A Reality Check About Your Production Skills

A reader hits the nail on the head with a comment:

I still do not get results which I expect. The problem is – as I believe – the lack of knowledge about how to mix different instruments and how to work with equalizers.

Exactly!

You have no idea how glad I am to hear somebody say that.

For once I get a realistic email that doesn’t tell me how much better his mixes would sound if only he had “GearX.”

He realizes that his problem is that he simply doesn’t know everything about how to mix.

And that’s great!

When Your Skills Improve, Your Productions Improve

First step towards improvement is realizing what you actually need to improve.

If you always think you need to improve the gear in your studio you’re only gonna drive yourself into debt without having any skills to show for it.

Imagine if you put your skills to the test and improved them by logging hours mixing one of the Dueling Mixes tracks for instance. Then you actually have some actual skill that you can use to show paying clients how badass your mixing skills are.

But with all that cool stuff you have, but once they hear the amateur productions you churn out with it, your gear won’t help you land a recommendation for a future gig or a referral to another band.

They’ll just say, “Yeah that guy has some sweet gear but his skills suck.”

The only way to improve is to actively work at it. You can’t buy skills through new pre-amps.

Let’s take my friend Todd Marino who recently started competing in some of the Crowd Audio competitions.

He said,

“since I joined [Crowd Audio], my skills have improved immensely…my home studio has been getting more bookings.”

Just by practicing his skills through Crowd Audio he’s seen an increase in the amount of work he’s gotten outside of it. He looks at Crowd Audio like a fun playground, while he can take the skills he learned there and make more money doing local studio work.

I call that a win-win situation. Don’t you?

P.S.

If you’re looking for a simple shortcut to getting better sounding recordings and mixes, check out the Recording & Mixing Strategies bundle.

www.audio-issues.com/strategies

Image by: Independent Music Project (IMP)

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About Audio Issues and Björgvin Benediktsson

We help musicians transform their recordings into radio-ready and release-worthy records they’re proud to release.

We do this by offering simple and practical music production and success skills they can use immediately to level themselves up – while rejecting negativity and gear-shaming from the industry. A rising tide floats all boats and the ocean is big enough for all of us to surf the sound waves.

Björgvin’s step-by-step mixing process has helped thousands of musicians confidently mix their music from their home studios. If you’d like to join them, check out the best-selling book Step By Step Mixing: How To Create Great Mixes Using Only 5 Plug-ins right here.