In roundup of Dubspot’s best music production video tutorials of 2014, we look at some of our most popular and well-received music production video tutorials from this year.

Ableton Live Tutorial – Warping Multiple Clips at Once w/ Thavius Beck

In this tutorial, Dubspot’s Ableton Live maestro Thavius Beck gives you the valuable time saving and organizational tip of warping multiple clips at once. As a practical application, this method can be used for remixing when you want to get all of your stems lined up tempo-wise. Most people aren’t aware of this technique and it really isn’t that hard to learn.

Goth-Trad (Deep Medi / Japan) @ Dubspot – Building a Track!

This video featuring Goth Trad was a bit of a departure from our usual content at Dubspot, but it proved to be a great video. Goth Trad builds a track from scratch here at Dubspot NYC using Ableton Live, NI Battery, and Stylus RMX. The resulting track is a deep dubstep tune with copious amounts of low end.

Bitwig Studio Tutorial Pt. 1 – Features Overview and Basic Navigation w/ James Bernard

In this first of a continuing series of videos by producer, sound designer and Dubspot LA Instructor, James Bernard, you will learn about some key new workflow enhancing features of Bitwig Studio which include key commands for navigating around the three different views of the unified display arrangement and support for multiple display setups (including support for up to 3 displays!) - Chris Petti

Maschine 2.2 Tutorial – New Features and Workflow Example w/ Matt Cellitti

Maschine 2.2 brings two major free updates that Maschine users have been begging for since the day Maschine was initially released: Scale Modes and an Arpeggiator.

Playing melodies on a 4×4 grid of pads is not easy to do, certainly not as easy as it would be on a keyboard. Now thanks to this update, Maschine supplies a myriad of scales nestled within the Pad Mode so you can bang away on the pads and create interesting, sometimes exotic, melodies without worrying about hitting wrong notes. It makes writing with Maschine even more gratifying as it is now easier than ever to just get “lost in the flow” using nothing but the controller to produce music.

Equally gratifying is being able to play complex chord progressions by simply hitting one pad on the Maschine controller. I find this to be instantly inspiring and a helpful tool for getting musical sketches together quickly and easily. Lastly, the arpeggiator is a delight to use with the added bonus that it can be used in conjunction with the scale and chord modes to create interesting melodic rhythms. -Matt Cellitti

Logic Pro X Tutorial: Editing Vocals and Audio Samples Using ‘Flex Pitch’ w/Bill Lee

Early on in the year, Bill Lee presented this great tutorial on the “Flex Pitch” tool in Logic Pro X. Bill is now one of the heads of our EDU department at Dubspot NYC, this guy seriously knows his stuff.

In this video we will explore the new Flex Pitch algorithm in Logic Pro X. With Flex Pitch, you can fine tune the pitch of your vocal performance while retaining a natural sound, or you can use it to mangle your vocal to get something completely different and creative. Re-tuning your audio vocals to a new melody is now as easy as working with MIDI notes in the Piano Roll editor. This feature works well with almost any clean monophonic audio signal, so don’t limit yourself to just vocals — try it on bass lines, leads and other single note audio sounds. Let’s get flexing! – Bill Lee

Music Foundations Tutorial: Using Seventh Chords For Harmonic Progression w/ Max Wild

In this three-part Music Foundations tutorial, Musician and Dubspot Instructor Max Wild demonstrates how to use seventh chords to enrich harmonic progressions. In the first tutorial, Max explains the different types of seventh chords, and shows you how to construct the major 7th (Maj7) chord. Read more here.

First of all, what is a seventh chord? Seventh chords are four-note chords that derive their name from the upper-most note, which is a seventh interval above the root (starting note of chord). Every seventh chord is constructed from a set of intervals, and knowing what these intervals are, will enable us to construct a seventh chord starting from any note. Seventh chords consist of the Root (lowest note in root position), 3rd (2nd note), 5th (3rd note), and 7th (fourth note). In the case of the Maj7 the Root and 3rd are a major third (M3) apart (4 half-steps). The 5th is a Perfect 5th above the Root (7 half-steps), and the 7th is a major 7th above the root (11 half-steps). Another way to look at this construct would be to count the intervals from one note to the next. In that case we would count a major 3rd (M3) from the root to 3rd, a minor 3rd (m3) from 3rd to 5th, and major 3rd (M3) from 5th to 7th. – Max Wild

Ableton Live Tutorial: Pitch Modulation Using Operator w/ Adam Partridge

This tutorial focuses on a form of pitch modulation known as pitch bend, by exploring the recreation of the lead synth line in “Look At Me Know”. Please do not get stuck on following the exact envelope automation displayed in this tutorial. The idea is to use your ears and eyes to achieve the pitch modulation desired. Pitch modulation is a common technique used to add movement to leads, chords and bass lines. – Adam Partridge