Laidback Luke Comes Under Fire After Tweets On “Sound Design”

Laidback Luke is often seen as a guru, a bastion of levelheaded-ness and wisdom in a scene which invites hundreds of new “producers” daily to try their hand at being the next big thing. His VLOGs are educational and often provide a level of insight not often seen from pillar producers like himself.

That being said, even Luke isn’t immune from criticism for his opinions. Tweeting out yesterday evening, Luke responded to producers asking him to make a VLOG entry about “sound design.” Sound design in production refers to “the creation of your own sounds (and possibly presets),” as well as perhaps the manipulation of presets and existing sounds. Think about artists like Noisia, Tipper, Culprate, KOAN Sound, Isqa, and Amon Tobin as professionals in sound design.

In his tweets, Luke writes, “[Sound design is] really not that important! Learn how to program beats, put things in key, how melodies work, arranging and FINISHING tracks first! Sound design will come much much later.

“Knowing how to design sound is a luxury, not a necessity. It’s fun, but you’ll always suck compared to the professionals that design presets. As a living. For you to readily use.”

So many young producers mentioning ‘Sound Design’ as a VLOG topic they want to see from me. It’s really not that important! Learn how to program beats, put things in key, How melodies work, arranging and FINISHING tracks first! Sound design will come much much later.

— Laidback Luke (@LaidbackLuke) January 17, 2018

Knowing how to design sound is a luxury, not a necessity. It’s fun, but you’ll always suck compared to the professionals that design presets. As a living. For you to readily use.

— Laidback Luke (@LaidbackLuke) January 17, 2018

This sort of inflammatory language, though true if read between the lines, caused many producers including Sullivan King, Habstrakt, and San Holo to respond.

https://twitter.com/sanholobeats/status/953706132186550272

https://twitter.com/habstrakt/status/953496001846788097

Oh no luke, baby boy, you need to grab yo self a damn snickers before you tweet my dude🤦🏻‍♂️ https://t.co/nKp8AYl8uB

— Sullivan King 🩸 (@SullivanKing) January 17, 2018

To his credit, Luke has spent the last five hours (at time of publishing) steadily replying to people who take issue with his particular wording, and he owns up to his own words and isn’t likely to back down.

Nope that’s not what I’m saying. Always try and be original! But making your own sound from scratch is not the golden ticket. It’s a huge miss-conception.

— Laidback Luke (@LaidbackLuke) January 17, 2018

I do think it’s boring, time consuming and often without desired result. There’s so many effective and quick ways to go around it. That’s why I wouldn’t encourage it. I finish tracks in 4 hours. Some design a sound in 4 hours 🤷🏽‍♂️

— Laidback Luke (@LaidbackLuke) January 17, 2018

But of course. But so are creative decisions. Knowing how to layer. Knowing how to compress right. Knowing how to shift notes so a melody doesn’t sound boring.

— Laidback Luke (@LaidbackLuke) January 17, 2018

Yes I say ‘Grab a preset’ but within that comes ‘always tweak a preset’. This will save a ton of time and will still give you a unique sound.

— Laidback Luke (@LaidbackLuke) January 17, 2018

Yeah I’m sorry, this has been miss-interpreted. A good foundation for young producers is to have a preset as a bases. Then ALWAYS tweak the preset from there. So they’ll learn gradually.

— Laidback Luke (@LaidbackLuke) January 17, 2018

There’s no real “ending” to this discussion as it’s an ongoing one that will always invite different opinions and teachings into the mix, but it’s worth mentioning. Laidback Luke is continuing to answer producers and DJs on Twitter at @LaidbackLuke.