Top 10 Music Production Tips : Part 2

In an attempt to share and help others with music production i want to share ten tips with you over the coming days to help inspire and help your creativity. I have been producing, mastering and mixing music for 11 years now and have listed ten brilliant tips that will help all levels of producers. If your interested in learning more about music production from how to get started to any advanced techniques and principles please feel free to ask in the comments section and follow the channel.

#4 Leads

As discussed before don't be afraid to re sample and mess around with random sounds ideas that don't quite necessary fit a track of your vision as these could become a lead line that drives your track. maybe you have already created a synth lead line, very basic but want to spice it up as the tracks progresses; re sampling and using creative effects to shape the sound can help breathe life into stale synth patches. !! REMEMBER TO BOUNCE YOUR IDEAS OUT INTO A FOLDER AND KEEP THE ORIGINAL AND ALL THE VERSIONS YOU HAVE MESSED AROUND WITH AS TO SEE PROGRESSION AND BE ABLE TO GO BACK TO A EARLIER STAGE AT EASE !!

#5 Frequency Shaping

This could be a whole post in itself and probably will be at some point as you can really dive deep into the concepts but for now i'll share some basic tips when it comes to shaping your frequencies and balancing them in a track. If we want to make are track as loud as possible but retain dynamics and be able to provide the mix with essential qualities such as clarity, punch, depth, width and weight it is important to consider where the dominant aspects of the mix will lie and what energy they will exert in terms of frequencies; for example, your kick drum may sound big and weighty with a whole bunch of sub frequencies but if you want a sub bass to be underneath the track then maybe including all that sub abss in the kick isn't going to work. Another good example is snares they have a fundamental frequency that the punch will come from, so keep in mind that layering another snare on top of your first they nee to work together in pitch or one of them needs to be cut so the punch of the fundamental snare can come through and not be masked. Bring these concepts through to all your elements in the mix and you will be in such a better position to getting a better mixdown

#6 Defining Characteristics

A lot of producers these days may be tempted to just use a sample from a pack and start to arrange this into their mix, but does this create a defining sound and style of your own, is this original, will this make you stand out from the crowd? Probably not, although i'm not condoning using samples in fact i'm urging you to use samples from packs but be creative in how you use them, for example you could use percussion hits to create a baseline or you could spend some time with a bass sample and use saturation, distortion, reverb, automation etc to manipulate it. Maybe time stretch it reverse it then go at it again with more creative effects. Put it through a sampler or pitch it up and down whatever you do just get a new vibe with the material you're working with that is different and original and most of all something you like.

Really spend time working on this and don't be afraid to mess a sound up, you can always start again or go back to the drawing board, remember practice makes perfect!