How To Make An EP (Or Album) DIY From Scratch

[@whois_when]

The structure and quality of this video is unreal, definitely will be coming back to it once I've got a few more songs under my belt

[@thevelvetyear]

thank you!!!

[@RubinaBlue]

YESS FINALLY A VIDEO THATS DIY, ive been so confused since i started writing an EP

[@SurrealSprite]

A lesson I learned once is that it takes having no judgement in order to realize the beauty/ essence of something

[@candaceabernathy7568]

Omg I was needing this video so bad I feel like I’ve manifested it AHAHAHA 😂

[@thevelvetyear]

glad you liked it! haha

[@jjmassey2906]

Love this, had an idea for an overarching EP to album project but pleased to see how I am approaching it already is along the lines of your advice

[@thevelvetyear]

hell yeah!! haha

[@vrssxo]

Thank you for making this 🙏🏾

[@maxx.morrow]

incredible video, and everything you talk about just clicks. I love Rick Rubin’s book on creativity and if you haven’t read it you definitely should. I am someone who struggles with structuring things out like this. I often dive in head first and can overwhelm myself by assuming things are more difficult than they seem. you’ve structured everything in a way that makes this seem a lot less daunting.

[@Celia_Alvarez98]

This is so handy!! I am making an EP by myself and it is a looong process. Especially because, as you said, you have to do everything by yourself. So watching this video gave me reassurance.✨✨ Thank you, Seth!! I discovered you on TikTok and I am super glad about it. I would love to work with you in the future (when I have a real budget xD). 🤞

[@mrbubbies_]

Really needed a vid like this! Everything’s made sense, and makes me pretty optimistic about my EP project

[@thevelvetyear]

the best compliment i could get haha thank you

[@stebeusmusic]

The good thing about side projects is that you can improve other skills you need for your indie musicianship, like illustrating your own covers (if you like to do it obviously), and help other areas of your life if you are not secure that you'll succeed with music professionally.

[@cashmoneysolutionsltd]

legit thank you so much this is insanely good advice, exactly what i needed to hear. really appreciate you putting this video out !!

[@thevelvetyear]

absolutely! glad you liked it!

[@JacobAndJamal]

One of the first things I do when I hear a song I like , is click on the artist name and see if they have an album with that song . Personally, it bums me out to see artist I like with nothing but a collection of singles. 😕

[@thevelvetyear]

at the same time, they could just combine all of those singles into an album after they're released and your experiences would be exactly the same

[@Delly986]

I'm a long time FL Studio (Beat Prod) & Reaper (Recording/Mixing) but I owe a ton to Bandlab for the Rough Draft stage 💯

[@thevelvetyear]

It’s so helpful for writing on the go

[@linxguy]

Man, thank you, you addressed questions that I needed answers on

[@benirodriguez9516]

I want a Grammy!! and live of making music!! :D no small dreams here! :)

[@kxdsh]

Like I've understood that albums are coherent pieces of work as a whole but the painting/exhibit comparison is still really helpful in putting it into perspective more and soldifying the idea. I see you know what you're doing and this is very helpful thank you

[@thevelvetyear]

thank you and you're welcome!

[@ploodohplanit8259]

You have a really concise breakdown and articulated the emotional rollercoaster I could be lol.

[@poolboyymusic]

Dude just discovered your channel… freakin love it! 🤘🏼

[@thevelvetyear]

thank you!!

[@justingambino2186]

Thnx for talking about this topic. There isn't a ton of info out there for singles and EPs

[@thevelvetyear]

haha yeah i lowkey got this video idea cause i couldn't find anything for mine haha

[@justingambino2186]

@@thevelvetyear the best content and even inventions tend to come from need :) so i appreciate you taking the time.

[@st3phenjohnstone]

Love the video man, think it’s deffinately important to maybe state what genre of EP as what I’ve seen is that there’s different processes/writing styles/promotion styles depending on genre, great video though mate really helpful 👊🏻🤩

[@peakershub]

Amazing 🎉

[@riversbeats]

great insight, thanks for the perspective bro

[@upstairscandy0764]

Im in the stage of learning how to mix, but im still gonna release my work because it's not about the money but the fun.

[@masonthomassax]

A lot of great points here!

[@DavidSaucebeats]

Clear video, clear presentation. I recommend.

[@BirdBox_Productions]

Did you finish the EP? Share some links?

[@_dvyne]

This was just what I needed thanks alot ❤

[@Andrew-jw2qs]

Great video; will use these tips.

[@zimms-world]

Love the structure of this video. I have been compiling demos to record an ep. This is a great guide to create a plan and execute.

[@thevelvetyear]

Glad it was helpful!

[@helloitislucie4475]

Where do you compile demo’s?

[@zimms-world]

@@helloitislucie4475 I work in GarageBand

[@julietdiballa8434]

you are so incredibly helpful in all of your insights thank you for everything

[@davidwhite2195]

When talking about listener focus, it got me thinking. Approaching the topic, I started to assume its direction. I thought he was going to discuss how we need to sit back and listen to it as members of our audience. Of course, I was wrong. He went into the idea of how we should write for our audience. This idea is something I have heard time and time again as well. Although I do practice this idea... I do find it difficult. How do you define your audience? How do you determine who is and isn't going to listen to your music? I have always known that our audience will look a lot like us. Our audience will relate to who we are because they feel the same. Yet again... another but... But how do you practice this... When he stated that we need to sit back and ask ourselves "What do we want our listeners to feel"? Well, you're the listener right now... How do you want the album to feel? That will answer the question "What do we want our listeners to feel". Just a random thought, figured id share.

[@caaaaaabbb]

Fantastic video man, thank you.

[@p3rc1muz19u3]

this makes me wonder then if its not your time for an album then what do you do instead to fulfill that feeling of needing something important like that

[@thevelvetyear]

Advice authors and comic book artists get all the time is “don’t start with your magnus opus”. start a smaller project that are a lot easier to finish, get a bunch of reps in with those, and then work your way up to eventually being ready for the bigger project.

[@p3rc1muz19u3]

@@thevelvetyear That is a fair point. I've been wanting to do an album because at this point my entire music journey has been small eps and singles and i've been going for atleast 2 years and its kinda felt like "I want to actually make an album now" but how I feel fell into the "dont make an album yet" catergory which made me confused on what to do LOL

[@ihavespoken9871]

Great video! There is something you said at the beginning that I would want some clarification on. When you said you should make 2.5 times the songs for an album or EP and then choose your favorites, what if you’re making a concept album or an album with a narrative?

[@thevelvetyear]

stays exactly the same. novelist write lots of concepts, story arcs, dialogue, and other things that all get axed in the drafting/revising process. very few people i know who make an album feel like they've perfectly nailed it every time for 12 songs in a row, so it gives you the opportunity to try again and craft something better after the fact

[@ihavespoken9871]

Ok, thank you!

[@thetophercinematicuniverse5518]

what if you want to make a conceptual album?

[@thevelvetyear]

it's going to have to be something you commit to and stick to from the start. it'll be more of the story telling northern start for telling when a song is done

[@omertahirkayakoy2253]

thanks for the video

[@mann__69]

i love trout mask replica. i got the whole discografy from my dad. vinyl ofcourse

[@ElijahBerg0011]

Interesting how I’ve already been following most of these steps without any external guidance, or knowledge of album-making.

[@thevelvetyear]

Form follows function

[@ElijahBerg0011]

@@thevelvetyear True lol.. It's the same for me and poetry.

[@JiaBiaa]

New sub!

[@katyrainofficial]

Thank you!

[@Limeateelime]

how do i make the sound of the tracks on the ep/album are consistent? to make sure that all tracks sound like they came from the same album

[@thevelvetyear]

presets and templates

[@Limeateelime]

@@thevelvetyear but I want to make my own original sound

[@thevelvetyear]

@Limeateelime no i mean make your own sounds, then make them presets so you can use them in other songs. once you mix one song, save the mix as a template so that you can mix other songs with it

[@Limeateelime]

@@thevelvetyear oh okay, thanks

[@jonathanchristen2235]

@Limeateelimeif you’re talking about the actual songs themselves sounding like they “belong” together, I think that problem gets solved by writing an excessive amount of songs. It is a very important part, keep writing songs and you’ll get more consistent

[@shinebabyshine.]

thank you!!

[@thevelvetyear]

You’re welcome!

[@EricTitterud]

I have to say my initial response to the advice around the 4 minute mark was that it was really bad. In retrospect, I still think it's bad advice, but it may be due to framing. First and foremost, the idea of needing 30 songs before you make a 12 song album is frankly insane. Even the Beatles didn't do that and they were prolific writers. However, I think if you reframed it, you could reasonably say that you should be coming up with ideas all the time, and that you should expect about 30 to 50% of those ideas to be workable into a full song. But you also need to take a lot of those ideas to completion before you can reliably recognize which ideas have potential and which could be dead ends. Additionally, you need to create a support structure for those ideas - keep your preferred instrument as accessible as often, play it often, play it without "trying" to write, play with trying to write, play songs you like from other people, figure out the parts you like the most from their music (e.g. a chord change, a rythym, a melody) and figure out why it works (theoretically or otherwise) and then rip it off and write your own song around that seed. And then you need a quick process for remembering those ideas and in some cases fleshing them out - I have my tab software and Reaper open on my computer all the time. Return to your old ideas that didn't work and see if something new occurs to you. Better yet, when in doubt on what to develop, always go with the things you remember without the aid of your recordings - if they are memorable, it means they are good. In other words, you should not "write 2.5x more songs than you need" nor should you ever "write an album" - you should come up with ideas, go with the ideas that seem the most promising and that inspire you, but keep the other stuff hanging around. Ideas might be a riff, a lyric, a chord change, whatever. Then when you get to the point where a certain number of songs have gotten to a pretty decent stage, you can start thinking of them as an album. Second, you should love the process, in the sense that it provides a sense of satisfaction, purpose, and meaning. But I've never met a good musician who loved the process of recording an album because it is hard. It is stressful. It can drive you insane - there are a ton of decisions and when you are by yourself there is no one to share the load. You should be in love with the result, but the result is the song, not the album, and yes obviously it is also not "the idea of having made an album". But I think saying you need to love the process not the result is potentially misleading primarily because it is not a pleasant process for most good musicians. If someone finds it easy, their music probably sucks - with the exception of instrumentalists who are very very good at their instrument. For them the recording might be easier, but that is primarily because they've gone through a lot of pain learning their skill. Everybody has to push through some difficulty at some point.

[@thevelvetyear]

An important framing, this video is made for people who are at the start of their DIY artist/self-producing journey. I stand by the advice I made. Also I’d say you’re reframing is just the same advice said a slightly different way. It might be better for some people to understand but at some point “writing 2.5x the material” and “always be writing and pick the best” are really the same advice, and I don’t believe my explanation was misguided. It’s the same adobe Rick Rubin gives. I also stand by the statement that if you’re early on enough if you’re writing journey to where you don’t even have 30 song ideas, an album is probably too ambitious for you right now. The process you outlined is fine, in fact I’ve used a lot of them for my own music, but (in my opinion) it’s too perspective on the process to apply to everyone. There’s a lot of assumptions that if you’re going to make a record it’s going to be this one way. Like if I wanted make a porter robinson electronica record (where I’m producing while writing) there’s several points where that exact process doesn’t translate. Also I don’t think anyone will interpret “enjoy the process” as “never do anything that’s not fun”. It’s simply stating a concept that Stephen pressfield has been saying for years. If you want some books that I’m pulling from whenever I talk about these topics here are some: - the war of art by Steven pressfield - processing creative by Jesse cannon - the creative act by Rick Rubin - steal like an artist trilogy by Austin Kleon

[@comedycrackhead]

This is the video everyone should see