Needing a Mentor

C

ChrisKY

New member
Hello my name is Chris & I'm very new to music production. I'm looking for a mentor to help guide me on how to record music. If anyone is interested please feel free to message me on here or at chriscressky@gmail.com
 
Welcome Chris.

You have a website here full of mentors. Just start learning for yourself and ask questions when you get stuck. Rinse/repeat... :)

First thing you should post is what you are working with and plan to do with it. Recording media, music style, etc... Elaborate on the details man. All of them. :)
 
Sounds like you need a teacher. A mentor's role is a different thing entirely.

See what Jimmy said.
 
Teachers are many. Mentors are often earned or discovered when you're taking real steps along a path.

You'll learn a lot here; one of the first orders of business is to learn to use the search function and read deeply on whatever interests you. Learn about the history of the media and listen to recordings critically.
 
Hey I appreciate all the comments from everyone! It definitely is great to have an active community thats willing to help with what I'm trying to do. I am definitely willing to learn and practice with music production I just kind of feel lost.....I have Logic Pro 9 with standard plugins. I have a small sense on what most of them do but I'm just not getting on how to place it on vocals or instruments to make them sounds professional.
 
ChrisKY said:
Hey I appreciate all the comments from everyone! It definitely is great to have an active community thats willing to help with what I'm trying to do. I am definitely willing to learn and practice with music production I just kind of feel lost.....I have Logic Pro 9 with standard plugins. I have a small sense on what most of them do but I'm just not getting on how to place it on vocals or instruments to make them sounds professional.
Click to expand...

'Sounds Professional'?

What you will learn over time is that it isn't plugins that make you sound 'professional'... It has mostly to do with this 'In my opinion' (in basic order of importance):

1. It is the player first (play like a professional).

2. The gear one uses to create a professional sound (guitars, amps, drums, etc... are of professional quality, sound great, and set up/tuned so that the performance is worthy of recording.

3. Then the room it is recorded in... If a room is not ideal for recording it will make everything after this point to get a 'professional' result, a struggle by default. Most every recorded instrument is recorded ideally in quite large rooms. That doesn't mean it isn't possible to get great recordings in smaller rooms if you acoustically treat the room properly for a particular source (or a compromise to make the room functional for all your needs). Sometimes no treatment is needed for one particular instrument (like a kazoo). lol. You would ideally use different acoustic treatments to a room that drums are recorded in than you would for vocals or guitars. That does not mean you can't get good recordings in one room. Many do and it is more of a question as to how '1 & 2' get you for your particular goals. Some instruments just sound good in a small room without treatment.

4. Now the quality of the mics, preamps/interface come into play. A $100 interface will give you ability to record a couple tracks at once but not likely give you the ability to record drums or anything at a 'professional' level. More expensive interfaces may give you more input preamps but keep in mind you get what you pay for. Higher end gear will give a bit better recording quality but most interfaces over a few hundred seem to have clean preamps and good AD/DA conversion. The top of the line 'high end gear' that the 'professionals' use is above most of our budgets. Recording a Taylor acoustic with a SM57 is not going to be ideal in any way. Vocals present another set of choices as some voices are best with a dynamic mic. Some better with a condenser. Drums; that is a whole other thing...Now you are needing to use different mics for any particular source. This is where your room and selection of mic becomes a personal preference and only your personal experience can really make those choices. And mics ain't cheap...

5. Now placing of mics on any given source is the next step. It takes time to get that just right. Every instrument and mic has a 'sweet spot'. Only experimentation will tell you what works for your instrument in your room.

6. Monitoring of what you recorded is next in line and is likely the most important of all now. If you can't accurately hear what you recorded, than you are wasting your time trying. Yes many get good results by monitoring and mixing from headphones alone, but you will find that actual monitors in a room acoustically treated with mixing as priority will be a huge benefit. If not the biggest and least expensive need in this list. Granted, there is a huge difference between the price of high end monitors and the cheapies, but I guarantee your ability to get mixes that translate to other systems will be much better using some $300 monitors in a acoustically treated room than trying to get by with headphones. Now, if your space does not allow room treatment, then you are kinda stuck here. You will need to record/listen/listen on other systems/rinse/repeat.

7. If any one of the previous points are neglected, you will have a tough time achieving a result that 'sounds professional'. Every step leads to the next. Bad analogy: If you ever tried to polish something and you skip one grade of sandpaper on the way-it doesn't work. More time is spent trying to fix it afterwards. Same with plugins. Get it right from the source, and it falls into place much more easily.


So, in conclusion I am stating this as a basis for where to start to get a 'professional' sound. That does not mean it isn't possible to get close without all these steps, but plugins are not the way. They are necessary for the end result but will not make shit sound like un-shit. Hope that makes sense... Your personal experience is what will determine what you need or don't need to use.


Again this is what I have learned from my own personal experience. Take it for what you feel important to you.


Did I just type that all? And it was my day off... I missed the parade!!! lol!
 
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Jimmys69 that is some wonderful information and I'm very appreciative that you took the time our to type everything out for me. (Sorry about the parade) lol I will take everything you said and try to apply it the best I can.
I have read a lot of articles about music production with similar information it's just I have a hard time putting it into what I actually do because I'm more of a visual learner. Now I know I have the ear for music it's just having a teacher that could skype or I could meet up with in a studio would be the way I could learn a lot more. It's just very hard to find a teacher to allow someone with so little knowledge to be around them all the time.
 
Chris. Just record sounds into the computer. Make mistakes. Make discoveries. No Skype session is necessary, especially with a million videos on youtube.

Just record, record, record. Play along with your favorite songs and try to recreate them. Practice your instrument. Join a band. Get experience. You will not really understand what Jimmy typed above (which is an excellent summary of all you really need to know) until you record sounds and figure out what buttons to push just to make your DAW "go."
 
Obi-Wan zenabI said:
Chris. Just record sounds into the computer. Make mistakes. Make discoveries. No Skype session is necessary, especially with a million videos on youtube.

Just record, record, record. Play along with your favorite songs and try to recreate them. Practice your instrument. Join a band. Get experience. You will not really understand what Jimmy typed above (which is an excellent summary of all you really need to know) until you record sounds and figure out what buttons to push just to make your DAW "go."
Click to expand...

+1

I'll add that this side of the music world isn't for everyone either. I naturally gravitated to always being the guy who recorded and mixed the band. It takes a troubleshooter's mind and an ear for detail to make good mixes. Time and enough money for the baseline gear/software needed helps as well.

Ask questions, and don't be afraid to make mistakes.
 
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