Learn to create professional sounding electronic music from your bedroom... even if you’re a beginner.
What is the secret to making professional sounding music?
Today I’m going to share with you the techniques that took me over 15 years to figure out and refine.
Stuff I’ve learned from some of the best producers in the world – these are the talented people making a living off music.
Everywhere you look, online warriors say that this is gonna take a long time.
I’m here to show you that you DON’T need fancy equipment or tons of money for school to make great, professional sounding music.
I’m going to prove that you CAN write and produce songs that you can be proud of.
Professional sounding music.
And that it WON’T take YEARS of schooling to learn.
It’s called, “The Assembly Line Method ”
And here’s the kicker –this is a technique that you can start using TODAY.
That’s right. No years of training. No new gear. No new plugins. No money wasted.
Once you get to the end of this video, your songs WILL start to sound more professional.
But before I get to that, you’re probably wondering, who am I?
My name is Ash.
Over the past 15 years I’ve been in several projects spanning several genres.
From pop/punk and metal bands in 2007-09 to making electro/dubstep in 2011, hybrid trap in 2015 synthwave / future bass / lofi and even bass house.
I’ve worked with world touring artists like Barely Alive and Spock. Because of that I’ve been invited to big events like Bass Ship in Montreal, and Excision’s Evolution Tour here in Toronto.
I’ve even sang live at festivals. I’ve befriended some of my scene’s top songwriters and have had my music heard by grammy winning artists.
Not too bad, considering I come from a small town in Canada without any fancy gear or formal training other than the piano I took as a kid.
I think it was when I got my first royalty check that was enough to pay my rent that maybe I am on the right path with this production stuff.
Today, my goal is to teach you exactly how to use the Assembly Line Method to make your own music sound professional and capture people’s attention.
Before I continue though – I want to make something really clear.
There’s a specific “type” of person who might be watching this video that I really hate. I call them “false elitists.”
These are the ones who “think” they already know everything there is to know. They hoard information simply to regurgitate in an attempt to sound “smart”.
They’ll go on and on about convoluted techniques or vague advice (just keep producing bro! Put in your 10,000 hours!!) to make you FEEL smart about producing.
This method won’t work for them.
But there’s another type of person that I deeply respect.
These are the true artists.
This is for people with open minds – you have to be willing to change your mindset and be ready to learn a little bit differently.
I only want to share this information with people who are humble, but also serious about learning production, and more importantly creating ART.
I truly believe anyone can do this, if you’re willing to put in the effort. But there’s no shortcuts when it comes to learning this stuff.
We’ve got to start from the very beginning…
This is the very first song I ever produced … pretty bad right?
Even though I was motivated – I had no clue what I was doing – it took me months just to finish this song.
I was taking a really long time to make really cringy beats. I blamed it on Garageband. But, whatever, right?? I love doing this.
It’s all about the journey… right?
So I went online to try and fix my problems.
But every forum I read. Every video I watched.
I’d constantly see – ‘just give it time. You’ll learn from experience.’
OK cool but where should I go to learn? Reddit? Youtube ? buy a skillshare subscription?
Suddenly it dawned on me-, this is gonna take a long time. Too much time.
I knew what I wanted my songs to sound like. But for whatever reason – it just never sounded ‘polished’ or ‘professional’ enough.
So I started buying gear.
- Can’t hear the bass? New subwoofer.
- Mix is muddy? New headphones.
- My “sounds” aren’t good enough? New plugins!!
I thought this would make my songs sound better, but I ended up wasting thousands of dollars on equipment that only slightly helped.
And this wasn’t even the biggest challenge – I was finishing college, getting ready to graduate and take on a full time job.
As my life was moving forward, the time I had to produce became less and less.
I would get home from work, too tired to do anything music related.
It took ages to finish whatever song I was working on.
I never finished songs, I only had an endless collection of half ideas and 8 bar loops.
No time. No motivation. I didn’t get it. This was supposed to be my passion. I wanted this.
I felt like I was going backwards.
It seemed the longer I spent perfecting a song – the more frustrated I got with it and the more frustrated I got with the process.
I quit learning piano before and was almost ready to quit production as well.
Luckily for me, I found a solution through an unlikely source.
And hear me out before you judge me- but remix contests.
I was forced to submit and make sure a song was as good as I could make it.
It’s 2013 and I’m living in small town Canada. I literally had no one to talk to about music production. But I did have the internet.
I’d join remix contests just for fun and a chance to learn from other, more experienced producers.
I would then send these remixes to other artists asking for feedback and offering to remix their songs as well. No response.
However, participating in these contests gave me a deadline.
I was forced to submit and make sure a song was as good as I could make it.
Suddenly I had a method of writing my own ORIGINAL music...
Remixes also gave me a structure to work around.
I wasn’t making loops anymore, I was arranging different sections to make something coherent.
I started seeing improvement in my music.
I started finishing remixes more frequently and uploading them to youtube.
And even though the “mix” wasn’t perfect. Or the sounds “unique” enough.
The views started coming in.
I suddenly had a method of writing my own ORIGINAL music.
I began getting responses from artists asking to work together.
I got my first record label email.
I got my first significant paycheck.
That’s when I realized.
“Done is better than perfect.”
Finishing songs is more important than focusing on perfection – I had to allow myself to fail. I had to allow myself to suck.
After hearing this I would write something every day. Even if it sucked. As long as I FINISHED the song.
Putting this advice to practice finally clicked.
The songs in my head were beginning to take shape.
It was happening more often for me – all because I could get the ideas OUT of my head – EXACTLY the way I envisioned them.
And then – I could do it quickly.
Time wasn’t an issue anymore. Neither was motivation.
But how do you get from writing every day to a professionally produced song??
This is where the assembly line method comes in --
It doesn’t need gear or time. It’s a SYSTEM that EVERY touring producer i know is doing.
By combining selective listening, basic structure, and frontloading sound design/mixing to meet a deadline, I was able to boil down the production process into steps that, if followed in order will save time and improve your production.
The Assembly Line Method goes like this -
- Pursue
- Pull
- Practice
- Repeat
- Refine
- Polish
First, and most importantly — pursue.
Don’t wait around for something to show up and inspire you.
Actively search for new music, embrace new experiences, and live life. Find love, get heart broken.
Then pull from it- music you listen to, experiences you have — and create ideas.
Conceptualize, nothing is off the table here.
The point is to get the idea out.
Even if it means taking pieces from the inspiration.
Where you have an exact goal.
This could be creating sounds, chord progressions, drum loops, lyrics.
All based on the music you’ve discovered and have been inspired by.
I call these “Song Starters”
Create practice sessions with the goal to have something structured.
You now have sections to build out from your Song Starters.
Create a structure.
Use an already finished song as a blueprint.
Use rhythm and theory to build it out fully.
Select the sounds that bring the song to life.
Creatively play with plugins to add spice to your sounds.
But FOCUS on how the overall song makes you feel.
Is it sad? Energetic? Happy? Hype? Chill?
Once you have that – the song is 80% complete.
Now start again. repeat.
Over time you’ll have several structures or demos.
Go through these and pick your favorites. Refine.
And finally polish –
Learn to use the tools inside your DAW to QUICKLY put everything into context.
Even the most basic mixing skills like EQ and sidechain compression will have it sounding crystal clear, loud, and ready for the club or streaming.
AS LONG AS THE STEPS ARE FOLLOWED.
Once I incorporated this system in my own music – I began finishing more songs.
I wasn’t stressed out if I had a great idea for a song – I could just put it down.
If I wanted to improvise or come up with something on the spot – I could do it
Today – I confidently open up Ableton whenever I have an idea.
I know exactly how to take it from a simple chord progression to a fully fleshed out song.
I can confidently write a song that’s ready to stream on Apple Music or Spotify. I can successfully make my idea a reality.
It takes less time, and I’m creating music that I’m truly proud of.
I can share a song with collaborators and I get comments like this.
I’m receiving messages from label heads, other artists, and managers.
They’re asking ME for more.
And I’m not shaken. I’m confident I can give them good material. The songs I’ve written have been played out at festivals.
I’ve been able to do everything in even 3 hours.
Crazy right? And I’m not even a pro.
Think about how fast the big guys are.
Although I make EDM/dubstep, I wanted to see if it would work in other genres as well.
I taught the “pursue and pull” concept to one of my best friends - an r&b/hip-hop artist.
I went into detail of how to actually find inspiration instead of waiting for it.
I taught him the exercises I use to help him create song starters.
I saw him finish an entire album – over the next month.
I showed him the rest of the assembly line method.
The songs he wrote after we’re the BEST songs I’ve ever heard from him.
that album made it to the top of the iTunes R&B/Hip-Hop charts on the day of its release.
I knew it worked - And I want you to be able to use it too.
INTRODUCING...
EDM Head Start
- A step-by-step course that focuses on writing and producing better music, faster and more efficiently
I’ve taken all the information I’ve learned over the years to create shortcuts for YOU that skip all the boring aspects and AVOID wasting time.
I’ve created a system that allows you to WRITE better songs, and FINISH them MUCH faster than other producer’s out there who are still fiddling around.
It’s the roadmap that will save you time, create PROFESSIONAL sounding music, and get your best ideas out.
WHAT IS EDM HEAD START?
It’s a 4 part video series, each with step by step lessons all combining to over 3 hours of video lessons.
So let’s dive into what’s inside:
PART 1 – PURSUE – Changing Mindsets – You’re already a Production Genius!
- Welcome and Congratulations!
- A good song is 80% songwriting, 20% production. Story about how beautiful acoustic music is.
- The “I have no time” paradox and how to fix it
- How to stay motivated / practice makes perfect.
- Assignment – Write down WHY you like to produce and list all your favorite artists and what it is about them that INSPIRE you.
PART 2 – PULL – How to properly use your inspiration and leverage it into your own art
- “Steal like an Artist” – how it will help with your production.
- The Banger Vault – You’re a genius because of your taste in music.
PART 3 – PRACTICE – The Basics of Music Theory & The Art Songwriting and Arrangement
Theory: Notes, Rhythm, Scales, Chords
- Note Names & Simple Rhythm
- The Easy Keys: C Major and A minor – Intro to major and minor scales.
- Key Signature and Transposing
- Using scales to build a chord
- Major and Minor chords
- Why chord progressions aren’t AS important as you think: Intro to common chord progressions
Get out of the Loop: Arrangement & Songwriting Strategies to help structure your songs
- Structure – Use Banger Vault to see how songs are structured and how to leverage those to arrange his ideas quickly
- How I write catchy melodies
- Why writing in 16 bars chunks is better than 8 bars.
- Drums are the Backbone of your song – How to write drums for different sections of your song. Assignment Drum Bandit: Copy the drumbeat of your favourite track.
PART 4 – POLISH The Final 20% – Bringing it to Life through Production
- How Drums, Bass. Synths. Leads, Vocals all work together to make a great song. (Story about how I saw an orchestra at boston. Nothing was mic’d everything was acoustic)
- Leveraging presets to quickly create elements of your song.
- Hypothetical – you wouldn’t build a brand new guitar for each song you write so why make everything from scratch?
- Simple EQ
- Simple Compression / Sidechaining
- Simple Reverb
- Fast mastering to finish the shell
Course Features
- Over 3 hours video content
- Access to the Banger Vault. All the notes and analysis I keep on the songs that inspire me.
- Challenges and exercises to help practice skills, and ways to integrate with the production of YOUR music.
- Strategies and tools that reduce the amount of memorization that traditionally learning needs
EDM Headstart will be available soon. You can sign up for pre-order to get it as soon as it’s ready.
If you scroll just below, you’ll see the sign up button. But before you do that – I want to make something clear.
After completing EDM Headstart you WILL have a better understanding of production/songwriting and music theory BUT this is not for you if you’re not creative enough to APPLY it into your own music.
This also is for producers who are SERIOUS about working hard.
There are certain things you can implement right away and see immediate results but you WILL have to practice and there WILL be a learning curve.
- This is NOT for you if you’re looking for a quick fix to your tracks.
- This is NOT “how to sound like [X]” in 5 minutes
- This is NOT for you if you’re the type to chase trends.
- This is NOT a “hack” that you’ll be able to slap onto your songs and make them bangers.
I don’t believe in quick fixes – I believe in teaching skills that you’ll be able to use FOR LIFE
After completing EDM Head Start – you’ll never be able to listen to music the same way again. You WILL be constantly analyzing music.
You won’t be waiting for inspiration anymore, you’ll be chasing it. Everywhere you go. For Life.
Your musical ideas will become reality.
If that sounds like you, click the button below to sign up right now.