Ermz' Production Tips Compendium (for the newer guys)

[Nebulous]

Nice Ermz. Let me know when you've installed it. I want to hear that shit!

 

[Sean in Silence]

Great thread dude!
I can definitely relate to every point you made.
I think everyone who is serious about their work should read this
I've been guilty of all of the points at some time in my AE life,
as has every engineer.
Good read bro
Looking forward to more additions!

 

[Fox Mulder]

You guys are too kind!

As a sidenote I just got my new insulation in. Superchunks all-round whooOOooOO!! (imagine Hard Gay delivering that line)

Let us know how it works out.

 

[LeSedna]

I particularly liked the "full circle", because when I got deeper into production understanding, I personnally felt those effects appearing (not enjoying music but production instead, and having difficulties to take time for actual "music"). These are well analysed.

Currently, I'm in between those two bold lines :

-You start as either a musician or music lover who has a great appreciation of music, and a desire to understand it further.

-As you learn the core engineering principles you start to become aware of a sonic world you've never known about, right in front of your eyes all along (or ears, as it may be).
-You start to get intently fixated on little sonic details, like the interaction of mix elements, and perhaps how certain tracks 'sit' in relation to each other.
-You develop a strong knowledge of frequency content and its relationship between different instruments.
-As you start to gain a greater understanding of these sonics, you find that your musical enjoyment, or writing ability has started to deteriorate.
-Your priority now lies in finding the best sounds, and as a result your ability to either enjoy music or create it is notably impacted.
-You consolidate your engineering knowledge enough to relax, take a breather, and be able to revisit the music again.
-You find you have an inherent interest in how arrangements are done, and how those can be altered to enhance the quality of a mix.
-You start to understand that music, production and engineering are all inextricably linked and now search to find a perfect synergy of the 3, rather than fixating on microcosmic details.

-You are now a musician, music lover, producer & engineer who has a great appreciation of music, and a desire to understand it further.

There would maybe need a line in the first ones saying something like that, because it's something I got through, personnally :

-You start as either a musician or music lover who has a great appreciation of music, and a desire to understand it further.

-As you learn the core engineering principles you start to become aware of a sonic world you've never known about, right in front of your eyes all along (or ears, as it may be).
- You over-use every single thing you discover like a new toy (EQ/comp/enhancers/limiters/distortion...) and get irritated by how this doesn't work.
-You start to get intently fixated on little sonic details, like the interaction of mix elements, and perhaps how certain tracks 'sit' in relation to each other.
-You develop a strong knowledge of frequency content and its relationship between different instruments. You start to make your process clearer, and understand how to efficiently use what you have, increasing your flaw without too over-thinking things.
-As you start to gain a greater understanding of these sonics, you find that your musical enjoyment, or writing ability has started to deteriorate.
-Your priority now lies in finding the best sounds, and as a result your ability to either enjoy music or create it is notably impacted.
-You consolidate your engineering knowledge enough to relax, take a breather, and be able to revisit the music again.
-You find you have an inherent interest in how arrangements are done, and how those can be altered to enhance the quality of a mix.
-You start to understand that music, production and engineering are all inextricably linked and now search to find a perfect synergy of the 3, rather than fixating on microcosmic details.

-You are now a musician, music lover, producer & engineer who has a great appreciation of music, and a desire to understand it further.

I would have a question, for the "veterans" here. Did you feel you got through that sort of circle several times ? Or did you feel when you reached the "synergy" level that it only went to the direction of "better and better" ? I'm actually really interested. I wouldn't be surprise you could re-start that circle 10 years later.

 

[Toni S.]

Hard Gay is awesome!

 

[The-Zeronaut]

i have one tip for you all ...
NEVER have any hope that the band you recording are pro musicians that will record without problems...
because your hope will be brutally raped...


As Mixerman once said:

1)Assume the worst at all times... then multiply that by 3.
2)Expect nothing other than a long litany of suffering. You'll be less disappointed.
3)Stop expecting to like your own work in the long run. If it ever happens, be very concerned,
it usually means you've peaked, and worse yet... yer probably in decline.

and of course

4)Attach some sort of price to EVERYTHING. Things that don't have a price attached to them are usually perceived as worthless,
no matter what their ACTUAL value is. It's human nature.

 

[xClayman -31-]

epic post. Thanks man.

So If I were to have a basic guitar tone, for recording bass, would I want very little treble and mids, and a bunch of bass? I don't understand how you "channel" each instrument when they all take up most of the same frequencies.

THanks again

 

[mrbean667]

I love you Ermz.

 

[Ermz]

epic post. Thanks man.

So If I were to have a basic guitar tone, for recording bass, would I want very little treble and mids, and a bunch of bass? I don't understand how you "channel" each instrument when they all take up most of the same frequencies.

THanks again

What you want to do there is make sure that the low-end of the bass sits neatly around the kick (there will be bass content both above and below it, you just need to sculpt a hole for the kick). With the mids and high-mid grit of the bass guitar you want to find a nice way to get it through the guitars, to sort of sit in the midrange and augment the guitar tone. The danger here is to make sure it doesn't conflict with the vocal. You're quite safe to low-pass a bass guitar track as low as 3kHz, because anything higher isn't usually very useful, unless you're going for a really djangly bass tone.

@bean: I love you too man!

 

[mrbean667]

I know who's going to be mixing my EP.

 

[xClayman -31-]

What you want to do there is make sure that the low-end of the bass sits neatly around the kick (there will be bass content both above and below it, you just need to sculpt a hole for the kick). With the mids and high-mid grit of the bass guitar you want to find a nice way to get it through the guitars, to sort of sit in the midrange and augment the guitar tone. The danger here is to make sure it doesn't conflict with the vocal. You're quite safe to low-pass a bass guitar track as low as 3kHz, because anything higher isn't usually very useful, unless you're going for a really djangly bass tone.

@bean: I love you too man!

Thank you! I'll try that out.

And any tips on drums and vocals?

 

[fenders]

Wow. This is a great thread. I signed up for this forum a while back, but didn't actually post or anything because i was basically just starting to record. I stumbled upon the forum again a few days ago from a link from sevenstring.org i think, and thought "I found my new home" haha. This place is great, the guys, or gurus if you will, are awesome and very informative. I have yet post any of my mixes because they are pretty terrible still, but i might soon to gain some wisdom

The full circle part of this was genius. It describes exactly what i am going through. I have been focussing on my mixing for i guess a little over a year now and i can deffinatly tell there is a substantial loss in my song writing. When i read the line about that, i sat back in my chair and let it soak in. It seemed as though all I cared about anymore was learning more about production, and i lost interest in really writing anything.

Anyways, i just wanted to say thank you Ermz. Maybe i won't make a lot of those newbie mistakes now!

 

[-Loco-]

That bit about the full circle describes me perfectly, I actually laughed when I read it. It's good to know even the most experience guys out there feel kinda the same. Brilliant speech brah

 

[Potshot]

Gah I know the full circle thing all too well, although I'm still stuck not being able to write music anymore because I'm so busy concentrating on all the little innate details that go into recording. I remember when I started making electronic music back with fruityloops 3 about 8 years ago and I used to be insanely prolific, after a couple of years I became more obsessed with the technical side of everything and had to learn how to do everything tricky I possible could in the program, with each new release I would learn everything new they had added, and I gradually started seeing my ability to actually compose anything in it go down the toilet. I abandoned electronic stuff and concentrated on bass and guitar and after some time decided I wanted to get into recording about 4 or 5 years ago, and the same damn thing happened again.

Now if I jump on fl studio/reason or fire up cubase to do anything electronic, I sit there for hours tweaking a synth and fiddling with things until I realise I've done absolutely nothing and can't think of anything to write, same thing happens when I pick up a guitar.

I really wish I could snap out of it and get back to writing

Anyone have any tips to speed up the process?

 

[Scottxx]

Just caught by all new soft versions and plugins and trying to know every soft until last detail, what I can do with it and all its posibilities. I'm into knowing and learning all the soft and I don't compose too much. Need help on getting satisfied with my tone and start doing some music. I know I can do something good but all the soft stuff is getting my time and I'm addicted to new programs and plugins.

 

[AudioGeekZine]

Wisdom beyond your years good sir.

 

[sk8ersick666]

wow dude..you just blew my mind
seriously I learned more from this post alone than from most things i've read on here

as a noob to "audio engineering" (i don't like calling it that cause honestly I don't think I know enough to use that term...hehe) and as noob to this forum this was a rude awakening

but the point where u menton that one gets to a stage when u get disconnected with musicianship cause ur too concentrated in production...that is definetly where I am right now...what can I do about that?..I feel like I can't write anything for my band anymore w/o overthinking how I can put it "on tape"

amazing post man!..I will be eagerly waiting for more

 

[Balee]

Awesome post! Thanks a lot man!

 

[Ermz]

Just added two more points.

Hope you guys find them worthwhile!

 

[Nebulous]

Firecracker up the ass Ermz?

Definately get where you're coming from though, especially the points on edits/ consolidation.
I'd hate to open someone elses session only to find 1000 cross fades which you run the risk of bumping/ moving/ deleting at some point in the mix stage.