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S1E23 – Sleep and Audio Interfaces

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In this episode, we discuss the importance of a healthy sleep schedule to keep a clear mind and stay focused.

In addition, we also talk about an audio interface, what features are important to buy one, and thinking about how you as a beatmaker go about creating your music.

Audio Interface Microphones Music Production Equipment Recording

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S1E23 – Sleep and Audio Interfaces

  1. Hey, this is Gratuitous. Welcome to Music Production Made Simple, the show that
  2. focuses on best practices about music production, which is based on FL Studio.
  3. If you're wanting to become the best producer you could be, subscribe and listen
  4. weekly. You can also check out my courses, which teach you the principles and basics
  5. of music production. They'll get you up and running quickly.
  6. In addition, I also have books on Amazon and tons of music on Spotify.
  7. Always feel free to hit me up at Hi at it'sgratuitous.com.
  8. So let's get into the episode.
  9. Alright, hey, what's everybody?
  10. Gratuitous here. Welcome back to episode number 23.
  11. I'm gonna be talking about two things in this episode.
  12. One's gonna be talking about sleep, keeping a consistent schedule and how important
  13. it really is to truly be creative, to have a clear mind and stuff like that.
  14. And second, we're we're gonna be talking about some audio interfaces.
  15. okay. So before we get into the episode, I want to talk about that.
  16. I just released my course. It's called how to use a MIDI keyboard for beatmakers.
  17. Again, the reason why I created this course was because I have a chat box on my
  18. website, and one of the most common questions I received was how do I use a MIDI
  19. keyboard as you know as a beat maker to make my beats?
  20. So I made that course specifically just for all those questions that were asked.
  21. I uploaded like the intro video to YouTube and I saw that some of you guys were
  22. giving some dislikes to it. You know, again, my main reason for that is just I got
  23. lots of questions to it. So I just created the course.
  24. Hopefully it's gonna benefit some of those of you who actually asked the question.
  25. Okay. So it is out there now. I'll leave the link in the resource section here.
  26. So again, it's called How to Use a MIDI Keyboard as a beatmaker by me gratuitous.
  27. So I just want to talk about sleep.
  28. Okay, how important sleep is. for myself, I am an electrician, so that means that
  29. it's early mornings and you know I get the afternoon ish off, you know, I get off
  30. around three, depending on the day.
  31. But my morning usually starts around like five o'clock in the morning.
  32. That's when like the alarm goes off.
  33. doesn't mean I actually get up at that time, you know, sometimes I hit snooze a
  34. couple times. Depends on the day.
  35. But the alarm goes off around five, okay?
  36. And really, in order for me to feel good the next day, to have a clear mind, and in
  37. all honesty, I feel that I'm the most productive, is if I'm in bed before 9 p.m.
  38. Okay. Now, this schedule can always change, and obviously, depending on your
  39. schedule, your work schedule, how you operate and stuff like that.
  40. And the reason why I say that is because being a beat maker and a producer, and you
  41. know, not only just you know the creative side of things, but I also create these
  42. courses, do this podcast. Currently writing, you know, another book.
  43. but I do have books on Amazon for those of you who don't know.
  44. you guys can check out my author name, Riley Weller.
  45. I have like safe spots, audio painting as well as proper producer mindset.
  46. Those are just the the three books I have on Amazon.
  47. But all I'm trying to say is nowadays it's so easy to get distracted.
  48. You know, you're on your phone, you're looking at you know, whatever you're
  49. researching, it could be something beneficial, or you could just be like, you know,
  50. spending time on social media or whatever you're doing.
  51. It's so easy to get distracted, and all of a sudden you realize you're like, oh, now
  52. it's 9 30, or oh now it's 10, oh now it's 10 30, and you're just like, whatever, you
  53. know, I'll be a little bit tired tomorrow.
  54. But the thing is, you know, it kind of compounds, right?
  55. So it's really really important that you do get a good sleep.
  56. I just find when I get a good sleep, it just makes the next day just so productive.
  57. you know, even after I'm done like a full eight hour shift at my real job, I feel
  58. like I can come home and create whatever I want to create without that kind of
  59. cloudy kind of mind in a sense of oh, I'm tired or oh, I really don't feel like
  60. doing that. Again, when I get that rest, I actually want to work towards whatever
  61. you know I'm kind of working on.
  62. Again, whether that be like a beat tape, which I am working on, I'm working on my
  63. volume nine okay. So, you know, just maybe just a little wake up call or like a
  64. little reminder for you. Just don't forget how important sleep is I know that you
  65. know you want to stay up late you know to take the most advantage of your night but
  66. for me personally I would rather go to you know be in bed by nine and have a super
  67. productive you know four or five hours you know at home rather than be tired and not
  68. be that productive. Okay so now I just want to talk to you about an audio interface.
  69. Now an audio interface is such a powerful tool for us beat makers it allows us to do
  70. so many things like plug in you know high-end microphones or our speakers now I just
  71. want to talk about some of the features of an audio interface you know if you
  72. already have one or if you're looking to buy a new one or if you haven't even bought
  73. one yet these are some things that you know my suggestions to you some ways how you
  74. can kind of save money as well as I guess like the brand I recommend again this is
  75. not like a paid sponsorship show it's just it's just all me here I don't do like the
  76. paid sponsorship stuff I guess pretty much the paid sponsorship would be me me like
  77. promoting like my courses and stuff like that so on an audio interface you have
  78. what's called ins and outs okay so a lot of these audio interfaces you know you're
  79. gonna see like four ins two outs and many times it's like four X2 or it could be
  80. like two X4 or you know and what that is selling saying is just like how many ins so
  81. an in is something that you literally plug into your audio interface so that could
  82. be like your you know microphone it could be a guitar and it's just telling you that
  83. you have two inputs you know in the case if you get a two I two or you know that's
  84. how focus right that's the brand which I do recommend focus Right.
  85. I have a focus Right Scarlet, they've been amazing for me.
  86. in my early years, I had an an M audio audio interface, it was a fast track pro.
  87. I must have got like a lemon, or maybe it just wasn't a good product.
  88. It was a horrible experience when I upgraded to the Focus Right Scarlet.
  89. product It was just you know, night and
  90. day, just a great. And from there on, I have actually upgraded to the second
  91. generation. So they had like their first generation, you know, series.
  92. they came out with a second generation, and now they are on a third generation.
  93. I haven't had the chance to check out that audio interface.
  94. I'm sure it's you know it's an improvement because the second generation to the
  95. first generation was a huge improvement when it comes to latency, which I'll I want
  96. to get into. Okay, so again, that you know, the ins just allow you to
  97. plug in you know equipment into the audio interface.
  98. Now you have the outs, and this all depends on you as a beatmaker.
  99. You know, how do you set up your studio?
  100. Do you have a lot of outboard gear?
  101. For me personally, I'm recommending to you to stay away from the outboard stuff
  102. unless you're kind of dealing with like a preamp and maybe like a hardware
  103. compressor for your actual microphone.
  104. If you're gonna like you know, do like podcasts or you know, do actual real
  105. recording or create courses, like for myself.
  106. I have like a single channel preamp where I'm able to kind of compress a little bit,
  107. it has a gate, I have an EQ on there.
  108. I just kind of do really, really light stuff on the you know, on the actual channel
  109. strip that way. I have a you know a nice good signal going into my computer, but
  110. then I'll I'll do like additional processing with like EQ compression, a multi-band
  111. compressor, DSing, and stuff like that.
  112. So on the audio interface, you just have to think about what are you gonna be using
  113. this audio interface for? Do you want to connect a lot of outboard gear?
  114. If you're going to, you're gonna want to make sure that you have more than just two
  115. outs., o Okaykay? Because if you only have two outs, that means that you can just
  116. plug in your left and right speaker.
  117. If you have more outs, that means that you can send out on like the three and the
  118. four to outboard gear, and if you had more inputs or even just like the two inputs,
  119. you know, again, depending on your flow, you would be able to send it out on like
  120. the three and the four, go through like your all your hardware, and then you can
  121. record it back into the audio interface.
  122. So, again, it all depends on your workflow.
  123. Me personally, I honestly just suggest just work inside your computer.
  124. It's the future, it's the way to do it, it's the easiest way to do it.
  125. you know, hardware is expensive, it takes up space, and it can break.
  126. Whereas, you know, the digital file, you know, it's you can keep it forever.
  127. Okay, in addition to the audio to an audio interface, you know, so like you're able
  128. to plug in your microphones and guitars, but you know, they actually have built-in
  129. preamps. again, depending on the company, these preamps can be better or worse.
  130. And typically, like your goal of a preamp is just to get like a nice clean signal,
  131. not have too much noise so that you can record, it's a high quality, you know,
  132. recording, and then you can take that recording and process it however you want.
  133. nowadays, you know, companies have gotten quite good, but again, my recommendation
  134. is a focus right scarlet. I currently just have the two i2.
  135. So in my early years, I actually had the two i4, so that means that I could plug in
  136. two microphones, but it had four outputs.
  137. So I would have one and two for like my left and right speaker, and then the three
  138. and the four, that was just a flexibility, you know, because I can actually I you
  139. know, in my early years, I actually kind of wanted to get into like the hardware,
  140. and I was like, oh, I want to kind of try it out and stuff.
  141. And again, I just realized it's not worth your time.
  142. the digital route is by far the best way.
  143. but in addition, I also had what was called a MACI control universal, it's just a
  144. MIDI controller with motorized faders.
  145. So the newer ones are just USB, and again, in the last episode, I talked to you
  146. about MIDI, and MIDI is USB. USB. It's you know, make sure is your
  147. MIDI, it's the easiest way to do it
  148. Back in the day, you actually had to have MIDI cables, which had an in and an out.
  149. So sometimes you actually needed to have two MIDI cables for it to communicate with
  150. you know whatever you're wanting it to do.
  151. So, in the case of my old Macy control Universal, I was able to plug that into my
  152. audio interface. Again, the two i4 had MIDI connections in the back.
  153. The two i2 doesn't. The reason why I'm saying this is because over my years I've
  154. just found that using the mouse is by far the easiest approach to making music.
  155. But again, in my early years, I was like, Oh, I want to try all those hardware gear,
  156. I want to get the hands-on mixing.
  157. you know, it's just kind of learning curves.
  158. But I needed the two i4 to plug in that MACI control.
  159. Once I realized that the mouse is by far the easiest way to do anything with music
  160. production, and then I upgraded to the second generation of the focus right series.
  161. I then decided to go for the two i2.
  162. Again, that's two inputs, two outputs, but it didn't have the option for MIDI inputs
  163. and stuff like that. So, with this audio interface that I'm talking to you on right
  164. now, I wasn't able to like you know use this MACI control and stuff like that.
  165. But that allowed me to save money because you know, if you look at the price
  166. difference between the two i2 and the two i4, you know, there is a price difference.
  167. So, again, when you're purchasing an audio interface, you just want to think about
  168. what are you using this audio interface for?
  169. How many microphones or you know, inputs are you gonna be plugging in at once?
  170. are you like recording like a band?
  171. If you are, you know, that's kind of like a different world.
  172. But for us beatmakers, we really only need like an audio interface just for like our
  173. speakers. if you want some headphones, if you do want to record like a nicer you
  174. know microphone, and then in addition, it also has like the drivers, which we'll
  175. talk about here in a moment for, better performance.
  176. So, what is an audio interface?.
  177. So, an audio interface is just as an external sound card, okay
  178. So, it's a sound card that you plug in through some type of connection, whether it
  179. be like USB Firewire. Nowadays they're coming out with like USB 3.0 audio
  180. interfaces, now USB-C is becoming a new standard.
  181. so it's really really cool. The audio interfaces have improved a lot, and the whole
  182. benefit of the external sound card is yes, you're able to plug in all this external
  183. gear, you know, high quality speakers, high quality microphones, but you're also
  184. able to access their ASIO drivers, okay.
  185. So ASIO is actually a an amazingly powerful creation, you know, so that someone
  186. developed and it's super super powerful.
  187. And I'm just looking off of Wikipedia here, and I want to read this to you because I
  188. was just doing a little bit of research on ASIO before I created this podcast
  189. because like you know, I have a general idea of what ASIO is.
  190. I you know, like for example, if you are making your beats, you want to make sure
  191. that you're not using like the primary driver, you want to make sure you're using an
  192. ASIO driver. ASIO allows you to connect like directly right to the sound card.
  193. Whereas if you go through Microsoft's like direct sound, you actually have to go
  194. through like the software, and the whole problem here is what's called latency.
  195. So latency is the time it takes.
  196. So right now, if I'm talking to you in the microphone, the time it takes to go into
  197. the microphone, into the audio interface, into my computer, back out of my computer,
  198. so I can actually hear it. Okay, and latency is a huge problem in the industry.
  199. it's improving it like so. From the first generation of this focus Right Scarlet
  200. audio interface to the second generation, there's been a huge improvement, and I'm
  201. sure like this the third generation is even better.
  202. So ASIO allows you to connect direct to this actual sound card so that you get
  203. the best performance and lowest latency that this equipment can handle.
  204. Okay. So let me just read you this.
  205. I just found it really, really powerful and just gave me some extra clarity into
  206. what ASIO really is. Okay. So it's just two paragraphs.
  207. So audio stream input output is what ASIO stands for.
  208. And it is a computer sound card driver protocol for digital audio specified by
  209. Steinberg, providing a low latency and high fidelity interface between a software
  210. application and a computer's sound card.
  211. Okay, so again, you don't have to go through like I guess Windows through it.
  212. It goes right from your sound card to the actual program such as FL Studio that
  213. you're using. So whereas Microsoft's direct sound is commonly used as an
  214. intermediary signal path for a non-professional user.
  215. Okay, so ASIO allows musicians and sound engineers to access external hardware
  216. directly. And that's why you're able to get such good performance and lower latency
  217. out of it. Okay. So I just got one more paragraph here for you.
  218. It just clarified a lot of things for me.
  219. So ASIO bypasses the normal audio path from a user application through layers of
  220. intermediary Windows operating system software so that an application connects
  221. directly to the sound card hardware.
  222. So each layer that is bypassed means a reduction in latency.
  223. So in short, you want to be making sure that you're selecting an ASIO driver.
  224. FL Studio now has released what's called the FLM, I think it's FL Studio ASIO.
  225. if I loaded up FL Studio, I'd be able to see it.
  226. If you hit F10 in FL Studio, go to the audio tab, you're gonna see options for you
  227. know different sound drivers. Make sure that you are using an ASIO driver..
  228. So when I first started, it was like you know, ASIO for all V2
  229. So that is if you don't have an audio interface.
  230. And then if you had an audio interface, you wanted to use the actual audio
  231. interface's ASU driver because typically it was coded better and it was specific
  232. just to like that audio interface.
  233. however, in my experience, sometimes you know, choosing like the actual ASIO for all
  234. V2 actually gave better performance back in the day.
  235. Now, FL Studio has created their own ASIO driver, and it's really really awesome
  236. because if you use something like OBS, so that's open broadcast software.
  237. That's what I use, you know. If you want to like stream or if you want to, you know,
  238. record courses and stuff like that.
  239. a big problem with using an ASIO driver was that these applications, you were not
  240. able to record the audio out of it.
  241. So, for example, if I was you know streaming or if I was recording a tutorial or a
  242. course and I was using FL Studio and I was not using the FL Studio ASIO driver, the
  243. OBS, so the recording software would not be able to hear FL Studio's audio.
  244. And I'm really really grateful that they did release that ASIO driver because again,
  245. you're able to get that low latency, good performance, and you're also now able to
  246. record your desktop audio at the same time.
  247. So it's just super super important that when you have your audio interface that
  248. you're that you are selecting an an ASIO driver and you guys are gonna be good to
  249. go. the last point I want to talk about with your audio interface is like the buffer
  250. size, okay. So when you go to actually record your music, in the very very
  251. early stages of the song, you don't have much going on, okay?
  252. So you're not gonna experience what's called underruns.
  253. Underruns is when your CPU cannot handle what you're throwing at it, in a sense of
  254. like, you know, too many VSTs, too many sounds, etc..
  255. etc So what you will experience with underruns is like glitches, pops, and it really
  256. feels like your computer is about to break at any moment, depending on how on how
  257. hard you push it. you know, if your computer is a bit weaker, and especially you
  258. know, back in the day when computers weren't as powerful as they are now, I remember
  259. like sometimes my computer would just like freeze and it would be like super weird
  260. sounding, and all of a sudden it would just like everything would go like silent,
  261. and then like your song would go like back to normal once it like it stopped playing
  262. like the chorus, because typically the chorus is the busiest part of a song, has all
  263. the instruments going on, and so what I'm trying to say is your buffer size, you can
  264. actually adjust this depending on where you are in your song, and also depending on
  265. the power of your computer. nowadays with my computer, I you know, I built a pretty
  266. decent computer for music production and creating all my courses and stuff.
  267. So I really don't have to fiddle around with this buffer size, but in my early years
  268. of producing, I did. So what I'm trying to say is in the very, very beginning of
  269. your song, you can set your buffer size smaller.
  270. And the reason why you want to do that is because of latency, okay?
  271. Because latency is a problem within the industry, and there's actually been tests
  272. and stuff. So, you know, they actually sat someone down and they were playing with
  273. how much latency that they could handle so that they can still play in time.
  274. And if there's too much latency, so what happens is you know, someone presses a note
  275. and there's a delay, and then that delay goes into their headphones, and as they
  276. continue to try and play, like you know, that piece, you know, that musical piece
  277. that like they're trying to play, the delay screws them up because you know they're
  278. focusing on the new note, but the old note is still being played back to them..
  279. So it really skews with like your mind
  280. Okay, so when you have a lower buffer size, you get less latency.
  281. So, in other words, your MIDI keyboard or even a microphone if you're recording is
  282. more responsive, and you you can get better performance out of the player because
  283. there's you know less delay. But now, as the song starts to grow, imagine you had
  284. like you know, 11 instruments, tons of effects, and again, so in the very very early
  285. stages, you know, you start to kind of create more instruments, more VSTs, more
  286. melodies, and then you start getting into the mixing, and then you get to the
  287. mastering, and and in each of these stages, you may have to play with this buffer
  288. size. So, again, in the early stages, you might put it down to 512.
  289. I typically find that's a you know a great area for good responsiveness.
  290. and then you know, let's say we kind of get into like 11 instruments, you know, give
  291. or take, depending on your computer's power.
  292. now you start to kind of get underruns.
  293. You're like, okay, well, now you have to hit F10 in FL Studio, you know, just go to
  294. like the settings, go to the audio tab, go to the buffer length, and you'll have to
  295. increase this maybe now to 1024.
  296. And now, you know, maybe that will work fine for you now, until maybe you start into
  297. like the mixing and mastering stage.
  298. And in all honesty, the lower buffer length is really only important when you're
  299. actually creating the melodies, okay.
  300. once you pass that stage of the creation stage of like you know, creating the
  301. melodies and stuff, once you're into you know, adding transitions or the mixing and
  302. the mastering stage, you can bump it up to like you know the 2048.
  303. And if your computer can't even handle that, FL Studio even has the triple buffer
  304. option, which will even increase that buffer length even more so that you can even
  305. handle more out of. your computer
  306. But when you have an audio interface, a good audio interface, and their drivers are
  307. coded well, you'll be able to get better performance out of your computer because of
  308. the audio interfaces as you go drivers, and then you may just have to play around
  309. with that depending on how powerful your computer is.
  310. Okay, so there's some information on audio interfaces.
  311. Hopefully, it kind of helps you out.
  312. Again, I personally at the at this moment in time, I recommend the Scarlet 2i2.
  313. I have the second generation, I haven't tried the third generation, but comparing
  314. the second to the first, there was a huge improvement in latency.
  315. Okay, so the first generation had quite a bit of latency still.
  316. I wasn't able to get as good a performance out of it.
  317. The second generation, it was just like night and day.
  318. I was like, Whoa, I can handle way more with this audio interface.
  319. Okay, and again, just a reminder try to go to sleep on time tonight.
  320. You know, see how your morning is.
  321. If it goes good, then you can thank me.
  322. Okay, so again, check out the course how to use a MIDI keyboard as a beatmaker.
  323. I had tons and tons of questions from you guys about it, so I decided to create one.
  324. I'm also gonna be creating a course here on how to use an audio interface, just kind
  325. of a quick up and running course.
  326. But again, if you're part of the membership, all these courses are free, they're all
  327. part of it. You guys can do a monthly membership or a lifetime access, so it's just
  328. a one-time payment. You access all my courses forever.
  329. and I'm gonna be keep creating all these courses.
  330. You know, again, I've acquired more gear.
  331. I acquired a 4K webcam. I don't want it for the 4K, I just like the 60 FPS, so I'll
  332. be on 1080p 60 FPS. And the reason why I got the webcam is so you you guys can
  333. actually see like my keyboard in high quality.
  334. You know, I just wanted to get a better one so that I can keep these courses with
  335. the highest quality gear, you know, that my budget really allows for right now..
  336. And you know, the courses are starting to grow
  337. I'm able to reinvest the money back into higher quality gear.
  338. You know, I now have a Sony A6 6400.
  339. The camera has been amazing. If you guys ask questions, I can continue to create
  340. courses for these specific questions.
  341. If not, you know, I'm gonna keep creating courses on just different things I want to
  342. teach and talk about. I'm going to be coming out with some how to create a beat type
  343. courses here soon too, you know, like such as how to create like a hip hop beat or
  344. like a dance beat, or if you guys have any input, you know, of what you'd like to
  345. see in that. Again, if you're part of like the membership, you guys will be getting
  346. it within your membership. Okay, so thanks for listening.
  347. you know, always feel free to reach out to me with questions, and I'll talk to you
  348. guys in the next episode. Thanks for checking out the episode.
  349. If you had any questions, visit it'sgratuitous.com slash podcast, select an episode
  350. and submit your question at the bottom of the page to the contact form.
  351. If you'd like to take my FL Studio courses, see my current studio and podcasting
  352. gear, read my books, or are interested in lessons, visit the link it's
  353. gratuitous.com slash learning.
  354. That page will redirect you to more info and resources.
  355. I hope the best with your productions.
  356. I'm gratuitous, and I'll see you in the next
  357. episode.
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