Biggest beginner struggles

domsthetics

New member
Hey guys, I’m trying to come up with ways to make the lives of beginner music producers/djs/artists a lot easier and better understand the problems.:guitar:

That's why I have two questions:
- ​As someone who is getting started with producing music, what are the biggest struggles you’re dealing?
- Regarding music production, what would you wish for more than anything else?

Thanks so much in advance - Looking forward to reading all your answers!:thumbs up:

Dom
 
Wow.......those questions cover too much to just list a few things. One thing I can tell you for sure......is you came to the right place.....especially if you yourself are a beginner..............and I would suggest that to any other beginner. Read as much as you can here on the current and old threads. That may not cover everything........but you can be darn sure it will cover A LOT!!!

And........if you have specific questions now....and in the future.......ask them here.
 
Coming from a home recordist who initially got into this to record my self and my friends, the biggest struggle is to get QUALITY performances. Its the old silk purse/sows ear dilemma. Its very easy to make recordings that are akin to making home movies (ie: remembrance of the family) but certainly not cinema worthy. For my personal recordings, that's fine. I have no delusions of being a famous rock star with gold records on the wall. However, its a different story when I can capture a memorable performance of someone who can really play, its rewarding. Unfortunately, those opportunities are fewer than I would like these days.

As for what I would wish for, it would be two fold a) an unlimited budget so I could play around with anything that struck my fancy, and b) a dedicated recording space. Unfortunately, unless I get A, I won't see B.
 
Coming from a home recordist who initially got into this to record my self and my friends, the biggest struggle is to get QUALITY performances. Its the old silk purse/sows ear dilemma. Its very easy to make recordings that are akin to making home movies (ie: remembrance of the family) but certainly not cinema worthy. For my personal recordings, that's fine. I have no delusions of being a famous rock star with gold records on the wall. However, its a different story when I can capture a memorable performance of someone who can really play, its rewarding. Unfortunately, those opportunities are fewer than I would like these days.

As for what I would wish for, it would be two fold a) an unlimited budget so I could play around with anything that struck my fancy, and b) a dedicated recording space. Unfortunately, unless I get A, I won't see B.

Unlimited budget that's a tricky one :D I think we would all want that. I'm curious, what kind of recording space are you working with right now?
 
Wow.......those questions cover too much to just list a few things. One thing I can tell you for sure......is you came to the right place.....especially if you yourself are a beginner..............and I would suggest that to any other beginner. Read as much as you can here on the current and old threads. That may not cover everything........but you can be darn sure it will cover A LOT!!!

And........if you have specific questions now....and in the future.......ask them here.

Hi Mickster. Not really a beginner, I've been producing music for 7 years and I help people who are getting started with home recording, that is why my question is addressing beginners and their struggles. I keep improving my content .. therefore I posted the question to better understand their problems and struggles.
 
Right now, it's "home" recording, as in the basement, bedrooms, heck.. bathroom if I'm looking for a lot of echo. I live alone, so any where is fair game.

What I would like to have would be something more like this. Alas, on Social Security, it AIN'T gonna happen! :D
 

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Every single process posed serious challenges for me from learning a song by ear, to the finished mix.

I am not a beginner, but EQ....... this by far took me the longest to wrap my head around, compression clicked for me with relative ease but I still struggle with EQ. A lot. At the start of the mix you can scoop out 8dbs or more and aggressively high pass, this gets you your basic sound but once past that point and you have everything balanced you are then left with EQ moves of 1db, or half a db that seem to make huge changes to your song. Its this part that is taking me forever to nail. You get your mix banging on your studio monitors and then you listen on your ipad and it falls apart...... back to the eq and slight rebalances of the faders. Rinse andvrepeat until your mix sounds good on all speakers but not great on 1 .... siiiigh, this is the hardest thing for me still to this day.
 
Regarding music production, what would you wish for more than anything else?
If I had one thing to choose from above all else, it would be a large room in which I could leave a drum kit permanently rigged up and be able to blast amps at full pelt at any time, day or night or twee hours, without disturbing a soul.
 
Right now, it's "home" recording, as in the basement, bedrooms, heck.. bathroom if I'm looking for a lot of echo
That's me. I have literally used every space in this house, including the kitchen and toilet.
But I've come to like it. A good 17 years before I read Karl Coryat's "Guerilla home recording" I was that guy. I was recording at home as far back as 1982, getting together with my neighbour Andy in my little room with my rigged up tape deck and recording jams with my mate Mikey in his room at his house with his drums and weird bass amp. It never occurred to me when I actually began multi~tracking that the house or flat I lived in, wherever it was, wouldn't be the place I recorded in. So it always has been.
 
Every single process posed serious challenges for me from learning a song by ear, to the finished mix.

I am not a beginner, but EQ....... this by far took me the longest to wrap my head around, compression clicked for me with relative ease but I still struggle with EQ. A lot. At the start of the mix you can scoop out 8dbs or more and aggressively high pass, this gets you your basic sound but once past that point and you have everything balanced you are then left with EQ moves of 1db, or half a db that seem to make huge changes to your song. Its this part that is taking me forever to nail. You get your mix banging on your studio monitors and then you listen on your ipad and it falls apart...... back to the eq and slight rebalances of the faders. Rinse andvrepeat until your mix sounds good on all speakers but not great on 1 .... siiiigh, this is the hardest thing for me still to this day.

I agree with you EQ is basics but also one of the most important things to master. What do you think would help you the most regarding EQ?

I was struggling with that too, I would mix on my studio monitors, then test it out in a car or an iPhone and it would sound completely different..
 
Hi Mickster. Not really a beginner, I've been producing music for 7 years and I help people who are getting started with home recording, that is why my question is addressing beginners and their struggles. I keep improving my content .. therefore I posted the question to better understand their problems and struggles.
Your content? Where is this content published?
 
I started recording with my first reel to reel in 1974. Despite having some, compressors and compression eluded me until 1994. For twenty years I could not hear what they did, unless I turned them up high, and hated that squashed sound, so I used them as gates, which I could hear. In 1994 I had my first studio with decent acoustics and speakers and discovered what compression really could do. Twenty years! When I taught music Tec in a college to 18 year olds, I discovered many of them were totally unable to hear what compressors did. Not all, I noted. Some I succeeded with, many I didn't!
 
I use compression as a sound shaper when I use it, which is rather rarely. I don't fully understand it, only sometimes can I hear what it's doing and I've come to the present conclusion that I don't care although in saying that, every so often I will read up on it or watch a tutorial.
But it escapes me in a knowledgeable way ! Whereas EQ, I've never had a problem with {except with overdoing it in the early days !}
 
What would help the most with learning EQ? That's easy.

Match EQ. Mix a multitrack preferrably one with the finished mix as a reference, do the best job you can with balancing and EQ. Use match EQ to see how far off you are. Keep going until you get the line relatively flat.

If not using a reference then you have no choice but to listen through monitors, and many other speakers including crappy phone speaker imo. Find a way to stream to your phone while you are able to tweak EQ in realtime to save bouncing files down wasting hours (i use audio movers). Bluetooth to other speakers straight from my mac with Logic open, i use echo dot, or echo plus in kitchen stand there with ipad using logic remote and tweak low end because its so hyped on that thing. and EQ. Check on tv do the same, back to studio then headphones tweaking eq's mainly the 1-5k. Using no reference is best way to train your ear. Much like forcing yourself to look away from your keyboard when learning touch typing. Sometimes i need to do this routine a couple of times, some mixes (especially the ones I tracked) are a real pain where my inexperience with tracking makes my mixing job much harder than it needs to be. But, i am finding my sounds and learning how to make the most of my analogue equipment + utilizing my room

Its not ideal running about the house tweaking but as you get better you will do it less and less. But thats EQ.... it's difficult to balance those frequencies perfectly. And still find it the hardest aspect if a mix. By far.
 
This is going to sound crazy but it is true and I am not as many will know a beginner BUT my biggest wish is two fold (1) that the freight cost to bring items from the USA to Australia was no where near as expensive as it is --- very recently wanted to buy something on ebay (USA) the cost $US500 the freight $US1955 --- unfortunately I could not justify proceeding to buy, even though it was an offer that is most unlikely to ever be repeated and (2) that all items manufactured for sale in the USA have international voltage (ie 110 - 240 volts) --- blew up an excellent pair of USA purchased/imported studio monitors because of this when I had a momentary memory lapse and connected them to the 240V Australian supply for about 2secs (they were only 110volts but the same speakers sold in every other country are equipped with universal voltage).

The reason for buying from the USA is the sale cost difference between the two countries, in the USA an item might cost RRP $US2000 while in Australia it could easily cost $AUS $4000 - $5000 and even with exchange rates considered the cost can still be up to twice the USA price. BUT then in many cases you can't even buy the item in Australia !!!!!!!

My gripe for the day !!!!!

David
 
What would help the most with learning EQ? That's easy.

Match EQ. Mix a multitrack preferrably one with the finished mix as a reference, do the best job you can with balancing and EQ. Use match EQ to see how far off you are. Keep going until you get the line relatively flat.

If not using a reference then you have no choice but to listen through monitors, and many other speakers including crappy phone speaker imo. Find a way to stream to your phone while you are able to tweak EQ in realtime to save bouncing files down wasting hours (i use audio movers). Bluetooth to other speakers straight from my mac with Logic open, i use echo dot, or echo plus in kitchen stand there with ipad using logic remote and tweak low end because its so hyped on that thing. and EQ. Check on tv do the same, back to studio then headphones tweaking eq's mainly the 1-5k. Using no reference is best way to train your ear. Much like forcing yourself to look away from your keyboard when learning touch typing. Sometimes i need to do this routine a couple of times, some mixes (especially the ones I tracked) are a real pain where my inexperience with tracking makes my mixing job much harder than it needs to be. But, i am finding my sounds and learning how to make the most of my analogue equipment + utilizing my room

Its not ideal running about the house tweaking but as you get better you will do it less and less. But thats EQ.... it's difficult to balance those frequencies perfectly. And still find it the hardest aspect if a mix. By far.

That would be a good way to learn!
 
This is going to sound crazy but it is true and I am not as many will know a beginner BUT my biggest wish is two fold (1) that the freight cost to bring items from the USA to Australia was no where near as expensive as it is --- very recently wanted to buy something on ebay (USA) the cost $US500 the freight $US1955 --- unfortunately I could not justify proceeding to buy, even though it was an offer that is most unlikely to ever be repeated and (2) that all items manufactured for sale in the USA have international voltage (ie 110 - 240 volts) --- blew up an excellent pair of USA purchased/imported studio monitors because of this when I had a momentary memory lapse and connected them to the 240V Australian supply for about 2secs (they were only 110volts but the same speakers sold in every other country are equipped with universal voltage).

The reason for buying from the USA is the sale cost difference between the two countries, in the USA an item might cost RRP $US2000 while in Australia it could easily cost $AUS $4000 - $5000 and even with exchange rates considered the cost can still be up to twice the USA price. BUT then in many cases you can't even buy the item in Australia !!!!!!!

My gripe for the day !!!!!

David

Woah .. that's such a shame! I'm in Europe and haven't had any problems buying gear so far.
 
Hello,
Im no expert in the field or anything like that but one advice I would give beginners is regarding plugins. Theres like 34982384348 plugins out there and it can be a little overwhelming and one may feel the pressure to learn them all. It is good to try and learn plugins but I feel its more effective to really learn a handful of plugins REALLY well than to "kinda" know how to use hundreds of plugins. If you really know the ins and outs of a couple of compressors, eqs, etc...it becomes way easier.
 
I am a total beginner and have just started recording classical solo violin pieces.
I have a great violinist with beautiful instrument.

As the setup should be fairly simple (one source, only 2 mics, no much need of post production, etc...) it is very hard for me to find out which is the proper flow in order to perform the setup, the recording and the mixing. Let's say the rule of thumbs things in every step :-)
 
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