Hi music producers,

You're going to want to read the story in this one 😂

This month we've been discussing synthesis. So far, we've focused mainly on some of the most common pain points music producers like you and I experience when it comes to synthesis:

• How presets eventually become a bottleneck

• Why YouTube is terrible for learning the fundamentals of synthesis

• Falling into the trap of believing you need a certain synth to create particular sound

I've taught hundreds of music producers in the last few years alone and I've seen those pitfalls come up time and time again. If you're struggling to learn synthesis then you might be experiencing these right now. Know that we've all experienced at least one of these struggles.

For the remainder of this month, I want to talk about what's waiting for you on the other once you do learn synthesis.

For the next two weeks, in anticipation of the launch of my new course Beginner Synthesis in Ableton Live, I want to share two very tangible ways in which knowing synthesis has positively impacted my own music career:

• How synthesis saved my ass when a client changed direction last minute

• How synthesis earns me money while I sleep

Let's start with the first one and a look inside the world of writing music for advertising.

I'm at the airport when I get an email...

If you're a regular reader of Keep Living With Music, then you may remember this post from the start of the year, where I shared with you five things I'm doing in 2025 to continue growing as a music producer. The first two items on that list were boldly asking and growing my income. I'm tackling both of those goals from a variety of directions, one being writing music for advertising.

I'm very new to the world of ad music but I can tell you that the logistics couldn't be any further from writing music for video games. Whereas producing a soundtrack for a game can take years, scoring a commercial happens in days, sometimes hours at most.

I've been networking with music houses since fall of 2024 and had my first demo opportunity towards the end of October. Last month, my second ever demo opportunity came through my inbox. The brief I received called for tension and the reference playlist had some tracks that were full of small, glitch-y IDM-ish sounds.

This all came through on a Friday afternoon as I was preparing to travel out of state that Monday. I quickly and put my demo together, sent it off, and finished packing.

The weekend went by and I didn't hear much. Come Monday morning, I received this email in my inbox:

...asking for revisions two hours before my flight.

Let me paint the scene for you. When this hits my inbox, I am hanging out in the nursing room of the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport with my spouse and our three month old daughter. We have just under two hours until our flight takes off and I know that if I don't make these revisions now, I'll most likely miss the review window and be out of the running for this spot.

Complicating things were three additional factors:

1. I do not own a theremin plugin

2. I don't have the time to shop for, purchase, download, and install a theremin plugin

3. I do not have a theremin in my luggage (nor do I own one)

Thankfully, despite the circumstances, I wasn't panicking. I would just synthesize a theremin. To do so, I began thinking about the qualities of a theremin: Thin sound, starts gradually, notes move in and out of each other, and there's always a slight warble.

The next step was translating those qualities into synthesis terms:

• Sine wave (thin sound)

• Long attack (starts gradually)

• Glide (notes move in and out of each other)

• Pitch modulation via LFO (slight warble)

Within a few minutes I had my synth theremin in the track and sent the edit back with time to spare.

Could you have done that?

If you were in my shoes, could you do that? Or would you have been out of the running for that gig? It's easy to hold the misbelief that synthesis is an unnecessary music production skill; a nice-to-have at best.

But synthesis is a required skill for professional producers.

If I had told this music house, "Sorry, I can't meet the client's needs" then I probably would not get hired by them again. It would've been a major setback.

If you answered "no" when I asked if you could've synthesized that patch, then you are the exact person I made Beginner Synthesis in Ableton Live for. This course will teach you the synth fundamentals you need to meet the demands of dynamic client needs and tight deadlines.

In case, you're wondering, that revised demo got shortlisted but I ultimately didn't land the gig. However, I got my demo fee and I strengthened my relationship with that music house which will most likely result in more demos getting sent my way in the future. Plus, I got a neat little theremin patch to boot.

Till next time,

ZW