Music Production Mentoring

We explored chromatic mediants, modal ambiguity, and the harmonic character of specific chord relationships — particularly E minor as the mediant in C major, and D major to F major as a chromatic mediant movement. We also discussed tertiary harmony as the structural basis for these ambiguous chord relationships, and worked through how augmented chords function as pivot points between multiple key centers. Additionally, we troubleshot the Harmony Wheel app with a participant experiencing a MIDI audio issue, and Nathan pushed a live update to resolve it.

Vibe coding plugins Building a studio room with a business partner Focusing on songs, and artistry versus production vs mixing

Covered mix decisions from a completed original song, walking through manual pan automation, ping pong delay routing, reverb on snare, and processing approaches for bassoon (Fresh Air plug-in, horn-style EQ preset, light compression). Also discussed genre specialization in mixing, when to outsource versus learn to mix yourself, and the value of building a complementary creative partnership rather than wearing all hats.

Keyboard techniques on I - IV - V - I (over tonic pedal) V6 - vi7 - IVMaj7 - I. Introducing 7th and 9ths through common tones.

Covered a deep listening and production analysis session using a 1970s Yacht Rock track by Ambrosia, with AI stem separation in Logic Pro to isolate and examine individual elements. Worked through instrument identification (Fender Rhodes, Wurlitzer, Hammond organ, piano, synth, bass, drums, guitar), production techniques of the era (overdubbing, palm muting, dry drum production, multi-miking), vocal technique (chest voice, head voice, the flip/yodel transition), and jazz-influenced chord vocabulary including passing chords, turnarounds, and borrowed chords.

We talked about mastering chains in Logic. We talked about limiters, and how to use them, as well as meter your loudness for mastering. Were talked about compression and Eq choices, and why you might order them a certain way in your mastering chain. We looked at examples using Logic, and made a custom template to share in the chat using the examples we discussed.