Songwriting being forced to mix

[jeffersonparish]

Hey guys,


I just joined here.


I'm a songwriter who writes lyrics and toplines for others, but just due to natural overlapping in the music production process, I end up having to mix tracks.


I create instrumentals, but specific parts of audio engineering, such as EQing, compression, etc. are not as simple when incorporating vocals into the entire song. At least not for me!


I have friends who are professional audio engineers but I prefer to learn as much as I can on my own before going to them to prevent myself from asking beginner questions.


One current point I'm working on now is creating "space" in the instrumental frequencies for the vocals. I've done more cutting than boosting, but the progression to me seems minimal.


Does anyone here have any resources that point out the fundamentals of creating frequency "pockets" in the instrumental to fit vocals??


Thank you,


Jay

 

[scrapheaper]

Not resources but some advice:
Arrangement can help/hinder a lot.
If the track is already 'full' of elements, or there's a busy guitar part already playing all the notes you want to sing, then mixing is going to be much tougher and the end result with never be as good.

Edit: Could you possibly send me some of your work? I've been looking for a good songwriter to collaborate with for a while now. Is that something you'd be interested in?

 

[jeffersonparish]

Not resources but some advice:
Arrangement can help/hinder a lot.
If the track is already 'full' of elements, or there's a busy guitar part already playing all the notes you want to sing, then mixing is going to be much tougher and the end result with never be as good.

Edit: Could you possibly send me some of your work? I've been looking for a good songwriter to collaborate with for a while now. Is that something you'd be interested in?

Yeah, I change arrangements endlessly. Replaying the same part with a different instrument has been working about half the time with me.

These frequency pockets, though. I can't tell if they're that big a difference or not. I've tried doing A and B comparisons, and the differences are not always very clear.

On the collaboration, I'll PM you. Don't want the mods to think I'm here selling stuff!