Resound is a character within drum and bass who continues to impress, with substantial releases across all the major labels in drum and bass. In-Reach caught up with Resound, predominately to talk about his Resound Sound website where he posts hints, tips and free downloads for producers and engineers. Check out the interview below…
I’ve been a fan of your ‘Resound Sound’ Site for some time now, I remember coming across it randomly on a Google search. What inspired you to create a website to educate the masses?
It was natural progression. I have been running Resoundsound.com for 10 years already, but originally it was a website for me as an artist. People have always asked me questions about music production and I like to help out when I can. So at some point it dawned on me I could use my website for that.
It’s a novel idea to help others but the truth is I also do it for myself. Writing about these things forces me to push myself forward and keeps me learning. In fact I would argue amongst the thousands of people who visit the website, I am the one who has got the most out of it! Writing has of course also lead me to lots of opportunities and introduced me to a lot of great people.
Your website features posts from the man, the legend, Mr. Dave Pensado. I assume you’re a regular viewer? Are there any that really stand out for you? I personally loved the ‘mixedbyAli’ episode.
To be exact, it doesn’t feature posts by him – I have written about him. Dave did hit me up a while back though saying he’s a reader and expressing his gratitude, which was amazing.
I view his shows a lot and it’s been a huge inspiration to me. It’s hard to point out a show that stands out because it’s always good and valuable. I think the biggest thing I’ve gotten out from following his shows is seeing how the world’s top music professionals think. It’s that sort of silent knowledge that you can’t really learn in any other way but by watching these people interact with eachother. The technical stuff they show is great, but that silent knowledge is really invaluable to me.
A relatively large proportion of your site concentrates on the psychology of making music and motivating ones self. Is this something you’ve always applied to your art? It’s not something I ever really considered until I started reading your posts and watching Pensado’s Place but it seems like an important part of music production/ engineering, if not the most important.
I think it’s hugely important, but its not something you should worry about much unless you are aiming to make music your profession. It’s definitely not something I always considered. For a long time I was making music without a care in the world.
When you start developing a more professional attitude towards music, a lot of things change. You have to see yourself as an enterpreneur and you start analyzing and identifying areas of improvement. And so I just developed this interest in all things related to psychology, productivity and just generally creating a more meaningful lifestyle that would allow me to focus more on what matters to me the most (because balancing music work with other things in life can be challenging).
The public knows you best for your work under the Resound alias, releasing music on the biggest labels within the drum and bass industry. What begun your journey into music? Did someone inspire you or was it a more natural venture into the world of music?
It was a natural venture – I’ve always been involved with music in one way or the other since very young age. I’ve played several instruments since I was a kid (I was never very good at playing though as I seemed to lack patience for practicing), went through a band stage and eventually wanted to do something on my own. And elecronic music production just happened to be the perfect platform for that. Then I got into DJing and now I have developed the intrest for live electronic music performance and production. What’s next, who knows – maybe I’ll pick up an instrument again and learn play something. There are always different things and people providing inspiration and motivation to keep pushing forward.
Was there a point with your music productions that you thought, ‘yea, I’m really getting somewhere with this’? If so, what was the real game changer? Many people suggest that the source of sounds is the most important part of crafting a professional production.
It’s been a more gradual progression for me, of course there are some big milestones along the way like getting signed for the first time, the first vinyl release, switching to a new DAW, new studio, the first album or getting your music released on your favorite label. There are always peaks along the journey but most of the time it’s gradual and small steps forward.
It must take a considerable amount of confidence in your profession to create an educational site for the public. Would you ever consider branching out into the teaching profession?
The scary thing thing is putting yourself out there. But really it’s just me putting my thoughts out there, and smart people will take it with a grain of salt anyway.
I really don’t think you have to be a professional at what you do in order to teach others something. We all have something to contribute to someone. I don’t write for beginners most of the time, because I find it much easier to write about and share the stuff I encounter in the daily work I do. It really is about being honest and learning together with others. As long as someone is getting value out of it (even if it’s just you), it’s all good.
I have been doing some personal coaching projects in the past but they haven’t come without problems – it has turned out to be much more time and energy consuming than I initially expected, so for the time being I’ve stopped doing it completely in order to not let any more people down!
I have been working on some teaching products however which will start surfacing soon. That has allowed me to do things at my own pace.
I think your website is a truly superb resource for budding producers and engineers, it’s clean design and informative content makes it a pleasure to navigate. Did you create the site and logo yourself? I know you recently added a new logo too, who designed that?
Throughout the years I have developed some web skills. But as far as my current website goes, the amount of visitors has been steadily growing and eventually it came to a point where I really needed a rock solid framework coded by professionals. So the looks of the website are pretty much engineered by myself, but underneath the surface there is a solid WordPress Genesis platform running on a WordPress specific hosting server. This provides visitors a fast browsing experience that doesn’t budge when the traffic peaks. And to me it gives security that everything depends on and customer service that helps me improve things and figure things out quickly if (when) something does go wrong.
The new logo was designed by a guy called Mauro Andrés from Chile. A very talented designer who specializes in callligraphy and lettering things by hand. You can check more of his work out at Behance.com.
I know our readers always want to get a great tip from the masters of the craft. Is there any golden nuggets of advice you could extend to our readers? Especially people just starting out, would you suggest a good pair of monitors, a certain DAW or maybe a more psychological tip?
For someone just starting out I think the best tip that I can give is to try to understand that making progress in music production is all about developing your ear and vision for music.
And the only way to do that is to spend the bulk of your available time making music (instead of reading about making music or watching YouTube videos). You have to put in the hours in front of your DAW in order to develop.
This is of course true for music producers of all levels. But the reason I bring this up in this context is that the more experienced producers usually get it. However quite often I see the less experienced people making the mistake of spending more time than they should reading about things (and getting confused, while not developing their ear at all). Learning is great, just make sure you spend most of your time playing around with music and having fun with it. This way your progress will be inevitable.
What’s happening next at camp Resound? Any future releases or projects we should know about?
I have an ebook about mixing coming up, where I break down my entire mixing philosophy and distill it into a process that you can follow through. Before that I also have an online course coming up on the topic of productivity, which is the biggest and most extensive writing project I have worked on to date.
Music wise I’ve recently wrapped up a collaborative album project with some of my fellow producers – I think that one is going to be very interesting to a lot of people. I have also been working on new music with Loxy and also getting some solo work done, so there are releases coming up through several labels.
I’d just like to say, I think what you’re achieving is really positive, both in your music and on your site. Long may it continue and In-Reach will always support and help however we can. Thanks Resound!
Thank you very much!
