This second part (see part one here) is a review of the actual day spent with Quantize in their west London studio as we assumed the role of the student.

Prior to the day I had been asked to provide about 5 tunes that I particularly liked the sound of, and to provide any of my own material I had to date. This enables them to see where the student currently is, and what they are aiming for. Further to this, students are asked to provide the particular areas that they would like to cover. This could be as broad as ‘mixing’ or as specific as ‘making kick drums’, the choice is yours.

What this means is that not one minute of your time their needs to be wasted going over something you already know, or have no interest in. This excited me as it meant I could get professional, personal advice on the key areas I wanted to concentrate on, quite a rare opportunity.

The other key aim of the course is the focus on teaching creative work flow and inspirational techniques. The goal of which being to help students finish their tracks and enjoy the process rather than ending up with a bunch of half finished loops on their hard drive. Which is exactly where I was prior to this.

The course started at 10, and on arrival I was greeted by Keith, where we had a bit of chat about the day ahead over a cup of tea. Onward then into the studio and we get down to business.

The specific topics I had chosen to focus on were:

Percussive Arrangement/mixing
Mixing down
Work Flow/Arrangement
Re-verb & Compression
Fills and Edits

First up we covered work flow and arrangement. This is also very closely related to the key goal mentioned above about getting from 8 bars of something to complete track.

I had already encountered various creative ideas and methods prior to this, but the Quantize method, to me, is without doubt the most concrete and comprehensive approach I have come across yet. Straight away there were a few penny drop moments, and within minutes I feel so much better armed at the creative process, I almost want to go home right away and try it out!

Moving on to fills and edits, this was an area that, while I could do manually to some degree, was looking for a more solid and reliable process. The technique taught at Quantize was again a novel approach that, while simple, was equally clever, and extremely logical, especially to those that DJ.

During your time here regular breaks are given to digest everything you’ve learnt, and more importantly tea supplied :P

Fully refreshed it was back to it and this time covering mixing. This is a very broad topic, and one that you hear so much conflicting advice about it’s untrue. However even in the relatively short amount of time we had to cover the topic, I came away with a fresh new perspective and way of thinking about the topic which will certainly make the task almost perversely enjoyable the next time I tackle it.

Watching Keith’s command of the Ableton platform is both inspiring, and annoying. Inspiring because he clearly is able to make the software do anything he chooses at will, annoying because it reminds you how much more you will need to learn to achieve that!

The afternoon sees us covering the rest of my chosen topics in equal detail. The session comes to an end at about 6, but there was no mention of a fixed finish time, and as such the time spent there feels unhurried, which makes a big difference I feel.

At the end of the day I left armed with my notepad brimming full of new techniques and ideas. Also I took the Ableton files with me meaning that I can come back to any of the more complex ideas at any time and have a visual reference. If I had been a regular student, most likely we would have spent more time getting into the topics, and getting a little bit more hands on.

Those attending the two day course will go over the process of creating a whole track, considering we did all of that just in the one session it can only mean that over two it will be even more beneficial. The more advanced users however might prefer just the one day to go over their weaker areas in more detail.

In conclusion the whole time I spent there just made everything seem much clearer. The difference it makes to have clear and professional guidance is quite staggering. For years I always took the attitude that to be original and develop your own sound, you should do it all yourself. I now realise what a foolish viewpoint this was indeed!

If you want to take your Ableton production and creative work flow to the next level then you will be hard pushed to find a better investment in both time and money than Quantize Courses.

Full details of all the courses they offer, plus free videos and more can be found on their web-site:
http://www.quantizecourses.com