How to make your music sound better. 

My Mom said something to me when I first started that made a huge impression ." A good guitarist can make a cheap guitar sound great ".

As a classically trained pianist with a bachelors in music, this is more important than people realize. I have clients who come in and expect my business partners and my studio to make their music go viral or make money because they’re spending money recording it. And sometimes it doesn’t and they get disappointed. We try our best to coach them during the session and do retakes but they only have so much time. And we try editing afterwards but that only does so much. Practice your art, you will succeed because of practice not talent. After you practice learn music business and learn how to market yourself. After all that, then you can consider spending 3k on a guitar. There is a reason why a great producer on stock daw plugins with good business knowledge and subpar gear will outdo 100x a bad band with $100,000 in gear

the best advice and truth

100% correct. Wish folks would stop obsessing over gear and start obsess over writing/arrangement.

Great advice! Another good tip is to listen to other people’s music. Learn arrangements and deliveries. I’ve been to so many open mic’s and got board from a lack of dynamics in the delivery. Simple things like strumming changes can really bring a song to life. And it’s free!

Bingo. You nailed it.

Working on yourself as an artist is the one thing you can always take with you and work on, unlike the gear and the room sound. It's also what will set you apart from the pack, which is what stands out - being unique, well versed in music and killin' the song when the time comes.

Couldn’t agree more!

This is so undeniable. My drum tracks vs my drummers drum tracks are not even comparable. It’s not the timing, it’s not the complexity, it’s literally just the touch and comfort playing the instrument. It’s crazy how much of an effect this has on a track

Yeah I needed to hear this, time to practice

felt like you broke the fourth wall on this one! I guess i'm not as alone in this as i thought.

You as an artist, emotion and feel are everything

Great and practical advice. Thank you for all your hard work. God bless you. You're one of my favorite YT channels in the music field. Thanks also for adding some good laughs to my evening. Keep up the good work.

Truth! I'm a rock guy and last year I thought I'd do an album of bossa novas (I also happen to dig the bossa style. Weird, huh?). I discovered that I couldn't record it the same way as all my rock albums. Duh. I ended up not EQing or compressing any track, just a light comp on the final mix (the 6th round of mixes, lol) and that's exactly what the songs needed.

You’re cool. That’s all.

I WAS shopping for gear before I watched this🤦‍♂️ Thank you for this reality check. Will you be my creative coach?

this is THE TOPIC!

I've played on a lot of records. I rarely ever spend much time dwelling on tone beyond a superficial timbre level the song requires. The tone I choose at any given moment has to suit the placement of the instrument within the arrangement of the song/piece and the techniques being utilized on the instrument. If it's staccato funk then it's going to be more DI or extremely clean tube amp. If it requires sustain it needs compression or amp saturation. Country sustain is from a compressor pedal while heavy rock and metal sustain is from a high gain amp. Ambient parts are going to have time based effects, but I'm not picky on the brand or what era a pedal was made in. Long story short, the song chooses my tone. The only time I truly care about tone is when something sounds like a bag of ass. I'm also a studio engineer and studio owner, so I do have opinions about gear. I firmly believe that gear fills a logistical role first, and the end result is good tonal qualities. If the logistics are met, the song is good, the tones are good.

i've been mulling over similar thoughts lately. gear & workflow can be such a distraction

all true! it is the same with the movies...

an equally important thing is recording the vocals properly

Read more books about being creative VS. buy more gear. To me going to the library is free and going to the music store is expensive, I get more ideas out of books than gear. Book: "Anatomy of a breakthrough" by: Adam Alter is a new book out and it has really great ideas about when your stuck in life and how to get unstuck, great ideas that can be applied to creativity too.

Allow me to expand on this. First, we are our own worst critics. Chances are the music you are making that you think sounds terrible is actually pretty good. Which brings me to, "what is 'good' music anyway"? I think modern pop music is terrible, but I'm also 52 years old and grew up in the 80's (and yes, much of the pop music then was terrible too!). I'm guessing some younger people wouldn't like what I like. It's almost entirely subjective. Just because someone is making millions in the record industry as a pop artist doesn't mean they know jack about music or are any good at it, likewise, you could have a doctorate degree in music theory and still not be any good at music. Some of the best musicians and singers in the world never get a record deal, some never perform in public. Also, a $3000 Gibson Les Paul will not make you sound any better or worse than a $200 Chinese made Firefly Les Paul "style" guitar. A $4500 Universal Audio rack mount audio interface won't make you sound any better or worse than a $100 Behringer interface. David Gilmour sounds like David Gilmour no matter what guitar he is playing. Lastly, if you're terrible at playing guitar or singing, don't let it stop you from making music if you're passionate about it. Roger Waters is tone deaf. Biz Markie (God rest is soul) was also tone deaf. Both made a ton of money singing off key. Like playing old Celtic Folk songs using a Sitar? Do it. If it makes you happy...it can't be that bad. Cheers.

It is interesting. There's lots of hobbies out there. Golf, gardening, tennis, car reno, collecting things. I think that's about it. People spend their lives playing golf, obsessed with it. But will be light years away from the kind of skill pros wield at will. Do they enjoy playing? Will they ever make the PGA tour? No, never. Will they stop playing on the weekend? No. Same with having a home studio and trying to make music. Will they be rock Gods? Not in this life. Can they play guitar? Are they shanking balls into the water every 5 holes? Singing off key? Constantly in the bunker? Do they come up with lame guitar lines that are compounded by poor playing? Will their garden win prizes? I'm not sure what I'm trying to say. My music sucks. My golf game is bad, my garden is full of weeds, my tennis game is as good as my golf game, I don't do car renos and I kind of collect plugins and gear. I'm a non playing character shuffling around until its time to die. And all that will be left to show I was here is this youtube comment.

I know this is true, although I’m always buying shed loads of pointless gear! 😂 The song and performance are definitely way more important though. 🙌

Some people dont care about playing well... they want what they want... o cares??? Gear is fun!! Playing hell is fun but takes time!!! Gear or playing well??? GEARRRRR!!!! keep the gear videos.... (its a joke).... good video

fix it in pre

Not sexy but true ✌🏻

Do you know why this type of videos is "never" welcome??? Because some people (the majority) will never play well or make a song as it should be... Imagine what is in the minds of these people who just enjoy the gear they take with a video like this... how sad

Couldn't agree more!