Laidback Luke has demonstrated time after time that he is indeed master of the art of DJing. He has also produced many hit tracks throughout the years and even uploads vlog tutorials to assist beginner producers with their work. However, he recently made a comment on Twitter that has left fans and fellow producers very perplexed. The superstar DJ stated that the concept of sound design is “not that important” and later added, “you’ll always suck compared to the professionals that design presets.” This sent many producers, including San Holo, Habstrakt and Sullivan King into a frenzy and whom immediately shot back at Luke for his preposterous statements.
Laidback Luke is well known to be very transparent in terms of his thoughts but demeaning the confidence of young producers just seems a bit out of character. To no surprise, Luke was bombarded with criticism after his comments but he managed to stay calm and humbly respond to his critics explaining his perspective. He ultimately apologized for his bold statement and commented that it all seems to be a big misunderstanding. You can probably expect a new vlog from Laidback Luke to clear things up on sound design real soon. Check out the full Twitter exchange below.
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
Knowing how to design sounds and create my own synths has been so important to me as a musician / producer!
don’t listen to people who say you will always suck “compared to professionals” https://t.co/IEXYuVF2Q9
— San Holo (@sanholobeats) January 17, 2018
« Sound design, it’s really not that important »
Well I guess I really seen everything today its time to stop twitter bye 🤦♂️ https://t.co/mAmBoy6WON— habstrakt (@habstrakt) January 17, 2018
Oh no luke, baby boy, you need to grab yo self a damn snickers before you tweet my dude🤦🏻♂️ https://t.co/nKp8AYl8uB
— Sully (@SullivanKing) January 17, 2018
You are basically saying don’t bother innovating, just use the premade sounds and don’t bother trying to create something new. Can’t respect that mindset
— Rook (@nightfirerook) 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
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
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