How this top producer turns his laptop into a studio
Advancements in hardware and software have made it possible to do the bulk of producing on a phone or laptop. Mobile music production has become increasingly popular - out of convenience and sometimes necessity. Even for artists and producers with access to professional studios, there is a need to create hits on the fly. And these same mobile tools have now put the power of a studio in everyone’s hands. Dani Deahl heads to L.A. to meet with Grammy-nominated producer Oak Felder to see how he is using mobile production in his work.
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Which audio editing tools do you use on your phone or laptop?
I made a video about Pocophone F1 pls do watch it and support my channel if those tricks worked for u❤️🙏✌️😉:-D
That‘s literally what i do since 2009. The same mac book pro still works with logic x
The Verge I use Fruity Loops Studio
Pyro Porcrecords I like your channel
Launchpad for iOS
My dude recorded with an iPhone, used the Touch Bar, has a ton of dongles, edits on Logic, and uses a Magic Mouse. Apple looking at this dude with pride.
😂 He’s on the apple website for the 2019 MacBook Pro.
He's definitely paid for that
@@stevejobs7989 u paid him for that...
I'm also an Apple fan. And with reason. These are sophisticated devices and with very well optimized software
How did he transfer the melody from his phone to the laptop?
Shocker, most producers have been making their beats on their laptops for at least a decade now.
Yeah, one of reasons why most of modern mainstream music is pretty bad.
Jakub Lulek why does it automatically make a music bad that it’s made on a laptop?
NathanJ Tech: It doesn’t. He’s just a fan of a different process to the same end result.
NathanJ Tech Because that mindset "Technology is equalizer, now it's talent that matters" caused market oversaturation. Many mediocre artist got chance to come out and drown music scene with derivative, trending music where truly exceptional artist have hard time to get noticed. There is still big corporate push, and emphasis on quantity over quality because you can spew new tracks on demand. Yeah, I know people who are geniuses and are oozing theyr art non-stop no matter what but most artists need time to produce quality. People still remember Pink Floyd and The Dark Side of the Moon, 45 years after that album came out. Will they remember Demi Lovato and her tracks after 45 years?
CT it’s a rhetorical question
these people are perplexed about technology like they are from 1937
Were not all from the 2000's like you. For people who made music before 2005 this is simply amazing
lol this video could have been made in like 2002 but now it is ridiculous
So true man ahahah
productorenjefe it's just that we take these things for granted, but it was very different a decade ago
We understand that, but u know they put out this video a few days ago and people started producing on the run years ago
It's not about the software, it's about the creativity you have. ♥️
And its also about the skills
Is Both.
it's about ur wallet
wub thats just not true
@@wubwubwubwubwubwubwubwub it’s sad but it’s true
Most amazing here is him using touch bar
LOL - They found the one person who uses it!
wow thats a first
People do actually use it
Nah it’s very useful
Hey i thought of this idea where instead of a touch bar you can touch the screen to interact with it... oh wait
guys, we found the first person to find the touchbar convenient
buaahahahahahaha
Riiiight
I´ve got one and I´m enjoying it
I use the Touch Bar all the time. I’m a coder, commenting with the Touch Bar and changing the accents of the code, the colour picker to hex code is so easy.
I ONLY find it useful as a volume bar.😂😂
Where’s my FL gang at?
Yoo
yeet
Here 🔥🔥
Gang gang
Here
"Top producer does what every other god damn producer has been doing for years"
"Technology has become a great equalizer." I see what you did there...
and so quickly, without any delay
Ben Diaz dad? Is that you?
lol are these music puns going to reverberate throughout the comment section or are we finished now?
Well they appear to gain tracktion with this crowd
This comment managed to gain my interest
I watched this video 5 times. Not because I liked what the video was about, but because, I was fascinated at the fact that the interviewer was asking him questions without really opening her mouth but just moving her lips
she was just repeating what he said in a different way ... He was like "Yes...exactly(thats what I just said)." SMH
Lol wtf?
Botox will make one do weird things with their faces.
True true. She is pretty weird looking.
4:53 booya
I absolutely love how Oak sees the improvements in technology and accessibility as a good thing. So many people complain that "it's not art anymore when you can produce tracks from your bedroom, you don't have to have any skill nowadays"... But it's the exact opposite, that this lays an even ground for everyone and from there on, it's purely skill that defines their success. Big ups for that one!
It's socialism in music form hahah
@@elijahbill9148 But i think i still smell meritocracy: If you're bedroom producer and make a song as terrible or even more terrible than "My Pal Foot Foot", bye.
this video makes music production look like a simple thing until you have to make your own song
"but now, software can be downloaded or installed on a laptop" *mind blown* 🙄
but you can't install or download anything to any other os :D
OMG
Bruh protools has been here for like 20 years and FL Studio since 2008-2009.
@@monolithworldline FL is older then that lol I remember the first one I got was the 4th edition and that was in 2003 lol.
Tony Toronto hell yeah and the video was software the have out now is amazing also🤟🏾💯
Hold up... 90% of us producers use a laptop right?! 👀
I use one...
Yes. This guy hasn’t done anything special.
I mean I use an iMac and MacBook so technically yes I use a laptop in a way
MacBook
literally every producer uses a laptop even in classic music.
Love how humble he is!!
Oak is one of the biggest inspirations I look to right now! Seems like such a sweet, humble, generous, charismatic and extremely talented dude! I’m sooo happy I got to watch him more in action because I have seen every video out there of him already 🙌🏼
What an inspiration!!! I'm trying get where he is now with my retro synth music! Gotta work hard
Advertisements are getting smarter 🍎
Praba Garan I'm sorry that macs are so great that you put them in a video and they sell themselves
@@duckmasterflex They are good but not great. If you u think they are great,then apple has successfully brainwashed you with thier advertising
Praba Garan they brain washed me by experiencing their products and comparing it to my use of alternatives
yes, that is where all the great leaps are being made...marketing
jesus... apple computers arent objectivly bad, theyre expensive. somepeople prefer the operating system as its more outofthebox and stable than windows is. also people might like logic. If i could i would run on a mac purely because windows is just a bunch of bloatware, and linux is too unstable for my projects, but i just dont have the money. plus i like my custom built. its down to preference and expeirience
This video has definitely inspired me to keep going!!! I have reached a point where people tell you "that's no possible, or that won't work." Now I'm ignoring the naysayers and running after my dream, MUSIC!!!! Thank you Verge for sharing and thank you Oak for inspiring!!!! Keep it up!!!
Great work The Verge! Would totally love a whole series on Music Production technology and advancements, not tutorials, but other news and interviews etc.
Oak Felder is awesome! So happy that The Verge did a video with him 😍
Holy hell! The Verge is on a entire new level - so cool to see! Thanks for the video.
Normally they are. In this instance they missed the memo by about 20 years.
This is some great stuff The Verge. We need more of these videos!!!
nice discovery Verge, happy that you finally caught up to what literally every producer does.
now this is some quality content done by the verge
I knew it. First time seeing his face and his studio on this video, I really though he's familiar. I saw him on Demi's Simply Complicated documentary. Amazing guy and process
Amazing process? Tbh, ive seen some more complex projects xD
Such a chill guy love him
Thank you The Verge for making this video . Truly inspiring. More power to you Oak !
They gave you a heart!... While nobody cared about your opinion
I love this quote: "I think that should be the goal of technology: Get out of my way."
so true. if anything technology has made things more complicated we need to get back to making things simple again..
@@amii665 ??? sorry that didn't make sense, perhaps it was google translate which caused this comment to fall apart but that was unintelligible to me
Everything was cool until they said “now it’s just about who’s good”. No it’s about who’s popular. Some of the best producers and artists never get heard
Yeah like Yung Lettuce
It’s also about branding. You can be great at what you make but if you aren’t producing to any market and branding yourself properly, you will never get there.
DGLS_Official I think they mean everyone at least has the ability to do it themselves. Cause a lot of musicians don’t care about getting big but they just want to make and publish their music for the art of it.
That's still an improvement over who has the money to get studio time
Yeah but thats like that in everything in life. It's more about connections than talent at some point. Talent can only take you so far
Dope video... I’ve been recording at home since 1998 and it’s amazing to see how far music technology has come... There are no more excuses, now we can make great music...
love it.. Oak's a beast from waay back,- appreciate the breakdown...great series
Go to SOTA Sound in Toronto, Noah "40" Shebib made a whole studio that has all access to every piece of equipment in the studio with just one lighting cable. Mixers, Soundboards, Modular Synth's, Customized the hell out everything to work. Same with DeadMau5's home studio, stacked up modular analogue synth plugin's and effects, all routed to one computer, stacks or synths and keyboards, just crazy. I still believe that Toronto/ the GTA has the best studio's in the world when it comes to tools.
Next up: How this top chef turns his pan into an omelet
Great interview. He did not hold back on how he works and dismantled many production myths in one video.
Please Keep Posting Such Stuff It's amazing to see such an application of modern tech.
This was dope!!! TBH been making stuff on my iPhone on Garage Band! Not the best but super amazing that I can do it from the palm of my hand
Yes, I agree! GarageBand on iOS is really powerful considering how compact it is. I've made a lot of music in GarageBand on my iPhone (the 5C and the 7), and with the help of a stereo mid-side condenser microphone (the Zoom iQ5), I'm able to record high quality stereo tracks. Pretty mind-blowing how good you can make stuff sound on a mobile platform despite its limitations.
Get Logic. It's a $5,000 package for $200 with FREE upgrades! Can't believe Apple is practically giving it away!!!
Apple Exposed is this sarcastic comment or for real
Jake Webb You say garageband, I say Caustic 3. King of all mobile DAWS.
@@justinthematrix i cant figure it out either XD
"The great equalizer" and "It's about skill". Honestly, I used to believe that, but not anymore. If you see the top charting songs, none of them are made by a person working entirely alone in their bedroom with a laptop. He is still getting his songs mixed in a big studio with heavy analogue gear. If we go way back to the start of the 1960's. Studios were expensive as hell, so people needed to rehearse their songs before going into the studio. They had 1-3 takes of them playing all together and that was the recording. No autotune, no sloppy guitar playing fixed with audio warping. Everybody needed to bring it, because time was money. That's skill. In the late 1960's people began using the studio as we do now, but back then the money was in album sales, so they would spend years in the studio trying to come of with interesting ideas. These days the money is in live performances, radio play and streaming, so it is all about getting music to the market fast, which also means that we will never see truly unique music like Bohemian Rhapsody, Dark side of the Moon or Sgt. Pepper.
Sorry but in the golden 60's, that was THE ONLY UNIQUE WAY TO DO IT. No way out. Tape machines and 8 track's console was the only method to pursue songs at that moment. Not that they were absolutely better than modern prog metal bands today, only that they had a strong GEAR LIMITATION. That obligued them to rehearse the songs till they were good, just good, not absolutely amazingly quantizingly protoolizedly good. If they had the tech we have today, they will be using it! without remorse! We have what we have at this moment, tomorrow things will be geared up and it'll be unimaginable for today... Today, there's almost NO WAY OUT to record on vintage consoles and tape machines because it's super effing expensive and you have to take a plane to find studios that still uses them... As for the producing stage you're right! they won't show Us the rest of the hard work in post production and multimillion dollar mastering rooms.
Thanks, I was searching for this comment. In the Drum & Bass scene, artists are fightings to access proper studios and also get home studio equipments, so I can't believe so many people agree with the fact you can produce "good" music only from a laptop. Their argument is that this guy produced songs with Nicky Minaj or others "successful" "artists", but the amount of money revenue doesn't equal the greatness of a production by no mean. This video is just an add.
Dude get out of top 40 and you’ll find musicians are getting better and better. Look at jazz, look at any other genres. Stop thinking queen, pink floyd and all around that era are the greatest best musicians ever cuz they’re honestly not. More talent exists now then ever thanks to youtube and spotify. Even on instagram itself musicians now can be heard from all over. Stop it with the mentality of old=good. Look and you’ll find more ground breaking music than bohemian rhapsody. Musicians are actually becoming more of a one man work horse. They’re expected to have good music theory, play their instrument well, can compose and arrange and notate, can record and mix and can do literally everything themselves. This is the standard nowadays. Give current musicians the recognition they deserve.
“If you look at the top 40 charts” well there’s your problem.... look elsewhere pop music has evolved and has come down to a science. There’s a reason it sells and it’s because they’ve gotten the recipe to making a pop hit down to a science. Creative music is out there you’re just too lazy to look 😑
This is a good point because the access ability through mobile production really paves the way for you to do good tracks but also enables you to put down basic notes that you try so hard to remember on the way home from work Etc but can’t
He’s Mastered his craft! RESPECT ✊🏿
So many comments saying that this is an Apple advertisement....yet it clearly shows "Presented by Aloft Hotels" throughout the video. The presenter even says "this video is sponsored by Aloft ..lol
Yeah... He just uses apple equipment cause it's good
@@dvance3808 lol k
TOUCHBAR ... It's so convenient
Abinash Acharya yes it’s convenient what do you mean
And a touchscreen is better. _Surface Book 2_ _Check it out_
@R Rai DAW? I'm sorry im unaware of what this is. What i can tell you is a full touchscreen (which have in my experience been absolutely perfect none of this horse and cart bs) is far superior to a gimmicky trashbar.
@R Rai ? This seems to be coming out of nowhere. The touch bar has nothing special about it. Its a normal touchscreen. I cant find anything on this.
Riley Dumont I don’t think a laptop touchscreen is designed for music production. Trying thumping in a drum track on a wobbly touchscreen.
I've been doing this for over a decade and amazed this is worth reporting in 2018. wow!
Great point about access and technology getting out of the creative users way. Makes me wanna keep going
"It's about the skill..." that's what he said.
Tools and skill and tools and plugin and money 💰
How does money have anything to do with it?
@@TheBlashMusic tools
Wow! Great video
Wow I subscribed to this channel when it released phone reviews, I was attracted by the quality of the video rather than quantity, but now with verge science and processor series The Verge is officially at the verge of a top notch youtube channel, Great job all you guys!!!
we need more of this! so inspiring!
"How this hip hop producer does what every hip hop producer does"
Tf makes you think he's hip hop producer??🤔😆
I like his voice! So soothing lol
Me too
yea man! good to have both! take that ish you made on road n bring in fr the home run!
This should be a series!!🙌🙌🙌🙌
"Now the sound of music Comes in silver pills Engineered to suit you Building cheaper thrills." Mr. Steven Wilson was god damn right!!! Now I get it... it's so clear!
i dont get it.
7/4
Zhavia 😍 great video verge 👍
the interviewer looks so interested and uninterested at the same time....this video was posted in 2018 and it still AMAZES ME!!!
Very inspiring to me as an indie artist & producer! He is a true artist! You can tell by the way he expresses himself.
“Now we can be judged based on our actual capabilities versus access” Yup, that is true, right there 👆🏼
This guy looks like some parallel dimensions MKBHD Edit: I never got so much likes
He looks like a thanos MKBHD.
I never got so much likes
LOL
It's Mr. T, fools!
Thanks ALoft for bringing us great continent. Shout out to ALoft and at the team at Verge 👏👏👏
Finally, I found someone use the touch bar so professionally
0:31 My Guy got some nice Air Jordans 👀
What year is this? He’s using a computer to do what...? Amazing!
That makes me want to start producing again it was so inspiring lol! I learned today that there's a new business model for obtaining access to plugins and DAWS!!! Being able to pay monthly and to rent plugins has blown my mind I've got so many ideas I can't wait to start again!!!
Thank you for sharing this tutorial
Yes your laptop is powerful enough to simulate a studio. But all of the software can cost multiple thousand bucks.
Facts
same costs as you buying the hardware, building the studio, when you can bring your studio on the go in your laptop.
not true, there are many softwares that are free and less than a thousand dollars lol
@@weirdo66636 i was more so talking about plugins
@@seoexe6162 yep, the daw has many variations from expensive one into absolute free, but the plugin to create a unique sound into music itself, sometimes not free
Eyy he was on Ted and spoke about how sorry not sorry was made, much love to this guy, he is great. Greatness.
Absolutely perfect video! Excellent summary of current state of industry in late 2018.
That's why i always love laptop over desktop because it is so portable.
Music production software has been around since 1992.
...Oak, you are an amazing, respect for your work
Lol. Every home musician been out here doing this on all our devices wherever we go. But good for him! He isn't stuck up he's just out here doing it like we all are
Smooth marketing by apple. Clever and sneaky. 😁
Better than samsung genius ads...............
to quote mkbhd "you know that's illegal right?"
yee ads getting smarter.. hmm
He could have been using any laptop. And you people will still call it an ad.
If making the best laptops on the market is marketing, then I can definitely get behind it
Next video "How The Verge finally discovered what every producer does"
Winners win 🥇 I’m finally building my studio in 2020 thank you 🙏🏾! Great video !
Love Oak Felder, cool chill dude
177 tracks. Would love to know the specs on his laptop.
tusharistherails same lol. Must be 32-64 GB of RAM and either a 6 or 8 core. And even still...that’s insane lol.
r0mediddy he got that billboard money
16gb,SSD, and a decent quad cores system would do the trick
That's exactly what I was thinking. I have 64 gigs of RAM but I don't know if it could handle that many tracks. Never tried it though. :P
the real question is what did he need 177 tracks for? i cant think of more than 30-40 on an average
3:44 I just want to hear this without that pitch correction 😒
Extremely hip/ every episode is mind-blowing /keep them coming. "" Better for the Art""
Where was this in 1999 lol....literally beatbox & hym + hum into a recorder....amazing how everyone has access now...great video...
Nice video the verge...👍👍
Your a happy bot :)
Totally useless. If you're into making music you probably knew everything here already.
Why do I get the distinct feeling that this is sarcasm?
the sound engineers have become the artists now
They were always artists
He’s DOPE and the message here is enlightening, powerful and factual. Dap👊🏽🎶
This video has a huge statement in artistic value that needed to be addressed.
her vocals had so much auto tune on it, it literally could have been anyone
Then you do it. What you're hearing there isn't much tuning. It's slow and it has formants turned pretty high up, though not all the way which is why you get that slightly artificial sounding vocal, and it sounds *great* when you do it like that in the context of the whole track. I find it hilarious with these people complaining so much about autotune when literally 90% of everything they love in music is tuned if it has vocals.
Yea music is so overproduced these days its sad
piloctor15 There is a lot of amazing music that gets produced today, admit it. The top 40 charts have mostly been garbage since the beginning.
I Em Gote and they still making more money than you lol
Matt Ward anybody except for me & you and a whole lot of other people that can't sing...Zhavia Can Sing Acapella...she has crazy vocal range hi's to of course lows!
I use a 1gb ram laptop to produce music
you won
I felt that bro. I have a 5gb storage computer. It has FL winrar and chrome and it crashes because its overloaded(fl isn't technically on the computer it's on a flash drive.)
whoa
@@leightonyoungii9314 how much gb ram do you have
Are u serious ??
He Is So Dope Can't Wait To Work With Him
This video introduced me to music production!
Plug-Ins cost money, software costs money, a freaking MacBook with Logic costs money. It's not ALL about skill xD
Still, do you know how much an SSL console costs? The old prices don't even compare to how cheap everything is in the box.
You didn't even name the most important things :D But yeah, the things you "need" is accessible to bigger crows of people now :) One can still sink a lot of money into it doe.
There's a lot of free stuff already (REAPER, free vstis and vsts). So it's not even about money OR skill but about connections
Dewabarasunderan Don't go to a useless college, get a job and boom. You have all the funds you need.
its all about torrents & keygens.
i been doing this since 2009...The goal is to get recognized
Wow Dani congrats on this. Super cool...
Nice Job, thanks for featuring 👌 💚
"He starts a beat in a program called Battery" xD
4:18 u dont litreally need these many sounds to make a hit song 🤣
Actually most hit songs have so many sounds
@@aons5481 no
You can have a good structured song with just 20 tracks I’d say. Adding more tracks is just spicing it up.
All depends on how spicy / detailed u want to make a song, I can make good stuff with 20-30 as well as 80 ish sounds. It all depends on what type of song + vibe I want to create
apparently you do need that many.who am i going to listen to? you or oak?
Good one. Looking forward for the next episode.
what a great producer. 🙌🏻👏🏻
Pretty much every modern producer works with just a laptop
You mean beat maker? making beats doesn't make you a producer. It makes you a track maker. Real producers work with the artist in the studio one on one, directing and overseeing the recording and pre-production process. Oak Felder is Both a Record Producer and a Beat Maker as he wears two hats. Beatmakers are classified as Writers and Composers. Producer=Director Songwriter/Composer=Beat Maker
@Rubén Ramos Wrong. The Producer is a managment directing role. I'm a Record Producer and my job is make sure that the mix is right, and I'm coaching the vocalist to get the best vocal peformance out of them. I may hire a group of writers and musicans that work for me esp if I wanted to bring a String section and string conductor. I'm a Songwriter when I'm making beats but some times I don't make beats all the time. Each person has thier own role on a production team. I'm a dual role Record Producer and Songwriter.
@@eman0828 Stop trying to act smart when you clearly aren't. You are by definition producing music. You are the one overseeing the process. You are everyone in the group if you work solo.
I totally agree, technology should get out of the way and let artists focus on creativity.
Whadda ya mean? U saying this ain’t creativity
Love this video! My favorite line is the software needs to get out of the way.
amazing video story. Loved watching it !