I remember what it was like in the before times. Before my full-time career as an audio engineer, a touring musician, and a professional audio educator. I know what it’s like when you’re trying to make your tracks sound like pro records but you feel like you’re failing. I remember when my first band recorded...
“Do what you love,” they say. Yeah, it’s easy to say that. But how do you actually do what you love more often? You love making music, but can you actually do it for a living? How To Balance Your Day Job With Music If you’re like me, it’s so hard to do something when...
Most producers and mixing engineers are familiar with mix translation concepts such as “the car test”, checking your mix in mono, mixing at low volumes, and so on. But what’s the deal with these concepts and why are they so important? There are many reasons why they’re important, but the key takeaway is they give...
If anyone knows about procrastination, it’s me. I can be the biggest procrastinator of them all. Whether it’s noodling on my guitar, watching YouTube videos for “research,” or just scrolling social media. There’s always something to distract me. But after more than 12 years as an active musician, I’ve finally figured out how to get...
Harmony seems like never ending rabbit hole of complexity… and it absolutely is! There are so many awesome sounds and techniques to discover. How do we do it? Harmony and Techniques In the last article, we covered inversions and discussed substituting a chord for its inversion. Our goal was to come up with new ways...
What to do and when to do what can often be confusing when mixing. Equalizing, compression, reverb, automation, leveling, panning, editing, quantizing, and so on. The possibilities are endless. Categorizing different things and making some sort of system can be a great way to make mixing less confusing, more effective, and in many ways more...
I’m an indie musician, and at times I’ve struggled to get stuff done for my music career. So if you need some simple ways to be a more productive musician, read on. Here are four things I highly recommend you do to boost your productivity… Use a Calendar Switching from a to-do list to a...
Your melody has a lot more potential than you think. It’s memorable, singable, and everyone gets it stuck in their head. You used all my other tips and tricks to write it and add variation. It’s perfect… but why does it get old so quick!? Harmony One of the biggest challenges when working with a...
Something that is common for all things successful, whether that be a chart topping artist or your neighborhood’s most popular bakery, is consistency. The magic of showing up every day, every week, or every year, and delivering what you promised to the people you promised it to, is often a bigger factor to success than...
Do you ever write down a song idea inside of a notebook, throw it into that stack on your desk, and then forget which notebook you wrote your next big hit in? Or, even worse than that- You just can’t seem to cultivate your creative spark. Here are five economical tools that will help you...