General tips on how you improved the most at producing, overall?

[Cosmic]

1. Analyze what you play and how, get the gear you really need...and then know when to stop buying.

2. Practice, practice, practice. I find the more I practice, the less I re-record (funny how that goes...)

3. Let go of criticisms and just 'try things'...no one will be hurt if it doesn't work.

4. Sweat the details...good strings, if needed re-tune while recording, hit the groove right, play it again and again...to me, these are the things that, when taken as a group, accumulate as the tell-tale marks of something that is either amateur or at least somewhat pro.

5. I don't mess with drums; I hire a pro drummer (on Fiverr, in this case) who can deliver real drums, played right. SInce my stuff is mostly acoustically oriented, I have no desire for a drum machine; I want organic drums.
I would say the same applies to any instrument: if your skills on a given instrument aren't up to doing justice to your piece, let someone else handle that part. Your song will thank you.

6. Know the arrangement beforehand; no more random jamming if I am going for a cohesive 3-4 min. piece. Know where everything goes. Click track it all, unless you trust your own sense completely.

7. In my case, since I play bass, guitar and piano, I ask myself while listening which element of the three is the weakest. I am best on piano, so that is my reference. It's a bit like playing with people of differing abilities, except the players are me.

8. The big one: do it up front. Good mics, good acoustics, good signal, good playing. Keep it human and live-feeling; you can add many things afterwards, but not that.

C.

 

[mjbphotos]

What helped me most in my recording/mixing/producing? Listening to others' mixes, and reading the comments from others with more knowledge and better gear than me - mostly here in the MP3 Clinic. I would listen to someone's mix while reading the comments so I could really LISTEN and hear what they were referencing. It helped me learn how to listen and also helped me learn MY gear. Also Reference Mixes - listening to music similar to what mine was (style and instruments) so I could try to duplicate those sounds. Now, at age 66 with bad tinnitus, I have to rely on every tool I have - different headphones, playing the mixes on different systems, spectrum analyzer, etc and hope there isn't something wonky in the mix that my poor ears don't even hear!

 

[grimtraveller]

Practice, practice, practice. I find the more I practice, the less I re-record

I'm sort of torn on this. Definitely, in part, I agree with this. It makes the most sense to me. Yet.......
I've found that I don't need to. I kind of do a lot of the practicing in my head. And once the basic is down {whether it be drums/bass, guitar/drums, click/guitar etc}, any instrument or vocal lines will be on my dictaphone and I don't have to practice them much, just enough to be able to record them. I've also found that rather than get others to practice their parts, I just record in sections, so we rehearse a bit, record it, then move on to the next bit.
My songs aren't important enough in the grand scheme of things for people to spend ages practicing them and all for no pay !

if needed re-tune while recording

It sounds almost obvious, but many years of finding the latter part of a song slightly out of tune on a stringed instrument convinced me of this. I ain't too proud to peg !

hit the groove right

Although I've long prided myself on the ability to get the groove right, sometimes, it's more than just about keeping time. One knows when a song that's been recorded just doesn't feel right. On a few occasions, I've been working on and adding to a song for a number of years when I've just wiped the whole thing because the initial recording didn't have the right feel. Some of that was down to my impatience, the feeling that I only had the drummer for a certain amount of time or the silly feeling that I somehow had to finish the song, like yesterday, so I'd accept what was laid down, thinking I could get it right eventually. I still get the feeling now, after 3 decades, but I'm able to curb it now. Sometimes ruthlessly.

don't mess with drums; I hire a pro drummer who can deliver real drums, played right

I've been very fortunate that some of my friends have been guys that played the drums and I've been able to call on their services over the last 30 years.
Of late, I've been playing the drums on the odd song, but they don't compare with what proper drummers do. I think like an octopus and play like a non-drummer !

I have no desire for a drum machine; I want organic drums

I don't use drum VSTis or drum machines. I have a funny relationship with them because I don't object to anyone else using them. I quite like them in some instances. But for whatever reason, I like actual drums on my songs. Now, I'm not above and beyond using some "studio trickery" or in rare cases, a bit of VSTi or drum machine, but I like organic drums. It's probably illogical, but I'd rather have the sound of my shitty Arbiter Flat-Lites kit than the best drum VSTi on the planet.

I would say the same applies to any instrument: if your skills on a given instrument aren't up to doing justice to your piece, let someone else handle that part

And here, ironically, is the opposite. While I'd rather have the real thing, sometimes, I'm too hot to trot and I'll play the brass or flute or keyboard myself on a VSTi, even though I know players of those instruments that make my abilities on a VSTi seem laughable. But I'm a good faker on a VSTi.

Know the arrangement beforehand; no more random jamming if I am going for a cohesive 3-4 min. piece. Know where everything goes

I agree....but even now, I reserve the freedom to make room for unforeseen adjustments in mid-flight.
But they are more the exception nowadays, than the frequent occurrence.

Click track it all, unless you trust your own sense completely

To be honest, the only time I ever use a click is if I'm beginning the song on my own. Or, when arranging a piece, if there are bits that come in where there are no drums or percussion. I like playing with a drummer providing the sense of timing.

The big one: do it up front. Good mics, good acoustics, good signal, good playing

I agree ¬> the only one of those that I can guarantee is the good signal !

 

[LazerBeakShiek]

Improved? Im getting worse and worse as the technology changes, and I cant get back to where I was..

I was always super awesome on all the instruments..I dont have another lifetime to figure out the recording side of it. Fuck it..

 

[jimmys69]

Improved? Im getting worse and worse as the technology changes, and I cant get back to where I was..

I was always super awesome on all the instruments..I dont have another lifetime to figure out the recording side of it. Fuck it..

It just takes a bit of time sitting back man. I feel you may have been overthinking stuff. Down the wormhole...

 

[LazerBeakShiek]

Down the wormhole...

theres no way out... and no way back.

 

[jimmys69]

Take a breath....Or burn your shit! LOL

 

[jimmys69]

Seriously, I struggled for a while. It just took time to take a step back before things got easier....

 

[Smithers XKR]

Although I never think beforehand that something will be fixed later on, neither do I dismiss the notion. I don't want to, I don't intend to, but it's been a plus to be able to, in that one-in-a-thousand moment where I need to.

Agree... learning to know where a particular vocal part or instrument should fit into the overall sound and how it will all ends up. I think it is a lot to do with instinct and feel and not an exact science Grim, in all genres. And also keeping an open mind

 

[keith.rogers]

Even with the simple stuff I do, I've found that having a clear plan in place before getting others involved saves time. Of course, once someone else does their thing, the plan might change, but keeping from spending time trying to continually re-architect the end result is something I don't do. If it's not going to be great, and turning myself down in the mix doesn't fix it (), there's always the next time. Reference tracks, once I get to even 3-piece kinds of things also keep me from ending up somewhere that leaves me wondering WTF was I thinking...

Having a treated, dedicated space was a great decision.

 

[mark de berard]

Hi,

Started producing 8 months ago and almost everyday I've found the time to improve in some sort of way, and I'd say I develop fairly rapidly at the craft.

Recently though I've felt I need to broaden my understanding/technical ability to reach a higher level of professionalism that can take my mixes to that "wow factor". For one I realised I need to get information from a few more different sources and not just watching Youtube and sitting in Logic learning by myself. (So started reading an extensive book about it for example).

Now I've always been a bit of a freak when it comes to attaining the best possible knowledge and try to learn from the journey/lessons others already made.

So my question is, which things, people, techniques, mindsets or investments made you improve the most in mixing? Just in general, if you were gonna spawn a list of experiences or sources of true mixing knowledge/big decisions you had to make, what made you improve the most?

Did you invest a lot of money in it, if so, on what specifically?

It can be 20 things, or just one that is significant to you. (I produce Indie-rock myself but I'll happily take advice from anyone mixing death-metal to straight pop).

You can be a beginner or a total kickass producer.

Cheers, Adam

my abilities started to really pick up after i decided to offer unlimited revisions on any of my mixes or masters. Meaning i will keep going till the client is buzzin so hard that they cant handle it any more ! ( lol ) Doing that makes you really pay attention to the needs of the client , keeps you sharp and hungry to always improve what you do.... or youll go broke :0)

 

[Jon Thompson]

My early mixes were clipping horribly, but I've learned fast. The one thing that improved my mixes beyond all recognition was to keep everything low.

In Ableton, all my tracks and groups go into a dedicated mix bus, which then goes into the default master bus (Ableton usually just sends everything to Master). I spend considerable time working on individual sounds, so that they leave their buses as nearly finished as possible, thereby keeping the mix bus clear of all plugins.

To begin mixing, the output of the mix bus is set initially to 0dB. I then start with the kick, which is always in the drum group. I mix this to peak at -18dB. Then I add the other percussion and as I go I pull the drum group back down to -18dB. At this point, the percussion is at -18db, as is the mix bus and the master bus.

I'll add the bass next, and start pulling the mix bus down so that it still peaks at -18db. As I alter the shape of individual sounds to make them sit better in the mix, I keep checking that my changes don't push the mix bus over -18dB. I carry on until the mix is done and automated, and keep pulling the mix bus back down to -18dB as appropriate.

This gives me loads of headroom to expand into on the master bus. I can then glue and tweak the mix ready for final soft clipping, and pushing through George Yohng's miraculous W1 limiter. I wanted loud and clear with no clipping or limiter artefacts. Well, I can now push the W1 down to it's -30dB limit without strings pulsating or crashes "shimmering". There are probably better ways, but this is how I achieve it.

 

[Papanate]

To begin mixing, the output of the mix bus is set initially to 0dB. I then start with the kick, which is always in the drum group. I mix this to peak at -18dB. Then I add the other percussion and as I go I pull the drum group back down to -18dB. At this point, the percussion is at -18db, as is the mix bus and the master bus.

I would keep the output buss at 0db - starting with the drums is a good idea - and starting with the loudest hit is not bad either - but it shouldn't be the limiting factor - you should scope out the track and see what's causing the Overage - a surgical parametric comes in handy - but you may not want to alter it - I also use parallel compression - which enables both compressed and uncompressed kick signals through and you can mix accordingly - do the same with the snare - then your mix will not be determined by the loudness of your kick and snare - I generally keep my Mix Buss at 0 db with a Compressor on - but very little compression 2:1 at the most - just a little to handle the peaks but with a quick enough release that it still lets them through - just with the heaviest punch tamped down.