The producer, not the gear, makes the music
Producers who need to learn how to use the gear they have can’t produce a great sound. Even if he has only decent gear, a great producer can still produce high-quality results.
What’s the point? Buying new gear won’t make your life easier. Work on your super-ninja production skills first! You will learn how to use your equipment and the basics of computer recording, mixing, and acoustics. This knowledge can be applied and refined as you go.
Garbage In, Garbage Out
You have probably heard of the fix-it-in-the-mix mentality. However, you know that you must avoid this line. You won’t get the sound you desire by wasting your time on the effects or compressing the track during the mixing stage.
Keep in mind that you only need to get down what you need whenever you are on the track. Yes, you can add some compression to the mix, but it’s okay to leave more room later. You can remove some rumble, but not the whole sound.
Remember the point. Recording should always be done with the highest quality signal possible. Do not settle for less-than-great takes.
Monkey See, Monkey Do
Talking to other producers is a great way to learn the most valuable lessons.
Although textbooks and manuals are great maps, they may not always be able to show you the entire production area. This is where watching music producers in action can make a huge difference to your musical production.
You can now watch other music producers and even pros give tips on YouTube or other video sites.
You can also connect with other musicians through the music production forums.
What’s the point? Get to know other producers and have a good time. You’ll always find the best music production tips here. Learn from others and you’ll be more proficient in music production.
S.O.S. (Save Obsessively Silly)
Okay, this one is a little bit geeky for producers and perhaps obvious. Pure admin.
Fact: The possibilities for computer music production are endless. Software and computers can sometimes crash.
It is a pain to mix the right mix, then crash, and then discover that the last half hour of your work has disappeared into the abyss. Great synth track, bro. It’s too bad it’s gone!
You can save your life like a madman with O.C.D. You’re being drip-fed steroids. The shortcut. The shortcut is useful. It’s a good idea to use it frequently!
What’s the point? Make saving often a habit. Sometimes, you might even find yourself using the same shortcut (ctrl+S/ cmd+S) when surfing the internet. It’s all good. Your work will at least be captured. This is one of the music production tips that you won’t want to forget from your own experience.
Close your eyes to open your ears
Most people’s visual sense is the most important. This means that your ears can be closed while you are looking at the world.
Music production is often viewed as a visual activity with computer-based DAWs, which can lead to poor sound quality.
What is the point? To make your ears the first priority sense, close your eyes. When you are searching for the perfect sound, trust your ears. It probably sounds good if it is pleasing to your ears.
When you work, inspiration comes to you
Pros are able to sit down and work every day. Pros do this because they are professionals. They aren’t content to wait for inspiration to strike.
The things you put your focus on growing. Music production is where the inspiration will come from. Things will come out of your ideas.
What’s the point? You can work on your craft every day and the Muse is going to visit you often. It is foolish to wait for inspiration.
My Studio flow music production workflow course was designed to help you achieve a higher level of flow and create music consistently. It will teach you the habits, mindsets, and techniques that you can use to produce more tracks faster and more consistently.
There are many paths to the Grail
Music producers need a great final mix to be successful. This is what you strive for at each stage of your music production process. It’s up to you to find the holy grail.
The point is Rules can be used by robots. You will develop your own methods and workflow. It doesn’t matter what method you used to create an outstanding track. It doesn’t matter how it sounds when you hit play.
Gain more control over groups
This is one of many powerful music production tips that experienced producers use.
Many newer producers route all channels directly to the master bus or stereo out. This is not a bad idea, but it can be difficult to create a mix that works well.
You can create sub-mixes from groups of tracks, then send those sub-mixes to your master channel. Or even two additional sub-mixes.
For example, you might run kick and bass in one sub-mix and drums and percussion in another. Synths and another tonal instrument into another group, and vocals into its own group. Your preferred workflow and style will determine how you approach this. To achieve balance and cohesion, you need to group sounds and instruments together using compression, saturation, and other effects.
Understanding the importance of distortion
You may think of distortion as fuzz pedals or guitar overdrive. These types of distortion are not only useful, but they are also very useful in music production and mixing.
Experiential producers are well aware of the many ways distortion and its subtler sister, saturation can be used to create a better track or mix.
This is the basic idea: distortion introduces more harmonics to your sound, which can help with creating a louder mix in many cases.
You can add some body to an instrument or track by using saturation or heavy distortion in parallel. To get the sound you desire, you can compress and EQ your channel. Then blend it with the original channel.
What is the point? You can use distortion to improve your mixes. You’ll notice a difference in your tracks if you master distortion.
Restrictions breed creativity
Modern music production is all about options. As you probably know, plugins and DAWs offer a wide range of options. You can have tons of synths running, load another sample or loop, add another track or process to your production, or simply load another song.
What about limiting yourself to 16 tracks? Is it possible to create a dance track from just one synth? Let’s take one example. Music production is a case in point.