#181: Can AI Really Revolutionise Music Production? Music Industry Insights and Tips with Dan Giffin

In episode 181 of Inside The Mix, I’m joined by Ableton Live expert and music production mentor Dan Giffin to discuss the key elements that take a producer from hobbyist to professional. 

We dive into the emotional side of mixing, the power of mentorship, and how evolving technology—including AI—is shaping the future of music creation. 

Whether you're perfecting your productions or preparing for a live music performance, this episode is packed with valuable insights to elevate your workflow.

What You'll Learn:

• How Ableton Live can be used for live performance and stress-free setups
• The impact of music production mentorship on career growth
• Breaking down the future of AI in DAWs—is there a DAW with AI?
• How to prepare for a live music performance without the overwhelm
• The importance of emotional connection in mixing over technical perfection
• Lessons learned from Dan’s journey, including humorous real-world experiences

Tune in to learn how to refine your craft, embrace new technology, and make music that truly connects with listeners!

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Got a question? I’d love to hear from you! Click here to submit a question, share your social media handles or website, and get featured in a future episode.

Plus, one lucky question will win a Starbucks voucher each month!

Chapters

• 12:10 Exploring Ableton's Creative Workflow
• 24:56 Optimising Ableton Live for Live Performances
• 32:20 Music Career Lessons and Advice
• 44:19 Bass-Kick Composition Tips

Transcript

Dan Giffin: 0:00

When it comes to like mixing, some things I've really learned is like it's more about how it makes you feel than just trying to get your kick drum perfect or whatever. You know what I mean. Like in the end of the day. I've heard some really shitty mixes and those are some of my favorite songs because the energy's there, because the music just hits. It's a good song.

Marc Matthews: 0:20

The composition is well made. So I say composition, beats, mixes every time for music creation and production. Whether you're crafting your first track or refining your mixing skills, join me each week for expert interviews, practical tutorials and insights to help you level up your music and smash it in the music industry. Let's dive in. Hey folks, welcome to the Inside the Mix podcast, or welcome back if you are a returning listener. Before we dive into this episode, it is an interview.

Marc Matthews: 1:05

Today I've got a question for you, or rather, have you got a question for me? I should put it that way. I'd love to hear from you. Click the link in the episode description it's a speak pipe link and submit a question and get featured on the podcast. Each month, myself and Tim Benson are getting together and we are answering your questions on the podcast, anything music related. Click on that speak pipe link. You don't need a fancy microphone, you don't need an account. It's literally just sending me an audio message and each month, one lucky winner will win a coffee voucher on me. If you don't like coffee, just give it to someone else and pretend that you bought it for them. So click on that link. If you want to know more about that format, check out episode 175, what's the Secret to Mixing Without Muddiness, where you can hear an example of how we run that. So that's that bit out the way Today.

Marc Matthews: 1:55

I am excited to welcome my guest today, dan Giffin. He's a producer, performer and Ableton certified trainer who has worked with Grammy winning artists like Mac Miller and Machine Gun Kelly. Dan teaches Ableton Live through his platform, liveproducersonlinecom, and also hosts the Ableton Music Producer Podcast, sharing insights with the global community of producers. Dan, that is a lot for me saying right now. Welcome, and how are you?

Dan Giffin: 2:28

Man, that was a solid intro. Also, thanks for pronouncing my name right. People love to throw an R in there. Everybody thinks it's Griffin, so like A plus to you, man, you nailed it.

Marc Matthews: 2:37

Yeah, that's one for me there For once. I'm on the other side. Sometimes I get the surname incorrect and then I get corrected off it. Usually before the episode I double check, but I was like you know what, I'm going to roll with it. But it's always nice having another podcaster on as well.

Dan Giffin: 2:56

Yeah, for sure, man. I mean, thank you for your service. I feel like it's a lot of work running a podcast, so shout out to you for continuing to do this. What episode number will this be? How many have you done continuing?

Marc Matthews: 3:04

to do this with this. What episode number will this be? How many have you done? This will be 181, uh, this episode, so when this drops, it'll be 181. A shout out to you as well. So, uh, running a podcast, that is, I don't want to say labor of love. I I love doing it, I love this content creation, this content medium, but, as you say, as you know it is, there's a lot that goes on behind the scenes that people don't hear or see. To put this, together.

Dan Giffin: 3:25

Oh for sure, man. Yeah, just like digging through like a previous hour of audio and then like doing the intros, the outros, the editing. You just got to find somebody to do that for you. That's the secret is. Then you just show up and you hang out and let somebody else do all the work.

Marc Matthews: 3:38

That's the real part, yeah exactly Exactly that, and then you chuck video in there as well, and that just adds a whole new nuance to it, true, yeah, yeah. So I've got a bit about your bio here. I've already mentioned a bit, but I've got a bit more that I've got to read off. So you began your musical journey as a jazz drummer Super cool. You later evolved into live drumming for electronic music performances and in 2018, you founded LiveProducersOnlinecom performances. And in 2018, you founded liveproducersonlinecom, offering Ableton live training for both studio production and live performances. I think, to segue here slightly, you might be the first individual on the podcast who specializes in Ableton, as in like an interviewee, which is, which is quite cool. It's been a while since I've used Ableton, so we're going to dig into that a bit later in the chat today. So you've got a project. Uh, this is why I hope I pronounce this correctly, philia, did I?

Dan Giffin: 4:26

pronounce it right, nailed it yep that's perfect.

Marc Matthews: 4:29

Two for two right now, uh, which blends jazz with bass music and has a, and you've shared the stage with artists like tiesto, cool and slushy at festivals such as electric forest. So, folks, today I'm rambling a bit. Now Dan will be sharing expert strategies for improving music production workflows, creative mixing and live performance setups using Ableton Live. So I thought it'd be fitting to start with the question what inspired you to start live producers on livecom? Can you talk about how teaching shaped your approach to music production and performance?

Dan Giffin: 5:07

yeah, man, that's a loaded question and also like thanks for having me once again on the podcast and uh, yeah, man, it's always, um, it's always fun nerding out with other people who are into this kind of thing. So, but yeah, as far as your question goes, like I was teaching at the lodge recording studios in indianapolis um, that was like I was teaching at the Lodge Recording Studios in Indianapolis. That was like shortly after I moved to Indy, after living in New York City, where I studied at a school called Dubspot. Rest in peace, it's not there anymore, but it was a great school. That was like the place for anybody who wanted to learn Ableton Live at that time, and that was in 2013. At that time, and that was in 2013.

Dan Giffin: 5:46

Um, and that was like like I got really lucky to learn from some of the the real OG badasses of of electronic music production and teachers from all over the world, like DJ shifty and Kiva shout out to Kiva Um, he's worked with a lot of the great like dub artists Um, and so, yeah, man just nerded out and learned there for like six months and then I tried to stay in New York, but I was just like a broke artist. I just ran out of money, which I think like is a story for a lot of people who live in New York city, cause it's just stupid, um. So, yeah, man, I really got to learn from some great people Dan, danny Wyatt he's worked with like Nora Jones and old dirty bastard and, um, like even did some work with like Aretha Franklin and a lot of the greats back in the day, and so he had a cool studio in Greenpoint or not Greenpoint, it was like north of Manhattan, anyway, I forget the name of the place, but yeah, I used to go there occasionally and learned a lot of mixing stuff from him. But then, yeah, like I said, I was broke, moved home with the family for a period of time just to save up a bunch of money and then invest it into a studio and move out of the parents' basement, cause that's nobody's dream, um. And then I ended up uh, yeah, man, just got to learn from some really cool people taught a lot of um. Actually, I got a big boy job working at insurance, doing marketing, cause that was my, my degree.

Dan Giffin: 7:04

My undergrad was doing marketing at a small school before I went to New York, um, and then after that, I started teaching at the lodge recording studios. They wanted to start a music program there, and this is like in 2014, um and 15. And so I, through that exposure, it was kind of like a hidden gem of a studio in the city so a lot of big artists touring through there, like John Legend or like Ariana Grande, mac Miller that's where I got to meet him for an evening and got to teach him some Ableton Live workflows. He was just getting into that for making his beats I think he was coming from Logic, but, yeah, super awesome, nice guy and got to learn a lot through that experience, just teaching, and I feel like I've learned the most just by teaching, because people will ask like really good questions and you're like shit, I don't even know, and then you have to go research and then hopefully give them a good answer.

Dan Giffin: 7:59

So after doing that for years and years, I started thinking about like there was a lot of students it was an expensive program at the lodge, so I was like well, there's a lot of broke people like who are coming out of high school or like finishing college who want to do music and like Live Producers was basically built out of that. Liveproducersonlinecom is my website and I have a lot of like beginner content, people getting into Ableton live who want to go a little bit deeper. Um, and so I just started creating an affordable training website for people to learn as an alternative to taking like a full six month course at the lodge. That was pretty expensive at that time. Um, yeah, and then there was, like you know, some politics and stuff got involved. So I ended up leaving the lodge at one point and, uh, started investing a little more in the site and I was like you know, a podcast would be cool. Like nobody had a podcast based around Ableton live at all at that time and I was like kind of surprised by that. And so I was like maybe I should start one. And then I had no idea it would turn into what it's turned into today. And then it just got to the point I was like I wonder who I could actually get on this podcast. So I just started aiming for the stars and reaching out to like some really cool people like Sylvia Massey and other, like big engineers, and they're like, yeah, I'd love to be on the podcast. And I was like cool, I don't know why, but let's hang out. So it was fun. And now here we are today. So, yeah, I guess like it's a journey.

Dan Giffin: 9:31

You asked like how it shaped my approach to music production and like what's inspired me. I guess like having good mentors has been a huge thing for me as far as like learning and growing. I think it's important for anybody, especially those starting out, having a really good mentor to like guide you and hold your hand, because a lot of times you don't even know the right questions to ask. You know when you're starting out, and so that can be kind of hard and then you just get lost in like a black hole of YouTubing and then you have to watch a bunch of ads that suck and then you're just like not actually getting the answers, because some guy's talking about his music or like promoting himself for the first five minutes and then you just get stuck and you don't know where to go.

Dan Giffin: 10:09

So I'd say like having I had great mentors starting out, which I think really helped me, and it's funny because I'm unlearning a lot of stuff that I learned back then where it's like this is what you do and now I'm like doesn't even matter, like it doesn't none of that matters. So I don't know like I've. I think teaching has really helped me grow. Having like a curiosity for learning, I think is like one of the most valuable skills or things anybody could have is just staying curious on getting better, because then you look back, like hopefully every two years you look back and you're like, damn, like my mixes or my tracks are better than they were two years ago and that's really all that matters.

Marc Matthews: 10:50

Yeah, fantastic stuff. There's lots of unpacked there. So you mentioned there, you started out in New York and then you moved to Indianapolis and this was back in 2023. You went through this process of delivering this course and then, kind of out of necessity, you started delivering a more accessible course for those who maybe didn't want to spend that larger amount of money. And also, like you say, when you uh, I did something kind of similar with the podcast. I thought you know what? I'm going to create a podcast. That sounds like a good idea, so you do it.

Marc Matthews: 11:16

And then, in doing so much like when you're delivering a course, you get asked the questions. And then I often I always routinely, weekly get asked questions. I'm like you know what? I don't actually know the answer, but it's a very, very good question that I probably should know the answer to, and then you can go off and then and then investigate that and then regurgitate it to the audience.

Marc Matthews: 11:34

But I love what you said there about having a mentor and also what you said about unlearning what you'd done. Uh, there's a learning example I have for this, which was when I picked up the guitar and I was self-taught, and that it wasn't until I actually had a tutor, mentor, that I realized my technique was crap and then I had to undo everything that I'd done previously to actually get to where I want to be. And it also kind of mirrors my journey in terms of music and music production, when I listened back to productions that I might've done a few years ago and listen to where they are now and you notice that progression. But one question I do have for you, ableton, was that due to the environment you were in? Is that the reason you chose Ableton? Or was it a sort of a conscious decision because of the music you were creating? Or had you tried other DAWs and you thought, no, ableton.

Dan Giffin: 12:24

That's the workflow for me yeah, honestly, like I think it was a youtube and just like googling thing, I was just looking online to see what was out there because at the time in like 2012, 2011, I was doing a bunch of remixes and like garage band and pro tools and I was like this workflow sucks, like there's got to be something better than this.

Dan Giffin: 12:46

And, um, I was. I was taking those remixes and trying to stem them out and it sounded terrible back then, like it was bad and I would just play drums on top of it and then make these videos I was uploading to YouTube and some of them were doing really well, and so I was like, well, if I want to take this to the stage and start performing these remixes with doing live drums uh, mostly like I was really getting into electronic music Because dubstep was really pioneering and exploding in 2010, at that time, 2011. And so I just really got into that Because I had a jazz background. But I was like, how are they creating these crazy alien noises? This is so cool Sonically. It was so fascinating to me.

Dan Giffin: 13:26

And then I just kept seeing videos on youtube and like just a bunch of stuff on google and forums of people talking about ableton, ableton, ableton. And so I was like, okay, I need to check this out. I downloaded it, played with it for a week, took me like a whole day just to figure out how to get sound out of it, and I was like I need, I need to go actually learn from people who really know what they're doing, and DubSpot was really the only school at that time that was like the world-class standard. So that's why I chose that.

Marc Matthews: 13:55

That makes perfect sense, and I have dabbled with Ableton in the past. I went down the route of using Max MSP. It wasn't necessarily to create music at the time, but I was creating my own plugins and I created an emulation of the Space Echo using Max MSP. I went down a proper rabbit hole, man, by Ableton and this integration and I did use it. Did I use rewire with Ableton or was that with Reason? It might have been with Reason. You could.

Marc Matthews: 14:22

Yeah, I think you can, can't you? Yeah, yeah, and I remember as well when I used Ableton. Once I also used it to do a live, a real-time reenactment of the scene from Terminator 2 in the LA Viaduct using triggered sounds. That was good fun. I really do need to get back Now. I'm saying this aloud. It's made me think you know what this year I'm going to get back into using Ableton and that performance element of it.

Dan Giffin: 14:46

Yeah, it's not too late, man. Yeah, I know exactly that.

Marc Matthews: 14:49

Yeah, yeah, totally, man, Totally. So audience listening you got to hold me accountable to that. Now, Slight segue here. You mentioned about the podcast and I haven't got this in my notes here and you were reaching for the stars, for guests to come on to your podcast. I'm gonna put you on the spot a bit here. Who is sort of like your favorite guest or maybe? What episode would you sign p post the listeners to listen to?

Dan Giffin: 15:13

damn man, that's a tough one because there's been so many good ones. Uh, that's hard to pick. You know, it's fun because, like every person has their own take or things that they want to talk about. So like I'll have notes going to episodes and then like half the time we don't even touch on half of the notes, like we just end. Every person has their own take or things that they want to talk about, so I'll have notes going into episodes and then half the time we don't even touch on half of the notes, we just end up going off the rails. But I did have a. Frequent was a fun one. Frequent was a good time. He had some really good concepts on just creating music, music in general. We didn't get as nerdy as I was hoping we would, because some episodes are real, we go real deep, and other ones are just more like light and conceptual. Um, his was really good. Uh, flostradamus was a fun one. Uh, flostradamus had a great episode that was like maybe like 120, 130. Yeah, um, sylvia massey was fun.

Dan Giffin: 16:10

We didn't really go deep into the audio but she talked about how she like recorded a bunch of chickens and like she created a whole graph on like how to properly mic a chicken.

Dan Giffin: 16:19

She talked about how she this was like way back in the day this might have been episode like 60 or 70 or somewhere around there. Uh, but she, she talked a lot about um, like she just bought a million dollars worth of vintage microphones and so she had this semi trailer that she bid on at an auction and got like like an old gramophone. It was like one of the first gramophones ever made. She got like this really old mic that she didn't know how to use or even properly set up, so it was like one of the first ever made. So she goes into a little bit of like fun stories with that one.

Dan Giffin: 16:52

Um also talked about how she like took a garden hose and then like taped a 58 sm58 to it and then um like basically used it as a mic overhead and then just slammed it through a bunch of compressors really hard and like because of the way the sound was traveling through the hose with all the compression, it just made the transients like crazy intense. Um, and like she's she's really creative. She talked about recording in an old nuclear Russian submarine with like a rock band.

Marc Matthews: 17:25

Like yeah, man, I'm all over that. That would be amazing. She's fun.

Dan Giffin: 17:30

She's like the mom of like audio engineers, like she has that motherly vibe, but she's done it all, man, she's cool.

Marc Matthews: 17:37

The great thing about that. It kind of exemplifies the idea that there are like, yeah, there are rules and you kind of got to know the rules to break the rules, but ultimately you can do whatever you want when it comes to creating sound and being creative. The whole like micing chickens and going on. A Russian nuclear sub oh, mate that would be amazing.

Marc Matthews: 17:56

I'd be all over that I was going to say. It kind of segues into my next question and this is more to do with sort of like, the development within DAWs, but maybe you could share one tool or feature you wish existed in Ableton Live or any other door, for a matter of fact. That could make music production even better Damn dude your workflow better.

Dan Giffin: 18:17

How much time do we have? I think, like one of the one of the things I talked about recently on the podcast um, I think it might've been with Alberto Chapa. He's like the head of sales for Ableton. He was on the podcast recently and he's a good friend of mine. Shout out to Alberto. But he and I talked about like AI tools and things that are coming.

Dan Giffin: 18:41

I thought it'd be really sick and maybe exists, I just don't know of it If there was like a Max for Live device that could run in Ableton or if there was some kind of plugin or tool that could help you finish full songs or compositions based off of the material you already have. So let's say that like this is more from a production standpoint. But if I'm producing and I've got like 16 bars or maybe like 30 seconds to a minute of a track made and I'm working on it, but I get stuck Like this is a super common problem for anybody Like you get stuck and you're like where do I go from here? And you could just have this tool that you like pull in. Maybe it's a BST, maybe it's a standalone app, I don't know, but it can just take the content and it can just copy and paste across all the tracks, the clips, and say here's a cup, here's like AD, different variations of what you already have, and let's just finish this into a three minute full song, like I think that would be an incredibly valuable tool for people.

Dan Giffin: 19:35

You could bust out music so fast if you had some kind of compositional AI buddy or tool that could help you just bang out tracks like that. And I know there's some stuff like out there. There's like this max for live device that can kind of help with some of it, but it doesn't really doesn't finish the song necessarily for you and obviously you could probably still mix it. But compositionally, if you had something to help with that process, I think that would be huge and I think it's coming. Um, I think there's a lot of tools like that that are on their way.

Marc Matthews: 20:06

Yeah, I would agree with that, and it's kind of like having it's going the harking back to when you have another musician in the room and like being able to bounce ideas back and forth with them and just having this generative approach using AI. And it's kind of like chat GPT, isn't it when? Or other platforms whereby you put in a prompt and they'll give you two possible answers, whereas within this instance it's going to give you a few more. I was chatting to somebody on the podcast recently and they did allude to a platform. I use Splice myself and I don't think Splice have it.

Marc Matthews: 20:37

Splice is very good, whereby you can put in an eight-bar loop and then it will, does it generate? Does it take that into account and then start to piece a track together for you, I kind?

Dan Giffin: 20:48

of remember.

Marc Matthews: 20:49

I might be totally making this up and I might have dreamt this, but this individual alluded to it. I'm going to have to go back and listen to some previous episodes and look at some notes to whether or not this exists, that'd be cool. It would be. It would be very cool.

Dan Giffin: 21:03

I know that Spice has something called Bridge where you can listen to samples inside of the DAW, but I don't know if it actually can replicate existing content in your DAW. No, I don't think it does. Yeah, but it'd be cool if there was something like that. I mean, the other thing that I wish Ableton Live specifically had that FL and Logic has, is some kind of stem separation, so if you have a full wave track you could just rip out the drums or the vocals. I know they have that built in now and I think it's coming for Ableton Live, but it's not quite there yet. And I think that with the release of the new Live 12, they've rolled out a lot of really cool features like better organization in the browser so you can quickly find stuff. It can detect whether something is like a one-shot sample. It has similar sounds. So if you find a good snare that you like, it can like basically sonically show every other snare on your computer in your library that has a similar sonic quality to it. So there's like little things like that in workflows they've updated in the new 12 release. Another thing that would be kind of cool is if there was some key auto-detection. So in other words, if you're searching for samples or stuff in your browser, then you could automatically say okay, this is the key of A, this is the key of D, whatever, okay, this is the key of A, this is the key of D, whatever.

Dan Giffin: 22:27

They have done a lot with updating their new Live 12 with the what's it called? Basically, just you can choose what key you're producing or working in and then you can lock in the MIDI clips to that. Or there's certain devices that will automatically like the chord effect, so you can just throw a chord effect on there. It'll automatically play MIDI notes in key. There's like a bunch of stuff like that. Scale awareness is what it's called. So it's scale aware now, which is really cool.

Dan Giffin: 23:00

But it'd be awesome if there was, like some you know, a mixed in key. Live is great. It's a plugin that can basically detect anything on your sound card, on your computer, so it'll tell you what key you're in right away, which could be helpful if you're like trying to do some kind of harmonic saturation and you want to like tune stuff or your kick drum, you know like you can do that really easily. Or if you're like looking for a song on spotify because you're creating a live dj set or something, it'll just tell you exactly all the harmonics being played and what key you're in the tempo. So Mixing Key Live is a cool plugin that does that inside and outside your DAW. But yeah, it'd be cool if that was built in.

Marc Matthews: 23:40

Nice. The Stem Splitter in Logic Pro is very good and I wish I could remember what episode of the podcast it was where I did a demo of it. So, audience listening, go back and listen. I want to say it's episode 150 something of the podcast where I went through the Logic Pro stem splitter. But very, very useful.

Marc Matthews: 23:58

Yeah, it came out in Logic Pro 11, but you have to have the M1 or M2. You have to have basically Apple Silicon processor M1 or M2, you have to have basically Apple Silicon processor. But that's a conversation. Yes, yes, I put a YouTube short out on that and I regularly have comments on there with regards to that and people finding that out quite quickly. Yeah, but going back to what you said about tuning kick drums, because I do that manually, I do it by ear. So having a process to automate that and do that for me would be very nice and do it like immediately for me would be great. I mean, that being said, I was going to say I enjoy tuning by ear to an extent. I think it depends on what part of the workflow I'm in and what day I'm having when it comes to tuning things by ear. But you mentioned there about live. So this kind of moves on to my next question For producers, just getting into live performance setups what are some essential tips for building a solid live rig setup in?

Dan Giffin: 24:56

Ableton? Just like don't suck, I guess. No, I'm just kidding, it's a good one, just don't sound bad. That's my best tip. I think that there's two different angles I would answer this question. The first would be for the artist and the second would be for the person actually doing the playback tech or the engineer. I think if I've done some work, um, with some like pretty bigger name artists and helping with their live rigs, and for the artists I'd say, like, make it as simple as you possibly can, um, because you don't want to think on stage, you want to be able to perform and just enjoy that flow state of performing and engaging with the audience. So the less you have to think about what you're doing, the better.

Dan Giffin: 26:19

Ableton Live was originally made for live performance. Obviously it's the industry standard for performing from small to big shows. Laura Escudet she teaches a class called Master Track and you can look up her team called electronic creatives. I took her master track and she's worked. She works with all like the biggest names. She does playback tech for the grammys, um, and like pretty much everybody in that world. So I learned a lot from her and her approach with redundancy.

Dan Giffin: 26:49

So from a playback tech standpoint I'd say, like know your hardware inside and out. Um, for larger shows. If you're playing a bigger show, maybe like 1000 plus people, whatever use a redundant rig, because you just never know, maybe it's too hot, your laptop fan burns out, you get like a little sputter and audio or something happens. You definitely want to use a redundant rig for a big show, and so she specializes in that. So basically, you have like two laptops that are like fed a tone to each other and so if, like any audio blips or breaks, it immediately switches over without any latency, so that there's no cut out in audio whatsoever. Iconnectivity interfaces are really made for that and are really easy to use. So they have like their audio, whatever interface it's called. That's really popular.

Dan Giffin: 27:42

I'd also say, like plan ahead, like you can't over plan on the tech side for a show, so like stress, test the hell out of your setup.

Dan Giffin: 27:50

As far as like the sound and live playback tech, I'd say it really depends on the live situation and your budget, but having more control over the sound is like preferable for me whenever I played shows and stuff, because I like to play with live instruments but I kind of do a weird mix where I DJ and I have live instruments jumping in and out, like I'm playing a show in a month and I've got a sax, a keyboard player, a guitar player and keys, and then I'm also playing like a drum, hybrid electronic setup, and so I'm actually just doing a left and a right, I'm just handing a left and a right to the sound guy and I have it all dialed in. It's an outside show which helps with the acoustics, but I know my sound and I know that I'm practicing enough with the band where we have it dialed in, and I can control all that through my Apollo interface and with my laptop and my Ableton Live setup.

Marc Matthews: 28:51

So if you don't have a traveling sound man that really knows your music, that's a preferable setup for me. I was going to say a lot of what you've said there. It kind of echoes back when I was in a band and what you mentioned there about right at the end, about having a sound guy. Towards the end of our tenure in the band we had a sound guy for that particular reason. He knew our sound and he was able to take control of the desk where possible. I found this was when we were in a metal band and some venues we went to there were some sound engineers got a bit salty when you pushed them off, but then again I thought to myself it's giving you a night off.

Marc Matthews: 29:21

Surely you're still getting paid, but then again, some were a bit a bit precious over that. Stress testing as well, is massive. I think we we often did that. And redundancy, like I learned that having a spare guitar, um, in particular strings break, goes out of tune and as much it transcends genre, doesn't it really, when it comes to like these, um, these tips and flow state as well. That's why, coming from the sort of the metal background that I do, uh, you'll see things as as granular as the, the, the guitar tech, just triggering a pedal, turning a pedal on and off when there's a clean or distorted section.

Dan Giffin: 29:52

So all really really really good advice I would also want to say one more thing too is like as far as the stress testing, like I'm always really careful about using third-party plugins for any live instrument patches and stuff because that'll definitely strain your CPU. So I try to stay as native as possible and you can. If you do have like an Omnisphere or something patched in the original recording that you want to use live, say on your MIDI keyboard, then there is a Max for Live device that I created with a brilliant guy named Toby Hunka. He has his website, abletondrummercom and he's brilliant with Max for Live development. But we created something called Resampler Pro.

Dan Giffin: 30:32

You could just go to Live Producers Online or type in Live Producers Online, resampler Pro, and it's a free download and it basically automates the sample pack or plugin patch creation process for you. So you could say, okay, I need four octaves of this plugin sound in Omnisphere and then you just hit go and it just records a note and you can just set the sustain, attack, release time or whatever and then record every single individual note. Because if you just try to record one note and then you shift that up or down as you're playing on a keyboard, then you're stretching that audio waveform and it's actually going to degrade the quality. So this allows you to multi-sample every single individual note and then you can drag and drop that into ableton sampler instrument and when there's a tutorial, when you download the, the free device that shows you how to do that. But that's a good option. If people are playing a bunch of patches, live with third-party plugins that are a pain in the ass as far as CPU.

Marc Matthews: 31:27

Amazing. Where can they find that again? Where can the audience find that again?

Dan Giffin: 31:30

Yeah, it's on my website, if you just go to Google and type in live producers online and then type in resamplerpro. Or I think it's yeah, I think the actual URL address is just. I think it's liveproducersonlinecom. Slash resampler. Dash pro Cool.

Marc Matthews: 31:51

Well, I could put it in the show notes for the audience listening. They can click on that and I've got to throw this out. Did you say it was a free plug-in, did I?

Dan Giffin: 31:58

hear that correctly. Yeah, just give me your email and I'll just send you a bunch of spam. No, I'm just kidding.

Marc Matthews: 32:04

I won't do that.

Dan Giffin: 32:05

I hate that I won't do that to you.

Marc Matthews: 32:07

It's very kind, man, it's very kind. Yeah, we're already halfway in and, as I said, I know, like you mentioned right, that we get it. Invariably you don't get through all the questions, but there's one question I do want to ask you before before we wrap things up. So you've searched on, you've collaborated with some big names and performed at major festivals, and continue to do so. Can you tell us about one standout experience or lesson from those moments that have that has shaped your career.

Dan Giffin: 32:43

Hmm, yeah, uh, I definitely have some standout moments that are fun.

Dan Giffin: 32:45

Uh, I'll tell a fun story real quick. So basically, uh, it was my, I was just out of high school and I was playing drums and I got picked up by some like really shitty band but they were paying me really well and so so we did like a Midwest East coast tour in the in the U? S and one of the biggest shows I ever played. At that time it was like probably a thousand people and I was so excited that I we were open up for the headliner and I broke a drumstick and, rather than just being a normal person and tossing a drumstick to the crowd, I chucked it as hard as I could and it hit some 18-year-old girl in the face and she did a little backflip and fell. And if anybody knows anything about drumsticks, they don't split in a clean way, it's like sharp wood, right. So I just straight up hit her like you would try to kill a vampire, and just hit her. She did a backflip.

Dan Giffin: 33:32

We didn't see her the rest of the show, Like the band stopped playing for two seconds because they saw it happen. They all just turned at me like what the fuck? And so she might be dead, we don't know. But that was a lesson learned. It's like if you are a drummer, don't like throw sharp wooden drumsticks really hard into the crowd. If you're going to do it, just be a normal person and toss it lightly. So that was a. That was definitely a um, a lesson experience and something very memorable in my career. Um, I thought that was kind of a crazy moment but yeah, that's amazing, I love that.

Dan Giffin: 34:07

Yeah, but I'd say like most of the opportunities come from like word of mouth and like one quote that I really liked is it's not about who you know, but rather who knows you, and so, like I just encourage people to put your name out there. It doesn't matter if you know a bunch of people. If nobody knows who you are, you're not going to get a phone call necessarily, or people aren't going to hit you up. So like, don't be afraid to like get out there If you're wanting more work, just like mixing and mastering, don't be afraid to give away stuff for free, at least in the beginning, because you got to build that portfolio, you know.

Dan Giffin: 34:39

I'm thankful now where I've brushed shoulders with some people where, like you know, people know who I am to a certain extent, but like, don't be afraid to put yourself out there and to be able to do some things for free, especially if you're interested in it in the beginning, and and like, always give more than you take.

Dan Giffin: 34:58

I think that's just like a standard universal rule that I really subscribe to is, um, if you are generous with your time and your energy, it'll come back to you, and reputation is everything, especially in the music industry. Um, so just be a good person and like, try to get into social circles with people that you want to connect with. And just be a good person and like, try to get into social circles with people that you want to connect with and just be a real person. Um, and then, when it comes to like mixing, some things I've really learned is like it's more about how it makes you feel than just trying to get your kick drum perfect or whatever. You know what I mean like yeah, in the end of the day.

Dan Giffin: 35:34

I've heard some really shitty mixes and those are some of my favorite songs, because the energy's there, because the music just hits. It's a good song. The composition is well-made. So I say composition beats mixes every time. But I think that if you can have a great composition and a great mix, that's like a, that's a big selling point and that's going to be a song that hits the hardest. But I'd say, like, in the end of the day, if you're playing with it more than three times and you don't know if it's better or worse, then just like, you're fine, move on. Because I've gotten lost in the sauce of just tweaking the same thing over and over. So that's my golden rule if you touch it more than three times, you still don't know if it's better or worse, it's fine.

Marc Matthews: 36:13

Yeah, just move on yeah, wise words, my friend, wise words. So a few things. Obviously there's the one with the drumstick. Don't don't throw full force of drumstick at someone in the crowd. Uh, which is amazing. Try to think of my drummer ever did that. I know he fell off his stool and didn't get back up. I remember that um yeah, yeah, he was too pissed and he fell off. He just that was it. That was a life lesson. We said mate, don't drink to that extent again yeah, I'll do it.

Marc Matthews: 36:39

But the second part you mentioned about sort of it was essentially networking and putting yourself out there and doing um services for free just to build up that portfolio and and meet people and rub shoulders with the right people, moving the right circles and whatnot, and reputation is everything and also give more than you, uh, ask for.

Marc Matthews: 36:57

I thought I paraphrase it might be a really bad way of putting it, but it echoes what well, rather echoes the conversation I had with a mix engineer called elliot glenn on episode 178. He said the exact same thing and I may have even put a post out on social media this week saying reputation is everything from that episode. And he said the exact same when we had a really good conversation about it. And also the go-giver mentality of just give. That's kind of what we do with the podcast. Really, it's just conveying information, giving it out, just giving and giving and not really asking for anything in return. Because I think as soon as you start doing that, it gets a bit I don't know, it gets a bit uncomfortable, I think if you start giving with the idea that you're going to get something in return, immediately, you know.

Dan Giffin: 37:38

Yeah, I think there is like a point, a crossover, at some point, though, where you do enough of that work and eventually your reputation builds, your portfolio builds, and then you don't want people to take advantage of you either. So you need to recognize your worth.

Marc Matthews: 37:55

Yeah, most definitely, and also just the the. The final bit you added there, um, right at the end, which I really liked, was about the three touch rule, um, about if you touch it three times and you still don't know whether it's better or worse than to leave it and move on. Because I think that really helps because, like you say there, you mentioned and and I do as well you can quite easily get stuck in the weeds and just get lost in, lost in what it is you're doing and then realize an hour or two later it sounds worse than it did before, and so I think that's a really, really good one for the audience listening, um, cool man yeah, it's easy to get.

Dan Giffin: 38:30

It's easy to get lost in the sauce. Yeah, I've done it I've done it.

Marc Matthews: 38:34

And then I remember I've had many conversations on this podcast with individuals saying they're on like mix iteration 20, 25, 30, I'm thinking I I'm not entirely sure that's going to be conducive to uh, it's going to make it any better. I think you've gone way past the point of diminishing returns.

Dan Giffin: 38:49

Yeah that's true. At that point you just need to leave it and then come back later. Maybe wait like a week or a couple of days and just let your ears take a break, because there is something about that Like you start perceiving things that aren't even there when you start to listen to something too much, because your ears will definitely play tricks on you.

Marc Matthews: 39:08

Yeah, I was going to say I do that generally in life.

Dan Giffin: 39:11

I perceive that makes me sound quite crazy yeah, I was thinking, shall I say that?

Marc Matthews: 39:16

shall I not say that? But I said it. I live in a very old house and I'm sure it's haunted, but that's a different oh, that's cool yeah yeah, it's really old, the uh it gets a bit macabre. But the guy who we bought it from I say bought it from he died in there, so unfortunate for him.

Dan Giffin: 39:30

Oh wow, that's fun, man. You could have like a Halloween party at your house every year and like do some like ghost hunting.

Marc Matthews: 39:37

Yeah, I'd love to go on a ghost hunt, I really would. I almost went on a ghost hunt, but they cancelled it last minute and I never, never, took it up again that's wild yeah, I know it would always be. I'm dubious, I'm skeptical, but I want to like. If I saw one, I'd be. I don't know what I'd do. Anyway, that's a topic for another episode. That's like a side quest of mine ghost hunting on the podcast.

Dan Giffin: 40:03

There you go, yeah, yeah, I think that would be good fun. That sounds fun. I grew up in Ohio in the US and it has like the most haunted sites in the US the state, I believe. So I think it still does. And yeah, some wild stories. Me and my friends, like in high school, would break into these really old homes that were supposed to be abandoned. Yeah, some weird stories.

Marc Matthews: 40:24

Yeah, yeah, I remember doing that sort of things. There was an old mental hospital just outside of where I used to live and we went there and it was like something out of like 28 Days Later or the Walking Dead, and it was just like one day everybody just left and there was just like documents and stuff all over the floor and some other weird shit, and then invariably the alarm would go off, the police would turn up and we'd just lag it, but I'm enough and we just like it. Yeah, but I'm not gonna say where it was. I'm sure the individuals who are in that land aren't listening to this podcast.

Dan Giffin: 40:54

But in case, yeah, I think either. I think both of us do not condone breaking and entering, because I think yes yeah, I just want to put that out there. Yeah, thank you, don't support don't support breaking and entering at all.

Marc Matthews: 41:06

Yeah, please don't see that yeah, oh, I heard it's a good thing to do, because this place might be haunted when did you hear that?

Dan Giffin: 41:13

Yeah, don't do that. It is fun though, yeah, yeah 100%.

Marc Matthews: 41:16

Dan, I think I know you've touched already on your website, but maybe opportunity now. Where can the audience, where's the best place to find you? Have you got anything coming up that you want to share with the audience? I'll pass it over to you.

Dan Giffin: 41:29

Yeah, once again, thanks for having me, mark. This is super fun. I could do this all day. I did build a new AI chatbot specifically to help people with Ableton Live, and so it's trained on all the manuals. It's trained on all my podcast episodes. It's trained on my favorite plugins and Macs for live devices, for mixing or whatever else you can ask it for specific help with mixing. Like you know, how do I properly use a DS or what plugins would you recommend? Um, you can do a lot of different things with it, and so I'm actually really stoked. Um, it's in beta right now, but people can still access it and play with it, but it's going to get a lot smarter in about a month from now. Um, I'm going to be updating it.

Dan Giffin: 42:09

I'm working with a really brilliant programmer who's helping me with it right now, so his name is Abe and you can access him on my website, liveproducersonlinecom. There's like a membership plans button and you can see Abe has like his own plan. But then I've got other courses that are more intro level to Ableton Live or mixing. If you want to jump in there and you're interested in getting into Ableton Live for live performance or just producing, there's a bunch of stuff in there and Abe can help you as well. My music is Philia, so if you want to hang out, I'm mostly on Instagram. You can either look up Ableton Podcast or Philia Music. P-h-i-l-i-a Music. Yeah, I would love to connect with you guys. Slide into my dms, say what's up, say hello and, um, yeah, check out the ableton podcast if you want to, if you want to listen to be pretty cool amazing stuff, that that chatbot sounds incredible.

Dan Giffin: 43:04

Um yeah do you want to ask him a question real quick?

Marc Matthews: 43:08

yeah, let's do it.

Dan Giffin: 43:08

Let's do it, yeah, yeah, it'll take like no time here. Ask him a question what quick? Yeah, let's do it. Let's do it, yeah, yeah, it'll take like no time here. Ask him a question what would you ask him?

Marc Matthews: 43:14

oh, what's the question I get asked the most in the podcast? Um how to improve um kick bass frequency balance okay vague.

Dan Giffin: 43:27

But so I asked him how do I improve my kick bass frequency balance? Okay, let's see who says he's thinking. Nice, it says to improve the frequency balance between your kick and bass, consider the following strategies eq, text techniques um, I hope he's still going. I'll summarize this because there's a lot in here. Eq techniques Bass control Use peak EQ with the center frequency around 100 hertz to boost the punch in your kick or bass drum sounds. It can help in defining the low end presence. Mid control Adjust the mid frequencies to ensure clarity. You can use a three-way switchable boosting EQ to set the center frequency and range. It helps managing the overlap between kick and bass. Treble control Use a shelving EQ with a cutoff frequency around 3.3 to manage high frequencies. It can help reducing the harshness and add clarity.

Dan Giffin: 44:20

Compositional approach Think of your kick and bass as single compositional line. Avoid playing bass notes simultaneously on top of the kick. Instead, create a bass line that fits between the kick, drum patterns, offbeat bass notes it talks about different genres and, where that applies, additional tips Sub switch Use a low shelf filter to boost frequencies below 200 hertz if needed. Be cautious of muddying the mix in this frequency range. Dry wet balance, side chaining. It talks about side chaining, relationship between kick and bass and compressor settings. Impressive man. Yeah, there's some more stuff in there, but we don't need to keep going into it.

Marc Matthews: 44:59

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think that's fantastic. Lots of really great stuff in there. There you go, audience listening, so do go and check that out. Head over to liveproducerscom.

Dan Giffin: 45:09

Yeah, liveproducersonlinecom to lifeproducerscom and check that out. Yeah, lifeproducersonlinecom.

Marc Matthews: 45:11

Online. There we go. I'll get something wrong eventually on it.

Dan Giffin: 45:15

It's fine You're so close man you always have, I know I always got all the way to the end and then I messed it up.

Marc Matthews: 45:21

And yeah, go check out, abe. That sounds incredible, mate, but Dan, it's.