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The Kick. Bass. Bounce.
10-Day Guide to Music Production Workflow
by Tom EvERFLY Jones

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Intro
is is only the beginning...

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Welcome to WARPFLOW! Congratulate yourself for investing in your music. e knowledge presented here will
provide you with the tools needed to complete your tracks. One of the worst problems producers have is not being able
to complete their projects. I am 100% guilty of this. I have hard drives lled with hundreds of unnished tracks. e
issue is not the techniques or resources you do or dont have. Anyone whos spent time in a Digital Audio Workstation
(DAW) such as Logic, Live, FL Studio or the many others has access to thousands of dierent sounds, virtual instruments,
and loops. In this digital world we live in, it goes without saying that there are tutorials all over the Internet. Books,
DVDs, and schools abound that show you how to make sounds, how to mix, outline production techniques, explore
music theory, etc. e resources are there. ats no secret.
In my experience, the problem ultimately lies in putting all of the techniques you know to good use in a logical fashion,
following a framework designed to meet your goals. In a word: workow. ats what this book is all about. Its about
separating the right-brained activities from the left, and making a plan that can be followed and ultimately executed.
In addition to providing a guided outline I will also provide insight to the techniques that Ive picked up over the years
that have made the greatest impact on my music.
In the next ten days, you will start from ground zero and work your way to a nished product. ere is one thing I
must stress at the outset. Take your time on your rst journey through the book. Even if it only takes an hour or less
to nish the rst days task, take your time and do it right. e idea is to put you in a specic mindset for the days
goal and execute it without distraction. eres a completely dierent mindset for creating a bass ri, and another for
mixing or choosing samples. Complete each task as perfectly as you can. Revisit it later or even the next day and make
it perfect before advancing to the next step. Move on only when you are satised that you have done your absolute
best work. So again, take the entire ten days, if not longer, to nish the project and dont rush ahead. Its amazing how
a little structure can help to unleash creativity. Find the method to your madness.
When youve completed the track you will have discovered what works best for you, and more specically, you will
understand your own, personal workow. You can then condense your workow into a shorter process, and even work
on multiple tracks at the same time. I can now eectively compose a song in a day or two. Followed by mixing, and
mastering the track in two additional days. You will be able do this as well, maybe even quicker.
You will also discover what you need to learn and improve upon. You will begin to see your hurdles and imperfections
as a means to improve. Pursue them as opportunities to grow. Tackle them with relentless assault and learn as much
as you can.
One nal point and we will begin. Everyone on this planet can do anything they dream of. Its bothersome how many
producers dont play real, live instruments. If you do, then awesome! Dont ever stop jamming on them and with others.
e ones, who dont, always have some excuse for not doing so. ey say it takes too much time to learn; they just cant
play it, aord it, whatever. Some will say they just have no interest. Well, get interested because you are missing out
on a whole world that will open your mind, body, and soul to great things. Instruments are the ultimate medium that
allows you to express your soul through them.
Besides, there are so many to choose from; voice (its free), guitar, bass, ukulele, bongos, congas, djembe, drum set, piano,
thumb piano, mandolin, pan pipes, violin, ddleanything that makes sound without zeros and ones in between you
and the music. I cant explain why, but every time I sit down at a real piano, specically a concert grand, I always create
something that I love. It happens every single time. Its magicalthats the only way I can explain it. Not so much on
a MIDI keyboard with a multi-sampled Steinway Grand Piano. So pick up an instrument and play it. It doesnt have
to be a $25,000 grand piano and you dont have to be a maestro. I promise it will be worthwhile and will teach you
many great things about life, the world, and yourself along the way.
Got it? Great. Now rinse o the soap, get out of the box, and well get started.

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Day 1
Pre-gaming
Prepare your mind and workspace for the creative ow of music.

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Clean up your studio: Have you ever walked into someones home oce only to nd papers everywhere with left over
corn dogs and dust all over the place? What did you think? How did you feel? It was terrible right? Absolutely. Take
pride in your workspace by cleaning it up. A cluttered workspace makes for a cluttered mind. You want to be creative
and able to focus. Organize everything. Dust o that monitor and clean up your keyboards. (e black and white one
and the one with numbers and letters on it.)
Some argue that they like clutter with instruments strayed out all over the place on the oor etc. I say get over yourself, its a
distraction whether you acknowledge it or not and is ultimately just an excuse to not clean. Clean everything. You will feel
much better.
Vibe: Now that your studio is clean, work on creating a setting that puts you in a musical mood. Surround yourself with
things that represent who you are and what youre doing. Make it look like a studio, a place where music abounds and
creativity ows. I have posters, paintings, sculptures, instruments, and acoustic panels hanging on the walls. Sometimes
all you need is great lighting.
Lighting: You dont have to spend a lot of money on lighting. Turn o the light switch and get a oor lamp. Open the
shades and let the sunshine in during the day. Personally, I love Christmas lights and have some soft white ones lined
across my ceiling. ey put me in a good mood. Find out what puts you in a good, productive mood and integrate
that into your studio workspace.
Whats up with the lighting? Its not just about vibe. ink about it. You have ve senses. When one of those senses isnt needed as
much, then that energy gets devoted to your other senses. If your eyes dont have to process as much information, then that gives
your ears more room to work. Try dimming your computer monitor and mixing in the dark. It can be an ear-openingexperience.
Relevance: Make sure you only do things in your workspace related to the tasks at hand. Dont eat at your desk or surf
the web aimlessly. Save those things for the kitchen and the coee shop. Otherwise, when you get stuck creatively you
may end up sidetracked checking email while munching on those doughnuts you know you dont need. You know what
Im talking about. When someone walks into your studio it should be obvious what goes on in there. Music production.
Not corn-doggery, desserts, and wastebasket basketball.
Focus: Silence or even better, turn o your phone during a session. You wont miss out on anything that cant be handled
at a later time. It takes a long time to get back into the groove when your workow is interrupted.
Set goals: Decide on what you want to compose and why. Have you ever thought about this before? It seems obvious, but
think about where your music is going to end up. Will it primarily be played in clubs, iPods, or both? ese thoughts
will shape the way you write, mix, and master the music. If you dont have a goal to strive for, then you just leave
yourself to the whims of the muse, which is eeting at best. Create a concrete goal like: I want to create a club worthy,
seven-minute trance track in the style of Tiestos Trac that will be played primarily in clubs and headphones. Now you
have a more dened goal to strive for.
Side note: eres a law in life that states that the image you hold of yourself in your mind will act itself out and you will
ultimately become that image. Do you want to be a huge performer? en imagine yourself in that situation and it will
manifest in time. e same goes for anything else you want to do in life.
Dene right-brained variables: In some cases, no boundaries is a good thing. However, if you havent streamlined your
workow, then the prospect of having unlimited possibilities can be overwhelming, which can hinder the completion
of a song. Dont get me wrong. I am all for spontaneous jamming. However, you need to complete a track. Dene as
many right-brained variables as possible and your creativity will explode within those boundaries. Bear in mind they
dont have to be set in stone and can change later in the game. You are basically going to be creating a template.

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Logic Sidechain Setup with an audio track: If the sidechain input track is an audio track as oppose to an MIDI or an
instrument track, then all you have to do is set the output of the duplicated kick track to no output. When you insert
a compressor on a track, the chainer track will show up in the sidechain input drop-down menu. Choose the audio
track and you are good to go.
Plug-in Channel Strips: Every track (buses too) should begin with an EQ with an analyzer. Leave empty slots for a few
plug-ins and insert a gain plug-in last. e gain plug-in allows you to add or reduce gain quickly after automation has been
written in, and ip the track in mono if needed. You can save whole channel strips with all of the plug-ins as a setting
that can be recalled and dropped onto any track later. An example would be a typical master channel (a.k.a. 2-Bus,
Master Fader, Stereo Output) with EQ, compression, and a limiter. Instead of having to add these plug-ins to a master
channel one-at-a-time on every project you can just recall the channel strip setting.

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Day 6
Harmony
If only I had 3 voices...

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e rules stay the same as the key changes. e only dierence is the root note shifts and you start from that point. In the key
of D Major, the distance from D to F# (third scale degree) is a Major third. e distance from D to A is a fth etc. Back to
C Major.
All of the chords listed above are in root position. Now we get to the fun stu. If a chord contains the same notes
outlined above, but the note on the bottom is dierent than the name of the chord, it is said to be inverted. ere
are 2 inversion types: 1
st
inversion, and 2
nd
inversion. When describing a chord in root, 1
st
or 2
nd
inversion, the bottom
note all that matters.
Here is C Major in all of its possible root and inversion combinations:
Root - C-E-G or C-G-E 1
st
Inversion - E-G-C or E-C-G 2
nd
Inversion - G-C-E or G-E-C
If you play each combination of the C Major chord in dierent positions (root, 1
st
inversion etc.), youll notice that
each one sounds dierent. Chords in root position have the strongest pull. 1
st
inversion has less pull than root, and
2
nd
inversion has less pull than 1
st
. Experiment with inversions in your compositions. A general rule to stay by is if the
chord is the rst chord of a phrase, it should stay in root position to help establish/ground the key.

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Outro-Towards the last few measures of the big drop, things should start to wind down. Individual instruments will
either fade out via automation and/or cuto modulation (tomorrows next step). It can essentially be a mirror of the
intro in reverse.
If the track doesnt sound as interesting or is too repetitive, dont worry. FX and automation will help out a lot.