Last week we interviewed Bay Area producer Lucky Date, who started out his career by making bootleg remixes and Reason tutorial videos, and today we’re sharing the interview with you all. This interview is especially for producers who are just starting out, as Lucky Date shares some great advice that he would have given to himself if he could travel back in time to the beginning of his career.
Additionally, as he mentions in the video, Lucky Date has two awesome collaborations with prominent producers coming out this summer to keep your eyes out for. If you’re into the tracks in the video, they’re (in order of appearance):
- Lucky Date – I Want You (Original Mix)
- M.I.A. – Paper Planes (Lucky Date Bootleg Remix)
- Datsik and Bare – King Kong (Lucky Date Remix)
- Danny Avila – Breaking Your Fall (Lucky Date Remix)
Want to ask Lucky Date more questions about his production career and maybe even Reason? He’s super-active on Twitter – @luckydate – so hit him up there!
Hey bud just commenting cuz I’ve be a fun of lucky date for atleast 5 years now u rule dude!
Jordan was absolutely right about the amount of remixers, bootleggers, & producers that have emerged in the past couple of years. When I first started djing I remember feeling lucky if I found an electro house or fidget house remix of an indie song I was currently loving. Now, Hype Machine is taken over by top 40 artists like Will.I.Am. & Far East Movement. It’s insane how much the market has expanded. However, quantity definitely does not translate over to quality.
Yup…Lucky Date’s remixes are awesome if you are into electro/progressive house. Everyone should know of this guy.
Interesting!
Visit http://www.unn.edu.ng
funky Dali elephant tatt! 🙂
im so glad you had lucky date on here. I fucking love that guy. i found his stuff about a year ago and seen him perform live with excision! Thanks so much for getting some up and coming producers on here.
At 5:17? Bathroom key returns. Ho ho!
Good eye – I cut most of those out / zoomed in but apparently I missed one 🙂
this is gonna be like an insane question…. but can anyone ID the boots he is wearing in the video, they look crazy comfortable!!
I had the same question!!!!!! Been looking on line for like an hour!
doc martins?
Good question – asked him on Twitter and we’ll see what he says: https://twitter.com/DJTechTools/status/340936290675589121
Frye Boots 🙂 theyre amazing
hmmm another hip hop producer that realised that particular bubble has burst and he is off to house music.. Skream has just ditched Dubstep cause he has now realised the genre that made him famous is actually not very good and people has realised a) u cant dance to it and b) gives you a headache….This Lucky Date vid is pretty good though but wish these guys can add some crunchy production tips rather than the usual “stick to what you believe; create your own sound; steal someone else’s sound etc etc. Looking forward to watching some of his tutorials though, never seen Reason in action..
I agree… Far from a hater but he’s NEVER original… He pretty much clones what’s hot… Dope knowledge of Reason but need to stop cloning.
Skream has been playing alternative sets of House / disco / funk for the last couple of years mate so he isn’t really quitting and Dubstep is just as easy to dance to as any other kind of music and Dubstep sounds fucking amazing on a System so I don’t know what you are basing this all on.
Things that killed dubstep were people trying to emulate the Sub with midrange wobbles and growls and high pitched angry screeching sounds like “robots having sex”. Also the lack of sound system culture in the US. The fact is allot of places sound systems cant do justice to actual dubstep. That noise people like Skrillex / excision / borgore play isn’t actually dubstep at all
yeah should have added “In my opinion…” I have heard Dubstep on a phat Funktion One sound system…it still sounded shit and I still couldn’t dance to it ha ha….One man’s passion is another man’s poison I suppose..
What are 3rd party vsts?
Virtual Synths….If you have Logic, you are not locked into using the packaged synths you can buy and add others like Rob Papen Predator, NI Massive etc.
Virtual Studio Technology = VST
effects plugins beyond just what come with your DAW software
Because of limited resources, DAW developpers can’t create infinite instruments or effects. Therefore, all DAWs use some sort plugin system (read: system to add parts to your DAW) to let other developpers create new content usable with their DAW. VST is simply the most commonly used plugin type. (As mentioned by Chauffe, VST stands for Virtual Studio Technology.) Almost all DAWs use VST, with the few exceptions including Reason (who uses Rack Extensions) and Pro Tools (who uses RTAS and AAX).
It should be noted that most VSTs are Windows exclusive. While VST is supported for both Windows and OS X, Windows VSTs and OS X VSTs cannot be used interchangeably, leading most developpers to stick to one, almost always Windows. However, Apple has it’s own plugin format, called Audio Units (or AU for short).
Finally, the “3rd party” bit refers to the developer of the plugins. “1st party” is the primary developer, in other words the developer of the DAW (Ableton, Image-Line, Steinberg, etc.). 1st party plugins would therefore be any built-in instrument/effect in your DAW (Operator, Harmor, Thor, etc.) “3rd party” is any other developer (Native Instruments, u-he, Togu Audio Line, etc.), and a 3rd party plugin is any plugin developped by them.
tl;dr: plugins are used to let DAWs do more, VST is the most common type of plugin, a 3rd party VST is a VST not developed by those who make DAWs.
Side note: VST (the plugin type) and VST (any plugin of VST type) are both used. Most of the time, when someone refers to “VSTs”, they’re talking about plugins of VST type.
Great interview, been following lucky date from the start… huge respect for this guy.
Would never know Thor and synthesis like I do know if I never stumbled on his tutorials.
I really like full (left-right) justification you use in the body copy on the site but please find adjust the tracking so that you don’t get the huge rivers in the text that is just sloppy layout. It will help the widows too…
Good interview. Reason it a great tool.
Indeed, well pointed out. We’ll address this soon!
I use Reason for the same reason he does, you cant use 3rd party vsts so you gotta experiment
u can use 3rd party plug ins with any decent daw
Most DAWs (FL, Ableton, Cubase, Sonar, Reaper, Studio One, even Audacity!!!) allow you to use 3rd party VST & VSTi plugins with the exception of Propellerhead Reason and Avid Pro Tools. The Way Around It is… Rewire Reason to another host (crazy CPU consumption) …and in Pro Tools Search for “FXpansion VST to RTAS converter” to wrap VSTs into RTAS format. Only up to Pro Tools HD 10. Once HD 11 drops you will not be able to use RTAS, only AXX format 🙁
Cheers
oh i get u now u CANT use 3rd party plug ins with reason my bad 🙂
yeah, reason has has rack extensions
Awesome interview. Never heard of Lucky Date, but I think I’m a fan just based off his attitude and approach.
Dude, ‘Fall Into The Sky’ with Zedd or his Apollo Remix ? They’re awesome
Yeah I was like…who…?