I know what you mean about that intense youtuber vibe. I think it’s something that developed gradually over time and you might enjoy his older videos more. I’ve actually mostly stopped watching his new stuff.

1. I started improv singing when I was a small child, did school chorus for a several years, then got sick of blending into the group. I wanted to make my own music with the focus on my voice, so I started experimenting with recording and layering things. That was about 20 years ago. I haven’t been at all consistent about it - sometimes I’d go for months without working on music at all. Then there was one year I made a finished song every month and some of it was the best I ever made.

2. I listen to lots of genres, but most often some form of electronic - downtempo, synthpop, modern EDM, etc. I tend to favor music with atmospheric layers and a hint of mystery, but different moods call for different kinds of music. What I make is hard to classify, but definitely still some form of electronic.

3. Artists: Pair of Arrows, Rufus du Sol, Metric, Robyn, Zhu… if I try to describe why I love them I’ll be typing way too long so I’ll just leave this one for now.

4. I learned a lot of synth basics from Sonic State’s reviews - often with detailed demonstrations feature by feature, sometimes with tips on how/why you might use that feature. Some channels for more general music composition and production stuff: James Nathan Jones, Venus Theory, Benn Jordan, Andrew Huang

I’ve got them too, and they’re definitely not up to the quality of other studio headphones I’ve used. Still, I’d use them a lot more if they weren’t just a little bit annoying to turn on and off. Having to hold the power button for different amounts of time for the headband vs the transmitter always throws me off.

I work mostly by improvising until I find something I like, and then refining it from there. It may help to focus on just the chords first - find the next chord that feels “right” after the A section, and then what feels right after that, and so on. Once you have a chord progression, try to figure out a melody that fits on top of it.

Sometimes it helps to have a story or subject in mind - what do the A and B sections represent? I.e. if it’s about triumphing over struggle, the A section might represent the struggle and the B section might represent the triumph. Then you have specific feelings you’re trying to convey with each, to help guide you. The listener might never know what it’s about, but knowing it yourself can help focus your creativity.

When I get stuck, sometimes I go back through old unfinished projects to look for something that feels similar to what I’m working on now, and repurpose those old melodies and chord progressions, usually with some changes to fit the new piece better.

First off, instead of one loop I try to have two main loops/themes/ideas that I alternate between, often called A and B sections. Think of it like the verse and chorus in a pop or rock song - usually different melodies and chord progressions, but they need to feel like one follows logically from the other. I’ll also usually have a “bridge” section - something different that only happens once.

Each time I repeat the A or B section, I try to change it up a bit. One strategy I’m trying lately is to use different synth sounds for each repetition, and then make subtle changes to better fit the new sound. I.e. I might change from short staccato notes to more sustained notes, but following the same general up and down path.

Adding or changing harmonies is another good strategy. For a dramatic shift, change the key from minor to major, or maybe just transpose everything up by a fifth. There are more advanced techniques for reharmonizing that I don’t understand well enough to describe.

I use it as a master effect to improve my final mix. I don’t fully understand how it works, but it basically increases clarity while reducing harshness.

I’m mostly a hardware guy but I do use a few plugins:

• Omnisphere (Spectrasonics)
• Super VHS (Baby Audio)
• Raum (Native Instruments)
• Gulfoss (Soundtheory)