed in the upper midrange. Or perhaps a synth track that’s
just too bright and buzzy in the top end, and it eats up too much
frequency space in the mix. These are all situations where EQ could
come in handy.

To Creatively Change and Manipulate Sounds

Those first two examples were about using EQ in a way that tries
to improve the original sounds in your production. However, we
sometimes use EQ to take things further, and completely reshape
a sound. You might, for example, have a big bright synth track that
eats up a lot of frequency space, yet it’s really just playing an inner
line, something that adds a little rhythmic and harmonic texture to
your production. Instead of trying to gently tweak it within EQ, you
might try more aggressively recasting it by shaving o! all of its low
end and top end, and rebalancing its midrange so that it sounds like

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a completely di!erent element. Especially in electronic music, with

so many synthesized and processed sounds, it’s very common to use
EQ in this manner.

Types of EQ
Let’s begin with a short review of the di!erent types of EQ bands,
and how we work with them in mixing.

Parametric

In a parametric EQ band, which is also known as a bell curve, you

typically find three basic parameters. They are the center frequency,
the bandwidth, and the gain (the boost or cut).

In a parametric EQ band, the center frequency and the gain

parameters are pretty straightforward. The center frequency is the
frequency you choose to boost your cut, and gain is the amount you
want to boost or cut at that frequency. Bandwidth refers to the area
around the center frequency that will also get a!ected by the boost
or cut. If you have a wide bandwidth, you a!ect a lot of frequencies
around the center frequency, or with a narrow bandwidth you can

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boost or cut more specifically just around your center frequency.

Notice that we express the bandwidth using the letter Q. This is
so that you can express the bandwidth of a parametric band as a
proportion between the bandwidth setting and the center frequency
itself. The number is actually calculated mathematically, dividing the
center frequency by the bandwidth expressed in hertz. For example,
if you have a center frequency of 1 kHz, and the bandwidth is 500 Hz
wide, then you could express the bandwidth as 1,000 Hz/500 Hz, or
Q = 2. Note that if you then changed the center frequency to 2 kHz,
and wanted the same bandwidth, it would actually be 1,000 Hz wide,
as 2,000 Hz/1,000 Hz = 2.

A better way to think about the Q number is to think of it in musical

terms. Think of the Q number as the inversion of the bandwidth
of the EQ expressed in octaves. In other words, if you have an EQ
band with a Q = 2, you could think of that as being 1/2 octaves wide.
An EQ band with Q = 4 could be considered as being “roughly” 1/4
octaves wide (a minor 3rd interval). If you set your EQ band to Q =
6, that’s about a whole step wide, or 1/6 of an octave. Thinking this
way will help you conceptualize what it means, for example, to have
an EQ band set to Q = 0.5. This would be 1/0.5 of an octave, or in
other words two octaves wide. That’s a pretty wide EQ band!

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Parametric EQs are the most flexible types of EQ, since you have
so much control over the parameters. It’s the only EQ type that
lets you focus in on a narrow range of frequencies. For example,
you can hone in on a particular “ringing” in a snare drum, and
reduce it with a parametric band set to a narrow bandwidth, cutting
at that particular frequency. Conversely, you can find the exact
fundamental pitch of a kick drum or tom tom, and boost or cut it,
depending on what you want for your mix.

With wider bandwidths, you can lift up a section of midrange

frequencies, say 2 to 4 kHz, on a vocal track for better intelligibility,
or gently reduce the midrange “honk” in a synthesizer track with a
moderately wide dip around 1 kHz, and so forth.

Shelving EQ

A high or low shelving EQ is useful for boosting or cutting all of

the frequencies above or below a certain set frequency. Typical
parameters would include the shelving frequency itself, and the
amount of boost or cut above (for a high shelf) or below (for a low
shelf ).

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Some shelving EQs also include a third parameter, often indicated

with a Q, that changes the shape of the transition from unity gain
to whatever the gain change is for that shelf. You can use lower
numbers for a smooth transition, or higher numbers to shape
that transition area more dramatically. With this control, you can
even create a combination of boosts and cuts around the shelving
frequency.

Filters

These filters do exactly what their name implies: they pass just high
frequencies or just low frequencies, filtering out the rest of the
frequencies.

Whether a high-pass or low-pass filter, you can typically expect to

find two parameters: the cuto! frequency, and the slope.

The crossover frequency is pretty straightforward. It’s the frequency

above or below which the signal is filtered. In the case of a high-
pass filter, for example, if the crossover is set to 200 Hz, the filter
reduces the amplitude of everything below 200 Hz. If it’s a low-pass
filter with a crossover at 5 kHz, the filter reduces the amplitude of
everything above 5 kHz, and so forth.

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The slope of the filter refers to the shape of the attenuation applied
to the filter frequencies. We typically express the slope in “orders,”
which are units of 6 dB per octave. That is, a first-order filter has a
slope of 6 dB per octave, where a fourth-order filter would have a
slope of 24 dB per octave (4 X 6 dB per octave). We would say that
the first-order filter has a very gentle slope, while the fourth-order
filter has a very steep slope.

In the Logic Pro X filters, the third parameter field, similar to the
shelving EQs, changes the shape of the filter and adds some inverse
resonance to the filter response. This can be useful for, say, adding
a highs filter to a synth bass that cuts away the very low end of the
signal, but also boosts a little of the low-end frequencies just above
the filter cuto!.

Having said that, EQ is often a good starting point for mixing a

project, because it helps get your sounds to work together better.
That’s what we’re going to do here, and we’ll go to the tracks
thinking about the kinds of things we can do with a little EQ.
There are many di!erent ways to approach using an EQ in mixing.
While there are no hard and fast “rules,” one good approach is to
start by thinking about what you can cut to get the sound you are

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looking for. After you’ve done some cutting, if it still isn’t what you
want, then you would start to think about boosting. In other words,
you could look at it in terms of the rule of thumb “cut first, boost
second.”

The hard part, of course, is figuring out what it is you want to

boost and cut, and where you even start with EQ. The possibilities
seem endless, of course. One very common approach is to start
by creating a narrow EQ boost, and sweeping through some
frequencies as you listen to your signal. This way, di!erent things
will jump out at you, and might help you hear what you want to
boost or cut.

There are methods and experiments you’ll want to try for EQing
individual tracks, and you’ll have a di!erent approach for each
instrument, whether it’s bass, vocals, synth, kick drum, bass drum,
or other drum sounds. We discuss this all in depth in the actual
Berklee Online course.

As with any aspect of mixing, it’s important to remember that when

you are working with EQ, it’s very rare that you will set up an EQ for
a track and never touch it again. Typically, as we are mixing, we are

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constantly returning to EQs and other plug-ins we’ve already set,

tweaking them over and over again as the mix takes shape.

For this reason, it’s a good idea to get used to the notion that when
you are working with an EQ, you don’t want to spend too much
time working with a single track. Since it’s very likely that you’ll be
returning to that track over and over again, it’s usually best to work
quickly, letting your first instincts guide you, and being okay with
the idea that for the moment the track isn’t perfect. That’s exactly
what the EQ is for!

Jeff Baust is the author of the Berklee Online course from

which this lesson comes. Read about his electronic music
influences on the next page, or learn more about the other
lessons in this course by clicking the link below.

Want to explore this course even further?

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Instructor Spotlight:

Jeff Baust
Je! Baust is an associate professor in the Electronic Music and
Design program at Berklee College of Music. A composer, audio
engineer, and multi-instrumentalist, he has created scores for ESPN,
the Bruins, the Red Sox, and others. As an audio engineer, Je! has
worked on projects for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, NBC-TV,
Itzhak Perlman, Jessye Norman, and more.

At Berklee Online, he has authored several courses, including

Mixing and Mastering with Pro Tools and Producing Music with Logic.

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How did you first become interested in electronic music?

In college I really became immersed in electronic music, taking
classes, working in the electronic music studio, and really diving
into the artists and the technologies.

Who are your most influential electronic music artists?

The shortlist would certainly include Jean-Claude Risset,
Squarepusher, Aphex Twin, the Crystal Method, Richard Devine,
Amon Tobin, and more.

How important is it to you to stay current with software

and equipment?
It’s really important to me, for my teaching as well as for my music.
I do a lot of research, keeping up on new software, new gear, new
technologies and how artists are using it all.

What are some entry-level jobs that someone should

consider if they want to pursue electronic music?
Our graduates go onto careers in a lot of di!erent aspects of the
industry, some of them into game sound design, film sound design,
electronic music composition, working for technology companies,
and more.

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Student Stories

MP&E Degree Begins

with Online Courses
By Talia Smith-Muller

When Josh Sebek arrived at the Berklee campus in Boston to start

his freshman year, he was already quite familiar with what taking
classes through Berklee was all about. Right out of high school,
Josh completed his Advanced Certificate in Music Production using

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Pro Tools, a stepping stone that led him to attend Berklee’s Boston
campus and eventually become a Music Production and Engineering
(MP&E) student.

“Coming out of high school I was like, ‘Okay, well, I’m not super
ready to go [to Boston] and make that kind of a move, so I’m going
to do some online classes,’” says Josh. “I found the certificate online,
and I ended up taking it and falling in love with it.”

He’d also fallen in love with the Boston campus when he first toured
Berklee on a field trip with his high school jazz band, but he had to
consider a few more things than the average college freshman: he
has a visual impairment called incomplete achromatopsia.

“It’s a bit of a rare one, but it’s basically a slew of things,” he says.
“I’m colorblind, I’m very nearsighted, I’m very sensitive to light
… The cones in my eyes don’t work. They don’t receive anything,
so I’m stuck with everything very bright. It’s like an oversaturated
camera all the time, so I wear tinted glasses to combat that as well
as the nearsightedness. My eyes are always shaking, so reading sheet
music has always been a problem. It kind of sucks, but it makes me
who I am and I wouldn’t trade it in if I had the chance to.”

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Josh grew up in a small town in Ontario, Canada and found ways

to pursue the arts, though they were not always easy to find in his
sports-dominated high school. He played the drums, breakdanced,
and discovered his passion for producing electronic music.

As a breakdancing teacher, I was

able to become more confident
[and] say ‘yes, I can do this. I can
go to school. I can make this move.’
- Josh Sebek

“I really loved the whole music software side of things and being
able to create my own stu!,” says Josh. “So, I started doing that
for a while and trying to find my voice. Funny enough, it went
from producing dubstep to downtempo chillout stu!. It’s not even
remotely close to the genre that I started with. After that, I just
went, ‘Oh, I want to look into more of this production stu!.’”
Josh was able to further his education in music production from
home through Berklee Online while teaching breakdancing to

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elementary school kids for two years. The combination of learning

and teaching music and dance gave him the boost of confidence he
needed.

“As a breakdancing teacher, I was able to become more confident

and come out of my own shell,” says Josh. “That was the thing that
made a di!erence for me. It made me say ‘yes, I can do this. I can go
to school. I can make this move. I can be successful here.’ That was
the big push for me.”

During his time as an online student, Josh explored the Berklee

campus in Boston several times, twice through Berklee Onsite.
During this annual gathering, Berklee Online students have the
opportunity to meet their professors, classmates, and attend in-
person sessions.

“I knew I wanted to go to campus,” says Josh. “You get the

connections prior and then you go down for Onsite. The biggest
thing for me was being able to take a workshop with the professor
that I had been studying with online for so long and seeing through
video chat every week.”

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When Josh arrived in Boston for his first semester in fall 2018,
he was already orientated with the campus and had a network of
friends and instructors from his online classes.

“Everyone around us in the whole Berklee circle is there to help each

other,” says Josh. “It’s not a competitive environment. It’s a very
collaborative, very welcoming community. Most people I run into
don’t even really realize or even care that I’m visually impaired.”

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Your Career Path

Ever wonder what kinds of careers exist in electronic music
production and sound design? There’s much more to it than
just making beats. The opportunities are even broader:

Mixing Engineer • Mastering Engineer • Synth Programmer

Music Editor • Sound Designer for Games and Tech
Technology Trainer/Specialist • and more!

Check out our Careers page for more inspiration!

online.berklee.edu

Instructor Spotlight:

Michael Bierylo
Michael Bierylo is an electronic musician, guitarist, composer, and
sound designer. He has been a faculty member at Berklee College
of Music since 1995 and is currently the chair of the Electronic
Production and Design Department.

He authored the Electronic Music Production and Sound Design

Capstone course for Berklee Online and co-authored Music
Production 101 and Sound Design for the Electronic Musician.

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When did you realize production was your calling?

I always knew that I would be involved with music and technology
in some way, but there was never an “a-ha moment.” It was always
there, the question was how I would get paid . . .

When did you figure out the answer to that?

What was your first production job?
A bandmate of mine had a friend who owned a video post
production company. At the time, they were mainly using library
music, and I proposed that I could produce custom music for about
the same cost. From there, I launched a freelance career producing
commercial music.

What is the project that you worked on that you find

yourself listening to the most?
I generally don’t listen to music I’ve worked on once it’s finished,
but I still enjoy the albums I did with Birdsongs of the Mesozoic.

What’s one piece of advice that you’ve kept with you

throughout your career?
If something takes forever to mix, there’s probably something
wrong with the music. Fix that, and the mix should be easy.

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Customize Your Own

Path to Success
No matter what your intended level of study, Berklee Online
has you covered. Click the links below to view our various
electronic music production and sound design offerings:

• 12-Week Courses
• Certificate Programs • Bachelor’s Degree Program
Questions about
studying music online?
Contact Us

online.berklee.edu
[email protected]
1-866-BERKLEE (US)
+1-617-747-2146 (INT’L)