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Charlie’s Music Production Lessons

Charlie McCarron

Charlie’s Music Production Lessons

A Music, Arts and Performing Arts podcast
Good podcast? Give it some love!
Charlie’s Music Production Lessons

Charlie McCarron

Charlie’s Music Production Lessons

Episodes
Charlie’s Music Production Lessons

Charlie McCarron

Charlie’s Music Production Lessons

A Music, Arts and Performing Arts podcast
Good podcast? Give it some love!
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Episodes of Charlie’s Music Production Lessons

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A common request from directors is to provide mood-setting music that doesn't call attention to itself. One of the best ways to do this is with long, held tones. Making these drone tracks can be quick and easy, but there's also an art to gettin
What would you do if you were given a barebones MIDI file, and told to fill it in with whatever sounds you want? That's the challenge I posed to Composer Quest listeners, and in this episode we'll get to hear from them about their experience co
Early video game music was in some ways a revival of Baroque counterpoint. In this episode, I share one of my video game-y tracks inspired by counterpoint techniques, and inadvertently inspired by Sonic the Hedgehog.This production lesson ori
What do you do when you've written an A section and B section that don't quite fit together? In this episode I analyze my surf-inspired chiptune track to figure out how to smooth this transition point.This production lesson originally aired i
To have any real emotional impact, music has to have some sort of payoff, through repeated themes, sounds, or lyrics. When you're scoring a film, you should also keep this idea of musical payoff in mind. Where are the moments in the story when
When you're scoring a film, some scenes have an obvious emotional direction to follow. Other scenes leave you with a puzzle to solve. In this episode, I break down my scoring for two of the hardest scenes to figure out in a film I'm working on.
How would you score a scene where a guy looks longingly at a bag of Doritos stuck in a vending machine? That was one of my recent scoring puzzles I had to solve. In this episode, I share some tips on writing an effective melody in the brief amo
Video game music seems to have cliche sounds for different types of levels: ice world music, jungle world music, etc. In this episode, I talk about how I approached making a stereotypical tropical island tune for a video game, with Mario Kart 6
Sometimes you have to give yourself weird challenges to get out of your comfortable habits. In this episode, I describe a technique I'm calling visual MIDI improvisation, where I draw in MIDI notes in a visually-pleasing arrangement, without an
Changing a single note in a chord can drastically alter the mood of a piece, like changing from major to minor. In this episode, I show how different types of seventh chords can give your song a different color. I also describe the technique Qu
Challenging yourself to re-arrange a piece of music is a good way to practice your composing skills without having to start from scratch. For this episode, I made it my goal to transform a cheesy soap opera theme into something that I’d actuall
If you were asked to channel The Beatles and write a new song in their style, how would you do it? That was the challenge I gave myself in creating a jingle for my patron from Liverpool, Luke Thomas. In this episode, I explain my thought proces
Sometimes you have to expand your horizons as a producer and just experiment with as many different crazy effects as possible. Here are some mixing ideas I used in a sound collage I made for one of my Composer Quest patrons. This production
I often start a song idea on guitar, but sometimes I add so many layers I have to pick and choose which ones should be highlighted, and which ones should be subconscious background layers. In this episode, I talk about my process mixing a comme
When I’m composing at the piano, I often start by playing chords over and over until a melody pops into my head. In this episode, I talk about how I apply that method to a chiptune video game score. I also test out my new collection of chipsoun
Sometimes the best way to tug at people’s heartstrings through a film score is by using familiar melodies. In this episode, I talk about scoring a short film by creating new arrangements of classical themes.
I started a stock music project that was part joke, part business venture, and part musical experiment. In this episode, I break down one of my sunny, ukulele productions designed to fit a cheesy commercial.
Musical chills have been on my mind lately, since I listened back to a past song of mine and got chills in the same spot I always do. In this episode, I share some of the science behind musical chills, to try and answer why this song gives me g
I just got a new orchestral sample library, and I’m really enjoying messing around with these surprisingly realistic instruments. In this episode, I share some things I’ve learned while working on an orchestral score for a new video game.
I had the privilege of watching Rich Vreeland (aka Disasterpeace) give a live music production demo at Gamer’s Rhapsody. In this special CMPL episode, you’ll get to hear Rich composing a track on the fly. He shares his secret ingredients in sco
This episode comes from my interview on Tom Snively’s podcast Inside Video Game Music. I thought I’d share it here, since it’s in the same spirit as my other music production lessons. In our talk, I pull apart the different layers of my video g
If you can create authentic-sounding chiptune music, you’ll have a leg up in the video game composing world. Plus, it’s just fun to see what you can do with very limited musical materials. In this episode, I share my first adventure in creating
I sometimes wonder how much sound designers think in terms of music theory. For example, I’m pretty sure I’ve heard microwave drones that sound like a major chord. In this episode, I talk about my own experience applying my music theory knowled
As a producer, one of your main jobs is deciding when to add and when to subtract. In this episode, I explain my process of sifting through musical layers until you’re left with only the golden nuggets. The track from this episode, Kítrinos, c
Sidechain compression. You may not know the term, but you’ve definitely heard the results of this technique, unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last 20 years. If you’re aspiring to be a pop or dance music producer, this is going to
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