Not knowing that you can curve the automation in logic 🤦♂️😭 is there a chance you can make a video or already have one on this? Even if it’s just a short on how to switch it from a line to a curve. I’ve been just using latch and kind of performing my automation while playing the tracks to get more interesting results but, being able to use that curve would speed things up
Not saving every project you start, no matter what's in it. Every once in a while reopen projects from some time ago. A meaningless silly 4 bar loop you made a year ago, could be the spark you need to finish it or make a new song. Or sometimes you find it was not good any way. In that case delete it, and save yourself some drive space. win win 😉
Seriously the suggestion of learning and mastering the key of C for beginners is genius because if you master one you'll understand the others. So genius. RIP Avicii
Learning how to mediocrely play an instrument like the guitar or piano will even help you understand keys and scales. Also a guitar is great way to fast track basic melodies. Record into DAW -> Transpose to midi file -> copy midi onto your synth track = Magic.
"Finish the damn song" has been my mantra for a couple of years, now. That is probably the most effective over-all philosophy that I've adopted. Oh yeah, The native LOGIC plug-ins are fantastic....Once I bought gobs of expensive gear and found this out!
Something I learned from someone I collaborated with is to take a break from the mix and meditate or just chill while hearing the mix in your mind. This is especially handy for coming up with new melodies or section ideas. Also learned to keep pushing with new ideas and variations of the groove, melody, etc. and save them on the outskirts of the main mix. They can be brought in later or used as ideas for completely different tracks.
"The best way to learn is to teach": this is so true! I learnt parking well my car only when I was teaching it to my girlfriend. Having to explain something forces you to thoroughly think things through and discover its essence. In the programming community there is the common advice to have a rubber duck sitting on your desk to which you then explain the problem you are facing. (Having a colleague you can talk to is much better of course.)
I use 5 DAWs. Every one of them does something different. Most have different vsts, and they all come in handy. I learned every part of them, because I didn't want to buy upgrades, or spend anything extra.
Music is art. When it is a solo effort, especially, there is no wrong, just what sounds good to YOU. Its your art. Now if your trying to commercialize it, and that is your goal, your art will always reflect that goal and can sometimes make the process a grind. Instead, let your art be your art, if it hangs it hangs, if it falls it falls. At least you will never be wrong, and always enjoy the creation process and your art.
For me, my art is all about expressing myself without caring at all about what people may or may not think; about what their opinions may be. My messages to the world (and myself) are what motivate me. This world (humanity) needs to feel the presence, power and the love of Life. Our positive, harmonious art helps carry us through the process of growing up as a species.
@@blindmelonstubbly Yeah, messing with the "formulas" if you want to call it, is what we enjoyed the most. As in verses, chorus, bridge, pre chorus, interlude, leads, etc. Always trying to see if a formula we haven't heard yet was viable. The order, structure, repetitiveness, length's etc. You wont get that with the commercial stuff.
Another great video! Thanks!! One mistake to add: deleting or not saving musical ideas. I didn’t save many of my trial runs only to later hing to rediscover a tune sound or melody that I knew I had fiddled with earlier.
"or even reaper"? Man, youre talking about the most loved piece of audio software out there. It may not have been around for 30 years but it sure is up there with the rest
Learn the 3D aspect of mixing. Don't just use volume to make things more prominent or obscure in a mix - learn to use reverb, compression, panning and other tools to consciously place elements where they fit best to suit the material. Thinking of music recordings as a 3D exercise rather than a 2D loudness war will allow you to put the listener in the place where the song is happening, rather than just having it come at them.
I appreciate that you reached out to others for their perspectives! I think my biggest pro tip I could give anyone that is serious about producing or mixing is by taking a class. (Preferably paid for and if they have well establishes courses) in my classes for example, they critique my mixes every month which is almost vital for my learning. RU-vid is great at giving you the information for free, but because there's so much abundance of info, its almost impossible to get a proper timeline constructed for learning.
Hey man, for me, an absolute beginner in the field, these points are GOLD! they solve most og my current questions about fear of spending too much money on equipment, never being able to master my daw an stuff. Great job, thanks a lot!
I’ve released on a few labels- never had a shortcut printout for Ableton because after like 2 weeks I should really know all the shortcuts, saves literally 100s of hours in your lifetime
Hi! Great video! I’m 11 and I’m trying to decide what plug-in to get for Christmas: The sound toys bundle 5 or the autotune plug-in. I know that they are both great but I don’t know which one to get first. Also we remade the Left and Right music video and the backing track thanks to you 😁
Soundtoys is great as it encourages creativity. It’s a super exciting bundle of toys imo! That sounds be my suggestion. You can always tune vocals in the DAW with their free plugins 🙌
As a sketch artist and 2D animator that business skills you mentioned are really handy for my stuff as well. Good explaning, it tells so much about music producing community. Keep it up Acres!
Thanks for this Hugh! Really enjoyed your presentation style and friendly vibe. I’m definitely still intermediate and the automation tip is something I’ll experiment with this week! Cheers!
Important: Be nice to everybody, in fact be extra nice to people who may not be your cup of tea. It’s a tough game, and insecure or competitive people *will* try to tear you down if you’re making anything good. So you need to not be an easy target for other peoples’ hater tendencies. How do you do that? Be kind and low-key treat everyone like they’re a friend, even if they’re new or don’t seem ‘important.’ You know: be a decent human being. 😉 Also. Treat socializing like work if you’re a musician. Don’t get sloppy drunk at a club and do something upsetting; this is your workplace.
Number 5 is so real. I've been trying to teach myself since February but just moved so I don't have any friends that are into music or production. Gonna try to be uncomfortable and try to meet people though. Thank you for the tips, I appreciate your help!
Please please PLEASE, if you haven't already, do a video on hotkeys and tips navigating Logic Pro X. Your videos are my new favorite thing to watch and I love when you do something so simple like, "just command+D to duplicate" and like, stuff like that changes my life hahah
Absolutely Patrick! I try my best to include all of the shortcuts I use in every video 🙌 That's a good idea making a video solely focused on my favourite shortuts. Maybe even a couple of shorts on it could be useful?
@@93Acres Absolutely! I've learned more in the few videos of yours I've seen than in the years of playing around with the thing. Shorts would be great too, maybe with a little playlist of them stitched together? For sure you'd be the one to do it, your instructions on that stuff are so clean and concise.
👏👏👏👏 Excellent suggestions!! It's so easy to get caught up in buying tonnes of plugins that you in many cases never end up using more than once or not at all. I've even begun to strip down what I install as it gives me choice anxiety. And once you find a sound, render it to audio in order to make a commitment. This helps with computer performance as well.
For me, my art is all about expressing myself without caring at all about what people may or may not think; about what their opinions may be. My messages to the world (and myself) are what motivate me. This world (humanity) needs to feel the presence, power and the love of Life. Our positive, harmonious art helps carry us through the process of growing up as a species.
Great advices man thanks. I point to try to finish your idea when it comes. You mentioned it. When idea comes for a part of the song, don't think you will have a better idea the next day, move forward your idea at maximum, it will trigger another ideas. Best ideas arrives when we compose music...and sometime making mistakes 😀 strange low of creation. Thanks again for all your vidéos !
Thank you for making this very inspiring video I’ve started to really dive into my Logic stock plugins because of your videos and been pleasantly surprised at how good they really are
@@93Acres I was like. it's ok to hate on fl users cuz they deserve all the hate in the world but hating on reaper users is like wtf. haha Logic and Reaper are like homies
People confuse finding the right sound with fitting something in a mix. Those are two different stages of production. You can solo an instrument while you add effects and processors on it to find the right sound, but when it’s mixing time, those sounds have to fit together.
Judicious use of saving and discarding. When first starting out the tendency is to want to keep every peep and meow that gets laid down. Save everything at first yes, but remember to go back and weed out that which is not worth keeping. Just went through and am still curating 12 years of 'save everything no matter what it is.' over 600 files later I can safely say: learn to be your own best friendly critic and sensibly decide to keep what's worth archiving for the future value and discarding oppsies and junk. Along those same lines, learn to build and reuse templates. I guess this applies to those of us in the symphonic field especially where we end up building large templates with lots of orchestral palettes only to discover there's only so much space in the virtual stage for a limited number of sounds. Eight French horns, six trombones, 3 tubas?! Really? However, having the right vibes from sampled sounds is critical for me as I'm moved to quite writr off if the sampled sound strikes me as cheesy or something akin to a ballet dress on a monkey. Stay in your lane as to which genres you're familiar with and producing for. For example, I'm not familiar enough with most of the popular styles (reggae, blues, Afro-Cuban, Funk, Hip-hop, Heavy Metal) so I'm staying with songs written in the Broadway musical style along with Classical influences.
Dude... begin by using a pop filter on your microphone in order to avoid those "booop" sounds, and engage the low shelf filter on the mic. That should be enough. If not: Eq Down everything below 75hz
Yes great advice this Vincent! I once had to solve this issue automating out the low cut on the EQ every time the P or B came up 😅 Very time consuming...
Awesome! Obviously daws are amazing but I think there’s a lot of fun in having a little piece of gear to inspire you and tinker around with away from the keyboard. Like you can take that notation circuit with you on vacation or to the park and just sit and have fun
Ah that's pretty cool! Just thinking now that if you were lucky enough to have a second monitor (or your phone) you could have the shortcuts open on that screen. I probably should have included that 😄
You're a brilliant human great knowledge and advice, you've help me tremendously reconfirm my abilities. Thanks for your motivation and time. A Truly splendidly put together piece.
#11. My Dropbox for desktop syncs to the cloud. All of my files. Presets. Plugins are ALL in there. If my house starts on fire. I can spin up a new computer in a day and not lose anything
Another one that helps me time to time is to assume you know nothing about music production, and not being afraid of being wrong ❤ Thank you for the invaluable information❤
Master the key of C and then pitch it up and down? What about all the modes? Only ever using the Ionian (Major) mode can lead to melodies and chord progressions sounding predictable and bland. There are lots of videos on RU-vid that can teach you all about modes and I highly recommend watching them.
Ngl, idk how people have trouble wit this stuff… If ur using headphones, you need to know them well. If you don’t, the mix will sound different depending on where you play it. Like a friends car. You should know how the frequencies act with the headphones. Also, no one hears with their eyes. Don’t pay attention to visuals (especially with EQ). When you compress dynamics, it’s almost impossible to make it normal again. When it comes down to it, people need to actually put the work in. Its extremely easy to recognize talent vs amateurs. If you think ear training, music theory and other necessary things for making music are boring and you skip it, I highly suggest you give up the thought of you making it “Big”. It won’t happen. Have fun doing what ur doing of course, but making a living will be extremely complicated and unnecessary.
HDD's & SSD's dramatically slow down performance when they're full up on storage! Could have been clearer on this point for certain though for sure. Sorry Eddie 🙌
One thing no one ever seems to talk about is how much time is spent scrolling left and right in a track. It's much faster to use a 360 scrolling mouse. I use the Mighty Mouse from Apple but Microsoft makes the Arc which does pretty much the same thing. It saves loads of time instead of clicking and dragging or using the track pad.
HI Bro, lovely tutorial ... Just need another information. as a beginner what is the best book or pdf to know everthing about sound engineering... Kindly suggest somthing... God bless..!!!
Hello! I love your videos and I see you make remakes of different songs. I was thinking maybe you can make remake of Sam Smith's new song unholy. I love it and I think you are going to do it great! Waiting to see your next video!
Whoever's reading this, i pray that whatever you're going through gets better and whatever you're struggling with or worrying about is going to be fine and that everyone has a fantastic day!!!!!