21 techniques every producer should know

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WhatsUpBro

New member
Hey guys this is my first post, and i wanted to ask the community. What technique(s) (volume panning, EQ, etc) would you say are the most important to try to master? Also i ask if someone else has already said that technique, either try to elaborate, or say the next most important thing. Try not to repeat what others have said :) Doesnt matter what genre your talking about. EDM, hip hop, pop whatever its all music :) Thanks and Cheers!
PS not saying the techniques i listed are what u guys would have in mind, im just very fresh as a producer so thats what comes to mind for me.
 
WhatsUpBro said:
Hey guys this is my first post, and i wanted to ask the community. What technique(s) (volume panning, EQ, etc) would you say are the most important to try to master? Also i ask if someone else has already said that technique, either try to elaborate, or say the next most important thing. Try not to repeat what others have said :) Doesnt matter what genre your talking about. EDM, hip hop, pop whatever its all music :) Thanks and Cheers!
PS not saying the techniques i listed are what u guys would have in mind, im just very fresh as a producer so thats what comes to mind for me.
Click to expand...

Establishing and maximizing the quality as early as possible in the overall music creation process is the most important technique I would say, because it determines what you have left after you've applied your engineering moves - whatever those are for whatever reason. Mathematically you can understand this as:

A1 = 10 000 incoming quality
B1 = +90% quality boost during engineering
A1 * B1 = 19000

A2 = 10 000 incoming quality
B2 = -90% quality boost during engineering
A2 * B2 = 1000

A3 = 10 000 000 incoming quality
B3 = +90% quality boost during engineering
A3 * B3 = 19 000 000

A4 = 10 000 000 incoming quality
B4 = -90% quality boost during engineering
A4 * B4 = 1 000 000

As you can see from the illustration above, a great engineer that improves some content by +90% on average will come out short against an engineer that on average unbalances the mix by -90% but does so on awesome content.
 
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DarkRed said:
Establishing and maximizing the quality as early as possible in the overall music creation process is the most important technique I would say, because it determines what you have left after you've applied your engineering moves - whatever those are. Mathematically you can understand this as:

A1 = 10 000 incoming quality
B1 = +90% quality boost during engineering
A1 * B1 = 19000

A2 = 10 000 incoming quality
B2 = -90% quality boost during engineering
A2 * B2 = 1000

A3 = 10 000 000 incoming quality
B3 = +90% quality boost during engineering
A3 * B3 = 19 000 000

A4 = 10 000 000 incoming quality
B4 = -90% quality boost during engineering
A4 * B4 = 1 000 000

As you can see from the illustration above, a great engineer that improves some content by +90% on average will come out short against an engineer that on average unbalances the mix by -90% but does so on awesome content.
Click to expand...

so pretty much what your saying is its all about the original content, not the engineering. and i get that i, i was looking for more i guess of the best engineering techniques then. my mixes just dont sound right and i wanted to get others opinions on what some important techniques to learn are
 
WhatsUpBro said:
so pretty much what your saying is its all about the original content, not the engineering. and i get that i, i was looking for more i guess of the best engineering techniques then. my mixes just dont sound right and i wanted to get others opinions on what some important techniques to learn are
Click to expand...

In your case you are focusing on how to engage stuff, but you should focus on what to engage. So try to think of technique like this: it's not just about technique.

Think of it like how to make a great dinner. It does not really matter how you process the food if you compare a fat fresh high quality tenderloin against some old low quality piece of steak. No technique in the world will make that steak better tasting. So, first of all it's about what you engage. Then it is about how.

I think you are one of those engineers out there that should be engaging hardware, but are engaging software and now you think it's your technique that is the result of what you've engaged. So the short and simple answer: No.
 
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1. for the eq you cant boost something that is not there, if i have no frequencies to boost, sometimes i use second sounds or something like distortion, exciter, enhancer so i can have something to work with

2. deep bass synths are cool but i may want to boost a little somewhere like 400 hz, 800 hz ,3k, 5k, 7k,

3. if i want to make things sound better i only cut, if i want to improve a sound like that deep bass i boost, so i have more pluck, more loudness,

4. too many instruments in the mix smaller each one need to be to fit,

5. if you have a mix like 2xvocals, bass, 3xguitars, string section, chat, ohat, 2Xrides, 3Xcrash?
you have serious problems there, i would start with arrangement and try not to play all these guys same time, so you make life easier, maybe sacrifice has to be made, something if its not important to the song maybe i would consider turning it off, sidechain hats when the crash comes or even better dont play them same time
use panning for more clarity, if one guitar is left one right, one in the middle, you can tell better
than you look for more eq tricks, sidechain tricks,
 
Thank your sir! This is more of what i was looking for.
If someone would post a good read on sidechaining tricks (what should be side chained to what) or eq tricks im doing very basic sidechaining in FL (using fruity peak controller or the circles at the bottom of the mixer, i dont even know what to call them)
The reason I made this thread in the first place, the initial point was because i am going to challenge myself, for 3 weeks, to make a new song each day and each new day, and new song. I wanted to learn a new "technique" or bring something new to my new mix that i had never done before, that is why i said 21 techniques. Maybe i should of called it 21 things every producer should know how to do. Or 21 different styles of producing and how to do them. Thought i would explain a bit so you all could kind of get my reasoning behind this thread.
 
there is no secret of sidechaining

- when kick is knocking you simply duck the bass and that's all about it;
- you don't need to side chain if they don't play same time,
- you can automate specific frequencies on eq,
for example i may want to duck narrow all the tracks at 3khz when kick comes and i did not see someone do this, i just think its cool,
 
My tip is to EQ with your mix completely mono (or your monitoring chain mono). It's harder to distinguish each instrument separately when things are in mono, which encourages you to EQ to make a space for each sound. Once EQ helps you separate each instrument, you pan everything back out to where it needs to be, and your mix is wider and cleaner for it.

How is your 21 day challenge going?
 
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