 ["Drum Pattern"] He took a voice note of him just doing a drum pattern and now the drum pattern is here. There it is. Listen to that. Now we've already got the beginning of a song. I think having a mobile setup can have its limitations, but at the end of the day, I can make something that sounds just as good as something that I would do in this studio. When you think of how a hit song is made, you might imagine it all happening in a big professional studio, and you wouldn't be wrong. Most music has been recorded this way, but in the past, you usually had to be signed to a major label in order to get access to studios, and these studios required a lot of space, people, and equipment. Now technology has advanced to the point where many of the tools needed to build a song can fit in the palm of your hand, literally. Oak Felder is a songwriter and pop music producer who has worked with artists like Nicki Minaj, Demi Lovato, Alicia Keys, Aushar, and Jennifer Lopez, to name a few. Oak may work with some of music's biggest players, but what he uses to make their songs can mostly be done on a phone and laptop, which allows him to work from anywhere in the world. Day to day, how much are you actually doing on the go versus in a traditional space like this? My main computer is a laptop, so technically I'm mobile everywhere, technically. And in a lot of ways, the setup that I have here is just a beefed up version of what I would normally have on the road. So it's the same thing, just a little upgraded. Scaled up, yeah. So how has mobile production personally empowered you or changed the way that you work? It's helped me a lot. Inspiration sort of strikes everywhere, not only when you're in the studio, right? I get a lot of ideas when I'm asleep, believe it or not. I'll get up and I'll sit down with this little mobile rig that I have. Well, there are times when I'm out and about and I'll think of a crazy lyric or I'll think of a really cool melody and I'll use my voice notes on my phone or I'll use the music notes app on my iPhone to just put the idea down. Think about how many hit songs do not exist because someone did not have access to technology or a way to put it down in the moment. For sure. I can sit in a car and do a track on my computer. To see how Oak produces outside the studio, we headed to a home recording session with singer and songwriter, Javaya. I'm a kinder light, bud. They've been working on a project together and Oak demos how he can build a beat using software called Battery as soon as we get in the car. So I have this kit actually that I put together and I do this a lot. Like when I know I'm gonna work with an artist, I'll just like source different vibes or I'll just create them. All right, let's pull up Logic. I like plugged in, my drive's plugged in. So let's start with a kick. There's my kick. This is like super fascinating to me because I've never really seen anyone use the touch bar in this capacity. Oh really? Oh, it's so convenient. Plugging in dongles. So when we were in the car earlier, that's where it started. And when I walked in here and played it for them, that's what they heard. As they were writing the song, I started adding more elements to it. Those elements include sounds and effects from plugins and samples. In the past, these elements would need to be created with hardware, but now software can be downloaded or installed on a laptop. These are used to create the foundation of the track. Next, the vocals are added. Okay, so she didn't record that lead vocal, but after she recorded that, we did all the background arrangements. And that's where a lot of the track count comes from. All of these layers are then stacked into a project in Logic, adjusted, and then mixed for the final product. How many layers of audio are there in here? In this track? Well, altogether, the track plus the vocals, there's 177 tracks. What? Totally, yeah. So that's every background, every stack, every crowd vocal, every hi-hat, every tom, every kick, every snare, every percussion, every baseline, every chord, everything. But the truth is, is that all of these layers sort of group together to make singular things. So when you listen to it with her vocals. I mean, babe, they don't know I got a hundred ways to get it every night. I mean, it sounds like there's a party happening behind us. What's significant is not just that a laptop is mobile, but software is powerful enough to essentially be a studio. Recently, I did a record for a Denny Lovato called Sorry Not Sorry that has a gospel choir in it. But that gospel choir is yours truly. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. And it literally is me and Shawn Douglas, the other writer, the writer on the record, and Demi herself, stacking our vocals like 40 times. And I did it on my laptop. And it did it, no problem, because the processing power's in there. This processing power has given rise to a new generation of bedroom producers who don't need a studio to make music. I think the technology has become the great equalizer. I think we're all on an even playing field. And now it's about skill. Now it's about who's just good. That's actually true, because we can have an even playing field, but that means everyone has to be better at what they do. That's exactly right. If the next bedroom producer comes up and does a better record than I do, they're gonna overtake me. So people's creativity will be unlocked, but right, it's still, it's the level of creativity that you have up here. That's exactly right. I think now we can be judged based on our actual capability versus our access. Now that the technology is learning how to get out of the way. What do you mean by that? I think that should be the goal of technology. Get out of my way. Seriously. That should be the goal. And give everybody the access to that. Somebody who doesn't know how to use Pro Tools very well has a damn good idea in their head. And I think it's better for the art. This video is sponsored by Loft, different by design.