There are pros and cons to doing the whole creating an album process by myself. It all revolves around the time/cost/quality triangle that I have named earlier.
Pros:
- I save money: I do it for "free" - I don't charge myself anything- That could mean that I save as much as $100 a song. I am seriously sick and tired of all the companies trying to make a buck off of us poor indies. We don't have any money. LandR, and other automatic mastering robot algorithms are for those who want to get it louder for a few bucks and is an alternative that isn't as expensive as a real mastering studio, But you get what you pay for.
- I save time: I don't have to wait for someone else to have time to "look at the tracks" before mastering. I can have more control about when to drop my music. When I don't have money, I do, however have a lot of time on my hands.
Cons:
- I waste money: While I may save some money by mastering my tracks by myself, I waste some money because all the time I spend learning mastering I could have worked a day job and gotten a pay check or two or five.
The same is to be said about time. All this time to learn mixing....
The third negative thing is that I don't get feedback on my mixes until after they drop onto Spotify. (Then there is no turning back.) Instead of feedback I get bad reviews if something goes wrong.
Just wanted to let you know I am still considering this alternative....
Today's video
Today I watched this great video from David Pensado about a way of thinking about mixing and sound engineering:
The above video is full of mixing wisdom
1. Use multiple monitors - laptops, car stereo
2. Room treatment - professionally treated acoustics is something to fix asap
3. Reference!!!
4. Branding: You are selling your taste not your skills.
5. Be patient with your process. You get better with time. Always be curious and learn
6. Mixing is not what you can add to the production it is what you can finish. (See the 24 hour rule video below!)
7. Learn with other great people. You grow better together with others. Study your heroes influences and not his results or his person. Learn from what the greats have learned from.
8. Stop taking advice literally, just convert it to an opinion. Try to understand the concept they are trying to convey.
9. Get a mentor, teacher and stick to him. The best resource.
10. Deadlines are vital. Commitment is key. Nothing happens until you commit. Time press helps you get better. Mixing others' tracks helps you grow faster than mixing your own stuff. You get feedback.
11. Be honest and understand why people like someone else's rough mix better than your polished. Be humble.
12. Mixing is the total dish of spaghetti not just the choice of garlic. Get the whole picture beautiful don't get stuck on details too much.
13. Go back to your favourite songs and listen again. Listen to the individual elements and re listen. Try to get the elements you like and get that feeling going in your mixes.
14. Rules are made to be ignored. You hear a lot of "rules" from the "experts". Trust your vision.
Album update
I am presently mixing the happy song, Rising, from the Change My Mind album. I have been concentrating on the vocal parts now that the tracks are organised, the arrangement is set and I've added some beats, a piano and some strings. It's great to be mixing again. I'm on a roll but I wish I wasn't getting so bogged down by the garlic (gain staging the vocals to all perfection). One thing I am learning is that I don't want to have too many tracks to refine. Vocals are extremely time consuming.
I just heard that Matt Fawcett dropped a new ACOUSTIC album. Just him, a friend and two guitars. It isn't polished but it is live and heartfelt. Awesome songs.
I have almost 80 tracks on some songs. :-(
Maybe I should limit how many tracks? Maybe less is more.
The 24 Track Rule
Graham gives some tips to keep it simple. Why not keep the number of tracks down to 24?
1. Arrangement clarity is easier w 24 tracks: Make sure you know what you want to do before you start. Have the arrangement clear in your head and on the project timeline before you start to record.
2. Keeping to your timeline is easier w 24 tracks. Limit your time. 24 tracks makes it easier to get done faster than fixing 80 tracks. Believe me, I know!
3. At most 24 tracks facilitates keeping the sonic space unmuddied: You make life easier for you to get a clear sound and give each instrument it's own sonic space if you don't have too many tracks.
4. Limiting it to 24 tracks helps you keep the emotion and trajectory of the song clear. I need to have the emotional story clear from the start. The ebb and flow of a song is easier for people tp follow if there isn't too much going on all the time.
5. It is lazy to layer multiple tracks if you don't have a plan as to why you added it.
This is a wake up call for me.
Back to the time/cost/quality triangle
1. The less tracks I start out with, the less time I need to edit and enhance.
2. The less tracks I have, the more clarity I will have - the better the quality
3. The less tracks I have the faster I will get my music created and out there. This saves me money because my time is = to money.
As an indie we constantly need to find ways to increase the quality of our work and decrease the time and money it takes to get that quality out as we produce. We will always have to strive to get more efficient and produce better quality. All three affect each other.
So, enough written today, now I am going to mix for a few hours before I make lasagne. Wish me luck!
Saturday 23, 2019
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An Indie Musician's Diary Vol 2
Non-FictionIt's very complex, difficult, expensive, interesting and fun to be an independent music producer. Volume three covers my attempts to: make acoustic improvements to the studio; cut down my production times; learn the art of mastering in-house ad muc...
