Month: January 2021

Martin Garrix recently interviewed by SOS Magazine regarding the way he produce his music. The interview is very long but here are the summary and some interesting points that he said:

1. When he first started out making music, he learned a lot by trial and error, experiment & trying new things, watching Youtube tutorial and from working with other people.
2. Martijn work with FL Studio and Pro Tools. He like FL Studio because he can quickly put his idea there. He use Pro Tools to record instruments and vocals. After he comped it there, he renders it to audio and import it to FL Studio then mix and master his song.
3. Martin Garrix do the mixing and mastering of about 98% of his releases. He has tried working with external mixers in the past, but now only do this if he get stuck on the end stage which usually more to do with the sound than the mixdown.
4. Martijn had 2 different mastering chains for “Poison”. He found out that when he rendered the track he had rendered both the mastering chains at the same time, which usually a mistake and he normally wouldn’t do it. But it worked for “Poison”. He wouldn’t recommend it since it only worked for this track.
5. “Forbidden Voices” started from vocal sample using the voice of Martina Sorbara of the band Dragonette. He like the voice but not the melody so he reversed & pitched the voice, then later sliced it up to formed a melody. He finished most of the track on a flight from Amsterdam to Dominican Republic.
6. Martijn had the rough instrumental idea of Summer Days then did studio session with Brian Lee and Jaramye Daniels. Martijn came up with the verse “I got this feeling on a summer day, know it when I saw her face…” then soon afterwards he has schedule to work with a bass player for another track. Martijn then thought it will be good to add a bassline to Summer Days. It was something unplanned and very spontaneous.
7. Martijn love to play guitar or piano, press record and start jamming. He later listen to the recording. Almost all of his tracks now starts with him on guitar or piano. Higher Ground was written from beginning to end with a piano.
8. Finishing tracks is challenge for Martijn. After he put his idea, he need to consider who he want to feature on the track and the direction he want to take. After the label is ok with the track and want to release it, Martin Garrix went on finishing mode. He has a lot of unreleased tracks because finishing took a lot of time if he want to do it correctly.
9. He was in touch with technical team behind FL Studio to give input on some issues and now these have been fixed in the latest version.
10. His favorite soft synth is Spectrasonics Omnisphere 2.
11. He recently love to record analogue sounds.
12. It was very inspiring to attend Herman Brood Academy because everyone there share the same passion for music and he learned a lot about music and studio techniques.
13. He established STMPD RCRDS with the idea to create a label that serves artists and where artists are treated honestly. He want his label to focus on the artists and their music. There’s often artists with music that Martijn’s adore but didn’t get the attention they deserve. So Martijn want to use his platform to give them a kickstart and the recognition they deserve.
14. STMPD RCRDS open for all kind of music. There’s a team that handle everything there but Martijn join when it comes to dealing with releases and the artists. Martijn think his artists are really good and he’s a big fan.
15. For Martijn, it’s really important to share the surreal moment with his family and friends to keep his feet on the ground.
16. Covid-19 has completely turned his life upside-down. He had real holiday for the first time in years and can spend valuable time with his family. But on the other hand it’s horrible to see many people and music companies struggle because of this pandemic. He really hope people will be able to perform again in 2021.

For more information about all gears that Martin Garrix use and other interesting things he said, you can read the article here.