I've been recording for decades, but these tips immediately made me imagine different ways to build and restructure my tracks into more interesting pieces. Thanks so much.
This is my first time watching you. Putting aside my envy, and not to mention how good advice this is, your song with the cymbal swell is FANTASTIC! What a surprising and amazing chord change!
For me, it's all about contrast. If a song is loud all the way through, nothing stands out. If a song is busy all the way through, nothing stands out. Have instruments come in and out. Have the song narrow in the verses and wide in the chorus. Also, no section should be exactly the same as a previous section. When the second verse rolls around, add a harmony, change up one of the chords, introduce a new guitar melody, change the drums to halftime, anything to maintain interest. I'm talking about song structure and not individual parts, but to me interesting and clever song structure is how you make the parts interesting. Obviously unorthodox effects can help too, but for me it's more about creating contrast through arrangement.
Love your songwriting, Joe. And there's always a wealth of things to draw from in all your videos. Great stuff. Your take on the percussion is right on. The Beatles used to do that all the time. Add a little tambourine or a shaker in the chorus or in the second verse, and it just changed the whole vibe. Amazing what something as seemingly insignificant as that can do for a recording.
If only it was that simple. There's a reason great musicians still hire producers. It's to get the most out of their songwriting. The Beatles are great songwriters on their own but their meticulous and experimental production techniques took them to another level.
Hi Joe, I get what your saying but still after studying Mixing university and all past vids from Graham I'm still not getting that what i call" magic" like sheen? My mixes sound great on studio monitors and £20 quid headphones on a mobile phone but my surround system or HiFi system ends up making me feel crushed 😏 but sounds half decent in a car? I was hoping back then Grayham would of done a full on course Inc I'll listen to your Mix etc with the easy going clear tutorial he used to Teach! What's your thoughts please Joe" and Grayham"? Would you consider this at The Recording Revolution? Many thanks to you both for past and future vids Shaun
Like one engineer told me in my come up days... is don't get too nerdy with it. Enjoy thw creative process tjw nerd comes in when things need to be fixed and KISS... Keep it simple stupid lol!!! Good stuff. Just subscribed to your channel!!?
So if you've recorded, say an acoustic guitar with Mid-Side you could mute the Fig 8 mic track(s) in the verses and only have the Mid until the chorus where you could bring in the Sides (panned L and R)?
@@ramirezwilliam8983 Maybe there’s a guitar center or something in your area where you could hear both, play something out of them, and see which one you like better. As for me - I went with Yamaha 8’s years ago and have never looked back. They sound amazing. You couldn’t go wrong there.
@@ramirezwilliam8983 Up to you if you find that important. I wouldn’t get a speaker *for* that, but sure, it’s nice to have. The Y8’s also have an option to boost/cut 500 or 2K, I’m not sure if it’s the same. I’ve tested them and don’t use it personally. In my opinion, acoustic treatment in the room goes farther. Anyways, I can only speak for Y8’s being worth it. Read reviews, test one if you can, and go for whichever you’d rather get.
Listening to it with headphones At the 2:40 mark Approximately I think it sounds great what you did with the guitars. Or I should say guitar. Sounds great to me No kidding Keith
verse in mono. yaay! another piece of bad advice. i was just talking about that. cause making your verse dimensionless - that's your song, by the way, not your worst enemy's - will make your chorus... exciting. no, it won't, for one, an unexciting chorus will still be unexciting, "even" if you make the part before it worse. and, in exchange for that, you get your verse... to be even more unexciting. intentionally. why don't you tell me to break a string, for the verse, and when the chorus hits, replace it and PLAY ALL SIX 😉? instant impact, i guarantee it! or, as an alternative technique, you can apply a low pass filter on everything, at about 400 hz, for the whole verse, and when you get into the chorus, just turn it off. huge excitement!! i promise. if messing up half the song is what it takes to make the other half, not good, but... better than worse, i think i'll pass. all this advice is gimmicks. that's bad to begin with. and it's part of why i can't listen to "modern" mixes anymore. no inspiration, no soul. only gimmicks. you want exciting songs? don't need gimmicks. need good songs. with good arrangements. that's not a gimmick, that's inspiration. and need good sounds. that's before everything. tones that fit the song - not just generic sounds "recorded well". "fat guitar no 1" on the left, vs "fat guitar no 2" on the right. you need more words than just "fat", "in your face" 😳- that's not how i listen to guitars, by the way - and... "aggressive". you need emotional descriptors - if you're looking for them. sounds that acoustically render the mood, the atmosphere, the dimension of the song. that reflect the state of song. the soundscape of the song. and, more than everything, sounds that are beautiful. that's essential. that's why you listen to music. beauty. of various descriptions, sure, but in the end, that's what it is. where is your sound coming from, emotionally, mood wise, personality wise? well, where does your song come from, that's the question you need to ask first. not just go to tricks. people always miss that. and the mixes miss that, too - the same kind of mixes all over the place, no personality anywhere, the same generic steps repeated all over again, regardless of the song. if your sound doesn't have a personality how can your song have one? and that's everywhere. and no gimmicks will solve that. and unfortunately everyone focuses on the gimmicks, nobody on mood or soul. that's not the solution, that's the problem. we get all these gimmicks, technicalities, and cheat codes, we're smart that way, but never get the essential. we're a culture of tricks, that never gets the substance.
This is why I just watched a Linkin Park concert video from 2017… that’s the difference between todays overdone vocals and editing, Chester wasn’t the BEST singer but he had Emotion and that’s what made him one of the best.
@@recordingrevolution sure, but making the verse narrower isn't making the chorus wider. it's not the same thing. if your chorus isn't wide enough, it's still not gonna be wide, regardless of what you downgrade before it. that's just trickery, and it makes your mixes worse, not better. besides, i don't think you should decide the width mechanically, according to formulas. the song tells you just how wide it needs to be, in every part, by the mood and the music, not according to preset verse-chorus templates. for instance, some songs have more tones down, introspective choruses, etc. it's not a formulaic decision. just imagine the black album - or nevermind, or anything else - in mono for all the verses, for all the choruses to sound "wider". that would be something to listen to. or the intro to shine on you crazy diamond in mono. hey, it's the intro. that's not how you create excitement. that's the point. of course, you can do anything you want. doesn't mean it's a good idea. you know why stuff isn't exciting, regardless of the trickery? because it's overcompressed. because it's flat. because it's dry and unnatural - "modern". because it's over-hyped in the treble from beginning to end. because the sounds are bad - artistically, not technically - or ugly. if you don't do any of that, and you've got a good song, the excitement will just comes by itself. you don't need to invent it. these are just "modern" tricks, and in spite of them, somehow the mixes keep getting worse. then you realize it's not "in spite", it's "because of".😳
