@@chrisstout8451 your best tool is your ears. Start your mixes quiet and slowly increase everything til it balances out. A bad mix is the most common issue.
Ok everyone, I wish i could write all the supporting evidence I have to say this but no one is going to read anything that would take that long. So here's the finishline. After 20 years I feel sure this is the secret "thing" no one can put their finger on, a person can ignore it, as many people do, but if anyone explores it and gets weird with it, it will change their life and they'll begin to get the best recordings of their life. I'll try to keep it short so bear in mind this concept isn't little and I didn't just pull it out of my butt one day. This is indirectly related to recording but nothing else will improve recordings more so I'm going to go there: It relates to everything in this video but I want to connect some dots. The obvious thing is emotion. The number of videos that talk about making music and don't say a single word about emotion should disturb us. Everyone knows that music is connected to emotion. Everyone knows performing music is better when it comes from a place of emotion. I'm sure that if you are in your emotions, that are connected to the song you're making, you'll even pick better samples. The reason we love the voice and spend so much time with the vocal track is that it's the sound source with the shortest distance (by far) for emotions to travel to where they can escape the body with an entire language of emotions to express. Here's the reason it's the obvious and the most hidden thing at the same time: No one seems to realize emotion is a skill. We can practice music for years and never practice emotion, so we can write this insane guitar part that no one can get into and we don't understand why. We can connect with our instrument but not with our heart so we don't understand why someone who is half is talented is twice as well-liked. People wrinkle their noses when you try to talk about emotional development like they run you out of town if you keep it up with your sappy frilly feely talkin'. We don't generally think about how becoming more emotionally intelligent can improve our music. We may believe the vulnerability and shame that may come from exploring emotions will derail us. We can think of a perfect take as powerful and perfect, that "I can't get too emotional, I have to think about everything like my breath control, staying in the pocket, listening to the click, staying in key perfectly, etc." We think and think and think and forget to feel. You can practice and sound emotional and it may sound good but, you're replicating emotion you heard instead of having it. I'll say this until I'm in the ground: any literature that helps you understand, process, emotions will help you make better music. Books that focus on emotional literacy will send your songwriting to the moon. Words will pour out like you're possessed. When you analyze music through the lens of emotion instead of skill you'll finally understand things you didn't before and it will hit you in waves and waves of "holy shit that's why I like _____ even though _____." We like things we connect with emotionally. If you like that off-key note or that missed guitar chord it's because that "mistake" had a context that gave it a noticeable feeling, and you connected with that feeling. Top Tip: if you like something that seems like many might define as a mistake in a song: analyze how it was delivered in context, why it struck you, what kind of emotion happened, and don't forget the answers. Write them down. When you like a mistake of your own find out why, and refine it. This is one way to build a signature style. The only thing skill is for is to emote better. To have more techniques to describe emotions in more detail. If you're understanding of how you feel is limited, it doesn't matter how good you are at the instrument: you have the tools to support the fine details that you don't know how to locate. That's like having a billion dollars worth of digging equipment and no map of where to dig. Bad approach: "I am going to illustrate the idea that I once had an emotion with my voice" Good music: "I'm going to let an emotion out with my voice." Arrangements and performance follow emotion as well. Good arrangements are more emotional. Good takes are more emotional. Expressing the emotion as much as possible is the only thing that really matters for recording your songs. When I love a song it's because of how it feels to listen to. If they are expressing emotion successfully it doesn't matter how talented they are or how good the recording is. I'd rather listen to an ok singer get big emotions out and be out of tune than a showcase of perfect control. Remember that too: 100% control: no emotions 100% emotion: no control you want to have enough control to get through it but ride that line of losing control. Chase that line down. The more you do it the closer to your emotions you will get because the more you will learn to go deeper into emotion while keeping control. It is a muscle to exercise and a skill to master. If you find a way to growing in your emotional connection and ability to control enough, to feel even more when you perform - you'll never find a skill to work on that improves your music more. This is super long and I left out tons of info that probably answers a lot of criticism and skepticism but this is basically what has felt like the key to all things music for me and probably always will. To close this all out, consider this: If you achieved just the bare minimum of skill in writing, playing, performing, and recording, then just went hard getting your feelings out better than anyone for the rest of your life - there is no comparison to how much better your material will be than if you did the opposite. You literally won't be able to get your feelings out better than anyone without all the skills flowing alongside. You'll learn because you need it. you need to get what's inside of you into the air, and skills will always climb with you to achieve that. You''ll write a lyric and say "that's not it and I MUST FIND IT!" instead of, "sure that works. next line." Emotions, on the other hand, will never follow your skills. You'll never learn all your modes then look up and way, "oh wow I finally understand all my feelings when that thing happened 3 years ago!"
This is a good a read. Worth mentioning as well, once you play with emotions and the emotional delivery and writing of a song/track, the more you do it the more you'll find yourself flowing into a flow state. It's a beautiful state to be in.
yessss music is feeling before it is sound, its self expression!!! Music Theory is not self expression its just math and science. You gotta be able to tell stories through music or else its pointless. Theres no rules to art, its all really just opinion at the end of the day. You cant prove a song sounds "good or bad" or that something sounds "better or worse " than something else, cuz its all just opinion
* You don't need more gear or genius mixing skills * Make your arrangement dynamic * Don't put too many sounds in the same frequency range * Make room for your vocals * Layer your main sound
I like that your first point was basically “not knowing enough music theory”. Voicing and development is essential and even studying some basic theory will be a game changer for people without a more traditional music education
I like your style of just giving genuinely good advice without a million jump cuts and without trying to be endlessly quirky and funny... refreshing. Thank you sir!
One thing I really want to be more mindful of is playing midi instruments on the keyboard instead of drawing midi or dragging midi chords from folders etc. If you're just starting out and wondering why your stuff is missing that feeling (ie: sounds like a fisher price toy) this is the answer in a lot of cases. I got a new piano vst today and just dragged chords in and I was pissed cause it didn't sound magical. But once I actually played the keyboard with my hands, it sounded great. Velocity dynamics and human errors are what give music life. Humanizing instruments has been the most impactful thing I've learned to implement, bar none. This comes naturally when your productions are based on recording physical instruments, but if you're just getting started with a DAW and MIDI, this is one of the first things you need to know.
Amen to that. Just told a friend who used to quantize everything that. It took time before I discovered what difference the timing makes. Its not just about emulating a real musician.. It's about the groove and the feel. I don't see YT producers talk enough about this.
@@skippyzkIf you manipulate timing and velocity there is no difference. You can use your mouse if you know how you want it to groove, but it's easier to find that by playing the keyboard.
@@skippyzk Sure! Me too. My point wasn't that playing is the only way, but there is just no way to 100% replicate the feel of actually playing the instrument. And the tedious hours you spend trying to make your midi perfectly imperfect could be better spent learning and recording the instrument. Not to mention it is way harder to feel connected to your music and flow with it when you have to interrupt the momentum of creativity to make those velocity/delay tweaks etc. Again, there is a time and place for both methods, but my personal experience has been constantly leading me towards caring more and more about human connection to the music. And recording imperfect passes of keys, guitars, drums, etc. is the best way I've found to feel that level of connection. ymmv
"The most important thing is musicianship." Preach brother.. I'm fairly new to producing but have 30 years of studying saxophone and, before that, drums. I've been amazed at the amount of people who say they are serious about producing but have no interest in learning about the craft of being a musician. Pro tip: If you are serious about making music, music theory and musicianship is not optional!
So true!! I’ve been teaching myself music theory and especially key signature and the circle of fifth and I believe it makes my time way easier getting into production with an understanding of key signature, harmonies, etc !
I agree 100% with everything stated. However, I want to add that very often, our own ears decieve ourselves. After working and mixing the same track for 4 hours, you can't even differentiate what sounds good and what doesn't. I like to rest my projects for a few days, work on something else, and then come back at it with fresh ears. Most of the time, I can then objectively listen to my track and identify problems, because I have less emotional attachement to it.
actually one of the best videos about real music production on RU-vid songwriting, sounds/performances, arrangement, vocals = 99% of the job listeners will cope with a bad mix they won't cope with a bad song or a bad performance
Panning all the instruments across is essential. Even doubling a guitar track and panning it left and right, and slightly have them off time will create a powerful stereo sound. EQ, compression should be used as needed, and a peak limiter is also important.
Just a note. This does work, but it's 100x better to record two separate guitar tracks. Doubling the same track and adding delay is an amateur hack and is very obvious. (I'm not insulting - I'm all for amateur hacks!! :-) )
@@JonValtandtheEvilRobots I agree, two takes is better for almost all scenarios. When I said "even," I meant, even doubling a single into stereo is better than having a mono track in the middle. I'd say that's 100x better. It has it's place in the tool box, I doubled a single guitar track into stereo for an acoustic guitar/vocal soloist, worked very well.
@@CollaborationNation You're certainly right, and I have definitely used this hack myself. Just writing this for anyone who is earlier in their journey. It's a great tip, but once you track 2 guitar tracks, it's like omg level, not even the same thing at all, as you know! :-)
Guys, you know that most people listen on their big JBL *mono* speaker, or even i usually use my phone speaker? It has to be mono-compatible. Don't make it all about panoramics.
Also might not work for what you want but iZotope has a vst that is a vocal doubler. Which I've used a few times to save me some time in re-recording. I usually only use it on the 2nd layer take of vocals. www.izotope.com/en/products/vocal-doubler.html
On point! People fall for gear and plugins and all sorts of marketing trickery when a lot of times 80% of the "sounding good" can be achieved with good songwriting/arrangement. Everything else in my opinion is seasoning. All those effects, vsts and technique will only work if you have a good arrangement.
I totally agree with what you said about arrangement. Too many "producers" nowadays pay no attention to the arrangement through the song. It's always just making a sick beat and looping 4 chords over and over again. My thing is that you can have a very simple chord progression to begin with but try to add variations to it. Even just using inversions or adding a 7th or 9th to chords would make it sound richer. But because DAWs are so powerful these days a lot of "home producers" never spend the time on music theory. They just learn the basic progressions and put no thought into it. Asking them to write a good harmony would be too much. For some reason in modern pop music people don't care about harmonies/melodies anymore. It's always just the beat. A song with a good arrangement never gets old because of the many different elements you can hear in it.
Thank you! I’ve been doing this for 30+ years and new “Producers” laugh and give me crap when I try to teach them the exact same thing. I’m glad you made this video. For being such a young man, you really have a massive understanding In arranging and sound which most of us know are the basis of production. Thank you so much for this and I wish you continued success in all you do. 😊🙏🤘
This is actually some really great, refreshing advice. I think people tend to forget that production is just about smoothing off sharp corners rather than completely rebuilding the source material, and if you take the latter approach of COURSE you’re going to make it a complete nightmare for yourself. If you start with well-recorded material that’s naturally well-separated because it’s sensibly arranged you’re just adding polish, and production becomes so much more rewarding and pleasant. Over the course of producing my own music, I’ve found that by FAR the greatest thing more than anything else by a huge margin that’s improved my mixes is just making sure what’s underneath all the plugins doesn’t sound like shit in the first place.
First be pro level sesion player 5 versiopns on your the guy i new 5 versions off the arangment i ON GUITAR n the BLINK OFF AN EYE he was Scottish no 1 new who he was Except ........ ATB Great Q
Personally I feel like variations within the production, since it’s a creative thing, that it takes time to get right. I used to do EDM tracks that were 6 minutes long but really boring cause it was so repetitive. Over time I started to get structure and variation because I listened to lots of music and tried replicating the structure. When it comes to the variation, I’ve always been a fan of things like melodic bridges which are little melodic elements that help transition between one section and another
Spot on. As with anything involving generating something from nothing, success comes at the beginning. With software, the design is key. No code should be written until the application is designed. Same is true in architecture and construction. As it is also with the development of tools, carpets, clothing, cars, planes, anything. You have to put in the work up front to ensure the output is sound. Music is no different. You must be able to play your instrument or sing, first and foremost. Then, you capture that sound as pristinely as possible; your part has to fit within the greater whole for any moment in time, and you have to have a map of that time passage from 0 to end. Nothing says you can't tweak as you go or that the output has to resemble the input (though you need to have intended it that way from the start), but there's no way to fix a crappy performance or recording with hardware or software. Really appreciate your insights. You seem really young to be a pro, but you know your stuff (watched your vid of pro with GarageBand vs. begginer with Logic - awesome). I am a hack at home as a hobbyist and have been frustrated time and again, and it's always the case that the better sounding tracks were better conceived with thought put into the sum of the parts up front. Also nothing replaces practice, rehearsal, and experience.
This is fantastic! Yeah all of this is really goood. And I appreciate that. I've been kinda raised doing this. Started writing at 10yr/old and producing at 14. So been doing it for a long time and basically eat, sleep, drink this stuff
@3:15 - he's so right. I'm a computer geek, so I (like many others) thought I could VST and Plugin (ie. SPEND) my way into something that sounded good. Turns out it's not the mix, it's not the interface, it's not the mic. It's the natural sound of the room and the arrangement.
another important thing, to stay consistent u need to rest properly, dont overwork yourself. stop for 10 min even sometimes and come back witha fresh feel
I’m not that good but I can give some advice on introducing new elements like he speaks about at 3:40. It doesn’t need to be a new melody or harmony or any change at all just add a new instrument but the trick is automate the volume down on the instrument that has already been playing a lot. Your brain can still hear it clearly in the mix then lower the next one and so on. I forgot what the effect is called but essentially Cos the listener knows the sound you can lower it’s volume in a mix and still perceive the sound as clear. It also works if you’ve only played a sound for few bars. Problem is as producers we listen to the same bars over and over again so your better of deciding with fresh ears with one listen through as a new listener. So leave a track for a few days and work on another.
This is great and very true stuff. Having done a bunch of song recordings with various bands, it is very clear to be that we, and I, never understood what arrangement and composition really is. We could write songs, but then we jumped from essentially songwriting, via tracking, straight to mixing! No figuring out the dynamic flow, and often drowning out vocals with fat guitars or synths in the wrong octave. :-) Great stuff - I just subscribed
bro im literally sitting here arguing in my head with what ur saying cuz its so hard to hear but ur right lol. i forget that not everyone gets excited by the beat and i dont leave space for them vocals. good shit! ur videos have been very helpful so far dawg
Gang choir! I did a track years ago with a "drunken gang" choir. I took my lead vox and duplicated it like six times. Then I screwed around with their pitch a little and a slight nudge of the clip back or forward in the arranger. Good times!
1) Better dynamics (make your songs more interesting and not boring, a wave, a story) 2) Less focus on mixing, problems usually lie in other spectrum (but mixing is still important) 3) Arrangement is not well developed. Overloading frequincies (typical is in the low mids) 4) We need more uniqueness. Percussions/drums are the best for that. 5) Great source (how you capture things) + performance 6) Vocal production. It needs space. Dont be afraid to take things out if they get in the way. 7) You need layers of vocal (double, tripple, pitching, octave up, octave down). That's common standard now. Vocal is tge main thing if you dont have vocal production you are not in the game. None of that has to do anything with gear or mixing.
Just discovered Nathan's videos. I have been recording for over 30 years and his advice is spot on. All of it !! Especially his directions on arrangement, performance and quality of source. Great performances and arrangements mix themselves...and that is a fact! I will be looking forward to reviewing all your videos! Thanks!
Highly appreciate your knowledge on production and the way you convey it! It helps us immensely!🎼💯 Also, some points in your video gave me a boost that I already emphasize on the arrangement part haha. Thanks to your trustworthy guidance!
This is a very good list for a check on yourself for every production. We can all get lost in the weeds sometimes. It's the curse of creative excitement
Classic advice Nathan, thanks. This is by far one of the best takes on music anywhere. You can watch all the gear vids you want, but this is of the utmost. "Garbage in, garbage out". My new goal is now -6 instead of -3db. I hated the sound of my voice until I heard that Hendrix did also. Now I let 'er rip! Respect, fam.
i'm in my 3rd year on electronic music production and still feel my mixdowns arnt 100%, in the music i make (DnB) were taught to have sections such as build ups, drops and breaks so i feel like not everyones problem is structure in itself. rate your vids highly
just discovering this channel as i surf youtube trying pick up as many tips as i can for my first ever cover i’m recording, wanting to eventually do some of my own music but learning Logic and production skills, I subbed and can’t wait to watch more videos and learn.
I know this is my second time commenting on your videos but I'm just so blown away!! I can't believe I didn't find you earlier omg, I just wanna know where your millions of subs are man
A thing that helped me with my anguish about how I sound was simply thinking "oh well, of course this song i heard in itunes sound better than mine, i have a home studio not a sweeden mixing room with 3 audio engineers to place my mics and set my amps and other 5 professional producers surrounding me to help." when i putted that up in my mind i started to get way more satisfied with how i sound. all tho its not how i want to sound yet. Other thing is to get inspired by other home studio owners and not the big audio engineers and huge artists that have access to them, aim lower.
I just fast forwarded through the whole video. What i got. Stop buying kit and gear. Go take a music arrangement course. What was missing: go listen to the best mixes of the genre and define what makes them interesting and emulate some of the techniques. Then go buy some of those secret sauce plugins and tool that they use. I need a Portico II channel right now.
Very useful tips, even though I tend to disagree a bit with the vocals stuff which should take space or being the main element, as there are music genres where vocals are way behind other elements (see for example Shoegaze or certain kind of electronic). There are alternative-rock tracks where the vocals pop in after 2-3 minutes of instrumental and stay there for like 30 seconds, and then other instrumental parts come into play. The effect of vocals being submerged by a thick texture of distorted guitars is imho fascinating, so I would suggest to just follow your ears and musical taste when it comes to mix the vocals.
I'm agree with him 100%. My major problem is sometimes about there's no vocal part left to put into some of my songs. Because so much things going on tracks. My formula is creating the idea first (raw without any DAW) then interpret them into your production. Then BOOM!
This is very true, Sometimes I barely have to mix if I am picking great sounds, It stays under my desired mixing frequency and I’m like Oh Shit! It’s Mixed Great Already! 😄
The first thing wher I'm instantly sorting out tracks is the mood or atmosphere. If you look at electronic tracks the mood is often so negative or depressive or melancholic in a negative way. That's the thing you can instantly hear before the arrangement takes effect. There's no use for negative music. Even if it's aggressive or melancholic it must be it in a positive way.
“I will follow you into the dark”. By Deathcab. You should dissect why that song achieves greatness with a minimal spectrum of dynamics. One guitar, one voice, singular strum pattern, no layering.
My music is not amateur and I'm a home producer I've been making music for years I'm a professional and if anybody ever calls me an amateur they're going to get punched in the face because I do my work with passion in my songs that I make my beats and instrumentals and sometimes my songs that I had lyrics of other people who sing for my songs they come out really really amazing.
@@faggoat2557 i mean you dont necessarily have to make all of your sounds yourself as long as you change up the presets and samples and do something original with them
Thats the thing I figured out how to pull my vocals to the front and make it a more narrow sound and the beat on a wider sound. I arrange everything in this way. I think of it like a live band playing. where should the musicians should be aka the beat. where the vocalist should be so the main vocals I bring forward and the dubs and adlibs are wide sounds because they are backing the main vocals like back up singers. I have managed to make it so everything is on its own sound wave so it all blends but can also be heard individually if you listen hard for each separate sound. that being said I struggle with vocals sometimes because again I am self tot so I dont entirely know what I'm doing I just listen and try to make things clear. I have learned that less is more to lightly add or take away. but I want to learn the tec aspects of what I'm doing understand it better so Im not just guessing. I have come a long way and i know I am making better quality than most now I want to really tite up the knowledge and have a greater grasp of things.
New subscriber here. I'm also a new user of Logic Pro X, and your videos have been a big help in understanding and getting the most out of this new environment. I've always been fairly unhappy with my final tracks, so in addition to a new DAW that is leaps and bounds better than what I was using before, you're providing some really good insight here from a production standpoint. Your expertise is much appreciated!
I really agree with most of being said here. Although I think if you produce for yourself there no much need to sound "pro". The pro sound comes with practice and a enough dose of discipline.
Good video. You are right. For me, it is imporant to make a proper 3d scene. From buttom to the top with a choice of instruments, from left to right with good panning and in a depth with good choice of volumes and reverb.
Great stuff. The equipment thing is just crazy. Everyone should watch get back documentary on the Beatles. It's very long and I sat and did a few things on phone while it played looking up and listening and it was so obvious the total lack of gear and equipment taped microphones kids playing at their feet the way ideas came together. Everyone should watch that. Arrangement as you said I'm trying to learn it and thanks for emphasizing it here cause in the back of my mind I really wondered. I'm focusing on that craft now thanks again
Thanks for the tips!!! Because people learn differently, visual aide in your DAW would have been super helpful, since your are talking about production.
Nathan, you are speaking my language, when you talk about arrangement. There can also be some trial and error that comes with arrangement. Arrangement gives you the creativity to work out the sound and the path a song wants to naturally travel. Its another layer of creativity in your production.
