I was thinking back just the other day to when I did not know too much about mixing techniques and I also thought that there must be many other people out there in the same position not knowing how to produce music. So I have decided to come up with a list of a few points that all beginners to music production should consider.
Take some time to find bands/artists that have started from basics, not necessary in the genre you are writing in – I would advise anyone to do this and in doing so, create your own personal music production school. If you listen to a lot of bands/artists today there is so much going on in tracks it can be quite hard to focus. If you go and find so bands/artists that are in a different genre you will instantly hear the difference and hear/see that genres rely on specific traits, which is how their genre gets defined. This could very well be the ticket to your own university of music, there is a lot to be learnt and you can learn it by broadening your horizons. Make sure you listen to some older artists too as the song writing and mixing is different 10, 20, 30 and so on years ago. There is a lot to be learned.
Spend time really listening to tracks, isolating specific instruments and focus on them and follow them through a track – Doing this can really help you have an understanding of rhythm and it can also give you great ideas for writing/mixing in a different ways. You will pick up some excellent music mixing tips and music production tips; it will also educate you on what elements can make up a good song. Many times bad songs can be good songs. Normally it is bad lyrics over a great piece of music.
Do not use bad quality recordings – When you are writing or mixing a track you really have to watch the quality. You need the quality to be as good as you can get it and it all needs to be the same quality too. When I say quality, I do not many anything other than how it sounds without any kind of effect added. There is no way and never has been or ever will be a way to fix the quality of audio in the mix, therefore if you try this, you will only be wasting your time and heading for headache city.
There are many other music mixing tips to consider if you are interested in helping yourself understand how to produce music. I believe that if anyone ever wants to improve their music mixing techniques they should take a look at THIS website. It could be the case that you are stuck and do not know what to do next or it could be you are wanting to learn more skills and ‘tricks of the trade’, either way you should take a look.