Have you been struggling to make the most of your already-owned plugins lately, or do you need a suggestion on a new, cost-friendly addition to your arsenal? Look no further!
Today, we’re honored to welcome Toronto Hustle & Sean Roman to the stage. The two frequent collaborators have just launched their newest EP, “The Unity,” and it’s groovy, deep house bliss with impeccable production. There is a 12″ vinyl available for the EP, which includes the standout, vocal-driven single “When You Look At Me” alongside two variations, and the deeper, groovier “Run The Numbers.” It’s deep house at its absolute best.
Toronto Hustle is one of Toronto’s top underground dance artists, playing venues and warehouse parties across the city and sharing the stage with true house legends like Frankie Knuckles and Honey Dijon. He’s also got his own vinyl-only label, Selections, and also runs Purveyor Underground Limited, another vinyl-only imprint. Sean also hails from Toronto, and is widely known for his live performances, especially his drum & bass shows under the alias Mutt. He’s toured the entire world at this rate and, with 20 years of experience, shows no sign of stopping.
We’ve asked these two Toronto legends for some production tips for any upcoming producer who wants to instantly level up their music. They absolutely understood the assignment: not only are there some great recommendations for gear in here, but they’ve listed a few of their favorite free plugins that you can download and start using in your productions today.
So, without further ado, here are a few essential tips from Toronto Hustle and Sean Roman.
Don’t overthink your plugins. Learn what you have.
A lot of new producers think having the latest and greatest version of the newest plugin will elevate their production, but I will be honest: it probably won’t. And, with the time you spend hunting down the latest crack, or watching 10 YouTube videos reviewing a product, you could’ve learned the instruments and effects that ship with your DAW (digital audio workstation).
As a production duo, we use Ableton Live 12. The nice thing about this DAW is it has almost every type of effect or instrument you would ever need. The other day we were working on some vocals we had recorded, and we learned that Ableton Live 12 now has an auto-tune feature – it worked amazingly at fine tuning some pitch issues. DAWs are always updating and improving, so try to spend your time learning the tools you have versus the tools you want (or think you need).
Make your basslines THUMP.
Whatever kind of music you make, you always want whoever’s hearing the track to “feel” the bass. One plugin we find essential in our production process is by Waves. It’s called Renaissance Bass. It is super easy to use and will add low end without losing headroom or distorting. We probably use this on every mixdown.
Beat writer’s block with this hack.
It happens to everyone. It sucks. But here is a way we try to shake things up when in the studio…
Samplette.io is a virtual crate-digging site that has a “chat roulette” approach to digging. Essentially it serves up random music on YouTube. Very random and esoteric stuff, old soundtracks, library music, forgotten boogie hits. It’s got it all. Sometimes just a snippet of another song can lay the groundwork for a whole new track…
Not everyone is rich… here are some free plugins.
Plugins can get pricey, so here are some of our favorite free plugins that do the job.
One of the free plugins we use quite a bit is a saturator by TB ProAudio called GSatPlus. It’s a great subtle saturator that is very efficient on the CPU. It warms up basslines and drums nicely, adding subtle crispness where needed.
Another free plugin we love is this soft synth by DiscoDSP called OB-Xd. It is a recreation of Oberheim’s OB-Xa synth from the early 80’s. It sounds great and has a cool GUI. Definitely a faithful recreation.
Buy a dope chair.
You will be in your studio chair for countless hours. Make sure it rolls. Buy a good one with proper ergonomics, your back will thank you. Here is what we use…
Grab “The Unity” here!
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