Found this inspiring as Deadmau5 has the ultimate studio:
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Is this the cardinal sin of EDM?
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I’m not a big fan of his music but i like that he’s honest about why he’s doing simple dance music.
Here he talks about that he mainly uses drums because songs with drums make more money.
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i’ve heard his “masterclasses” are kind of a joke, i think they can be summarized by the phrase “guess and check”
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so glad that I love drums and bass as my focus for making songs. Hopefully they will sell some albums so I can break even on my studio costs.
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Watching deadmaus masterclass?
Pretty much.
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Just thinking in a general sense I’d say starting a soundcloud or a bandcamp, finding out where your music fits in, finding out if anyone will listen to it and then building up enough material for a set plus an album would be a good place to start and then after that maybe move on to the deadmouse tips and tricks phase of the plan.
There is definitely some merit in not caring what people think of you while accepting large amounts of cash. I cannot argue with that part of his philosophy.
If that is why you make music then there is no better place to turn, frankly.
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i was the prime age to be sold on deadmau5 when he was exploding but i still only remember “I Remember.” some kind of irony there. ive never met an actual deadmau5 fan but im sure they exist somewhere other than weird corporate event raves.
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not a Deadmau5 fan either but he made it big in EDM music genre so always good to learn new tips. He is right about beats getting people to move sells records. That is why hip hop and rap produces can often make a lot of money.
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Hip hop and rap producers who make money often sell their beats to rappers who can’t make their own and that accounts for most of their music production income, so unless you plan to make beats for rappers to rap over then I would be careful applying that philosophy to your own music production.
Even very talented producers often do not make much or any money unless that’s their primary focus and that takes extreme people skills (if you do not intend to pay someone to do the business end for you) and paying someone to represent you in the music business takes money up front or having someone believe that what you’re doing will make them money so it’s a bit of a catch 22 because it can become losing money from making music just as easily as making money from making music.
90% of deadmaus success is from extensive touring which he’s able to do because he makes catchy kind of cringe dance music and did blow up at the height of the EDM genre’s popularity then he went around commenting a bunch of inflammatory stuff on popular artists SMS accounts and starting a bunch of social media feuds and basically working the system to heighten his exposure, all while touring and producing more music and doing a lot of cocaine from the look of it.
I think it’s good to take what tips you can but also take it with the grain of salt because if a supermodel tells someone all you have to do to get the person of your dreams is wear this jacket maybe that’s true for them but there’s always more to it than that.
Set your expectations accordingly and only spend money that you’re prepared to lose, don’t ever buy something thinking that you’ll recoup the expense by making tracks because this is not that type of hobby. If that’s the approach you want to take the best advice would be buy a laptop and a bunch of plugins because you can always use your laptop to do something that is not music production when it comes down to it.
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agree and I am more of a fan of minimal techno artists like Boris Brajcha and bands like KMFDM, Funker Vogt, and Wumpscut. Wumpscut guy Rudie is super talented and even he gave up trying to make money in music. I do it for therapy and because I want to make my own soundtracks for a screenplay/novel/anime project that I am working on. Now if I could find a talented artist and female vocalist!
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The masterclass was a miss for me, it’s not really intended at anyone who’s already gone down the path of producing and if you are expecting secret sauce tips from deadmau5 you will get much more bang for your buck scouring VODs of when he used to stream his producing live.
He’s easy to hate as seen here already but honestly his catalogue goes deep beyond the cheese (IMO) and its worth the time seeing if his music clicks for you, many people think Random Album Title is timeless and GOATed for a reason. Dude has a really good ear and makes things groove in a very satisfying way.
He’s also done a lot for the industry, lots of great artists got their start on mau5trap so he’s a legend in my book.
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I watched a bit out of curiosity because a few years ago I was being spammed by YouTube ads with clips from this. Meh
Thanks for saying all that. I hella respect the guy and used to play a bunch of his stuff. When it first came out, it was pretty new and refreshing and a lot of the DJs I looked up to were playing his stuff.
Some of those jams are still jams today.
I don’t find it helpful on forums when people feel the need to justify or establish some position. I don’t use loops, I don’t listen to that music, I don’t use samples, I’m strictly dawless, etc etc.
We get it. You’re the most “core” person in the thread that’s got 100 views 
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I thinks its good to know that there’s context to this. What sells vs what’s fun to make are often very different things and he’s said as much in these segments.
I did watch these when they came out, however long ago that was. I found them interesting.
Something I didn’t like was just something about not knowing music theory, but having gotten accepted in a music conservatory. He’d have to have some knowledge to get into one, and the reason it stuck out was because comments from viewers were happy to know they could stop listening to anyone about learning music theory.
Learning to me means keeping an open mind.
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I agree. Even though i only like a few tracks he made i can respect what he’s doing. Some might not like the style but you can’t really deny his craft. Out of the famous “edm” artists he’s the one i would go for if i had to choose a stage at a festival.
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I saw him a couple of times on festivals somewhere in the 2000/2010s and it was always a jolly good time. 
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both he and steve duda know wtf they are doing, for me whether I like his music or not has nothing to do with it
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I watched the Masterclass when it came out and tbh it kinda sucks from a pedagogical perspective. It’s too unfocused and goes from “hold Shift to move notes by an octave” in Live’s piano roll to patching a giant modular synth with not much in between.
I suppose the appeal is simply being able to see Joel’s process, which I found valuable. He undersells his intuitive and learned abilities to compose and produce a little, but overall, I like that he tells it how it is and doesn’t glorify his process or the process of making music in general.
You can tell in the beginning he’s put off by all the bullshit that comes with having to comply with Masterclass requirements and whatnot, but over time he gets more comfortable and starts dropping more and more F-bombs, which is hilarious. The Masterclass producer was probably facepalming so hard BTS and quietly giving up on wrangling the mau5.
As someone mentioned above, though, there is more value in watching his live streams or interviews. His knowledge and eloquence really come through more there than in the Masterclass, imo.
The biggest lesson I learned from Joel, though, and I remember it clearly, was this:
One day I closed my DAW after being frustrated with a loop for twenty minutes. So I went to YouTube and watched a deadmau5 stream of him producing. It hit me like a ton of bricks then: the stream was 11 hours long. Through the majority of it Joel was in front of his DAW making sounds. So the math did all the talking: my 0.33 hours vs his 11. No wonder I still suck haha.
As you can tell, I am a fan.
- Faxing Berlin
- The 16th Hour
- FML
- Strobe
- HR 8938 Cephei
- Not Exactly
- Not Alone (deadmau5 Remix)
- Outta My Life (deadmau5 Touch Remix)
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I’m always amazed by this philosophy - “I’ll make commercial music I don’t like, so I can afford all this expensive equipment to make more music I don’t like”.
I would somewhat understand this if he had side projects, underground techno or ambient or whatever, where he under various aliases released stuff he actually likes and wants to do, but he just continuously produces crappy music.
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