I Want You to Succeed

It’s been a minute since I’ve personally hosted a course. During my hiatus from teaching, a veritable tornado of ideas and new inspiration has been bubbling up inside me. You have no idea how much new material I have to share with you and how passionately OBSESSED I am with your success as a producer.

In this new course, I’ll be dishing out everything I’ve learned over the past couple of years. All the new techniques, pro-tips, plugins, and workflow hacks. As usual, I’ll be holding NOTHING back and giving you the goods, straight-up, just as if you were in the studio with me.

Everything I’m going to share has been tried and tested in real projects, learned from actual experience, and actually produces RESULTS.

What Is It?

This brand new series is called The MOD Method.

It’s based on a philosophy I came up with in 2011, when I published a video called “5 Secrets to Writing Better Music Faster”. Since then, the video’s gone viral, with 349,376 views and 5,561 likes. It’s been shared, embedded and blogged about a TON of times, and even discussed in a more simplistic form on DJ TECHTOOLS in 2013 in an article they did called “3 Tips for Producing Music Faster.”

The MOD Method is a new approach, it’s a methodology, it’s a philosophy. It’s a highly-structured workflow designed just for you: the producers of tomorrow who do everything for themselves.

It’s a way of dividing and conquering each phase of the production process and outpacing other producers who work randomly and bounce around “multi-tasking” their way into minutia and stagnation.

Who’s It For?

The MOD Method is for you if you’ve already got a good handle on the basics and you’ve been producing for a while. This program is not for beginners. If you’re just getting started, check out our Ableton Live 9 Jumpstart course, the Producer Bundle or Synthesis 101.

Some of you diehards have been with me since the early days of my Youtube channel. Many of you are new and we’re just getting to know each other, so let me ask you a few very important questions:

• Have you been getting stuck with your tunes?
• Have you been having trouble staying inspired?
• Do you ditch partially complete songs and just start new ones?
• Do you find yourself getting lost in the details?
• Do you take FOREVER to finish a track or never finish anything at all?
• Are you unsure when a song is done or ready to mix?
• Do you feel overwhelmed with everything you need to do to write a song?
• Do you have trouble getting started?

If you answered yes to any of these, this course is for you.

What You’ll Learn

MOD means modular. In The MOD Method, I break down the music creation process into it’s components. You learn how properly break down your creative workflow so you never get stuck, never lose inspiration and always know exactly what to do next.

One of the key insights is that you need to get granular enough, to break things down into small enough chunks, so you don’t get overwhelmed. Over the years since I initially developed this, I’ve broken things down more clearly. Here are the phases:

1. Concept
   1. How the way most people start a song undermines their success
   2. How to develop an initial theme, idea, message and mood for your song
   3. How to pick your key, BPM, song length
   4. Secrets to creating in your mind before you ever enter the studio
2. Sound Design
   1. The concept of a sonic palette
   2. The “Hybrid Approach” to production
   3. Creating your virtual band & selecting your arrangement
   4. Building an in-key, custom sample pack for your song
3. Song Structure
   1. Reverse engineering hit songs
   2. Discovering your winning formula
   3. Using an energy heat map
4. Composition
   1. Where to start
   2. How to write chord progressions
   3. How to write melodies
   4. When and how to write drums
5. Detail
   1. Defining what is “core” and what is “detail”
   2. How to avoid getting lost in the detail
   3. When do you write and when do you polish
   4. How to get the sections of your song to flow
6. Mixing
   1. When do you mix?
   2. How to get a perfect -6 dB headroom every time
   3. Advanced mixing techniques
   4. Essential mixing plugins
7. Mastering
   1. When do you master?
   2. Do you self-master?
   3. Rough master vs. final master
   4. Do you mix into your mastering chain?
   5. Essential mastering plugins
   6. How loud do you go

What You Get

The MOD Method is a series of 4, 3 hour recorded live-streams. 12 hours of total training with interactive Q&A. Here is what we’ll cover in each session:

• Session 1: Concept & Sound Design
• Session 2: Song Structure & Composition
• Session 3: Detail & Mixing
• Session 4: Mastering

Why is it a Month Long?

The MOD Method is intended to be a month long course, 1 session per week. 30 days is the exact amount of time it takes to build a new habit. Also, if you want to achieve that critical mass, that tipping point that yields the success you want with your music, you’re aiming for releasing a new song every month. If you’ve never written music at that pace before, this will be a good way to see what it’ll take.

About Vespers

Vespers is an Ableton Live Certified Trainer focused on developing cutting-edge tutorials and online programs. He’s the CEO and co-founder of Warp Academy, one of three Ableton Certified Training Centers nationwide. His Youtube channel, is one of the most active Ableton-centric communities in the world. In addition to Ableton-related programs, he has also teamed up with industry heavy-weights such as Universal Audio, iZotope, FabFilter, Cableguys, FXPansion, and Sugar-Bytes to provide reviews and tutorials with their platforms.

Based out of Victoria, BC, Canada, Vespers also tours and performs, integrating live tenor sax and looping with future bass music to create a unique, jazz-influenced sound. He’s a regular at Canada’s infamous Shambhala Music Festival. His work has received support from producers such as Ill Gates, David Starfire, and Opiuo.