Don't Eat What's In Your Ears! (Music Production Ear Candy)

I was asked by a student the other day what my favourite tips were for making 'Ear Candy' in music production. (No, please don't eat anything that comes out of your ears!)

Ear Candy in production are those sprinkles of extra production-moments that we can put in our song to make it unique and more interesting. Here are a few of the examples I gave: 

1. Reversing Audio - this always sounds interesting and is great for creating unique, fresh sounds that pull you in. Here is a Youtube video I made on this topic.  

2. Pitch-Shifted Vocals - You can quickly create some artificial harmonies and vocal layers by pitch shifting vocals up/down an octave/perfect 5th creating richness.

3. Drum Fills - As a drummer it pains me to hear the same loop running an entire song without a single fill. They add excitement before key moments in songs and are quite easy to do with just a snare or tom.

4. Sweeps - If you're building up to a drop in EDM, a white noise sweep can really tease the ear before the drop. They really add to the tension and release dynamic creating expectation. Here are some free transitions I made that you can download.

5. Imperfections - It doesn't have to be perfect, that's where the character is. Beatles tracks speed up and slow down all over the place. Modern digital recording encourages precision, but sometimes the magic is in the tape hiss or the piano pedal squeaking.  

I try to do one new audio experiment per project I mix, trying to create these unique moments. It could be running a part of the track through a sampler, putting a vocal through a guitar amp, or chopping up and rearranging a bar of drums. 

I encourage you to give this a try.

Adam.