Happy New Year! I hope that this year brings joy, camaraderie, and nothing but the best to all of you.

One of my mentors recently talked about the benefits of revisiting old productions to prove to yourself how far you’ve progressed your skills. I took this to heart and went back to one of my bootlegs that I released at the end of 2023 for Armin van Buuren’s track ‘Need You Now’ feat. Jake Reese. It was awesome seeing how much I’ve grown as an artist and its helped me really increase the quality of the music that y’all receive. I think this is important because it is beneficial for my journey as an artist and everyone else’s listening pleasure! I’m happy to say that you can go and grab the result right now! It’s the Makoom Re-Remix and it is definitely one I’ll play at a live set soon!

The Menagerie Returns

I’m excited to say that Makoom’s Menagerie is back and the reception of the first two months was great. This month, I have something extra special, a recreation of my set from New Years Eve just two weeks ago. It has loads of unreleased music and some special mashups that I made specifically for the night. Keep your eyes on my socials to give it a listen and let me know what you think!

RSVP for My Show at TOATs

A good friend of mine, No Light Thing, asked me to join him for the latest edition of his radio show’s live events What’s On My Mind: Edge and I happily said yes! It’s the 23rd of January at one of Austin’s newest clubs, TOATs. I can’t wait to serve up a good helping of fresh new music and hope that everyone can join! RSVP at the link below for free and come dance the night away.

Tip of the Month: Reverb

For all my producer friends out there, Reverb is something that you all know about. It is one of the most important parts of dance music, but can easily clog your mix if there is too much or it isn’t EQ’d properly. If there isn’t enough, your mix will sound hollow and not carry the right weight! I want to give two quick tips about using reverb that will hopefully aid you in making your tracks sound more polished.

1. When using reverb, try to use a similar preset on everything that uses it. If you’re using it on leads, try to use one reverb plugin on the entire lead group to make sure all of the leads’ reverb sound precisely the same! When using it on percussions, I usually put the exact same preset on each percussive element to make sure it sounds the same and then tune the percentage mix and decay to ear for the specific element depending on where I want it to sit in the mix. Most importantly, try to use the same preset whenever possible to make sure the reverb sound created is similar on each sound!

2. Experiment with reverb automations. Something I like to do during periods of transition or the breakdown is to increase the Reverb mix on my leads. This makes them sound far away and a little less clear. As the leads build during the break, the wet mix decreases and the sounds become more clear which helps the listener focus! Finally, when my tracks are transitioning to the main drop, I increase the wet mix to really crescendo the music and build anticipation!

I hope these two tips help. Reverb is a lot and if you have more questions, feel free to reach out!

Photo of the Month

I’ve shown quite a few of the shots from my latest photoshoot with my good friend Bryan Portray. He crushed it and I love how well he captured my personality and energy. It takes a special talent to do what he did and he knocked it out of the park! I’m ready for 2025 and hope that you all join me in spreading the best energy we can to those around us.