First, Im no music perfectionist but I do have alot of music background including a sound engineering degree. While my specialty is sound, I'm trying to get more into music production. So, these are some tips that have REALLY helped my music and I wanted to share them with you. Hopefully it will help somebody.
Production Tips - Experiment with your music, play around with Velocity, Panning and Volume levels. Find one of your favorite songs and listen very close to one instrument at a time. Note the attack of each note, how it pans, and how the volume changes in a phrase. Then imulate it in your music.
Ear Stress - Take a break from your music from time to time. After listening to the same thing over and over, your brain starts to get tired. You will start hearing what you want to hear rather than what is really being played. Ever work on a beat for hours then walk away and come back later to find something totally wrong with it? Then you ask yourself, wtf? This is the #1 sign of working under stress.
The Next Room Sound Check - Put one of your masterpieces on and go listen to it in another room. If you have a note or 2 off in your project, sometimes going in the next room will make it easier to hear than sitting right in front of your monitors. Sounds have different cycles and the futher you are away from it, the clearer the mistakes are.
Subtle Effects - Play around with subtle effects on parts of your music. Add some lite reverb, echo, or any other effect you have to mainly your mids and highs, again walk away for a minute and just listen to how it sounds at a distance. Believe me, you will hear a difference. The idea is to have it sound good from afar as well as upclose.
Careful EQ'ing - Personally, I will EQ the major parts of my beat in the master settings, then I listen for each instrument and EQ it on the individual track, very small changes to this and that where they are needed will REALLY improve your overall sound. If you don't think this is important, listen to any song thats on hidden beach records. Overall they have the best sound quality of recordings on the market by far. Very crisp and clear recording will make your beat sound good even if it isn't composed good.
Mastering - Play around with your compression settings. Don't just click the mastering button and be done with it. Learn what Threshold, Ratio, Gain, Attack and Release mean and do for your music. It's very simple and it will make a ton of difference in your final product.
OK I was bored and felt like typing a little something that may help you guys but now I'm tired and it's PS3 time....lol. Try these techniques out, it will really help your music. I've got a loooong way to go but you all should have heard the stuff I was doing 6 mos. ago. You would be amazed at the progress that I have made in my music production. Also, do those flips, it will improve your skills dramatically. Good Luck!
dac 
Production Tips - Experiment with your music, play around with Velocity, Panning and Volume levels. Find one of your favorite songs and listen very close to one instrument at a time. Note the attack of each note, how it pans, and how the volume changes in a phrase. Then imulate it in your music.
Ear Stress - Take a break from your music from time to time. After listening to the same thing over and over, your brain starts to get tired. You will start hearing what you want to hear rather than what is really being played. Ever work on a beat for hours then walk away and come back later to find something totally wrong with it? Then you ask yourself, wtf? This is the #1 sign of working under stress.
The Next Room Sound Check - Put one of your masterpieces on and go listen to it in another room. If you have a note or 2 off in your project, sometimes going in the next room will make it easier to hear than sitting right in front of your monitors. Sounds have different cycles and the futher you are away from it, the clearer the mistakes are.
Subtle Effects - Play around with subtle effects on parts of your music. Add some lite reverb, echo, or any other effect you have to mainly your mids and highs, again walk away for a minute and just listen to how it sounds at a distance. Believe me, you will hear a difference. The idea is to have it sound good from afar as well as upclose.
Careful EQ'ing - Personally, I will EQ the major parts of my beat in the master settings, then I listen for each instrument and EQ it on the individual track, very small changes to this and that where they are needed will REALLY improve your overall sound. If you don't think this is important, listen to any song thats on hidden beach records. Overall they have the best sound quality of recordings on the market by far. Very crisp and clear recording will make your beat sound good even if it isn't composed good.
Mastering - Play around with your compression settings. Don't just click the mastering button and be done with it. Learn what Threshold, Ratio, Gain, Attack and Release mean and do for your music. It's very simple and it will make a ton of difference in your final product.
OK I was bored and felt like typing a little something that may help you guys but now I'm tired and it's PS3 time....lol. Try these techniques out, it will really help your music. I've got a loooong way to go but you all should have heard the stuff I was doing 6 mos. ago. You would be amazed at the progress that I have made in my music production. Also, do those flips, it will improve your skills dramatically. Good Luck!
dac
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Oh you made it up...(ok). The number one way of learning what each element does is by "playing" around with what they do. However, you contradicted yourself by saying "
"THIS IS HOW YOU MASTER!!!"
